The 1977 song Bruce Springsteen tried to bury alive: “I never liked it”

Bruce Springsteen repeatedly tried to keep “The Way” from reaching listeners, despite eventually including it as a hidden track on his 2010 album *The Promise*. His dislike of the song, and his efforts to leave it off earlier releases, make it an unusual case of an artist actively distancing himself from his own work.

The song began as an outtake from sessions for *Darkness on the Edge of Town* in 1977–78, but Springsteen replaced it with “Factory” and later omitted it from *Tracks* and *The Essential Bruce Springsteen*. On *The Promise*, it appears after “City at Night”, and there is no official standalone release described in the article. Its lyrics shift from affection to possessiveness; Springsteen said he imagined it in a David Lynch film during a sexually perverse scene, and has never performed it live.