That's a great point. A lot of our gripes with his tinkering is because we've heard versions of these songs on bootlegs already that are all vintage. We have a frame of reference of how it "should" sound, even it the boot was just a rehearsal. I have much less objection to songs from older sessions I'd never heard before, even if they were worked on years later. For example, I quite like "Breakaway" (Darkness box) and "Stray Bullet" (River box), even though they are reported to have modern elements on them. But I'd never heard those songs before so I had no bias toward a different version of them.
"Breakaway" is a good example. So is "The Brokenhearted", also from The Promise, and both could have been centerpieces of a new album along with other newly-recorded music. But no, they had to pretend these were tracks that actually came "from the Darkness Sessions."
Assume the OP meant CD versions of wave 2 of the box set series. My understanding is only Japan issued a CD box set of 87-95
I really don't care how it's sold or packaged. I just want good versions of good new (to me) songs. Instrumental E-Street tracks aren't particularly interesting, neither are mumbled guide vocal tracks with little thought behind them. Those are interesting in the context of a completed version of a song, to hear the evolution, but on their own...meh.
At the end of the day, it seems that most of us are glad to get those old songs from the vault released even if the released versions are not quite what we were expecting from our familiarity with the bootlegs. But, speaking only for myself, I am more forgiving of flubbed notes, off-key background vocals, and even the occasional bluffed lyric if it means a vintage recording appears largely unmolested. The bootlegged studio versions of Because the Night, for example, reveal a track that is not remotely close to being finished, as he has only the music, the chorus, and a small portion of the lyrics. In a case like that, the original unfinished studio take is not fit for release as is. By way of contrast, the commonly circulating vintage recordings of songs like Gotta Get That Feeling, Spanish Eyes, Fire, and One Way Street are, in my opinion, far too close to finished / fit-for-release status to justify the level of tinkering Springsteen employed. Your mileage may vary.
I never really delved deep into studio bootlegs, so it just never bothered me, I guess. I have a few, but between the iffy sound quality and way some were sequenced, I never ended up listening to them often enough to get attached to specific versions. Most of the stuff on The Promise was completely new to me, or if not, I'd forgotten about the bootlegs I hadn't heard for years by the time it came out. Like, I've listened to a bunch of BITUSA outtakes years ago, but if he touches up the vocal for "Sugarland" so it's not 3 minutes of "baby bop, bop" I'll be fine with it. Or if the absence of a properly recorded lead vocal is the difference between an electric Nebraska song existing or not, I think he should go for it. Also, I don't think he cares how attached people are to bootlegs. He knows they're out there, but he's not making product with that in mind, nor should he, necessarily.
I'll take another whack at the dead horse. The tinkering stinks. It's rendered a lot of potentially scintillating archival material unlistenable for me. I suspect Tracks 2 will be more of the same. Whether he likes it or not, his vintage bootleg material is a huge part of his history. People love it, and are familiar with it. Unless he does a real careful job making alterations to it (he hasn't), and markets it in an honest way (he kinda hasn't), he's gonna be open to criticism. Springsteen's appeal has always been his authenticity. I believe that if he had released this archival stuff as-is, warts and all, it would be viewed in a more favorable light.
I suspect you would have as many people who are fans but not fanatics complaining about the unfinished mumbling (think Because the Night with mostly unfinished lyrics) as you will find complaints about tinkering. An artist who has control issues is going to be reluctant to formally issue unfinished product. And authentic? He reiterated night after night on Broadway that he is a fraud. I love the guy's music as much as anyone, but at this point I'm not so sure about authentic. He's committed and gives everything he has night after night. But I don't know that would be labeled as authentic. There is a lot behind that curtain I suspect. I guess you have the boots, many in excellent quality at this point, to serve as the main set with the finished product as the Giles Martin version...
But as he spent a year on Broadway (or however long it was) telling everyone, he is not remotely authentic. It is an act. And I believe him. He still makes extraordinarily good music and is a brilliant showman.
