Live CD: Catching up on Springsteen

[review by Bill Glahn]

Bruce Springsteen: The Complete 1978 Radio Broadcasts (Sound Stage SSCDBOX10, 15 CD box set, 2015 release)

Venue: (CD 1-3) The Roxy Theater, West Hollywood, CA 7/7/78 (CD 4-6) Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, OH 8/9/78 (CD 7-9) Capitol Theater, Passaic, NJ 9/19/78 (CD 10-12) Fox Theater, Atlanta, GA 9/30/78 (CD 13-15) Winterland Ballroom, San Frrancisco, CA 12/15/78

Sound Quality: Excellent throughout

Cover: High quality clam shell box set with glossy individual jackets inside, each show identifiable by a different photo from the tour. Also contains a 24-page booklet containing articles from Melody Maker (Harvey Kubernik), Rolling Stone (Dave Marsh), 1978 program notes (Cleveland show, but probably generic to all the tour programs), and liner notes by the manufacturer (quite good).

 Tracklist: (CD1) Intro-No private parties/ Rave On/ Badlands/ Spirit In The Night/ Darkness On The Edge of Town/ Candy’s Room/ For You/ Point Blank/ The Promised Land/ Prove It All Night/ Intro-Alice in Wonderland/ Racing In The Street/ Thunder Road/ outro-incredible performance/ (CD2) Paradise by the C/ Fire/ Adam Raised A Cain/ Mona/ She’s The One/ Growin’ Up/ It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City/ Backstreets/ Heartbreak Hotel/ Rosalita/ (CD3) Independence Day(solo piano)/ Born To Run/ Because The Night/ Raise Your Hand/ radio comments-incredible/ Twist & Shout/ (CD4) Intro/ Summertime Blues/ Badlands/ Spirit In The Night/ Darkness On The Edge of Town/ Factory/ The Promised Land/ Prove It All Night/ Racing In The Street-Thunder Road/ Jungleland/ (CD5) Kitty’s Back/ Paradise By The C/ Fire/ Sherry Darling/ Not Fade Away/ Gloria-She’s Gone/ Growin’ Up/ Backstreets/ Rosalita/ (CD6) Born To Run (actually not – this is a little over a minute of audience applause followed by a few chords of Born To Run strummed for tuning purposes before the encores begin)/ 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)/ Born To Run/ Because The Night/ Raise Your Hand/ Twist & Shout/ (CD7) Intro/ Badlands/ Streets of Fire/ Spirit In The Night/ Darkness On The Edge of Town/ Independence Day/ The Promised Land/ Prove It All Night/ Racing In The Street/ Thunder Road/ Meeting Across The River/ Jungleland/ (CD8) Kitty’s Back/ Fire/ Candy’s Room/ Because The Night/ Point Blank/ Not Fade Away/ She’s The One/ Backstreets/ Rosalita/ 4th of July, Asbury Park (listed simply as Sandy)/ (CD9) Born To Run/ 10th Avenue Freezeout/ Detroit Medley/ Raise Your Hand/ (CD10) Good Rockin’ Tonight/ Badlands/ Spirit In The Night/ Darkness On The Edge of Town/ Independence Day/ The Promised Land/ Prove It All Night/ Racing In The Street/ Thunder Road/ Jungleland/ (CD11) Santa Claus Id Coming To Town/ Night Train/ Fire/ Candy’s Room/ Because The Night/ Point Blank/ Not Fade Away-Gloria-She’s The One/ Backstreets-Sad Eyes/ (CD12) Rosalita/ Born To Run/ 10th Avenue Freezeout/ Detroit Medley/ Raise Your Hand/ (CD13) Badlands/ Streets of Fire/ Spirit In The Night/ Darkness on the Edge of Town/ Factory/ The Promised Land/ Prove It All Night/ Racing In The Streets/ Thunder Road/ Jungleland/ (CD14) The Ties That Bind/ Santa story/ Santa Claus Is Coming To Town/ he Fever/ Fire/ Candy’s Room/ Because The Night/ Point Blank/ Mona-Preacher’s Daughter/ She’s The One/ Backstreets/ (CD15) Rosalita/ Born To Run/ Detroit Medley/ 10th Avenue Freezeout/ Raise Your Hand/ Quarter to Three

