Full Article Text
JANUARY 9, 2011
FRONT PAGE POLITICS BUSINESS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT COMEDY SPORTS STYLE WORLD GREEN FOOD TRAVEL TECH
LIVING HEALTH DIVORCE ARTS BOOKS RELIGION IMPACT EDUCATION COLLEGE NY LA CHICAGO DENVER BLOGS
Michael Giltz
Freelance writer and raconteur
Posted: November 19, 2010 04:16 PM
BIO
Become a Fan
Get Email Alerts
Bloggers' Index
17
99
views
0
31Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyMusic: Bruce Springsteen's Boxed
Set -- The DVD Review
What's Your Reaction:
Read More: Bob Dylan , Bruce Springsteen , Darkness On The Edge Of Town , Lennon And McCartney ,
Entertainment News
Bruce Springsteen's new boxed set ($119.98; Columbia) is manna for hardcore fans like myself. You get a
newly remastered edition of Darkness On The Edge Of Town, the album that established Springsteen as
a serious artist and a grown-up. Then there's the two CD set The Promise, the "outtakes" from the
sessions for Darkness that provided enough great music for two more albums. This is the road not taken,
powerful catchy stuff that would have cemented his commercial appeal. But until Born In The USASpringsteen ran in the opposite direction whenever success reared its head. That's why Patti Smith got
"Because The Night" and the Pointer Sisters (!) got "Fire" and Springsteen kept "Adam Raised A Cain." It
all comes in a boxed set that is oversized (which I hate) but for a purpose: the case holding the discs isalso a reproduction of one of the many notebooks Springsteen filled to overflowing with song lyrics,
sometimes including endless variations on a particular song until he got it just right. It's a blast to pore
over.
MOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOSTBIG NEWS: Movies | Celebrity Kids | Rihanna | Mila Kunis | Energy Debates | More...
LOG IN | SIGN UP
SHARE THIS STORY
Get Entertainment Alerts
Email Comments 31
Democratic Rep. Shot,
Federal Judge Killed At
Public Event
Suspected Arizona Shooter
Identified: Disturbing
YouTube Videos, MySpace
GOP Congresswoman
Caught In Sexually
Suggestive Photos
What Not To Say When
Your Loved One Is Upset
How To Tell If It's Really
Food: A Flowchart
Marty Kaplan The "Lock
and Load" Rhetoric of
American Politics Isn't Just
a Metaphor
Sarah Palin Renounces
Arizona Shooting
Facebook Shutdown
Rumors Go Viral
Recommend 41K
Recommend 8K
Like 809
Like 986
Like 9K
Like 2K
Like 12K
Recommend 17K
Almost every review talks about his classic album and the bonus CDs with a brief mention at the end of
the three DVDs in this boxed set. I'm going to focus on the DVDs. DVD one contains The Promise: The
Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town, directed by Thom Zimny. It's a delight, filled with classic
archival footage. I'm intrigued by the idea that Springsteen was wary of fame but also let a film crew intohis rehearsals for days and weeks on end. The movie features in-depth interviews with all the band
members as well as Springsteen's once estranged manager Mike Appel. Locked in a court battle over
control of his career, Bruce was kept out of the studio for literally years after the titanic success of BornTo Run, which landed him on the cover of Time and Newsweek . The film captures well the tension of the
times, how two or three years between albums was an eternity back then.
This happened, ironically, when the music was pouring out of him. As Steven Van Zandt says, before this
album they just came up with the next 10 or 12 good songs and then recorded them. But instead of
coming up with about ten songs, like he did for Born To Run (ultimately including only eight), this time
he was writing more than 70 songs, an explosion of ideas. Every artist has to believe they're going to
change the world and rewrite the rules to achieve greatness. In one of the quotes that jumps out at you,
Springsteen says that at the time, more than fame and wealth, more than happiness, he wanted to begreat. They describe tossing out great songs that just didn't fit the album, crafting a coherent idea from
beginning to end, ignoring commerce for the sake of art as if they were the very first people in the history
of the world to do so. Toss aside a great song just because it didn't fit? Crazy. Of course, anyone who hasheard the Bob Dylan bootlegs or seen how the Beatles came up with their albums know Bruce wasn'tinventing the wheel. But it's fascinating to see how they had to believe they were to stay passionate andcommitted.
You really feel like you're in the studio with them, thanks to a lot of footage that shows them bickering
and discussing songs, Springsteen spending hours and hours trying to get the right drum sound, the band
teasing him by placing bets on what song he was going to take off the album that day or the length of thetracks. (4:45 sounded like a winner.) As Springsteen sits alone discussing those days, he is thoughtful as
always. It seems like the more sincere and earnest he gets, the more likely he is to look down and away,
not making eye contact with the interviewer or the camera, as if he's almost afraid to speak that loftilyabout what he was trying to accomplish. It's a fascinating film, though not one to draw in a lot of newfans. It should be enjoyable to anyone but will surely resonate most with those already baptized into the
faith.
The second DVD is my favorite. it contains Thrill Hill Vault Houston '78 Bootleg: House Cut. It's a
raucous three hour show -- the band had finally been released from purgatory and was out on the road
doing what they do best. It's not in any way a remarkable or stand-out show. It's what you probablywould have seen anywhere along the way: three hours of hellaciously entertaining rock and roll by the
best live band in the world. From the opener "Badlands" to the don't-you-dare-sit encore featuring a
Detroit medley, "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and more, it's a delight.
Strangely, Springsteen is a legendary live act but has rarely been caught well on film. It began with the
faux live video for "Dancing In the Dark," directed by Brian De Palma, not the most musical of film
directors to begin with. Springsteen seemed stiff and fake, the utter opposite of him in real life on stage.The boxed set Live 1971-1985 was great, but that was audio only. Every time he's done a concert film, like
the one in New York or the one in Dublin (or Barcelona or London), it's been a relentlessly tiresomebarrage of cut-cut-cuts to create excitement in the editing when the last thing a Springsteen show needsis help to generate power. Give any director today 15 cameras and by god, he's going to use them. It's the
curse of most concert films, though exceptions like Stop Making Sense by the Talking Heads prove it still
can be done with artistry. But not for Springsteen, who is whipsawed from camera to camera.