Neil Young is releasing HOMEGROWN and is going to release a ton of old stuff cause he wants his fans to hear it before they die. Bruce needs to do the same thing. Get those songs out there !!!
Yeah, it's unfortunate. For clarities sake, the majority of the vocal on "The Brokenhearted" was original. It was just the ad libs at the end that were contemporary. And may I add, a jarring and completely unnecessary addition. It comes perilously close to ruining this awesome, "Orbison-esque" track.
No he's just finishing stuff he put down in 1977 My personal moment of greatest pain was his modern vocal for Night Fire. omfg instant ptsd I had waited for the studio take from the Power Station June 13 1979; all we had were Telegraph Hill March 30. The tape from June sounds great....until the old man of the sea cuts in on lead vocal. Why why why. What alternate universe is he operating from?
If this is the only surviving recording of it, I can't blame him. It sounds like a boombox recording. This isn't releasable. I guess I'd want to know what was on the June tape vocally before getting bent out of shape about it. Yeah, it's obviously a new vocal, but I guess since it was a completely new song to me, I just couldn't get that upset. If I knew there was a fully completed 1979 vocal, maybe I'd feel differently. (Is there?)
That was his September 27 demo for Patti Smith, which showed he wrote very few lyrics since June 1 He replaced lead vocals by his 28 year old voice with his 61 year old Walter Brennan model. Steve told him NOOOOOO, Landau said "he's pulling our leg", and Patti said,"I'm leaving you", but nothing had any effect. Short story. Springsteen never liked “The Fever,” but he played it on the Darkness tour in many cities because, he said, “people would jump onstage and grab me by the head and scream, ‘Bruce! Fever!’” It was played at Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston, TX, the next evening, and 22 more times to the end of the Darkness tour. He did not play it again until he had to promote it for 18 Tracks in 1999.
I recognize that this is an audiophile forum and, as such, I fully expect to get filleted for saying this but, in my opinion, despite the abominable sound quality of the bootleg, there's entirely no comparison between these two performances. The youthful performance is so vastly superior to the released version that it's tempting to have Springsteen incarcerated or at least committed to a mental institution for what is plainly a travesty. He had a window of time to go back and finish those old, incomplete outtakes and that window closed...decades ago.
Appel worked taped copies of the studio version to certain markets for radio play in 1974 which was the reason why it gained such popularity in select cites...including Houston. It was played at some of the 1974 shows specifically on the strength of this early radio play.
I agree ... he's turning into George Lucas ... freaking messing with greatness. Just stop. If you really want to mess with them. Put out both versions and let the fans choose. Also ... the band sounds so much alive in this. The one on Ties That Bind sounds like a bad cover band.
"The Ballad" remains one of my favorite tracks (of many) of his. I don't know if there is some tape speed issues on the boots of it but "The Ballad" or "Castaway" slays me. I can make out a few lines of the lyrics here and there, or what I imagine they are lol.
I love the boombox version of Chain Lightning; hate the released version, was severely disappointed from the first time I heard it, partially, in an then-upcoming promotional ad/video for the "documentary" that's included in the River box set. My heart sank hearing that. If the other arrangement is sitting in a vault, that's a real shame. I think the "let the fans choose" idea is a great and important one with Springsteen, who's had so many different arrangements of many songs, and he often chooses the wrong one for release.
I'm super confused as to what you uploaded in that folder. The same pre-summer outtake that's on Youtube, that's pretty obviously not a multitrack and thus not useable, and the 2015 version? Like, sure, vintage vocals would be optimal, but my point is that maybe he did new ones in 2015 because it was the only choice, barring a flying DeLorean showing up to Thrill Hill studio. If someone has the studio, properly recorded '79 take with original vocals, I'd love to hear it, but I'm not convinced the song ever made it that far in the studio.
To be fair, he could've included all the boombox recordings instead of yet another unnecessary copy of The River, and then no one would've been able to complain. I'll never understand products aimed at diehards that contain the same studio album said diehards inevitably have already bought multiple times.
