Janey Needs A Shooter

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Track 4 of Letter To You, 2020. This Springsteen composition, recorded several times in different versions, was finally released in 2020. Warren Zevon's song "Jeannie Needs A Shooter", for which Springsteen shares a writing credit, is loosely based on this song.

Letter To You (2020)
- Bruce Springsteen: vocals, guitar, harmonica
- Roy Bittan: piano, backing vocals
- Charles Giordano: organ, backing vocals
- Nils Lofgren: guitar, backing vocals
- Patti Scialfa: backing vocals
- Garry Tallent: bass, backing vocals
- Steven Van Zandt: guitar, backing vocals
- Max Weinberg: drums, backing vocals

JANEY NEEDS A SHOOTER - V1	6:02	US6 / EY / ATMF
JANEY NEEDS A SHOOTER - V2	4:30	uncirculating
JANEY NEEDS A SHOOTER - V3	1:34	LM-8
JANEY NEEDS A SHOOTER - V4	2:34	LM-8 / PYP
JANEY NEEDS A SHOOTER - V5	6:50	DDO / DO-1 / EC / ATMF
JANEY NEEDS A SHOOTER - V6	6:43	LETTER

Note: "Janey Needs A Shooter" has a long, complicated history. V1 was recorded in a solo piano arrangement at 914 Sound Studios, Blauvelt, NY, on January 29, 1973, with additional takes on January 30. The lyrics were written during 1972, although the melody was culled from the mid-1971 Springsteen composition "Talking About My Baby", a recording of which exists, from a show in Richmond, VA in October 1971. "Janey Needs A Shooter" appeared on provisional lists for The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, but did not make the final cut. Also listed on the earliest known album #3 sequence, from spring 1974. Session log documents indicate that a full-band arrangement was recorded at 914 Sound Studios at some point during the Born To Run sessions, but it was bypassed for the album.

V3 and V4 are acoustic demos Bruce recorded around March–April 1979, at Telegraph Hill. V5 is a magnificent full band recording originally attributed to the Darkness On The Edge Of Town sessions, and later to the October 1978 rehearsal session at Telegraph Hill, Holmdel, NJ. Given the evidence (including audio not circulating), we can confirm it is a Telegraph Hill rehearsal from May 1979. The quality of the private audio is far superior to that found on the 'Definitive Darkness Outtakes' or 'Iceman' CDs, and includes the count-in and runs at the correct speed. "Janey Needs A Shooter" was also included on a very early tracklist for what became The River, but in all likelihood never seriously considered.

Warren Zevon has said that he became obsessed with the title after Jon Landau mentioned it along with other songs that Springsteen was intending to record. Zevon pestered Bruce, pleading to hear the song. He agreed, and Zevon ended up working on his own version of the song, his interpretation of "Jeannie Needs A Shooter" (he had misheard the name), and played an incomplete version to Bruce sometime in the spring of 1979. Springsteen loved the arrangement, and they wrote the remainder of "Jeannie Needs A Shooter" together. The Zevon/Springsteen version is "a romantic saga of an outlaw pursuing a maiden while her father tries to gun him down," while in Springsteen's original the narrator aims to save Janey from a series of ill-judged (perhaps concurrent) relationships with unlikeable partners who do not truly care for her. Zevon's studio take of "Jeannie Needs A Shooter" from the Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School album was recorded during the summer of 1979 and released in February 1980.

V6 was the earliest track recorded for Letter To You, and was initially intended for release on Record Store Day, as Bruce confirmed during a phone call to E Street Radio on October 23, 2020. Springsteen changed "Janey needs a shooter Jack" to "Janey needs a shooter now" for the official release. "Janey" was finally premiered live on July 5, 2024 in Hannover, Germany, some 52 years after it was written. It may have been played in 1972 or 1973, but there is no record.

^{Studio Sessions: Born To Run and Letter To You}

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