Dobie Gray - Soul Days

First performance: no live dates


Coverinfo

Bruce Springsteen released the song on his 2022 album Only The Strong Survive.
 
 
The album was anounced with the single Do I love you ( indeed I do ). Do I love you ( indeed I do ) is the leading single from Only The Strong Survive album. It was released on digital platforms on 29 Sep 2022, the same time the album was officially announced. A music video for the song was simultaneously released on Bruce Springsteen's YouTube channel. The video was directed and edited by Thom Zimny. Only The Strong Survive is Bruce Springsteen's twenty-first studio album. It is officially released on 11 Nov 2022 on Columbia Records. It consists of 15 tracks, all of which are covers. This marks the second time that Springsteen releases a cover album following We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions in 2006. The album is "a collection of fifteen soul music greats," as described in the press release. It "celebrates soul music gems from the legendary catalogues of Motown, Gamble and Huff, Stax and many more." Springsteen commented: "I wanted to make an album where I just sang. And what better music to work with than the great American songbook of the Sixties and Seventies? I've taken my inspiration from Levi Stubbs, David Ruffin, Jimmy Ruffin, the Iceman Jerry Butler, Diana Ross, Dobie Gray, and Scott Walker, among many others. I've tried to do justice to them all and to the fabulous writers of this glorious music. My goal is for the modern audience to experience its beauty and joy, just as I have since I first heard it. I hope you love listening to it as much as I loved making it."
The announcement was made by Springsteen himself who addressed fans in a pre-recorded video posted online.
In anticipation to the announcement, Springsteen dropped hints on his social media accounts over the course of the previous three days. On 26 and 27 September, he shared each morning a photo of a road and of a steering wheel respectively, without any caption or comment. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On 28 September, he posted a 26-second promo clip of a vintage car FM radio dial turning to different stations and listening in for a few seconds, each station playing a different song from the upcoming album.
 
 
  
 
 
 
Only The Strong Survive track list:

Only the strong survive (Jerry Butler cover)
Soul days  (Dobie Gray cover)
Nightshift (Commodores cover)
Do I love you (Indeed I do ) (Frank Wilson cover)
The sun ain't gonna shine anymore (Frankie Valli cover)
Turn back the hands of time (Tyrone Davis cover)
When she was my girl (Four Tops cover)
Hey, Western Union Man (Jerry Butler cover)
I wish it would rain (The Temptations cover)
Don't play that song ( you lied ) (Ben E. King cover)
Any other way (Jackie Shane cover)
I forgot to be your lover (William Bell cover)
7 rooms of gloom (Four Tops cover)
What becomes of the brokenhearted (Jimmy Ruffin cover)
Someday we'll be together (Diana Ross & The Supremes cover) 
 
Media:
 

Songinfo

Soul Days is a song written by Jonnie Barnett and released by Doby Gray on his 2001 album Soul Days. 
 
 
  

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

"Soul Days"]was a song I stumbled onto. You go on iTunes and you see you see "Drift Away" at No. 1. No. 2, "Soul Days." What's "Soul Days?" I've never heard of that. All right. Boom. I put it on. Oh, it's a great narrative. It's about somebody's love for soul music... It almost sounds like it could have been one of my tunes."

-- Bruce Springsteen to Raina Douris, NPR, December 9, 2022

Lyrics

I woke up feeling the sunshine
Drift across my face
It took me back to emotions
Another time and place
Those yesterdays
Cruising in my Chevrolet
I held my baby in my arms
But my first love was always the songs
Talking about
Soul days
Talking about those sweet soul days
I crawled out of bed real slowly
Threw on some old blue jeans
Found my favourite T-shirt
Started rolling up my sleeves
Like James Dean
Thinking I was still nineteen
Walked outside and looked around
My heart was pumping the moment I found
There's gonna be soul days
I laid back ruing sweet summer soul days
Think I'll take my baby for a ride down the back road
Out in the country where the four winds blow
Over by the river there's a barbecue shop
Oh, the summer jukebox
You know I like it like that
Oh yeah
Soul days
Dancing with my baby
Rocking to the soul days
And when the sun goes down
We're on the road again
White line running down the highway
Slowly reeling us in
And the radio's on
Love it when she is in my arms
All the music playing through the night
Is taking us back to when things were right
Taking about soul days
Soul days
Soul days
Dancing with my baby (soul days)
Rock to the music (soul days)
(Soul days) Playing on the radio
Sweet soul music
Talking about you
Talking about you