Having seen many 70's Bruce shows dating back to '73, I feel that by The River they were already past their peak. I found the River shows nearly as disappointing as the River album: 2 LPs of stuff not nearly as good as much other material he had performed and recorded in the years before it, but left in the can for another 2 decades (Rendezvous, Roulette, Frankie, Don't Look Back, The Way, The Promise, Loose Ends, etc.) The Darkness tour was the peak, and in the early 80s someone passed me the in-house video from one of the Landover MD shows in Aug. 1978. I assumed this would be the one they cleaned up and released with the Darkness box, and it is a much better performance that the Houston show they did release on DVD. That is probably the best video document of the peak years, and hopefully it will eventually see the Light of Day. The '81 shows were some improvement on the River tour, mostly as some of the weaker River material (Wreck, Stolen, Rocker, Crush, Sherry) was replaced by more interesting stuff (mostly covers though: Trapped, Jole Blon, Rain, This Land). The shows that opened the Meadowlands in July 81 had some good performances, and I hope that if they release one, it'll have the band's performance of Steve's I Don't Want to go Home.
Also Sony get a cut of all Nugs sales for the Bruce releases.The terrible sales of Hammersmith 75-which got to 194 on the US album charts at a time when it was the only archival Bruce show on the market-probably means Sony have no interest in releasing it themselves.
There were some great songs left off Darkness and there maybe was not two great albums worth of stuff included on the River, but heck to my ears The Way certainly was not one of them. A pretty awful dirge imho.
I like The River, but I agree with a lot of this. It was a good album, but it was the second weakest Springsteen album up to that point (the worst being the debut), and given some of the top-drawer material left in the vault, it's really disappointing that he filled out a double album with stuff that should have been B-sides. "Roulette," "Loose Ends" and "Be True" alone would've been better than "I'm a Rocker" (a little too generic), the slow, turgid "Drive All Night" and "Ramrod." All three of those tracks were nearly included (and I think Steve Van Zandt pushed hard for at least two of them), but for reasons unknown they were dropped in the final sequence.
I personally love The River, but I understand the criticisms. I like the garage rock filler that's on there, but when you look at what was left on the shelf (Roulette, Loose Ends, etc) its easy to question the decision-making. There were a lot of cooks in the kitchen during The River (Bruce, Steve and Landau just to name 3), and not surprisingly, it ended up as a bit of a hodge podge. But I maintain that some of Springsteen's most exciting studio work was during this period. There's an electricity in the recordings.
To each his own, of course, but Stolen Car is very easily one of my absolute favorite Springsteen songs - particularly the album version, as opposed to the frequently lauded (but ultimately less impactful) outtake version.
I agree. Give me chills everytime i listen to it. One of my personal favorites of The River with the title track, Point Blank and Hungry Heart. But I ride by night and I travel in fear That in this darkness I will disappear
I've always thought that the poor sales of Hammersmith '75 was partially due to the fact the majority of fans already had the DVD of the show many months earlier in the Born to Run Anniversary Set. I bought the CD when it came out, only to complete my Bruce collection. But, when I listen I choose the DVD.
True, fans already had the dvd and the cd was just thrown out there as an as afterthought. And I don't recall anybody being thrilled with the dvd. It's dark, and it was always thought of as a legendarily off night until Bruce, 30 years later, decided it wasn't. Both the dvd and cd were met with shrugs and Inc. kept their record of not knowing what people wanted or how to market anything.
I remember the day I bought the BTR box set... first to snap it up in my city. Was much hyped on SPL as all the cool kids had the treasured odscure video clips of the Hammersmith show. I was not disappointed...it’s been years since I have watched it however. I got a bit Bruced out around the time of Wrecking Ball....
in 1975 ...when I was 17....Bruce had my heart and soul. For maybe 6-10 years it was his.....then I drifted away as did he. The fire was gone. Now?... a man who wrote “Outlaw Pete” , cannot be trusted in the same way again. Love the guy and those memories we had together but.....
I watched it a lot back then. It's uneven and miles from the best live shows he gave in '75. But it was pretty much the only decent video we had at that time pre dating '78. Thunder Road, Backstreets, Saint in the City, Sandy are great and the band looks cool, and that's not something you associate with the ESB. It's much more effective on video than just audio. No wonder the CD sold like crap. Everyone had the show already and those who didn't couldn't have been all that impressed...?
Agreed 100%. The version of Kitty's Back is pretty much definitive, and Spirit In The Night isn't too far behind either (though I feel the '78 tour had some of the best versions of this song).
Agreed that Hammersmith is a great Kitty's Back, but I'd go so far as to say that the 18-min. long performance of Kitty's Back from Aug. 1975 Bottom Line radio broadcast a few months before Hammersmith is not merely the definitive Kitty's Back, but imho is also the single finest performance of ANY song that Bruce and the band have ever done. (I'll happily consider any other nominees folks would like to offer for that distinction.) To save you time, you can find it here: (The Kitty's Back from the Passaic '78 archives release is also a great one. I had seen them perform it a week earlier at The Palladium in Manhattan; a great performance, but not as good as Passaic or the Bottom Line.)
The only time I've ever seen Kitty's Back live was at MetLife Stadium in August '16. The show was amazing to be sure, but not nearly as good as Bruce & the band were in 1975 + '78. I only wished that Bruce didn't loose the "Moonlight" jam part of the instrumental break. That was my favorite part!
I think they were better as a band on The River tour, even though some of the material was weaker. They were tight and powerful, and Max was so much better. Like a whole different drummer. The snare sound is also hugely improved over the muted tone it had in ‘78. And Bruce is less hoarse on most of the shows. He learned to pace himself a bit. Plus Van Zadt became a good backing vocalist.