Listen: Tom Waits singing 'Jersey Girl' with Bruce Springsteen in a rare recording

By editorial board on June 8, 2023

Despite being two of the great legends of Americana, Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen have only shared the stage together on one occasion throughout their illustrious careers.

The track in question originally appeared on the 1980 album Heartattack and Vine, with the song acting as a love letter to Waits’ future wife, Kathleen Brennan, who had been living out of New Jersey at the time. Kathleen had entered into Waits’ life during what was a difficult period for the musician who, at that time, was in the process of getting over a turbulent relationship with Rickie Lee Jones, and Brennan offered him a sense of tranquillity.

Springsteen would cover the Tom Waits song live on many occasions, but he added another layer to the tale in the track by including an extra verse, as Farout Mag. reports.

The New Jersey-born singer also changed Waits’ lyric “whores out on 8th Avenue” to “the girls out on the avenue”. Springsteen would eventually release his version of the track as the B-side of ‘Cover Me’ in 1984. Two years later, he used the same version, taken from a show at The Meadowlands, on his boxed set Live 1975-1985 and remains one of the few cover songs that Springsteen has ever released.

The two iconic figures would only perform the song on one occasion together, which was when Springsteen came to Los Angeles in 1981, which, unfortunately, there is no footage of. However, thankfully there is a delightful bootleg version that catches this historic moment.


 

Watch Bruce Springsteen confessing: 'I broke into Graceland to meet The King'
Elvis has left the building - While touring Born to Run Bruce found himself staying in a motel in Tennessee.

Elvis had an unexpected visitor in the penultimate year of his life, when a young Bruce Springsteen "broke in" to meet The King. The Boss has also recalled how tragic he found his icon's death just a year later. (Express)

 

 

Bruce Springsteen remembered how as a kid watching The King perform on The Ed Sullivan Show back in the Fifties gave him a real passion for music. He remembered, “I couldn't imagine anyone not wanting to be Elvis Presley” and shortly afterwards his mother rented him a guitar. After The Boss’ first couple of albums in his early twenties didn’t quite reach a huge audience, he would change up his style and hit the big time worldwide with 1975’s Born to Run.

Bruce recalled: “Back in ’75… We were down in Memphis, and I remember it was late at night, and I was sittin' in a motel room with me and my guitar player, Steve. We got a taxi to take us out to Elvis' house. It took us out there in the middle of the night, and I remember we got outta the cab, and we stood there in front of those gates with the big guitar players on 'em.”

Standing outside, The Boss was thrilled to see that somebody was still awake inside the Graceland mansion.

“When we looked up the driveway, in the second story of the house, you could see a light on, and I figured that Elvis has gotta be up readin' or somethin'. And I told Steve, I said: 'Steve, man, I gotta go check it out.' And I jumped up over the wall and I started runnin' up the driveway, which when I look back on it now was kind of a stupid thing to do because I hate it when people do it at my house. I was filled with the enthusiasm of youth and ran up the driveway and I got to the front door and I was just about to knock, and guards came out of the woods and they asked me what I wanted.”

Bruce asked the Memphis Mafia guards if Elvis was home, but to his disappointment, they confirmed the star was away in Lake Tahoe.

The Boss explained: “So, I started to tell 'em that I was a guitar player and that I had my own band, and that we played in town that night, and that I made some records. I even told 'em I had my picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek. I had to pull out all the stops to try to make an impression, you know.”

However, this didn’t work on The King’s security and the young singer was escorted off the property.

DISCLAIMER: the images used by Videomuzic are for the purpose of criticism and exercise of the right to report news, in low quality, in compliance with the provisions of the law on copyright, used exclusively for the information content.
DISCLAIMER: Videomuzic usa le immagini per finalità di critica ed esercizio del diritto di cronaca in modalità degradata conforme alle prescrizioni della legge sul diritto d'autore utilizzate ad esclusivo corredo dei contenuti informativi.
Copyright © 2022 Videomuzic | Rome. ITA | Pictures, videos remain the property of the copyright owner, Any copyright owner who wants removed should contact us..
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram