Can pretty much get behind much of what you say, with a few caveats.
The tracklisting is mostly great, with a good selection of covers, however, there are a couple of major omissions. I think ‘Prove It…’ (particularly the version he was doing around '78) and, especially, ‘Jungleland’ are misses. I think I read somewhere that they had considered a version of the latter to go on here but it was taken off due to its length, which makes sense I guess.
Also, despite it being billed as ‘Live 75-85’, only one live recording pre-dates '78 (great version of ‘Thunder Road’) Surely there were more recordings from pre-78 that they could’ve used?
That said, I’ve really enjoyed playing this over these past few days, having not really given it much of a spin in the last few years. Sounded particularly good blasting out of the car stereo today, windows down, in some of the great weather we’ve been having. I still don’t think I’ll go back to it much as there is not much reason to with all the great live releases that are now available. That said, as a document of the time, and with it following hot on the heels of the mammoth success of ‘BITUSA’, this is a pretty solid introduction for anyone who might’ve wanted to catch a glimpse of what an absolute live powerhouse Springsteen and his band were and are.
All we need is that tour confirmation for 2022 now!!
