Bruce Springsteen is putting out a new record, called Working On A Dream that hits January 27, 2009. The album includes 12 tracks and 2 bonus tracks, one of which is “The Wrestler,” the titular track he wrote for Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming film starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood.
Does that mean you’ll hear the official version next year? Maybe. There should be a ‘Wrestler’ soundtrack to coincide with the film’s release on December 19. We’ll see, he haven’t heard back about it yet (the film contained a minimalist score by Clint Mansell mostly built around ambient guitar and classic rock songs covered by bands we’d never heard of).
Mickey Rourke just told David Poland how he asked Springsteen himself to write the song (and how he scored a Guns N’ Roses track in the film for free!)
Aronofsky reiterated the same story recently. “Mickey’s character was a big wrestling star in the late 1980s, so he’s a big hair metal fan, and the greatest of those is Guns N’ Roses,” Aronofsky told THR. “Mickey is friends with Axl Rose and Slash, so we got ‘Sweet Child o’ Mine’ for close to nothing only because of his relationship. Bruce Springsteen is also a friend of Mickey’s, so he wrote an original song called ‘The Wrestler.’ “
If you haven’t already heard it, here’s a live version of “The Wrestler.”
