Bruce Springsteen 18 Tracks

Released in 1998, Tracks is Bruce Springsteen’s first compilation of outtakes, B-sides, alternate versions, and demos—a whopping collection of 66 songs that date from his first session with John Hammond in 1972 all the way up to 1995’s The Ghost of Tom Joad. It’s eclectic, multi-dimensional, and in some cases confounding—especially when you consider how a song as good as “Roulette” didn’t make it onto The River (though, for what it's worth, both Springsteen and his manager Jon Landau were equally stumped by that oversight). Some songs, like “Thundercrack,” were performed live, and thus already known to fans, while tracks like “Be True” were only available as B-sides. But while Tracks is an extensive release, it’s not meant to be exhaustive: Springsteen didn’t empty his vaults—he just grabbed the songs that interested him, and that were either sufficiently complete, or that could be finished with some modern overdubbing. Still, it’s a cohesive listening experience. Steven Van Zandt has described the second disc—which draws from The River sessions of 1979 and 1980, and features such gems as as “Loose Ends” and “Restless Nights”—his favorite Springsteen album. You can also trace how Bruce likes to reuse lyrics until he finally gets it right: “So Young and in Love” features the line “rat traps filled with soul crusaders”—an image that would later find its permanent home on Born to Run’s “Night.” There’s a similar breadcrumb trail to be found on “Living on the Edge of the World.” Springsteen took the verses, wrote some more, threw out the chorus, and ended up with Nebraska’s “Open All Night.” Springsteen was hands-on for the entire Tracks process—an immersion into his back catalog that made him reconsider his time with the E Street Band. Once the editing process was finished, he began making phone calls to various members of the band, trying to gauge their interest in possibly reuniting for a tour. A wildly hyped, and wildly successful, full-on reunion tour would kick off in 1999.