In a few days, on Aug. 25, Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run will reach its 50th anniversary. In celebration of that milestone, the 1975 studio outtake of "Lonely Night In The Park," a track that was heavily considered for the final tracklist but was never officially released, is having its official debut.
“Lonely Night In The Park” was tracked during the Record Plant sessions for Born To Run and included on the Boss’ proposed tracklist for the LP. Jon Landau reportedly wanted it on the album too (over “Meeting Across The River") but his co-producer Mike Appel successfully argued against it.
Some of the lyrics on “Lonely Night In The Park” were taken from another unreleased song, 1974’s “Angel Baby,” and fans have pointed out that Roy Bittan’s piano break is pretty similar to Leon Russell’s on Badfinger’s 1971 hit “Day After Day.”
Sirius XM’s E Street Radio channel began regularly playing the previously unheard “Lonely Night In The Park” 20 years ago, but it’s never streamed in such pristine quality before. The version out now also includes overdubs from Steve Van Zandt and Ron Aniello, neither of whom played on the original.
The release also comes with rare photographs from Eric Meola’s Born To Run album cover shoot. Listen to the "Lonely Night In The Park" and find the photographs below.
