When the 30th anniversary Born To Run box set came out last year, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I stuck the remastered Born To Run CD in for a second or three, and for those few seconds, it sounded good. But if you are a Bruce fan, how often do you really listen to the studio albums? Answer: Hardly ever.
The real jewel of the set, was the full concert DVD of the Hammersmith Odeon concert from 1975. Once you are holding that jewel, your mind will very likely forgot about the remastered Born To Run, and probably didn't even see that a documentary DVD was included as well.
Camp Bruce is doing now what should have been done day and date with the box set release, and they are releasing a CD audio version of the Hammersmith show previously only available on the DVD.
Perhaps you already read Mark Saleski's review of Hammersmith right here, and if not, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Anyway, back to the review: Having had this show on bootleg for a few years, I somehow managed to miss what an incredible show this is, and as Brucelegs go, this one is definitely up there in my book of favorite Bruce shows. The setlist features not only "the hits" for the casual fans like Thunder Road and Tenth Avenue, but it also features a number of great album tracks that these days you would be happy and lucky to get just one of them in the setlist.
Hammersmith contains, in my opinion, the definitive version of "Lost In The Flood," which while I have yet to hear a bad version of this song, Bruce was firing on all cylinders for this one at Hammersmith. Likewise, the CD contains "The E Street Shuffle" and "Kitty's Back," which is always good.
Article comments
1 - Connie Phillips
Editor's note: This article now has another venue for success - and more eyes - at the Advance.net Web sites, a site affiliated with about 12 newspapers.
One such site is here.
2 - DJRadiohead
I love the "Rosalita" on this set as well as "Lost in the Flood."
3 - Lawrence
We are looking for photographs from the 1975 BTR Tour. In concert and shots of the venue marquees.
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