1 of 5
Michael R. Bloomberg
On the Tragic Shootings in
Arizona
Michael Smerconish
Thoughts on YesterdayDON'T MISS HUFFPOST BLOGGERS
HOT TRENDS
drew carey lost 85 pounds
john goodman lost
100 pounds miley
cyrus lap dance video
natalie portman natalie
portman pregnant
More Celebrity News at People.com
Olbermann: 'Put The Gun
Metaphors Away'
Like 10K
Jake Gyllenhaal Praises
(and Teases) Pregnant
Natalie Portman
READ MORE
Neil Patrick Harris Is
Smitten With Twins' Smiles
READ MORE
Report: Las VegasShowgirl's Body Was
Dismembered
READ MORE
Phaedra Parks Chats With
PopEater
Joan and Melissa Rivers
Retire From Red Carpet
Victoria Beckham
Expecting Baby No. 4
Happily, this relatively primitive recording in 1978 only had a few cameras. And though the director cuts
between them far more than say the artistry on display in The Last Waltz or Jazz On A Summer's Day,
they're a lot more likely to stay with a song and not feel the need to exploit eight different angles on every
single tune. So this is much, much closer to the experience of sitting in the audience and seeing his showin person. The image stays still long enough to let the performers create the moment, not the camera. It's
a treat and easily the best Springsteen concert film I've seen to date.
The final DVD has a grab-bag of stuff, some of it also sensational for hardcore fans. The first batch is
called Thrill Hill Vault 1976-1978. It begins with two rehearsals in someone's house in Holmdel, New
Jersey in 1976. Springsteen is shirtless and swaggering, having fun as they work through the songs "Save
My Love" and "Candy's Boy" (an early version of "Candy's Room") and then another tune -- "SomethingIn The Night" at Red Bank. You literally feel like you're hanging out with the guys, watching them work
their way towards greatness. Whoever is shooting the footage just has one camera, thank God, so they
stay focused on one person at a time, maybe panning from Steven Van Zandt back to Bruce is as fancy as
it gets. Fly on the wall stuff.
Then comes four songs recorded live in the studio in New York City in 1978. I've no idea what happened
on the first number, "Don't Look Back." It's utterly different than the rest, filled with all sorts of cuts and
edits, like any mishmash number recorded today. Maybe they just cut together a bunch of footage from
the session and kept the audio track to make it all seem to be happening at the same moment. It's of
course far less satisfying emotionally and artistically than the rest. The heart-stopping moment here is
getting to watch Springsteen sit at the piano and play "Candy's Room" as he works through the lyrics and
gives the others a sense of what it is. It's like getting to watch Lennon and McCartney sit down with anacoustic guitar and audition their latest tunes for George Martin. (If only such footage existed.)Otherwise, it's just one camera, which in one song moves from musician to musician just as if you were in
the room looking around. Artless, simple and again, much more fun than any concert he's recorded in
the past 20 years.
Then we get five songs from a Phoenix show in 1978 that produced the footage (I believe) for the music
video MTV ran over and over for "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)." It's a well-light, raucous show and whilethe editing is getting a little more fast-paced it's not out of control quite yet
Finally, we get a 2009 performance of the entire Darkness On The Edge Of Town album in order at the
Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Like the documentary film, it's directed by Thom Zimny,
but here he squanders a golden opportunity. This is a rehearsal of sorts -- just the band performing the
album without an audience. They're focused and tight and ready to prove the album and the band areboth as relevant and fiery as ever -- Springsteen wanted music that was rebellious but ready to own up to
its responsibilities, which is one reason it carries such conviction. It was meant to be played by adults and
it shows.
But of course, this being today, instead of a few well-placed cameras or cinematographers encouraged to
find a great angle and stick with it, all we get is cut-cut-cut throughout the set. The edits are so absurd
both musically and emotionally it'll drive you nuts. They cut in the middle of lines, sometimes even in themiddle of a word or phrase and for no apparent purpose. Since there's no audience, Zimny was
presumably even freer to place cameras anywhere he wanted without fear of blocking the sight line of a
fan. They could have been as close and intimate as they wanted. But you'd be hard-pressed to see anyvisual difference between this and any other concert film done with an audience. The band sounds great
of course. But oh, what might have been.
Any time I think of Springsteen on film, I think of the No Nukes concert. Springsteen is on stage and
right behind him is this red spotlight that bleeds out all around him. There's one camera and it's focused
tight on him as he begins to tell the story of "The River" and then sing that brilliant song. Springsteen isrooted to the spot but when he moves just a little to the left or the right, that red light fills up the screen
so you can barely see him at times. But the camera stays right there and the director doesn't cut away for
the longest time and it's one of the most magnetic things you'll ever see.
It's out of character for Springsteen to not have released the remastered Darkness CD on its own already.
It's not even scheduled for release that I can see, when at most there should have been maybe a week or
two when only the people who could shell out for the entire box got the album as well. Right now you canbuy the two CD set of The Promise, which is like a great lost Springsteen album. And presumably at some
point soon you'll be able to get the Darkness CD. But for hardcore fans, the three DVDs contain a wealthof material they'll soak up. And anyone wondering how to capture a great artist on film can learn a lot byseeing how much more gripping and involving it is to simply let the artist perform. Constant cutting isTOP VIDEO PICKS
Queen's Royal Wedding
Rift
Kourtney K.'s StunningBikini Bod
Jane Krakowski RevealsBaby Bump
1 of 9
MOST DISCUSSED RIGHT NOW
HOT ON FACEBOOK
HOT ON TWITTER
Hockey
Jerry Brown
Gabrielle
GiffordsHUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGES
More Celebrity News at Popeater.com
Victoria Beckham
Pregnant: To Have Fourth
Child With Soccer Star
David Beckham
103 Comments
PHOTO: Rihanna, Nicki
Minaj Tweet About
Hooking Up
121 Comments
Camille Grammer's Porn
Past Comes Back To
Haunt Her
1,111 Comments
PHOTO: Adam Levine
Goes Nude
250 Comments
'True Grit' Wins Box Office
With $15 Million Weekend
25 Comments
Ashton Kutcher: Training,
Paranoid About Real Life
'End Of Days'
905 Comments
TOP LINKS ON THIS TOPIC
1 of 5
Pictures of 61 birthday facts about Bruce Springsteen -
Photos - NME.COM
Bruce Springsteen: 'People thought we were gone.
Finished' | Music | The Guardian
YouTube - Song A Day #587: The Ballad of Steven
Slater
'Sarah Palin's
Alaska' NOT
Kourtney
Kardashian Shows
Kardashians SUED
For $75 Million Over
Rihanna, Nicki Minaj
Tweet About 'Fly,'like refusing to use a wideshot when Fred Astaire is dancing. It's a lot more exciting to see him do his
stuff than it is to cut cut cut and ruin the beauty of his skill. The same is true for rock and roll. Happily,
you'll find enough accidental and intentional examples of that here, along with the best live concert film
of Springsteen to date. It puts to shame all the more elaborate efforts that have come out in recent years.No fan will want to miss it.
*****
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that
reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinionmakers as guests. It's available free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also
available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and
reviews .
