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The Promise

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1999 recording Track 18 of 18 Tracks, 1999. Full band, edited version released as disc 2 track 10 of The Promise, 2010.

18 Tracks (1999)
- Bruce Springsteen: vocals, piano

The Promise (2010)
- Bruce Springsteen: vocals, guitar
- Roy Bittan: piano, backing vocals
- Clarence Clemons: saxophone, percussion, backing vocals
- Danny Federici: organ, glockenspiel
- Garry Tallent: bass
- Steven Van Zandt: guitar, backing vocals
- Max Weinberg: drums
  - String arrangement by Ken Asher
  - assistant engineers/editors Kevin Buell and Rob Lebret

THE PROMISE - V1	5:32	DO-2 / UP / SOTE / LUTHER
THE PROMISE - V2	5:27	LM-2 / DDO / DO-3 / AM / SC / O711S
THE PROMISE - V3	7:11	DDITV / AM / UP / MT1
THE PROMISE - V4	7:24	PROMISE: DELUXE
THE PROMISE (strings-full harmony) - V5		uncirculating
THE PROMISE (solo) - V6		uncirculating
THE PROMISE - V7		uncirculating
THE PROMISE - V8		uncirculating
THE PROMISE - V9	4:41	TRACKS: 18
THE PROMISE - V10	5:49	PROMISE

Note: Debuted live on August 3, 1976 at the Monmouth Performing Arts Center in Red Bank, New Jersey, featuring Bruce solo on the piano, and deeply personal lyrics. Later live versions would continue to feature Bruce on piano, with Roy or Danny accompanying him on glockenspiel. The song was played regularly during the 1976–1977 Lawsuit Tour, but according to studio documentation it was not recorded in the studio until late June 1977. V1 was most likely recorded during sessions on June 30, 1977, though further work was done on July 1, 7, 8 and 13. The June take master was transfered to comp. reel and ruffs tape, and was used in V10, mixed in 2010. Unlike his live versions, all of the Darkness studio recordings in circulation include the E Street Band, though solo takes were also attempted. After a break that included a trip with Steve to Utah and Nevada, Bruce came back to the studio with slightly revised lyrics, and recorded V2 on August 24 or 30, 1977, which was on the tracklist for the aborted 'Badlands' release (see artwork). However, Bruce was back on September 28 and 30, 1977, recording V3 at the Record Plant, which some collectors and hardcore fans consider the definitive version. Over 7 minutes long, and sporting an arrangement for the full E Street Band, it was first released unofficially on 'Deep Down In the Vaults' in the mid-1990s. This version was barely in the can when a Rolling Stone reporter suggested that the song was about his now-settled lawsuit with Mike Appel, which Bruce sternly denied, and has denied ever since (he wrote the music and the first set of lyrics before the lawsuit was filed in 1976). Nevertheless, Springsteen soon re-wrote the first two lines of verse 3, with "Well, my daddy taught me how to walk quiet and how to make my peace with the past, I learned real good to tighten up inside and I don’t say nothing unless I’m asked" replacing "I won big once and I hit the coast, oh but somehow I paid the big cost." Landau agreed with solidifying the narrative, and when recording concluded in January, and a ten-song track sequence for Album #4 was prepared, "The Promise" was the last song on side two.

On January 12, 1978, V4, with revised lyrics, was recorded with the band, and also filmed live in-the-studio by Barry Rebo, later released with the The Promise:The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story. It is confirmed that strings were recorded and dubbed to the January 12 master (Landau confirmed this, and a mix tape exists with three versions; V3 "old verse", V4 "new verse", and V5 "strings and full harmony" (see illustration). But on January 24, 1978, without the E Street Band, Springsteen sat down at the piano and recorded V6 by himself, just as he did for 22 shows while locked out of the recording studio. A total of ten sessions were held from January 17 to March 7 (a seven-week period). Meanwhile, he finished "Candy's Room", "The Factory Song" and "Darkness On the Edge of Town" in early March, and decided to not include "The Promise". He has said he could not get a recording he was happy with, and that he "felt too close to it." In 2010, Springsteen noted that "It was a song about defeat, and it was self-referential, which made me uncomfortable. I didn't want it to overtake the album, which in the end, was not my personal story. I wanted Darkness to be completely independent of that, so I left it off. But I remember saying to myself, this is something I can sing later; the distance helps it now."

