Bruce Springsteen: The Promise

This is streaming here. The guy seems to have an endless supply of high quality outtakes from this era. The Racing In The Street is a particular revelation.

Wow! That song would have been one of the highlights of either "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" or "The River" (it sounds like it is from one of those two eras, a bit too modern sounding to be "Born On The Run" or earlier and not "beefed up" enough to be "Born In The USA" era)

And it seems even stranger how none of these mostly great tracks even made it into the "Tracks" set.

I'm just listening to it now and it's 1000 times better than I imagined it would be. Save My Love is another highlight. The guy knows how to write songs, to put it mildly.

Seems pretty obvious to me that "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" should have been a double album. (Of course, it is already known, through "Tracks" and a handful of single b-sides, that "Born In The USA" should have been)

there was some talk about it over here when the news broke:

Darkness on the Edge of Town Poll

The Racing In The Street is a particular revelation.

i think i said this on older springsteen thread that was revived recently, but this version of "racing in the street" is nearly unlistenable to me. it sounds like he's guessing at a melody and not finding it.

and i think it's very much to his credit that he didn't use it the first time around. springsteen has a great ear for what works, and what doesn't, in his own music, and what tracks showed me is that his decisions for what to discard and what to keep are usually spot on.

which is not to say he doesn't have some damn good outtakes, 'cause he does.

that other thread for fact checking cuz:

Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud?

Personally, I like this earlier version of "Racing". I'm not saying it's better, but I've heard the other for 30 years so this is refreshingly different.

yeah, it's definitely cool to hear, though i agree that the released version (and subsequent live versions) are pretty unfuckwithable.

springsteen has a great ear for what works, and what doesn't, in his own music

extreme example of this:

"candy's room" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "candy's boy"

but like tylerw says, it's definitely cool and fun to hear the earlier versions.

Is Racing in the Streets one of the ones that he went back to and spruced up? Can't account for the violin solo any other way ...

springsteen has a great ear for what works, and what doesn't, in his own music

Maybe so, but nobody bats 1.000. The River and Darkness would have both been better records by including some of the outtakes instead of stuff like Streets Of Fire, Drive All Night & I Wanna Marry You

The Promise movie's genuinely informative about the song selection for Darkness: leaving out songs that were "better" in favour of ones that were more representative of the mood he wanted ...

I don't hear most of these outtakes as having any place on Darkness. Bar half a dozen, they sound like the music he was leaving behind - a lot of it sounds the work of a Brill Building pro writing hits for other people rather than himself. Steve Van Zandt wanted the retro hits but then Steve Van Zandt's a retro guy.

The Promise version of Racing in the Street murders most of what's great about that song imo. But I like Candy's Boy - not a patch on Candy's Room but good in its own right.

This is light years better than I'd expected after all the bootlegs. Love "Racing" here.

"Streets of Fire" and "I Wanna Mary You" I agree with, but "Drive All Night" is amazing!

Has their been any speculation/discussion about elements of this material being re-recorded for this release? Typically, you don't finish tracks that aren't going to be on the album. I know Tracks had some re-dos. Any word of that here from the Springsteen faithful?

Typically, you don't finish tracks that aren't going to be on the album.

not at all true in my experience - you record the hell out of every song and then when you're done you sort through what you did in the studio and see what came out well & what didn't. plenty of songs that feel like sure things get "exposed" in the studio (how I usually think of it) and others that don't feel like much end up sprouting legs and walking around on their own

Like "The Promise" - I could be wrong, but this does not sound like his voice in 1978 to me. Am I alone there?

Well, like "Thundercrack" from Tracks - he added guitar parts and some vocals, because they weren't on the original recording, because they never did the punch-ins etc for the final release.

Was listening to this on the way home and just . . . damn. Even as a rank amateur songwriter I'd KILL for throwaways even half this good.

the glossy choral touches were post, i'd guess

omg this is really good

I am loving this. I agree with Fact Checking that Springsteen is looking for a melody on "Racing in the Streets," but to say that it's unlistenable blows my mind. It's an entirely different feel than the "Darkness" version. That alone makes it well worth the time. I love this album right now. I expected dregs.

Like "The Promise" - I could be wrong, but this does not sound like his voice in 1978 to me. Am I alone there?