NOTE: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of DVDs to consider for review. He typically does notguarantee coverage and invariably receives far more screeners and DVDs than he can cover each
week. Also, Michael Giltz freelances as a writer of DVD copy (the text that appears on the back of
DVDs) for some titles released by IFC and other subsidiaries of MPI. It helps pay the rent, but does notobligate him in any way to speak positively or negatively of their titles.
Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz
Related News On Huffington Post:
Patti Smith To Stephen Colbert: 'I Like My Award' (VIDEO)
Stephen Colbert told Patti Smith last night on his show: "Some have said
you're the mother of the punk rock world. That must be a...
Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:
Diane Winston: Harry Potter and Springsteen: Religion, Spirituality and
Storytelling
Bruce made it possible to believe that we could find meaning, feel love and snatch
pleasure from pain. The gospels of contemporary culture have similar messages
but are delivered with whimsy, finesse and media savvy.
More in Entertainment...
Animals
NFL
Soccer
Tea Party
Environment
Energy
MORE BIG NEWS PAGES »
FOLLOW HUFFINGTON POST
shanedunlop Bruce Springsteen - The Wrestler http://t.co/vDIAwfo
less than a minute ago from Tweet Button
physcicsuprise this one grew on me, -- Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Fire
http://t.co/fKlGa5u via @youtube
1 minute ago from Tweet Button
Dinokassie Q: If you could only listen to one song for the A: I'm On Fire Bruce
Comments 31 Pending Comments 0View FAQ
11 Fans
8 Fans
1 FansRenewed For
Second...Off Beach Body In... Debit... Joke...
probably because it wasn't filmed, but the "winterlan d" show (dec. 15, '78) would have made this
box an even greater holiday treat. the west coast radio simulcast produced by jimmy iovine is
probably the greatest live recording ever made, bootleg or otherwise.
i saw five shows on the darkness tour and none of that recording strife was shown...wh en e-street
hit the stage it was nothing but fun. if it wore them out any putting darkness together, it was
payback time by wearing the audience out...and they proved it all night, every night.
Mine just came today with a t-shirt and poster.Can 't wait to go home and indulge. I saw him on this
tour in 1978.
Quite an astounding collection . IMO, Darkness is Springstee n's most enduring album (and most
relevant to current times), and it's great to see the burst of creativity that accompanie d that album
more fully documented in this set.
Gotta note though that the Houston concert has its own moments of cinematic cheese, with the
overlappin g video transition s and Wayne's Worldesque back-forth camera zooming that give away
its late-70s origins (IMO, this is a lot more annoying than the quick-cut editing that prevails today).
It's great though that we get a complete concert from the Darkness tour, which is really when the E
Street Band started to find their voice. The playing is focused and forceful, but still loose and raw.The band is not as tentative as the 1975 Hammersmit h Odeon concert that accompanie d the Born
to Run boxset. Recency | Popularity
traveler291 09:16 AM on 12/21/2010
Permalink | Share it
FoxNude 07:29 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
Woochifer 04:34 PM on 11/22/2010Login or connect with:
More Login Options
Post to Facebook.
Post to Blogger.
Post to Twitter.
Post to WordPress.
Post to TypePad.
Post to Tumblr.To reply to a Comment: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the
comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly
underneath the comment you replied to.
Share your Comment:
Post Comment
Preview Comment
View All
245 Fans
37 Fans
245 Fans
259 Fans
10 Fans
2 FansIn terms of the playing and presentati on, I give the nod to the Phoenix concert footage. This set
includes 35 minutes of footage from that concert, and I wonder why that the Houston show was
chosen over the Phoenix concert. (Bootlegs of the Phoenix show have been circulatin g for years, so
the footage exists somewhere)
For one thing, the Phoenix concert was recorded using film cameras, which show much higher
resolution than the primitive video cameras used to shoot the Houston concert. This is especiallyapparent on Blu-ray, which shows the Promise documentar y, closed rehearsal, and other filmed
footage in their high def glory.
Apparently , due to the expense involved, only those five songs were filmed and not the
entire concert.
Still impossible to believe that the music on "Born to Run" earned him the front cover of TIME andNewsweek. Unfortunat ely says far more about the magazines' proclivity for sensationa lism than it
does about the greatness of Springstee n's music. As the next 7 or so years would bear out, the
Boss could not measure up with phenomenal music emanating from the various pop genres of time.
How many stadiums have those people who were making the "phenomena l music
emanating from the various pop genres of time" sold out lately?
Are any of them even selling out little clubs in strip malls in Podunk?
"Factory", "Backstree ts", "Racing In The Street" & "Stolen Car" are my favorite Bruce songs (this
will, of course change tomorrow)
Thanks for a great review, and thank you for the critique of how the usual concert is filmed. I
remember when I was a mere lad, learning to play guitar. I was really trying hard to get my leadtechnique, but had hit an impasse. I believe I was watching the old Merv Griffin show with BB Kingas guest. As luck would have it, the director kept the camera dead-on BB's left hand for quiteawhile. Seeing what he was doing was an epiphany! In the time it took Mr. King to play "The Thrill
Is Gone", I was on my way to guitar heaven. Of course, music was presented better on TV then
than now.
Why show someone playing drums or keyboard or worse yet a pimply-fac ed teen gawking at the
stage when someone is playing a burning lead, or singing their heart out. Show the performanc e,
for god's sake. Sure, I don't mind seeing the audience (some of the McCartney DVD's use that
technique really well.) But we all don't have ADD. Show the player, playing.
Permalink | Share it
Estreet1964 05:38 PM on 11/23/2010
Permalink | Share it
RobBlack 04:21 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
Estreet1964 05:37 PM on 11/23/2010
Permalink | Share it
argentino 11:07 AM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
ktano0 04:35 PM on 11/21/2010
Permalink | Share it
KayoFrisco 01:32 PM on 11/21/2010
59 Fans
81 Fans
8 Fans
Follow
289 Fans
1 FansMy first Bruce concert was 12/16/78 at Winterland , the night "Fire" was recorded for the 1975-1985
Box Set. That was about a week after the Houston show.
Seeing The Boss on my home town stage where I saw many other greats was unbelievab le. I had
never before or since seen an artist with as much energy, and stamina. Some people first thoughtthe show was so good that it was over after the first set. We were surprised to hear him say he
would be back to "drive us insane", and he did.
I became a raving fan that night and tried to convince others who had not yet seen him that Brucewas for real. The scales fell from my eyes on that old balcony when I saw the true savior of Rockand Roll. That final month at Winterland I also saw Van Morrison, The Tubes and The Ramones,plus the last night with The Grateful Dead, The Blues Brothers, and "breakfast served at dawn".That Bruce concert stands out as a memory I cherish for life.
