Thundercrack (Bruce Springsteen) (LP 3885 - 3893)

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band  Live at My Father's Place in Roslyn, July 31, 1973 (Vinyl, Dol Records, 2015) ***  

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band  Live/ 1975 - 85 (Vinyl - 5 album box set, CBS Records, 1986) **** 

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band  Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 (CD, CBS Records, 2006) ***** 

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band  The Fox Theater, Atlanta, Georgia USA 30th September 1978 (3CD, Echoes Records, 2014) ****

Bruce Springsteen  Live at the Roxy Theater, Hollywood 1978 (Vinyl, Bootleg) *****

Bruce Springsteen Piece de Resistence (Vinyl, Bootleg) *****

Springsteen The E Street Band  The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts (2CD/DVD, Sony Music, 2021) *****

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band  Live in New York City (2CD, Columbia Records, 2001) *****

Bruce Springsteen  Live to Air (2CD, Bootleg, 2014) ***

Genre: Folk rock, rock

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi for most, except the bootlegs were mail orders and Live 1975/85 is from Marbecks Records.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Lost in the Flood (Live in New York)

Gear costume: Kitty's Back (Hammersmith Odeon) American Skin (41 Shots) (Live in New York)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: The billing is fairly shared between Bruce and the band on many of the live albums because he couldn't have done what he did without them. It was and still is a symbiotic relationship, and live is where all things Bruce became fully ALIVE!

We start in 1973 with a radio show that has songs from his first two albums. At this stage the E Street Band was Clarence, Garry, Danny, David Sancious and Vini Lopez.

It's now a historical record of where they started and it does feel a bit tentative. The sound is also a tad thin given it's a radio broadcast. Fourth of July was yet to gain its epic arrangement for instance. Spirits in the Night is sung with passion and played well by the band - a definite highlight.

The five album box set was all you could get of Bruce live in 1986, unless, like me, you had some bootlegs - which I think are far superior but more on that to come.

The box set suffers through its cherry-picked format, rather than being one concert. Again - those releases would eventually come. However, if you listen to the ten sides in one go like I've just done, it all makes sense and feels like one epic concert by the Boss and the E Street Band. 

That said, I still prefer the single concert experience and Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 delivers that and some. In 2006 Bruce presumably gave the okay for this release. Aside from the crime that it took so long, this is a very welcome double CD release.

The whole concert is outstanding and justifies the hype that Bruce disliked so much - the future of rock'n'roll was a heavy tag to place on him, but he's still going strong in 2025!

Disc two is an amazing series of climaxes - Kitty's Back (a great jazzy version) is followed by Jungleland is followed by Rosalita is followed by...OMG...Sandy!! And there are still three songs to go!! You get the picture? BTW: the shock of hearing the Jersey references being met with a London silence is just plain weird, and it must be the only place and time when Jungleland wasn't sung back to the band!

One of the strengths of this set from my pov is that it only draws on the first 3 albums - so it's tight, and it's my favourite period of the E Street Band - which helps!

Next up -1978! The Fox Theater concert was a radio broadcast. The three CDs document the concert which includes a couple of songs that he was road testing for The River. It's a good summation of Bruce and the E Streeters 1978 concert experience, but it doesn't quite have the excitement of my next two albums.

Both the Roxy (a double album) and Piece de Resistence (a triple album) are bootlegs. The sound is superb on both.

First the Roxy one - some of the songs turned up on the Live/ 1975 - 85 box set, but they are better here as they are included as part of the stand alone concert. Bruce is pretty loose - chatty and engaging with the smaller club atmosphere (capacity of 500).

Piece de Resistence is a triple vinyl bootleg that documents 'the entire 75th performance of the 1978 tour/ recorded at the Capitol Theater, Sept 19, 1978/ Passaic, New Jersey'. It comes with a stamped number on the box lid - mine is 01773. No one could ever say that Bruce and the band ever phone in a performance. This album is a five-star classic.

One of the events of 1979 was No Nukes. This was a series of concerts put on by Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE). There was a triple album (we'll get to it in the fullness of time when I finish the zeds and get onto various artists) and a film (I went with Margo and Clay - she was NOT impressed by the Bruce showmanship section!).

It took a while - 2021 - but we finally got the full Springsteen/E Street Band extravaganza on a double CD and DVD package. The set list is mainly from Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town plus Rosalita and two songs from The River which had yet to be released in 1979. 

He rips into the encores like a man possessed with The Detroit Medley and an epic Quarter to Three and then a blast of Buddy Holly to finally end things. Massive!

Live in New York is great for a few reasons: this is an expanded E Street Band with Nils, and Patti joining for a 1999-2000 reunion tour; the audience participation is a nice feature; Bruce is in great form, as is The Big Man; they're in New York; older songs and their arrangements are dusted off and shine in the new E Street sound; newer songs like Youngstown (given the full E Street Band arrangement, and American Skin (41 Shots) are brilliantly performed; they sound like they mean it and they sound like they are having fun!

And finally, Live to Air - a bootleg compilation of songs done live in a variety of contexts. The sound quality is good but it's a disparate collection of songs with and without The E Street Band.

Where do they all belong? Next up - a run-down of some compilations.