BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN : MEADOWLANDS JULY 25, 1992

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN : MEADOWLANDS JULY 25, 1992

Disc One (73:23)

Better Days
Local Hero
Lucky Town
Darkness On The Edge Of Town
Open All Night
If I Should Fall Behind
57 Channels (And Nothin' On)
Badlands
The River
Living Proof
My Hometown
Leap Of Faith

Disc Two (55:35)

Man's Job
Roll Of The Dice
All Or Nothin' At All
Ninety Nine And A Half (Won't Do)
Real Man
Cover Me
Brilliant Disguise
Tougher Than The Rest

Disc Three (72:49)

Souls Of The Departed
Born In The U.S.A.
Light Of Day
Glory Days
Working On The Highway
Bobby Jean
Hungry Heart
Thunder Road
Born To Run
My Beautiful Reward

Label : nugs.net

Venue : Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Recording Date : July 25, 1992

Quality : Soundboard Recording (A+)

Review (Kieran's Thoughts) : With all of the hype surrounding the release of Springsteen’s latest single, “Hello Sunshine” and the announcement of his new album, Western Stars – set to be released on June 14th – some fans may be forgiven for forgetting about the Archive Series and, in particular, this month’s release. Following the release of the extraordinary 1985 show from Los Angeles in April, it seemed likely that this month’s show would be significantly underwhelming in comparison, and I imagine at first glance for a selection of fans, the sight of a show from The 1992-93 World Tour with Springsteen’s new band is an immediate downer. That being said, there are a couple of performances on this one that shows why this has been received well by those who are thrilled with the release, and these performances may also give purpose towards listening if your reaction was the opposite. “Better Days” is a fantastic opening to the show with all elements complementing one another. Springsteen’s vocals are clear so he’s singing very well, and the smoothness of his voice is a nice contrast to the fury of Shane Fontayne and Crystal Taliefero on duelling electric guitars. He’s also backed up soundly by the harmonies of Carol Dennis, Cleopatra Kennedy, Gia Ciambotti and Angel Rogers, these alongside the drumming of Zack Alford and keyboard work of Professor Roy Bittan work well in making this sound similar to the album version of the song, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. As for what comes next, I don’t like this “Local Hero” at all. I expected it to pale in comparison to the all time greatest performance from Leeds in 2013, but I didn’t expect to be this disappointed. The opening harmonies immediately took me out of it and after the early pause for Bruce to mention local establishments in New Jersey, this fails to reach the heights it would twenty-one years later. It’s so timid in comparison to just how booming with exuberance the Leeds performance is. Perhaps if you’ve yet to hear the Leeds version or aren’t a fan of how horns-driven it is, this might be the version for you. Unfortunately, it’s not for me. Thankfully “Local Hero” didn’t start an instant downward spiral, as I prefer this “Lucky Town” to the one from the previous 1992-93 World Tour release and I feel that Bruce singing it straight without the need to add any unnecessary tweaks to his vocals for certain lyrics greatly benefits the song. Taliefero’s backing vocals are good, as is her guitar playing, and the same can be said for the rest of Bruce’s new band’s playing. Only three songs in, even with what is for me a sub-standard “Local Hero”, this is a good for their playing. The real test this band faced, of course, was performing the songs they didn’t have a part in the initial creation of, and “Darkness on the Edge of Town” is the first E Street Band warhorse to be given an outing in this second show of the eleven night stand in the Brendan Byrne Arena. Honestly, there isn’t really anything wrong with this in regards to how the band play and if anything I’d say Bruce is who brings this down, as he’s lacking the power and conviction in his singing that the song’s reputation is essentially built on. Following “Darkness” is a tour debut for “Open All Night”, which is ‘dedicated’ to the New Jersey turnpike and though it doesn’t have the benefit of intimacy or as good of an intro that the performance from Freehold four years later would have, due to the heavy audience participation and lack of that subtle harmonica intro, I’m really happy to hear another changed version of this song. I like the technique of Bruce playing it primarily solo and a sprinkling of the band getting involved following the end of the third verse before they all kick in halfway through. It’s going so remarkably well at this point that for it to immediately pause for a Bruce interlude is quite annoying. Similarly to “Local Hero” this speech from Bruce is played at the wrong point and I think it would’ve been better placed prior to song properly starting. As for what the interlude is, Bruce’s story is similar to those that took place in the song on the Born in the U.S.A. World Tour, though it’s relevantly updated. On a tour of much change, where Bruce had left E Street for pastures new and returned home with an entirely new band (with the exceptions of The Professor and his wife) it’s fitting to hear Bruce talk about aspects of his youth being gone and them being replaced by something new. I get the feeling