Nice surprise in the local record shop this afternoon. The legendary Hammersmith Odeon concert from 1975 has been released on CD.

I heard there was an extra track on the CDs, One that's not on the DVD. Is that true?

No it appears to be the same 16 tracks on both, which I presume is the full show

It's well worth having twice, if only for the track For You which is absolutely mind-blowing.

I'll be listening to it in a few minutes...listening to "Sandy" right now, great stuff!

Why do you all think Springsteen has started to crack open the vaults in the last few years, starting with Tracks? For years there was nothing, now we are getting some vintage stuff. Not complaining, mind you, just wondering why.

Because you get wiser with age, perhaps....

Erik_Snow Wrote:
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> Because you get wiser with age, perhaps....

Really? I'm gettin' a little slower, plus I need more sleep and more glasses of water after a night out, but I'm still waiting on that wisdom. It must have gotten lost in the mail, or maybe I'm just one of those people who never learns their lesson

I dont know. Age I guess and finally being conscious of his own legacy.

For years he wouldnt even release a live album, which was a criminal oversight - It still rankles with me that there still isnt a video/DVD release from the 1978-88 era, which for me saw a sequence of tours which no one has ever touched before or since - especially the River tour. He wouldnt even do TV until he played Saturday Night Live in 1992, by which time he'd (temporarily) disbanded the E-Street Band

In the sleevenotes to the new Hammersmith '75 album, he says that after The Rising tour he became "interested in checking out film of the early part of my work. It had remained a blank spot with virtually nothing released. I started with bits and pieces of this show figuring we could cut together a song or two. To our surprise the entire concert emerged from the vault".

Ive had a 50 minute version (with a few edits, which seems to be what he was referring to) of the Hammersmith show myself for about 3-4 years (the BBC had filmed it during his much hyped first visit in 1975 but only one song "Sandy" had been show in a 1987 BBC special on him, which at the time made a few of us wonder was there anything else from that show. Weird that it took almost a couple more decades to surface.

There are great pro-shots from Largo, Maryland of the shows there in 1978 and 1980 which were filmed for the in-house video screens in use there at the time. I'm hopeful that someday maybe there'll be pristine copies of those 2 shows (or something similar) released (they could throw in as a bonus the 35 minutes of footage from Phoenix '78 which is in circulation and which includes that great clip of "Rosalita" which singlehandedly made me a believer overnight when the BBC showed it a few months later. Maybe THAT whole gig was filmed too?)

Even 'Tracks' is a tip of the iceberg as far as unreleased material. He could easily assemble another 4-CD boxed set of a similar standard anytime. That boxed set only consists of outtakes and leftovers from released albums (plus a few b-sides). He recorded about 40 songs for "darkness on the Edge of Town" and anything from 80-100 each for both "The River" and "Born in the USA" (many of the discarded BITUSA stuff blows away the inferior and more commercial released album). Theres numerous one off recordings and abandoned album projects that have never seen the "Light of Day" which werent even considered for "Tracks".

Logie - listening to "For You" right now. You were dead right, mate. Hairs standing up on the back of the neck to that one. Breathtaking.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-02-27 22:58 by Gazza.

Thanks for the info, Gazza!

Tracks indeed was the tip of the iceberg, as owners of Missing Tracks (4 cds?) and the Lost Masters series (19 cds of outtakes and unreleased stuff) can attest to...though much of it is not worthy, many of the tracks (especially on the Missing Tracks set) are absolutely mindblowing. MOST other artists would give their, well, BASS player, to have this sort of material released let alone simply sit in the attic!

Rgds
Rod
Perth