Bruce Springsteen - Next Deluxe Box Set Speculation Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Bink, May 5, 2018.

  1. Gazza63

    Gazza63 Forum Resident

    Only a third of Biograph was unreleased, though. And Dylan had a near 25-year career under his belt by then. Bruce had only made 7 albums. Even a decade earlier he was ditching superb material at a time when his records werent selling and Columbia weren't sure whether he had a future with them or not.

    Fair point re: Buddy, but as he had been long dead, its not as if he was still competing against new material.
     
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  2. DirkM

    DirkM Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA, USA
    I often find myself wishing that Springsteen were as indifferent to his past as Dylan seems to be. Despite its flaws, The Bootleg Series has done a pretty good job of releasing some of Dylan's choice outtakes/live material. At this point, Dylan seems to just let them release whatever they want. We even got Yonder Comes Sin on the most recent set, a song that Dylan apparently once hated so much that he forced its removal from the original Bootleg Series release.

    ...compare that to Springsteen, who either mucks around with his outtakes (The Promise was ghastly) or releases a few scraps on an overpriced, bloated set (The River is one of my favourite albums, and I've long been a fan of the outtakes, but there's no way I was shelling out for essential half a disc's worth of "new" stuff).

    I fear that the BITUSA set will just recycle the stuff on Tracks and Essential 3, with half a dozen genuine outtakes thrown in to tempt the fans. I'd love to be proven wrong, though.
     
  3. budwhite

    budwhite Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

    Yeah.. I didn't even buy the River box. To expensive and I already had half of the outtakes plus The ties that bind.
    I got the complete Tempe(ripped+nugs) on flac from a friend, so I'm all set. And the rest is on spotify to stream
     
  4. Dr. Zoom

    Dr. Zoom Forum Resident

    Location:
    Monmouth County NJ
    It would be really great if Bruce Springsteen would release a NEW album of really good NEW songs
    (as opposed to tarting up 40 year old songs that should be left alone..)
     
  5. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    I didn't mind him 'finishing' the outtakes to make them into completed songs. I'd rather hear that than some half-finished mumbling from a 40-year old guide vocal track that never received a proper vocal take. But I agree with the rest of it. A proper follow-up to Tracks would be better than how they're doing these things.
     
  6. graveyardboots

    graveyardboots Resident Patient

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    My unpopular opinion: when releasing a box set celebrating an album, the outtakes absolutely have to be released exactly as they were left on the tapes when they closed the book on those recording sessions decades ago (incomplete tracks, scratch vocals, bluffed lyrics, and bum notes be damned). The amount of modern overdubs (particularly new lead vocals) Springsteen injected into The Promise makes most of those outtakes virtually *new* recordings and, in my opinion, they should have been separated from the box and released as such (newly finished recordings based on ideas initially conceived during the original album recording sessions).
     
  7. DirkM

    DirkM Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA, USA
    But we know from the bootlegs that there ARE excellent-sounding vocal takes. Honestly, Springsteen's guide vocals are often better than the finished artifact anyway. Plus, his voice is so shot these days that the final results are unconvincing, not to mention unpleasant. At least the repairs he did on Tracks weren't quite as glaring, since his voice was in better shape back then.

    If he really wants to use contemporary vocal takes, he should just rerecord everything from scratch. Call it "The Lost Songs" or something like that. And then, ideally, release the vintage material, without a single rerecorded note, warts and all. Make it a limited release like Elvis' FTD label if necessary.
     
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  8. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    I get that, it just doesn't bother me that much, I guess. When a song ends up as good as "Meet Me In The City" did, I don't really care how it happened, just that it now exists and I can listen to it.

    I'd be all about him going back and doing totally new recordings of unfinished songs though if he isn't happy with the fragments he recorded at the time. But either way, I just want to have the best possible version of a song.
     
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  9. Gazza63

    Gazza63 Forum Resident

    Yes, but when people shell out a lot of money for a product like that, most of them aren't going to listen to that stuff over and over. At the end of the day, you make a record that you hope an audience is going to enjoy on its own musical merit - not find unlistenable, regardless of the 'artistic integrity' in keeping it 'real'. Music nerds are a minority. I enjoyed 'The Promise' for what it was. I didn't find the overdubs THAT glaringly obvious to the point where it detracted that much. And I still listen to it. Most of the bootlegs from those sessions don't really warrant repeated listening.