Comments: As the European market opened up to legal, but unauthorized broadcast recordings, Sound Stage was quick to release this lavish box set as their initial release in 2015. It was a stunning set, containing the best source tapes (including the Atlanta broadcast in previously unavailable quality, even among the most serious of tape traders), expert mastering combined with outstanding packaging, liner notes and photos (also unauthorized). Sound Stage has continued to release box sets by other artists in equally spectacular quality and has assumed the position of the standard bearer for all such labels.

In late 2014, Bruce Springsteen began releasing vintage concerts on his official website in multiple formats [CD, lossy (MP3) downloads, and lossless (FLAC) downloads]. The price for CDs is a very reasonable $23 per show. Downloads were equally inexpensive, about $10 for MP3, $13 for FLAC. By 2020, every one of these shows had become available in the only way these shows could be improved upon – from the Boss’s own master recordings. The UK-based distributor of Sound Stage pulled this set from the market, dumping remaining copies at incredibly low prices (I got one for less than $30, postage included). Times being what they are, and limited to a Social Security budget, when faced with the choice of $115 vs $30, I chose the cheaper option. Would I rather be in a financial position to afford the official versions? Absolutely. 

What did I get for my money? Well, I got hard copies (silver CDs) of 5 complete shows in excellent quality with some well-chosen articles contained in the booklet. The most revealing is by Dave Marsh, which gives insight into how the shows could have such varied setlists and still be such tightly constructed performances at the same time – the 3-hour soundchecks/rehearsals before every show on the tour, whether it be in Des Moines, Iowa or high profile gigs in New York or L.A. No audience was ever too insignificant to matter, no venue too large or small where Springsteen would not personally go out to the seats, from front row to nose-bleed to make sure the sound was equally pleasing. For an even more in-depth look at how that worked, I’d recommend Marsh’s Bruce Springsteen On Tour book – which contains a cover photo of Springsteen doing exactly that.

In between the lines, it also illustrates that when Springsteen became the public face of the RIAA’s anti-bootleg campaign of the mid-to-late ‘70s, Springsteen had different motives than the RIAA. Often overlooked (and the source of to-this-day grudges by old-line bootleg collectors) is that for the industry it was always about profits. For Springsteen it was about control of his art – which he clearly extended to live performances as well as studio albums. But, as every working class laborer knows, absolute control of our lives is a futile, if noble, endeavor. What was off limits in the ‘70s, for Springsteen, was not off-limits by 2014. And perhaps Springsteen was right then. While most of the Springsteen bootlegs up to that point had been high-quality fan-generated recordings of spectacular FM-broadcasts, what would follow in the ‘80s were some god-awful recordings by bootleggers that shared the same interests as their official industry counterparts – cashing in on Springsteen’s rising star power.

Darkness on the Edge of Town was a tough record for me to like, or even listen to. I was so consumed with the wreckage of my own life at that time (first child still-born, second with a birth defect that would leave him with a near-total loss of hearing in one ear – he will always hear in mono) that I was incapable of listening to an album that was rooted in wreckage. That it contained hope as well went mostly unheard. 

It was the bootlegs from the ’78 Darkness tour that revealed what the studio effort had failed to reveal. There was joy in rock ‘n’ roll that could overcome anything. I still hear that joy in these recordings in a year (2020) full of wreckage. I save the last words for Little Richard..

“I consider Long Tall Sally sacred. It’s a song of love and joy in a world of chaos and commotion and strife. We need a little joy.” (Little Richard)

Bonus views: