No more Library of Congress road-trips needed! - TRACKS II's "Blind Spot" gets an advance release
- Shawn Poole
- Apr 17
- 3 min read
April 17, 2025
I first got to hear a version of "Blind Spot," which today joins alongside "Rain In The River" as another advance single from Tracks II, in late December of 2016. I traveled to the Library of Congress' U.S. Copyright Office in Washington, D.C. to do what any other interested Springsteen fan with the time and resources could do: check out some then-unreleased music. On that day, I got to listen to what will be included in Tracks II as "Blind Spot" (identified in the Copyright Office records as "Blindspot,") "Between Heaven and Earth" (identified in the records as "Between Heaven & Earth,") and "I'll Stand By You" (identified - at least sometimes - in the records as "I'll Stand By You Always.") You can click here to read my archived Backstreets.com report on my 2016 U.S. Copyright Office "road-trip."
Today's release of "Blind Spot" also gives us our first official taste of the Streets of Philadelphia Sessions album that will be included in Tracks II. As today's press release notes, the album is "a ten-song collection previously known to fans as his long-rumored 'loops record.' Written on the heels of its Oscar-winning namesake, Streets of Philadelphia Sessions found Springsteen exploring an interest in the rhythms of mid-1990s contemporary music, and particularly West Coast hip-hop. Initially poring over CDs of drum samples at his home in Los Angeles, Springsteen began making his own loops with engineer Toby Scott — which formed a rhythmic base he’d build on with keyboards and synthesizers. Both a revelation and departure in his home recording, Springsteen is the primary instrumentalist throughout most of Streets of Philadelphia Sessions — with some assists from his 1992-1993 touring band as well as Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell.
"At the thematic center of Streets of Philadelphia Sessions is 'Blind Spot,' a song which explores doubt and betrayal in relationships. 'That was just the theme that I locked in on at that moment,' Springsteen explains. 'I don’t really know why. Patti and I, we were having a great time in California. But sometimes if you lock into one song you like, then you follow that thread. I had ‘Blind Spot,’ and I followed that thread through the rest of the record.'” Here's the Streets of Philadelphia Sessions version of "Blind Spot," officially released as an advance single today:
The version of "Blind Spot" that I heard in Washington, D.C. back in 2016 was very similar to - if not exactly the same as - the Streets of Philadelphia Sessions version included in Tracks II. Certainly my initial reaction to the song in 2016 doesn't differ significantly with how I feel about hearing today's officially released version. As I wrote in my archived Backstreets.com report, "Like 'Between Heaven & Earth,' 'Blindspot' [sic] features a hip-hop-style drum track, synth wash and an electric guitar solo, though this track's solo is more prominent and extended. The rhythm track on 'Blindspot' also features the sound of a male shout repeatedly sampled in the same manner that James Brown's and Bobby Byrd's shouts were sampled in Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock's 1988 hip-hop classic 'It Takes Two.' The lyrics focus on the troubling aspects of interpersonal relationships as well, exploring the darker aspects of our own personalities that can make forging and maintaining our relationships so difficult. Just as everybody's got a hungry heart, so does everybody have a blindspot. Bruce also uses a lyrical image similar to one found in Jackson Browne's 'Your Bright Baby Blues' (from The Pretender, produced by Jon Landau, and as I neglected to note back in 2016, featuring Roy Bittan on piano) where the singer feels like he's flying at first, but then realizes he's actually on his knees." Definitely an interesting and insightful introduction to the Streets of Philadelphia Sessions.
Ultimately, however, what's so great about the upcoming release of Tracks II is that soon all interested Springsteen fans will be able to hear all three of the tracks that I got to hear at the U.S. Copyright Office in Washington, D.C. on that late-December day almost a decade ago, along with a lot of other previously unreleased and interesting music, without any of the expense and other issues involved in any road-trip. And God only knows, incidentally, what trying to arrange such a road-trip would be like right now, with the ongoing ridiculous and insane full-scale attacks on our country's federal agencies and services. So "Blind Spot" and the rest of Tracks II constitute some very good news indeed, at a time when we sure could use some.
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