I’m not sure we’ve done this before. it's sort of a spin-off of the Basement Tapes thread I guess.
In my experience most boots are a waste of time and money. Usually badly recorded they represent completist wankery at its most irrelevant. But — and it’s a big one — very occasionally someone captures magic in a bottle and ends up with something remarkable. Here’s my all time favourite:
Incident on 57th Street — Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Recorded at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr PA on February 5, 1975.
What makes it special is the time and personnel. It was taped plumb in the middle of the tortuous, but highly anticipated, production of Born to Run released the following August. There's a kind of breathless air of expectation permeating the entire album.
The song, off The Wild, The Innocent and The E-Street Shuffle features only two instrumentalists, both new band members, Roy Bittan on piano, and Suki Lahvi on violin. The latter would return to Israel shortly afterwards. Consequently the song has a delicate tentativeness it lacks in other versions. Springsteen — then usually in full West Side Story mode — is mostly content to remain underneath and slightly behind the music, his voice almost a quiet encouragement. Gorgeous.
In my experience most boots are a waste of time and money. Usually badly recorded they represent completist wankery at its most irrelevant. But — and it’s a big one — very occasionally someone captures magic in a bottle and ends up with something remarkable. Here’s my all time favourite:
Incident on 57th Street — Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Recorded at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr PA on February 5, 1975.
What makes it special is the time and personnel. It was taped plumb in the middle of the tortuous, but highly anticipated, production of Born to Run released the following August. There's a kind of breathless air of expectation permeating the entire album.
The song, off The Wild, The Innocent and The E-Street Shuffle features only two instrumentalists, both new band members, Roy Bittan on piano, and Suki Lahvi on violin. The latter would return to Israel shortly afterwards. Consequently the song has a delicate tentativeness it lacks in other versions. Springsteen — then usually in full West Side Story mode — is mostly content to remain underneath and slightly behind the music, his voice almost a quiet encouragement. Gorgeous.