It isn’t often we receive a double-album’s worth of new material forged during a living legend’s most prolific period. But in the case of Bruce Springsteen, this is far from unusual. Over the last decade, Springsteen has frequently revisited outtakes, b-sides, and other previously unreleased rarities from the early part of his career, releasing them in compilations such as the 1998 box set Tracks and the 2005 deluxe reissue of Born to Run.
As previously reported, the next retrospective comes in the form of The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story, a 3-CD, 3-DVD set featuring a remastered version of Springsteen’s 1978 classic album, live concert footage from a 1978 Houston show, and a critically acclaimed DVD documentary that offers an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the E Street Band’s Darkness recording sessions. The biggest highlight, however, is a 21-track collection of unreleased recordings called The Promise.
As NPR explains, the 21 songs are among more than 70 Springsteen wrote following the release of Born to Run — and they remained unrecorded for two years due to a lawsuit with his former manager, Mike Apel, which effectively kept him out of the recording studio. “Darkness was my ‘samurai’ record… stripped to the frame and ready to rumble. But the music that got left behind was substantial,” Springsteen explained in a statement. He added that these songs “could have/should have been released after Born To Run and before the collection of songs that Darkness on the Edge of Town became.” So, yeah, we’re not just talking about some random demos.
The Promise, along with the rest of the box set, doesn’t hit stores until November 16th. But starting right now, you can stream 15 of the 21 cuts on NPR.com.
The Promise Tracklist:
Disc 1
1. Racing In The Street (‘78)
02. Gotta Get That Feeling
03. Outside Looking In
04. Someday (We’ll Be Together)
05. One Way Street
06. Because The Night
07. Wrong Side Of The Street
08. The Brokenhearted
09. Rendezvous
10. Candy’s Boy
Disc 2
01. Save My Love
02. Ain’t Good Enough For You
03. Fire
04. Spanish Eyes
05. It’s A Shame
06. Come On (Let’s Go Tonight)
07. Talk To Me
08. The Little Things (My Baby Does)
09. Breakaway
10. The Promise
11. City Of Night