An album of questionable provenance (I bought it in Home Bargains !) that presents part of Springsteen and the E Street Bands set at the final show of the Amnesty International Human Rights Now tour.

Before the E Street Band set started Springsteen joined Sting for a version of “Every Breath You Take”. At the close of their set Bruce and the E Street Band performed Bob Marley’s “Get Up Stand Up”. Of course none of that interesting stuff is included on this record !

What you do get is 6 songs from “Born In The USA”, “The River” and covers of Edwin Starr’s “War” and Bob Dylan’s “Chimes Of Freedom” (along with Sting, Peter Gabriel, Youssou N'Dour & Tracy Chapman) and for some reason none of it in the order it was actually played on the night. The most disturbing thing about this recording is that “The River” appears to feature a verse sung by Sting…oh the horror ! A nice historical document with some interesting bits missing.

Chimes Of Freedom - https://youtu.be/19vEO4GGkac?si=kr_z4UGieMAoVF4n

A 5 LP box set that does exactly what it says on the box. It compiles performances from small clubs to huge stadiums from New Jersey to California.

Although the E Street Band (in one form or another) have been playing behind Bruce Springsteen from the beginning of his recording career this was the first album release to credit the band. But it makes sense to credit them here because on stage is where the E Street Band prove themselves to be, as The Boss often describes them at the end of shows “The heart-stopping, pants-dropping, earth-shocking, hard rocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, love-making, Viaaaagra-taking, history-making, legendary E! Street! Band!”.

All the “hits” are here, everything you’d expect of a Springsteen show in those first ten years. The only thing that is conspicuously absent is “Jungleland”, who knows why. There are also a handful of (to me) previously unheard songs and cover versions. “Paradise By The C” is an instrumental introduced on the “Darkness On the Edge Of Town” tour to kick off the second half of the show and features the Big Man; “Seeds” is a song that has been around since “Born In the USA” but this is it’s only official release. The covers are Eddie Floyd’s “Raise Your Hand”, Edwin Starr’s “War” (which I saw him play live with Edwin at V*ll* Park on the “Tunnel Of Love Express” tour), a beautiful version of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” and finally Tom Waits “Jersey Girl” (recorded at the Meadowlands in New Jersey) to which Bruce added a final verse that fits so perfectly it’s almost like he wrote the whole song himself. 

Some high-spots for me are “4th July Asbury Park (Sandy)” recorded at the Roxy in LA in 1978, a superb performance highlighting Danny Federici’s accordion playing, and from the same show a great version of “Growin Up”. Springsteen goes off on one his extended stories mid-song about the time he had to go to court after he was involved in a motorcycle accident. After it’s all over his Dad is telling him he should become a lawyer and “get a little something for yourself”. But his Mom is telling him he should become an author “it’s a nice life and you can get a little something for yourself”. They’re both in the audience and from the stage he tells them he wants it all and “tonight yous’ll just have to settle for rock ’n’ roll”…and right on cue the E Street Band kicks back in and it’s just about one of the most thrilling things you could hear. There’s a performance of “Born In The USA” so full of righteous fury that, as on the tour this was recorded on it was the 1st song in the set every night, it makes you wonder what he was doing before going onstage to conjure that up. Side 5’s juxtaposition of a raging “Darkness On The Edge Of Town” followed by my great favourite “Racing In The Street” has been close to bringing me to tears more than once.

“Live/1975-85” is as close as you’ll get to a Springsteen gig in a box.

This Land Is Your Land - https://youtu.be/oxSPEgqsaec?si=6aCdc2WCEu6JaFWF

This albums title track could very well be one of the most misunderstood songs in America’s history and consequently Springsteen doesn’t play it very often in the USA. Republican President’s Ronald  Reagan and Donald Trump have both either referred to “Born In The USA” or played it at political rallies. The stars and bars are a very powerful symbol in America so to put it on the cover of your album attracts much attention. Springsteen is a proud American but understands its realities. Those Republicans obviously only heard the chorus and saw the flag because if they’d listened to the verses they would have heard Springsteen asking why, for millions of Americans who, like him, were “Born In The USA”, why aren’t things better for them

“Born down in a dead man's town

The first kick I took was when I hit the ground

End up like a dog that's been beat too much

'Til you spend half your life just covering up”

Bruce Springsteen was a huge success by 1984 but Columbia wanted hits both in terms of singles and multi million selling albums. Well they got both from “Born In The USA”, it produced 7 (US) top 10 singles and has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. It put Springsteen up in the “pop” firmament alongside the likes of Prince and Madonna. Although that first hit single proved somewhat contentious.

Recording had begun in January 1982 and by the start of 1984 Springsteen considered the album finished, but Jon Landau still thought the record lacked a lead single. Springsteen’s response to that was “I’ve written 70 songs for this album, if you want another one write it yourself”. However, two days later in a New York hotel room Springsteen played Landau “Dancing In The Dark”, a hit single about not wanting to or knowing how to write a hit single, that he wrote in 40 minutes. It was recorded the next night and went on to be the worldwide hit that launched “Born In The USA”.

These songs are great, the likes of “No Surrender”, “Bobby Jean”, “Darlington County” and “Glory Days” as well as the title song and “Dancing In The Dark” are likely to turn up whenever you go to a Springsteen gig. But this one isn’t a record I play very often. Because of its very 80’s production I much prefer to hear most of these songs played live where they take on the sound of the band and are much less sterile. Most of them I have available on various live album releases or as part of gigs I’ve downloaded from live.brucespringsteen.net. In fact I have live versions of all but 2 songs (“I’m Goin’ Down” and “Downbound Train”) and when we saw the Wrecking Ball Tour in Ireland in 2013 the album was performed in its entirety.

“Born In The USA” made Bruce Springsteen a global superstar, a celebrity, something that never sat well with him. He played the game, did the year long world tour and made millions of dollars for the record company. The “Born In The USA” tour was where he moved from arenas to stadiums, demand for tickets in Europe was so high he had to and he still maintains he and the band are bigger in Europe than in the US where they still play arenas in the main. Many people’s lasting impression of Springsteen was formed at this time. If Columbia Records were expecting a quick follow up in the same vein they were to be disappointed, they’d have to wait 3 years for another studio album and chest thumping stadium rock it wasn’t.

Born In The USA - https://youtu.be/EPhWR4d3FJQ?si=-DPi-6_VDKdFkD0_