Cowboy Bruce: How Springsteen Won The West And Where It Got Him

Bruce Springsteen's debut album Greetings From Asbury Park was, for all intents and purposes, a bit of a compromised affair. Some at Columbia Records where seemingly still hung up on the acoustic demos he delivered to get signed and Bruce's manager Mike Appel as well as John Hammond thought at first of having Springsteen's debut album strictly a solo acoustic, a man and his guitar-type affair, while Bruce himself was pushing for more involvement of what was at that time still known as The Bruce Springsteen Band. Columbia seemed unsure whether to market Springsteen as a sensitive folkie with a guitar or a boisterous band leader, so listeners got both, thankfully at a 80 to 20 percent ratio in favor of the band (instead of an initial 50-50 ratio on the first, rejected version of the album). The inclusion of "Mary Queen Of Arkansas" still is a bit of a mystery, considering that Hammond didn't like it and thought it pretentious. But there it was anyway. The whole Springsteen with or without band never became a topic again after this album, all the way until he realized that the songs for Nebraska didn't need or warrant the E-Street Band behind them. 

But what if there was an album on which the forces that be were still see-sawing over how to present Bruce? What if, instead of being merely a critical success with so-so sales Greetings sold so well that Hammond wanted an immediate follow-up in the same vein as the debut, while Springsteen was in the middle of recording what would become The Wild, The Innocent and The E-Street Shuffle. Springsteen would declare that he found something special in the ongoing, but unfinished recordings, and he wouldn't want to compromise them. But then Columbia, Appel and him would strike a deal to construct a follow-up to Greetings from material already recorded. To continue promoting him as a serious artist (with a capital A of course!), the brain trust went through Springsteen's catalogue and then devised a concept album. Hearing rumours about new band sensation The Eagles recording an outlaw-themed record for Asylum, Hammond and Appel devised their own record in the same vein, drawing equally from band and solo performances. And thus was (or woud have been) born Bruce Springsteen's The Wild West, a song-cycle about the west and the outlaws that populated it. Side A was to focus on the lawless populating the land, while Side B would be more of a travelogue of the West, ending with an account of how the Wild West would be tamed, thanks to an outtake from the ongoing E-Street sessions that Springsteen sent in to use. The Wild West would cement Springsteen's reputation with critics while giving him time to hone and polish The Wild, The Innocent and The E-Street Shuffle, whose release would then obviously be pushed back to 1974, with The Wild West taking its place as a late 1973 release. 

So, back from music kayfabe into our reality: What is The Wild West? Of the three band tracks, "Don't You Want To Be An Outlaw" and "Look Towards The Land" come from an informal recording session in March 1972 at Tinker "Stinky" West's studios in Highlands, NJ., while "How The West Was Lost" was an early song from the sessions for E-Street Shuffle and is known as either "Evacuation of the West" or "No More Kings in Texas" before getting a new title here to go with the concept. Speaking of new titles: There was some work to be done here. Like his black brother from another mother, Phil Lynott over in Dublin, Springsteen at this time was really high on portentious, if not pretentious song titles that the songs rarely lived up to. Of the four acoustic songs he recorded as publishing demos in early 1973, "The Saga Of The Architect Angel" (written as a, uhm, tribute of sorts to John Wayne of all people!) became "How The West Was Won", after its closing lines. "The Ballad Of The Self-Loading Pistol", while a very fine song, had the problem that it wasn't really about a self-loading pistol, so it is here more appropriately titled "Blood On My Hands". All of these have never been officially released, although a truncated version of "Don't You Want To Be An Outlaw?" found its way onto the 2016 compilation Chapter & Verse as "The Ballad Of Jesse James". This is the full-length 7 minute version including the later excised verse about Billy The Kid. The borrowed cover art is Majesty Of The Old West by Ben Joshua King. 

Sound quality obviously varies, due to the bootleg origins, but is very listenable. And there are some genuinely great songs in here. "How The West Was Lost", by any name, is one of the greatest lost songs of the Boss, and his refusal to issue it officially as part of Tracks or another archival collection is inexcusable. Every discerning music fan should have some space for that song. I think "Blood On My Hands" is also definitely one of the stronger offerings of Springsteen from the epoch, certainly better than some stuff on Greetings. And while admittedly the two Bruce Springsteen Band tracks are a little ramshackle, it's interesting to hear the band stretch out in long semi-improvisation, clearly working towards the form and sound of the E-Street Shuffle period. 

So, giddy up, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, 'cause cowboy Bruce is gonna take you on a ride through The Wild West...