AMERICAN SKIN (41 SHOTS) - V1 | 5:13 | SA / 2001 promo |
AMERICAN SKIN (41 SHOTS) - V2 | uncirculating | |
AMERICAN SKIN (41 SHOTS) - V3 | 7:24 | HOPES |
Note: Written by Springsteen during the spring of 2000 and soundchecked several times in April and May of 2000 before it was premiered live on June 4, 2000 in Atlanta. "American Skin (41 Shots)" was inspired by the February 1999 police shooting of Amadou Diallo in New York City. Springsteen recorded V1, or at least a new vocal, at The Hit Factory, New York City on March 2, 2001. It appears that this recording utilizes the backing music (with a slightly altered mix) from the live version recorded on July 1, 2000 at Madison Square Garden and officially released on Live In New York City. Produced by Springsteen and Chuck Plotkin, it was released on a promotion-only single in June 2001.
Ron Aniello revealed in a December 2013 interview with Rolling Stone that the song was also recorded during the Wrecking Ball recording sessions (V2), but ultimately was not used. "We did try a track of that," he said, "but it wasn't really an outtake." V3 was recorded in 2013 and features Tom Morello on guitar. "His presence made a big, big difference," Springsteen said. "He obviously brings those things to great life and deepens them and deepens the characters." Prior to the March 2013 Australian leg of the Wrecking Ball Tour, Tom Morello was sent the song to add guitar: "I did that in my home studio and Bruce seemed to like that very much," he told Andy Greene in a January 2014 interview for Rolling Stone. "That song to me was the most challenging one. It was also the first one I did. Normally I'll go in there and tinker with a song a bit and try to capture inspiration and see if the world likes it or not. But that song just didn't come together for me. I went back to it a couple of times, and I'm glad that I did because at the end of the day I was really pleased with how the guitar solo and the rhythm stuff came out. But that one felt like it was work. I had to really work on that one." The final result was issued on High Hopes in 2014.