Out now is Live Series: Songs Under Cover Vol. 2, Bruce Springsteen's sixth "greatest hits" collection from his officially sanctioned archival live bootleg series. The new 15-track compilation, features "The Boss" over the years — both with and without — the E Street Band covering legendary rock, pop, and soul staples by David Bowie, Johnny Rivers, Jackie Wilson, the Byrds, the Creedence Clearwater Revival, Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs, Bob Dylan, the Clash, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, the Eagles — and even Lourdes.
Jackson Browne guests on two tracks — Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs' "Stay" from 1979's legendary No Nukes concerts in New York City, and again — with Bonnie Raitt — on a 1990 run-through of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61" at the Christic Benefit in L.A.
The second Songs Under Cover follows the recent Live Series sets Songs Of The Road, Songs Of Friendship, Songs Of Hope, Songs Of Love, Songs From Around The World, and the all-acoustic comp — Stripped. The collections are the joint product of the Legacy imprint of Springsteen's Sony label and Nugs.net, which produces and distributes his monthly archival sets. This time out, the set includes six tunes that were first made available digitally back in 2014 and 2017 as part of his full-show nightly downloads.
For E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, playing covers is a way of life and always feels like home: ["Yeah, you always had to play cover material — which I always loved, because there was always so much great material to play, you could really put your own personality into it. I always liked playing cover songs, I still do. In the E Street Band we still play a lot of cover material and you just try to just put yourself into it and come off the best you can."] SOUNDCUE (:16 OC: . . . best you can)
Guitarist Nils Lofgren admitted that he loves any setlist shakeups, but reminded us that the fan requests hardly throw the E Street Band veterans: ["I think all of us have got 40 years in now. We started in bar bands — it was a time with no video, no choreography, no nothing. You had to learn how to play in front of people. Basically in the '60s, y'know, in cover bands we all cut our teeth on incredible wealths of catalogues, like Motown, Stax/Volt, British Invasion, blues."] SOUNDCUE (:24 OC: . . . British Invasion blues)
The tracklisting to Live Series: Songs Under Cover Vol. 2 is:
“Mountain Of Love” – (Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA – 12/31/75) – Johnny Rivers
“Goin’ Back” – (The Roxy, West Hollywood, CA – 10/18/175) – Carole King / The Byrds
“Rave On" – (The Roxy, West Hollywood, CA – 7/7/78) – Buddy Holly
“Stay” – with Jackson Browne (Madison Square Garden, New York – 9/21/79) – Maurice Williams
“Who’ll Stop The Rain” – (Wembley Arena, London – 6/5/81) – Creedence Clearwater Revival
“Drift Away” – (Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford – 8/20/84) – Dobie Gray
“Love Me Tender” – (Joe Louis Arena, Detroit – 3/28/88) – Elvis Presley
“Lonely Teardrops” – (Madison Square Garden, New York -5/23/88) – Jackie Wilson
“Highway 61 Revisited” – with Jackson Browne & Bonnie Raitt (Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles – 11/16/90) – Bob Dylan
“It's Been A Long Time” – (Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford – 6/24/93) – Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes
”Then She Kissed Me” – (Scottrade Center, St. Louis, MO – 8/23/08) – The Crystals as “Then He Kissed Me”
“Royals” – (Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, NZ – 3/1/14) – Lorde
“Clampdown” – (Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh – 4/22/14) – The Clash
“Rebel Rebel” – (Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh – 1/16/16) – David Bowie
“Take It Easy” – (United Center, Chicago – 1/19/16) – The Eagles