That Bruce Springsteen subjects his songs to extreme makeovers in concert isn’t news. But that doesn’t lessen the whiplash of hearing him bend into “Blinded by the Light” on his new album, Live in Dublin. He recorded this disc with the Sessions Band, the same jamboree of fiddlers, banjo players, sousaphonists, pennywhistlers, steel guitarists and horn players who backed him on last year’s earthy, rollicking Seeger Sessions disc.
Given that instrumentation, the tune obviously couldn’t sound at all like Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s android version—the one most people are familiar with—and probably not much like Springsteen’s loose-limbed, Dylanesque original, from 1973.
But even a seasoned Springsteen listener might be surprised by the stomping gypsy-campfire version the Boss and his non-E Street band uncork here. It’s compact and lively, and if the stream-of-consciousness lyrics still seem better suited to the swirling 1973 music, this version might be the best of the three. - Scott Dickensheets