We’ve known it since Patti Smith chanted Because The Night : the night belongs to lovers as much as to lovers. Singing Bruce Springsteen, we understand, is an inexhaustible reservoir of proofs of existence and intense experiences. It can be appropriated ad infinitum. Here are 19 examples. Margaux Timmins and the Cowboys Junkies slow down Thunder Road until it is understood that it is a song of confinement. Bettye Lavette lets hear Streets Of Philadelphia around the disease, rather than inside: the voice that rises is full of compassion. The version of Factory by Lucinda Williams is reminiscent of The life of factrie by Clemence DesRochers. My Father’s House, by Emmylou Harris, strongly emphasizes that the difficult relationship with the father spares no one. And Darlene Love, clutching Night Closing In, recalls that for Springsteen, it all started by listening to the “girl groups” of the 1960s. Everything comes from them, and everything comes back to them. And the Boss is in their employ.
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