Wow. What a lineup of artists to see in a month. Doesn't get any better than that. Thanksfor sharing your memories.
I have a bootleg videotape of the 1978 Phoenix concert, portions of which are on the third DVD ofthis package. It's great that finally, footage from some of those concerts of the "Darkness" tour isgetting to see the light of day legally! I practicall y wore out my videotape watching the concert!
I don't have a problem with the covers of "Fire" and "Because the Night" by the Pointer Sisters and
Patti Smith, respective ly; their interpreta tions of those songs are classic. But I never have liked
Manfred Mann's cover of "Blinded by the Light", and when it comes on the oldies station, I hit the
"change" button! (Apologies to any Manfred Mann fans out there!)
I bought this and it is a brilliant box set. It's great packaging with the only negative I have of it is
that it's difficult to put the notebook back into its case. The contents in both the DVDs and the CDsare above par with some of the stuff that other musicians are doing with their box sets. It's 100%worth the money. I also have to point out that while I like Darkness, his magnum opus, Born to Run,did not receive as great packaging for it's reissue. Now I just wish that Springstee n can go back in
time and redo his Born to Run and make it as superior as this box set
"Born to Run, did not receive as great packaging"
Probably because it wasn't released for Xmas product reasons.
Really? Born to Run: 30th Anniversar y Edition release date: November 14, 2005
The Promise: The Making of Darkness On The Edge of Town release date:
November 16, 2010
So, something released on November 14th does not have the same "Xmas product
reasons" as something released two days after?
Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Michael Giltz 06:05 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
robiform 05:03 PM on 11/20/2010
Permalink | Share it
jcop815 03:11 PM on 11/20/2010
Permalink | Share it
sufi66 04:07 PM on 11/20/2010
Permalink | Share it
Woochifer 04:58 PM on 11/22/2010
1 Fans
59 Fans
289 Fans
0 Fans
289 FansThat won't happen. My understand ing is that a total of 10 songs were written for Born to
Run, 8 of which wound up on the album. There's just not that much material, outside of
what's already included in the 30th anniversar y boxset, that can be put into yet another
boxset.
In contrast, I've read that about 70 songs were written during the Darkness sessions, only
10 of which made it onto the album. Even with the 21 newly released songs from ThePromise, more than half of the songs from the Darkness sessions are still unavailabl e (not
counting those that eventually wound up on The River or on bootlegs).
I would hope that a definitive boxed set for Born In The USA is coming up next. Here too,
Springstee n wrote and recorded about four albums worth of material. Some of what didn't
get included on the album wound up on B-sides or the Tracks set, but much of it is stillunreleased . I suspect that some of these songs might surprise us in much the same way
that songs on The Promise contrast with what's on Darkness.
If your gripe is just about the packaging, then I would concur. I hate that the Born to Run
and Darkness sets are entirely different sizes and don't fit in my CD storage unit.Sony/Colum bia have done some phenomenal boxed sets (I'm thinking of the Miles Davis
sets) that will actually fit in with the rest of my CD library.
Hey jcop and woochifer,
I'm a big stickler on boxed sets being bulky etc. You're absolutely right about the
notebook being hard to put back into the case and how annoying it is not to fitalongside the others. I did appreciate that unlike most bulky annoying boxed sets
this was was the size and shape it was for a purpose: the duplicatio n of the
notebooks he wrote in at the time. So I gave it a break in this one instance but
fully agree with you too.
Mostly second rate stuff released for Xmas. Avoid. Cherish the memories of the Darkness-R iver live
shows before he sold out to play the big stadiums, which he once "promised" he would never do.He also said he would never write "married" music either, then put the wife in the band for no realmusical purpose.
He's still a great legend but the luster has worn somewhat. Hasn't written a great song for a long
time.
Yes, his focus changed over the years, but to be fair, Patti Scialfa was a profession al
singer who he hired long before he married her..
She's not quite useless Yoko, but she's a backup singer, a dime a dozen. Sheliterally married the boss.
Permalink | Share it
Woochifer 04:54 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Michael Giltz 06:11 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
sufi66 02:40 PM on 11/20/2010
Permalink | Share it
jtd67 11:00 AM on 11/21/2010
Permalink | Share it
sufi66 11:08 AM on 11/21/2010
4 Fans
289 Fans
36 Fans
1 Fans
59 FansThere are More Comments on this Thread. Click Here To See them All
Thanks for writing this, I've been looking for reviews of the dvds,most just focus on the outtakes.
When I first heard about the box set, the Houston concert was what interested me the most.
Sounds like great footage.
"the Houston concert"Yes but the rest isn't worth it.
Having fun with your pot stirring? I just figured you out. Sad, really.
There are More Comments on this Thread. Click Here To See them All
The concert itself is great. You can really sense the ascension of the E Street Band in this
full length concert.
The review though doesn't make note of the spotty picture quality (typical of anything shot
on video tape during the 70s), which has a lot of ghosting and visible scan lines. Thereview also gripes about the quick-cut editing of today's concert videos, but doesn't mentionsome of the cheesy oh-so-70s video effects (again, typical of concert footage shot duringthat period) used in the Houston footage.
As noted earlier, I just wonder why the Phoenix concert wasn't used instead. The boxset
includes 35 minutes from that concert. IMO, the Phoenix performanc es, audio mix, and
editing are better. And the Phoenix concert was shot on film, so it looks a lot better on Blu-ray.
Hey, I did call it "primitive " at least. That's certainly a tip-off that this isn't the
Rolling Stones in IMAX. I agree that the artistry isn't high on the film, just thatgiven the time they did less cutting and crazy effects and given the fewer camerasthey just didn't have the ability to go crazy like they would today. The result is arelatively better experience , but as you say it's certainly not high fidelity or a great
picture. The Phoenix footage does look great. The reason they didn't use it is theusual blinkered mentality. When it comes to live recordings of Bruce, their record ofwhat to release and when has been absurd for decades.
