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> Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
Bruce
Springsteen & the E Street Band
Live/1975-1985
(Columbia C5X 4-558) ©1986
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Report Card
Copyright ©1999
PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
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Description: |
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Released
at the height of Boss-mania, this five-record (three-CD) set was a major release at the
time. It is also to this day one of the best-selling box sets ever. Wish I
could say that it wasn't sort of an overblown, pretentious monument to the Boss. |
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What's
Good About It? |
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Finally
made available several songs Springsteen wrote for others but never recorded, like Patti
Smith's "Because the Night" and the Pointer Sisters' "Fire."
Also, it is great to get Springsteen's version of Tom Waits' "Jersey Girl." |
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What's
Bad About It? |
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Springsteen
really is an amazing live performer. You can't really tell that here
though. Good songs like "Born To Run," "Thunder Road" and
"Rosalita" get swallowed up in an endless sea of hysterical screams, endless
solos and too many concert recordings of forgotten Springsteen B-sides. |
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What's
Missing? |
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30,000
screaming people, the vague smell of beer and pot in the air, lighters waving in the dark. People jostling and pushing you. Cheap counterfeit t-shirts in the parking
lot. Three dollar hot dogs. And most of all, the visuals and the experience of
being at a Bruce Springsteen concert. |
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PopEntertainment.com
final grade:
C
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Way, way too much live music. Haven't you ever heard of a two-record
set, Bruce? No one, even the most rabid Springsteen fan, will listen
through the entire set more than one time, if ever...
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©1999
PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
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