Jennifer O'Connor Covers Bruce Springsteen's 'Dancing In the Dark'

Jennifer O'Connor has shared her cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In the Dark" which was recorded during the sessions for her last album, Surface Noise.

The cover track was recorded at Nuthouse Recording in Hoboken NJ by Tom Beaujour and Jennifer had the following to say about the song, "I have always approached my life and seen the world through the lens of music - and more specifically through songs. It began for me as a little kid listening to the radio on my walkman and saving up my allowance to buy a single each week at the department store when I'd go shopping with my mom. I'd bring it home and I'd play it over and over alone in my room and think about the lyrics or absorb the bassline and dance to the drums - or whatever it was about the particular song that got me. I would dream about the world - the one that existed in the picture that the artist created in the song and the one that my mind created from the information that the artist gave me. And always - it would calm me or make me feel protected or make me feel good or it would be a friend to me in my sadness if that was what I needed at that moment.

"This song, one of the biggest songs of the 1980s, is a perfect pop song and it's always been one of my favorites - I have the 45 hanging over my desk. I know that Bruce wrote it at the very end of the recording process for Born In the USA because the label wanted a hit - but I've always felt it to be a pretty heavy song despite it's pop bounce. Full of desire and expectation but also resigned and desperate feeling. At it's heart though, I hear it as a call to arms. It is defiant and brave. It says, 'I feel all of these things and yet I'm going to keep going anyway, keep trying.' Which is kind of how I have felt most of my life - things work, then they break, then I try to fix them and whether or not I can, I keep going anyway. And I think that feels like a good message for right now. What else is there to do really?

"For me, music was and is multi-purpose - it offers so much. I've surrounded myself with it for as long as I can remember and it's culminated with me being a musician, running a record label and now a record store too. This is not a coincidence. These are the things that make me feel productive, good, purposeful, and yes, even safe. My wish is that you can do the same - whether it is with music or books or cooking or writing or sports or whatever helps you to understand this world, be productive, and feel more safe in this moment that we are in." Listen here.

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