In the early 1980s, Bruce Springsteen thought he was at the height of his career. 1975's Born to Run had catapulted him and the E Street Band to national success, and each release after that only added to Springsteen's reputation and fame. 1980's The River was his biggest album yet, with a raw sound that was an attempt to replicate the energy of a live E Street Band concert. It was on the backs of those years of success that saw Springsteen, already having earned his nickname of "The Boss," begin work on his next album.
At his home in Colts Neck, New Jersey, the singer started work on a more introspective album, focusing on the divide between his new experiences with fame and the blue-collar life he had grown up with. He wound up recording a demo tape in his house, laying down fifteen songs that he then took to the studio to record with the E Street Band. Yet those full-band sessions were never released, and instead, the album released in 1982 was the stripped-down solo work Nebraska.
What Was Bruce Springsteen's Electric Nebraska?
Despite The Name, It Wasn't A Follow-Up To His Recipe For Baked Alaska
Electric Nebraska was never a full album; instead, it's the commonly used name for the full-band recording sessions that built off the demo tape that was eventually released as Nebraska. The original demo tape contained fifteen tracks, nine of which were used to make up Nebraska. The other six songs mostly became the genesis of the Boss' next studio album, Born in the U.S.A., including that album's title track.
Two weeks of sessions left the band feeling they didn't have a way to improve on the raw energy of the original demo tape…
During the studio sessions, Springsteen apparently considered releasing Nebraska as a double album, with one record containing the original demos and the other record having the full-band recordings. Unfortunately, two weeks of sessions left the band feeling they didn't have a way to improve on the raw energy of the original demo tape, and the band decided to abandon the project.
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Nebraska was released in mostly the same condition as it arrived at the studio, with nine of the original demo songs remaining completely intact, plus a tenth song ("My Father's House") that was recorded slightly later. While Nebraska wasn't as much of a commercial success as Springsteen's previous records, it was a critical darling and a fan favorite, and many of the songs remain hallmarks of the band's live shows to this day.
Why Wasn't Electric Nebraska Released & Will It Ever Happen?
The Answer To Both Questions Is Found In Bruce Springsteen's Artistic Vision
Electric Nebraska never saw the light of day in a completed form, mostly because the band collectively felt that the sessions just didn't live up to the raw emotional energy of Springsteen's demos. As E Street Band pianist Roy Bittan said in a 2024 interview with Rolling Stone:
We did go in the studio … and we tried recording [that material], but you know, Bruce had caught something very unusual, just purely by using the Tascam that he did in his room — the intimacy of it and being by himself. And as usual, when you make a demo, the recording process is always “beat the demo.” Even if those recordings were excellent and could have comprised an album. I think the vibe that he had on his little cassette was something to reckon with.
While most of the Electric Nebraska sessions have been released in one form or another over the years, whether it was the final versions of the songs on Born in the U.S.A., or on 1998's Tracks four-disc set of demos, session recordings, and B-sides, that still leaves two songs ("Child Bride" and "(The) Losin' Kind") that remain officially unreleased. Unfortunately, there are still no plans to officially release the full studio recordings from the Electric Nebraska sessions.
Why Electric Nebraska Deserves An Official Release
It's Been 42 Years And The Fans Are Still Clamoring To Hear It
Considering the amount of B-sides, bootlegs, session tape collections, and other releases over the years that have collected nearly every minute Bruce Springsteen has ever been in a studio over the past fifty years, it's genuinely surprising that Electric Nebraska remains unreleased, even just from a completionist perspective. Even a perfunctory Google search shows that it's not an issue of demand; decades of posts on Springsteen fan forums make it clear that Electric Nebraska, if released, could easily go gold.
A chance to hear what the prototypical versions of those arrangements sound like would be fascinating…
Musically speaking, there's also no reason at this point for Electric Nebraska to remain unreleased. Many of the Nebraska songs, like "Atlantic City" and "Johnny 99," have found a way to work as full-band arrangements at live E Street Band shows over the years, and a chance to hear what the prototypical versions of those arrangements sound like would be fascinating, particularly in order to compare them to what they've grown into in the decades since. Plus, E Street Band members like Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg admit their own curiosity about what's hiding on those tapes.
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At the end of the day, Bruce Springsteen certainly has no obligation to release Electric Nebraska, and the fans aren't entitled to hear it. If the Boss genuinely feels that those recording sessions still don't stand up to the uniquely raw sound of the original Nebraska tape – that those tapes should just stay dead – we'll have to trust him. Yet to quote Springsteen himself on "Atlantic City":
Everything dies, baby, that's a fact
Maybe everything that dies someday comes back
(Sources: Rolling Stone)
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