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2012 Tracker -- places, dates, rumours |
Monkees singer Davy Jones dead at 66
Whitney Houston dead at 48
New Springsteen album 'Wrecking Ball' offers 3 old songs and 10 new ones
Bob Seger joined onstage by Springsteen for 'Old Time Rock 'n' Roll' at MSG
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Sign the petition to have The Guess Who inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Nov. 16, 1978, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto
during triumphant 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' tour
photo (c) Bill Daverne, 1978, 2010
| Video Picks | |
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'I Shall Be Released' ~ Lost 'Last Waltz' performance by The Band, Bob, Dylan et al ~ 1976 | |
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'Merry Christmas Baby' ~ Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band ~ November 22, 2009 | |
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'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' ~ Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band ~ November 22, 2009 | |
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~ from 1956 to 2010, Elvis, Chuck, Jimmy, Jimi, Melanie, Neil, Joe, Scott, Bruce and many more...
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Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa arrive at red carpet for TIFF Gala presentation of 'The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town' at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, September 14, 2010 | |
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| Mini Music Reviews (excerpts) |
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The National Post/Dave Bidini ~ Record of the Month Club: With The Promise, Bruce Springsteen releases the best new ‘old’ album you’ve heard It’s probably foolish -- and a little cheeky -- to suggest that The Promise is better than Born to Run or Darkness on the Edge of Town, but it’s never overwrought or cooked-too-long, as are some of those records’ more bombastic moments. The songs boil large without ever spilling over the edges of the saucepan. One of Clearmountain’s achievements is in being able to push something very large into something small. If the E Street Band’s great heaving colossus can sometimes prove exhausting, or, at worst, narcissistic, here it’s a more finely pointed and sleek arrow, and, in a way, less of a personality. Two things: there are fewer sax solos and hardly any strings. Because the sessions ended up being nothing more than an abandoned album exercise, the songs never reached the point when the producer and songwriter stopped to wonder how much more they could add before whatever it was they were recording burst apart at the seams. That is part of Born to Run’s charm, of course, but trying to repeat its achievement would have been as foolish as trying to out-prosaic the tone and mood and sound of Nebraska. Because of these clear choices, The Promise stands ably on its own.
Blogness on the Edge of Town/Pete Chianca ~ Springsteen, the novel: Sara Goodman’s ‘Beyond the Palace’ I’ve mentioned Bruce-inspired fiction before, like Michael J. Sullivan’s 'Necessary Heartbreak', but 'Beyond the Palace' is a little different in that Springsteen is practically a character -- it’s a love story among Bruce Tramps set against the backdrop of a Springsteen tour.
The Quietus/Rich Hughes ~ The Promise Well, the first disc is where all the goodies are. There are songs here that could (and would) be massive hits. The dark, brooding version of 'Because the Night', later to become a hit when Patti Smith recorded it, is impressive. It oozes a menacing aspect that's sometimes lost in translation. 'Gotta Get That Feeling' is the come down from 'Born To Run', a piano-led ballad that comes complete with a rousing saxophone solo. The Roy Orbison twang of 'Someday (We'll Be Together)' is a classic 50's pop song which, in another age, would soundtrack school proms the world over - pulling heart strings with its wondrous vocal harmonies. 'Wrong Side of the Street' is the The Boss and the E Street Band hitting full, epic, stride with charged guitar riffs and an emotive piano refrain.
Aquarium Drunkard/Patterson Hood ~ Darkness On The Edge of Town I was fourteen, had just moved, was about to enter high school, puberty and all that shit. I was hanging out at the record store (as I did every Saturday) and my friend Jay, behind the counter, told me to buy this record. He probably didn’t tell me it would save my life, but he might has well have. I think it got me at track 3 ('Something in the Night', still gives me chills). Somewhere around the time that everything dropped out, leaving only the voice and the kick drum, playing the most simple of things as he crooned about being caught at the state line and having their car burned that I knew this was some special kind of Rock and Roll Record.
 Winnipeg Free Press/Rob Williams ~ Bruce Springsteen: The Promise ~ Consider it a promise fulfilled The Promise collects 22 songs that didn't fit his vision for that album, and serves as a must-have for fans who will marvel at how these tracks remained hidden for so long. The double disc set (also available as a box set with extra goodies, live footage and documentaries) showcases everything that made Springsteen what he is, both tough and tender, with characters who live life on the edge, are dragged down by despair, love each other too much or are still looking for love. And no matter what, everything's better when you can just get out on the road and drive.
Toledo Blade/Rod Lockwood ~ 'Darkness' set a must-have for Springsteen diehards If there is a Bruce Springsteen fan in your life you probably haven't seen him or her the past few days. And if you are a Springsteen devotee, thanks for peeling yourself away from the massive three-CD/three-DVD "Darkness On the Edge of Town" box set released Tuesday to check in. This should only take a few minutes and you can get back to poring over the mother lode of all Boss material.
