Scott Peterson

Interesting piece. Also interesting that he never mentions Jonathan Demme, who—like Martin Scorsese—not only directed one of the very greatest concert films ever, but also refrained from showing the audience, and who worked with Springsteen.

In some fashion.

I had never heard that story before. That's really nice. Of course, it's maybe a tiny bit weird that when he sees Bruce's ass he thinks of his dad, but hey.

Serious question: is that how you view Nebraska as well?

Yeah, that really threw me. Since we've heard him speak in the past year and he didn't sound nearly that old, and since he's not a smoker, I'm going to assume it's...not exactly intentional, but that he's speaking in an at least slightly lower register that tends to have a bit more vocal fry than when he's trying to project on a Broadway stage or in a regular interview. Or maybe his voice has really aged 10 years in the past year. I'm interested in this but wasn't over the moon excited. I'm now was more excited than I was, in part because it seems to show that he realizes how special this album is, something the first press announcements didn't seem to indicate. (I wonder if how rapturously it's been received has changed his mind, or if this was always planned? Am I remembering correctly that the film wasn't announced for nearly a month and a half after the album's release? I'm not sure I am.) The other thing that struck me is how goddamn brave he is in speaking so publicly about his very human flaws.

That was very, very powerful. Thank you for sharing.

Hot take incoming: had a somewhat lengthy drive yesterday so I debated what I'd listen to. I'd already listened to the Bridge show twice this week. It'd been a few weeks since I'd put Western Stars on so I gave it a spin...and it's a great album.

I see "Reason to Believe" as belonging to the other category.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bruce-springsteen-harvard-square-concert-rock-roll-future-859344/

He simply returned to his original planet.

There's bodies floatin' on Canal Street and the levees gone to hell Martha, get me my sixteen gauge and some dry shells Them who's got got out of town And them who ain't got left to drown Tell me, how can a poor man stand such times and live? That is some good damn writing.

Just finished listening. If I'd ever heard the entire thing, it might have been last century; I know I had it on bootleg, but I think it's possible I had an audience recording? I vaguely recall being very excited to acquire it and then finding the sound so sub-par I'm not even sure I ever finished. (Apologies to the taper who I'm sure went to a lot of trouble.) It's an extraordinary release. Bruce out of his comfort zone isn't always a good thing...but it usually is, and it surely is here. Every song is done at least well—I was surprised "Seeds" was "only" good, for instance—and some of the performances are outstanding: "Dancing in the Dark," "Darlington County" and "Glory Days" are all far better than I'd expected, and of course "Hungry Heart" is fantastic. Danny is great and it's just so much fun to hear the two of them together again, like back on the early 70s station visits. Meanwhile, the release illustrates how incredible Nils is—not that that's news to anyone—but how greatly underused he's always been, but especially since the reunion; his playing is superb and their voices go (or at least went) better together than any other singer with whom Bruce has sung on a regular basis. Finally, and this may have already been remarked upon, but was that Bruce's first use of "take me to the river tonight" and his last until the reunion? This is obviously not the best archive release, not even close. But it's almost certainly one of my favorites.

Have you counted up how many minutes each artist has released over the past three or four years? Because it looks like roughly 18 discs in 2015, nothing in 2016, 11 discs in 2017, 6 discs in 2018 and 14 in 2019, for a total of (I think) 59 discs. Which means that, again, it sure seems like a whole lot more Bruce material has been released since 2015 than Dylan. (Again, that's putting aside the presentation—if that matters significantly to you, Dylan obviously wins and it's not even close.)

Could not possibly disagree more. I love Dylan's Bootleg Series. Love love love it. SO glad he's doing it. But we get 12x as many Springsteen releases of similar stuff—or, if you look at some of the sets like the most recent as having 8 releases in one, I guess we get "only" 1.5x as many Springsteen releases of similar stuff. And, yeah, if you want to argue that the audio quality is higher with the Dylan, I'd of course definitely agree. And if you want to argue that the presentation is higher, it'd be insane to disagree. On the other hand, More Blood, More Tracks cost $100 and to even my somewhat fanatical ears it's overkill. (NOT that I'm objecting, mind you.) Meanwhile, if you don't like the period the latest Dylan archive is covering? (Gospel, say, or Self-Portrait or the early 80s...for which I'm personally totally stoked.) You don't have to wait until next month—you have to wait at least a year and maybe more like three years. Meanwhile, many people on here have periods or styles they don't especially care for: acoustic Bruce, Other Band, anything post-1978 or -1981 or whatever. Imagine if instead of waiting four weeks you had to wait two years for the next release, hoping it'd be to your liking...and then finding out it's not either? There are people on here who would go (more) insane. I wish some of the Springsteen stuff sounded better. I wish he'd do pre-1975. There's a lot of stuff I wish he'd release. But every month he puts out a new release of quality material at an extremely affordable price and out of the realistic choices that's pretty much my ideal one.

Excellent points as usual. I would suspect, however, that the correlation between those who buy these archival releases and those who collect bootlegs is much stronger than those who collect than between those who buy studio albums and those who collect bootlegs. Having said that, I am surprised (and surprised to be surprised) by the negative reaction to this release. I was stoked to see it and thought others would be as well. I've read all the arguments for why it's a disappointment and remain somewhat baffled and a bit disheartened. I don't work for Thrill Hill or JLM but I imagine that if I did I'd read these threads and think, jeez louise, what do you people want from us? For years you've been asking for this sort of program and then you get -- for eight bucks! some of which is going to charity! -- a release you would have happily paid $20 for, for some warped vinyl or a shitty high-gen cassette (or CD-R burned from a shitty high-gen cassette), twenty or thirty years ago and all you can do is piss and moan, "HARD PASS." There have been months that have interested me less than other months, some a whole lot less than others. But I don't take it as a personal affront. I just shrug and think how cool it is that they're doing this at all and that maybe next month'll be more up my alley.