Bruce Springsteen - Jungleland (V4) - Studio Demo (February-March, 1975)

In his book Bruce, Peter Ames Carlin claims that from January 8, 1974 Springsteen and the band spent "a couple of days fiddling with rudimentary versions of both "Born To Run" and "Jungleland" at 914 Studios. The accuracy of this statement is unverified, but we've included it here for reference. V1 represents those sessions, but has never seen the day of light. The first circulating live performance of "Jungleland" is from the July 12, 1974 show at the Bottom Line in New York City, over seven months later.

A second uncirculating version, V2, is a complete take in the studio, cut August 1, 1974 and known from a Record Plant log sheet. It's likely that this is the January 8, 1974 recording referred to by Ames Carlin, with the day/month reversed in the European format on the worksheet (right) by Louis Lahav. V2 was recorded before David Sancious and Ernest Carter left the band, and took inspiration from “Zero And Blind Terry”. Through 1974 and early 1975, Bruce continued to play and develop "Jungleland" on stage, and worked on it the studio. V3 is just a segment of Bruce and Suki Lahav recording vocals for dubbing.

During the second half of 1974 and the first half of 1975, lyrics included "there’s a crazy kind of light tonight, brighter than the one that sparked the prophets" which were changed in July 1975 to "the midnight gang's assembled and picked a rendezvous for the night." Similarly, the 1974/early-1975 lyrics "the street's alive with tough-kid Jets in Nova-light machines, boys flash guitars like bayonets and rip holes in their jeans" later became "the street's alive as secret debts are paid, contacts made, they vanished unseen, kids flash guitars just like switchblades hustling for the record machine."

These lyrics can be heard in V4. This version was recorded probably at 914 Studios. Take 16 was first heard in a memorable scene on the Wings For Wheels documentary in 2005, as Bruce hears the introduction for the first time in many years, and can be easily identified by Suki's unique, dramatic viola performance. The take was later broadcast in its entirety on E Street Radio. Aside from the introduction, the lyrics and instrumentation are almost identical to the performance at the Main Point in February 1975, potentially dating this recording to around the same time. Given Lahav's presence, it must date from before late March 1975, when she returned to her native Israel.