The Vinyl Project: Live 1975-1985 by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (1986)
A Trip Thru Your Grooves - Episode 6
Release Date: 10-November-1986
Genre: Rock / Live Recording
Producer: Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, Bruce Springsteen
Label: Columbia Records
Time: 3h 36m 13s
Review Date: 13-November-2018
Format: 5-LP Box Set
Side One
Release Date: 10-November-1986
Genre: Rock / Live Recording
Producer: Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, Bruce Springsteen
Label: Columbia Records
Time: 3h 36m 13s
Review Date: 13-November-2018
Format: 5-LP Box Set
Side One
- Thunder Road
- Adam Raised a Cain
- Spirit in the Night
- 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
Side Two
- Paradise By the "C"
- Fire
- Grown' Up
- It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City
Side Three
- Backstreets
- Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
- Raise Your Hand
Side Four
- Hungry Heart
- Two Hearts
- Cadillac Ranch
- You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
- Independence Day
Side Five
- Badlands
- Because the Night
- Candy's Room
- Darkness on the Edge of Town
- Racing in the Street
Side Six
- This Land is Your Land
- Nebraska
- Johnny 99
- Reason to Believe
Side Seven
- Born in the USA
- Seeds
- The River
Side Eight
- War
- Darlington County
- Working on the Highway
- The Promised Land
Side Nine
- Cover Me
- I'm On Fire
- Bobby Jean
- My Hometown
Side Ten
- Born to Run
- No Surrender
- Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
- Jersey Girl
Review: Truth be told, when this album was released I waited in line outside of Coconut Records in Oak Lawn, IL for three hours on a rainy Monday morning. I risked losing my job because the word on the streets was that the demand was so high for this set that record stores would be sold out 'til after Christmas, and I was disinclined to wait two months for my copy. I bought one for myself in CD version and another for my co-worker Joey, who covered my tardiness to my employer by stating that I was "working at our offsite warehouse." The one with no phone lines.
I so wanted the vinyl version, but quantities were limited, and by the time I made it into the store I was forced to choose between the CD and cassette versions. To say I was disappointed is an understatement.
Further, the Boss wasn't touring that year after completing a fifteen-month, four-continent excursion to promote the band's Born in the U.S.A. release. So Live 1975-1985 was as close as it got to live Bruce in '86. Fear not, though; this is a nice, chronological, concert-in-a-box compilation that even includes what would be a stellar encore to any real show (see Side Ten above).
An aside: I almost didn't buy Live 1975-1985 that day, in fact. November 13th was my girlfriend's birthday, and I swore if Joey didn't pay me back the $20 for his set I was going to kick his ass. I needed that $20 to buy Lori some perfume. Three days 'til her birthday, five days 'til payday, and a Springsteen listening party was definitely not on her wish list. You get the math. Also - Lori was not a big fan of Joey back then. Or Bruce Springsteen, for that matter.
And look, there's nothing as exhilarating as a Springsteen concert. From fist-pumping anthems to heartfelt ballads, the Boss leaves it all on the stage, every time. This set is no exception, offering the best performances of the E Street Band's entire career. And, I've said it a thousand times, nobody counts off a song with the intensity that Bruce does. Just listen to Adam Raised a Cain on Side One or Bobby Jean on Side Nine.
There's not a bad song in the entire box set, though to this day I lament that Jungleland, Prove it All Night, The Fever, Kitty's Back and Sherry Darling were not included. I could live without Cadillac Ranch if I take off my fanboy hat.
Nitpicking aside, nothing in heaven or on earth can eclipse the staggering cannonade of Live 1975-85 and the stunning wonder of its forty songs. Thanks to its chronological sequencing, it's more than amazing to witness the way that the Boss captivates an audience no matter how large or small. In the older shows that pre-date The River, Springsteen adds a story or two to properly season a few of his songs. As he matures in his sets, and his audiences get larger, he speaks and sings more toward political concerns, never more evident than the flippant shot at the Republican Machine with Badlands, recorded the night after Ronald Reagan's election to Presidency in 1980.
Still, I truly dig the older stuff from Springsteen's mid 1970s shows more than anything else.
On that dreary November day in 1986, standing in the cold rain and flurries outside that record store, all I could think about was getting to and from work so I could go cover-to-cover with the entire 3-CD set. When darkness falls in the late afternoon, and you're still trying to transition from summer to winter in the Midwest, and you've just spent your last twenty bucks at the record store so you can listen to your hero, your life feels an awful lot like most every song on The River.
And I remember getting home, ordering a pizza, and hitting my sofa - man my feet were propped up on the arm of that weathered leather beast like I owned the world. I took my phone off the hook and immersed myself in all 216 minutes of Live 1975-1985. Just me and the Boss, best buds and compatriots in our desire to change the world.
Finally, after 30+ years, I own this in LP format, and tonight, for the next four hours, I'll repeat that early November night of 1986.
There I was one night, I was just a normal guy. And there I was, 30 years later...goddamn I was still just a normal guy.
Best Songs: Growin' Up, It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City, Badlands, The River, Johnny 99, Reason to Believe, No Surrender, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
A Deep Cut You'll Love: Jersey Girl
Anticipation? Springsteen's long-awaited and highly anticipated live album generated advance orders of more than 1.5 million copies, making it the largest dollar-volume pre-order in the history of the record business at the time. Record stores around the country found fans waiting in line hours before they opened on its release date. One New York store reportedly sold the album right off the back of the delivery truck. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart, a then-rare occurrence that hadn't happened since Stevie Wonder released Songs in the Key of Life in 1976. Live 1975-1985 also became the first five-record set to reach the top 10 and the first to sell over a million copies.
