03 May 1972 demo version
[Male voice (spoken):] "Southern Sun", take 1.
Born on the Hudson twenty-two years gone
Bred and raised in the city
From my Papa's knee I learned the Union songs
But Grandma sang lullabies of Dixie
And though the northern winters fill my heart with joy
It's a southern sun that shines down on this Yan-, Yankee boy
Well, Mama speak of Paris nights and boatin' on the Seine
She said, "yeah we're gonna see it all too soon as Papa comes home again"
She'd speak to me in broken French, dressed like a painting of Lautrec
In the night she'd clutch me to her breast and say, "you'll make it outta here yet"
And though the Parisian women, they strut so fine down the Eiffel mall
It's a southern one I sing my songs for
Well, with a local bunch of do-good boys and an old man from the West
We crossed the land in a caravan, we traveled with the best
There were circus acts and vaudeville hacks and even a Mississippi Delta Queen
And she told me the news and sold me the blues in an alley in New Orleans
And though the western plains are stained with the blood of great cowboys
It's a southern sun that shines down on this Yan-, Yankee boy
The above lyrics are for the demo of SOUTHERN SUN that was recorded during Springsteen's first studio audition session for CBS Records. The recording took place on 03 May 1972 at CBS Studios in New York City, NY. It features Springsteen solo on vocals and acoustic guitar. See the studio version for more details about the song and the events surrounding this audition.
Bruce Springsteen's first "formal" studio audition for CBS took place on 03 May 1972 at CBS Studios in New York City. Produced by John Hammond and engineered by Phil Giambalvo, the session consisted of 12 songs (two of them played twice, making a total of 14 tracks); session log information survives and it has been verified that the below-listed recordings encompass the complete session. This so-called "John Hammond Demo Session" was assigned the job number 79682; Hammond's voice is heard on the recording of the audition reading off the session number, "Bruce Springsteen, Columbia Pop audition, job number 79682, Mary Queen Of Arkansas, take 1".
The master Scotch magnetic tape reels from the audition were on display as part of the From Asbury Park To The Promised Land exhibition at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Museum in Cleveland, OH, along with boxes labeled with running orders:
| On the first reel: | |
| Mary Queen of Arkansas | (see MARY QUEEN OF ARKANSAS [take #1] and MARY QUEEN OF ARKANSAS [take #2]) |
| Saint in the City | (see IT'S HARD TO BE A SAINT IN THE CITY) |
| Jazz Musician | (see JAZZ MUSICIAN [take #1] and JAZZ MUSICIAN [take #2]) |
| If I Was a Priest | (see IF I WAS THE PRIEST) |
| Arabian Nights | (see ARABIAN NIGHTS) |
| On the second reel: | |
| Growin' Up | (see GROWIN' UP) |
| Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street? | (see DOES THIS BUS STOP AT 82ND STREET?) |
| Two Hearts in True Waltz Time | (see TWO HEARTS IN TRUE WALTZ TIME) |
| Street Queen | (see STREET QUEEN) |
| Angels | (see THE ANGEL) |
| Southern Sun | (see SOUTHERN SUN) |
| Cowboys of the Seas | (see COWBOYS OF THE SEA) |
Four tracks from the "John Hammond Demo Session" that were previously officially released in other versions were included on the Tracks box set in 1998. These are: MARY QUEEN OF ARKANSAS [take #2], IT'S HARD TO BE A SAINT IN THE CITY, GROWIN' UP, and DOES THIS BUS STOP AT 82ND STREET?.
In his 2012 book E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Clinton Heylin wrote that over the years Hammond would come to insist that their demo was "better than any tape Bruce has made since, because Bruce is [now] so uptight about perhaps overshadowing somebody else in the band." In 1981, he would send Springsteen a copy of the tape as a reminder of what might have been. Springsteen's response was Nebraska.
This 03 May 1972 demo version of SOUTHERN SUN has been circulating on several bootleg releases, including The Early Years Volume Two (Bagel Boys Records) and The Unsurpassed Springsteen Volume 3 (Yellow Dog Records).
List of available versions of SOUTHERN SUN on this website:
SOUTHERN SUN [Studio version]