Bruce covered the song only once : 

 

1968-09-28 Off Broad Street Coffee House, Red Bank, NJ (Early)  

 

Two shows, double bill, with Bruce Springsteen headlining and performing solo/acoustic and a folk group called The Founders opening. 

Some of the titles from the setlist are covers - "If I Needed Someone" is a Beatles tune, "Hey Joe" was covered by several artists in the mid-late 60s (most famously by Jimi Hendrix) and "Wayfaring Stranger" is a traditional song. "Fly Against The Wind" and "It's Too Late" are titles Brucebase has been unable to match to any artists of the period. The remaining three, "The Earth Is Broken", "Carnival Song" and "Troubadour", are known 1967-68 songs titles by singer/songwriter Tim Buckley, a favorite of Springsteen's at the time. The mentioned 9 song setlist emanates from an alleged 83 minute audience recording of Springsteen performing solo and live, sometime in 1968. The audio is not specifically linked to this show, details have been placed here merely as a logical reference point. A private collector claims to have this audio in their collection (obtained many, many years ago). The sound quality is alleged to be quite good. Brucebase was informed of the audio several years ago and was provided with basic details of titles/running time by the actual collector who claims to have it. However Brucebase has been unable to listen to even snippets of the audio and, as such, we cannot verify that the claim is genuine. Intriguingly however, one of the song titles provided, "Inside The Castle Walls" has subsequently turned out to be a verified Springsteen composition from this era.The existence of this composition only became known in 2005, which lends some credence (but not compelling proof) to the claim the audio is real.

 

FLY AGAINST THE WIND / HEY JOE / IT'S TOO LATE / THE EARTH IS BROKEN / CARNIVAL SONG / TROUBADOUR / WAYFARING STRANGER / INSIDE THE CASTLE WALLS / IF I NEEDED SOMEONE 

 

The earth is broken is a song written by Tim Buckley and taken from the live album Dream Letter: Live in London 1968.

The album was recorded in Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, England on October 7, 1968 (mistakenly credited as being recorded on July 10 due to a confusion between American and British formatting of dates). Due to a lack of available funds Buckley was unable to tour with regular bass player John Miller and conga player Carter "C.C." Collins. The concert instead features bassist Danny Thompson (from British folk group Pentangle), guitarist Lee Underwood and vibraphone player David Friedman. The concert features songs from Buckley's second album, Goodbye and Hello and the soon to be released Happy Sad. Also featured are the songs "Happy Time", which appeared on the 1969 album, Blue Afternoon, and a cover of Fred Neil's "Dolphins", which would appear on Sefronia in 1973. The "Carnival Song" which appears here is not the song of the same name from Goodbye and Hello, but an entirely different composition. Five other tracks from this set had, at the time of Dream Letter's release in 1990, never been heard on record before. 

 

 

 

Tim Buckley was the one who inspired Springsteen to buy a 12-string guitar. 

Sprngsteen was very much inspired at the time by Tim Buckley, emulating his song-writing style and vocal approach, as well as playing a 12- string guitar ( because was the instrument played by Buckley )  

 

Taken from the book : Bruce Springsteen, All the songs, the story behind every track ( Philippe Margotin & Jean- Michel Guesdon ) :