Indeed. This is why I much prefer Bob Dylan's approach to releasing his outtakes. Dylan seems to have no involvement whatsoever in those archival projects, which effectively eliminates the risk that we'll hear any partially or fully re-recorded or otherwise newly embellished tracks.
I agree with your point, but it’s highly unlikely Bruce would ever not be involved. Also Dylan, like Neil Young, actually has archives that include many out takes and alternate versions that are more complete. Just compare The Cutting Edge to The Promise.
I don't mind that he adds modern touches. I'd rather have a complete song than an incomplete. It makes the purchase worthwhile, in my opinion. This is unlike say The Beatles whose outtakes aren't something I listen to much. I have them, but I would rather have something edited together like One After 909. However, it is annoying when I make compilations or make bonus tracks to his albums because they are out of place. But I love The Promise CD and the first disc of River outtakes (starting with Meet Me in the City and all the stuff not on Tracks) sounds almost like its own album.
Back to Tracks... I like a lot of Disc 4. I think Human Touch could have been if not strong, then solid, with just a few deletions, and perhaps a few additions. Leavin' Train (4:03) would be one the best of the additions imo. It has those roaring vocals and screaming guitar and an intensity about it that's impressive. Well-defined verses and chorus and direct lyrics. Top Shelf Bruce imo. Although it has a kind of novelty about it, the tone of Part Man Part Monkey's guitaring is also especially appealing. The vocal sticks to the melody pretty much. Great bridge. I don't think it really needs any of the few vocal flourishes or theatrics, but I get it. It's just relatively 'straight enough' of a vocal delivery for me not to find it overbearing. I like the sound of it and the tempo feels right too. I like many of the sparse vocal and bass tracks with some of the ambient keyboards and percussion effects. Like Over The Rise. Like When The Lights Go Out. Goin To Cali even also. Instead it was the least interesting of that style (57 Channels) that found its way on the album. On a closer listen to the whole subject matter, and the vocal, Trouble In Paradise has grown on me, despite some of the 'sound effect percussive keyboard effects' used. I like Loose Change even a little moreso. So is Loose Change like a slang anatomy metaphor lol or a guy who's 'loose change' is his pockets is more like a roll of $100 bills and he's buying sex? Or both? The vocal tone and the delivery is about as sad and yet affecting as I've heard Bruce in song. I don't like a few of the frilly 'sounds' and 'instrumentation' that tread into the 'adult contemporary' genre or a few really safe mixes or arrangements that sound too commercial to me. Like Sad Eyes. Maybe even Happy. Great songs. It's a delicate and personal balance imo. Back In Your Arms is a song I really like with a solid vocal and also a tasteful sax solo. Those tinkling piano frill effects I can do without fwiw. Of the 25-30 or however many tracks released over time that could have ended up on Human Touch, there's an interesting, expansive collection of tunes and sounds there imo. It seems maybe hard to pare it down to just 10 to 15 songs for a singularly focused album. Brothers Under The Bridge and My Lover Man have a sense of beauty and sensitivity about them. I like almost all the sound of the vocals and the style of 'actuallly singing' or effort to here, which I can't say for some of Ghost of Tom Joad and beyond. I think there's a more singularly focused Human Touch album somewhere in HT, Tracks, 18 Tracks. I think Seven Angels fits with Leavin' Train, Part Man Part Monkey, Trouble River, Soul Driver, Gloria's Eyes, The Long Goodbye, Cross My Heart, Real World, I Wish I Were Blind, and the title track, and a few others perhaps would make for a solid core imo. All Or Nothing At All would fit too maybe for the worse lol but it would fit. I'm really not sure there's a lack of just 'general' quality or even amount of material, after TOL, to use as a breaking point, it just seems to me more a case of maybe a little less focus or time or success in making 'great albums' as such. The guy's general output of songs and styles is still impressive to me since Ghost of Tom Joad. I like some of it, some of it I don't, but between all the recording and touring, I don't think it's anything lacking sometimes a sense of direction that can seem quite veering at times and also the difficulty of fan expectations and our personal preferences.
I ripped all the tracks on Thrill Hill Blu-Ray to lossless FLAC "Save My Love" 1976 rehearsal version is awesome.
