Bruce Springsteen Ties That Bind

Summer Tour ’81 was a U.S. victory lap that marked Springsteen’s triumphant return from Europe. It began with the christening of the brand new Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, NJ. Recorded July 9, Brendan Byrne 1981 is the final show of the six-night stand and catches Bruce and the band at a River tour performance peak. The set list mixes riveting new songs and a summer Shore party including “Follow That Dream,” “Trapped,” “Johnny Bye Bye,” “The Ties That Bind,” “Sherry Darling” “Jersey Girl” the “Detroit Medley” featuring “Shake” and “Sock It To Me, Baby,” plus a guest appearance by Gary U.S. Bonds for “This Little Girl” and “Jolé Blon.”

At 22 tracks, the final date in Philadelphia on Bruce Springsteen's 1999 Reunion Tour with the E Street Band might appear short.

Bruce Springsteen - Lead vocals, guitar, harmonica; Roy Bittan - Piano, keyboards; Clarence Clemons - Tenor and baritone saxophones, percussion, backing vocal; Danny Federici - Organ, keyboards; Nils Lofgren - Guitar, pedal steel, backing vocal; Patti Scialfa - Guitar, percussion, backing vocal; Garry Tallent - Bass; Stevie Van Zandt - Electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, backing vocal; Max Weinberg - Drums

Although only some of Springsteen's works indicate the name of the E Street Band on the envelopes, his most important albums - Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, Born in the U.S.A., The Rising - all relied on the musical accompaniment of the group.

Winterland 12/15/78 was the final legendary radio concert on the Darkness tour. A fan favorite (bootlegged as Live In The Promised Land), this essential ’78 tour document is now available in best-ever quality, Plangent transferred from recently discovered two-track, 15 IPS master reels recorded by the Record Plant Remote Truck. Winterland 12/15/78 offers vital performances of “Prove It All Night, “She’s The One” (feat. snippets of “Mona” and “Preacher’s Daughter”), “Backstreets,” “Fire” and “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” plus future River tracks “Point Blank” and “The Ties That Bind,” and an epic resurrection of “The Fever.”

Winterland 12/15/78 was the final legendary radio concert on the Darkness tour. A fan favorite (bootlegged as Live In The Promised Land), this essential ’78 tour document is now available in best-ever quality, Plangent transferred from recently discovered two-track, 15 IPS master reels recorded by the Record Plant Remote Truck. Winterland 12/15/78 offers vital performances of “Prove It All Night, “She’s The One” (feat. snippets of “Mona” and “Preacher’s Daughter”), “Backstreets,” “Fire” and “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” plus future River tracks “Point Blank” and “The Ties That Bind,” and an epic resurrection of “The Fever.”

Bruce Springsteen once said he intended to make an album with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector where he sang like Roy Orbison, a nifty summary of many, but not all, of his artistic ambitions and a key to his appeal. Unlike any other singer/songwriters saddled with the appellation of "the new Dylan" in the early '70s, Springsteen never hid how he was raised on '60s AM radio. He loved rock & roll, whether it was the initial blast from the '50s or the mini-symphonies from the days before the Beatles or the garage rockers that surfaced in the wake of the British Invasion, and all this could be heard within his wild, wooly collective E Street Band, a group who debuted on his second album, 1973's The Wild The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, and who would support him throughout most of his career.

If there’s any period in modern Springsteen history that continues to grow in admiration it is the 2007-2008 Magic era.

A consensus pick as one of the best nights on the Reunion tour, Los Angeles 10/23/99 brings it wire to wire, from the show-opening invocation “Meeting In The Town Tonight” into “Take ‘Em As They Come” through the rare, delightful closer “Blinded By The Light.” Other highlights of this peak Reunion set include “The Ties That Bind,” “Darkness On The Edge Of Town,” “The Promised Land,” “Incident On 57th Street,” “For You," “Backstreets” “Light Of Day” (detouring briefly for a romp through “California Sun”) and the first solo piano version of “The Promise” in a formal concert since 1978.