Bruce Springsteen - Live Archive Releases

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Chris S., Aug 24, 2015.

  1. Dr. Zoom

    Dr. Zoom Forum Resident

    Location:
    Monmouth County NJ
    At this point, I'm not sure any vintage official Sony release (Passaic, Winterland, etc) would sell more than 25,000 copies nowadays. Maybe a lot less. IIRC, the Hammersmith 75 release had really paltry sales.
     
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  2. peskypesky

    peskypesky Forum Resident

    Location:
    Satantonio, Texas
    The problem with the archive series is that casual fans, or even pretty big fans, are unaware of them.

    I know, because I recently posted on Facebook about how good the '78 Passaic show is, and several of my FB friends were like "is that a bootleg?". And these are Bruce fans. Two of them saw '78 shows and are very interested in hearing them.
     
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  3. SoundAdvice

    SoundAdvice Senior Member

    Location:
    Vancouver
    London 75 had the BTR box, standalone 2 CD released 6 months later(very modest sales) plus upwards of another 10,000 sales on vinyl around 2017. Plus they still have the option of releasing a standalone blu-ray with stereo audio, surround audio and video upgrade.

    I don't think fans are following the download series or keeping up to date. Personally, I general keep firm on "silver physical or nothing" and have only sampled the download series on youtube. I'm also kinda annoyed they've barely done any vintage live video from the couple hundred hours of pre-breakup era live footage in the vault.

    How many here have even seen the Passaic video sync'ed to the clearmountain audio mix?

    I think "proper" NUGS releases or RSD vinyl of some shows can do very well. My dream are vintage audio concerts in surround sound on a single DVD-A.
     
  4. peskypesky

    peskypesky Forum Resident

    Location:
    Satantonio, Texas
    that's really amazing and sad to me. How can such a huge star have such small sales figures?
     
  5. SoundAdvice

    SoundAdvice Senior Member

    Location:
    Vancouver
    I think it was 30,000 stand alone 2 CD sold 6 months after the box set with almost zero promotion and an inactive Bruce at the time. Also Best Buy sold the BTX box for really cheap, so it wasn't much of a price break.
     
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  6. Dr. Zoom

    Dr. Zoom Forum Resident

    Location:
    Monmouth County NJ
    Bruce's fan base is a lot older, and a lot less technically savvy. I am a great example. We are from a generation where live Springsteen recordings were either bought at flea markets, or finally in 1986, at a record store. For a lot of us, buying music over the internet is still a bit awkward.

    Then there are the simple laws of supply and demand. Back in the day, live Springsteen recordings were scarce, and they weren't easy to obtain. They had a scarcity cache to them. That's why you had to pay upwards of $100 for a crummy sounding live recording.
    Over the last 20 years, he's flooded the market with official live CD's, Live DVD's, Documentaries, Box Sets etc. And of course now there's You Tube, where you can listen or watch all kinds of stuff in a few keystrokes . There's also E Street Radio. So for many folks, logging on to Nugs to pay $9.95 for a vintage live recording (a very reasonable price btw), a lot of people probably just say "eh, no thanks".
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2019
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  7. peskypesky

    peskypesky Forum Resident

    Location:
    Satantonio, Texas
    yeah, it is kind of amazing to think of the lengths we die-hard fans used to go through to hear live recordings of our favorite artists back in the day.

    There was no internet....you couldn't buy bootlegs in legit record stores....so coming across a bootleg LP or cassette was like a miracle. I honestly don't even remember how we did it. I remember my brother coming home with a bootleg double LP of a Yes concert and we just were in hog heaven. I also remember him coming home with a Patti Smith bootleg LP. I can't remember where he managed to find them. A buddy of mine and I once found a Sex Pistols bootleg LP at a flea market. There are no words to describe our excitement on those occasions.

    Nowadays...you're right...we're FLOODED with releases. At times it seems like too much of a good thing. But there are still things that I dream of seeing or hearing someday....things that may never get released...things that may not even exist any more. For example, Yes supposedly filmed the "Going For The One" tour for a theatrical release, but the project got shelved. Where is that footage? Does it still exist? Sadly, I think not....but then, you look at the 2015 release of the Hendrix concert film from the Atlanta Pop Festival and you just never know....
     
  8. Dr. Zoom

    Dr. Zoom Forum Resident

    Location:
    Monmouth County NJ
    I agree. I had an opportunity to speak with Thom Zimny last year, and he said there is "hundreds of hours" of video in the vault. He characterized some of it as "amazing stuff".
    But my understanding is that video costs a lot more to clean up than audio.
    (I have not seen the Passaic thing you mention)
     
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  9. peskypesky

    peskypesky Forum Resident

    Location:
    Satantonio, Texas
    As a professional video editor, I can confirm that working with video is a lot more expensive and complicated than audio. The amount of computing power and storage for video data far exceeds audio.