Permalink | Share it
JasonM 01:55 PM on 11/20/2010
Permalink | Share it
sufi66 02:55 PM on 11/20/2010
Permalink | Share it
theothersideofsilence 09:58 AM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
Woochifer 05:30 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Michael Giltz 06:24 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
FRONT PAGE POLITICS BUSINESS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT COMEDY SPORTS STYLE WORLD GREEN FOOD TRAVEL TECH
LIVING HEALTH DIVORCE ARTS BOOKS RELIGION IMPACT EDUCATION COLLEGE NY LA CHICAGO DENVER BLOGS
Advertise | Log In | Make HuffPost your Home Page | RSS | Careers | FAQ | Contact Us
User Agreement | Privacy | Comment Policy | About Us | Powered by Movable Type
Copyright © 2011 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. | "The Huffington Post" is a registered trademark of TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
FRONT PAGE POLITICS BUSINESS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT COMEDY SPORTS STYLE WORLD GREEN FOOD TRAVEL TECH
LIVING HEALTH DIVORCE ARTS BOOKS RELIGION IMPACT EDUCATION COLLEGE NY LA CHICAGO DENVER BLOGS
Michael Giltz
Freelance writer and raconteur
Posted: November 19, 2010 04:16 PM
BIO
Become a Fan
Get Email Alerts
Bloggers' Index
17
99
views
0
31Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyMusic: Bruce Springsteen's Boxed
Set -- The DVD Review
What's Your Reaction:
Read More: Bob Dylan , Bruce Springsteen , Darkness On The Edge Of Town , Lennon And McCartney ,
Entertainment News
Bruce Springsteen's new boxed set ($119.98; Columbia) is manna for hardcore fans like myself. You get a
newly remastered edition of Darkness On The Edge Of Town, the album that established Springsteen as
a serious artist and a grown-up. Then there's the two CD set The Promise, the "outtakes" from the
sessions for Darkness that provided enough great music for two more albums. This is the road not taken,
powerful catchy stuff that would have cemented his commercial appeal. But until Born In The USASpringsteen ran in the opposite direction whenever success reared its head. That's why Patti Smith got
"Because The Night" and the Pointer Sisters (!) got "Fire" and Springsteen kept "Adam Raised A Cain." It
all comes in a boxed set that is oversized (which I hate) but for a purpose: the case holding the discs isalso a reproduction of one of the many notebooks Springsteen filled to overflowing with song lyrics,
sometimes including endless variations on a particular song until he got it just right. It's a blast to pore
over.
MOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOSTBIG NEWS: Movies | Celebrity Kids | Rihanna | Mila Kunis | Energy Debates | More...
LOG IN | SIGN UP
SHARE THIS STORY
Get Entertainment Alerts
Email Comments 31
Democratic Rep. Shot,
Federal Judge Killed At
Public Event
Suspected Arizona Shooter
Identified: Disturbing
YouTube Videos, MySpace
GOP Congresswoman
Caught In Sexually
Suggestive Photos
What Not To Say When
Your Loved One Is Upset
How To Tell If It's Really
Food: A Flowchart
Marty Kaplan The "Lock
and Load" Rhetoric of
American Politics Isn't Just
a Metaphor
Sarah Palin Renounces
Arizona Shooting
Facebook Shutdown
Rumors Go Viral
Recommend 41K
Recommend 8K
Like 809
Like 986
Like 9K
Like 2K
Like 12K
Recommend 17K
Almost every review talks about his classic album and the bonus CDs with a brief mention at the end of
the three DVDs in this boxed set. I'm going to focus on the DVDs. DVD one contains The Promise: The
Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town, directed by Thom Zimny. It's a delight, filled with classic
archival footage. I'm intrigued by the idea that Springsteen was wary of fame but also let a film crew intohis rehearsals for days and weeks on end. The movie features in-depth interviews with all the band
members as well as Springsteen's once estranged manager Mike Appel. Locked in a court battle over
control of his career, Bruce was kept out of the studio for literally years after the titanic success of BornTo Run, which landed him on the cover of Time and Newsweek . The film captures well the tension of the
times, how two or three years between albums was an eternity back then.
This happened, ironically, when the music was pouring out of him. As Steven Van Zandt says, before this
album they just came up with the next 10 or 12 good songs and then recorded them. But instead of
coming up with about ten songs, like he did for Born To Run (ultimately including only eight), this time
he was writing more than 70 songs, an explosion of ideas. Every artist has to believe they're going to
change the world and rewrite the rules to achieve greatness. In one of the quotes that jumps out at you,
Springsteen says that at the time, more than fame and wealth, more than happiness, he wanted to begreat. They describe tossing out great songs that just didn't fit the album, crafting a coherent idea from
beginning to end, ignoring commerce for the sake of art as if they were the very first people in the history
of the world to do so. Toss aside a great song just because it didn't fit? Crazy. Of course, anyone who hasheard the Bob Dylan bootlegs or seen how the Beatles came up with their albums know Bruce wasn'tinventing the wheel. But it's fascinating to see how they had to believe they were to stay passionate andcommitted.
You really feel like you're in the studio with them, thanks to a lot of footage that shows them bickering
and discussing songs, Springsteen spending hours and hours trying to get the right drum sound, the band
teasing him by placing bets on what song he was going to take off the album that day or the length of thetracks. (4:45 sounded like a winner.) As Springsteen sits alone discussing those days, he is thoughtful as
always. It seems like the more sincere and earnest he gets, the more likely he is to look down and away,
not making eye contact with the interviewer or the camera, as if he's almost afraid to speak that loftilyabout what he was trying to accomplish. It's a fascinating film, though not one to draw in a lot of newfans. It should be enjoyable to anyone but will surely resonate most with those already baptized into the
faith.
The second DVD is my favorite. it contains Thrill Hill Vault Houston '78 Bootleg: House Cut. It's a
raucous three hour show -- the band had finally been released from purgatory and was out on the road
doing what they do best. It's not in any way a remarkable or stand-out show. It's what you probablywould have seen anywhere along the way: three hours of hellaciously entertaining rock and roll by the
best live band in the world. From the opener "Badlands" to the don't-you-dare-sit encore featuring a
Detroit medley, "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and more, it's a delight.
Strangely, Springsteen is a legendary live act but has rarely been caught well on film. It began with the
faux live video for "Dancing In the Dark," directed by Brian De Palma, not the most musical of film
directors to begin with. Springsteen seemed stiff and fake, the utter opposite of him in real life on stage.The boxed set Live 1971-1985 was great, but that was audio only. Every time he's done a concert film, like
the one in New York or the one in Dublin (or Barcelona or London), it's been a relentlessly tiresomebarrage of cut-cut-cuts to create excitement in the editing when the last thing a Springsteen show needsis help to generate power. Give any director today 15 cameras and by god, he's going to use them. It's the
curse of most concert films, though exceptions like Stop Making Sense by the Talking Heads prove it still
can be done with artistry. But not for Springsteen, who is whipsawed from camera to camera.
