Live/1975–85

Infobox Album
Name = Live/1975–85
Type = Live album
Artist = Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band


Released = November 10, 1986
Recorded = October 18, 1975 – September 30, 1985 at various locations
Genre = Rock
Length = 216:13
Label = Columbia
Producer = Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, Bruce Springsteen
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wsjm7iojg71r link]
*Robert Christgau (A-) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist2.php?id=5142 link]
*Rolling Stone (Excellent) [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/brucespringsteen/albums/album/96227/review/6209953/live_19751985 link]
Last album = "Born in the U.S.A."
(1984)
This album = "Live/1975–85"
(1986)
Next album = "Tunnel of Love"
(1987)

"Live/1975–85" is a live album by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. It consists of 40 tracks recorded live at a series of concerts from 1975-1985. It was released as a box set with either five vinyl records, three cassettes, or three CDs. There was also a record club-only release which came on three 8-track cartridges, which is extremely hard to find.

History

Two singles were released from the box set: "War" (a cover of the Edwin Starr hit), which was a #8 success on the U.S. pop singles chart, and "Fire" (a Springsteen song already familiar from other artists' recordings of it), which only reached #46 on the Billboard charts, breaking Springsteen's string of eight consecutive Top 10 singles. The music video for "War" was taken from the concert where it was recorded, while the video for "Fire" was from a completely unrelated 1986 acoustic performance at a Bridge School Benefit concert. A third video, for "Born to Run", was also released, which showed a melange of clips from the band's 1984–85 Born in the U.S.A. Tour.

"Live/1975–85" is the second-best-selling live album in U.S. history, certified by the RIAA for 13 times platinum, trailing only Garth Brooks' "Double Live". This figure reflects the RIAA accounting practice of counting each record in a multi-record set as a separate unit sold; the actual physical number of copies sold is instead slightly over 4 million. The box set's sales performance attracted considerable media attention at the time, first for setting records during the 1986 holiday shopping period and leading a boom in CD-based box sets, then later for fizzling out in sales in early 1987, especially after "Fire" failed as a single, and being oversupplied so much that unprecedented returns were taking place from retail outlets, causing talk of a "Boss backlash".

While the album was well-received among casual fans, from the Springsteen faithful there were a number of complaints, mostly centered around the band's legendary 1978 Tour being poorly served, and from too much lesser material being included from the Born in the U.S.A. Tour.

Track listing

Disc one

#"Thunder Road" – 5:46
#*Recorded October 18, 1975 at The Roxy Theatre.
#"Adam Raised a Cain" – 5:26
#*Recorded July 7, 1978 at The Roxy.
#"Spirit in the Night" – 6:25
#*Recorded July 7, 1978 at The Roxy.
#"4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" – 6:34
#*Recorded December 31, 1980 at Nassau Coliseum.
#*End Side One on LP release.
#"Paradise by the "C"" – 3:54
#*Recorded July 7, 1978 at The Roxy.
#*Song never released by Springsteen before. The version on this release omits Bruce saying "All you bootleggers out there in radioland, roll your tapes" right before the song.
#"Fire" – 2:51
#*Recorded December 16, 1978 at the Winterland. The short spoken intro is from July 7, 1978 at The Roxy.
#*Song never released by Springsteen before, although recorded by others most notably by The Pointer Sisters and Robert Gordon.
#"Growin' Up" – 7:58
#*Recorded July 7, 1978 at The Roxy. This version doesn't mention the name of Bruce's lawyer, who later became the mayor in his hometown.
#"It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" – 4:39
#*Recorded July 7, 1978 at The Roxy.
#*End Side Two on LP release.
#"Backstreets" – 7:35
#*Recorded July 7, 1978 at The Roxy.
#*This version edits out a long section in the middle which includes early versions of "Drive All Night" and "Sad Eyes"
#"Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" – 10:08
#*Recorded July 7, 1978 at The Roxy.
#"Raise Your Hand" (Steven Cropper/Eddie Floyd/Alvertis Isbell) – 5:01
#*Recorded July 7, 1978 at The Roxy.
#*Cover song never released by Springsteen. Eddie Floyd's version of the song is the most well known.
#*End Side Three on LP release.
#"Hungry Heart" – 4:30
#*Recorded December 28, 1980 at Nassau Coliseum.
#"Two Hearts" – 3:06
#*Recorded July 8, 1981 at Meadowlands Arena.

