The Ties that Bind – The River Collection is the third anniversary box set celebrating a classic Bruce Springsteen album. And once again, the template that was laid out and expanded on with the Born to Run and Darkness box sets respectively, is followed and perfected with this ambitious release: the album itself in a remastered version; a documentary casting light on how the album came to be; a grab bag of outtakes and alternate versions; a photo and notebook; and last but not least, a live DVD of a show from the tour supporting the album.

The album
The River was the second Springsteen album I owned. The title track was the song that made me a fan. It was the most beautiful piece of music I had ever heard. At first, the album didn’t quite live up to the song it was named after. As a novice fan I was underwhelmed by the chaotic mix of fast rockers and long, droning songs about Moses and buying shoes. But as time went by, life experience set in, and Bruce became part of my constitution; the rockers and drones morphed into a cyclorama of life, death, fun, tragedy, love, lust, deprivation, regret, and just about any other human emotion and condition you can name. It’s still like that today, and it’s still the album you should lend to your non-fan social circle who claim Bruce is one-dimensional.

The outtakes
Regrettably The Ties that Bind only contains about half a disc worth of previously unreleased outtakes. However, those songs, for the most part, constitute a strong addition to the Bruce canon. Some of them, such as “Stray Bullet”, “The Man Who Got Away”, and “Night Fire”, can, to these ears, easily be described as masterpieces that other artists would have based whole albums around. But these were Bruce’s leftovers that didn’t quite fit, or didn’t keep his attention long enough to be included on The River. To be fair, the inclusion of “Mr. Outside” and “Paradise by the C” on this disc does indicate that the surplus stock from that era is on its last breath, although songs like “Chevrolet Deluxe”, “Under the Gun”, the alternate version of “Point Blank”, and a few other items known from the Lost Masters bootleg series would have been worthwhile inclusions on this collection.

In return, we get several alternate versions on the other outtakes disc, which is not really an outtakes disc, but a complete album that was almost released a year prior to The River. The album that has given name to the whole box set, The Ties that Bind, is indeed an early incarnation of the 1980-album, with cornerstones like “The River”, “The Ties that Bind” and “The Price You Pay” already in place, albeit in slightly different versions. The only completely unreleased song included here is “Cindy”, which, for all its charm, just seems weird taking up space on a single-disc album where, with so little real estate to get the message across, every revolution of the needle would have counted. It would, however, have been the perfect b-side for a single.

The documentary
A lot can be said – and has been said – about the decision to not include the band, in a documentary about perhaps the most band-influenced album in Bruce’s discography. It’s one thing that you can’t magically create footage from the studio when none exists, but why no interviews with the band members? And, in particular, with Steve Van Zandt, who never had so much influence on a Springsteen album before or since? 
That complaining aside, the documentary included in this box set, which is basically just an interview with Bruce Springsteen interspersed with him performing impromptu acoustic versions of a few River songs, live clips from the period, and assorted off-stage footage, is actually quite fascinating. I for one can never get tired of listening to Bruce Springsteen talk about Bruce Springsteen. I can’t help it, but the man captivates me when he speaks, and I hang on his every word. Still, there is something self-contradictory about a documentary focusing so much on Bruce himself when it covers an album – and much of the time is spent emphasizing this – that was all about breaking the isolation and seeking out relationships with other people rather than indulging in yourself and your inner demons.

All in all, compared with the sensational The Promise documentary from the Darkness box, this River doc does fall a little short – mostly due to the lack of relevant film from the era – but it’s still an interesting revealing glimpse into the mind of Bruce told in his usual fascinating style of juuuust enough self-irony and humor to make up for what could otherwise be seen as a bit self-important.

The book
On the Darkness box Bruce set a new standard for “booklets”. The booklet in that case was a great attempt at recreating one of the notebooks that Bruce is famous for carrying around at all times for scribbling down lyric ideas. The booklet included in The Ties that Bind box to a large degree lives up to its predecessor. This is an awesome hardcover book containing tons of River era photos, scanned newspaper articles, Bruce’s handwritten lyrics, a nice foreword by music journalist Mikal Gilmore, and other assorted elements that we Bruce aficionados love to painstakingly study to an unhealthy degree.

The book may not be the part of this box set that you will spend the most time drooling over. But at a time when everybody brings their own camera to a concert, taking horrible, shaky pictures, and when even professional photographers seem to take the same photo over and over (because Bruce is always dressed the same way on stage, and because they are only allowed to shoot during the first two songs), it’s nice to be reminded of a time when concert photography was an art form and every shot counted.

The Tempe DVD
There is no way around it: I have saved the best for last. The inclusion of three hours of the legendary November 5, 1980, Tempe show is a scoop that makes just about every other Springsteen film release pale in comparison…. which doesn’t mean they are bad. It just means that Tempe 1980 – apart from the missing non-existent hour of the show – is perfection. Other than in short clips here and there – such as “Quarter to Three” from the No Nukes movie or the “Rosie” video – the world had yet to see filmed documentation of just how good Bruce can be. The Tempe DVD is it. This is what we have been waiting for. This is finally a document we can show our non-believing friends and family and tell them, “if you want to understand why I see 10 shows in a year and happily spend all my hard-earned money on Bruce, watch this”. And unlike the other fifty times you have said that, this time, they really will understand.

So what exactly sets this film apart? Well, it seems like with every other live DVD release something has been wrong: the Houston ’78 show from the Darkness box had great picture quality, but the sound left a lot to be desired, just as the performance itself didn’t quite seem up there with other Darkness performances; the Hammersmith show from 1975 had great sound, the picture was good too, albeit a bit too dark, but again, Bruce seems affected by the hype surrounding his first European performance and delivers a somewhat lackluster performance; the Live in New York City release from the Reunion Tour is great, but ends prematurely; The Dublin Seeger Sessions DVD has great sound, great picture quality, a great performance, and great music… but just not the right music; and the 2009 Hyde Park show is a complete show, but again, it was actually one of the weaker performances of the tour and Bruce not in very good voice.

The Tempe DVD is not complete, but it feels like a complete show, because it’s three hours long and contains footage from the beginning, middle, and end. The picture quality is sharp, well-lit, and crisp, the editing flawless, and the sound quality is perhaps the best we have heard from any Bruce live release.