that this Nebraska track was being played for the diehards, so there might be something to there being a message in there for those in attendance that were still filled with reservations about this new direction in their hero’s career. I love the performance of “If I Should Fall Behind” that comes next and it might be my favourite of the entire show. Bruce sings excellently (and if like me you were missing the harmonica in the song above he plays some great stuff with it on this one) and I love the participation of the band, spurred on by Alford’s drumming, Tommy Sims’ bass and Roy’s keyboard playing. Taliefero contributes with beautiful acoustic guitar playing and credit must go to John Altschiller and Adam Ayan for their mixing and mastering work to make sure we hear this prominently during the performance. I’d go as far as to rate this particular version of “If I Should Fall Behind” above every other performance currently released, I didn’t even have to think twice about it. The “No justice, no peace” version of “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)” next is almost completely identical to what can be heard on the June 24th 1993 release, however I was caught off guard by the intensity in Bruce’s voice when he sings the lyric about buying the .44 magnum and feel that it’s worth checking out just for that. There’s more passion to it than in the entirety of his singing of “Badlands”, which just sounds like Bruce is singing Springsteen karaoke. Likewise with “Darkness” there’s nothing dreadfully wrong with it, and once again the band play well. The controversial guitar solo in place of Clarence’s sax solo is fine and even the outro is virtually identical to how The E Street Band play it, ultimately it just doesn’t feel like Bruce is believing the lyrics he’s singing in the same way he did for the ten+ years before this. In regards to “The River” immediately afterwards, I did enjoy this more than the 1993 version that I was really disappointed by (I think it’s the worst of the pre-1993 song performances on that show), but though my expectations weren’t high at all, I still can’t say for certain that I ‘liked’ this performance. It’s strange because even though Taliefero once again provides excellent acoustic guitar, Bruce sings better than he would a year later and his harmonica playing continues to be tremendous, something definitely feels “off” about this, whether it’s solely down to the faster pace in which it’s being played or not. What I do like is the way in which it links with “Living Proof” and “My Hometown” next due to the contextual connotations of relationships, childbirth and community. One of the major criticisms I have of the June 1993 release is that it lacks a solid thematic flow, and this one delivers on that front several times. “Living Proof” is quite different to what you can hear from the year later, and it’s not just the extended guitar solo, awesome guitar solo midway through or lack of transition into the “Star Spangled Banner” preceding “Born in the U.S.A.” – it must be said that the song does lose something for not having this. What’s most notable to me is the power of Bruce’s singing and what that suggests about the song. If you listen to the 1993 version you can hear that it’s just as emotionally driven, but it’s two different types of emotion. In June ’93 Bruce is calm and reflective, whereas here he strikes me as a man who has definitely found the living proof he sings about, but he’s still telling himself this to not only convince himself that he’s got it, but mainly to make sure he doesn’t lose it. In his intro to “My Hometown” Bruce lets us in to know that this particular performance of “Living Proof” has special meaning, as it’s his son’s birthday, and jokes that it’s a fun day for him, and a hard day for Patti. As he talks, in the background you can hear the audience singing “Happy Birthday”, which gets a bit annoying when they unnecessarily decide to sing it a second time around. Bruce reflects on the differences between life before children and life following their birth and dedicates “My Hometown” to the parents in the audience, with the hope that these men and women will “be strong“. This performance of “My Hometown” is really good, Alford’s drumbeat is consistently solid and Bruce’s vocals are stellar. Additionally beneficial is the playing of Roy, Sims and Taliefero. In one of the strangest monologues I’ve heard listening to a Springsteen show, before starting “Leap of Faith” Bruce mentions that he’s taking a pause for the sponsors, much to the crowd’s annoyance. It turns out to be one of those instances where he mentions all of what can be purchased at the concessions stands under the pretence that “he’s not going to talk about that”, before he gets confirmation from the audience that the sponsor of the show is “Love”. This intro isn’t as mental as him shouting “I’m gonna tickle your little tootsies” in Los Angeles seven years earlier, but it’s definitely up there. During this Springsteen and Taliefero complement each other on vocals while the trio of Dennis, Kennedy and Rogers add a nice gospel feel in the background. It was around this point where it started to become apparent that Crystal Taliefero is the star of the show. “Man’s Job” and “Roll of the Dice” are my two favourites from Human Touch and justice is done to both on this