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Bruce Springsteen performs at the Stand Up For Heroes benefit at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 6, 2013.

(Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

Update: This was made official by Bruce Springsteen's twitter account and Facebook page late Sunday night:

New album is called "High Hopes" and will be out on Jan. 14, 2014.

Listed on iTunes already here

And Chris102 had it correct

--Stan

Normally I wouldn't write a blog based on rumors or speculation.

When you're a Bruce Springsteen fan, you always hear "Bruce is going to do this, Bruce is going to play these dates. Bruce is going to put out a new album." Over the 35-plus years I've followed Bruce's career, I've heard so much and so little has actually come true.

My normal comeback is "when they announce it, they announce it and we'll talk about it then."

But on Friday night a person (Chris102) who posts on the BTX Springsteen fan internet board (part of backstreets.com) put up a list of 12 songs he (she?) says are on a new Springsteen album.

Chris102 has a good track record. A search shows that person had a list of all the correct songs on the "Wrecking Ball" album back in January 2012 before it was announced. And followup chatter on various social media sites from other fans, whom I respect and have some inside knowledge, confirmed that this information could very well be true.

Here are the 12 tracks (this does not mean it's the order) that Chris102 says will be on the new release which I'm hearing will be out in January:

1. Dream Baby Dream

2. High Hopes

3. Harry's Place

4. Heaven's Wall

5. This is Your Sword

6. Just Like Fire Would

7. American Skin (41 Shots)

8. Hunter of Invisible Game

9. Frankie Fell in Love

10. Down in the Hole

11. The Ghost of Tom Joad

12. The Wall

Some of these songs we've heard before.

"High Hopes" is being officially released on Monday. Bruce originally recorded the cover song in 1995 during the brief E Street Band reunion and released it on the "Blood Brothers" EP back then.

He played it at six of his 10 shows in Australia last March. This studio version was recorded in Sydney, Australia during that time and has Tom Morello (filling in for Steve Van Zandt who was filming "Lilyhammer") on it.

"High Hopes" was originally written and recorded in 1987 by Tim Scott McConnell and later recorded by McConnell's band The Havalinas in 1990.

More than one person has told me this will be the title track for the album.

"Just Like Fire Would" was performed one time in Australia. It's a cover of a 1986 song by The Saints and Bruce played it at the March 14, 2013 show in Brisbane.

Here's the performance of "Just Like Fire Would"

"Harry's Place" was recorded for "The Rising" but did not make the record. Springsteen mentioned the song in an interview in July of 2002 with Ted Koppel for a feature on ABC's "Nightline." Springsteen recited the lyrics for the entire first verse of "Harry's Place" in that interview.

A studio version of "Dream Baby Dream" was officially released by Bruce in a video in October. It's a cover, originally recorded by Suicide in 1979. Bruce closed many of his shows on 2005's Devils & Dust tour with it.

The video below was posted by Springsteen on his website as a personal thank you to his fans with highlights from the Wrecking Ball tour played along to his new version of "Dream Baby Dream."

"American Skin (41 Shots)" is well known to Springsteen fans. It was played at the final 11 shows of the Reunion tour including all 10 nights at Madison Square Garden in 2000. It was released on the "Live in New York City" CD in 2001. It's a comment on the New York City police fatal shooting (with 41 shots) of unarmed Bronx resident Amadou Diallo in February of 1999.

There was a studio version of this recorded in 2001 that was released on a rare radio promotional CD-R single. We'll see (if all of this is true) if this is a newer recording.

"The Ghost of Tom Joad" of course is the title track of Bruce's 1995 album. What many, including myself, think is that this will be a version that includes Tom Morello's blistering guitar solos. It was played at all 10 shows in Australia in March with Morello, so could this have been recorded in the studio at the same time as "High Hopes"?

Bruce has played a song called "The Wall" live four times. He co-wrote the song with Joe Grushecky after visiting Washington, DC and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in December of 1997.

He first performed it live at the Feb. 19-20, 2003 DoubleTake Magazine benefit shows at the Somerville Theatre in Somerville, Mass. He also played it twice on the Devils & Dust tour: on Nov. 11, 2005 in Norfolk, Va. and on Nov. 16, 2005 at the then Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford.

Here's the video of the Nov. 16, 2005 performance with some background on the song by Bruce:

Again, none of this is official. But let's see if we do get a new album in January with these songs.

As far as tour dates, there are 17 shows set for the early part of 2014: Four in South Africa, 11 in Australia and two in New Zealand (the final show on March 2 in Auckland).

Steve Van Zandt said in a recent interview with Gary Graff on Backstreets that those dates would be it for now. And I've heard no rumors or talk of any U.S. shows.

"It looks like we're just doing February. That will sort of be the end, if you will, of the last tour, which will be two years exactly," said Van Zandt. "I'll be in Norway starting in January. I will then take February off and go to Australia with Bruce and then come back to the ('Lilyhammer') set in March and probably work through June for Season Three."

Stay tuned.......