And then there’s the performance… oh, the performance! This is Bruce at his best. A 30-year-old, unrestrained man on a mission, fronting a band in their prime, mercilessly belting out one superb and beloved song after another, putting every muscle, every inch of his protruding veins, and every flicker of his soul into every moment, and always desperate and impatient to make the next moment even more intense, and the next. He never stands still. He is all over the stage. Now trying to coordinate a silly dance with Clarence, now urging Danny along, and now on top of Roy’s piano. Even singing into his microphone, his body is in constant motion, wringing out any body fiber that isn’t already being put to use in the attempt to reach that last person on the 134th row who has yet to make the unconditional surrender Bruce demands.

This DVD shows what those who were there, on that tour, thought they remembered, but weren’t quite sure anymore if they were just embellishing their own memories in the beautiful light of hindsight. But it turns out, they weren’t exaggerating. Bruce really was that good and then some. They now have the proof and can live the rest of their lives knowing that they saw the best performer the world has ever known, at the prime of his career.

Even without the Tempe DVD, The Ties that Bind box would have been a worthwhile addition to any Springsteen collection. With the Tempe DVD it becomes mandatory, as that is now probably the best single document we have of the man and his music. So forget your gripes about how one disc is half full of songs we already own on Tracks, or how they didn’t include the 2009 full-performance of The River, or whatever justified or unjustified reason you can think of for not shelling out the, admittedly, somewhat steep price for this. It simply comes down to the fact that you gotta own the Tempe DVD. And I promise, after it has converted your better half and your kids too, they will thank you for spending the family’s money so wisely rather than on such unnecessary, fatuous things as food and clothes.

Through the rain, through the snow, through the wind… 

Some interesting things happened in 1975: Maggie Thatcher began the long road to her reign of terror by becoming the leader of the Conservative party, West Ham won the FA Cup despite being shit, and the British voted to remain in the EEC (now EU). Okay, so, NOT A LOT HAPPENED IN 1975. Caps locks didn't even exist. Good thing Bruce Springsteen and his band of merry men (otherwise known as the E Street Band) were around to make things interesting.

1975 is the year of Springsteen's breakout LP, Born to Run. Although he had gained criticial attention for his earlier works (Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle) it wasn't until his third record that Bruce garnered the attention of America (and the world) at large. Until recent years, Springsteen wasn't a big festival fixture, largely due to the fact that he was able to fill out stadiums the world over by himself. However, he has performed at Isle of Wight and his Glastonbury set in 2009 is now the stuff of legend.

Check out our gallery, celebrating the pre-mega-fame years, courtesy of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band 1975, by Barbara Pyle.

If you want to see more photography from Reel Art Press, who kindly supplied us Pyle's Springsteen pic, check out their Christmas Pop Up Shop, with signings from Hunter Barnes, David Hurn and Christopher Frayling.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 1975: Photographs by Barbara Pyle RRP £40/ $60 published November 2015 by Reel Art Press. www.reelartpress.com

Reel Art Press Christmas Pop-up Shop, 284 Portobello Rd London W10 5TE. Opening hours: 10am-6pm from Saturday 12th - Sunday 20th December 2015. Book signings and Christmas drinks: Hunter Barnes will be signing copies of Roadbook on Monday 14th between 6-8pm. David Hurn will be signing copies of The 1960s Photographed by David Hurn on Tuesday 15th between 6-8pmChristopher Frayling will be signing copies of The 2001 File on Wednesday 16th between 6-8pm.

While in the last couple of years Bruce has been more visible on the equestrian scene watching his daughter become a star in her own right, than on the music scene, his trusty band members have taken the opportunity to further their solo careers. Roy Bittan released his first solo album; so did sax player Ed Manion; Jake Clemons toured people’s living rooms; and even Garry Tallent is working on his own album.

Despite the overall acoustic feel of the album, listening to it you never find yourself longing for drums or a pounding bass. Nils still manages to cover a wide range of styles and levels of loudness – and does sneak in a couple of electric solos for the aficionados. From the soft and tender “Girl in Motion”, to a jazzy version of “Walking Nerve” in which the aforementioned trumpet is brought into the mix to great effect, he keeps your attention and makes you realize there’s more to Nils Lofgren than those snazzy guitar parts. Again with the use of a trumpet, Nils even adds a Spanish vibe to the obscure “Rusty Gun”. Only the rocking finale of “Shine Silently” sees a traditional rock instrumentation, which must have been possible only if the duo on stage each played several instruments at once or used a taped backing track.

A couple of weeks ago the Bruce Librarian reviewed the new picture book “Born to Run: the Story of Johnny 99” by Wendy Parnell. After the review, Greasy Lake sent some questions to the author to learn more about her and her relationship with Springsteen. And if you thought Wendy Parnell was just another clever opportunist trying to make a little money on Springsteen's name, you're wrong. As the interview reveals, she is one of us. In fact, while we're all great fans of Bruce, how many of us can claim to have been sat down for a Bruce intervention? Well, Wendy can, and that's one of the things she talks about in this article, as well as her meeting with Steve Van Zandt, and touring Austin with a life-size cardboard cut out of Bruce.

So how long have you been a Springsteen fan and how did it happen? 
Love the way you phrased the question with “and how did it happen?” Makes me laugh because that’s what it feels like, something that happens to you, something wonderful that goes deep into your soul and transforms you. It was 1983 and I was sixteen. I was listening to and getting turned onto a lot of music, mostly whatever my big brother listened to. A friend gave me a cassette of Born to Run and told me he thought I’d really like it. Like all important life events, I remember the moment vividly. I was in my first car, my dad’s old Fiat spider, when I put the cassette in the car stereo. I remember how the music hit me. It was, and still remains, the most moving, soul stirring, poetic album I have ever heard.

Tell us about one or two highlights of your Springsteen fandom
Meeting Steven Van Zandt this year is certainly a highlight of my fandom! I met him in February at The Nobility Project’s annual Feed The Peace Awards in Austin, Texas where he was being honored. Meeting him was a surreal experience as I have heard Bruce saying “On guitar, Miami Steve Van Zandt!” through my stereo a countless number of times and have seen him play onstage with Bruce. In addition, I had recently been turned onto Little Steven’s Underground Garage, a genius of a radio show on Sirius XM and had just started watching Van Zandt’s show, Lilyhammer, which made the experience even more meaningful. I had a brief and pleasant conversation with him that night. I even made him smile, which I don’t see him do much in photos. The photo I got that night of me and Van Zandt, with him smiling, is a picture I’ll always treasure.