During a Darkness Tour rehearsal in Asbury Park on May 19, 1978, a full band version (including the "Daddy taught me how to walk quiet" lyric) was rehearsed, and full band version was performed on the tour's opening night in Buffalo. The next night, Bruce reverted to the solo piano version, which was played regularly during the early part of the tour. When Tracks was released in 1998, both "The Fever" and "The Promise" were absent from the 66-song tracklist. Both were later included on 18 Tracks, in part due to fan demand. Instead of releasing the existing V3 or V5 versions, Springsteen re-recorded "The Promise" from scratch (V9) on February 9 and 12, 1999 at Boxwood Studios, Colts Neck, New Jersey, in a solo piano version that many felt paled in comparison to the 1976–78 versions. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Springsteen stated, "Basically, I went back and I listened to it and we never really got a good recording of it in my opinion. It's been a favorite song of a lot of people … It sort of was the sequel to "Thunder Road" in some fashion, it referred back to those characters. But I went back and we sort of had a very plodding, heavy-handed version of it. I couldn't quite live with it, so maybe another time."

V1 and V3 were used as the base tracks for V10, the version on The Promise outtake album, with overdubbed strings, guitars, glockenspiel, and double tracked vocals. Two lines of verse three were removed ("I followed that dream through the southwestern tracks, the dead ends and the two-bit bars / When the promise was broken I was far away from home, sleeping in the backseat of a borrowed car") and a modern string arrangement by Ken Ascher was recorded in July 2010.

^{Studio Sessions: Darkness On The Edge Of Town}

The Promise ^(Tracks)

Johnny works in a factory, Billy works downtown
Terry works in a rock and roll band lookin' for that million-dollar sound
I got a job down in Darlington but some nights I don't go
Some nights I go to the drive-in and some nights I stay home
I followed that dream just like those guys do up on the screen
I drove my Challenger down Route 9 through the dead ends and all the bad scenes
And the promise was broken, I cashed in a few of my own dreams

Well now I built that Challenger by myself, but I needed money and so I sold it
I lived a secret I should'a kept to myself, but I got drunk one night and I told it
All my life I fought that fight, a fight that you can never win
Every day it just gets harder to live a dream you're believing in
Thunder Road, oh baby you were so right
Thunder Road, there's something dyin' down on the highway tonight

Well I won big once and I hit the coast, hey but I paid the big cost
Inside I felt like I was carryin' broken spirits of all the other ones who lost
When the promise is broken you go on living, but it steals something from down in your soul
Like when the truth is spoken and it don't make no difference, something in your heart runs cold
I followed that dream through the southwestern tracks, that dead ends in two-bit bars
When the promise was broken I was far away from home sleepin' in the backseat of a borrowed car
Thunder Road, here's for the lost lovers and all the fixed games
Thunder Road, here's for the tires rushing by in the rain
Thunder Road, remember Billy what we'd always say
Thunder Road, we were gonna take it all then throw it all away

^{Visit SpringsteenLyrics.com for other versions of this song.}

The Promise ^{(The Promise)}

Johnny works in a factory and Billy works downtown
Terry works in a rock and roll band looking for that million-dollar sound
And I got a little job down in Darlington but some nights I don't go
Some nights I go to the drive-in or some nights I stay home
I followed that dream just like those guys do way up on the screen
And I drove a Challenger down Route 9 through the dead ends and all the bad scenes
And when the promise was broken, I cashed in a few of my own dreams

Well now I built that Challenger by myself, but I needed money and so I sold it
I lived a secret I should've kept to myself, but I got drunk one night and I told it
All my life I fought this fight, the fight that no man can ever win
Every day it just gets harder to live this dream I'm believing in
Thunder Road, oh baby you were so right
Thunder Road, there's something dying down on the highway tonight

I won big once and I hit the coast, oh but somehow I paid the big cost
Inside I felt like I was carrying the broken spirits of all the other ones who lost
When the promise is broken you go on living, but it steals something from down in your soul
Like when the truth is spoken and it don't make no difference, something in your heart turns cold
Thunder Road, for the lost lovers and all the fixed games
Thunder Road, for the tires rushing by in the rain
Thunder Road, remember what me and Billy we'd always say
Thunder Road, we were gonna take it all then threw it all away

^{Visit SpringsteenLyrics.com for other versions of this song.}