Overview
Although Springsteen had completed the Human Touch album sessions by early 1991 and had more than enough material to release an album at that time, he chose to hold off releasing the hoped-for spring 1991 album and opt instead to write more songs during the spring and summer of 1991. The Lucky Town sessions spanned a period of about 5 months, from late summer 1991 to very early 1992. It would appear that recording began in September at Bruce’s Los Angeles home studio and were then augmented at A&M Studios later in 1991. Chuck Plotkin has implied that about 15 songs were complete during this session period, which means there are likely only a handful of undocumented songs from these sessions still in the vaults. These mid-late 1991 sessions were not originally intended to produce a stand-alone album. However these recordings, when combined with the large body of material Springsteen had in the vaults from 1990, resulted in the unusual (some say misguided) decision to issue two different albums simultaneously.