What is it about Bruce Springsteen's music that inspired you to create your own art and basing it on Springsteen? 
It actually started with Joe Ely, another great music artist, and, as you know, a friend of Springsteen. I had gone to hear Joe Ely play at Gruene Hall like I had done many times before. It was on this particular night that I was struck with the idea to create my first music-inspired picture book. Joe had the capacity crowd with their arms in the air, dancing and jumping up and down to his high energy hit “Musta Notta Gotta Lotta” (sleep last night). Later in the set Joe sang about Buddy Brown going back to bed and that's when it hit me. What if Buddy Brown went back to bed because he musta not gotta lotta sleep last night? Right then I could see a picture book. And I thought, if I can create a story with two Joe Ely songs titles, how many more can I fit within one inspired picture book. And that was my first picture book and that’s how it started, my weaving song titles and other references to an artist together to create a story. My friend and Grammy-nominated artist, Marcia Ball, upon seeing my Joe Ely inspired book said she’d love to have a book inspired by her music. That was my second book. So when I decided to keep going with this genre of books that I had created there was no question that my next picture book would be Springsteen-inspired since he is unequivocally my favorite music artist. I also love that Born to Run is my third picture book and Born to Run was Springsteen’s third album.

How did the wonderful illustrations and your collaboration with Matt Hall come about?
Meeting Matt was serendipitous. I began writing my Springsteen-Inspired book in 2010 and had been looking for years for an illustrator to bring the book to life, and not just any illustrator. I wanted someone worthy of the job because this book embodied over thirty years of passion for an artist’s music and someone I greatly admired. Since the main characters in the book are cars, I fantasized about having an illustrator who had worked on the Pixar animated movie Cars and who could give the book that cinematic look and would understand how to anthropomorphize cars. I also wanted to work with someone in my geographical area so we could meet regularly over the course of creating the book. I tried Googling to find an illustrator, using key words “ llustrator", "Pixar", "Austin" to no avail. Then one evening I sidled up to my boyfriend at a wine bar round the corner from my house when he points to the guy he’s just met standing next to him and says, “You need to meet his guy” and it was Matt Hall. Matt not only lives in my same town but had worked for DreamWorks for years. He was the illustrator I had hoped to find!

It struck me as I read the book how many Springsteen references there really are - not just lyrical, but also sometimes in the illustrations - references only a true Springsteen fan would catch. You must be a real Bruce geek? 
I am! So much so that when I was in college my friends staged an intervention to try and save me from my Springsteen mania. They really did! It went something like this. I was in my dorm room with my Springsteen posters on the wall, listening to my Springsteen music, looking at my Springsteen magazines when a friend called me into the hall. When I get out in the hall I’m surrounded by my well-meaning dorm mates who have me sit down. They tell me that I have a problem and that they are there to help. Then they drag my boxes of Springsteen memorabilia from my dorm room, pull the boxes out into the hallway and tell me that, for my own good, they are going to take it all off my hands. I sat there stunned. This was 1985, just after Born in the USA, another pinnacle of Springsteen's career, and Bruce was everywhere, in every magazine, in books, on shirts, you name it and I tried to collect it all. And this was before the internet so my Springsteen stuff had been slowly collected from all kinds of different places and sources. Also I already had all of Bruce’s music so I had begun listening to and collecting his bandmates and other New Jersey music that I knew he liked. It was an impressive collection that I had amassed. Truth is, as I watched my boxes of Springsteen stuff being hauled off, I was kind of relieved because my habit was costing me a small fortune as anytime I’d see anything with Bruce on it I’d have to buy it. Although I’d love to see that collection now! I guess the invention and my rehabilitation didn’t take as I’m still passionate about Springsteen’s music.

Springsteen's music is usually not associated with children. Why a children's book rather than a book for adults? Are you on a brainwash mission? :-) 
My books are a great way to brainwash, er, introduce kids to music. Also, my picture books offer something to adults because, as parents know, kids want you to read a book over and over again so you hope it’s a good one. But I didn’t write this book just for children. I wrote this book for anyone of any age to be able to enjoy. Springsteen fans will enjoy the music references. Kids will enjoy the colorful illustrations of cars. And both children and grown ups will enjoy the story. It is an especially great book and gift for high school graduates since it is the story of leaving home and lessons learned along the way.

I can tell from your website that you have kids yourself. How do they feel about Bruce Springsteen and your fandom, and do you think there's any hope that future generations will embrace him? 
I have a son, age 12 and a daughter about to turn 10. Their music tastes are not as malleable as when they were younger. ha! My son is into Minecraft parody songs. My daughter likes a lot of the same music I do. She makes a great deejay on road trips. Recently, as part of a social media post I created, my kids went ‘round Austin with me to various notable tourist locations to pose with my life-size Bruce Springsteen cardboard cut out [Check it out] I’d say my kids are pretty tolerant of their mom and her Springsteen fandom. The kids and I take turns in the car picking tunes. They have liked some of the Springsteen songs I’ve played so maybe there’s hope for future generations. The kids' favorite Springsteen song I’ve played thus far is “Ain’t Good Enough for You”.

Did you read the Outlaw Pete book by Frank Caruso and what did you think of it?
Yes. It is a beautiful book. Now when I hear “Outlaw Pete" I see the illustrations in my mind. I have the book, alongside my Springsteen picture book, on my coffee table.

Will there be a sequel or another book based on Springsteen's music?
I’d love that. Maybe so. I’d love to see what Johnny 99 does next. As I’m fond of saying, my books are “books with heart and books with soul and books inspired by rock ’n roll” so it’s possible.

Can you reveal any other artists that you want to turn into picture books and that we may see from your hand in the future?
My next artist-inspired picture book, Snake Farm, is currently being illustrated and is inspired by the music of another favorite artist of mine, Ray Wylie Hubbard. I have a number of artists in mind for future books. I would also love to be approached by some of my music heroes that would be interested in being the inspiration behind one of my books. This November will be the release of my picture book Rock Star Mom. It’s unlike my other picture books in that it is not inspired by one artist. Rock Star Mom celebrates moms in a fun and hilarious way as it is about all the crazy, funny and true ways that moms are like rock stars. Like Springsteen’s song and album, I'm Working on a Dream and part of that dream is to touch hearts of all ages with my books. Thank you, Karsten, for this fun interview. I always enjoy talking about Bruce Springsteen!