There are at least 2 versions of that song. There's the 7+ minute version from the Darkness sessions that (IMHO) is almost a self-parody, it's very plodding and overwrought. He apparently felt the same way because he rerecorded it around 2000 on just the piano and released that version on the single-disk Tracks best-of. I prefer the 2nd version.

Listening to Edward Norton's interview with Bruce about The Promise/Darkness on NPR's Fresh Air. Aside from Norton's ridiculously longwinded questions, it's pretty interesting. Like hearing Bruce talk about this period.

I guess I prefer the "plodding" version of "The Promise," because I really don't dig this one. Supposedly it was the first song he wrote after the "Born to Run" blitzkrieg, so perhaps that's why it seems so self aware. Here's a pretty good live version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28fxYIhQcwc&feature=related

I don't have the physical set yet, but my understanding is that the liner notes are every bit as insufficient as they were on "Tracks." Supposedly some of these songs feature new vox, some old vox and new music, at least one song is completely new and one can assume nearly each of them has significant fiddling to some degree. That's fine, but let us know, you know?

Still, this is tons of fun.

Man, I can't wait to get this on Friday. I'm stoked that most of you are loving the unreleased songs. I was a little worried that this was bottom-barrel material. I read that the live DVD that comes with it is of good quality. Anyone watch that yet?

No but I'm psyched. Listened to DOTEOT on the way home and got even more excited all over again.

The 78 live footage is amazing. Worth the price of admission alone.

I'm saving that for last. The 2009 performance in an audience-less theatre is pretty solid, didn't expect that, to be honest.

Did anyone watch his Fallon appearance. Pretty great imo

will you people stop making me want to shell out for the big box set already

The only thing I don't get so far is the notebook - I'm having a hard time reading his handwriting :-/

I want that deluxe box sooooo bad. SO bad. Curse my covetousness

Man, there was a dark period of time last year when I was really depressed and I listened to "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac, and "Pacific Ocean Blue" by Dennis Wilson a lot. Also watched films from that period a lot like "The Last Motion Picture Show" and "Nashville." I was really obsessed with the tone of art from the 70's. Hope I don't go through that again although I love those records and movies.

I'm sorry you were depressed, jeevves, but your depression had excellent taste.

Holy crap, that 1978 show. I've heard about five or six shows from this legendary tour, so I kinda knew hearing AND seeing a completely new and unheard one of these three-hour superhuman performances was going to be amazing, but even so it's still totally mindblowing. What a band. What a tour. What a treat. We're not worthy, man.

Yeah, Five Easy Pieces is another of those great 70's-era movies. xpost.

Freaking Amazon is pissing me off. I paid extra to have the box set arrive today, but it states the delivery date is now Monday. AGH.

Yep, Five Easy Pieces is great.

The guy knows how to write songs, to put it mildly.

While I often think this (and I saw him on the Darkness tour back then a few times), some of these outtakes both musically and lyrically sound so Springsteen cliche to me--cars, factories, 7 11, Phil Spector musical bites, slowed down drama tempos...

So very awesome. I wonder how some indie bands feel when they listen to artists who can actually write songs and play them well.

we feel like clowns who are not worthy, fyi

You're assuming indie fans give a shit about good songs, or could even recognize one if they heard it. If Darkness came out today, it'd be on Jagjaguwar and it wouldn't sell 700 copies.

Huh?

I thought that was pretty clear. DOTEOT - a masterpiece - would come out today and be eclipsed by the hype of your Dan Deacons, your Jenny and Johnnys, your Warpaints. My point is there are great songwriters - not as great as Bruce, maybe, but some getting closer with every album they release - who put out records all the time that no one hears, because this sort of earnest, classic songwriting is pretty much the most unfashionable thing a young artist can do right now.

Anyway, this is really good, but, couldn't he have just cut one of these tunes and made it one CD?

I LOVE this version of "Racing In The Street."

Also, am I lame for totally loving "Ain't Good Enough For You," quite possibly the cheesiest tune on here? I love the Jimmy Iovine line. I can't really believe this playful, goofball tune was in the running for inclusion on Darkness On The Edge Of Town.

Playful is good.

Re your earlier assertion:

My point is there are great songwriters - not as great as Bruce, maybe, but some getting closer with every album they release - who put out records all the time that no one hears

Who are you talking about?

