Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Bruce Springsteen (2020)

From 1969 through early 1971, Bruce Springsteen performed with the band Child, which later changed its name to Steel Mill, and included Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, Vinnie Roslin, and later Steven Van Zandt and Robbin Thompson. They quickly gathered a cult following, and in an attempt to shape a unique and genuine musical and lyrical style, he also performed with the bands Dr. Zoom & the Sonic Boom from early-to-mid-1971, and the Sundance Blues Band in mid-1971. After this he formed The Bruce Springsteen Band, which stayed together for about a year, but in October 1972 he formed a new group for the recording of his debut album, 'Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.', and they eventually became known as the E Street Band, although the name was not used until September 1974. In 1972 he signed to Columbia Records, and despite the expectations of Columbia executives that he would record an acoustic album, he brought many of his New Jersey-based colleagues into the studio with him for the recording sessions for his first album, taping a mixture of acoustic and rock-based songs. The gestation of the record was not without it trials, as when it was completed, his manager Mike Appel and Columbia's John Hammond preferred the solo tracks, while Springsteen preferred the band songs, and so a compromise was reached that the record would feature five songs with the band ('For You', 'Growin' Up', 'Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?', 'It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City', and 'Lost in the Flood') and five solo songs ('Mary Queen Of Arkansas', 'The Angel', 'Jazz Musician', 'Arabian Nights' and 'Visitation At Fort Horn'). However, when Columbia Records president Clive Davis heard this early version he felt that it lacked a potential hit single, and rejected it. Springsteen quickly wrote and recorded 'Blinded By The Light' and 'Spirit In The Night', and Columbia accepted the revised album, with Davis eventually being proved correct when Manfred Mann's Earthband had massive hit singles with these two "commercial" songs. David Bowie was also an early fan, recording a version of 'Growing Up' during the sessions for his 'Pin-Ups' album in 1973, and tackling 'It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City' in 1989, and so here is a selection of covers of all the tracks from Springsteen's debut album, which for once includes two from the same band, as I think most people would agree that the Manfred Mann's Earthband versions are the definitive recordings of their two contributions, other than Springsteen's own, of course.  

Track listing

01 Blinded By The Light (Manfred Mann's Earthband 1976) 
02 Growin' Up (Any Trouble 1980)  
03 Mary Queen Of Arkansas (Dusty Wright 1997) 
04 Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street? (Purple Ivy Shadows 1999) 
05 Lost In The Flood (Yirzov Schuynis 2013)
06 The Angel (Zachary Scott Johnson 2020)
07 For You (Greg Kihn 1977)  
08 Spirit In The Night (Manfred Mann's Earthband 1975)
09 It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City (David Bowie 1989)

Bruce Springsteen - Across The River (1979) **UPGRADE**

When I first posted this collection of out-takes from 'The River' sessions, I did note that the vocals were mixed very low, and that in some cases they almost sounded like wordless guide vocals ready for over-dubbing later, but that never happened and so these are only versions of these songs out there. Since I posted the album there have been a number of innovations in music editing, one of which is that you can now use AI to split out the individual components of a track and remix them. Paul over at Albums That Should Exist is a great fan of this and uses it all the time, but I've never really tried it, and so I though that this was the perfect album to try it out on. I've therefore stripped out the vocals from all these songs and boosted the volume so that you can now hear them, and if anything it has just reinforced my opinion that they are guide vocals, as even at this new volume the lyrics are pretty much unintelligible. It's still good to hear them, though, as they do make these recordings sound more like songs than the quasi-instrumentals that they were before. The only one I didn't need to touch was 'In The City Tonight', so I hope that the rest of them now sound up to the quality of that track. The whole album has been updated on both Soulseek and Mega.  

Track listing

01 Out On The Run
02 The Man Who Got Away
03 Under The Gun
04 Chevrolet Deluxe
05 Night Fire
06 In The City Tonight
07 Slow Fade
08 Break My Heart
09 Find It Where You Can
10 Chain Lightning
11 I Don't Wanna Be

Risky Business - The Business Undone Edition (1983)

Time for another contribution from Mike Solof, and this time he's gone all the way back to 1983 to put together the complete soundtrack to a classic movie, so over to Mike.......

