Electric Nebraska

History

Bruce Springsteen recorded the Nebraska demos at home on a 4-track cassette recorder between 1981 and 1982, using only acoustic guitar, electric guitar on "Open All Night", harmonica, mandolin, glockenspiel, tambourine, organ, synthesizer on "My Father's House", and his voice. The songs were sparse, many built on three chords. After completing the demos, Springsteen brought them to the studio to record with the E Street Band, intending to release them as a proper rock album.

However, Springsteen and Jon Landau concluded that the band recordings could not replicate the raw, personal, haunting folk quality of the home tapes. The Electric Nebraska album was shelved, but eight tracks later appeared on the 1984 Born in the U.S.A. album: "Born in the U.S.A." (completed May 3, 1982), "Downbound Train" (recorded April 28, 1982), "Cover Me" (recorded at the Hit Factory, New York on January 25, 1982), "I'm on Fire" (recorded at the Power Station on May 11, 1982), "Glory Days" (recorded at the Power Station on May 5, 1982), "Darlington County" (recorded at the Power Station on May 13, 1982), "Working on the Highway" (recorded April 30 and May 6, 1982), and "I'm Going Down" (recorded May 12 or 13, 1982). A few other tracks were released as stand-alone singles or on compilations, while some remain unreleased.

Release

Once Bruce Springsteen decided that the stark solo folk recordings for Nebraska worked better than the full-band versions, the Electric Nebraska project was scrapped, along with a short-lived plan for a double album that would have paired both the folk and electric takes. Fans have long wondered if it might ever see the light of day, but aside from nine tracks that remain locked away, most of the material has surfaced on the Nebraska album, Born in the U.S.A., or as singles and compilation cuts.

In 2006, Jon Landau made it clear a release was unlikely, explaining that “the right version of Nebraska came out.” Over the years, E Street Band members have confirmed the album exists, though their accounts don’t always line up. Max Weinberg recalled in 2010 that the band recorded all of Nebraska, describing it as “killing” and “very hard-edged,” but ultimately not what Bruce wanted to put out. He added that a full band version of the album is sitting in the vaults somewhere.

Roy Bittan, asked in 2015 about the sessions, said he wasn’t sure how many songs were cut, guessing it might have been most of them. He remembered rehearsing the songs in his own living room, which had a high ceiling and lots of glass and wood, giving the space great sound. Bittan clarified that they rehearsed quite a few songs, though he couldn’t say what might have been written later. When told fans would love to hear it, he agreed, saying he’d like to hear it too and that a tape might exist somewhere, though he wasn’t certain.