Review Summary: Warning: pure rock'n'roll in here. Listen to it carefully and do not scratch the cds, please.
In 2005, the year of the 30th anniversary of Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen bumped into a video recorded during his first European Tour in London back in November 1975, just after the realease of the well-known record. He had ignored the existence of that video until then but eventually decided to release it and include it into the Born To Run 30th Anniversary Edition. The album extracted from that video is arguably his best live album.
The rough sound of a young E Street Band was still taking shape but sure it was good!
Plus, this record is full of early stuff from his first two almost unknown studio albums "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J." and "The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle", which wouldn’t be known to a wider range of audience till Manfred Mann’s Earth Band did a couple of poor covers from Bruce’s debut album later on in 1977.
The length of the concert is around two hours, which is nothing compared to the one of the average Springsteen’s show, but we have to consider that back in those days he wasn’t that popular and couldn’t quite afford to entartain people who considered him nearly as a stranger on that stage.
As a result the show is very entertaining and the powerful atmosphere lasts throughout the 16 tracks.
The piano is the only accompaniment in the breath-taking and heart-breaking "Thunder Road", which is so different from the studio version and the harmonica played by Springsteen himself substitutes the sax during the outro, turning that powerful solo into a more intimate and moving melody.
On the other side, "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" is joyful and positive, followed by the legendary "Spirits in the Night", in which saxophone and piano are perfectly synchronised. In the last verse the band takes a break while Springsteen sings slowly just to explode into the last chorus.
"Lost in the Flood" is desperate but so immensely communicative and the audience is litterally lost in the middle of the never-ending lyrics, which like a flood covers them with poetry. The ending part turns into a awesome harmonica solo followed by "She’s the One" quick piano riff, as a result this version is way better than the studio one.
I don’t feel like saying the same thing for "Born to Run", which reveals itself as a sped-up experiment that loses a portion of its strength: still fun though.
"The E Street Shuffle" shows up eventually in a complete different shape, characterised by Little Steven’s slide guitar and a little story to introduce the actual song, with portions of "Having a Party" by Sam Cooke. It’s 13 minutes long, very relaxing and overall enjoyable.
Pure rock’n’roll comes out of "It’s Hard to be a Saint in the City" beats, whose outro is a crescendo where Steve echoes Bruce’s riffs on the guitar, entartaining the audience with their “conversation”. A gorgeous "Backstreets" ends the first disc.
The best is yet to come, as Frank Sinatra would say, and the bluesy 17-minute-long "Kitty’s Back" is a true masterpiece: the awesome intro is catchy and by far the best guitar solo of the album, between the two verses there’s a huge instrumental break in which every E Street Band member has the chance to show his musical skills in a sort of tribute to "Moondance", the well-known Van Morrison song, and both Danny Federici and Roy Bittan just give their best on the keyboards.
As everbody knows, Clarence Clemons’ time comes in Jungleland and his solo doesn’t lie: he’s the Big Man!
The two love songs from The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, "Rosalita" and "Sandy", are both great: one is very energical, the other more tender and picturesque.
The last 20 minutes of the show consist of a rockabilly medley ("Detroit Medley") that contains two Little Richard’s classics ("Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Jenny Take a Ride"), "Devil with the Blue Dress" by Mitch Rider and "C.C. Rider", a popular american blues song: the whole thing is well arranged and the band follows his Boss faithfully. Before the “grand finale”, "Quarter To Three" by Gary “U.S.” Bonds, where Clarence has to blow in his saxophone like mad for one last song, a passionate and heart-rending For You is played on the piano by Springsteen.
The first European experience for Springsteen & The E Street Band must have been quite exciting, and I’ve always wondered what the audience could be possibly thinking about that skinny lad from Jersey, who would become in the future one of the best rockstars in history.
This album is indisputably a classic, if you have never heard of it or, worse, known of its existence but ignored it till now, grab your jacket and go buy it: it’s really worth it.
5/5
