Springsteen Celebrates ‘Born To Run’ Turning 50 With Track From The Vault, “Lonely Night In The Park”

“Hey, little stranger, what you doing tonight?”

– Bruce Springsteen, “Lonely In The Park,” Born To Run outtake

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Born To Run, released August 25, 1975, Bruce Springsteen has released an outtake recorded during the sessions for that legendary album, “Lonely Night In The Park.” As far as I know this is only the third outtake officially released from those recording sessions. The previous two were “Linda Let Me Be The One,” and “So Young And In Love” both released on Tracks in 1998. I think there was some speculation that Bruce would release a box set to commemorate the release of his historic breakthrough album (the third album was the breakthrough for so many artists). That was a little far fetched to me since that would be right on the heels of the release of his fabulous new box set, released just 2 months ago, Tracks 2: The Lost Albums. You can’t flood the market. I would render a guess that the rest of the outtakes from the Born To Run sessions will likely come out on the promised Tracks 3 set, release date as yet unknown. Despite the fact Tracks 2 just came out, there are still those who think Bruce is going to release a Nebraska box set to coincide with the release of his new bio-pic, Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White (the actor from The Bear) in the fall. Let’s just say, I’ll believe it when I see it.

It appears all we’re getting to celebrate this momentous anniversary for Born To Run is this one song, “Lonely Night In The Park,” but oh, what a song it is! Like a lot of Springsteen’s vault stuff, this song was heavily bootlegged and even apparently played on Springsteen’s SirusXM station. I have to admit, this is the first time I’ve heard this song, so it’s new to me. My Springsteen bootleg experience was pretty much confined to his live stuff from the ’78 tour (the radio broadcasts that everyone recorded). I think I may have had the bluesy track “The Fever” (released on the Tracks companion disc, 18 Tracks) tacked onto a cassette of one of those aforementioned live bootlegs but that’s about the only studio bootleg I ever heard. When I saw this song was coming, I couldn’t wait to hear it… it was released at midnight last night…

“Lonely Night In The Park” was originally considered for inclusion on B2R for use instead of “Meeting Across The River.” Jon Landau wanted either this track or “Linda Let Me Be The One” instead but Springsteen’s original manager Mike Appel insisted on “Meeting Across The River.” I think they made the right decision but this song is a helluva lot of fun. It’s hard to look back on a masterpiece and say, “Hmm, we should have used this song instead of that song.” It’s like looking at the Mona Lisa and saying, “Yeah, it’s great but we should have used more fuchsia.”

The tracks start off with some ringing guitars that frankly sort of remind me of John Mellencamp’s (aka Cougar) “I Need A Lover,” but this was recorded three years earlier. The first line just grabs me, “Johnny got a angel dancing topless at night down in Toyland…” Ok, so we’re at a strip joint or an old style topless joint… you have my attention. We then find out at this particular strip joint, “Where the blondies and the supergirls offer a sad look and soft hands…” The track comes off as light hearted and perhaps a little light weight, but damn if I don’t really like this song. Yes, he repeats the lyrics “Lonely, lonely, lonely” way too much but it is a complete ear worm. Is this a lonely night literally in a park or is he referring to Asbury Park? I’m not sure. The singer meets a “lady standing at the bar, that’s right,” and they apparently go out on the beach and… frolic. He even quotes Chuck Berry, “If she can dance you can make it…” Our hero ends up under the boardwalk drinking with “Kid Blue” who well, blew chunks on his shoes… as we used to say.

This track is bombastic and bigger than life. I have to assume amongst the Bruce faithful it’s getting mixed reviews but I am loving it. I’ll take any early Bruce I can get my hands on… Here is the YouTube video:

Enjoy this little blast from Springsteen’s past and turn it up loud!! Maybe while I’m at it, I’ll slip my old vinyl copy of Born To Run out and drop it on the turntable… maybe after the Rock Chick has gone to bed… best to keep the ol’ rock n roll rituals to myself. I certainly hope we get whatever else was recorded during those Born To Run sessions in Tracks 3, I could spend all night just listening to this one…

Cheers!