There are probably, on average, 3-4 books published about, or based on, Bruce Springsteen within the span of a year, so if two of those books are picture books inspired by Springsteen lyrics, can we call it a trend?

Because that’s exactly what is happening. With the publication of first "Outlaw Pete" from the fall of 2014 and this month "Born to Run: the Story of Johnny 99". the Springsteen bibliography now includes two books that a library might put in the same section as books by Richard Scarry and Beatrix Potter.

While Outlaw Pete by Frank Caruso received lots of publicity due to the fact that Bruce Springsteen himself collaborated and was listed as a co-author, The new book about a car named Johnny 99 by Wendy Parnell and Matt Hall so far has not stirred the same kind of attention. But that’s not for lack of Bruce gravy. Written as one long epic poem, every rhyming verse contains quotes from Bruce songs and other references to the man and his music. So many you’d be wasted before you were halfway through the book if you decided to turn it into a drinking game (which, of course, you wouldn't, this being mostly a children's book). Last but not least, the computer animation-like illustrations and the humanized classic automobiles complete the PIxar’s “Cars” meets Homer’s “The Oddysey” meets The Boss setting.

The outline of “Born to Run: the Story of Johnny 99” is not exactly ground breaking. A young rootless man (car) goes out to discover America and himself and returns as a celebrated hero. In some ways it could be Bruce’s story, although the understanding “dad” car may not quite fit that pitcture. However, mostly it’s the story of any man or woman realizing that sharing and giving are the true values to pursue rather than personal gains and wins. As such it’s the perfect book for Springsteen fans to read to their children, and of course, it doesn’t hurt that you can brainwash… sorry, influence… your kids with some of Bruce’s pearls of wisdom without forcing them to listen to the music. That will come soon enough.

“Outlaw Pete” is, of course, based on Bruce’s song by the same name. It consists of the lyrics to that song illustrated by Frank Caruso. Whether or not you like the song, the illustrations themselves are worth the price of purchase. They perfectly recreate that spaghetti western atmosphere that the song was going for too. There’s also inspiration from classic (in Europe at least) western comics such as Lucky Luke and Blueberry, but with even more drama. Each page is a true work of art.

Let me also take this opportunity to let the “Outlaw Pete” skeptics (or bashers) know that you are in fact wrong. The story of “Outlaw Pete” is quality and vintage Bruce. He wrote similar western epics in the early Seventies that never made it to record. "Outlaw Pete" perfectly uses Old West mythology - which, like the song. is full of ridiculous exaggerations - to illustrate a complex issue: how people can try to change for the better, but everybody still sees the old you, so you might as well stick with it, because it makes no difference. And for the record, the music, too, is one of Bruce’s most ambitious and grandiose productions since “Jungleland”, in a good way, but I digress.

Both “Born to Run: the Story of Johnny 99” and“Outlaw Pete” are beautiful examples of how Bruce’s songs can inspire other artists and art forms. We can only hope Caruso will follow up with sequels named “Highway Patrolman”, “Highway 29”, “Galveston Bay” or other great Bruce stories, and that Wendy Parnell hasn’t run out of Bruce referencing rhymes and verses. She is, we are told, a loyal Springsteen fan, but has written two other tribute books inspired by rock ‘n’ roll, including “Musta Notta Gotta Lotta Sleep Last Night” based on the music of Bruce associate Joe Ely.

“Born to Run: the Story of Johnny 99” is scheduled for release on the 40th anniversary of the Born to Run album, August 25. Read more here.

As much as we all love Bruce Springsteen’s classic albums of the Seventies and Eighties, we will always modify our praise with a “but you have to see him live”. Unlike fans of Beatles or fans of Elvis or fans of just about any other major star, we are somehow afraid that the albums alone won’t be enough for people to “get it”. A lot of that is of course due to Bruce’s phenomenal abilities as a live artist - you just don’t get a complete picture without having seen him live - but there is no denying that a small part of it is also that most of those albums just lack something in terms of sonic persuasiveness. Sure, Greetings showed some promising songwriting, The Wild, the Innocent is full of imagination in the production, but do they sound all that great? Would you use them to test a brand new stereo? Probably not, and if you did, you’d probably end up disappointed, because, yes, something is lacking.

So until now we have faithfully been buying the albums on the day of release and listened to them again and again…. for exactly as long as it took Bruce to bring the new album on the road and flesh out the real versions of those songs. Then the albums would be stored on the shelf and collect dust as we listened to live bootleg recordings or, on rare occasions, officially released live versions. That was how the songs were supposed to sound.

With the release of The Album Collection Vol. 1, the question is if all this is a thing of the past. The box contains the first seven Bruce Springsteen studio albums in remastered versions. The announcement of the box didn’t raise too many eyebrows. We’ve seen remastered versions of Springsteen albums before. Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town both were released in remastered versions in their respective anniversary box sets, but they failed to garner much attention due to all the other goodies those box sets included - and due to the fact that, frankly, ordinary listeners couldn’t hear much of a difference. Not a whole lot more than could be ascribed to wishful thinking.

So no wonder even the biggest fans were a little skeptical and planned to pass on this release. Not even the advance marketing promising a completely new experience owing to a new mastering technology could convince most doubters.

In this case, however, it turns out advance marketing wasn’t kidding. There is no way around it: After listening to The Album Collection Vol. 1 neither wishful thinking nor Kool Aid are necessary: Bruce Springsteen’s first seven albums have finally come home. From the moment the first notes of “Blinded by the Light” ring through the speakers and until the last notes of “My Hometown” fade out, you realize that this is what those albums were supposed to sound like all along. This is what Bruce, Mike Appel, Jon Landau, the band, etc., must have heard as they listened to their finished work in the studio - and what they had in mind - before any mastering was done at all. To the rest of us it is indeed like hearing the albums for the first time all over again.

So what exactly happened? The keywords are clarity, warmth, and detail. It’s like the difference between a crayon drawing and an HDR photo. Where there used to be a drone of instruments, there is now clear separation allowing your ears to focus on Garry’s bass, Bruce’s rhythm guitar, Danny’s keyboard, or whatever you choose. What previously you had to strain your brain and ears to pick up, is now just there. You hear it whether you try or not. The result is a warm and organic sound that never makes your head tired. You can crank it up and it’s never too loud, or you can turn it down low and still hear the details.

