Springsteen Releases Born To Run Outake "Lonely In The Park"

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As a long-time Bruce Springsteen fan going all the way back to 1975 when I first heard the song “Born to Run,” it absolutely blows my mind when 50 years later Springsteen releases another outtake from what I believe is the greatest rock and roll album of all time, or at least to me it is. Over the years, there have been outtakes that have found their way into the public, usually through bootlegs. They were never really good audio sounding recordings, but simply hearing an outtake from the Born to Run sessions was always incredibly exciting no matter what the sound quality was. The first one I ever heard was a song called “Linda Let Me Be the One.” And of course, there was the great tune “Janey Needs A Shooter” which Warren Zevon covered.

There’s a bit of sadness that I feel when I hear these new songs by Bruce, because darn, I wish he had released these many years ago when I was younger, so I could have enjoyed these tunes for a lot longer. I understand how important his legacy has always been to him, and releasing only things he felt were right to release. But lately it seems he’s releasing everything, and you know what, I’m happy about it; I just wish he did it earlier. I have interviewed many rock and rollers over the years, but I’ve never had the chance to interview Bruce. The first question I would ask him is why he has waited so long to release all this material. Nonetheless, I love this new song that was just released yesterday from Born To Run called “Lonely In The Park.”

What I find interesting about “Lonely In The Park” is that it doesn’t actually sound like a Born To Run outtake like “Linda Let Me Be The One” did. “Lonely In The Park” is much looser than anything from Born To Run. It sounds more like an outtake from The Wild, Innocent and E Street Shuffle album. In many ways, it reminds me of the classic bootlegged song “Thundercrack,” which eventually found its way to be released on Tracks. One can hear in the way Bruce sings the word “lonely” over and over again that this was a song written for live performances, like songs like “Rosalita, Spirits in the Night, Badlands, and so many others were. What is really surprising is that I don’t think he’s ever performed this one live. I have a feeling, though, with this being released separately from everything else he’s released (like seven new albums in one shot), this is a song that we may hear live.

If you haven’t heard it yet, check it out below. Anyone who is a long-time Springsteen fan, I think, will definitely fall in love with this one.