Springsteen - The River

[index1000]

They must be getting fed up of all the bootlegs as they are now selling  mp3 downloads of the gigs a few dayslater on the official site.

[Barrington Womble]

that's only to people who've been to the gig isn't it?

[index1000]

that's only to people who've been to the gig isn't it?

I don't think so as i received an email today with links to download from quite a few recent shows , i had not been to  any of them. Admittedly i have not tried to buy one so maybe you are right. mark Knopfler did something similar on his recent tour and the quality was excellent.

[index1000]

http://brucespringsteen.fanfire.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Store.woa/wa/artist?sourceCode=BSPWEBWWGBP&categoryName=Live+Downloads&artistName=Bruce+Springsteen

 

Hopefully this becomes a regular thing

[Barrington Womble]

I don't think so as i received an email today with links to download from quite a few recent shows , i had not been to any of them. Admittedly i have not tried to buy one so maybe you are right. mark Knopfler did something similar on his recent tour and the quality was excellent.

Nice one. I read some quotes from Bruce before the tour going on about people buying special USB wristbands at the gig. Will pick some up off the as the tour goes and the set looks good

[The Midnight Rambler]

This song passed me by a bit but I've been loving it the last few months, the whole of this performance of darkness is immense

 

http://youtu.be/g_m9skT35RA

[Barrington Womble]

i took my first download of the live shows off the official web site last night. picked up the last night in australia at brisbane , which look just an amazing set. fucking brilliant. hope he pens in some european dates.

[magicrat]

i took my first download of the live shows off the official web site last night. picked up the last night in australia at brisbane , which look just an amazing set. fucking brilliant. hope he pens in some european dates.

Jiust been reading the reveiws of the New Zealand shows . Played whole of BTR on the last night in Auckland which sounded amazing.

Not sure he is going to come back to Europe this year unfortunately.

[The Midnight Rambler]

I downloaded Melbourne/Sydney/Brisbane today for my mum as it's her birthday, I'm such a thoughtful son. Looking forward to 'testing them out'

[Barrington Womble]

Jiust been reading the reveiws of the New Zealand shows . Played whole of BTR on the last night in Auckland which sounded amazing.

Not sure he is going to come back to Europe this year unfortunately.

The Brisbane night I downloaded he played all of the wild innocent and the e street shuffle. The tracks from that album feel more alive with this latest incarnation of the e street band than ever before for me.

[Sugar Ape]

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/mar/19/bruce-springsteen-10-of-the-best

 

10 of the best: Bruce Springsteen

It’s deep cuts only for our survey of the Boss’s catalogue: no hit singles, nothing with ‘Born’ in the title. You get the picture …

 

 

1. Thundercrack

Back in the early days of Bruce Springsteen’s career, when he played to audiences who didn’t know him or his music, his plan of attack involved hitting the audience with a large, loud, long showstopper at the end of the set, one that would make them pay attention and remember the band after they had finished. Thundercrack is the grandaddy of Springsteen’s epic journeys and would only be replaced when he wrote Rosalita (Come Out Tonight). The vocals are loose and playful, while behind Springsteen the band are absolutely airtight, a glorious swirl of organ, piano and vocals, plenty of sha-las and whoa-ohs, backed by the unmistakable feel of Vini Lopez on the drums. By the time you get to the guitar solo and Clarence Clemons’s sax interlude, you’re sure the song is ending any minute now … only for it to start up again. By the end of Thundercrack’s almost nine minutes you feel like you’ve been a private guest at a raucous and unpredictable house party, somewhere on the Jersey Shore, standing there barefoot with a cold beer in your hand, all night (as the song says).

 

2. So Young and in Love

Springsteen’s core sound is based on the music he loved when growing up, but on this track he wears his heart visibly and proudly on his sleeve. He makes no bones about channelling his idols here: he is Wilson Pickett, Sam Moore and Jackie Wilson, strutting his stuff along the edge of a stage in a dark nightclub, jacket slung over his shoulder as he works the adoring crowd. This song swings, pure and simple, thanks to the rhythm section, all solid bass and hi-hat; it’s a delightful melange of sax and keyboards and hearty backing vocals, from when all the members of the E Street Band had microphones. (It’s believed this track was recorded just after Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan joined the band in August 1974, answering a Village Voice ad for musicians that specified: “All must sing.”) There are rat traps and soul crusaders (predating the ones we’d meet later on Night, from Born to Run), and more than anything else, the performance captures the emotions implied by the song’s title.