night. I’m a big fan of the pairing of Springsteen and Bobby King and it’s shown in these two songs how much chemistry the two share, the latter in particular. I like the unique almost psychedelic guitar intro to “Man’s Job” from Fontayne and it’s a shame that it’s not prevalent throughout the song. “Roll of the Dice” has an excellent intro and Bruce appears to be sampling The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” in the strangest way, singing “it’s just a kiss away” completely changed in a tone, befitting the melody of “Roll of the Dice” that you have to hear to believe. This is also prominent during the interlude of the song, being used where “Everybody Needs Somebody” would be later in the tour and I’ll be honest in saying that it does get a bit repetitive. The song kicking in isn’t joyful as it would go on to be during the Reunion Era, but it’s not something that’s going to make me refrain from revisiting this, and what’s noticeable early on is the distinct sound of a whammy bar adding a twangy effect to the guitar playing, something I’ve never heard in a Springsteen show – The 92-93 World Tour truly was an anomaly! Though you’d expect differences a year in advance, and comments about repetition aside I do like how this “Roll” is different to the version from 1993 in many aspects, but mainly with there being no “Everybody Needs Somebody”, which I’m a fan of, but there being two different versions from this tour prevents fatigue in listening to the same thing over again and gives fans more variety in what they want to play on any given day. There’s a rare Archive Series trio that follows this and one that you see on any other show. First up is the second official live release of “All or Nothin’ at All”, which is a lot better than the other available live version from Houston in 2014 in every regard, from audio quality to Bruce’s singing to the playing of the band. Where The E Street Band’s playing in 2014 seems uninspired, the 92-93 band sound motivated and it’s a positive start to the second set from them. Second is a fun, soulful cover of Wilson Pickett’s “Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do)”. It’s not the best cover I’ve ever heard from Springsteen, but it’s far from the worst. What I like about this is that it just seems like a chance for Bruce and the band to have a laugh with each other and with the audience about relationships, and it also works really well paired with the song prior. With this being the only ever live performance of this cover, if anything, it makes this release somewhat historically important. The last of this trio is arguably Bruce Springsteen’s worst song and the bane of many fan’s existence, “Real Man”, and the last ever performance of the song at that. Now, “Real Man” was pivotal for me when writing my University dissertation, so I don’t have any ill-will towards it, but I can definitely understand why many fans dislike (that’s keeping it nice) it and why a portion of Springsteen’s audience won’t be downloading this release based on it. Springsteen admits beforehand that it’s too corny, but it’s how he feels, and I think that sums it up. It might not be the perfect response, but it is a response to the Born in the U.S.A. World Tour and many people’s perception of him being this macho Rambo-esque tough guy and that it’s a new era for Bruce Springsteen. Quite simply, those who hate the song will, well, hate it and those who don’t will think it’s corny, but nothing too terrible that it’s stained Bruce’s legacy. With the next three songs being Tunnel of Love Express Tour themed, it was nice to hear the performance of “Cover Me” being very similar (almost identical, even) to how it sounded on the two previous tours. While the hallucinogenic intro sounding relatively substandard, alongside “My Hometown”, it’s the best pre-92 song performance of the show so far. Patti Scialfa is then introduced for a Tunnel of Love double header: “Brilliant Disguise” and “Tougher Than the Rest”, the two songs she and Bruce would play for over a year in the Walter Kerr theatre on Broadway to express their love for one another. Unlike Broadway, however, you can’t hear Patti as well as Bruce during “Brilliant Disguise”, but her singing fine when it becomes within range. Alford, Bittan and Sims in particular play very well here, but the band in general ace both of these songs. It would be a massive over-exaggeration for anyone to say it’s better than The E Street Band’s playing during the peak of their prowess in 1988, but it would also be remiss to just negate the quality of their playing after listening to these songs and the rest of this show up to now. There’s another nice thematic pairing afterwards with “Souls of the Departed” leading into “Born in the U.S.A.” I like the association with these two as, after hearing the “birth into war into the tragic homecoming” contextual pairings of “War” on the 1988 releases or “Living Proof” on the 1993 release for “Born in the U.S.A.”, “Souls” preceding it directly is both refreshing and, of course, perfectly apt. Similarly to the 1993 release, Shane Fontayne’s guitar playing in the intro and throughout is sublime and Bruce’s vocals are also a blend of smooth and pain-driven gritty. One of the highlights of this double header is the final verse of “Souls” leading into that rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner” that