Daily Express/Simon Gage ~ Bruce Springsteen: The Promise Can there be anything more exciting to your average rock fan than a new double album of never-before-heard material from Bruce Springsteen’s glory days? Probably not. With 70 songs to choose from and nothing wrong with any of them this is a collection of material that was whittled down to maybe his finest album 1978’s Darkness On The Edge Of Town. And what a treasure chest. From Phil Spector-flavoured rock to songs he gave away -- Because The Night to Patti Smith, Fire to The Pointer Sisters -- every one’s an absolute winner. Essential listening.
Blender/Robert Christgau ~ Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (30th Anniversary Edition) The biggest problem with Bruce Springsteen's 1975 breakthrough album was always how unabashedly it proclaimed its own greatness. The wall-of-sound, white-soul-at-the-opera-house Born to Run is definitely full of itself--its lead track emoted over five minutes of portentous piano, its title track laden with glockenspiel and guitar guitar guitar, its thematic burden an unresolved quest narrative, its groove as grand as a V-8 hearse. Newcomers may not get why its class-conscious songcraft provided a relief from the emptier pretensions of late-hippie arena-rock. Yet it sounds greater today than it ever did. By definition, the remastered thirtieth-anniversary edition of the album that put a cult artist from South Jersey on the cover of Time and Newsweek isn't shy about its greatness either. Greatness is what such packages hawk, so be grateful that this one has a right. The remastering adds only presence, warmth and texture to the digitalization, which by lax early-Columbia standards wasn't bad to begin with. Three decades later, Springsteen still takes pride in his workmanship and his art, and that's strong of him.
Providence Journal/Rick Massimo ~ Bruce Springsteen: The Promise ‘An alternative history of late-’70s Springsteen’ 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' heralded Springsteen’s arrival as A Serious Artist, and shows him deciding to grip the title of Rock Messiah. I suppose that’s all well and good. But lyrical ambitions aside, in the grooves it always sounded to me like a record made by someone coming off a huge success and unsure how much or how little to repeat himself. 'The Promise' goes on a little long, but it’s the work of a singer and songwriter confident of who he is, and confident that that’s important all by itself.
Joe Blogs/Joe Posnanski ~ Springsteen: The Promise And, as you know, as you can see, the song "The Promise" is not on Darkness. The band played it, and they knew it was great, knew that it might be the best song that Bruce Springsteen ever wrote. And it fit on the album, it was in many ways everything that Springsteen was trying to say. Only Springsteen could not let go of it. The song was too close to him. He has never been able to explain it any better than that. Some think The Promise is really about his fight with Appel for control of his own music. Some think it is about his fear of losing himself in success, his fear of losing what he thought was the best part of himself. Some think it is about his friends who got left behind. In the end, of course, it doesn't matter what The Promise means to Bruce Springsteen -- doesn't matter beyond trivia. Like all great songs, all great art, it only matters what it means to the person who accepts it.
BBC/Alex Denney ~ Springsteen: The Promise -- An indispensible portrait of an artist at the top of his game Darkness... may also just be his finest record, and we’ve got maths to back us up here. During the acrimonious period that followed his money-spinning third album, Springsteen had amassed a formidable repertoire of some 70-plus songs, whittled down in accordance with his wishes to make a record reflecting downbeat social realities. That means The Promise -- an album collecting some of the songs never to make the cut -- has an embarrassment of riches to draw from, since many of the tracks here were left off the album not for quality-control purposes but simply because they didn’t fit in with the programme.
Flavorwire/Doug Levy ~ Springsteen: The Promise The Promise includes tracks that Springsteen originally gave to other artists ('Because the Night', 'Fire'), alternate versions of songs from Darkness ('Racing in the Street', 'Candy’s Room'), and lost epics, such as the title track. Where necessary, he added new elements to the recordings to complete what was left unfinished, ranging from slight flourishes to the creation of an entirely new studio version of 'Save My Love'. The result is an offering that goes far beyond any semblance of castoffs or B-sides, comprising an immersive, masterful, painstakingly crafted classic album of its own.
Lincoln Journal Star/L. Kent Wolgamott ~ Springsteen's 'Promise' is welcome blast of the past I haven't seen the DVDs or listened to the remastered album. I'm not sure I need or even want to. It might be interesting to get a glimpse into Springsteen's creative process more than two decades ago and see a show that will flash me back to the shows I saw in the mid-to-late '70s. But that's history and nostalgia, and 'The Promise' is neither. It is a fresh, new-old record that stands on its own. It's great no matter when, how or why it was made.
Paste/Beca Grimm ~ Bruce Springsteen: The Promise The titular song, 'The Promise', arrives near the end. It’s Springsteen’s never-ending project which he’s countlessly chopped, rearranged and resurrected live. In its studio form, it plays like a trickle but explains everything. From the three years he spent in the studio determining the precise ingredients and execution, The Boss wanted his message to be clear: He wasn’t in it for the hits and he wasn’t going anywhere. And lucky for us, he hasn’t.
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NOW magazine/Joanne Huffa ~ Springsteen: The Promise
Guardian/Richard Williams ~ The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story
Chicago Tribune/Greg Kot ~ Springsteen: In 'Darkness' reissue, the CD that might have been
Rolling Stone/Jon Dolan ~ Bryan Ferry: Olympia