dont know, it's just one single note in the new essay. might have to check the liner notes, maybe there's more info...

I absolutely love Talk to me btw, aint good enough for you is pretty good as well... but are very fun songs

Ah, I knew I wasn't imagining it. (Sucks to get old, lol) It's there in the essay (I have the vinyl Promise set). While he says in the body that all of the tracks are from the Darkness sessions from 77/78, the * at the bottom of the page says:

* "Save My Love" written 1977, lyrics and recording 2010.

It's a new recording- I'm pretty sure Bruce said they had nothing, but he remembered the melody, and when they were going through the vault footage, they found the rehearsal tape (which is in the box), and he went, "Ah, that's it!"
And then he went and finished it. I for one am glad he did. :D

btw, where the hell is the UPS guy?:?

So, anybody care to share their opinions now that the box is out?

Or, is everybody too busy watching and listening? ;)

Or waiting hoping Santa was listening lol.

You mean you haven't gotten it yet? There would be no way I could have waited! :-)

With a Meat tour two weeks after release date, priorities have to be set ... the box set will be available next year Meat's UK tickets won't ...

To be fair, it's killing him! :lol:

Ah, I see...

if anyone wants to know what all the fuss is about... the whole paramount show is now up on youtube! Just search for springsteen paramount 2009

Understatement of the year :bicker:

I've spent so much time watching and listening to that thing, that I just finally listened to the remastered album today; it sounds great, I think. I noticed a few things that I hadn't noticed before. But the Paramount performance just blows me away! Bruce said he wouldn't change a thing about it, and I honestly agree with him. Interestingly, two songs that weren't exactly standouts to me before, "Adam Raised a Cain" and "Something in the Night" are particularly great to me on here. Especially Adam. :cool:

Anyway, as I was listening to everything (including the outtakes) today, I've decided that Darkness has moved firmly into first place ahead of "The Wild & Innocent" as my favorite Springsteen album. I mean, I still love WIESS, and I think it has one of the greatest second sides ever, but it hit me how Darkness is so much more cohesive as an album. I'm not going to go so far as to say it's a concept album, ;) but there's definitely a story, and the songs do "talk to each other". For one (and I've thought this for a long time), I think the characters in Racing are the same people in Darkness (the song), and the main character is also the narrator in "The Promise". You might even extend that and say that they are the narrator and Mary from "Thunder Road", with "The Promise" being the bridge. Of the "new" songs, I think "Breakaway" would have fit the sound and the theme; also, there's the line:

Now the promises and the lies they demand it
Let the hearts that have been broken stand as the price you pay
To breakaway

Which harkens to "Badlands":

Let the broken hearts stand as the price you have to pay

Not to mention the character of "Sonny" is present again.

I was also struck by the line about about Janie and how "in a parking lot, she gave her soul away, to breakaway". It reminds me of how it's said that Bruce signed his record contract on the hood of a car, and I heard him say recently that he would have done anything, he just wanted to make a record.



Anyway, that was my afternoon, FWIW :lol:

I think the thing that makes Darkness so coherent is that's a very personal album. And everybody who is or has been in that state of desillussion and accepting what life is really about, will feel the album personally speak to them. I think the lyrics on Prove it all Night make that perfectly clear:

if dreams came true, well wouldnt that be nice
but this aint no dream, we're living through the night
you want it, you take it... you pay the price!

And further:

You hear their voices telling you not to go
They made their choices and they'll never know
What it means to steal, to cheat, to lie
What it's like to live and die

To prove it all night...


And the proving ground is the hill in Darkness:

Tonight I'll be on that hill, 'cause I can't stop
I'll be on that hill with everything I've got
Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost
I'll be there on time, and I'll pay the cost
For wanting things that can only be found
In the darkness on the edge of town


Yeah, I think it is a very personal album for him, and one he apparently cares for a lot, judging by how much he plays the songs from it over the years.

Stunning, indeed. :cool:

This is hot :cool: :D:

YouTube Video

I know, right? Steve without a bandanna! :drool:








(Just kidding- I know exactly what you mean! ;) :oops: :lol: )


I love the shout-out to Jimmy Iovine: :D

YouTube Video

yup, the jimmy line is brilliant. was laughing the first time i heard it on the cd. this has got to be the ultimate inside joke! now he's a fairly big name in the music biz (also has a bit of history with Steinman btw), but back then he was just one of the guys hanging around on a farm in holmdel lol

I absolutely love that song! :D It's one of Bruce's rare funny ones; there are only two others that come to mind: "Sherry Darling" and "Ricky Wants a Man of her Own." I love both of those, too.

cant stop listening to the track. also talk to me is pretty catchy!

It is! :-) I love the clip of Bruce and Steve singing it in the documentary.



Maybe Bruce will bring the horns on tour next time. :pray:

I definitely want that Springsteen boxed set. Maybe Santa Clause will buy it for me for Christmas.

I definitely agree with you there Lucy! Of course I was still willing to fork over the money for the M&G. LOL
I would fork over the money for the Springsteen set too if I had any.

Talk To Me is IMO the best track that Springsteen gave away, it's always the highlight of a Southside show as far as I'm concerned.

