Springsteen’s new record includes a cover of ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ – a 20-year-old Springsteen song. What is the virtue of releasing a ‘cover’ of one of your own songs? Does it even qualify as a cover when you are identical to the person who wrote and performed the original? Doesn’t it invite criticisms that you’ve run out of ideas, and have given yourself over to the ruinous work of nostalgia? That the zenith of your creative life lies somewhere deep in the Jungleland of your past, way beyond The Edge of Town, and that your career now, at 65-years-old, consists solely in releasing cozy, predictable tracks that politely ask fans (like me) to smile and recall the Glory Days? No one looks as good as they do skilfully painted and lit up on the stage of memory, so please, avert your eyes, out of respect, and look instead at this freshly exhumed item from our reliquary of shared delights – a cover! – dusted off, just for you. This song is actually MUCH better than this. It is a lovely tribute to unexpected artistic affection and friendship. Although the song is recorded with a full band, it is essentially a duet between Springsteen and his new guitarist Tom Morello. They harmonise and swap vocals and guitar parts. When Springsteen recorded the original version in 1995, in his Los Angeles home studio, it was a quiet song. Little more than a sketch about life close to the edge. You had to lean in to hear the acoustic guitar. Elsewhere in Los Angeles, Tom Morello was channelling his political fury into his band Rage Against The Machine, where he developed his signature guitar style of making his instrument sound like a spaceship entering warp-speed. Although in 1995 Springsteen and Morello would seem like an unlikely match, they were vibrating on the same frequency. Springsteen had raged against a machine or two in his career. And Morello had always been a card-carrying Springsteen-geek. So much so that it’s hard to tell his voice apart from Springsteen’s on this track, the debts are so pronounced. I’ve been listening to this track for the past week. It’s entirely different to the original. And when I listen closely I can hear Morello say to Springsteen, ‘Hey friend, I like your song. Want to sing it together? Mind if I add a spaceship-guitar-solo?’
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 02:22:47 +0000
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