Walk like a Man (26 page)
November 16â17, 1990 · Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California
I wrote about these two shows earlier, the benefits for the Christic Institute that saw Springsteen break his postâ
Tunnel of Love
seclusion. But it bears repeating: these are absolutely essential recordings, and they justify the entire bootleg industry. The shows are stark, solo, and acoustic, with breathtaking moment after breathtaking moment. The first-ever performances of “Real World” are the sound of a man coming to terms with himself in public, while “Redheaded Woman” is a playful bit of exhibitionism. The recasting of older material, including “Thunder Road” and “Brilliant Disguise,” reveals heretofore unexplored depths, and even the usually triumphant “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” takes on a mournful tone.
6
Released as
Acoustic Tales
and
Christic Night
.
November 8, 1996 · St. Rose of Lima School, Freehold, New Jersey
The two finest shows of
The Ghost of Tom Joad
tour are the tour are the most atypical. The November 26, 1996, show at the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park, N.J., was a homecoming of sorts, with a wildly varied setlist and guest appearances by Danny Federici, Little Steven Van Zandt,
7
and “Mad Dog” Vini Lopez. I, however, lean toward the November 8 show in Freehold as one of the most significant nights of Springsteen's performing career. Highlights include one of the few performances of “In Freehold,” and a personal setlist that presents a vivid picture of Springsteen's life to that point. Ah, hell, get 'em both. November 26 released as
Asbury Park Night;
November 8 released as
Freehold Night.
AFTER THE turn of the millennium, two things happened that have substantially reduced the importance of commercial bootlegging over the last decade. The first was a certain looseness in Springsteen's regard for his work. Tours since the reunion tour are largely well represented with official releases: the
Live in Barcelona, Live in
Dublin,
and
London Calling Live in Hyde Park
dvds are solid shows from the
Rising, Seeger Sessions,
and
Working on a Dream
tours, respectively. The second was the rise in technology: the presence of the internet in every home and the ubiquity of recording devicesâ audio and videoâpretty much put professional bootleggers out of business. Virtually every show is now recorded and distributed online within hours of the final bows. There are a couple of fan-created projects, however, that are well worth seeking out:
The Promise Delivered
The final stand of the 1999â2000 Reunion tour at New York City's Madison Square Garden is captured officially on the
Live in New York
City
CDs and DVDs, but this seven-disc fan project is worth tracking down. The first three discs capture the final night, July 1, 2000, in its entirety. If the crowd chanting “E Street Band, E Street Band” late in the show doesn't bring a lump to your throat, you're clearly doing something wrong. And the rewritten “Blood Brothers” that closed out the night, and the tour, will make any Springsteen fan cry. Discs four through six capture rarities and one-offs from the stand. The seventh disc, a data disc, is a bit of a relic now, but this collection is essential.
Love, Tears and Mystery
The solo acoustic 2005
Devils & Dust
tour isn't universally adored by fans, but, personally, I find it a revelation, night after night. The eleven-disc
Love, Tears and Mystery
compilation exhaustively captures that tour. The first two discs are a “typical” set
8
compiled from a variety of sources, while the next nine discs (yes, nine) capture every song performed on the tour, along with variant versions (“Born in the U.S.A.” with regular mic and with distorting bullet mic, for example). Is there such a thing as
too
exhaustive? Maybe, but this isn't it.
Love, Tears and Mystery
is a labour of love, and it's probably the bootleg I've listened to most in the last five years. There is much, much here to love.
SPRINGSTEEN HAS been performing for over forty years; these recordings are, of course, just the tip of the iceberg. A taster, as it were. If you like these, there's a lot more out thereâsome better shows, some better sound, buried treasures, and colossal performances. Download speeds are fast, and hard drives are cheap: roll your tapes!
1
I am even more conflicted about studio bootlegs; to my mind, those tracks have been stolen, plain and simple, and were never intended for public consumption. That being said, yes, I have partaken. Yes, I did inhale.
2
In compiling this list, I thought it best to get some outside input, and I put the question of essential bootlegs out to my online community. I'm indebted to the members of the Facebook rmas rebooted group for their input.
3
The shadiness of the bootleg world makes for a lot of confusion around releases, sound quality, sources, and so on. I've included a couple of variant titles, where applicable, for releases of some shows as guideposts. Your online sources will point you to the best available versions.
4
Among the foremost bootleg labels of the last decade or so is Crystal Cat: their recordings and releases are generally top-notch. Their releases all follow the (blank)
Night
format, so there's a hint.
5
A
Sophie's Choice
analogy would be excessive, but only just.
6
It was the Christic version of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” with the sad refrain of “I'm on my own, and I can't go home,” that I played over and over the night Clarence Clemons died. It broke my heart.
7
After leaving the E Street Band in 1984, Van Zandt underwent a nicknamectomy, replacing “Miami Steve” with “Little Steven.” His band in those years was called Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul.
8
There's no such thing as a “typical”
Devils & Dust
show, but the concerts followed a general format, which the first two discs document.
T
he thing about music? There's never enough of it, at least for me. The fourteen tracks of the book's “mix-tape” are the core of
Walk Like a Man,
the songs around which the stories orbit. I've created a playlist for them; you can find it
here
.