1 of 5
Michael R. Bloomberg
On the Tragic Shootings in
Arizona
Michael Smerconish
Thoughts on YesterdayDON'T MISS HUFFPOST BLOGGERS
HOT TRENDS
drew carey lost 85 pounds
john goodman lost
100 pounds miley
cyrus lap dance video
natalie portman natalie
portman pregnant
More Celebrity News at People.com
Olbermann: 'Put The Gun
Metaphors Away'
Like 10K
Jake Gyllenhaal Praises
(and Teases) Pregnant
Natalie Portman
READ MORE
Neil Patrick Harris Is
Smitten With Twins' Smiles
READ MORE
Report: Las VegasShowgirl's Body Was
Dismembered
READ MORE
Phaedra Parks Chats With
PopEater
Joan and Melissa Rivers
Retire From Red Carpet
Victoria Beckham
Expecting Baby No. 4
Happily, this relatively primitive recording in 1978 only had a few cameras. And though the director cuts
between them far more than say the artistry on display in The Last Waltz or Jazz On A Summer's Day,
they're a lot more likely to stay with a song and not feel the need to exploit eight different angles on every
single tune. So this is much, much closer to the experience of sitting in the audience and seeing his showin person. The image stays still long enough to let the performers create the moment, not the camera. It's
a treat and easily the best Springsteen concert film I've seen to date.
The final DVD has a grab-bag of stuff, some of it also sensational for hardcore fans. The first batch is
called Thrill Hill Vault 1976-1978. It begins with two rehearsals in someone's house in Holmdel, New
Jersey in 1976. Springsteen is shirtless and swaggering, having fun as they work through the songs "Save
My Love" and "Candy's Boy" (an early version of "Candy's Room") and then another tune -- "SomethingIn The Night" at Red Bank. You literally feel like you're hanging out with the guys, watching them work
their way towards greatness. Whoever is shooting the footage just has one camera, thank God, so they
stay focused on one person at a time, maybe panning from Steven Van Zandt back to Bruce is as fancy as
it gets. Fly on the wall stuff.
Then comes four songs recorded live in the studio in New York City in 1978. I've no idea what happened
on the first number, "Don't Look Back." It's utterly different than the rest, filled with all sorts of cuts and
edits, like any mishmash number recorded today. Maybe they just cut together a bunch of footage from
the session and kept the audio track to make it all seem to be happening at the same moment. It's of
course far less satisfying emotionally and artistically than the rest. The heart-stopping moment here is
getting to watch Springsteen sit at the piano and play "Candy's Room" as he works through the lyrics and
gives the others a sense of what it is. It's like getting to watch Lennon and McCartney sit down with anacoustic guitar and audition their latest tunes for George Martin. (If only such footage existed.)Otherwise, it's just one camera, which in one song moves from musician to musician just as if you were in
the room looking around. Artless, simple and again, much more fun than any concert he's recorded in
the past 20 years.
Then we get five songs from a Phoenix show in 1978 that produced the footage (I believe) for the music
video MTV ran over and over for "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)." It's a well-light, raucous show and whilethe editing is getting a little more fast-paced it's not out of control quite yet
Finally, we get a 2009 performance of the entire Darkness On The Edge Of Town album in order at the
Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Like the documentary film, it's directed by Thom Zimny,
but here he squanders a golden opportunity. This is a rehearsal of sorts -- just the band performing the
album without an audience. They're focused and tight and ready to prove the album and the band areboth as relevant and fiery as ever -- Springsteen wanted music that was rebellious but ready to own up to
its responsibilities, which is one reason it carries such conviction. It was meant to be played by adults and
it shows.
But of course, this being today, instead of a few well-placed cameras or cinematographers encouraged to
find a great angle and stick with it, all we get is cut-cut-cut throughout the set. The edits are so absurd
both musically and emotionally it'll drive you nuts. They cut in the middle of lines, sometimes even in themiddle of a word or phrase and for no apparent purpose. Since there's no audience, Zimny was
presumably even freer to place cameras anywhere he wanted without fear of blocking the sight line of a
fan. They could have been as close and intimate as they wanted. But you'd be hard-pressed to see anyvisual difference between this and any other concert film done with an audience. The band sounds great
of course. But oh, what might have been.
Any time I think of Springsteen on film, I think of the No Nukes concert. Springsteen is on stage and
right behind him is this red spotlight that bleeds out all around him. There's one camera and it's focused
tight on him as he begins to tell the story of "The River" and then sing that brilliant song. Springsteen isrooted to the spot but when he moves just a little to the left or the right, that red light fills up the screen
so you can barely see him at times. But the camera stays right there and the director doesn't cut away for
the longest time and it's one of the most magnetic things you'll ever see.
It's out of character for Springsteen to not have released the remastered Darkness CD on its own already.
It's not even scheduled for release that I can see, when at most there should have been maybe a week or
two when only the people who could shell out for the entire box got the album as well. Right now you canbuy the two CD set of The Promise, which is like a great lost Springsteen album. And presumably at some
point soon you'll be able to get the Darkness CD. But for hardcore fans, the three DVDs contain a wealthof material they'll soak up. And anyone wondering how to capture a great artist on film can learn a lot byseeing how much more gripping and involving it is to simply let the artist perform. Constant cutting isTOP VIDEO PICKS
Queen's Royal Wedding
Rift
Kourtney K.'s StunningBikini Bod
Jane Krakowski RevealsBaby Bump
1 of 9
MOST DISCUSSED RIGHT NOW
HOT ON FACEBOOK
HOT ON TWITTER
Hockey
Jerry Brown
Gabrielle
GiffordsHUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGES
More Celebrity News at Popeater.com
Victoria Beckham
Pregnant: To Have Fourth
Child With Soccer Star
David Beckham
103 Comments
PHOTO: Rihanna, Nicki
Minaj Tweet About
Hooking Up
121 Comments
Camille Grammer's Porn
Past Comes Back To
Haunt Her
1,111 Comments
PHOTO: Adam Levine
Goes Nude
250 Comments
'True Grit' Wins Box Office
With $15 Million Weekend
25 Comments
Ashton Kutcher: Training,
Paranoid About Real Life
'End Of Days'
905 Comments
TOP LINKS ON THIS TOPIC
1 of 5
Pictures of 61 birthday facts about Bruce Springsteen -
Photos - NME.COM
Bruce Springsteen: 'People thought we were gone.
Finished' | Music | The Guardian
YouTube - Song A Day #587: The Ballad of Steven
Slater
'Sarah Palin's
Alaska' NOT
Kourtney
Kardashian Shows
Kardashians SUED
For $75 Million Over
Rihanna, Nicki Minaj
Tweet About 'Fly,'like refusing to use a wideshot when Fred Astaire is dancing. It's a lot more exciting to see him do his
stuff than it is to cut cut cut and ruin the beauty of his skill. The same is true for rock and roll. Happily,
you'll find enough accidental and intentional examples of that here, along with the best live concert film
of Springsteen to date. It puts to shame all the more elaborate efforts that have come out in recent years.No fan will want to miss it.
*****
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that
reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinionmakers as guests. It's available free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also
available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and
reviews .
