It was the peak of his songwriting. Take the four songs from Tracks from Darkness, the 2 CD The Promise (forget the modern vocals for a moment), the single album River, and the 2 CDs of River outtakes, and you have a wealth of fantastic material. As good as the BIUSA outtakes are, they pale in comparison to these.
Max’s drumming improved considerably between Darkness and The River. He look lessons (at Bruce’s insistence) with Bernard Purdie, and it paid off. His drumming on The River is top notch.
I remember reading that Max also took lessons from a drummer who had played with Benny Goodman. I wonder if Purdie taught Max how to play Beatles songs . (For the record, a friend of mine helped Max with his Big Beat book project and Max thought Purdie's claim of playing on Beatles records was totally delusional.)
I took lessons from Purdie a few years back. At one point told me “I played on about half of all the Beatles records”. It was a strange moment.
Same here. I like the alternate quite a bit, especially for the "dream" verse, but the one that got on the album is the one.
I like the fact you can compile your own version of The River. Surprised no one has mentioned Restless Nights. How is I Wanna Marry You (one of Bruce's most dull, and utterly boring, tunes) on there and this isn't? I'd also include I Wanna Be With You; just a really great rocker. Put that in place of I'm A Rocker, which is rubbish also! I'd include Take Em As They Come also. I really like From Big Things...but the vocal feels more like '78 than '80. For me The River is Springsteen at his vocal peak, even if it isn't a perfect record.
The album had a few weak points, certainly not Stolen Car and Wreck on the Highway though. It also had some pretty major highs, title track, The Ties That Bind, The Price You Pay, Point Blank etc etc The tour ran from 80-81, whether it was as good as the Darkness tour is debatable, but it is certainly very close.
I feel like the song isn't quite there yet but the guitar solo is freaking AWESOME, perhaps my favorite solo on any Springsteen record. Van Zandt definitely wanted it on the album.
It's that solo plus what Max is doing on the drums at the end of it that does it for me. That part finishes with really frenetic bit and with some changes in the pattern followed with a final guitar strum (sorry for my layman's way of describing it). Excellent.
Wow. If you consider "Wreck on the Highway" and "Stolen Car" to be "weak", I'm sort of speechless. Both are among Springsteen's greatest songs, and The River (both the album and tour) was better than Darkness on the Edge of Town.
Roulette Restless Nights Where The Bands Are Loose Ends Out In The Street Ramrod Take Em As They Come All great drumming performances
I'm a bigger fan of The River than Darkness. I find The River a more interesting listen. Darkness just drags a lot of the time. I think the Darkness tour was better and more exciting than The River, though. I think on the Darkness tour, he was still playing like he had something to prove.
bruce had max play with a couple of metronomes on the born in the usa tour. max is good but swinging is not his strong suit.
agreed on both points. darkness was way too serious......overly melodramatic. the river tour was a step into arena touring.
I like them equally. Darkness (the album and tour) was raw and powerful, but The River (album and tour) showed a maturity and depth that really moved his songwriting forward.
I think Bruce was the only one who really thought it was an off night. I seem to remember when he watched after so many years he decided he was pretty hard on himself back then and liked it. I don't know that the Born to Run Anniversary set was poorly marketed and my memory was that fans liked it. Had the DVD come out as a stand alone piece it may have been a different story. But as a bonus in the Born to Run box, I think it was a welcomed surprise.
I wish they had a bit more "life" to them as far as capturing the sound of the venue and feeling of "being there," but they're absolutely crystal clear and represent the music itself very well. Granted, Phish is a lot easier to mix than a modern-day expanded E-Street Band, but also my guess is Phish gigs are recorded exactly the same way every night, and he starts with a basic preset and only makes minor tweaks. That small-scale bands like Tauk that play clubs still record and sell every show via Nugs reiterates how little overhead it requires to do the archive series. I knew that going in, so I'm not really nitpicking the mixes, but it's obvious not a ton of time is spent on them.
