Studio versions of the stark, home-recorded album have never been issued, but will appear alongside new Springsteen biopic
One of the great lost albums in rock history is to finally see the light of day, as Bruce Springsteen announces the release of the electric version of his 1982 album Nebraska.
The original was famously recorded in the bedroom of his New Jersey home, unaccompanied, on a four-track tape recorder rather than a multitrack studio setup. Springsteen attempted to work the songs up into more fleshed-out versions but felt the studio versions lacked the ghostly drama of the originals, and – to some confusion in his fanbase and record label – insisted on releasing the stark four-track takes.
Despite the move away from the full-bodied sound of hit albums Born to Run and The River, Nebraska reached No 3 in the US and UK and is seen as one of the most distinctive and influential albums in Springsteen’s catalogue.
As recently as June, Springsteen was denying that the electric versions existed: “I have no recollection of it, but I can tell you there’s nothing in our vault that would amount to an electric Nebraska,” he told Rolling Stone. But he later updated the journalist, saying: “I checked our vault and there is an electric Nebraska record, though it does not have the full album of songs.”
