The Friday Morning Listen, Part II: Bruce Springsteen
Published November 22, 2005
First posted on Mark Is Cranky:
If you were hanging around this space last Friday, you would have seen three Blogcritics attempt to calmly report on their past and current relationships to Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run. The release of the 30th Anniversary edition has DJ Radiohead and myself somewhat bowled over. Heck, the DJ was so floored that he temporarily lost his ability to speak in complete sentences!
Over the weekend we had some time to muse on the extra content of the box set. That is, the DVD documentary on the making of Born To Run, "Wings For Wheels", and the stunning concert video DVD "Live at the Hammersmith Odeon, 1975".
Read on, as we make one last attempt to quell the madness in our souls.
My thanks to both Lisa McKay and DJ Radiohead for hurling themselves at this task with such verve and passion.
Mark Saleski
Hammersmith Odeon, London '75
Paid the cost to be the boss (Palladium 1976/N.Y.C.). Pièce de Résistance (Capital Theatre 1978/Passaic, NJ). Live at the Agora Ballroom (Cleveland, OH). Live at Alpine Valley. Fire on the Fingertips.
Bruce Springsteen bootleg records. Yes, back in that shadowy past we all 'stole' from Bruce. So desperate for live material, we just could not help ourselves. After reading so many articles about those legendary live performances, a person just felt empty.
Yes, that was me. Right up to The River tour, I was an E-Street concert virgin. It was so frustrating. The closest I came to attending a show was on the Darkness On The Edge Of Town tour. Springsteen was coming to the Augusta Civic Center (central Maine) but I couldn't go due to some kinda family activity conflict, like...my brother-in-law was flying in from Cleveland for a visit and he'd just had a vasectomy. Ouch. Gees, what a pathetic (and now I suppose, funny) excuse to miss a concert! Turns out that the show just added to the lore: four hours, Bruce and Clarence running through the arena and playing up in the balcony. Then there's the (perhaps apocryphal) story of the band taking the stage at a local bar, the Luna Base II, for a post-concert blowout. Y'know, you miss this stuff when you're seventeen and it feels like the world has just ended.
The drought may have ended for me 1980 but a legitimate live recording did not surface until the 1986 release of Live 1975-1985. Finally, some early concert recordings to allow the fans to revisit the pure joy of an E-Street show.
Now, with this 30th anniversary release, we have video proof of what the E-Street band was capable of back when Born To Run first exploded onto the scene. The legend of Springsteen's early band was well-deserved. From the sparse and emotional "Thunder Road" to the stretched-out "Kitty's Back" to the eruption of "She's The One" to the exhausting "Detroit Medley", that band took everything that was right (and righteous!) about rock & roll and pushed it to the extreme. Watching this concert is just way, way too much fun.
Mark Saleski is a writer and music obsessive based out of the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. On his best day, he hopes to channel the ghosts of Lester Bangs and Jack Kerouac. He spends the hours of 9:32PM to 1:37AM carving out music reviews and essays for Jazz.com, Blogcritics.org and other publications.
- The Friday Morning Listen, Part II: Bruce Springsteen
- Published: November 22, 2005
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Writer: Mark Saleski
- Mark Saleski's BC Writer page
- Mark Saleski's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
you're more than welcome lisa.
dang, i thought for sure that me & the dj could make you break your christmas rule!
I was tempted, but you have to understand that I'm married to a man who generally has his Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving ;-)
wow! i didn't know guys like that existed.
it's true, i don't see your husband at the procrastinators club meetings.
Well, gang, as one of the Old Guard--I saw Springsteen in concert at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia in '74--and listened to him prove it all night as he did a benefit for the legendary Main Point north of Philly--and OK I'm from NJ, too, and I was listening to "Mary Queen of Arkansas" when I ran into your discussion here--this is some sort of trifecta--I feel I can add my voice to the Faithful. I think you're right: Springsteen will never be a nostalgia act--just check out the dead-on consistency and completeness of the "Devils and Dust" package--so those Glory Days will never be borin' stories, but just more good songs. There are no oldies, just tunes you haven't heard yet--or in a long time. Thanks for spreading the news.
When did they start having meeting for procrastinators? I guess I just haven't gotten around to checking them out. Fucking awful pun, that was going to be.
Saleski, it was fun getting agree with you on something for a change. Lisa... it was a lot of fun to have you in on this as well. Maybe we can do this agin if we get the live package I pray for from this run of solo acoustic shows Springsteen is currently doing. Did you hear about him and Hornsby teaming up on Hymn #251 "Across the Border?"
And Mark, have you checked out "Missing" yet?
There will be a live DVD of this run -- the shows in Boston were taped for this purpose. The show I saw last Thursday was a huge disppointment, though. It was the only time I've ever seen Bruce (out of too, too many shows since 1980) when I wasn't completely engrossed and transfixed by the performance. I still swear I'm gonna write a real review.
Thank you, guys. Again with part two, I really enjoyed the differnt perspectives to the same product, and oh what a product! I feel like the only person who hasn't already purchased this set.
"I feel like the only person who hasn't already purchased this set."
No, Connie, not the only one. Mark thinks he can tempt me into getting this before Christmas, but I'm going to hold out. Then you and me and Lisa can get together and have a Bruce party.
Speaking of party, for me too, it was college when I first heard Born to Run. *sigh*. Just love it!
I just don't see how you can let one more day of your life pass without buying this set.
It has been so great!
"I just don't see how you can let one more day of your life pass without buying this set."
Yeah, regarding the set, I'd been meaning to ask those 'in the know' -- Can you get the remastered CD w/o the DVD extras? Because, as much as I like Bruce and the E-streeters, I'm not a huge fan of watching concerts on video.
Not that it'd be horrible to own the whole thing. I"m sure I would enjoy it, just wondering..
Unfortunately, to my knowledge, this box set is the only way to get the re-mastered CD.
The Hammersmith-Odeon show is gold, though! Look at young little Max Weinberg and Little Steve! It's hilarious and the performance is amazing!
ok ok I'll put it on my list. : )
plus, if you know what you'r doing (and i don't really count myself in that category) you can burn an audio copy of the concert.
Yes, well said. I actually have the Hammersmith Odeon DVD's audio content on my iPod. I have actually listened to the show many more times than I have watched it. It's wonderful and transcendant and... well, I am preaching to the choir here.
Mary, sounds like a plan to me! It is officially added to my "must have" list so I can be a part of the masses.
It's more than being part of the masses. It is baptism and religion and salvation. You will be a better person.
plus, if you know what you'r doing (and i don't really count myself in that category)
Yeah Mark, especially after that debacle in the Berkshires. ::Snickering::
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Thank you, Mark, for inviting us onto your Friday Morning turf for a visit - it's been fun!