Off the top of my head? Cass McCombs, Simon Joyner, The Mendoza Line, Donovan Quinn, the Handsome Family, Richard Buckner, Damien Jurado, Destroyer, David Dondero...

I do believe that had these artists been born twenty years earlier, they'd be part of the Costello / Hitchcock / Westerberg canon. I guess you could argue Bejar is already there, but the rest of these guys would be lucky to get a Pitchfork review. Stop the presses, Best Coast just tweeted about her cat!

I think they're too derivative (at least the ones I've heard--McCombs, Mendoza, Handsome Family, Buckner) and all too limited re melodies and arrangements. Best Coast may be doing the same Spector pop hook over and over, but at least its pop. These guys are more like obscure late '60s early 70s psych-rock dudes (drilling deep into their obscure turf).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tvcAmNlv80&feature=branded

Some context for ^^

Also, unrelated to The Promise, but from a show earlier this year.

http://www.backstreets.com/Assets/Images/2010/newsBruceDannyDV_GG.jpg

Wow, Little Steven has really let himself go, hasn't he?

Wow, Little Steven has really let himself go, hasn't he?

Got the Darkness/Promise box for Christmas :D

Have just started on the Darkness remaster, working my way into The Promise. Darkness sounds so gooooooood

That 30-min concert above is only streaming through 1/1/11, I think -- worth watching.

i got the promise box as a gift recently, too. spent the last week starting to sort through the dvd extras. the studio/rehearsal footage from '76-'78 is pretty incredible. love bruce's solo piano demo of "candy's room."

Damn that Racing in the Street version on The Promise is TITE

^^^^^^^^

Starting to prefer it to the original

haha that's going a bit far. new version is utterly awesome tho, it's true.

He sure does have a lot of songs about 'streets'

Racing in the Street
Wrong Side of the Street
One Way Street

out in the street, streets of fire, backstreets

Incident on 57th Street

and not just streets: avenues and highways!

10th Avenue Freezeout
highway patrolman
Wreck on the highway
working on the highway

Also, am I lame for totally loving "Ain't Good Enough For You," quite possibly the cheesiest tune on here? I love the Jimmy Iovine line. I can't really believe this playful, goofball tune was in the running for inclusion on Darkness On The Edge Of Town.― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Saturday, November 27, 2010 8:28 AM (1 month ago)

Nope, not lame! Unless I'm lame too in which case, lol. It's right in that Rosalita, Sherry Darling wheelhouse. Funny, catchy, handclaps...I just flatout love it. That Jimmmy Iovine line was laugh-out-loud on my first listen. Goofy grin stuff, it's great.

In the context of Darkness, a lot of these songs definitely feel out of place, but in the context of 'Springsteen outtakes you haven't heard' it's like a whole new album. I am loving this so much.

Haven't even got to the DVDs yet. Wee!

yeah -- gotta admire bruce's restraint and/or stubbornness in keeping some of these incredible songs off the album for the sake of thematic consistency, pacing etc

Watching the making of doc: so great!

So aside from all the really cool nerdy behind the scenes stuff I have to say:
zomg @ shirtless Bruce in rehearsals.
:D :D : D YESSSSS

Anyhoo, back to nerdy discussions

I think the Darkness version of Racing in the Street strikes a better tone than the version here on The Promise.

I found the Because The Night stuff in the documentary pretty interesting, Springsteen saying that the song made him uncomfortable, like he wasn't quite ready to do a full on love song.

I have a bootleg of a 78 show at the Agora, Cleveland where they perform Because The Night with his lyrics, or lyrics that he's trying out, I dunno...it's really weird to hear bc it's all about a farmer in the field, but he uses the same chorus 'Come on now try and understand, etc'...It's like the song is fighting with itself to not be the song it really is, if that makes any sense.

It would be kind of interesting to hear what he would have done lyrically with the song now if he'd left it unfinished. But I think Patti kinda owns it with the lyrics she gave it.

If you're a Borders Rewards (or Rewards+) member, today and tomorrow you can use an e-mail 50% off box set coupon on the this. I mention it because in the mailer, they list the Rewards+ price as $49.50 w/free shipping. CAVEAT: I checked the website and the standard def set is 2 weeks backordered. You might be able to still score it at a surviving brick & mortar tho.

