Bruce Springsteen is opening up the vault. The rock icon has announced, Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition, a deluxe five-disc box set celebrating his stark 1982 masterpiece Nebraska. The expanded edition – due out October 17 – will feature something fans have dreamed of for decades: the fabled full-band “Electric Nebraska” recordings that until now have never been released. Springsteen famously recorded Nebraska as solo home demos and shelved the rock band versions. Now listeners will finally hear those lost studio takes, including an early electric rendition of “Born in the U.S.A.” recorded in 1982, alongside dozens of other unreleased outtakes and a fresh remaster of the original album.
In addition, the box set comes with a unique treat for die-hards: a newly filmed performance of Nebraska in its entirety. Springsteen recently reunited with members of the E Street Band to play the album live on stage for the first time, over 40 years later, capturing the haunting songs in a stripped-down concert film. “I think in playing these songs again, their weight impressed upon me,” Springsteen said of revisiting the material, noting that “there’s just something about that batch of songs on Nebraska that holds some sort of magic.”
The timing of the release is no coincidence – it arrives one week before Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, a feature film hitting theaters on October 24. Directed by Scott Cooper and inspired by Warren Zanes’ book, the biopic chronicles Springsteen’s life around the making of Nebraska. Actor Jeremy Allen White stars as a young Springsteen grappling with sudden fame and creative risks. With the box set and film together, fans will get both an intimate listen and a big-screen look at how a quiet set of demos became one of The Boss’ most legendary albums.
