| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
American Beauty is an EP by Bruce Springsteen, released on April 19, 2014 as a Record Store Day exclusive (7,500 copies). It was also released as a digital download on April 22, 2014. The four songs on the EP are outtakes that did not make it onto High Hopes.
"American Beauty is a collection of songs I cut at home. Upon revisiting them for High Hopes I recognized their potential and Ron Aniello and I worked on them until we’d turned them into the music before you. In the song “American Beauty,” I get to sing in a part of my range I don’t often visit and that along with its ‘guitar wall of sound’ gives it a little ‘exile on E Street’ power. “Mary Mary” is a lovely mystery, a small piece of heartbreak poetry that sneaks up on you with its slippery grove, punctuated string section and spectral lyrics. It came closest to making the High Hopes cut. “Hurry Up Sundown” is a fun piece of modern power pop, while “Hey Blue Eyes” rounds out the EP with one of my darkest political songs. Written during the Bush years, it’s a metaphor for the house of horrors our government’s actions created in the years following the invasion of Iraq. At its center is the repressed sexuality and abuse of power that characterized Abu Ghraib prison. I feel this is a shadow we as a country have yet to emerge from.
Enjoy the music."
-Bruce Springsteen
A music video for "American Beauty" was released on April 22, 2014 that was recorded prior to his show on April 19, 2014 in Charlotte, NC.
Track Listing[]
- American Beauty
- Mary Mary
- Hurry Up Sundown
- Hey Blue Eyes
Personnel[]
- Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, background vocals (tracks 1, 3), electric guitar (track 1-4), acoustic guitar (tracks 1, 3), slide guitar (track 1), keyboards (tracks 1, 3), tambourine (track 1), synth (track 2), bass guitar (tracks 2, 3), percussion (tracks 2, 3, 4), pump organ (track 2), glockenspiel (track 3), organ (track 3), percussion (tracks 2, 3, 4), piano (track 4)
- Roy Bittan – piano (track 4)
- Nils Lofgren – guitars, pedal steel guitar (track 4)
- Patti Scialfa – background vocals (tracks 2, 4)
- Garry Tallent – bass (track 4)
- Max Weinberg – drums (track 4)
- Charles Giordano – organ (track 1), farfisa organ (track 2)
- Soozie Tyrell – fiddle (track 4)
- Ron Aniello – bass (track 1), additional piano (track 1), synth (track 2),
- Josh Freese – drums (tracks 1, 3), timpani (track 1)
- Songa Lee – violin (track 2)
- Steve Richards – cello (track 2)
- Toby Scott – drum programming (track 2)
- Scott Tibbs – string arrangement and conductor (track 2)
- Patrick Warren – keyboards (track 4)
- ↑ "Bruce Springsteen - American Beauty." Amazon, 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2020.