 

3. Roulette

Springsteen was in the studio for over a year across 1979 and 1980 while recording The River, and as a result there were piles of outtakes left over, some of which might have been better than the songs that made it on to the album. Inspired by the Three Mile Island nuclear power-plant incident (it was recorded three days afterwards and was the first song cut during the River sessions), this absolute piledriver of a song is Springsteen at his most dramatic. The full-speed-ahead drum roll at the start of the track is accompanied by an excited, driving voc

3al; the lyrics and phrasing parachute the listener directly into heart of the action; you aren’t allowed to be a casual observer. “We left the toys out in the yard,” he begins, setting a vivid, intense scene that never diminishes. At the end of the last verse, Max Weinberg rides the hi-hat, cueing an almost-breathless Springsteen to lead you through the maze of action to the song’s close. And then that drum roll, reprised from the beginning, slows down like a pulse and fades out at the end. If it sounds insane, that’s because it is. “It would have been one of the best things on the record,” Springsteen told Mojo in 1998.

 

4. Be True

Another River-era outtake, this track would surface on the B-side of the 1980 single Fade Away, a perfect antidote to that song’s plaintive sadness. On the surface it’s a delightful little love song – the narrator telling his girl he’s just as good as the stars she daydreams about – but there’s a deeper theme of not selling yourself short and of getting what you deserve, all tied together with movie metaphors. Musically it’s got the E Street Band at their best in that era, bouncing along with organ and piano at the forefront and Clarence Clemons on the tambourine, before he comes in with a crisp, perfect sax solo at the end. This is another track Springsteen would later say should have been on the album: “I’m sure they [be True and Roulette] would’ve been better than a couple other things that we threw on there,” he told Rolling Stone in 1988. Like many of Springsteen’s love songs, live – as in the version on our Spotify playlist – he often turns the sentiment around on the audience, exhorting “Is it a deal?” at the end of the last chorus.

 

5. This Hard Land

The country influence that began to appear in Springsteen’s songs as he moved into the 80s should not have been surprising, as his interests, tastes and influences expanded. This Hard Land is a Western movie in five minutes, a story of friendship and brotherhood told through the life of a brother and a sister in the south-west of the US; you can see the dust, feel the saddle, hear the floorboards creaking underfoot. It was written for Born in the USA, wouldn’t have been out of place on Nebraska, and finally emerged live onstage in 1993. It’s almost country but not quite; it’s almost rock but not quite that either. No matter how you want to label it, it’s an absolutely beautiful, rollicking, wide-open song with a gorgeously narrated story. It’s become a special moment in the live show, whether performed with the band or as a solo acoustic encore. When Springsteen closed his 2013 European tour in Kilkenny, Ireland, he was visibly emotional as he sang the last verse: “If you can’t make it — stay hard! Stay hungry! Stay alive! If you can / And meet me in a dream of this hard land.”

 

6. My Love Will Not Let You Down

If you’re ever at a Springsteen concert and this is the first number, you’re in for a barnburner of a night. On its face this is a love song, a pledge of passion and dedication, but it’s also become a symbol of Springsteen’s promise to the fans, and a thank you for their devotion and commitment. “I got me a promise that I ain’t afraid to make,” he pledges, holding the guitar up against his heart, strumming extra hard for emphasis, underscoring his words. It’s a rhythmic, powerful anthem that’s all guitars, except for Roy Bitttan’s elegant underpinning, and it should be the theme song for the latter-day E Street Band. Manager Jon Landau originally favoured it to open side two of Born in the USA, for which it was originally recorded, before the album took another direction entirely.

 

7. Seeds

As Springsteen’s cultural frame of reference expanded, so did his political and social consciousness, and this was his first attempt to catalyse the latter in his songwriting. Seeds came out of the Born in the USA sessions and is a specific exploration of a specific poverty: another tale of trying to follow the American dream, this time chasing after the oil boom just as it went bust. You feel the anger in the delivery of the lyrics and the rock-solid rhythm, underscored by crunchy and highly satisfying guitar chords courtesy of Nils Lofgren. When it’s in the setlist, it’s for a reason, especially during the Reagan years, where it would feature in a run including Johnny 99, Atlantic City and The River, or in the aftermath of the first Bush presidency where it would stand alongside Youngstown and The Ghost of Tom Joad. It sadly remains as relevant today as it was when he wrote it, but at least that means we’ll get to hear it live for years to come.

