Springsteen Previews Nebraska Box, Rips Trump in New Interview
For those keeping track of Bruce Springsteen’s musical legacy, 2025 marks the release of an album box set titled Nebraska (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/bruce-springsteen-tracks-ii-the-lost-albums-review-1235368624/)—a feature film exploring the creation of the band, a reunion with past members at a Born to Run symposium in New Jersey, and two books on the history of Born to Run. The deluge isn’t over yet. Today brought the first preview of the upcoming Nebraska box and a new interview in which Springsteen reveals a third volume of his Tracks box may arrive in years’ time — and he’s not done touring either.
First retro-Nebraska things: Earlier this month, tied to the release of the quasi-biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere, Springsteen announced the release of Nebraska 82: Expanded Edition (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bruce-springsteen-electric-nebraska-box-set-1235421364/). This edition expands the original 1982 album by including outtakes such as early versions of ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ and ‘Downbound Train’, along with long-rumored ‘Electric Nebraska’ sessions and a Blu-Ray recording of Springsteen’s first-ever live performance of the entire album.
Taped early this year at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, the show featured Springsteen accompanied by Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin) and Charlie Giordano (cello, synthesizer), filmed by Thom Zimny. He said, “What I was concerned about was getting some of the spooky quality the record had.” They were lucky they got the minimal instrumentation with Larry and Charlie. One song, a live solo take on ‘Open All Night’, was released today.
Meanwhile, 50 years after he covered Time magazine (the same week Newsweek did the same), Springsteen has returned to its front page (https://time.com/7319963/bruce-springsteen-songs-albums-deliver-me-from-nowhere/) of that August issue. Recalling the dual-covers moment, he tells Time, “It’s making you very different from all the people you grew up with.” He also mentions the times he spoke out against Donald Trump in Europe this summer: ‘If I stay true to who I’ve tried to be, I can’t give these guys a free pass.’ He doesn’t support Democrats, saying, ‘There is a problem with the language they’re using and how they try to reach people.’
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In the interview, Springsteen laughed when reminded that Trump called him ‘highly overrated’ after his tour comments. But he had more serious thoughts on current politics: ‘A lot of people bought into his lies,’ he told Time. ‘He doesn’t care about the forgotten people but himself and the multibillionaires behind him on Inauguration Day.’ On an even more somber note, he says, ‘You have to face the fact that a good number of Americans are comfortable with his power and dominance. He’s the living embodiment of the 25th Amendment and impeachment. If Congress had guts, he’d be consigned to the trash heap of history.’
In the same interview, Springsteen replied, ‘Of course!’ when asked if he would tour again with the E Street Band and indicated solo shows are a possibility. He also stated, in several years’ time, he would roll out a Tracks 3 box containing more unreleased material from his vault. One song in it, he says, will likely be what Time called his slow, hypnotic version of Bob Dylan’s ‘I Want You’. Original Dylan meets New Dylan — at some point, anyway.