An interesting fact about this album: Live 1975–85 is the second-best-selling live album in U.S. history based on RIAA certification. It has been certified by the RIAA for 13x platinum, trailing only Garth Brooks' Double Live. The box set's sales performance attracted considerable media attention at the time, first for setting sales records during the 1986 holiday shopping period, then later for the large number of follow-up orders in early 1987, many which went unsold, leaving a number of retailers overstocked.
Hey.... wanna donate toward my passion? I thank you kindly in advance.
I so wanted the vinyl version, but quantities were limited, and by the time I made it into the store I was forced to choose between the CD and cassette versions. To say I was disappointed is an understatement.
Further, the Boss wasn't touring that year after completing a fifteen-month, four-continent excursion to promote the band's Born in the U.S.A. release. So Live 1975-1985 was as close as it got to live Bruce in '86. Fear not, though; this is a nice, chronological, concert-in-a-box compilation that even includes what would be a stellar encore to any real show (see Side Ten above).
An aside: I almost didn't buy Live 1975-1985 that day, in fact. November 13th was my girlfriend's birthday, and I swore if Joey didn't pay me back the $20 for his set I was going to kick his ass. I needed that $20 to buy Lori some perfume. Three days 'til her birthday, five days 'til payday, and a Springsteen listening party was definitely not on her wish list. You get the math. Also - Lori was not a big fan of Joey back then. Or Bruce Springsteen, for that matter.
And look, there's nothing as exhilarating as a Springsteen concert. From fist-pumping anthems to heartfelt ballads, the Boss leaves it all on the stage, every time. This set is no exception, offering the best performances of the E Street Band's entire career. And, I've said it a thousand times, nobody counts off a song with the intensity that Bruce does. Just listen to Adam Raised a Cain on Side One or Bobby Jean on Side Nine.
There's not a bad song in the entire box set, though to this day I lament that Jungleland, Prove it All Night, The Fever, Kitty's Back and Sherry Darling were not included. I could live without Cadillac Ranch if I take off my fanboy hat.
Nitpicking aside, nothing in heaven or on earth can eclipse the staggering cannonade of Live 1975-85 and the stunning wonder of its forty songs. Thanks to its chronological sequencing, it's more than amazing to witness the way that the Boss captivates an audience no matter how large or small. In the older shows that pre-date The River, Springsteen adds a story or two to properly season a few of his songs. As he matures in his sets, and his audiences get larger, he speaks and sings more toward political concerns, never more evident than the flippant shot at the Republican Machine with Badlands, recorded the night after Ronald Reagan's election to Presidency in 1980.
"Lights out tonight, trouble in the heartland. Got a head-on collision smashin' in my guts, man. I'm caught in a cross-fire that I don't understand."
Still, I truly dig the older stuff from Springsteen's mid 1970s shows more than anything else.
"There I was one night, I was just a normal guy. And there I was the next night...goddamn I was still just a normal guy."
On that dreary November day in 1986, standing in the cold rain and flurries outside that record store, all I could think about was getting to and from work so I could go cover-to-cover with the entire 3-CD set. When darkness falls in the late afternoon, and you're still trying to transition from summer to winter in the Midwest, and you've just spent your last twenty bucks at the record store so you can listen to your hero, your life feels an awful lot like most every song on The River.
And I remember getting home, ordering a pizza, and hitting my sofa - man my feet were propped up on the arm of that weathered leather beast like I owned the world. I took my phone off the hook and immersed myself in all 216 minutes of Live 1975-1985. Just me and the Boss, best buds and compatriots in our desire to change the world.
Finally, after 30+ years, I own this in LP format, and tonight, for the next four hours, I'll repeat that early November night of 1986.
There I was one night, I was just a normal guy. And there I was, 30 years later...goddamn I was still just a normal guy.
Best Songs: Growin' Up, It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City, Badlands, The River, Johnny 99, Reason to Believe, No Surrender, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
A Deep Cut You'll Love: Jersey Girl
Anticipation? Springsteen's long-awaited and highly anticipated live album generated advance orders of more than 1.5 million copies, making it the largest dollar-volume pre-order in the history of the record business at the time. Record stores around the country found fans waiting in line hours before they opened on its release date. One New York store reportedly sold the album right off the back of the delivery truck. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart, a then-rare occurrence that hadn't happened since Stevie Wonder released Songs in the Key of Life in 1976. Live 1975-1985 also became the first five-record set to reach the top 10 and the first to sell over a million copies.
An interesting fact about this album: Live 1975–85 is the second-best-selling live album in U.S. history based on RIAA certification. It has been certified by the RIAA for 13x platinum, trailing only Garth Brooks' Double Live. The box set's sales performance attracted considerable media attention at the time, first for setting sales records during the 1986 holiday shopping period, then later for the large number of follow-up orders in early 1987, many which went unsold, leaving a number of retailers overstocked.
- Previous Review: The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle by Bruce Springsteen (1973)
- Up Next: The Pretenders Self-Titled Debut (1980)
Hey.... wanna donate toward my passion? I thank you kindly in advance.
Comments
Post a Comment