 

8. The Wish

After years of Springsteen writing about his stormy relationship with his father, this track about his mother, Adele, emerged during the Tunnel of Love sessions. While the melody is simple, the song’s strength is in its lyrics — the images are bright, beautiful and vivid. You can picture the Christmas tree and the scene during the holidays at the Springsteen household, and that stays with you as the story brings you to the later days of success, wealth and Springsteen’s own start to building a family. It’s the bright flipside to the story told in The Promise, and one he has admitted was about as directly autobiographical as he’s ever been.

 

9. Seven Angels

Even though Springsteen moved into the 90s without the E Street Band, his predilection for a great soul shouter didn’t diminish, despite all the synthesisers. This exploration of the dilemma of a man in love — is this true love? What if I’m wrong? What if I’m right? — is a straight-ahead stomper with a good old-fashioned rock’n’roll rhythm section. Springsteen screams, he sings, he growls, he hollers, he whispers, and makes you feel the various flavours of inner turmoil being voiced in the lyrics. It’s absolutely glorious from beginning to end and a shame it’s never come out in the live show.

 

10. Back in Your Arms

This is the quintessential Springsteen soul ballad, which made its first appearance in the Blood Brothers documentary in 1996. When Back in Your Arms appears in performance it makes the women scream, but it also makes the men in the house turn just a little misty. It’s a heartbreaker, plain and simple, and it’s all about Springsteen’s vocal performance: if it doesn’t make your bottom lip tremble just a little bit, I’m not sure you’re human. There’s some lovely keyboard work from Roy Bittan, which adds the right mood and colour, and Clarence Clemons’s soul sax is the cherry on top.

[Frank Dacey]

It's a tribute to Springsteen's prolific writing that there are so many great songs that didn't get put on albums. One more such is 'Restless Nights', a tale of a tangled relationship with an organ solo where you'd expect a sax solo. There's a good cover by an Italian band called 'The Rockin' Chairs' which does heavily feature the sax.

I'm really enjoying listening to 'The Wall' from 'High Hopes', unbearably sad.

[The Midnight Rambler]

Got the music cares Blu Ray today. It is fucking fantastic, get it! Loved every minute of it.

[The Midnight Rambler]

http://youtu.be/eMD4PDGokcs

 

Love this

[RedKnight]

Saw that on Twitter, it is magnificent. Lucky bastards.

[Barrington Womble]

fucking brilliant that video.

 

just come across this on youtube, looks like a pro recording from dallas

 

[index1000]

http://youtu.be/eMD4PDGokcs

 

Love this

That put a massive smile on my face... the only time karoke has been cool

[magicrat]

fucking brilliant that video.

 

just come across this on youtube, looks like a pro recording from dallas

 

Pro shot vid. Brilliant

Thanks for posting

[Barrington Womble]

Pro shot vid. Brilliant

Thanks for posting

It would be just awful if the link ended up in your iLivid download manager before YouTube take it down.

[Beno]

Was in the Lennon bar the other week and there was a dj/karaoke fella on. It was a bit quiet and I was pissed so I asked him to put hungry heart on and his face lit up. He'd been working at some festival in new York last year as a dj and he was playing a Springsteen song when the Boss only comes up to him. He said bruce spent ages chatting with him and had no heir and graces at all just really down to earth. He had loads of photos of the two of them on his laptop.

[NoelM]

Very good cover of Born in the USA by Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires-Isbell

 

[The Midnight Rambler]

http://brucespringsteen.net

 

Merry bastard Crimbo

[Barrington Womble]

http://brucespringsteen.net

 

Merry bastard Crimbo

Nice, looks after all these years Bruce is trying to take back all his bootlegs. Got to love a bit of Bruce at Christmas.

[magicrat]

Nice, looks after all these years Bruce is trying to take back all his bootlegs. Got to love a bit of Bruce at Christmas.

 

Got that show on my ipod. Fucking brilliant.

Cant wait to get it in CD quality

[Barrington Womble]

Got that show on my ipod. Fucking brilliant.

Cant wait to get it in CD quality

just been listening to it now - certainly better than my bootleg and i was only listening over a 60 quid mobile bluetooth speaker. i love going back to those old recordings, there's a pace and aggression in the music that isn't there with the band today.