Springsteen -- Darkness Box Set

So, Bruce formally announced the 3 CD/3 DVD Darkness on the Edge of Town box set. Looks very exciting.

In addition to two outtake CDs and a remaster of the album, the DVDs look very cool. There is the full Houston show in 1978 and songs from 4 other shows from the era. Plus the band performed the album live last year in the Paramount without an audience to recreate the recording vibe.

An outtake from the documentary is at http://brucespringsteen.net/news/index.html -- Bruce and Stevie to a wild little version of Sherry Darling.

 

Wow. This sounds awesome. Thanks.

It's interesting how time changes things. It looks like Bruce has patched up things with Mike Appel, his original manger whose sacking led to the three-year legally enforced hiatus between Born to Run and Darkness. Or at least things were patched up in November of last year...

http://www.mikeappel.net/buffalo.html

 

Holy fuck, am I pumped for this. Darkness is my fave Springsteen album. A rock version of "Racing In The Street"? I had no idea such a thing existed for one of my all-time Springsteen top five. Anybody heard that on a bootleg or anything? Great video of Bruce and Steve goofing to an obviously very early incarnation of "Sherry Darling".

 

I am definitely psyched for this release.
The majority (or at least half) of those two CDs of outtakes haven't circulated on bootleg.
The documentary looks great and the stuff on the other DVDs should be awesome as well. The video quality of the '76-'78 stuff from the vaults looks great ... skip ahead to around the 45-second mark in this clip to see the video quality of Red Bank '76, followed by the '78 Houston show.

Also, keep in mind that the official "Rosalita" video is from the '78 Phoenix show.

 

Hope I can afford it.

'Cause I've got a house up in Fairview and a style that I'm trying to maintain.

 

That "Rosalita" video is my all-time fave concert video. Never get tired of watching that.

 

Sony Music Store is packaging it with a t-shirt and poster and selling the full package for $115, Blue Ray for $125.
Amazon is taking pre-orders for $95 (or $96) on the full package.
Hoping Best Buy undercuts them by $30+ when it hits the shelves.
Since I want it the first day, I'll drop the $60-$70+ it will cost.
But the more I think about it, it will probably fall below $50 during holiday sales.

 

I'm thinking it will make a nice birthday or Christmas present for me!

 

If anyone's interested - saw a great Springsteen cover band last night. Tramps Like Us - they were just awesome.

http://www.trampslikeus.com/

See them if you have a chance. You won't be sorry.

 

My birthday comes too soon, and I don't want to wait months for it, so it goes on my Christmas list.

 

Well, the suit's been settled for 30 years. Plus I have a teeny weeny sneaking suspicion Bruce may have been channeling his inner Michael Corleone.

 

Bruce won, Appel lost. Bruce has been very gracious over the past decade in public about Appel's support in the early years.

Listened to an early version of The Promise tonight -- what a great song.

Darkness is where Bruce figured it all out and learned to say way more with fewer words. Part of me always will love WIESS more, but I'm not sure if was ever better than on Darkness.