Inspiration struck tonight. I was doing some research and down the YouTube rabbit hole I went to finally drop down into the soundtrack for the 1983 movie 'Risky Business', featuring Tangerine Dream and classic cuts by Bob Seger, Muddy Waters, Prince and Phil Collins to name just a few. In doing my research, I found that 4 songs (by The Talking Heads, The Police, Bruce Springsteen and the Living Strings ) were cut from the Original Soundtrack. As well as that five of the songs that were on the album were shortened edits of their original versions. What made it even worse was that no official score of the entire Tangerine Dream material was ever released. I've therefore put together the ultimate 'Risky Business' soundtrack which Iʼm calling 'Risky Business - The Business Undone Edition'. My version expands the original soundtrack to include all the unedited original songs, including the Tangerine Dream selections, which consist of two new compositions and three reworkings of previously released material from 1979 and 1981, re-titled to correspond to scenes in the movie, plus the four songs left off the released soundtrack. Not only that, I've also included the complete super rare, hard to find and heavily sought-after promotional press kit album. 'Risky Business (The Audio Movie Kit)', which was issued in 1983 on a 17 minute, double vinyl set, with roughly 50 to 100 copies being made and shipped to various radio stations to promote the forthcoming movie. Eight pieces composed by Tangerine Dream were provided for this kit and they can only be found on this album, being different from the material that was used for the official release of the 'Risky Business' soundtrack album in 1984 by Virgin Records. As a final treat I've also included the entire original score of the movie, as performed by Tangerine Dream, with its 26 cuts totaling over 46 minutes of music. 

Track listing for 'Risky Business - The Business Undone Edition'

01 Every Breath You Take (The Police)

02 My Heart Tells Me (The Living Strings)
03 Old Time Rock And Roll (Bob Seger)
04.The Dream is Always the Same (Tangerine Dream - unedited version)
05 Cloudburst Flight (Tangerine Dream - unedited version of 'Guido The Killer Pimp')
06 The Pump (Jeff Beck)
07 Force Majeure (Tangerine Dream - unedited version of 'Lana')
08 Hungry Heart (Bruce Springsteen)
09 Mannish Boy (Muddy Waters)
10 Swamp (Talking Heads)
11 D.M.S.R. (Prince - full version)
12 After the Fall (Journey)
13 In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins)
14 Love On A Real Train (Tangerine Dream - unedited version)

Track listing for the 'Risky Business (The Audio Movie Kit)'

01 No Future (Film Version)
02 Lana (Press Kit Version)
03 Guido The Killer Pimp (Press Kit Version)
04 U Boat Commander 

05 U Boat Commander (Press Kit Version)
06 Catching The Egg
07 Returning The Furniture (Press Kit Version)
08 Love On A Real Train (End Credits)
09 Joel's Dream (The Dream Is Always The Same) (bonus track)
10 Love On A Real Train (Train Sequence) (bonus track)

Track listing  for 'Risky Business - The Full Score' by Tangerine Dream

01 The Dream Is Always The Same 
02 Joel's Dream (The Dream Is Always The Same) 
03 Watering Flowers 
04 Watering Flowers (Tangram Set One) 
05 Wrong Date 
06 No Future (Film Version) 
07 No Future (Get Off The Babysitter)
08 See You Tonight 
09 Lana 
10 Bond Withdrawal 
11 Guido The Killer Pimp (Film Version) 
12 Guido The Killer Pimp (Press Kit Version) 
13 Guido The Killer Pimp (Album Version) 
14 Joel & Lana 
15 Confrontation With Guido 
16 U Boat Commander 
17 U Boat Commander (Press Kit Version) 
18 Love On A Real Train (Film Version) 
19 Love On A Real Train (Album Version) 
20 Love On A Real Train (Train Sequence) 
21 Porsche Ride 
22 Yard Sale 
23 Catching The Egg 
24 Returning The Furniture 
25 Returning The Furniture (Press Kit Version) 
26 Love On A Real Train (End Credits) 

(Tracks 15 and 16 compiled by Anthony Morales and remixed by Andy Morales)

Bruce Springsteen - Across The River (1979)

It's fairly well-documented that the recording of 'The River' was an arduous and protracted affair, and what was once was envisaged as a single album, soon became (in classic Springsteen recording style) a vast collection of songs, enough to fill 5 albums, and the selection of which tracks to use proved to be one of the most important parts of realizing Springsteen's vision. Engineer Neil Dorfman has confirmed that around 50 songs were recorded for the album, and so far we've heard about 35 of them on 'The River', the 'Tracks' collection and various b-sides, but there are also a group of songs that we know from the Telegraph Hill rehearsal sessions that push the figure towards 50. These sessions were designed to hone each song before the band entered the studio and as we know from official releases the majority of these songs were professionally recorded. We'll probably have to wait for another 'Tracks' collection to see if these rehearsals every officially see the light of day, but for now they're collected here to tide us over. The songs on this album are stunning, and burn with the intensity that Springsteen and The E Street Band were producing over this period. We're all familiar with studio masterpieces such as 'Roulette' and 'Take 'Em As They Come' and it's this intensity that can be felt throughout these songs. All of these tracks can be found on 'The Lost Masters', with the songs played again and again with false starts and endings throughout and interspersed with inter-band conversations, and while 'The Lost Masters' were of interest to the obsessive fan, they didn't really stand up to repeat listening. By picking the best recordings of each song and cutting out the false starts and endings, this collection aims to elevate these eleven tracks from the Telegraph Hill rehearsal sessions to become a true companion piece to 'The River'. Although it's likely that these songs were professionally recorded, the vocals are very low in the mix on some of the tracks, and to be honest some of them sound like wordless guide vocals, although that doesn't detract in the slightest from the power of the performances.  

