Anyone can relate to a perfect song as long as it captures some form of emotion. It doesn’t have to be played perfectly or even necessarily be in tune, but as long as they can hear that the performer believes in themselves as they’re playing their instrument, it’s easy for that emotion to come across to the listener. And while Bruce Springsteen has long been considered a minister of all things rock and roll, he had enough to realise when something needed to get thrown out of an album.
But, really, Springsteen could easily have ten more albums to his name had he decided to release everything he ever recorded. There are countless albums that he had in mind over the years that were either scrapped or discarded entirely because they didn’t align with what he wanted to say, but given that his discography is solid on nearly every front, it’s not like his quality control is suffering for it, either.
If there’s one type of song that the fans have always been interested in, it was when ‘The Boss’ got personal. He could always be the most honest when he was behind the glass or when he was onstage, and whether he was talking about his hard years growing up with a father that didn’t like him or those days jamming away with The E Street Band, he was more than happy to reminisce when the time called for it.
But when returning to his childhood, it was always bound to get a bit sticky. He had the means of talking about his grandparents, but even when working on some of his material, Springsteen felt that the song ‘Randolph Street’ would never cut it, saying, “I probably don’t think the song was very good. But it did capture some of the intensity I felt about them. It didn’t enter my mind to write other songs about it, and I work from the inside out.”
Although the song still doesn’t have an official release, the lyric sheet behind it is one of the most bluntly honest songs he wrote. From the minute that he talks about the foundations of his old house, you can tell that Springsteen has a certain level of love and reverence for how his grandparents were raised, but also enough sense to know that he needed to find a way get out of his nowhere town so he didn’t have to suffer the same fate.
And as much as his father may not have liked his approach to music, Springsteen made sure to sweat for every dollar he made. He may not have accepted the traditional nine-to-five gig, but he knew that the best way for him to make his dreams come true was to make sure he put everything he could into those moments onstage, whether that was working off Clarence Clemons or sitting alone with an acoustic guitar.
Since this was cut during the same sessions that birthed Nebraska, Springsteen was interested in much more than his own family troubles. He knew the best way for him to make music was to take the perspective of someone else, and while he may not have had a brother like the protagonist in ‘Highway Patrolman’, anyone can relate to someone that they wish they got along with better.
But even if ‘Randolph Street’ never saw the light of day, it was almost necessary for Springsteen to open himself up when it came to songs like that. They weren’t always meant for the public’s ears, but he could sleep easily at night knowing he paid tribute to those who shaped him into the man he is today.
