Springsteen's "Working on a Dream" Confirmed: New Album Due January 27th

The rumors were true: Columbia Records has confirmed that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Working on a Dream will be released on January 27, 2009. The 12-track LP — Bruce's 24th — was produced and mixed by Brendan O'Brien, who last helmed the band's 2007 Magic.

"Towards the end of recording Magic, excited by the return to pop production sounds, I continued writing," Springsteen says in a statement. "When my friend producer Brendan O'Brien heard the new songs, he said, 'Let's keep going.' Over the course of the next year, that's just what we did, recording with the E Street Band during the breaks on last year's tour. I hope Working on a Dream has caught the energy of the band fresh off the road from some of the most exciting shows we've ever done. All the songs were written quickly, we usually used one of our first few takes, and we all had a blast making this one from beginning to end."

The album features two bonus tracks: "The Wrestler" and "A Night with the Jersey Devil." As promised, the NFL premiered a bit of the title track during last night's Cowboys-Redskins half-time (see above). Keep reading for the full track list:

1. "Outlaw Pete"
2. "My Lucky Day"
3. "Working on a Dream"
4. "Queen of the Supermarket"
5. "What Love Can Do"
6. "This Life"
7. "Good Eye"
8. "Tomorrow Never Knows"
9. "Life Itself"
10. "Kingdom of Days"
11. "Surprise, Surprise"
12. "The Last Carnival"

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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