There are more songs, though. There are always more songs. Consider the following links as an extended playlist, a
B
-side to the core mix-tape, or a deluxe edition of the album... Whatever you call it, be sure to play them loud. And if you're interested in lyrics, check out
these
, pulled from Springsteen's official website.
Certain Songs
The Hold Steady
Voodoo Child
Rogue Traders
Growin' Up
(live)
The River
(live)
War
(live)
Redheaded Woman
(live)
The Ghost of Tom Joad
(live with Tom Morello)
It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City
It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City
(live)
Badlands
(live)
Born to Run
(studio)
Born to Run
(live 1975)
Born to Run
(live 1985)
4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
(live)
Moondance
Van Morrison
Welcome to the Jungle
Guns N' Roses
Desire
U2
Tupelo Honey
Van Morrison
Living Proof
(live)
Bobby Jean
(live)
I'm on Fire
(live)
Atlantic City
The Hold Steady
Round Here
Counting Crows
Meet Me By the River's Edge
Gaslight Anthem
No Cars Go
Arcade Fire
Stuck Between Stations
The Hold Steady
Lord I'm Discouraged
(live) The Hold Steady
Constructive Summer
The Hold Steady
Your Little Hoodrat Friend
(live) The Hold Steady
Citrus
(live) The Hold Steady
The Smidge
The Hold Steady
Stay Positive
The Hold Steady
Bruce Springsteen: Official Site. Located at brucespringsteen.net.
Calvi, Paolo, et al. Killing Floor: Bruce Springsteen Database. Located at brucespringsteen.it.
Cavicchi, Daniel.
Tramps Like Us: Music and Meaning among Springsteen
Fans.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Coles, Robert.
Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, a Poet
Singing.
New York: Random House, 2003.
Cross, Charles, et al.
Backstreets: Springsteen, the Man and His Music.
New York: Harmony Books, 1991.
Diomedi, David, director.
VH1 Storytellers: Bruce Springsteen.
2005.
Editors of
Rolling Stone,
ed.
Springsteen: The Rolling Stone Files.
New York: Hyperion, 1996.
Eliot, Marc.
Down Thunder Road: The Making of Bruce Springsteen.
London, UK: Plexus, 1992.
Guterman, Jimmy.
Runaway American Dream: Listening to Bruce
Springsteen.
Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2005.
Henke, James. “Bruce Springsteen: The
Rolling Stone
Interview.”
Rolling Stone,
August 6, 1992.
Kirkpatrick, Rob.
Magic in the Night: The Words and Music of Bruce
Springsteen.
New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2009.
Landau, Jon. “Growing Young with Rock and Roll.”
The Real Paper,
May 22, 1974.
Masur, Louis P.
Runaway Dream: Born to Run and Bruce Springsteen's
American Vision.
New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009.
Polizzotti, Mark.
Highway 61 Revisited.
New York: Continuum, 2006.
Sandford, Christopher.
Springsteen: Point Blank.
London, UK: Warner, 2000.
Sawyers, June Skinner, ed.
Racing in the Streets: The Bruce Springsteen
Reader.
New York: Penguin, 2004.
Springsteen, Bruce.
Bruce Springsteen: Songs.
New York: Avon, 1998.
Wieder, Judy. “Bruce Springsteen:
The Advocate
Interview.”
The Advocate,
April 22, 1996.
Zimny, Thom, director.
Wings For Wheels: The Making of Born to
Run.
2005.
Zimny, Thom, director.
The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the
Edge of Town.
2010.
A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS ARE A tricky thing: on the one hand, they're vaguely self-indulgent, and most people don't read them. On the other hand, to a lot of the people who do read them, they're important, and not an indulgence on my part at all.
Some things just need to be said.
I usually start my acknowledgements pages with a caveat, and it's even more important with this book: the things I got right, I had a lot of help with. Any mistakes are entirely my own.
This might sound corny, considering this whole book is an acknowledgement of sorts, but it needs to be said: Bruce? Thank you for everything.
I'd like to thank Rob Sanders, who asked me to write this book, and the folks at Greystone, who worked with me on making it a reality.
I'd like to thank my editor, Barbara Pulling, for whipping my prose and punctuation into shape, and curbing some of my excesses, and my copy editor, Pam Robertson, for saving me from myself.
I'd like to thank my agent, Anne McDermid, and her associates, all of whom remain utterly unfazed when I throw curveballs their way.
I'd like to thank Anne Collins, my publisher at Random House, for her understanding and flexibility when it comes to projects like this.
I'd like to take a moment to recognize and thank the massive community of Bruce Springsteen fans around the world. There is no fact so hidden that someone doesn't know it, no magazine article so old that someone can't find it, no setlist so obscure that someone can't talk about it. I can't express how much I appreciate being the beneficiary of that accrued knowledgeâI really couldn't have written this book without it.
It's more than knowledge, though: it's genuine community, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it.
This being in part a memoir, I am indebted to the understanding and support of the people I've written about. Peter and Greg, my friends, my brothers, thank you. Not just for the bookâfor everything. Drinks are on me, when we three meet again.
There are a lot of other people in this book, as well. Family, friends from the various times of my life, acquaintances, and strangersâI am indebted to you all. As I was writing, I was careful to tell my stories, and avoid those that weren't mine to tell. I hope that nothing in these pages gives offense, or causes painâthat was certainly not my intention.