Credit: Press

Watch Bruce Springsteen perform ‘If I Was The Priest’ live for the first time in over 50 years

Thu 16 February 2023 12:54, UK

Bruce Springsteen treated fans to a rare performance of ‘If I Was Preist’ earlier this week. It’s the first time The Boss has played the 1972 rarity in 51 years. Introducing ‘If I Was A Preist’ at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, Bruce said: “I wrote this song. I was 22, 15 years ago. And I still don’t have a clue what the fuck it’s about.”

‘If I Was A Preist’ was around long before the E Street Band came along. Springsteen first performed the track in February 1972 at an audition for managers Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos. He played it once again in May 1972 during an audition for CBS Records.

The track wasn’t featured on Springsteen’s debut album Greeting From Asbury Park, and its last known live outing was at a concert organised by CBS executives at New York’s Gaslight Au Go Go on May 2nd, 1972. It’s possible Bruce performed the song a few more times before cutting it from his live set. Even if that was the case, the gap between live renditions of ‘If I Was A Preist’ is still the longest in Springsteen history.

A bootleg demo of ‘If I Was A Preist’ has been circulating for decades. It was officially re-recorded with the E Street Band for Springsteen’s 2020 album Letter To You. Discussing the inclusion of archival songs such as ‘If I Was A Preist’, ‘Song For Orphans’, and ‘Janey Needs a Shooter’, Springsteen told the New York Times: “It’s fun to go back and see how wild my lyric writing was, and how uninhibited it was at a certain moment, and to be able to take that and bring it into the present with the band, and sing it in my voice right now, was a bit of a joy ride”.

He continued: “The thing about those songs, every line is insane! And somehow they end up making sense about something. I’m not sure how I did it at the time.”

You can watch Springsteen’s performance of ‘If I Was Preist’ below.