H He should have released HUMAN TOUCH in late 90 or early 91. Some of his arrangements are head scratchers. this is my HT 1990 version 1. Human Touch 2. Soul Driver 3. Cross My Heart - this version is so much better. 4. Gloria's Eyes 5. With Every Wish 6. 30 Days Out - Why this song was left off is so weird. Needs a remix. SIDE 2 1. Trouble River - Great rocker 2. Real World - The one on the album is awful. The one on piano is awesome Bruce Springsteen - Real World 3. Roll Of The Dice 4. I Wish I were Blind 5. The Long Goodbye 6. All The Way Home - should have never given this song away. Don't like the DD version. Live version of this is amazing. It's a great song to end the album on. Bruce Springsteen - ALL THE WAY HOME live - 1st version, unreleased ('92) I THINK THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN ONE OF HIS BEST ALBUMS. FOLLOWED BY LUCKY TOWN IN 92. The 90's would have been different for him.
The early 1990’s still would have been challenging to navigate for Springsteen. Stylistically, his music did not resonate with the times, nor did younger generations particularly care about his 1970’s/earl-1980’s legacy at the time. They remembered the commerciality and imagery of BITUSA (which many viewed as a turnoff five/six years later) and heard the sleekness of Human Touch.
I agree but I think if he would have kept the E Street band instead of a far less superior band. He might have adapted better. He just made bad choices and Human touch sounded dated in 92 with grunge and angst so prevalent in the music scene. In 1990 it would have faired better.
No doubt, Human Touch would have been less polarizing in 1990, but one suspects the same stylistic approach would have continued into the first few years of the decade, especially if it had been more successful in 1990.
What also makes HT such a miss is what I state before. His band wasn't up to his songwriting and Bruce chose the wrong structures for the song. He wised up and reverted back when he played the song in concerts. See Real World and Cross My Heart. He also chose the wrong songs ... 57 Channels is a b-side at best. All Or Nothing, Mans Job, Real Man and Pony Boy are just not very good songs. Even if he was going to release the album in 92 he should have replaced those poor songs with better ones... such as Loose Change, Trouble River, Leaving Train and of course the fantastic 30 Days Out. I think he never wanted to release the HT album and would have been fine just releasing Lucky Town. But he spent so much time on HT that I feel he was compelled to release it. Plus ... Guns And Roses sort of gave him the idea and it had been so long since TOL. Anyway.... There is a great album in the HT sessions. It was put together poorly. Album cover was awful as well.
As for LUCKY TOWN .... It's one of my favorite Bruce albums. Especially if you replace Leap Of Faith with Happy. And I love the raw demo sound of it.
Disagree about “Factory”, which is one of the best and most important songs on Darkness. “Prove It All Night” is the other track (along with “Streets of Fire”) that is somewhat weak and if you are going to replace two songs with “Don’t Look Back” and “The Promise”, those are the two that should go.
Here are my two album covers alternates for both HUMAN TOUCH AND LUCKY TOWN I think if you replace Streets Of Fire with Don't Look Back and just slap The Promise after Darkness.... it's a masterpiece.
Sad Eyes is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard. Can't believe it wasn't put on Human Touch. I think it would have fit.
I think Bruce could have had more popularity in the early '90's, but the price would have come with a loss of credibility with the rock crowd. A song like " I Wish I Were Blind" or the unreleased at the time "Sad Eyes" or perhaps "Happy" could/should/would have been big on Adult Contemporary Radio if he and Landau had explored that option, but they chose not to and I sometimes wonder if Bruce quickly recorded Luck Town as a hedge against the overall slickness of Human Touch. In retrospect, putting both albums out at the same time was a mistake. Human Touch should have came out a year and a half earlier. Lucky Town deserved it's own release.
I agree with this. Human Touch seems out of place. Lucky Town seems to be next step after Tunnel Of Love.
Factory belongs on side 1 if anywhere, with Badlands, Adam and Something that set up the Darkness world, but we don't need a country song about his father here. Don't Look Back, The Promised Land and Prove It All Night follow Candy's Room and Racing as songs about surviving in the Darkness world. The Promise and Darkness On the Edge are two possible outcomes, one down, one up. Sorry, he discarded so many good song to keep his concept, Factory doesn't fit I have never heard "Prove It All Night" called weak; the music and the lyrics are both important, or Springsteen would be a poet
lol you guys are putting more time and energy into re-imagining HT and LT than Bruce put into writing the songs for those albums.
Unless something got lost in (french) translation, Dave Marsh wasn't crazy about the album version in his first bio (Born To Run): in french "bon à jeter" ==> disposable
meh i think it would be more interesting for people to be searching out cool new music and turning each other on to it than rehashing mediocre albums from decades ago.