Another result is an intimacy in the sound that, if you close your eyes, makes it easy to imagine you’re sitting in the studio as the song is coming to life around you. The instruments sound like, well, instruments, rather than recordings of instruments. No tape hiss, no compression. Instead lots of dynamics and lots of punch.

A detailed album-by-album review of these remasters would lead to too much repetition. Still, each album deserves some individual comments. Greetings From Asbury Park, Bruce’s debut album, was, before the remaster, probably the least satisfying album from a sonic standpoint. It just sounded synthetic and flat. Not so anymore. Even an overlooked song like “The Angel” suddenly packs a punch and makes you pay attention. “Saint in the City” sounds exactly as gritty and tough as it was supposed to.

Springsteen has sometimes said that for the first two albums they didn’t really know how to record. They were learning as they went along. But listening to the remaster of The Wild, the Innocent, you realize that maybe the biggest problem wasn’t so much the recording as the mastering. Because this new remaster has made the album come alive like never before. The epic songs from “Sandy” to “Incident” have emerged from their muffled cocoons, and “New York City Serenade” doesn’t leave much to be desired compared to recent mesmerizing, string-filled live versions.

Born to Run was deliberately made in the Spectorish wall-of-sound tradition. You weren’t supposed to hear individual instruments, and to some extent that’s one of the things that was great about it. But when you listen to the remaster you realize that on the old version perhaps it wasn’t so much a wall of sound you heard as a mud pool of sound. With the remaster the wall rises majestically, hard and well-defined, from the mud and finally brings us the definitive version of Bruce’s pièce de résistance.

Darkness on the Edge of Town might also claim that title, but probably can’t be bothered. With the remastered version, the only album with which Bruce has publicly expressed dissatisfaction regarding the sound (calling it “underplayed and oversung”), all reservations can now cease, at least from this fan’s point of view. Max’s drums finally sound like real drums, and Garry’s bass pounds on your chest like he’s standing right there in your living room.

Speaking of bass, when the remasters were announced one of the most frequently asked questions was whether The River would finally have some. The tinny sound of the otherwise much praised double album has always been a source of frustration. Well, the answer is yes, the bass is much more prominent on the remaster. It’s almost the first thing you notice on the opening “Ties that Bind”. When that is said, it is on the ballads that the remastered album really shines. The title track, “Point Blank”, “The Price You Pay”, “Drive All Night” are close to revelations and sound fresh and organic like you never thought possible.

Another question that fans asked themselves was to what extent it was even possible to remaster the Nebraska album. It’s one thing to bring it as close to the original recording as possible, but when the original recording was done on a lo-fi four-track tape recorder, there’s only so much you can do - and should do. After all, that’s what made it special. Nebraska sounding crystal clear would no longer be Nebraska. And fortunately, that hasn’t happened. In fact, if you could buy these remasters individually - and if you buy them as downloads you can - Nebraska would be the one you can skip. To these ears, the overall impression is only marginally better, and that’s probably the way it should be.

In return, the last album in volume 1, Born in the USA, is a whole other story. Of the seven albums, this may be the one with the least potential for improvement as it didn’t sound too shabby to begin with. Still, although one might have hoped for a little more enhancement of the title track in terms of clarity, the rest of the album blows the original version away. “Cover Me”, “Downbound Train”, “No Surrender” all jump out of the speakers like you’re sitting in the control room of The Power Plant. And even though a remaster is not the same as a remix, the synthesizer that can seem a little too dominating on the old version blends in much better on the remaster, giving songs like “Glory Days” and “Dancing in the Dark” a fresh and less “Eighties” sound.

Seven albums and seven hours later, there’s not much left to say other than if you’re still holding out on buying this set or putting it on your Christmas list, that would be a mistake. If you sometimes listen to the studio albums, these will be the versions you want to hear. If you haven’t listened to the studio albums in years, you will want to hear these, and then you will want to hear them again and again.

They are that good.

By Erik Kirschbaum

The Berlin Wall unexpectedly cracked open 25 years ago on Nov. 9, 1989 and the Cold War was over. And Bruce Springsteen unintentionally played a role in helping bring down that iconic symbol of the world’s division.

How? Springsteen went to East Berlin 16 months earlier in July 1988 to play the biggest, most riveting and earth-shaking rock concert in the history of East Germany – a concert that some historians agree with my theory, as published in Rocking the Wall - The Berlin Concert that Changed the World, quite probably contributed to the larger East German rebellion that eventually brought the Wall down.

Not only did Springsteen have some 300,000 ecstatic East Germans screaming their lungs out while singing “Born in the USA”, he also defiantly opened his four-hour long concert with “Badlands”, a song that East Germans might have felt referred to their country, and he later played “Chimes of Freedom” right after delivering a courageous short speech calling for the wall to be torn down. No one had ever done anything like that in East Germany. For East Germans locked up behind the Berlin Wall it was an unforgettable concert and an incredibly liberating moment – an American rock star telling 300,000 people that he came to play for them in the hope that “one day the barriers will be torn down.”

And 16 months later, the Berlin Wall was gone. Mike Spengler, who was a horn player in Springsteen’s band, got in touch with me after Rocking the Wall first came out just before the 25th anniversary of the concert last year and shared his riveting memories of that historic 1988 concert as well as the two days that the band spent behind the Iron Curtain in East Berlin. Spengler recalled the concert, helping ice skater Katherina Witt off the stage, and an awkward reception with Communist officials afterwards.

“As for the concert itself, I wouldn’t want to say that it was no different than any other - but ALL of Bruce's concerts were special in their way," wrote Spengler. "His philosophy was this: 'We're gonna work our asses off, but we're gonna have a great time doing it.' The man puts out so much energy and commitment that one, as a 'sideman', can't help but try to match it. I'm more a ‘jazz guy’ than a ‘rock and roller’, but there were plenty of nights were I physically reached what for me would be ‘wild abandon.’ And this one was no different. Just total concentration on what we were doing- so that we could follow and match whatever spontaneous direction Bruce would lead us in."
Spengler said at the reception Communist party leaders were falling all over themselves to have their pictures taken with Springsteen. At one point, a Communist official raised his glass in a toast and said:

‘We thank Bruce Springsteen for providing the Deutsche Democratic Republic to now make three great W's in rock and roll history- Voodstock, Vembley, und Veisensee!’ I had to stifle any laughter on my part."

