Bruce Springsteen - Vietnam

One of the amazing things the both of us have taken in by being part of this project over at One Week//One Band, where we and many others are posting extensively about Bruce Springsteen's lesser known works for the past and next several days, is how much we have learned. We thought we knew plenty, no doubt. But as Mom always said, there's still plenty more to take in as long as you keep your eyes and ears open.

Case in point. Did you know that Bruce Springsteen, during his Nebraska sessions, had a song called "Vietnam?" Which was pretty damn good? But which he scrapped 90% of or so, only to keep a few strands? Well, he did. And those strands turned into nothing more than two masterpieces: "Born in the U.S.A." and its heartbreaking flipside, "Shut Out the Light?"

Because I sure didn't. And now my mind is sufficiently blown.

Here's the extremely well-written post about the aborted "Vietnam" song by Mark Richardson.

Here's the song itself, in the raw form Bruce initially created it back in December 1981.

And here are the two immortal songs it turned into.

I swear. Watching the creative process slowly unfold like this? Watching something good get discarded, only to have it repurposed a bit later on as something so much more amazing?

 I love music.