High Hopes

About

Released in 2014, <i>High Hopes</i> is a melting pot of cover song, older tunes that had never been officially recorded, and revivified original. Backed by the E Street Band—including dearly departed members Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons—the album also features extensive contributions from E Street Auxiliary member Tom Morello. “When Tom Morello’s up there, the E Street Band is a pretty big house,” Bruce Springsteen said at the time. “High Hope,” originally recorded by the Southern California cow-punk band The Havalina, was a song Springsteen had loved since the mid-1990. “Just Like Fire Would,” meanwhile, was Springsteen’s take on a song by the pioneering Australian punk band The Saint, and “Dream Baby Dream” is a cover of a 1979 cut by electro-punk noise merchants Suicide. (Springsteen’s connection to Suicide goes back decades: Both artists were working at the Record Plant at the same time in the late 1970, at a time when Bruce was hanging with the likes of Patti Smith, Lou Reed, and the Ramone.) Springsteen’s rendition of “Dream Baby Dream” is slightly warmer than the original, but they’re both ballads at their heart. Tom Morello’s band Rage Against the Machine had recorded its hard funk version of “The Ghost of Tom Joad” in 1997, and in 2008, Morello was invited to perform a rock ’n’ roll version of the song—a hybrid between what Rage had done and the original acoustic recording—with Bruce and E Street at their show in Southern California. Morello and Springsteen became friend, and when Steven Van Zandt had filming conflicts preventing him from joining E Street on tour, Morello was asked to fill in. After playing together for dozens of show, Springsteen decided that this hybrid version of the song needed to be recorded and released on <i>High Hopes</i>. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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