Sixteen months later Spengler was at home in New Jersey and was watching the Berlin Wall burst open with thousands of people climbing up on top and over it. A friend of his watching couldn't understand his excitement. "I was glued to the TV- but also pacing back and forth. She couldn't quite get my excitement. ‘You don't understand,’ I said, ‘I was there! I SAW that f-n' Wall close up and personal. And there's a big part of me that wishes I were with those folks right now! And maybe... just maybe... that concert I played with Bruce in a small way helped lead to this!’”

A U.S. military officer stationed in West Berlin at the time named Bill Halpin also got in touch with after hearing about Rocking the Wall. He saw the East Berlin concert and then predicted to his superiors: "My briefing was short and to the point: The Berlin Wall will fall within 18 months without firing a shot." Halpin said some of the other officers and diplomats at the briefing snickered. "I explained what I'd witnessed at the Springsteen concert, knowing full well the genie was not going back into the bottle." He was only two months off the mark. Their observations are now part of a new, updated and expanded book just published by Berlinica in New York that includes more pictures of the concert.

Last week Bruce announced the release of The Albums Collection Vol. 1 (1973-1984) containing the first seven studio albums in remastered versions. Fans were, as always, divided in their reception. Some thought it was about time that the early albums got a much-needed soundlift. Others were furious that the much talked-about River boxset had been postponed. But if anyone should feel cheated, it would be the people who bought the 2010 release The Collection, 1973-1984 containing - you guessed it - the first seven studio albums, but in plain, non-remastered versions.

Since Bruce Springsteen entered the reissue/compilation market for real in 1995 with the release of Greatest Hits, his output in that category has been the subject of controversy among fans. The 1995 Greatest Hits album was blamed for ignoring the first two albums (not that they produced any hit singles), including a song that had never been a single, let alone a hit (“Thunder Road”... not that anyone minded), and including bonus material that 1) forced fans to invest in a whole album for the sake of four songs, and 2) weren’t all that great. That is, the re-recorded version of “This Hard Land” wasn’t nearly as good as the outtake fans had been listening to for years through the magic of bootlegging, and “Murder Incorporated”, although not re-recorded, just wasn’t the right version. Not to mention “Secret Garden”, which didn’t utilize the E Street Band properly. Of course, the fact that the E Street Band had been reunited for this project at all, helped pour oil on troubled waters.

Despite the objections from fans, the mass-consumer market didn’t care. Greatest Hits is now Bruce’s second best selling album and can be found in more than 13 million homes.

In 1998 Bruce released the four-disc Tracks box set. In itself a compilation of 90% previously unreleased outtakes, it hardly counts as one the way it flows like four regular albums. Still, despite making the wet dreams of countless fans come true, Tracks had one major flaw: where was “The Promise”? Bruce’s most famous and most cherished unreleased song was missing. How could that be?

In interviews Bruce mumbled something about not being able to find a proper recording of it. But he did try to make up for it five months later by releasing a single-disc compilation of Tracks called 18 Tracks and including a re-recording of “The Promise”. That, of course, was not enough to satisfy fans, who longed for the full-band, desperate-sounding version from the Darkness sessions that had been circulating for years on bootlegs. Not a modern rehash by a 50-year old, happily married, content elder statesman of rock.

And that wasn’t the only thing wrong with 18 Tracks. As with Greatest Hits, the inclusion of bonus songs made some fans complain that they now had to buy 15 songs that they already owned just to get the three bonus songs, which of course is the whole point of bonus songs. There were also those who thought the 18 Tracks compilation should have been released at the same time as Tracks, because they would never have shelled out all that money for Tracks if they could have gotten the highlights for a third of the price. Of course, this was assuming 18 Tracks actually included the highlights of Tracks, which not many fans would have agreed with. Can you say “Lion’s Den”, anyone?

It would be four years before the next compilation was released. The Essential Bruce Springsteen from 2003 tried to correct the points of criticism that Greatest Hits had been the victim of. All albums were represented, and a song’s importance was the main criteria rather than its hit status. Of course, they still managed to leave out “Backstreets” and include as many songs from The Rising as from Born to Run, which didn’t correspond with how most fans would have prioritized. Still, this was a much better representation of what Bruce was all about. Even the bonus disc of rare and unreleased material was received with nods of approval… except for that dreadful version of “Countin’ on a Miracle”, of course. What was that about?

By 2005 Bruce had been releasing albums long enough to justify looking into the trendy market of reissues. Take an old, classic album, remaster it, and put it in a box with a bunch of bonus material. The Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition was the first of such efforts, and the bar was set high from the beginning. The bonus material consisted of a full, uncirculated show from London in 1975 on DVD and a “making of” documentary. Other than some purists’ objections to any self-celebratory initiatives, and the fact that the included London show was previously mostly known for being somewhat of a disaster (which the DVD disproved), the Born to Run box was received extraordinarily well; so well, in fact, that demands for a Darkness reissue soon started to emerge.

That would take another five years. First Bruce spent several very productive years focusing exclusively on brand new material and touring. Perhaps it was this focus on other things that made him commit one of the biggest mistakes of his career. In October 2008 it was announced that Bruce and the E Street Band would be performing at the Superbowl in January of 2009. The prospect of having a billion TV viewers from all over the world watch the band proved too big of a temptation to someone in Bruce’s organization. Of course, the one billion viewers myth is just that...a myth; the actual figure is nowhere near that. Still, 100 million viewers is also a bunch. And with that many viewers, wouldn’t it be awesome to have a new Greatest Hits album in the stores? In theory, not a bad idea. The way it was executed proved more problematic. Around that time several artists from Garth Brooks to AC/DC had signed exclusive deals with Walmart to sell their new album in the United States. Others, like Bob Dylan and Alanis Morissette, had made similar deals with Starbucks.