NOTE: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of DVDs to consider for review. He typically does notguarantee coverage and invariably receives far more screeners and DVDs than he can cover each
week. Also, Michael Giltz freelances as a writer of DVD copy (the text that appears on the back of
DVDs) for some titles released by IFC and other subsidiaries of MPI. It helps pay the rent, but does notobligate him in any way to speak positively or negatively of their titles.
Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz
Related News On Huffington Post:
Patti Smith To Stephen Colbert: 'I Like My Award' (VIDEO)
Stephen Colbert told Patti Smith last night on his show: "Some have said
you're the mother of the punk rock world. That must be a...
Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:
Diane Winston: Harry Potter and Springsteen: Religion, Spirituality and
Storytelling
Bruce made it possible to believe that we could find meaning, feel love and snatch
pleasure from pain. The gospels of contemporary culture have similar messages
but are delivered with whimsy, finesse and media savvy.
More in Entertainment...
Animals
NFL
Soccer
Tea Party
Environment
Energy
MORE BIG NEWS PAGES »
FOLLOW HUFFINGTON POST
shanedunlop Bruce Springsteen - The Wrestler http://t.co/vDIAwfo
less than a minute ago from Tweet Button
physcicsuprise this one grew on me, -- Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Fire
http://t.co/fKlGa5u via @youtube
1 minute ago from Tweet Button
Dinokassie Q: If you could only listen to one song for the A: I'm On Fire Bruce
Comments 31 Pending Comments 0View FAQ
11 Fans
8 Fans
1 FansRenewed For
Second...Off Beach Body In... Debit... Joke...
probably because it wasn't filmed, but the "winterlan d" show (dec. 15, '78) would have made this
box an even greater holiday treat. the west coast radio simulcast produced by jimmy iovine is
probably the greatest live recording ever made, bootleg or otherwise.
i saw five shows on the darkness tour and none of that recording strife was shown...wh en e-street
hit the stage it was nothing but fun. if it wore them out any putting darkness together, it was
payback time by wearing the audience out...and they proved it all night, every night.
Mine just came today with a t-shirt and poster.Can 't wait to go home and indulge. I saw him on this
tour in 1978.
Quite an astounding collection . IMO, Darkness is Springstee n's most enduring album (and most
relevant to current times), and it's great to see the burst of creativity that accompanie d that album
more fully documented in this set.
Gotta note though that the Houston concert has its own moments of cinematic cheese, with the
overlappin g video transition s and Wayne's Worldesque back-forth camera zooming that give away
its late-70s origins (IMO, this is a lot more annoying than the quick-cut editing that prevails today).
It's great though that we get a complete concert from the Darkness tour, which is really when the E
Street Band started to find their voice. The playing is focused and forceful, but still loose and raw.The band is not as tentative as the 1975 Hammersmit h Odeon concert that accompanie d the Born
to Run boxset. Recency | Popularity
traveler291 09:16 AM on 12/21/2010
Permalink | Share it
FoxNude 07:29 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
Woochifer 04:34 PM on 11/22/2010Login or connect with:
More Login Options
Post to Facebook.
Post to Blogger.
Post to Twitter.
Post to WordPress.
Post to TypePad.
Post to Tumblr.To reply to a Comment: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the
comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly
underneath the comment you replied to.
Share your Comment:
Post Comment
Preview Comment
View All
245 Fans
37 Fans
245 Fans
259 Fans
10 Fans
2 FansIn terms of the playing and presentati on, I give the nod to the Phoenix concert footage. This set
includes 35 minutes of footage from that concert, and I wonder why that the Houston show was
chosen over the Phoenix concert. (Bootlegs of the Phoenix show have been circulatin g for years, so
the footage exists somewhere)
For one thing, the Phoenix concert was recorded using film cameras, which show much higher
resolution than the primitive video cameras used to shoot the Houston concert. This is especiallyapparent on Blu-ray, which shows the Promise documentar y, closed rehearsal, and other filmed
footage in their high def glory.
Apparently , due to the expense involved, only those five songs were filmed and not the
entire concert.
Still impossible to believe that the music on "Born to Run" earned him the front cover of TIME andNewsweek. Unfortunat ely says far more about the magazines' proclivity for sensationa lism than it
does about the greatness of Springstee n's music. As the next 7 or so years would bear out, the
Boss could not measure up with phenomenal music emanating from the various pop genres of time.
How many stadiums have those people who were making the "phenomena l music
emanating from the various pop genres of time" sold out lately?
Are any of them even selling out little clubs in strip malls in Podunk?
"Factory", "Backstree ts", "Racing In The Street" & "Stolen Car" are my favorite Bruce songs (this
will, of course change tomorrow)
Thanks for a great review, and thank you for the critique of how the usual concert is filmed. I
remember when I was a mere lad, learning to play guitar. I was really trying hard to get my leadtechnique, but had hit an impasse. I believe I was watching the old Merv Griffin show with BB Kingas guest. As luck would have it, the director kept the camera dead-on BB's left hand for quiteawhile. Seeing what he was doing was an epiphany! In the time it took Mr. King to play "The Thrill
Is Gone", I was on my way to guitar heaven. Of course, music was presented better on TV then
than now.
Why show someone playing drums or keyboard or worse yet a pimply-fac ed teen gawking at the
stage when someone is playing a burning lead, or singing their heart out. Show the performanc e,
for god's sake. Sure, I don't mind seeing the audience (some of the McCartney DVD's use that
technique really well.) But we all don't have ADD. Show the player, playing.
Permalink | Share it
Estreet1964 05:38 PM on 11/23/2010
Permalink | Share it
RobBlack 04:21 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
Estreet1964 05:37 PM on 11/23/2010
Permalink | Share it
argentino 11:07 AM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
ktano0 04:35 PM on 11/21/2010
Permalink | Share it
KayoFrisco 01:32 PM on 11/21/2010
59 Fans
81 Fans
8 Fans
Follow
289 Fans
1 FansMy first Bruce concert was 12/16/78 at Winterland , the night "Fire" was recorded for the 1975-1985
Box Set. That was about a week after the Houston show.
Seeing The Boss on my home town stage where I saw many other greats was unbelievab le. I had
never before or since seen an artist with as much energy, and stamina. Some people first thoughtthe show was so good that it was over after the first set. We were surprised to hear him say he
would be back to "drive us insane", and he did.
I became a raving fan that night and tried to convince others who had not yet seen him that Brucewas for real. The scales fell from my eyes on that old balcony when I saw the true savior of Rockand Roll. That final month at Winterland I also saw Van Morrison, The Tubes and The Ramones,plus the last night with The Grateful Dead, The Blues Brothers, and "breakfast served at dawn".That Bruce concert stands out as a memory I cherish for life.
Wow. What a lineup of artists to see in a month. Doesn't get any better than that. Thanksfor sharing your memories.
