| JUST AROUND THE CORNER TO THE LIGHT OF DAY | uncirculating |
Note: Recorded May 25, 1983. Quite a complex story behind this song. The original title when recorded during the Born In The U.S.A. sessions was "Just Around The Corner To The Light Of Day". A demo of the song was sent to screenwriter/director Paul Schrader in 1985 for consideration for his upcoming film about struggling rock musicians. Ironically, Schrader had sent Springsteen a draft screenplay for this movie (then titled Born In The U.S.A.) in 1981 hoping Bruce might craft a song for it. Bruce never did write a song for Schrader at the time. Schrader then put this film project on hold to direct the 1982 movie Cat People. However the script's title (though not its storyline) spurred Bruce at the time to alter a partially written song of his called "Vietnam" and create the song "Born In The U.S.A.". Fast forward four years – in 1985, when Schrader received the go-ahead to make the film, he couldn't use his title Born In The U.S.A. because by that point it had become too closely associated with Springsteen. Schrader again asked Bruce for a song and Bruce donated this – which Schrader loved so much that he re-copyrighted his screenplay in 1985 under the new title Just Around The Corner To The Light Of Day. In 1986 when the film was being shot, both the movie and song titles were shortened to "Light Of Day". It had never been intended that Springsteen's recording would be used in the film. The song was recorded by the film's stars, Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox ("The Barbusters"), and released concurrently with the movie in February 1987. The Barbusters first performed the song live at a nightclub appearance in mid-1986. Springsteen first performed the song live on April 12, 1987. A later live version was officially released on MTV Unplugged.