Fade Away (song)

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“Fade Away”
“Fade Away” cover
Single by Bruce Springsteen
from the album The River
B-side "Be True"
Released February 1981
Format 7" single
Recorded March to June 1980 at The Power Station in New York
Genre Rock
Length 4:46
Label Columbia Records
Writer(s) Bruce Springsteen
Producer Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt
Bruce Springsteen singles chronology
"Hungry Heart"
(1980)		 "Fade Away"
(1981)
(U.S.)		 "Dancing in the Dark"
(1984)

"Fade Away" is a 1980 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen, accompanied by the E Street Band. It was contained on his album The River, and the second single released from it in the United States.

[edit] History

The song was recorded at The Power Station in New York in March to June 1980, one of the last songs to be recorded for the album.[1] Musically and lyrically it is a slow, pained lament:

Well now, you say you've found another man, who does things to you that I can't
And that no matter what I do, it's all over now between me and you girl
But I can't believe what you say!
No, I can't believe what you say ...

Rock author Jimmy Guterman wrote that "Fade Away" is "certainly among his most pessimistic and helpless depictions of life and love gone wrong."[2]

This was the second single taken from The River, released in February 1981 in the U.S.[3] and in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. (In the UK and Europe, "The River" was released instead.) In the U.S., "Fade Away" was not as successful as the previous single from the album, "Hungry Heart", only reaching #20 on the U.S. pop singles chart. It was only performed sporadically on The River Tour,[4] and its selection as the second single was blamed for slowing down sales of the album.[5] It was then dropped from Springsteen's concert repertoire completely, only rematerializing for a handful of solo renditions on the 2005 Devils & Dust Tour.[4] E Streeter Steve Van Zandt has proclaimed "Fade Away" as one of his favorite Springsteen songs, but thinks that it isn't played in band shows because it is too slow.[6] Regardless, he says, "It's just one of those funny, lost little gems, you know?"[6]

Meanwhile, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (old Van Zandt cohorts) had added "Fade Away" to his concerts from the 1980s on, and it would be included on his 1997 Spittin' Fire live album.[7] Southside's renditions have often been of a slow, bluesy nature, accompanied only by bandmate Bobby Bandiera.

[edit] Track listing

  1. Fade Away — 4:34
  2. Be True — 3:39

"Be True" is a track from The River sessions that continued the new Springsteen tradition of using songs that did not appear on his albums as B-sides. It was recorded on July 21, 1979 at The Power Station, in one the first sessions for the album. A featured selection on the 1988 Tunnel of Love Express, a live version from that tour was included on the Chimes of Freedom EP. The studio recording of "Be True" was eventually released on the Tracks box set in 1998.

[edit] References

  1. ^ BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - ON THE TRACKS V4
  2. ^ Guterman, Jimmy (2005). Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce Springsteen. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306813971.  p. 116.
  3. ^ Born in the U.S.A. Tour (tour booklet, 1984), p. 12.
  4. ^ a b Killing Floor database: query and searches online
  5. ^ Hilburn, Robert (1985). Springsteen. Rolling Stone Press. ISBN 0-684-18456-7.  p. 153.
  6. ^ a b "Q&A: Steve Van Zandt", Rolling Stone, 2008-03-17. Retrieved on 2008-03-21. 
  7. ^ Southside Johnny.com: Discography