I have a bootleg videotape of the 1978 Phoenix concert, portions of which are on the third DVD ofthis package. It's great that finally, footage from some of those concerts of the "Darkness" tour isgetting to see the light of day legally! I practicall y wore out my videotape watching the concert!
I don't have a problem with the covers of "Fire" and "Because the Night" by the Pointer Sisters and
Patti Smith, respective ly; their interpreta tions of those songs are classic. But I never have liked
Manfred Mann's cover of "Blinded by the Light", and when it comes on the oldies station, I hit the
"change" button! (Apologies to any Manfred Mann fans out there!)
I bought this and it is a brilliant box set. It's great packaging with the only negative I have of it is
that it's difficult to put the notebook back into its case. The contents in both the DVDs and the CDsare above par with some of the stuff that other musicians are doing with their box sets. It's 100%worth the money. I also have to point out that while I like Darkness, his magnum opus, Born to Run,did not receive as great packaging for it's reissue. Now I just wish that Springstee n can go back in
time and redo his Born to Run and make it as superior as this box set
"Born to Run, did not receive as great packaging"
Probably because it wasn't released for Xmas product reasons.
Really? Born to Run: 30th Anniversar y Edition release date: November 14, 2005
The Promise: The Making of Darkness On The Edge of Town release date:
November 16, 2010
So, something released on November 14th does not have the same "Xmas product
reasons" as something released two days after?
Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Michael Giltz 06:05 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
robiform 05:03 PM on 11/20/2010
Permalink | Share it
jcop815 03:11 PM on 11/20/2010
Permalink | Share it
sufi66 04:07 PM on 11/20/2010
Permalink | Share it
Woochifer 04:58 PM on 11/22/2010
1 Fans
59 Fans
289 Fans
0 Fans
289 FansThat won't happen. My understand ing is that a total of 10 songs were written for Born to
Run, 8 of which wound up on the album. There's just not that much material, outside of
what's already included in the 30th anniversar y boxset, that can be put into yet another
boxset.
In contrast, I've read that about 70 songs were written during the Darkness sessions, only
10 of which made it onto the album. Even with the 21 newly released songs from ThePromise, more than half of the songs from the Darkness sessions are still unavailabl e (not
counting those that eventually wound up on The River or on bootlegs).
I would hope that a definitive boxed set for Born In The USA is coming up next. Here too,
Springstee n wrote and recorded about four albums worth of material. Some of what didn't
get included on the album wound up on B-sides or the Tracks set, but much of it is stillunreleased . I suspect that some of these songs might surprise us in much the same way
that songs on The Promise contrast with what's on Darkness.
If your gripe is just about the packaging, then I would concur. I hate that the Born to Run
and Darkness sets are entirely different sizes and don't fit in my CD storage unit.Sony/Colum bia have done some phenomenal boxed sets (I'm thinking of the Miles Davis
sets) that will actually fit in with the rest of my CD library.
Hey jcop and woochifer,
I'm a big stickler on boxed sets being bulky etc. You're absolutely right about the
notebook being hard to put back into the case and how annoying it is not to fitalongside the others. I did appreciate that unlike most bulky annoying boxed sets
this was was the size and shape it was for a purpose: the duplicatio n of the
notebooks he wrote in at the time. So I gave it a break in this one instance but
fully agree with you too.
Mostly second rate stuff released for Xmas. Avoid. Cherish the memories of the Darkness-R iver live
shows before he sold out to play the big stadiums, which he once "promised" he would never do.He also said he would never write "married" music either, then put the wife in the band for no realmusical purpose.
He's still a great legend but the luster has worn somewhat. Hasn't written a great song for a long
time.
Yes, his focus changed over the years, but to be fair, Patti Scialfa was a profession al
singer who he hired long before he married her..
She's not quite useless Yoko, but she's a backup singer, a dime a dozen. Sheliterally married the boss.
Permalink | Share it
Woochifer 04:54 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Michael Giltz 06:11 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
sufi66 02:40 PM on 11/20/2010
Permalink | Share it
jtd67 11:00 AM on 11/21/2010
Permalink | Share it
sufi66 11:08 AM on 11/21/2010
4 Fans
289 Fans
36 Fans
1 Fans
59 FansThere are More Comments on this Thread. Click Here To See them All
Thanks for writing this, I've been looking for reviews of the dvds,most just focus on the outtakes.
When I first heard about the box set, the Houston concert was what interested me the most.
Sounds like great footage.
"the Houston concert"Yes but the rest isn't worth it.
Having fun with your pot stirring? I just figured you out. Sad, really.
There are More Comments on this Thread. Click Here To See them All
The concert itself is great. You can really sense the ascension of the E Street Band in this
full length concert.
The review though doesn't make note of the spotty picture quality (typical of anything shot
on video tape during the 70s), which has a lot of ghosting and visible scan lines. Thereview also gripes about the quick-cut editing of today's concert videos, but doesn't mentionsome of the cheesy oh-so-70s video effects (again, typical of concert footage shot duringthat period) used in the Houston footage.
As noted earlier, I just wonder why the Phoenix concert wasn't used instead. The boxset
includes 35 minutes from that concert. IMO, the Phoenix performanc es, audio mix, and
editing are better. And the Phoenix concert was shot on film, so it looks a lot better on Blu-ray.
Hey, I did call it "primitive " at least. That's certainly a tip-off that this isn't the
Rolling Stones in IMAX. I agree that the artistry isn't high on the film, just thatgiven the time they did less cutting and crazy effects and given the fewer camerasthey just didn't have the ability to go crazy like they would today. The result is arelatively better experience , but as you say it's certainly not high fidelity or a great
picture. The Phoenix footage does look great. The reason they didn't use it is theusual blinkered mentality. When it comes to live recordings of Bruce, their record ofwhat to release and when has been absurd for decades.
Permalink | Share it
JasonM 01:55 PM on 11/20/2010
Permalink | Share it
sufi66 02:55 PM on 11/20/2010
Permalink | Share it
theothersideofsilence 09:58 AM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
Woochifer 05:30 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Michael Giltz 06:24 PM on 11/22/2010
Permalink | Share it
FRONT PAGE POLITICS BUSINESS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT COMEDY SPORTS STYLE WORLD GREEN FOOD TRAVEL TECH
LIVING HEALTH DIVORCE ARTS BOOKS RELIGION IMPACT EDUCATION COLLEGE NY LA CHICAGO DENVER BLOGS
Advertise | Log In | Make HuffPost your Home Page | RSS | Careers | FAQ | Contact Us
User Agreement | Privacy | Comment Policy | About Us | Powered by Movable Type
Copyright © 2011 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. | "The Huffington Post" is a registered trademark of TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. All rights reserved.