Omg the 78 live show....so good. He comes off as a fairly humble dude in interviews, it always kills me how much he loves being on stage. Also funny how they keep killing all the lights at the end of each song,lol

Wow, Because The Night solo is face-melting

If you're a Borders Rewards (or Rewards+) member, today and tomorrow you can use an e-mail 50% off box set coupon on the this. I mention it because in the mailer, they list the Rewards+ price as $49.50 w/free shipping. CAVEAT: I checked the website and the standard def set is 2 weeks backordered. You might be able to still score it at a surviving brick & mortar tho.

Disregard most of this. The online store already has the set "On Sale" for $90-something. Since it already is "On Sale", it's only eligible for a 10% Rewards discount. I guess the $49.50 deal is brick & mortar only, unless they too have it "On Sale", which would be hella dishonest because that price is what is quoted in the mailer.

Fuck Borders.

finally got this (the promise 2 cd set, not the whole box) -- i dig! bruce made mostly the right decisions when picking tunes for Darkness, but it seems as though there could've been an album of epic love jamz in between born to run and darkness. curious to know if the box or the doc have alternate track listings for darkness with any of these songs included? weirdly "the promise" (the song) is actually better on that 18 Tracks release (recorded in late 90s). Just more understated/interesting. also kind of interested to know just what bruce has added to these tracks (he alludes to this in the liners), like what 21st century overdubs are where. some of the guitar sounds seem really up to date to me? maybe if i heard the remastered Darkness I wouldn't think so, I don't know.

I finally broke down and bought this monster box set. The movie is excellent, first off. Bruce is amazingly eloquent on the subject of writing and self-editing. He had a vision in his head of what he wanted, and he's extremely controlling, but he never for a minute comes off as an egotistical prick. In fact, he's much more superego than ego, and is as brutally honest with himself about what isn't working as he is with his bandmates, producers, and engineers. He doesn't demand their respect, he earns it.

Also, the packaging of this set is so utterly great. The notebook. The half-formed ideas, the unfinished and rearranged verses, and sometimes just single words, unconnected from sentences or even phrases, set aside for later use. It's not just a portal into his writing process, it's damn near a lesson in writing. In the beginning, there is The Word, and if The Word is good, you've got something to work with. This is worlds more interesting than Nabokov's index cards.

I think tonight I'll finally watch the whole 3-hour 1978 concert DVD. It's an investment of time, for sure, but something tells me I'm not going to regret it.

OK this concert is Godawesome.

Also funny how they keep killing all the lights at the end of each song,lol

I'm not sure that's entirely what's going on. The video isn't great to begin with, so it could be that the lights were only dimmed a bit, but the camera couldn't keep up with anything less than full spotlight. There a few shots, for example, of Garry Tallent playing bass where you can see his hands and his bass, but his head isn't in the spotlight, so he looks like he hails out of Sleepy Hollow.

It's also possible -- though I can't prove it -- that they used this to their advantage in order to seamlessly excise a few songs. According to the Houston Chronicle review of this box, even though what's on the disc is three hours and 16 minutes, people who were in Houston at the show swear it ran at least four hours.

I love the shots through the crowd. During "Spirit in the Night," there's a great shot where somebody thrusts an arm into the air that clearly has a joint in it. (You could do that in 1978, so I've heard.) And then a few seconds later someone puts their drink up over their head, and it's a huge red cup that says in fat white letters, "BIG BEER." Yes, yes it certainly is. Bravo, sir.

I've got a bazillion Springsteen boots, and I'm pretty sure most of the music on them runs close to the 3-3.5 hour range, max. In fact, I can think of only one that hovers around or over the four hour mark, and that's the Nassau Night 12/31/80 boot, and even then Springsteen was padding things out (38 songs!) to hit midnight and the New Year's countdown.

Twenty-six songs is plenty, I agree. Especially when some of them run over ten minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=292685uu5jI

But there's nothing excessive about this, no matter the length. There's two minutes of piano intro, then four solid minutes of Bruce guitar solo, which is motherfucking amazing, and THEN he sings the song. Saying it's too long would be like saying an orgasm was too long.

The question of what is new and what is old on this release still bothers me. As Josh says upthread, it would just be nice if they had documented it. I'm currently reading Clinton Heylin's E Street Shuffle (a great read, btw) and he says that the version of "Racing in the Street" has new vocals. I actually prefer this version to the Darkness version but it's neither fish nor fowl.