New Bruce Springsteen box, "The Album Collection Vol. 1, 1973-1984" (11/17/2014)

http://backstreets.com/remasters.html

 

I liked the video. I agree with the guy who said the old albums tend to sound very flat and uninvolving.

I would love to have 24/96. Really, my perfect world would be 24/96 and the big ol' booklet from the vinyl set. If the vinyl set comes down in price and these remasters do in fact sound good I'll pick them up for the same reasons other people mentioned: you can find a clean copy of the old albums but they're still noisy and mediocre. Some really quiet vinyl and pristine artwork would be a welcome change.

 

Sorry to post yet again but the Live 75-85 box is what really got me into Bruce. I think it would be great to give that the deluxe Plangent treatment and perhaps roll back some of the heavier editing/tweaking.

 

If they sound like the cuts from the promo video, I'm interested.

 

30-41 years later for new remadtered reissues is not bad.

 

Watching videos such as this ........ Is this crowd even allowed to express negative comments when they're there ?
Of course they will be cut, but I always wonder if anyone there goes ...... " hey, these kinda suck ? "

 

That was me at Hershey.

 

I read a piece today that some women are livid that they weren't represented in the promo video.

 

We love you Billy !!! So do they really sound great ?

 

I read those too, and I think it's an incredibly valid complaint.

 

No Eskimos or transgender people with six toes on their right foot, either. What a travesty.

 

Such a headache these people are these days pointing out stupid crap that really doesn't matter.

 

You guys are beginning to sound like Gamergate.

 

Actually, it's about ethics in listening party promo video journalism.

 

Yeah this is something among other things that gets brought up regarding Springsteen from time to time and in my opinion it is (among other things which I'll get to) is a little disconcerting. Springsteen's music for whatever reason seems to be very testosterone driven (for lack of a better phrase) or at least seems to speak to a male demographic far more than it does women. As walrus stated obviously Springsteen has female fans and it would be somewhat ludicrous to suggest he doesn't but they seem to be in the minority. At the very least they are not being spotlighted in pieces such as the one being referenced here. I'm not going to get into the race thing because that is a subject that applies to a lot of different bands/artists and really can be discussed all day without any conclusive resolution.

What I do want to mention and what is even more disconcerting to me than the lack of a female presence in Springsteen's audience is the fact that he is so rarely cited as an influence by any artist say under the age of thirty five. I know artists such as Bono, Michael Stipe and Eddie Vedder love the guy but generally speaking, you rarely here anyone younger than them come out and say "Yeah I grew up listening to Springsteen" or "Springsteen was the guy that made me pick up a guitar" and I think that sentiment is equaled by the fact that many of their non-musical contemporaries (their fans or even people just in their same age demographic) haven't really taken Springsteen's music into their lives. This has actually been discussed previously in an article which I thought took this notion that I just referenced a bit too far but their general point seemed to have some legs and that was Springsteen's music doesn't seem to have much relevance at all to the majority of people born after the mid to late nineteen eighties.

Again maybe this whole shooting match is either woefully inaccurate or irrelevant in the grand scheme of things but it is at the very least interesting nonetheless because at least in my opinion you don't want to see a canon of music as rich as Springsteen's marginalized in any way.

 

Brian Fallon from Gaslight Anthem has cited Springsteen as perhaps the former's biggest influence. Plenty of young-ish indie artists see Nebraska as a defining moment in their development. Maybe not the big names (Bono, Stipe, Vedder, et al) but they're out there.

 

Don't expect a BTR overhaul, though. By the time of his 2005 remaster for the 30th Anniversary of Springsteen's masterpiece, Ludwig had it nailed to the point where he received "the ultimate compliment" from Springsteen: "When I got to remaster Born to Run for the anniversary box set, I saw Bruce backstage, and he told me that he was listening while driving in his car and that he heard Born to Run as he’d originally intended it to sound for the first time!...

To me that is some seriously scary, scary Sh**.

 

And you forgot Lady Gaga too!

 

I can't personally see how his songs are far more attractive to men, or even particularly testosterone-driven in any vaguely-negative or male-specific sense of the term at least (female alienating or otherwise). In the mid-eighties there was that famous misreading of Born in the USA; as a kind of macho nationlastic flag-waving afair (which still puts some unknowing people off today) - but other than that I've not really noticed any particular male-orientated bias in his songwriting or general vibe, other than the normative realities of him being something of a 'man's man' (or 'new man's man' perhaps?) and him fronting an all-male band (apart from the backing vocalists of course).

I would tend to agree with the opinion that this is most likely a case of video production ethics, though I've not yet seen the video.

Though obviously sexy, Springsteen never seemed to me to promote himself as a female-seeking sex symbol as such - he's a 'rock and roller' folkie essentially. I can't see him attracting any less female fans than other people in that general area - from Dylan and Young to Cooder to Seeger etc. In presentation he's clearly 'sexier' than most in that mould, but in truly having a broad female fan-base it will be the songs/lyrics that will count, and vocal delivery to some degree too perhaps. I very much doubt Springsteen has ever been more 'macho' (or more unkind to women) than Dylan has in his odd moments. Like Dylan he tends to tell complete stories.

I think influence in music has always depended on what is current, it takes certain acts to take it back every now and again, otherwise it's a moving thing. Springsteen is plain rock and roll - it's only as a lyricist or as an general 'example' that he could really influence anyone I think. I'd agree that likely fans like (I don't know) Chrissie Hynd, Ani Difranco, Amy Rigby or Liz Phair are all "over 35" (the list of quality female singer-songwriters who are likely to admire Springsteen is actually huge). As for younger people like Adele or Lilly Alen (or whoever) they may just need to be asked. In album/song quality at least, political folk rock (which has never gone away of course) is supposed to have been under a resurgence.

I think women do tend to be a little less 'dedicated' (for want of a better word) than men in musical appreciation areas - how many while away as many hours on here as the average male? They may be a bit more put off by the repetition I expect, where with men it becomes more of a 'challenge'. They may also tend to appreciate seeing a bit more agreement compared to disagreement too I think (ie on balance): and in general just the amount of it all may put them off. Whatever, the point I'm making is that the reason that there are clearly less females here than males doesn't mean they don't like the music we all talk about.

 

That live set is fantastic I agree, I'm not sure I'd want it longer though. What on it do you think they could improve? I recently got a copy on CD, and thought it sounded pretty good (I got it as a fatbox, probably at the recommendation of this site).

 

Watching the live Born in the USA DVD and I see a lot of women in the audience. A lot. Perhaps men carry more about sound systems and how music sounds, maybe the promo was trying to reach that male demo. It is odd though.

 

Just take a look at the male female ratio around these parts.

 

That's right.

 

Well, I'm not saying it needs to be longer, and I agree that it already sounds pretty darn good. The CD sems to be a pretty flat transfer from the tapes.
But: 1) I'm curious if it could be further improved by the Plangent treatment (mentioned elsewhere in the thread, basically completely fixes all the wow, flutter, small variations in the tape) and 2) other members alluded to the Live set having some after-the-fact fiddling being done to the set though I don't know much about it. Perhaps they could detail what the changes were and which ones aren't so hot.

 

Regarding Nebraska, I read years ago that the original tape is in a vault somewhere. Its too bad they didn't try to make a new transfer. If they don't utilize that cassette now it will probably never get played again.