Watch Bruce Springsteen’s engineer play unreleased 1982 outtakes at Mexico conference
Bruce Springsteen fans were treated to some of the rocker’s unreleased outtakes at a Mexican radio conference this weekend, thanks to his longtime engineer.
Toby Scott was a guest at this past weekend’s SoundCheck Xpo in Mexico City; during his presentation he offered up some snippets of a few old recordings that Springsteen recorded in the early 1980s.
During his 87-minute presentation, the engineer played a few different takes of the Boss recording ‘Born In The U.S.A.’. One of the versions was the solo-acoustic demo that Springsteen recorded in 1982, during the Nebraska era – this version ended up on his 1998 box set ‘Tracks’.
Scott also played a bluesy, full-band take of the iconic anthem that has not previously been heard. You can hear it around the 23:49 mark in the video below.
In other Bruce Springsteen news, Courteney Cox has reflected on auditioning for her iconic cameo in Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’ video.
The Friends star made a legendary appearance in the 1984 video, which saw Cox be invited on stage to dance with The Boss.
Speaking to Howard Stern on his SiriusXM radio show last month, Cox reflected on her nerves about the appearance, and remembered her audition for the part.
“Bruce Springsteen is such an amazing… God, he’s so incredible. I love that song,” Cox told Stern. “I get a little embarrassed because I do feel like when I watch the video, when I see it…I mean, God. Did you see my dance? It was pathetic. I’m not a bad dancer, but that was horrible. I was so nervous.”
Of her audition, she added: “I thought I was in the wrong place. I was like, ‘I don’t know what they’re doing but I can’t even bend my leg. This is it.’ I went into Brian De Palma’s office. He put on the music and said, ‘Well, you dance.’ And I thought, ‘Right now? Here? In front of you? Just the two of us?’
“I think that’s why I got it because I was like, ‘OK!’ I think that’s what they wanted, a fan that just couldn’t believe it,” she added.
Meanwhile, Springsteen has been named the highest-paid musician of 2021, bringing in a reported sum of $590million (£431.3million) – most of which he earned via the landmark sale of his masters and publishing rights in December.