Awhile back I read an interview with Garry Tallent where the 1977 Boston Shows were discussed. He and other band members apparently thought it was probably the “end” of the band. I’ll see if I can find it.
It was released, I think at least 10 years ago, by italian bootlegs label Godfather Records: a seven cds box set with the march 23, 24 and 25 1977 shows and a beautiful booklet. Good audience recording, better than Forced to Confess.
In just published Rolling Stone interview: There’s not much there pre-1975. Are you opposed to them putting out anything by Steel Mill or the Bruce Springsteen Band or that real early stuff? Not really. If they can find something pre-’75… I wouldn’t mind them putting out some Steel Mill shows. They’re not going to sound great, but you’ll certainly get an idea of what I was whacking away at at the time. I’ll look into it. If there’s some good Steel Mill shows, I’ll get them to put some out. Bruce Springsteen Breaks Down His R&B Covers LP -- and Responds to Fan Outrage Over Ticket Prices
Finally an interviewer asks most of the questions we've been asking for years. Good to get some answers. -So it looks like Tracks 2 is coming. All post-1988 stuff. (meh) -No BITUSA box -Another soul covers album -Maybe a country covers album -Probably no pre-1975 live stuff coming -He's not expecting to write for a while -He has little to no input on Nugs -He has an interesting idea of what constitutes "affordable" concert tickets
I would totally believe this and would feel it's totally reasonable if it weren't for the fact that I can make at least two CDs of quality unreleased recordings and songs that are still circulating out there on bootlegs. Especially when it comes to the BITUSA era.
Good interview. I’ll give him a bit of credit on the ticket prices for basically saying “we’re older, let’s just go for it this time”. Also no surprise that he mentioned he likes to hear and present finished versions of outtakes, rather than multiple “incomplete” versions. Shows why he likes to tinker with modern day overdubs.
Yeah, Bruce has always seemed like a perfectionist who won't release anything until it meets his standards (which is why it took us around four decades for a studio version of "The Promise" to be released). Which is why I don't think it's an issue of the vaults being emptied or picked clean, but that they're emptied of recordings that Bruce feels are up to his satisfaction.
Does E Street Radio (on XSM) play much live material pre-1975? I was listening last weekend and heard "Let The Four Winds Blow" from Cambridge, MA 1-9-74. Do tracks like this come from the Springsteen camp or do they grab them from bootlegs?
Deep fans know there is more from BITUSA than Springsteen is acknowledging, but he has always been ambivalent about the project/period, so it is understandable why he is essentially evasive and lukewarm about the prospect. The interesting thing is, because of his ambivalence about that period, he could use a box set to present a different narrative and perspective about that era and project.
Well, his band is on salary, albeit a high salary, but it isn’t as if they are sharing the proceeds. He just cleared half $1 billion from the sale of this catalogue, it isn’t as if he needs to rape the buying public with some of the highest ticket prices in history. Also, his remarks that ticket prices in general are reasonable is completely out of touch with reality.
Last night I heard them playing a track from one of those UK grey market “radio broadcast” CDs, and they even showed the album cover.
In that interview Bruce says, "I spent time over one of the past winters completely cleaning out the vault." Then when asked about Born In The USA and Nebraska, he say's he isn't sure what's there but he'll look into it. Seems a little disingenuous.
I don’t go into vault stuff looking for classics, but I’m good with “interesting.” He’s given us more classics than I can count, at this point I’m just curious to hear what’s still left in there, I know it probably won’t be life-changing, and that’s totally fine.
I think he was talking about cleaning out the 90’s vault since the context was talking about the 5 unreleased albums.
Epic. I believe it clocks in at 18 minutes. Part of arguably the most passionate show he ever performed.
They sure played like there was no tomorrow - arguably the most passionate left everything on the stage stand.
They truly were an incredible rock band during the mid-late 1970s. They could play driving rock, play some funk, play some soul, and even incorporate elements of jazz. They may not have presented themselves as virtuosos, but as a collective unit, they were very impressive.
My replacement disc 2 for the Fox Theater 1978 release came yesterday. Happy to say the gap is fixed.
