WALKING IN THE STREET - V1 | 3:56 | BIS / WAR / ET / BWNH / BTRS(12) / ETRJ |
WALKING IN THE STREET - V2 | uncirculating | |
WALKING IN THE STREET - V3 | uncirculating |
Note: There is very little information about "Walking In The Street", interchangeable with its other title, "Lovers In The Cold". Just the one rough, clearly unfinished bootlegged take (V1) circulates, probably recorded in the autumn of 1974 at 914 Sound Studios. Soon after, Bruce decided to export some lyrics to his work-in-progress title "Wings For Wheels", namely the line "they case the promised land" and the verse "Oh baby I can't lay the stars at your feet, but I think we could take it all, just you and me / Oh come on and see there's a lot of room for you baby in this front seat." Then, he took the main coda of "Walking In The Street" and used it as the instrumental outro of "Wings For Wheels", now titled "Thunder Road". It seemed that there was nothing left, but "Walking In The Street" refused to die. It first appeared on one of the earliest Springsteen studio bootlegs, 'E Ticket' by Ruthless Rhymes Records, described as "a totally unreleased song from the Born To Run sessions." This was the first of an almost endless stream of bootlegs with either "Walking In The Street(s)" or "Lovers In The Cold", such as 'Born In the Studio', 'War And Roses - The Definitive Born To Run Outtakes Collection', and 'Running Out Of Innocence' by Godfatherecords.
Springsteen later recorded a number of performances at Monmouth Post Theater on January 29, 1999, perhaps with a view to issuing a fresh recording of "Walking In The Street" on 18 Tracks alongside "The Promise". Four takes in total were recorded, with take 3 selected as master (V3). There is no further information, suggesting Bruce was not content with the new recording. Springsteen commented to Mark Hagen of Mojo magazine in 1999, "There was another track called "Walking In The Street" which I would have liked to have put on Tracks, but I couldn't find the master. We searched and searched. It might have been simply recorded over, because in those days, if something wasn't going to make it, you're going to need that tape so you recorded something else over the top." The Wings For Wheels documentary (at about 40:55) from 2005 shows a Record Plant reel with a label that indicates that at least two complete takes of "Walking In The Street" were recorded on May 28, 1975, designated V2 (see illustration). This could well be the reel holding the takes from that session, located at some point between 1998 and 2005. On May 28, 1975 he spent the day recording at least twenty takes of "The Heist", while there is no record of "Walking In The Street" in the studio logs.