There's a new video of the whole song, "Ain't Good Enough for You". :D

I love it, but it needs a bit more cowbell. ;)


(Ping Sarge- There's some more of the Holmdel footage. ;) )

YouTube Video

Anyone watch or record the "Imagine" show on BBC1 last night? It was a 1 hour documentary about Darkness. I've recorded it in glorious HD to watch later.

And I agree, "Talk To Me" is officially one of my favourite songs. SO catchy!!

Also a big fan of "Fire"...

I think it was an edited version of the documentary that is in the box, which is cool. :cool:

I like "Fire" as well- he was really channeling Elvis on that one, which makes sense since he initially wrote the song for Elvis. :-)

Springsteen Darkness
 

...just picked up Springsteen's 'The Promise' box set companion book, The Light in Darkness amazing original photos and stories frm the Darkness tour, limited edition

I thought about starting a new thread, but I figured I'd just put it here, if anyone is interested.

Bruce just put out a webcast featuring several songs from The Promise that was filmed just last week in Asbury Park. For you Ain't Good Enough fans, there's a fun version here, with Bruce practically cracking up in the middle. :D (I lol'd at the part when he gets back to his mic and there's an audience member standing there :lol: )

My favorite part is the first song, a simply gorgeous version of Racing in the Street, featuring David Lindley on violin, who played on the original track that is featured on The Promise. If you've never heard of David, he is an amazing musician (multi-instrumentalist) who has played with many artists, including Jackson Brown, Linda Rondstat, and Warren Zevon, to name a few. As Sarge pointed out, (thanks, Sarge) perhaps it was his version of Mercury Blues that inspired Meat's cover of the song. David is also featured on The Promise here in the webcast, and it's my new favorite version of the song.

Anyway, here's the links I have- hopefully one will work for you.

from Bruce Springsteen.net:

Worldwide Streaming Information:
USA/Canada VEVO (http://www.VEVO.com)
Australia Australia YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/?gl=AU&hl=en-GB)
Ireland Irish Times (http://www.irishtimes.com)
UK The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk)
Germany Rolling Stone (http://www.rollingstone.de)
and Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.de)
France Deezer (http://www.deezer.com)
Spain El Mundo (http://www.elmundo.es) and Marca (http://www.marca.com)
Denmark - Politiken (http://www.pol.dk)
Holland Nu (http://www.nu.nl)
Switzerland Teleboy (http://www.Teleboy.ch) and Le Matin
(http://www.lematin.ch)
Italy Repubblica (http://www.repubblica.it)
Israel Walla (http://www.walla.co.il)

For fun, I thought I'd throw in this vid of Lindley's Mercury Blues:

YouTube Video

Clearly I was a good boy last year as the stunning box set was sat under the tree waiting for me on Christmas morning!

It's stunning!

Obviously some of the tracls on the double CD are on the double CD and not on Darkness for a reason, but some of them are worthy of being on a dedicated album and not an album of outtakes, I'm not just talking about Talk To Me, Rendezvous, Fire or Because The Night here, Candy's Boy is a superb different take on Candy's Room (which since Candy's Room is one of my all time favourites is praise indeed form me!), Rendezvous, Ain't Good Enough For You and Spanish Eyes are other tracks that get a notable early mention.

The Paramount show is stunning in it's intensity, the E Street Band sicken me in the way that they make it all look so easy!

The Thrill HIll Vault stuff from the sessions is interesting and stunning, I love those clips of SPringsteen at work in the studio and I'd love to see the Pheonix show in ti's entirety.

Tomorrow the remastered album and the Houston show beckon!

Stunning!

I'm glad you finally got it Andy- sounds like it was worth the wait for you. :D

The Paramount disc is my favorite thing in the box, and probably one of my favorite things he's done, ever. It is truly amazing how that band can still bring it. :cool:

I agree, there are some gems on the vault footage as well- I absolutely love "Something in the Night" from Red Bank '76. I'd also love to have heard the rest of the early version of "Candy's Room" (House at the end of the street?) that Bruce was playing on the piano in that small clip- it sounded even darker than the finished guitar version.

Phoenix '78 is great- the pity is that the whole show wasn't filmed (that we know of), thus those few songs are all there is. :( I think you'll like Houston, though. :-)

The outtakes set does have some excellent songs, although "Spanish Eyes" isn't one pf my favorites. On the other hand, I think "Ain't Good Enough for You" could have been a huge hit, regardless if Bruce or someone else recorded it. I'm kind of glad he saved it, though, so we get his version first. :-) (Shame we had to wait 32 years) Rendezvous is cool, but not too much different (aside from a few lyrics) from the "Tracks" version (which was live).

I think the album remaster was done pretty well, but after hearing Paramount, for me it's a bit of an afterthought. I don't think I'll play the original album much, if at all, anymore.

I'm curious about your guesses as to which vocals are new/ old? I think I've got most of them, but a couple have me scratching my head a bit- "Rendezvous" is one.

I've loved Rendezvous since I heard a scratch tape of it pre-tracks, so to finally get a decent studio take is a gift to me.

As for which are original and which are new vocals, I need to listen a few more times I think. Watch this space.

Did I mention that the notebook facsimile is stunning too? Very well put together.

Yeah, it took me at least a few listens. For a couple of songs, I'm still not sure.

I agree- it's incredible how realistic it looks! :-)