Citation de Fabrice le 4 septembre 2025, 19 h 57 min

Pour celles et ceux qui auraient cette sortie du jour, la version décapante et abrasive enregistrée en avril/mai 1982 et les notes qui l'accompagnent (en anglais).

Pour l'occasion,  le ESB est réduit à Garry, Max et notre bon Bruce.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2fVcR2ShA8&ab_channel=BruceSpringsteen-Topic

From the liner notes featured in the YouTube video:

The first Nebraska track cut with the E Street Band was "Atlantic City" on April 26. Over the next two days they worked out a potent electric arrangement that largely mirrors the performances of "Atlantic City" done on the Born in the USA tour and ever since. The harmonica parts of the original acoustic reading are still intact; on stag, a synthesizer takes over that melody line.

All eight Electric Nebraska songs would be cut on April 27 and all but one tried again on April 28. "Nebraska" and "Mansion on the Hill" receive fitting, measured accompaniment from the band akin to their live performances in 1984, with Stevie Van Zandt on mandolin and Danny Federici playing synthesizer on "Nebraska," while Phantom Dan adds lovely organ to "Mansion." Gorgeous vocalizing opens "Johnny 99," in a rollicking take reminiscent of the band arrangement from the early 2000s, led by Bittan's honky-tonk piano.

A wholly different approach was taken for the rest. "We threw out the keyboards and played basically as a three-piece," Springsteen says. "It was kinda like punk rockabilly."

After a guitar and drum beat intro, "Born in the USA" is a four-minute onslaught. Where Max Weinberg's gunshot drum and dazzling fills are such a memorable part of the familiar band version, the trio's take of the song unfolds at a pile-driving pace, with Garry Tallent's thick bass locking to the drummer's deep-thudding snare. The rhythm section complements Springsteen's angular guitar and vocal intensity, especially his howls and wails in the track's outro.

Springsteen, Weinberg and Tallent also cut engaging takes of "Open All Night" and "Reason to Believe," channeling a harder-rocking Tennessee Three. "Open All Night" is almost pure rockabilly with Springsteen adding a bit of twang to his voice, while "Reason to Believe" is sung with a clarity and conviction that suggests he already sensed it would be the last song and final statement on the eventual album.

With Bittan and Van Zandt expanding the trio to quintet the following week, a storming recording of "Downbound Train" hits hardest of all. Springsteen's voice is loaded from the get-go and only grows in agitation, offset by tinkling piano. This relentless, thrilling performance fits his description of "punk rockabilly." If Hank Mizell's genre classic "Jungle Rock" had been set during the Vietnam War, it might sound like this.

"I don't know where I was coming from for those arrangements," Springsteen says, acknowledging he was stunned when he heard the trio and quintet tracks again for the first time in decades. "What would make me play them in that fashion? We were trying to bring Nebraska into the electric world, but I don't know what was influencing me at the time."

Rough mixes for most of Electric Nebraska were completed on April 28. Two days later, Springsteen returned to the Power Station on his own to record a six-song acoustic session. At this point, it was becoming clear that the songs Bruce had written and captured at home was losing something vital with the band, but the substandard recording quality of the demos remained an issue.

Springsteen's in-studio solo attempts at "Used Cars," "Losin' Kind," and "Highway Patrolman" are solid, but without the unique elements that made the home recordings so compelling, they didn't cast the same spell.

But Nebraska songs weren't the only material tried solo on April 30. "Child Bride" from the original Nebraska demo tape had fully evolved into "Working on the Highway." Opening with a blast of harmonica and rhythmic tapping on his acoustic guitar, Springsteen had most of his new lyrics and arrangement settled. Awash in vocal reverb, he takes "Working on the Highway" on something of an Eddie Cochran "C'mon Everybody" [unknown] and laughs delightfully at the result when he finishes.

Primal surely applies to "On the Prowl," a rebel rocker of deep longing with questionable intent. Springsteen played the tune at a couple of Jersey Shore appearances in 1982 with Bobby Bandiera's band Cats on a Smooth Surface, one in a medley with a musical [unknown]. Little Richard's "Lucille." The solo version reads far more ominous. Like one of those exploitative drug store paperbacks about teenage vice where "looking for a gal" doesn't end well. A year later, "I'm on Fire" would tap this same burning sensation of dangerous desire.

"I was all in, completely committed to what I was doing," Springsteen says of the rediscovered solo recordings."You can hear that in the vocals and the rhythms." Intriguingly, he starts, not with one from Nebraska, but an entirely new song "Gun in Every Home." Springsteen isn't using it to [unknown] into the session, instead he sounds completely assured and knows exactly how he wants to play it.