    Bootlegs are bootlegs for a reason. A living artist doesn't want their credibility damaged by putting their name to officially releasing an album of demos with scratch lyrics and poor musicianship.

    In an ideal world, there'd be 30-40 'Darkness' outtakes cut in 1977 ready to go without being sugarcoated, but no one in their right mind is going to finish 50 songs when they only need 10 on the offchance that four decades later they'll a) still have a career and b) there'll be a medium for releasing them for an audience who still care enough to be interested.
     
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  10. OptimisticGoat

    OptimisticGoat Everybody's escapegoat....

    Exactly.
     
  11. dee

    dee Senior Member

    Location:
    ft. lauderdale, fl
    :)

    I like that track too! The problem for me is as good as it is sometimes I get a nagging, distracting feeling it seems like a hybrid recording. I wish I could have it both ways lol. A vintage take of studio quality if available, even if unfinished, plus a newer, newly overdubbed one.

    I like this work-in-progress rehearsal...
    Bruce Springsteen In The City Tonight #4 aka Meet Me in the City Tonight


    Miss the Big Man :(
    Very good sound on this one though...
    Bruce Springsteen - Meet Me in the City (Live on SNL)
     
  12. Mr Sam

    Mr Sam "...don't look so good no more"

    Location:
    France
    While I first thought that the inclusion of the, erm, Tracks tracks on the Ties That Bind set was frustrating, I now think the other way around (I wish Iceman, Don't Look Back etc... were not left off the Promise set - but again we're still waiting for the rest of the Darkness sessions to be released - Tracks 2???)

    So I'm expecting the '82-'84 Tracks/Greatest Hits stuff to be included on the forthcoming set in addition to "Sugarland", "Follow That Dream", "Unsatisfied Heart", "One Love" etc....
    May they also include the alt. intro versions of Murder Incorporated (piano) and My Love (vocals) but this is unlikely. Also the original This Hard Land ?
     
    Last edited: May 15, 2018
    Matthew Tate likes this.
  13. blastfurniss

    blastfurniss Forum Resident

    Location:
    Marion, OH, USA
    I'm as big of a Springsteen fan as you'll ever meet but I think Bruce Inc. has done away with their quality control department. Peak creative Springsteen never would have allowed Working on a Dream, High Hopes or Wrecking Ball to see the light of day (no pun intended). I get it-he's not a young man anymore and isn't going to labor over every release or recording like he did in with the sax solo in Jungleland. The Ties that Bind box for me was just as disappointing and I'm a bit cynical about how they'll pull off the BITUSA box which is sad because there should be no way you can screw that up. There should be a gold mine of live recordings from the BITUSA tour particularly video where NFL Films captured many shows. I may be in the minority but I'd love to see a show from the arena portion of the tour and from the stadium shows. It would help illustrate just how big that record made him.
     
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  14. ragged company

    ragged company Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cleveland, OH
    I listen to the Promise as a stand alone release and it is the only version I need. I understand the criticism that is handed our for the various vocal overdubs. To me, this is a minor issue. The songs are incredible! They are on par with Bruce's best songwriting. He had the golden touch when it came to writing unique and incredible melodies at this point in his career.

    For anyone who hasn't given The Promise a chance due to the negative comments that prevail on this forum. RUN and get this CD. The vocal overdubs might take away 5% of your enjoyment, however the 95% enjoyment you do get will be WELL worth the price of admission.
     
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  15. NunoBento

    NunoBento Rock 'n' Roll Star

    Location:
    London
    According to Brucebase, these are the most glaring modern elements recorded into "The Promise" songs:
    "Racing In The Street ('78)" - violin
    "Gotta Get That Feeling" - lead vocal / horns
    "Someday (We'll Be Together)" - lead vocal / choir
    "One Way Street" - lead vocal / horns
    "Because The Night" - lead vocal
    "Wrong Side Of The Street" - lead vocal
    "The Brokenhearted" - some lead vocal / horns
    "Rendezvous" - vocals
    "Save My Love" - all
    "Fire" - lead vocal
    "Spanish Eyes" - lead vocal
    "It's A Shame" - horns
    "Come On (Let's Go Tonight)" - violin
    "Talk To Me" - horns?
    "The Little Things (My Baby Does)" - lead vocal
    "Breakaway" - lead vocal / horns / backing vocals

    Thus these are the untouched recordings:
    "Gotta Get That Feeling"
    "Outside Looking In"
    "Candy's Boy"
    "Ain't Good Enough for You"
    "The Promise"
    "City of Night"
    "The Way (hidden track)"


    ...which for some reason are the bulk of the best stuff from "The Promise".