Disc two

#"Cadillac Ranch" – 4:52
#*Recorded July 6, 1981 at Meadowlands Arena.
#"You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)" – 3:58
#*Recorded December 29, 1980 at Nassau Coliseum.
#"Independence Day" – 5:08
#*Recorded July 6, 1981 at Meadowlands Arena.
#*End Side Four on LP release.
#"Badlands" – 5:17
#*Recorded November 5, 1980 at Arizona State University.
#"Because the Night" (Springsteen/Patti Smith) – 5:19
#*Recorded December 28, 1980 at Nassau Coliseum.
#*Song never released by Springsteen before, although recorded by others most notably by Patti Smith and, later, 10,000 Maniacs.
#"Candy's Room" – 3:19
#*Recorded July 8, 1981 at Meadowlands Arena.
#"Darkness on the Edge of Town" – 4:19
#*Recorded December 29, 1980 at Nassau Coliseum.
#"Racing in the Street" – 8:12
#*Recorded July 6, 1981 at Meadowlands Arena.
#*End Side Five on LP release.
#"This Land Is Your Land" (Woody Guthrie) – 4:21
#*Recorded December 28, 1980 at Nassau Coliseum.
#*Cover song never released by Springsteen before.
#"Nebraska" – 4:18
#*Recorded August 6, 1984 at Meadowlands Arena.
#"Johnny 99" – 4:24
#*Recorded August 18, 1985 at Giants Stadium.
#"Reason to Believe" – 5:19
#*Recorded August 18, 1984 at Meadowlands Arena.
#*End Side Six on LP release.
#"Born in the U.S.A." – 6:10
#*Recorded September 30, 1985 at the LA Coliseum.
#"Seeds" – 5:14
#*Recorded September 30, 1985 at the LA Coliseum.
#*Song never released by Springsteen before.

Disc three

#"The River" – 11:42
#*Recorded September 30, 1985 at the LA Coliseum.
#*End Side Seven on LP release.
#"War" (Barrett Strong/Norman Whitfield) – 4:53
#*Recorded September 30, 1985 at the LA Coliseum.
#*Cover song never released by Springsteen before. This was a hit for Edwin Starr in the 1970s.
#"Darlington County" – 5:12
#*Recorded September 30, 1985 at the LA Coliseum.
#"Working on the Highway" – 4:04
#*Recorded August 19, 1985 at Giants Stadium.
#"The Promised Land" – 5:36
#*Recorded September 30, 1985 at the LA Coliseum.
#*End Side Eight on LP release.
#"Cover Me" – 6:57
#*Recorded September 30, 1985 at the LA Coliseum.
#"I'm on Fire" – 4:26
#*Recorded August 19, 1985 at Giants Stadium.
#"Bobby Jean" – 4:30
#*Recorded August 21, 1985 at Giants Stadium.
#"My Hometown" – 5:13
#*Recorded September 30, 1985 at the LA Coliseum.
#*This performance previously released as the music video for "My Hometown" single
#*End Side Nine on LP release.
#"Born to Run" – 5:03
#*Recorded August 19, 1985 at Giants Stadium.
#"No Surrender" – 4:41
#*Recorded August 6, 1984 at Meadowlands Arena.
#"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" – 4:21
#*Recorded August 20, 1984 at Meadowlands Arena.
#"Jersey Girl" (Tom Waits) – 6:30
#*Recorded July 9, 1981 at Meadowlands Arena.
#*This performance was released in 1984 as the B-side of the "Cover Me" single. The song was written by Tom Waits and originally released on his "Heartattack and Vine" album.
#*End of side ten on LP release.

Personnel

The E Street Band

*Roy Bittan – piano, synthesizer, background vocals
*Clarence Clemons – saxophone, percussion, background vocals
*Danny Federici – organ, accordion, glockenspiel, keyboards, background vocals
*Nils Lofgren (beginning in 1984) – guitars, background vocals
*Patti Scialfa (beginning in 1984) – synthesizer, background vocals
*Bruce Springsteen – vocals, guitars, harmonica
*Garry Tallent - bass
*Steve Van Zandt (until 1984) – guitars, background vocals
*Max Weinberg – drums

Additional musicians

*Flo and Eddie (Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman) - backing vocals on "Hungry Heart"
*The Miami Horns (Stan Harrison – tenor saxophone, Eddie Manion – baritone saxophone, Mark Pender – trumpet, Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg – trombone) – horns on "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"
*Soozie Tyrell

Production

*Toby Scott – engineer

Chart positions