#461

Obviously this is quite a lot of music, but we’ll keep it at one week seeing as the majority of it is live versions of stuff we’ve already heard. If it was brand new music we’d spend more than a week on it.

If you’re looking to break it down into slightly more manageable chunks then Thunder Road to Raise Your Hand are theatre performances, Hungry Heart to Reason to Believe are from arenas, and Born in the U.S.A. onwards are taken from stadiums (there are actually a couple of exceptions to that, but it’s true for the most part).

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#462

The cover to this live album is the one Bruce album that springs instantly to mind when he is mentioned (even more so than iconic covers like BitUSA or BTR). I think it must be a timing thing, I would have been 13 when it was released so probably the first time I started properly engaging in music at all and endlessly looking round record shops like HMV but a good 2 or 3 years before I discovered second hand and indie record stores.

I definitely remember being drawn to that imagery but as an expensive box set was never something I could have bought. Didn’t realize he stopped recording with the e-street for so long.

#463

I’d forgotten about this one and had been mentally prepping for Tunnel Of Love!

Haven’t listened to this for years, and I’m not sure wha to say about it. It’s recordings of the one of the greatest live acts in the world from a prime period, so it’s never going to be bad but the grab bag approach does feel a bit wooly and random. I get that the maximalist let’s throw everything in there size of it made for an event release that a regular live album wouldn’t have, but at a thirty year distance the more recent idea of releasing complete shows and placing them in some sort of historical context is much more preferable to me. Live Springsteen is always going to be live Springsteen, but I reckon the execution of this particular set was a bit botched. Criminal that there isn’t a Detroit Medley on there, and that they didn’t use one of the '78 Racing In The Street into Thunder Road performances.

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#464

Ridiculous set list

#465

Was there a kind of official announcement/decision at the time that they were ceasing to tour as a unit, or was it sort of ‘well maybe we’ll be back in a year or two’ and then 2 years became 5 etc?
Just wondering, must have kind of been like your favourite band breaking up for a lot of people, depending on how ‘final’ it was.

#466

Not 100% sure how it went down (someone else might be able to shed more light on it) - seems like Tunnel of Love was largely recorded solo, with various band members brought in to do some overdubs afterwards, then the full band toured that album (and did an Amnesty International tour as well at the end of the decade). Then he put together the “other band” and started touring with them at the start of the 90s - I’m not sure if fans knew at the time that was happening or if it was kind of sprung on them when the tour was announced.

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#467

He definitely felt the need to do something different and I remember reading that he made phone calls to each of the band members to tell them that he was taking a break from E Street and planning to work with new musicians. Some members took the news better than others. Think Clarence took it particularly hard. There were some definite tensions around the band which are hinted at in the ‘Blood Brothers’ documentary that followed the band’s brief reconvening to record new material for the '‘Greatest Hits’ record in '95. Again, sure there’ll be further discussion on this farther down the line.

In terms of ‘Live 75-85’, I might have to give this a listen this week as it’s not something I tend to go back to. With its ‘grab bag’ nature, I tend to listen to whole shows instead. That said, the tracklist is mega. Think he was reluctant to release any live stuff prior to this but, with the mammoth success of ‘BITUSA’, I think there was a definite want to cash in on the success before he pulled it all wayyyyy back for the next LP.

Gonna dive right in to this and enjoy…

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#468

Listened to 75-85 today. It’s weird because there are 40 great tracks performed brilliantly, so it should be 10/10. But agree with what others have said. I rarely listen to this and would always play one of the archive shows or Hammersmith '75 instead. It loses a bit of soul just knowing that it’s not a legitimate live album, but rather a live compilation.

Still great though, and actually a really good introduction to Springsteen, more so than the Greatest Hits record.

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#469

This was my intro to Bruce and so I unreservedly love it. That intro to The River gets me every single time. Sone of the versions on here (Badlands for example) are amongst his best ever.

Admittedly I am kind of a sucker for live compilation albums when you can hear the progression of an act as a live band. Okkervil River did something similar last year and it was great.

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#470

I do intend to listen to this through this week, but off the top of my head I guess at this point when we have stacks of full archival shows to gorge on the compilation approach isn’t so appealing, but I imagine when this came out it must have been like manna from heaven for the Bruce-head.

I do however think it was a terrible oversight to not include a recording of the full-band Atlantic City (as posted upthread), because that is A) one of his greatest songs, and B) totally different in its live version.

#471

I’m a big fan of this set. I think it works brilliantly as a ‘Bruce primer’.

They were fairly maligned during River week, but I love the one-two of Cadillac Ranch and You Can Look… on this. Bruce and the band are giving it so much welly and having so much fun. I often put those two on if I need a bit of a pick me up when walking around. Love the call and response between him and the band in Cadillac, and the ridiculous exchanges with Little Steven in You Can Look.

Also the bit during Darlington County (another less than popular song last week) where he shouts “Ladies and gentlemen, is there a big man with a saxophone in the house?!” just before the sax solo always gives me goosebumps.

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#472

Just out of my own interest here, listing the songs on this that don’t come from a release we’ve already covered:

Paradise by the “C” (will show up when we get to The River reissue bonus material)
Fire (will show up when we get to The Promise - allegedly written for Elvis shortly before his death, and made famous by the Pointer Sisters)
Raise Your Hand (Eddie Floyd cover)
Because the Night (another one that will come up when we get to The Promise, originally released by Patti Smith who wrote some of the lyrics)
This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie cover )
Seeds (as far as I know there’s no studio recording of this? Seems to have originated on the Born in the USA tour)
War (Edwin Starr cover)
Jersey Girl (Tom Waits cover)

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#473

I put it on today not giving it my full attention but my eyebrows sure shot up when he launched into War, didn’t see that coming.

#474

Bruce Springsteen is now my 8th most played artist on last.fm thanks to this listening club :+1:

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#475

He’s making up about 90% of my YouTube recommendations now

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#476

Love the Nebraska songs on this - obviously a bit fuller than the album versions, sung a bit more expansively (if that makes sense?), but still understated and not bombastic.

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#477

Also love how The River takes off at the end into piano then harmonica, with the drums behind them - I prefer that to the slower, more haunting endings that he’s done more recently.

#478

I was going to say how much I liked the version of Johnny 99.

Anybody else notice how Bruce starts singing in a cockney(?) accent in Adam Raised A Cain? Very strange

#479

Hahaha I’ve never considered it as cockney before, but I see where you’re coming from. I’ve posted during Darkness week about how I think that’s one his most over-the-top vocals, I think he’s knowingly amping up the ridiculousness on that one.

#480

I really agree, they sound ready for the big stages despite not being all that altered. Think the Darkness era songs are really good too, that version of Badlands is urgent. Of the songs that hadn’t appeared on his other albums I really like Fire and of course Because The Night which is one of my favourite songs full stop, whether it’s Patti or Bruce belting it out. The Woody Guthrie cover is great too.

That version of the River is really something, I’d not heard i before, his father’s reply to him made me choke up, then that plaintive harmonica wails in and you’re into it.

I find it a bit hard to get too excited about this album though, maybe a bit of Bruce fatigue is setting in? I really don’t want to hear Rosalita or Born To Run right now. The songs sound great and the arrangements are different enough to make them interesting counterpoints to the studio versions but you don’t get the atmosphere of a complete gig recording. I can’t see myself wanting to come back and revisit this too often, at least not in its full form, but I know it’s good.

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