According to Brucebase, all three nights were recorded to multi-track by the Record Plant's mobile unit. Still hoping for an official Columbia release of all three nights. Probably won't happen now.
I fully agree. A very strong show and a very different one. No River songs, just 1 BITUS song. No artifacts. Just rock'n'roll songs. Plus, it's Federici's last full performance with the band. A must have, imho.
On the new Nugs release, I love the Magic songs without all the compression that, I think, was applied to the studio versions. I love the absence of the too common Hungry Heart singalong. I did not see the band on the 2007-2008 tour but I was in the crowd when Bruce and band played the Today Show on the day of Magic's release. To me, the E Streeters seemed lean and hungry that day, performing three songs on air and several more for the benefit of the crowd only. Just happened to be in NYC that day for work. I was lucky.
Yes, I would love an official release of these shows. But one has to wonder if he, they will ever release a Columbia live album now that the archive series is here. They would sure move more units, but I don't think they care. Anyway, I do love the Nugs releases and this Boston show is brilliant.
Good question. I'd like to think a Columbia live album release is still a possibility although, in light of the fact that the second night from the Capitol Theatre in Passaic (September 20, 1978) was recently released via Nugs with a six-month-old Bob Clearmountain mix, it's hard to wonder why Clearmountain was involved in a Nugs release. Was he in fact working on a possible Columbia live album but then they got cold feet?
Clearmountain likely mixed all 3 Passaic shows at the same time(only slightly more work than doing just one from the same venue/run and the other 2 might be held back for physical releases.
In an interview with Pollstar in April 2016, Brad Serling from nugs said, "We’ve gone into this treasure trove of the Bruce Springsteen archives, stuff that had never been released before, had never seen the light of day. We’re pulling out 18 reels of half-inch tape of a run of shows from ’78. Those tapes, literally, have to be baked in order to get the musical information off of them." When Passaic was released a year and a half later, it was the very first complete 1978 show ever released from multitrack, and the release notes say "Multi-track reel to reel tapes transferred and restored by Jamie Howarth, Plangent Processes, Spring 2016. Mixed by Bob Clearmountain, Fall 2016". It seems clear to me that Passaic is the "run of shows" Serling was referencing two years ago, that they have the tapes from all three nights, and that they were always slated to be nugs releases from the beginning. As to why Clearmountain was brought in I can only guess. At the time of the interview, Clearmountain's Tempe '80 was the most recent release and there were a lot of responses contrasting it to the mess Toby Scott made of Nassau '80. Nugs doesn't release sales data - maybe these downloads are making more $$$ than most of us realize. Maybe they just wanted to do something extra special for what they know are some of the most important shows they've got. Maybe they know how spectacular the bootlegs of those shows were, especially the JEMS upgrades to the 2nd and 3rd nights, and figured they'd have to go big to top them. Whatever the reason, nugs having now released two shows from the same Meadowlands '84 stand, combined with his comments above, leaves me no doubt they will release the other two Passaic shows in the future as well. And not only does it make financial sense to have had Clearmountain mix all three at once, there is absolutely no way they would lead with the one Clearmountain mix if they planned to release the others down the road with inferior mixes. They will be out on nugs, and they will be Clearmountain mixes from the fall of 2016, whenever they get around to parceling them out. I'm sure of it. Now back to crossing my fingers that they do the same with Roxy, Winterland, Meadowlands '81, maybe some more '75 shows......
Fair enough, but where does that leave us? Either he misspoke/was misquoted, or they spent the time and money to restore a pile of board tapes knowing that they still had at least 7 other multitracked shows from the same year available?
My fingers are crossed for the non broadcast Winterland show, if for no other reason because we've had very nice versions of the broadcast show for years. A big vote, too for the Viet Nam Vets Benefit Show at the LA Sports Arena from the 80-81 tour.
Yes, 81 LA Vets show please!! IMHO that was the best show they ever played, on the best tour they ever did. The first 60 minutes is dark as hell, and the last 45 minutes or so is pure insanity. I'm probably one of the few die hards that never really warmed up to the Winterland boot. The sound is good, but I always thought there was something missing in terms of ambience. The show in Portland a few nights later is a corker.
I enjoy the Winterland broadcast, but I thought the other show was better. I keep hoping Bill Grahams in house video of either show might someday show up. It's only been 40 years, it could happen, right?
I thought I read somewhere that there was a massive fire at the Warehouse where Graham stored his archival stuff. It may no longer exist.
Yes, I'd heard the same thing. But, I was encouraged by a Tom Petty show from just a couple of weeks after the Bruce show, which showed up a couple of years ago on Wolfgang's Vault.
A friend of mine from the SP London gave me a live TP cd collection from the Fillmore in the late 90s. It's one of the best things in my collection. Brilliant.
I should have made myself more clear. The thing that showed up on Wolfgang's Vault was the video of the Petty show. Not just the audio.
Is it time for '74 now? Probably not, maybe never. I don't think the powers that be are interesting in pushing the pre ESB days. Sadly
I wonder if it is an Appel/Laurel Canyon copyright issue. It can't be a quality issue, hell, they used a cassette source for Albany/Rochester '77, right?
I'm thinking there's a chance we'll get the Roxy in July for its 40th anniversary so perhaps we'll see more "modern" shows in May/June. I'm going to guess either something from '99 or 2002 and maybe another Tom Joad show.