    I still enjoy the tweaked tracks, the problem to me is often in the mix. The new elements (specially the freaking horns!!!) are so damn frontal in the mix, that they drown the vintage E Street recording backing track. And that's a shame. Plus, it violates the original "Darkness" sound.
     
    Last edited: May 15, 2018
  16. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident Thread Starter

    A question for those who have heard bootlegs from The River sessions - are there many more tracks from these sessions that have not been released officially?

    I had assumed that they had included songs from Tracks and Essential on
    The Ties that Bind box because there was not much else from these sessions but as I haven't heard the bootlegs I don't know.

    If there isn't much more that remains unreleased from those sessions then I don't think we can assume that they will duplicate tracks for the next set. If there is plenty there that remains unreleased then it is quite possible it will focus on those recordings as they did with the Darkness set.
     
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  17. Mr Sam

    Mr Sam "...don't look so good no more"

    Location:
    France
    I'm still baffled that a River-less version hasn't been released yet - either the outtakes only or a dvd/BR live set. I'm sure there's a market, as I personally had to wait for a recent unexpected (very) nice deal to finally get a hold on an item that should have been an instant-buy on release day.
     
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  18. John C Bradley Jr

    John C Bradley Jr Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbia, SC
    I too am baffled by this. I would buy this the second it came out. I've always thought that since they eventually released the London show separately from the box they would do so with Tempe.
     
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  19. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    What is so wrong with Wrecking Ball? I think it his strongest album by some distance out of those 3. I don't much like the remake of Land of Hope and Dreams, otherwise it is a decent set of songs, I especially like Shackled and Drawn, This Depression and We Are Alive. Title track and lead single also pretty good.
     
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  20. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    Yes, there are probably another 10-15 or so songs that were written and, at a minimum, demoed by Bruce between early 1979 and mid-1980, that have not seen any sort of release. I'd have to consult my list of outtakes to give you song titles, but the one that sticks out for me is "Chevrolet Deluxe", a very interesting song that I had hoped would have been included on the box set. There are also some very interesting alternate takes of released songs that remain in the vault (a more rocking "Point Blank", an alternate "Jackson Cage", and a nearly 8 minute version of "Stolen Car" that combines the elements of the original version released on Tracks with the final album version). Most of these songs don't seem to have ever been recorded in the studio with the band, either in part or in full, which means that Bruce's acoustic demos and tapes of the band's rehearsal sessions may be all that exist, although hopefully in better quality than the bootlegs that leaked. Still, I'd be interested in seeing new recordings of a few of these "lost" songs included on the eventual "Tracks 2" set.
     
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  21. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    This may be an indicator that the sonic qualities of the "Garage Tapes" aren't great and that we may not be able to expect much better sound on an official release than we have on the bootlegs. I would *think* that the full band version of "County Fair" from the Power Station '83 sessions would sound much better than the overdubbed demo that was included on The Essential Bruce Springsteen, but they must have had a reason for not using it.
     
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  22. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    If they'd released that rehearsal take I'd have never listened to it more than once. He's just singing nonsense for most of it, it sounds like. I'm happy with the track that got released, even if it's a hybrid recording. Also the song structure is different on that rehearsal, and I think the released take is a better song after Bruce made a few small changes.
     
  23. JoeF.

    JoeF. Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    I've long said the same thing. Some of the stuff on The Promise was really good, but were virtually new recordings. Songs like Breakaway and The Broken Hearted were stellar and should have been released as "new." Because they were.
     
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  24. JAuz

    JAuz Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    I am also certain this is vintage. We know that "Come On (Let's Go Tonight)" shares the music from an alternate version of "Factory". That alternate version has that exact violin part in it and has been around since at least '90s (e.g. on The Iceman boot) and probably earlier than that too.

    I can't say for sure that it's David Lindley, though I would guess that it is (you can see his name in Bruce's handwritten notes in the Darkness box set notebook, plus it sounds like his playing). I do think the violin part, whoever may have played it, is from 77/78 though.
     
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  25. blastfurniss

    blastfurniss Forum Resident

    Location:
    Marion, OH, USA
    Those songs are ok-it's the Land of Hope and Dreams, Tom Joad and Wrecking Ball studio remakes that make the whole collections come off as at worst lazy and at best an EP. Jack of All Trades is Queen of the Supermarket bad.
     
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