OK, blame Mario that I'm back. Dropped in too see what's happening here different than over there. @Jerseyfornia how are the book sales? I see great reviews on FB! Best of luck my Friend
Slow and steady, meaning sometimes slow and sometimes steady. I'm increasing my readership with each new book, so small goals are being met. The larger dream remains elusive, unless this is actually the larger dream and I'm not recognizing it for what it is.
Great article. Let's see how your predictions play out.
Bruce's comments about no U.S.A. boxed set strike me as odd, in so much as he blames a lack of outtakes. It's been widely said over the years that he wrote and recorded 80 songs for the record. I'm not sure if that number includes the Hollywood Hills demos from 83 or leaves them out. Regardless, there must be some songs left over after the album, the b-sides, Tracks and The Essential. There are alternate takes we've heard bootlegs of, the demos I mentioned earlier, and supposedly a number of songs still unheard. I'd like to hear professionally mastered and mixed releases of all that stuff.
Thanks mate, I'll take any one of them released for sure.
I think his comments were peculiar too, and (as weird as this will sound) while reading them I got the impression he was equally wound up and exhausted of talking about it. As you say, there's plenty of songs he wrote and recorded that exist in some fashion, "Protection," "The Klansman," "Unsatisfied Heart" and our interest in them far outweighs the demos he's so uninterested in putting out.
Someone on the other forum posted this comment from Danny during the Child / Steel Mill era: “Bruce was writing a song a day. It was crazy. It got so I was dreading going to rehearsals, knowing that there was going to be a bunch of songs to be learned every time. And all that material is gone now. Bruce is the kind of guy who just says, ‘Oh—that was yesterday,’ and throws it all away.”
Maybe there's some weight to that regarding these U.S.A. outtakes. Maybe he doesn't value what he's never released at all, maybe he's forgotten about them entirely.
My first theory is that perhaps Bruce does not see either the unreleased 82 or 83 solo demos as being part of the 'BITUSA' sessions as such I.e. it's only the full band stuff that is truly a 'BITUSA outake' for these purposes.
My other theory is that Bruce can't remember jack shit... him recording 70 songs in 82 to 83 is the same as me writing 3 or 4 drafts of every essay I submitted at Uni between 88 and 91. I can't remember those, he can't remember what he recorded because he doesn't spend his days listening to bootlegs or pouring over 'Brucebase' the way us crazies do.
I'm leaning towards theory 2.
I think this is where the sale of his stuff to Sony may eventually benefit us... Bruce himself maybe longer care about this stuff, folks who payed half a mill for it most certainly will...
Good point about the demos not being considered U.S.A. sessions. Maybe I just connect them with that album because of Shut Out The Light and Johnny Bye-Bye.
https://twitter.com/backstreetsmag/status/1611075460859072512
OK, blame Mario that I'm back. Dropped in too see what's happening here different than over there. @Jerseyfornia how are the book sales? I see great reviews on FB! Best of luck my Friend
Great article. Let's see how your predictions play out.
Bruce's comments about no U.S.A. boxed set strike me as odd, in so much as he blames a lack of outtakes. It's been widely said over the years that he wrote and recorded 80 songs for the record. I'm not sure if that number includes the Hollywood Hills demos from 83 or leaves them out. Regardless, there must be some songs left over after the album, the b-sides, Tracks and The Essential. There are alternate takes we've heard bootlegs of, the demos I mentioned earlier, and supposedly a number of songs still unheard. I'd like to hear professionally mastered and mixed releases of all that stuff.