I bought the DSD of Passaic during the last sale for $20. I haven’t done detailed comparisons to the CD version, but I think the DSD sounds amazing. That’s the only one I've bought, and only because of the universally praised mix - I can’t imagine it would make too much difference on most of the others. I bought the HD (192) of Roxy 75 and I’m enjoying it. I have the rest of them in CD quality.
Has anyone found any difference in mastering between the mp3, flacs, hd or dsd files ? My guess is that they are all the same, except for the bitrate....
Seems like I'm in the minority here, but I find this release extremely underwhelming. Nothing wrong technically with the audio, it's the performance. It's just not that great. Solo Thunder Road is good, but the band just seems lacking a little steam overall. Backstreets is totally ruined by Bruce's out of tune guitar. As an avid listener of this archive series and many Bruce bootlegs, none of these performances even registers in the top 50 for each song for me. The Hammersmith or Philly 75 shows are miles better.
Bruce's songs almost always come alive in concert. The big except to this in my opinion is "Born To Run". I've never heard a live version match the excitement of the studio version. Given that they labored for 6 months putting layers on and pulling them off and trying all sorts of different additions, it make sense that it's not easy to duplicate onstage. The closest that I've heard is from Tempe 1980. Perhaps it's the audacity of opening a concert with your big song, the fabulous mix, having the video to go along with it or the breakneck speed at which it's played, but this one has been doing it for me lately. Note that we have a Bob C mix and video from Phoenix 1978, but I don't really like that one at all. I'll be letting this Roxy '75 show sink in for a bit, but I'll give that song some extra attention based on your praise. One thing I haven't really done is seek out live versions that have Boom Carter playing on them. The sound quality may not be very good, but a live version with the original drummer needs to be given consideration. I think there's at least of few of those floating around (Bottom Line '74, Harvard Sq Theatre '74).
It's hard to top the studio version of Born to Run. 1985 is not a favorite year but BtR and The Promised Land were never better than in that year
Yes, really nice show and much better than Hammersmith as a whole. But I give the nod to the Hammersmith version of Backstreets for example. Need to relisten to Philly '75 and see how that holds up.
I agree. Over the years, I have mostly been underwhelmed with “Born To Run” as a live piece. However, this version from the Roxy caught my attention. The song’s tempo, pitch, key, and overall pacing is relatively close to the studio master. This a song that I do not think benefits from a faster, more aggressive live tempo, rather it works best when it closely emulates the studio version. I will continue to spend time with this show, but so far I am very impressed. I have noticed Springsteen’s voice is a bit worn out during the show, but it I still a very solid outing.
Agreed! Studio version is sheer perfection, but there is something magical for me about being in the audience near the end of the show and the band plays BtR with all the lights on. Thinks it's because of the BtR video from the 75/85 set that totally captured the magic of attending my first show back in '85 on the stadium tour. That tour (probably deservedly) gets a lot of flak from the old timers, but for me it was my first show and totally made me a true believer.
Born to Run is one of the few war horses I love to hear at every show with the E Street Band. It's always great. Same with the Promised Land. Badlands too, for the most part. But the false endings gets old. It doesn't always work, depending on the crowd/vibe. And it's often played to slow. Same with Promised Land come to think about it. But it doesn't have an extended ending so it works better
I'm with you on those. Badlands gets my arm raised and pumping. Totally lifts me up. And you're right about stretching it out with the false endings but it seems to be a permanent part of the reunion era performances.
Yeah. And that's why I only attend one or two shows per tour nowadays, if that. The songs are played the same from tour to tour. And I've heard a lot of rarities so I'm not chasing that anymore. My interest now is more in the "jam" band scene where things are ever changing. Or bands I haven't seen much
After listening to the whole show yesterday, I have to agree. The vocals are lackluster. Very underwhelming. It’s a bummer, because the audio quality and mix are killer (although Danny is a bit low, which seems to often be the case). At times, Bruce plays around with the vocal melody, as if he’s tired of the songs, which is weird because the songs were new at that time. He sounds tired, or maybe he was under the weather? Backstreets and Spirit in the Night sound particularly weak. I much prefer Philly 75, which also has plenty of Danny.
