Occasional Albums Thing 015 - Bruce Springsteen - “In Concert/MTV Unplugged”

MTV Unplugged was/is (it still runs occasionally) a series on MTV (D’UH!) that featured artists recorded live in concert but in an acoustic setting, or “unplugged”. It first aired on 26th November 1989 with performances by Squeeze, Syd Straw and Eliot Easton that had been recorded on 31st October. It aired regularly from 1989 to 1999, less frequently from 2000-2009 and these days is usually aired as a “special” and sometimes on pay-per-view only. The show has produced a number of superb performances and a lot of artists released their MTV Unplugged session as a live album, most famously I guess Nirvana but 10,000 Maniacs Unplugged album is fabulous (vinyl release please whoever might responsible for that) and the list of others includes McCartney, Neil Young, Dylan, Kiss (!!!), Die Toten Hosen, R.E.M. and many, many others.

On 22nd September 1992 Bruce Springsteen recorded his Unplugged session at the Warner Hollywood Studios in LA just after the start of the US leg of the Human Touch/Lucky Town tour. It was aired on November 11, 1992 with an hour long Springsteen documentary preceding it. But there was a twist in Springsteen’s Unplugged. He begins the show solo on acoustic guitar playing “Red Headed Woman”, a song very obviously about his wife Patti Scialfa, and lord only knows how she took to lyrics like “Well listen up stud your life's been wasted, 'Til you've got down on your knees and tasted…a red headed woman”. This album is still the only time the song has been released, a studio version allegedly remains in the can (***). Once he’s finished with that one he says “OK let’s rock it!” and out come the band to play the rest of the session Plugged, hence on the album cover the Un has a big red X through it. It’s been reported Springsteen was less than happy with his bands performances on acoustic arrangements so decided to play a full band show.

Now this is NOT the E Street Band, it’s his Human Touch/Lucky Town tour band, known now as “The Other Band”, only one or two of whom had even played on the albums they were touring. Patti and Professor Roy Bittan are still in situ but the rest of the band is very different. Drummer Zach Alford later went on to play extensively with Bowie, (English) guitarist Shane Fontayne had played with Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson, much of the rest of the band were drawn from the world of session musicians, hired hands to do a specific job (which may explain the disappointment with the acoustic arrangements ?). If you’ve been reading along here you’ll know that “Human Touch” in particular and “Lucky Town” to a lesser extent are not exactly my favourite of Bruce’s albums and the musicians used are a big part of that, and then he goes and replaces most of them to tour those two albums, it was a dodgy recipe from the start.

That’s not to say that “In Concert/MTV Unplugged” is bad. Side 1 is superb, you get a song that this is its only official release (“Red Headed Woman”); the first song with the band is a lively blast through “Better Days” the opening song from “Lucky Town” (in fact during the recording of this episode every song from “Lucky Town” was played) and one of the better songs from the “Human Touch/Lucky Town” double; that is followed by “Atlantic City” and “Darkness On the Edge Of Town” with “Professor” Roy Bittan really lifting the latter.

Some of the song selections are suspect, I could certainly live without “Man’s Job” (particularly as he drags it out to seven and a half minutes !) and on the extended CD version I could definitely lose the laughable “57 Channels And Nothing On” (I guess it’s good to know your heroes are fallible). although those were from the album(s) he was touring. The take of “Lucky Town” itself is great with jangly rhythm guitar and some soulful backing vocals. Some E Street staples are included, of course, none really as good as other E Street Band versions I have,  but it’s hard not to love “Thunder Road” played just on guitar and keyboard.

Of the songs that are of interest to the Springsteen obsessives like me “Light Of Day” (another where this is it’s only official release other than Bruce’s participation on a live album with Joe Grushecky & The House Rockers ***) is bashed out as a proper rocker, as it should be. This is the only recording I have of this song which I did hear played live on the Tunnel Of Love tour and the girls in the band really give it some on the chorus BV’s while the musicians are all given a spot to show off before Bruce testifies and the band kick back in. Final song “My Beautiful Reward” is another one very rarely played live, it’s been performed 127 times since 1992. Now that may sound like a lot but when you consider that so far his current world tour has taken in 130 shows, this song hasn’t been played live very often, which is a shame because it’s beautiful. It’s preceded by the equally lovely “If I Should Fall Behind”, try it at a wedding you’ll have ‘em tearing up around the room, and “Living Proof” his feelings on becoming a Father.

“MTV Unplugged” is an interesting document of a unique episode of MTV’s Unplugged series. What it lacks (mostly the E Street Band) it makes up for on a couple of songs that aren’t regular E Street set fillers. Not an essential Springsteen live record but interesting nevertheless.

Light Of Day - https://youtu.be/JsUj6vcKIqw?si=Ia22TUjfeNzIlsTa

***info like this is gleaned from the Bruce Base Wiki (http://brucebase.wikidot.com credit where credit is due). If you wanna know almost any minutiae about Springsteen songs, records or gigs I’d be surprised if you can’t find it here.