So, as this seemed to be the thing to do, a deal was signed with Walmart making the retail giant the exclusive outlet of Bruce Springsteen’s new Greatest Hits collection. What could possibly go wrong? Well, if the deal had been made with Starbucks, maybe things would have gone better. But since Walmart is not only known for selling tons of cheap, crappy Chinese-manufactured products, but also for being less than generous when it comes to paying its workers and having a strained relationship with labor unions, fans started to point out this, at best, unfortunate - and at worst hypocritical - alliance between Springsteen, the pro-union working-class hero, and the flower of Republican economic thinking, Walmart.

The media, of course, lapped it up. Bloggers had a field day. Fans on fan forums were in an uproar. Bruce finally had to release a statement admitting that he and his team had dropped the ball and neglected to vet the deal properly.

By then it was too late to get out of the deal, so Walmart got their exclusive Bruce compilation. But perhaps in order to make up for the mistake a little bit, it would only be six months until the next compilation was released, this time under the title… drum roll.... Greatest Hits. And this time you could buy it in any store…. Well, except if you lived on any other continent than Europe since this was an exclusive to the European market.

Just like the Walmart collection, the European Greatest Hits was credited to Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, which ruled out tracks from Nebraska, Human Touch/Lucky Town and other solo efforts. But whereas the Walmart compilation only included 12 tracks, they somehow managed to squeeze in all of 18 tracks on the European release and still limit it to one disc. All the tracks were previously released, which meant no one was forced to buy it, so not many did.

2010 saw the release of no less than the Holy Grail, the Holy Grail in this case being a reissue of Darkness on the Edge of Town in the shape of the mother of all boxsets. Apart from a remastered version of the actual album, which was the least of it, the box included a documentary with actual footage from the Darkness sessions, a complete, uncirculated Darkness show on DVD, a live recording of the album, and a double disc of Darkness outtakes. What more could fans possibly ask for? Well, a couple of things. First, the show from Houston that was included on DVD… it wasn’t quite up there with the bootlegged Largo and Passaic shows. Sure, the picture quality was fine. Not so much the sound and the performance.

Secondly, a lot of the songs on the double-disc of outtakes were restored using newly recorded overdubs, including Bruce’s vocals. They should of course not have tampered with the original recordings and released them as they were, unfinished and all. Would they have been more enjoyable that way? No. But they would have been “real”.

In return, the Darkness box did include the version of “The Promise” that fans had clamored for in connection with Tracks. The whole box had actually been named after it. So apparently, Bruce had taken another look in his basement and found the recording that was missing in 1998. Or had he planned it this way the whole time?

This brings us up to 2010 and the The Collection 1973-1984 that we mentioned in the beginning. But the story doesn’t end here. In 2013, Bruce was, once again, touring the world and, for the first time in 10 years, Australia. This, of course, called for a new compilation to be released in Australia. No, this time they didn’t call it Greatest Hits. That would have been too confusing. Instead they called it Collection 1973-2012 - not to be mistaken with The Collection 1973-1984 or The Albums Collection 1973-1984. Nope, nothing confusing about that. Grandma will have no trouble getting you the right one for Christmas.

Anyway, Collection 1973-2012, released in Australia and later Europe, was another single-disc greatest hits type of album. This time it included both E Street and non-E Street Band songs, but was otherwise quite similar to the 2009 compilations.

So, what is in store for us in the future? Well, a River reissue boxset is definitely in the works for 2015. Of course, no one can be sure if Bruce will decide he doesn’t like it and pulls it at the last moment. If so, maybe it will be replaced with a new compilation of career highlights. Let’s see, they could call it Greatest Hits Collection 1973-2014.

 Just as you can’t judge a Bruce Springsteen album based on the first listening, you can’t judge a Bruce Springsteen tour based on the first show. As it will probably turn out, the tour opener in Cape Town, South Africa, was more like a continuation of where the Wrecking Ball Tour left off in September than what is in store for us in the coming time. If you had come to the show expecting to hear the never-before-played songs from High Hopes, you would have had to settle for “Heaven’s Wall”, oddly positioned between "The River" and"Atlantic City" (shouldn’t it be an encore or something?). But to probably 99% of the crowd who had never seen Bruce Springsteen before, this was exactly the right mix of greatest hits and other battle-tested songs proven to work with just about any audience. In other words, a safe setlist. But of course, a “safe” Bruce Springsteen show is still the best show on the planet, especially to those who have never seen him before.

The safe mode was underlined by the fact that Bruce did not grab a single sign request from the crowd. Whether this is a new policy or just Bruce's way of easing the band, and perhaps Tom Morello in particular, into the tour remains to be seen. However, to be fair, the show did open with a full-blown, and very ambitious, rendition of The Special AKA’s 30-year-old protest song, “Free Nelson Mandela” utilizing every one of the ever-growing E Street Band’s cylinders, including Curtis King on shared lead-vocals.

Still, while the show itself, from the perspective of a spoiled fan from the northwestern hemisphere, may not have been the most spine-tingling, other news surrounding this new tour has made even the most bored naysayer perk up their ears. Starting with last night’s show, Bruce will offer downloads of most shows 2-4 days after the event at the price of $9.99 for the mp3 version and $14.99 for the lossless flac format. At first it was announced that in order to obtain the download rights, you had to purchase a $40 wristband - one for each show - but a fan uproar not seen since the Walmart blunder back in 2009 (when the anti-union, underpaying, worker-oppressing, downright evil corporation got the exclusive rights to sell the new greatest hits compilation) quickly made Springsteen’s management change their mind. Unless you believe the official story that the wristbands were never meant to be the only method to buy these downloads.

Whatever the case, the next few days will tell how exactly this is going to work and - more importantly - how the recordings will sound. For the above-mentioned bored naysayers there may still be plenty of opportunity to turn the thumb down if the sound quality doesn’t live up to expectations or Tom Morello’s guitar is too loud in the mix. But hopefully most fans will have time to celebrate the fact that something we have been clamoring for for 10-15 years, but never thought possible, is suddenly reality.

Another noteworthy development in the last few days has been Bruce’s hint during a press conference that the mega-tours may be a thing of the past. Rather, the future may see shorter bursts of touring activity not connected to any particular release, but instead perhaps a geographical area. And maybe this year’s tour of South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand is the first example of just that, and not the beginning of a new 130-show, twice around the world, tour like the Wrecking Ball Tour, let alone the Born in the USA Tour. The fact is, so far these 2014 shows have not been billed as the High Hopes Tour or anything else indicating what exactly this is. So maybe it isn’t anything other than Bruce’s desire to play, at a particular moment in a particular place, without committing himself to other than what his muse tells him to do.