A little less energy than usual and a bit unfocused at times maybe, but I wouldn't call it bad. At least he aint scream/shout singing like he does on the '93 release for example
I remember quite a deep discussion about whether Bruce had missed a trick in not getting a live double album out from the BTR tour and whether it might have knocked Frampton Comes Alive out of the park in terms of sales. There was of course the long period before the Live box set where he allegedly resisted putting out a live album as it was all about being at the show. Anyway I wonder if they did review these multi tracks back in the day and maybe thought this is the best we have and it does not quite capture the magic and the opportunity for an all conquering "Bruce Comes Alive" slipped by?
It seems like a missed opportunity to me but it's impossible to say how the release of a double live album in '76 would have impacted his career trajectory. In my fantasy world, here's the double record set - each side is less than 20 minutes: Side One - Thunder Road (piano/glockenspiel version) Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (full band version) Spirit in the Night Side Two - The E Street Shuffle Born to Run Side Three - Kitty's Back Side Four - Rosalita Sandy
I agree -- maybe "Pretty Flamingo" or "Mountain of Love", but I'm curious to know what they would have released as a single if a live release would have been on the forefront in 1976 or so. There's no obvious standout of anything that would have been radio ready from the basic '75 sets...at least imo. Maybe they would have tried to work "Born To Run (live)" as the single since the studio version only got to #23 and it likely still had room to grow in some pockets of the US.
I think it definitely would have, just to have some "new" songs. To be fair, I don't think it would've made a big difference in his career trajectory. Frampton Comes Alive and Kiss Alive! were different; they were those artists' breakthroughs. A Bruce live record from '75 or '78 released at the time would've been a solid seller, and certainly something loved by fans over the years, but wouldn't have catapulted him into an even higher level, IMO. It would've been more akin to Live And Dangerous or Yessongs, live albums from already-successful acts that bolstered their reputation as live acts, but didn't change their overall career trajectory in a big picture sense.
That's probably true. Note that Sandy can be replaced with Detroit Medley. Using Foobar2000, it's only a six-second difference. But I also created a fantasy double-live album from the Darkness tour and that one contained Detroit Medley so I closed my fantasy-double live album from the Born to Run tour with Sandy. Here's both of them - 1976 - "Live at The Roxy" Side A: Thunder Road Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out Spirit in the Night (17:12) Side B: The E Street Shuffle Born to Run (19:35) Side C: Kitty's Back (17:37) Side D: Rosalita Sandy (19:21) 1979 - "Live at the Capitol" Side A: Independence Day [post-performance audience applause is trimmed] The Promised Land [post-performance audience applause is trimmed] Prove It All Night [post-performance audience applause is trimmed] (20:30) Side B: Racing in the Street Thunder Road (17:51) Side C: Fire Because the Night Point Blank (19:52) Side D: Not Fade Away / She's the One Detroit Medley (19:36) Thunder Road is the only repeated song across both albums but they're two vastly different arrangements.
So, weird thing. I got the CD's I ordered from the Black Friday sale today. One of them was 8/3/05. The discs are silvers. I thought these were all pressed on CD-R. Has anyone else had this? Of course, the other show I ordered was pressed on CD-R, and was cracked. Go figure.
Bummer about the cracked CD-R but mention that to Nugs' customer service and I have no doubt that they'll send a replacement to you. As for the silvers, if I recall correctly, the first pressing of the three-show bundle of the MetLife 2016 concerts were issued as silvers although, to the best of my knowledge, purchasers were unaware of that fact until they received their discs. Subsequent pressings were on CD-R. Had all of these titles been issued on silvers as opposed to CD-Rs, I imagine I'd be substantially poorer.
Yeah, it was a pleasant surprise. I did contact their customer service about the cracked disc; I am sure they will replace it. I have always been taken care of by their customer service department, though over the years I have become increasingly frustrated by the amount of trouble I've had with their physical product (not to mention the bizarre variety of different quality control f' ups).
