CRISTINA ARRIGONI
Jesse Malin and Bruce Springsteen perform together at the Light of Day concert at The Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park in January 2020.
Bruce Springsteen’s cover of Jesse Malin’s “She Don’t Love Me Now” — from the upcoming multi-artist benefit album Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin — has been released as a single, and can be heard below. (NOV. 15 UPDATE: Malin has released a new video for the song, as well, and I have added it below.)
Other contributors to the album, which will be released on Sept. 20, include Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello, Counting Crows, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Tom Morello, Willie Nile, Ian Hunter, Susanna Hoffs, Low Cut Connie, Graham Parker and Gogol Bordello. Proceeds will go to Malin’s Sweet Relief fund, supporting him as he continues to recover from the spinal stroke he suffered last year.
For information, visit jessemalin.com.
Springsteen recorded the song with Malin’s band, plus Jake Clemons on saxophone.
Malin originally released “She Don’t Love Me Now” on his 2015 album, New York Before the War. In a press release, he said that “Bruce gave it that Stax-soul-thing that we were dreaming of when we recorded the original. It’s so surreal to me.”
CRISTINA ARRIGONI
Jesse Malin and Bruce Springsteen in 2020.
He also said, “Bruce’s generosity, honesty and support are equally as powerful as his songwriting and performing” and that “Bruce is one of the guys. He walks it like he talks it. You spend some time with him, and it feels like you’ve known him for years. He’s like my friends in Queens, sitting around talking about Sinatra, the Clash, and the Pogues. He has that passion and excitement for life.”
Malin said that hearing the songs from Silver Patron Saints, and “especially” this one, “took me out of a dark time. I felt excited about life again, in a way that only music can do.”
Malin also said, on a taped message that was played on WFUV before the station premiered the song, last night, that Springsteen’s contribution to the album “blows my mind. It’s so flattering. He did such a soulful take. And, being one of my favorite singers and writers, and a hero, just to hear him do my song is just unreal. It’s a real huge emotional boost.”
Two benefit concerts for Malin will take place at The Beacon Theatre in New York, Dec. 1-2, with Lucinda Williams, Jakob Dylan, The Hold Steady, Rickie Lee Jones, Adam Duritz, Willie Nile, Adam Weiner and others. Malin and his band will play a full set.
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