I don't know what came over me, perhaps it's just that I'm feeling a bit under the weather this week battling a cold, but today I'm going to feature two songs from Bruce Springsteen's wilderness years away from the E Street Band. I hope you E Street purists won't mind. I struggle with this period of Bruce's career, but it is certainly worthy of an examination every now and then.
I'll lead off with an overlooked gem from Bruce's extensive catalogue. 'I Wish I Were Blind' was released on the 'Human Touch' album. It's a hurtin' song, about a guy longing for his former lover who now has a new man. I think it's a great song, off a much maligned album culled from 30 songs recorded over 19 months between September 1989 and March 1991. Had he asked, I might have counseled Bruce to include songs like 'Sad Eyes' and 'Secret Garden' in place of some of the duds that made the final cut.
I believe this clip comes from his appearance on MTV's 'Unplugged', for which Bruce performed plugged in, other than the opening song, which was an acoustic rendering of 'Red Headed Woman'.
After completing the 'Human Touch' recording sessions, perhaps sensing he hadn't quite assembled the right collection of songs, Bruce didn't release the album right away, and instead headed back into the studios in July of that year. The sessions went well and he emerged in January 1992 with enough material for the 'Lucky Town' album. He apparently completed recording 15 songs in these sessions. 'Happy' is the most notable song from these sessions that was left off 'Lucky Town'.
'Lucky Town' and 'Human Touch' were released simultaneously on March 31, 1992. Most consider 'Lucky Town' to be the superior of the two, despite the fact that Bruce had recorded only half as many songs for that album. Some feel that he should have edited the 45 songs from the two recording sessions down to what might have been one pretty solid album. I refer to that might have been album as 'Better Town'.
'Better Days' is a less overlooked song than 'I Wish I Were Blind'. It seems to have been written by a guy who had gone through some rough times ("It's a sad man my friend that's livin' in his own skin but can't stand the company"), but had gotten to a better place, to better days. "Tonight this fool's halfway to heaven and just a mile outta hell, and I feel like I'm comin' home."
Happy Friday!
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