10 Amazing Songs Bruce Springsteen Cut From ‘Born in the U.S.A.’

Springsteen originally wrote "Frankie" for the album that he imagined would follow Born to Run, but as Darkness on the Edge of Town became increasingly gritty, he decided against including it. Still, he continued to rework the song while writing and recording The River and Born in the U.S.A., and though there are a few different versions floating around, the 1982 recording remains definitive. 

Set in what The Essential Bruce Springsteen liner notes describe as “the bars and Seventies circuit in Asbury Park,” “None But the Brave” finds Bruce nostalgically looking back on days spent with a lost love. This makes it something of a companion piece to “Point Blank” from The River, and in the July 1983 Born in the U.S.A. sequence, it was slotted as the third song on Side One. Ultimately, it wouldn’t see an official release until 2003, and it’s been played live a scant six times.

Because murder and violence had become a regular part of everyday life, “Murder Inc.” was originally going to be the title track of the album that became Born in the U.S.A. Instead, it was released as the first single on Greatest Hits, the shoot for its music video becoming the first time the E Street Band performed together since they were dissolved in 1988. The song would become a regular highlight on their 1999/2000 reunion tour, but one still wonders: If Ronald Reagan had wanted to use it as the theme for his 1984 presidential campaign, would Springsteen have said yes?

During the Born in the U.S.A. tour, Springsteen would typically introduce “Pink Cadillac” with a skit in which he used the voice of a televangelist or used car salesman to call the tune “a song about the conflict between worldly things and spiritual health, between desires of the flesh and spiritual ecstasy.” He wasn’t entirely kidding: The second verse here is one of the most sexually charged in the entire E Street catalog, containing the immortal lines, “They say Eve tempted Adam with an apple/
But man I ain’t going for that/
I know it was her pink Cadillac.” A B-side for “Dancing in the Dark.” the track eventually became a Top 10 hit when Natalie Cole covered it in 1988, but these days Springsteen rarely plays it live.

This song's mix of Dust Bowl folk and Jersey Shore barroom rock splits the difference between the dark, acoustic instrumentation of Nebraska and the revved up Americana of Born in the U.S.A. Telling the story of a brother and sister "blowin' around from town to town/lookin' for a place to stand," "This Hard Land became a favorite of drummer Max Weinberg and was played live regularly on the Ghost of Tom Joad solo acoustic tour.  

Grabbing lyrics from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Daniel, "Lion's Den" was one of the earliest – and lightest – recordings cut for Born in the U.S.A. Eventually, Springsteen came to regret not giving it a proper release, saying in 1998, "I should have put that out! Why didn't I put that out? It sounds like a hit now. The band is playing great and the horns come in and it has a great chorus."

While the title and opening two lines of "Johnny Bye-Bye" allude to Chuck Berry's 1960 song "Bye Bye Johnny," the stripped-down tune ultimately pays homage to Elvis Presley and discusses how Springsteen was affected by his death. Particularly, Bruce has said that the song is a reaction to the "type of fame Elvis had . . .the pressure of it, the isolation that it seems to require" and that it was recorded in the wake of Nebraska as part of a "series of songs with a small, little rhythm section."

Originally known as "Gone Gone Gone," this unreleased song became one of the political centerpieces of the Born in the U.S.A. tour: On the Live 1975-85 compilation, it appears in the middle of a run that includes "Born in the U.S.A.," "The River," and a cover of Edwin Starr's "War." In the liner notes, Springsteen wrote that this was one of the recordings that led producer Jon Landau to think, "We might have something here." Appropriately, the tune returned to Springsteen's live set in 2009, not long after America's economy tanked again. 

Despite being cut from Born in the U.S.A., this song has become a huge fan favorite ever since Springsteen resurrected it for the turn-of-the-century E Street reunion tour. Over a propulsive Weinberg drumbeat, the singer's promise that his "love will not let you down" seems to extend not only to the girl he's been searching for but also to fans that fill up stadiums to see him play. Originally, Landau wanted this song to open Side Two, but "No Surrender" eventually took the slot. 

Drawing inspiration from the book Born on the Fourth of July, “Shut Out the Light” tells the story of Johnson Lineir and the psychological torment that he and other veterans faced when returning from Vietnam. After arriving to a bittersweet welcome party, Lineir leaves his friends and family, goes out to the middle of a dark, wet forest and “stares across the lights of the city and dreams of where he’s been.” Something this powerful would be a career highlight for most songwriters, but for Springsteen it was a mere B-side.