Track listing

01 Out On The Run
02 The Man Who Got Away
03 Under The Gun
04 Chevrolet Deluxe
05 Night Fire
06 In The City Tonight
07 Slow Fade
08 Break My Heart
09 Find It Where You Can
10 Chain Lightning
11 I Don't Wanna Be

Bruce Springsteen - The Ties That Bind (1979)

When Bruce Springsteen started to think about recording his next album in 1979, following the success of 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town', he originally envisioned it as a single album, entitled 'The Ties That Bind'. He'd been working with the E Street Band at his home studio, Telegraph Hill Studios, which was actually a barn at his Holmdel, New Jersey property, and by early August there was an initial cut of 10 songs, with Columbia beginning to believe they might have a new Springsteen record in time for Christmas. A track sequence was prepared, and in September, Bob Clearmountain was brought in to mix twelve tracks. Springsteen signed off on 'The Ties That Bind', and the tapes were sent off for mastering on October 15, but when they came back he suddenly cancelled the release, and went back to recording more songs. He later said that he felt the songs lacked the kind of unity and conceptual intensity that he liked his music to have, and his manager and co-producer, Jon Landau, suggested that maybe this record needed to be a double album, in order to encompass everything Springsteen was trying to achieve. After another seven months at the Power Station, the sessions came to an end, and 'The River' was released on October 17, 1980, including 20 of the 50 songs that had been recorded. Springsteen added darker material after he'd written the title track, and the album became noted for its mix of the frivolous next to the solemn, but he confirmed during an interview that this was intentional, as a deliberate contrast to his previous record. Bootlegs have long circulated of 'The Ties That Bind', generally in excellent quality, as the album was mastered ready for release, but a major upgrade was carried out on the original tapes in 2011, making them sound even better. What was remarkable in 2011 is that most tracks on this 'temporary assembly' of the album remained unreleased, with 'Cindy' being the one major 'River' outtakes that Springsteen was still sitting on, and the alternate verse in 'The Price You Pay' remains lost, while the rockabilly 'You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)' and the double-tracked vocal take of 'To Be True' had never seen the light of day. 'Stolen Car' is a different take to the one on 'Tracks' and even 'The Ties That Bind', 'The River' and 'I Wanna Marry You' are alternate takes or mixes from the released versions. The 1979 single album was eventually released as one of the discs in the 2015 box set release 'The Ties That Bind: The River Collection', but to my ears this bootleg just has the edge over that version, so give it a listen and see if you agree. 

Track listing

01 The Ties That Bind
02 Cindy
03 Hungry Heart
04 Stolen Car
05 To Be True
06 The River
07 You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
08 The Price You Pay
09 I Wanna Marry You
10 Loose Ends

Bruce Springsteen - Electric Nebraska (1982)