is not only great in how it builds and builds to the next song, but also in how there’s a couple of moments where it’s being played quite distortedly, which I’d like to think is an effective way of suggesting that what this song is supposed to be about, isn’t quite the case at this time. It isn’t the most thunderous version of “Born in the U.S.A.” I’ve ever heard, and in some instances it seemed like Bruce once again was singing “Springsteen karaoke” rather than being emotionally driven by the lyrics. Despite that, it’s still a ton better than the version of the song on the 1993 release where his singing is much more relaxed to the point where it seems like he’s focusing on it being a song about the joys that come with birthplace (understandable, given the song that precedes it) rather than what it’s truly about. Of the two versions available on the last two releases, Los Angeles ’85 is superior simply based on the fact it has a staggering outro solo in comparison to this. The twenty-seven minutes of “Light of Day” and “Glory Days”, much like with “Twist and Shout – Do You Love Me?” on the Los Angeles 1985 release, is the biggest annoyance of the show and it’ll likely be a massive chore for every fan to revisit. While there are a couple of snippets of what would be in the interlude rant in Madison Square Garden on the July 1st 2000 show, “Light of Day” doesn’t have anything about it quite like that performance – or the MSG ’88 and Helsinki 2012 versions with “Born to Be Wild” and “Land of 1000 Dances”, respectively, interpolated. This isn’t bad, and for I’ll know you’ll love it, but there’s nothing to it that makes me want to play it again like those three performances mentioned above. Similarly, “Glory Days” is sung well, and there’s nothing wrong with what the band are doing, but if you’re going to invest ten minutes+ into listening to the song, you might as well play one of the 1984-85 versions instead. The ending stretch of the show sees a pre-92 encore filled with E Street favourites and BITUSA crowd pleasers, before the show concludes with a lovely performance of “My Beautiful Reward”. My opinion on “Working on the Highway” has improved in recent times thanks to Archive releases such as Los Angeles 1985 and Boston 2007, but unfortunately this particular outing isn’t going to be in rotation much in the future for me. I’m not a fan of the tone in which Bruce and backing vocalists sing it on this night, and the same can be said for the keyboard riff Roy plays throughout. It’s pales in comparison to the way it’s usually played. “Bobby Jean” sounds like it usually does and Taliefero and Fontayne contribute solid guitar playing, even getting close to that stellar, albeit brooding, riff that Nils plays on last month’s Los Angeles show. The only downside here is that Bruce flubs the “we’ve known each other ever since we was 16” lyric, which isn’t exactly a massive shame. I really like this changed intro to “Hungry Heart” with the slow guitar start and the choir singing the chorus, and the song as a whole has a lot to offer, Roy’s keyboard riff is good, Sims’ adds a nice rhythm on the bass and Bruce sings well. In comparison to “Working”, this is different, but in contrast to “Working”, this change is effective and makes for an enjoyable song. I was surprised at “Thunder Road”, as I’m a fan of the synth heavy versions on MTV Plugged and the Meadowlands ’93 release, and didn’t expect this to be primarily Bruce solo on acoustic with Roy not kicking in the synth until the halfway point. Honestly, the synth is hardly noticeable until close to the very end – which might please a lot of fans who wish Bruce and Roy left synthesisers in the 80s. Ultimately, this is a version of “Thunder Road” that is very enjoyable. Would you expect it to be anything else? Also different from what would be the case a year later is that “Born to Run” is without Little Steven and Clarence Clemons, making this the first officially released version with the 92-93 band. So, let’s get straight to the main talking point, Crystal Taliefero’s sax playing is nowhere near as good as Clarence Clemons’, but I don’t think any fan should go into playing this one expecting it to be. Yeah, it does bring an otherwise fine performance down, but with over one hundred versions of “Born to Run” officially released, there shouldn’t be any frustration over this performance not being top class. Taliefero and the rest of the band are showcased excellently on this show, and that shouldn’t be forgotten. Heading into listening to this, all I hoped for is that I’d enjoy it more than the June 24th, 1993 release and fortunately I can say I did. I like setlists to be structured and flow in a somewhat connected manner. New Jersey 1993 is very stop-start with too many acoustic songs and too many guest appearances, whereas this is the opposite, and because of that it allows the band to shine and prove how good they were. They’re tremendous playing all of their respective songs and the same can be said about several of the E Street material, and when it comes to the E Street music performances that aren’t stellar, a majority of the negatives can be placed on Bruce who has a hit and miss night. If you’re a fan of this era, you’ll really enjoy this, and if you’re not, I think you could very well be surprised at how much you do enjoy it.