Nelson Mandela may have been freed long ago, and after having served his people for many years, his spirit is finally roaming free too (perhaps checking out a big, black sax player beyond Heaven's wall) . But Bruce Springsteen is still here, serving us, 50 years and counting, and now granting the previously-so-cursed South African people the ultimate stamp of approval: a visit by the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, booty-shaking E Street Band.

For an album that is, allegedly, mostly meant to tie up some loose ends and fulfill Bruce’s desire to release more music, the new High Hopes album, released last week, has been the subject of an unexpected controversy. Bruce shouldn’t include cover songs, he should write new songs instead of releasing leftovers, Tom Morello has no place on a Springsteen record, the music sucks … Those have been just some of the complaints from fans who have seemed personally insulted by Bruce’s choices.

Taste is taste and opinions are opinions, and everybody is entitled to theirs. There’s no doubt this is in some ways an unusual album: the inclusion of three cover songs, the re-recording of “The Ghost of Tom Joad”, the significant fingerprints by a non-E Street Band member on an otherwise mostly E Street Band album, the fact that there are no newly written songs on it. Those are all firsts for Bruce. However, including songs recorded for earlier projects? Not so much. Bruce has done that for almost as long as there has been such a thing as “earlier projects” for him.

Besides the fact that you can probably go through every Springsteen album and make an equally long list of “firsts” for every one of them (the Born to Run album was the first album that saw Bruce let in a new producer… Jon Landau), if you feel that these particular “firsts” somehow disqualify High Hopes from being a proper, worthwhile Springsteen album, that would be a mistake and deprive you of some pretty outstanding musical moments.

Back in the mid-Nineties, in an interview with Neil Strauss, Bruce, like he often did, expressed a desire to release more music, but what was more interesting was that he wanted to release albums based not so much on a lyrical common denominator, but on a sound or an instrument. He wanted to make a guitar album.

With High Hopes Bruce hasn’t made an album based on the guitar so much as an album based on a guitarist. Rather than a common theme or a common period in time, Tom Morello is the glue that holds High Hopes together. His instrument can be heard on most of the tracks, and he is directly responsible for at least two song inclusions: “High Hopes”, which he brought to Bruce’s attention before the Australian tour in 2013, and “Hunter of Invisible Game”, a Springsteen demo that Brendan O’Brien had played privately to Morello in the studio.

But although this isn’t a guitar album per se, it’s still the most guitar-oriented studio album Bruce has released. From Morello’s rhythmic licks on the title track to his majestic and frantic final solo of “The Ghost of Tom Joad”, we get numerous examples of his sublime technique that still somehow never gets in the way of the emotion he puts into his strings. This of course is a matter of taste. To these ears, his playing blends perfectly with Bruce’s music and adds new dimensions. The “scratch” sequence that culminates the “The Ghost of Tom Joad” solo is just one example of an unlikely and yet fitting addition to a song that, until recently, we thought was a somber folk tune.

High Hopes may not be as thematically structured as Wrecking Ball or Tunnel of Love or Magic, but it’s not like the songs point in 12 different directions. We are for the most part in familiar Bruce territory. Hope and dreams in the face of struggle. And violence. Violence seems to be running rampant. From the unspeakable violence lingering just beneath the surface in “Harry’s Place”, to the bloody river of “American Skin”, the aftermath of a terror attack in “Down in the Hole”, and the broken war veteran of “The Wall”, violence is all around, literally, or the consequences of it. Heck, even love uses a sword in “This Is Your Sword”.

Speaking of “The Wall”, if you thought High Hopes was just a bunch of random songs thrown randomly together, that segue from the screeching guitar attack of “The Ghost of Tom Joad” to the no less powerful acoustic opening chords of “The Wall” must rank among the greatest pairings of any songs on any Springsteen album.

Stylistically, High Hopes is the perfect summary of the 21st century Bruce. Echoes of The Rising, Seeger Sessions, Devils & Dust, Magic, Working on a Dream, and Wrecking Ball are all present. While “Down in the Hole” is often - rightfully - compared with “I’m on Fire”, an even more obvious companion piece would be “Paradise” from The Rising. “This Is Your Sword” would have blended right in on Wrecking Ball, and “Frankie Fell in Love”, one of Bruce’s best garage rockers since The River album, would have been a great alternative to Working on a Dream’s “My Lucky Day”, which is the kind of song that would have come out of a computer programmed to write a Bruce Springsteen song.

If you need a new Springsteen song and don’t want to use a computer and don’t have the man himself on hand, the best solution may be to contact Australian alternative rock band The Saints. They wrote “Just Like Fire Would”, the second of three cover songs on High Hopes. Of all the songs on the album, this is perhaps the most archetypal Bruce Springsteen song, including Bruce’s own. Channeling his best 1978 voice, Bruce delivers a passionate and intense vocal performance that should convince even the skeptics that he owns this song as much as he owns Jimmy Cliff’s “Trapped”. “Just Like Fire Would” was recorded in Australia mid-tour in 2013. Hopefully not the last time Bruce uses this approach.

So while most songs on High Hopes revisit styles from earlier projects, not everything sounds familiar. “High Hopes” itself points forward to a new E Street Band era of funky rhythms that may be modern, but are also rooted way back around The Wild, the Innocent. And “Heaven’s Wall” may have gospel written all over it, but there’s something else. Could it be - deliberate or not - Bruce’s first attempt at… disco? Horrifying to some. A minor revelation to those of us who, in our older days, all of a sudden find ourselves appreciating enticing bass lines and slightly cheesy synthesizer strings.

The album ends with the hypnotic “Dream Baby Dream” known from the Devils & Dust Tour. Repeating that live version in the studio would have been impossible. It took a two-hour concert to lead up to that and make it work. So here we get a more polished, stringent version that almost unnoticeably grows from a voice and keyboard to what sounds like a full orchestra.

And in much the same way, the High Hopes album grows on repeated listenings from insignificant to a fully-fledged Bruce Springsteen album that may not threaten Born to Run and Darkness on the throne of Bruce Springsteen albums, but which also cannot be dismissed as a throwaway of stale leftovers. Listen to the music and forget about the distractions. It’s only rock ‘n’ roll.