    That being said, Bruce could afford it. :)
     
  10. Dr. Zoom

    Dr. Zoom Forum Resident

    Location:
    Monmouth County NJ
    My guess is that most of the video is being held back for some kind of career retrospective film, a la Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, George Harrison etc.
     
  11. SoundAdvice

    SoundAdvice Senior Member

    Location:
    Vancouver
    Even it's kinda crummy visually as it currently circulates, the Passaic shows should be released with the Clearmountain audio.

    I think it's fair to take is fact that all the clips used in promo videos and Zimny showcases have been mastered in full. Some of those Rebo videotapes need to be mastered before being unreadable.

    How have they not released a single song from 12/31/75 that is pro-mixed audio, color video and entirely owned by Bruce?
     
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  12. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    That was also a "6 months too late" release of a show everyone had already bought (just in a different format). I mean, it was nice to have out there for the people who wanted it, and it means it's an "official" Bruce release that I can conveniently stream whenever, but I'm surprised it sold any copies at all, honestly. But you can't use it as a barometer for what a previously unheard recording might've moved.

    That's true. But I guess BruceCo would rather push bloated box sets than live stuff, for whatever reason.

    It's a weird thing...simultaneously feels like a missed opportunity, but also not enough lost revenue where I think anyone at Sony or in Bruce's camp is really losing any sleep over it. Again, had they done this in the late 90's, maybe as a live companion to go along with Tracks or something, it'd have been a big honkin' deal. But that moment has passed.
     
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  13. detroit muscle

    detroit muscle MIA

    Location:
    UK
    I would think that most fans after they have bought a selection of 10 or so shows throughout Bruce's career would think they have enough. There are some of us where that only scratches the surface!
     
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  14. SoundAdvice

    SoundAdvice Senior Member

    Location:
    Vancouver
    The 4-5 hours covered by the BTR/Dark/River boxes wasn't enough? BUSA will get another 2 hours if that drops in 2019.

    IMO, it's Springsteen himself not wanting old ESB Bruce being compared with current/recent ESB Bruce. NUGS is monetizing/controlling the live tapes after new album sales really tapered off.
     
  15. DavidD

    DavidD Forum Resident

    Maybe because a lot of fans got sick and tired of his BS for twenty-five+ years and needed a little more convincing that he had something worthwhile investigating.
     
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  16. musicaner

    musicaner Forum Resident

    didnt you once try that with van morrison and the powers that be put a stop sign on you?
     
  17. musicaner

    musicaner Forum Resident

    they could release all the passaics via the live archive and later put them in a box. 'remastered' with a book by Dave Marsh.
     
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  18. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    Agreed. The time to release a series of vintage shows at retail was 20+ years ago, if one of the objectives was to maximize sales.
     
  19. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    If that hadn’t happened, though, we wouldn’t have the live series at all. And their releases are more interesting (and more importantly, more complete) than anything Bruce would’ve done himself in the CD era.
     
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  20. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    Yep, Landau was very involved with Elvis: The Searcher, and no doubt has the same thing in mind for Springsteen.
     
  21. SoundAdvice

    SoundAdvice Senior Member

    Location:
    Vancouver
    But some key things have vanished from youtube. There has been a trade off of sorts.

    ONly a few of NUGS releases have been really earth shattering. I wish they could do video, as that's where they can really leave all the unofficial stuff in the dust. Same with live shows mixed well in surround.
     
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  22. peskypesky

    peskypesky Forum Resident

    Location:
    Satantonio, Texas
    darn. I just tried laying the Clearmountain mix of "Badlands" 9-20-78 against a video of the song from that night. They get out of sync by quite a bit.
     
  23. uncle

    uncle Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    I think there is already a synced version of the whole show out there unless it was pulled.
     
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  24. uncle

    uncle Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    Looks like Nugs twitter account tweeted asking Springsteen fans what their holy grail archive releases are.
     
  25. Guy Smiley

    Guy Smiley America’s Favorite Game Show Host

    Location:
    Sesame Street
    Maybe I should get myself a twitter?

    Some pre-75, Main Point ‘75, Milwaukee ‘75 (Especially if Bruce’s camp has the pre-bomb scare set!), Winterland ‘78, and Night of the Vietnam Vet, please!

    Oh, and how about FINALLY releasing the full Tempe ‘80 on CD?

    EDIT: Also, the Palladium ‘76 show and Cleveland ‘77 show both with Ronnie Spector!
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2019

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