Over the course of a few weeks in early 1982 Bruce Springsteen recorded demos for his new album at his home with a 4-track cassette recorder, using only acoustic guitar, electric guitar (on 'Open All Night'), harmonica, mandolin, glockenspiel, tambourine, organ, synthesizer (on 'My Father's House') and voice. Once the demos were complete, he brought the songs to sessions at the Power Station studios in late April 1982, and he attempted to record full-band arrangements of the songs with the E Street Band. However, it soon became apparent to him that a majority of these songs did not lend themselves well to these full-band arrangements, and he later said "I went into the studio, brought in the band, rerecorded, remixed, and succeeded in making the whole thing worse". Only Springsteen and Jon Landau had any decision-making power in this process, and they both felt that certain songs were too personal, and the raw, haunting folk essence present on the home tapes could not be duplicated or equaled in the band treatments. Once this decision had been made, Springsteen asked Toby Scott if it was possible to make the sound quality good enough to release some of the songs as a solo album. It took Scott a few weeks to get back to him with a definitive answer, and if that answer had been "no" then there is unlikely to have ever been a 'Nebraska' album. Eventually, Scott confirmed that he would be able to use the recordings, and so by late May it had been decided to issue the album in its acoustic form. Despite Scott's confirmation that the tape was usable, the task to produce the album was not an easy one, as some of the equipment needed was somewhat the worse for wear, and it wasn't helped by the fact that Springsteen had carried the only tape copy around in his jacket pocket for three months. Springsteen fans have long speculated whether the full-band recordings of the Nebraska session tracks that took place in the last week of April 1982 will ever surface, but bearing in mind that Springsteen didn't think they brought anything new to the songs, and in his opinion 'the right version of 'Nebraska' came out', then it's unlikely that they will ever now see the light of day. However, an enterprising fan has put together the next best thing, and has taken band recordings of all the songs from 'Nebraska' and sequencing them into the same order as the record, in effect making an electric version of the album. Considering that the recordings come from a number of different sources, they run together very well, although I felt that the take of 'My Father's Place' was a bit tinny, so I've replaced that with an alternate recording, and 'Reason To Believe' ended rather suddenly so I've grafted on some applause to fade it out. That just left a bit of trimming and cross-fading so that it sounds like one complete concert, and as this is probably the nearest that we'll ever get to hearing an electric 'Nebraska', enjoy an alternate version of one of Springsteen's most highly-regarded albums.   

Track listing

01 Nebraska (1984-08-06 East Rutherford, NJ)

02 Atlantic City (1984-08-06 East Rutherford, NJ)

03 Mansion On The Hill (2000-07-01 Madison Square Garden,NY)

04 Johnny 99 (2009-05-04 Uniondale,NY)

05 Highway Patrolman (1984-08-20 East Rutherford, NJ)

06 State Trooper (1984-10-21 Coliseum, Oakland, CA)

07 Used Cars (1984-08-06 East Rutherford, NJ)

08 Open All Night (1992-07-25 East Rutherford, NJ)

09 My Father's House (1984-10-31 Sport Arena, Los Angeles, CA)

10 Reason To Believe (2007-11-19 Boston, MA) 

Bruce Springsteen - Songs To Orphans (1973)

Bruce Springsteen's musical career began as far back as 1964, after he saw the Beatles' appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, and inspired by them he bought his first guitar and started playing for audiences with a band called the Rogues at local venues in Freehold. The following year he went to the house of Tex and Marion Vinyard, who sponsored young bands in town, and they helped him become the lead guitarist and subsequently one of the lead singers of The Castiles, who recorded two original songs at a public recording studio in Brick Township. In the late 1960's he performed briefly in a power trio known as Earth, and from 1969 to early 1971 he was a member of Steel Mill, which included Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, Vinnie Roslin, and later Steve Van Zandt and Robbin Thompson, recording three original Springsteen songs at Pacific Recording in San Mateo. Over the next two years, as Springsteen sought to shape a unique and genuine musical and lyrical style, he performed with Dr. Zoom & the Sonic Boom (early- to mid-1971), the Sundance Blues Band (mid-1971), and the Bruce Springsteen Band (mid-1971 to mid-1972). He came to the attention of Mike Appel and Jim Crecetos, managers of Sir Lord Baltimore, and in April and May 1972 they had him record his entire songbook for them, acoustically. He also recorded some sessions for John Hammond in May and June 1972, which led to his being signed to Columbia Records, where he went straight back into the studio to record his debut album 'Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.' between June and October 1972. Sessions for the follow-up 'The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle' took place between May and September 1973, and there were a number of out-takes left over, including the superb 'Evacuation Of The West'. Many of these recordings have appeared on various bootlegs over the years, and so I've picked the very best of the songs from these sessions which never made it to an official album, and added in a couple of edited live recordings from 1973 of otherwise unrecorded songs, to piece together a record which just confirms what a prolific talent Springsteen was at the start of his long and illustrious career. 

Track listing

01 Seaside Bar Song    
02 The Lady And The Doctor 
03 Bishop Dance     
04 War Nurse
05 Visitation At Fort Horn
06 Hey Santa Ana
07 Songs To Orphans
08 Jazz Musician
09 Thundercack
10 Family Song
11 Saga Of The Architect Angel   
12 No More Kings In Texas (Evacuation Of The West)  

Tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 Media and 914 Sound Studios, Blauvelt, New York City 06-07/72
Tracks 1, 6, 12 'The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle' studio sessions 07-08/73
Track 11 Media and 914 Sound Studios, Blauvelt, New York City 20/02/1973
Tracks 3, 9  Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley 02/03/73