BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND : WINTERLAND 12/16/78

 

Disc One (76:41)

  1. Good Rockin' Tonight
  2. Badlands
  3. Rendezvous
  4. Spirit In The Night
  5. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
  6. Independence Day
  7. The Promised Land
  8. Prove It All Night
  9. Racing In the Street
  10. Thunder Road
  11. Jungleland

Disc Two (84:21)

  1. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City
  2. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
  3. The Fever
  4. Fire
  5. Candy's Room
  6. Because The Night
  7. Point Blank
  8. Mona - Preacher's Daughter - She's The One
  9. Backstreets
  10. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

Disc Three (35:21)

  1. Born To Run
  2. Detroit Medley
  3. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
  4. Quarter To Three

Label : Live.BruceSpringsteen.net

Venue : Winterland Arena, San Francisco, California, USA

Recording Date : December 16, 1978

Quality : Soundboard Recording (A+)

Review : Another fabulous release of a historic evening at The Winterland Arena in 1978. This was the second Winterland concert in 1978 of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.

Review (Kieran's Thoughts) : I’ve heard the first Winterland show more times than I can remember, but with the exception of “Fire” (this show’s version is included on the Live 75-85 box set), this December 16th show is completely new to me. In fact, I’d go as far to say this one will be a new experience for most Springsteen fans, as while a recording has circulated for forty years, the quality of the audience recording has meant it’s paled for fans in comparison to the night one radio broadcast. As a result I imagine that, alongside the performance quality, this contributed to increasing the legend of the December 15th show, while simultaneously building the mythical intrigue of this night. This second Winterland release is an interesting one, as the performance of Springsteen and The E Street Band isn’t to the level it was on the radio the night before, but the quality of Jon Altschiller’s mix does make for this being a better release sound quality-wise. Consequently it now finds itself above the December 15th show as far as my ranking during the previous review is concerned. In opening with the first of four song changes and the second release in the Live Downloads series of “Good Rockin’ Tonight”, Bruce picks up where he left off the night before and this one is instantly off to a flyer. “Badlands” keeps the energy flowing, but it’s overshadowed on this occasion by an excellent “Rendezvous” that features sublime guitar licks from Miami Steve. Steve is a man on form on this particular night and further evidence of that can of course be found in “Thunder Road”, “Jungleland” and “Because the Night”. Also standing out in the first set is “Independence Day”, which has evolved so much in the five months since its debut in West Hollywood. One thing that remains the same as it was on July 7th though is the dedication from Bruce to his dad, and as both of these performances took place in California where Douglas and Adele Springsteen lived, I won’t blame you for thinking that Doug was definitely in attendance for both of them. The first hour of the show also has stunning performances of “The Promised Land” and, once again, “Prove It All Night”. The best moment of the former, which comes just after “Independence Day”, is something that really caught me off guard, and those are the vocals from Bruce at the 2:20 point. In an era where the sound of his voice is primarily rough, to hear him sing in such an immaculate way is an absolute delight. The greatest strength of “Prove It” is the same as on December 15th, September 19th and July 7th (and the rest of course) in how it showcases Bruce being the machine he is on guitar and on the mic, and funnily enough it works well along the next song, “Racing in the Street”. “Racing” sees a genuine moment of human error from this machine playing onstage as Bruce forgets the words to the chorus after what, truthfully, feels like a rocky start to the song. Thankfully the botch is forgiven by the crowd and laughed off by Bruce, and courtesy of Roy’s piano playing the restart is sung very triumphantly. I’m not a lover of when live songs are filled with mistakes – especially my favourite Springsteen song! – but given how Bruce and Roy react to this one and how the rest of the song is fantastically played, I’ll be content listening to this again in the future. Unsurprisingly, Clarence shines during the first set finale, “Jungleland”, which is epic because of him, Roy and the aforementioned Miami Steve. I’m also a sucker for Bruce shouting “Tonight!” during live versions of the song like he does three minutes in, but Bruce’s finest contribution to this are the heavy gasps for breath he takes during the song’s last verse. They don’t only highlight how exhausted he is after going wild during this one, but they also add to the lyrics he’s singing – “wounded, not even dead“. I think I say this during every “Jungleland” write-up, but this is a really good performance of the song. Having said that, though, between the first set closer and second set opener, “It’s Hard to be a Saint in The City” is the true pleasure to listen to and one for the enthusiasts of Bruce at his guitar playing best. Those little riffs around the four and a half minute mark left me questioning why Bruce isn’t usually mentioned alongside the other all-time greats of the guitar. Seriously, this is ethereal. Following “Saint” is another “Santa” with four extra minutes added to Bruce’s monologue, which is highlighted by Miami Steve saying how he wants a new amplifier for Christmas. Similarly to the night prior this is fun for the occasion and the inclusion of the song does make these two shows more than worthy of a Christmastime release than The Night For The Vietnam Veteran, for example. Maybe next year for that one though! “The Fever”, “Fire” and “Candy’s Room” retain their slots from the first show and “Fire” is definitely the diamond of the three. After “The Fever” steals this particular section on the 15th courtesy of Clarence’s participation, it’s Bruce’s vocal nuances during “Fire” that stop you in your tracks and make you reconsider the song’s value. I’ll give it a few more listens to make sure, but I can definitely see this overtaking Tempe ’80 as the best officially released live version of the song. What I love about this show is that when you think you’ve heard a potential all-timer, another one starts playing right after, as a magical “Because The Night” is the first of the three incredible song performances in a row. The intro is peak Danny and Roy, while Bruce tries to top his guitar playing in “Prove It” and “Saint” all the way through. There’s just no denying that “Because The Night’ was better in ’78 and this is arguably the best example of it in the seven shows available to listen to. “Point Blank” on the other hand isn’t, as is no surprise, but this following track is also full of stunning instrumentals from The E Street Band – Max, Roy and Steve above the rest – and vocals from Bruce. Listen to the way he sings “pretty lies that they sell” around three minutes in, wow! The third performance of this magnificent trio is the combination of “Mona” – “Preacher’s Daughter” – “She’s The One”, which has an additional rendition of “Gloria” rather than “I Get Mad”. This one really conveys every positive aspect of the show in twelve minutes. From Altschiller’s top work of including crowd participation, to Bruce’s almost experimental vocals and declarations, and finally each member of The E Street Band contributing something pivotal to the music: Max’s drumbeats, Clarence’s Bo Diddly-esque sax and Garry’s grooving bass are fundamental here and they’re exceptionally good. No major interlude during “Backstreets” came as a surprise, and it’s nice to have a version from ’78 that is essentially just the song. Mind, this one did have me wondering why Springsteen and co. went to the trouble of editing and removing the interlude from The Roxy ’78 version for Live 75-85 when they had this in the vault the entire time. There’s also no hilariously good intro for “Rosalita”, which is relatively standard, but if every performance of these two songs had great interludes and intros, the special ones wouldn’t be as special, would they? I’m also fine with them being nothing otherworldly as I feel that this allows “Born to Run” to be as great of a high point during the home stretch of the show as it is, thanks to the way Bruce sings certain lyrics – listen to the way he alters lines like “suicide machines”, “last chance power drive” and “there ain’t no place left to hide“. If you thought you had too many versions of “Born to Run” already because of these live downloads, you’re going to need at least one more. As is the case on the 15th show, “The Medley” and “Tenth” are riveting, but it’s the riot that is “Quarter to Three” that sends the audience home on the highest of highs. Even though we can’t see what’s happening onstage (Bruce makes reference to this during “The Medley” about him and Clarence doing ‘something’ the night before), because of the quality of Jon Altschiller’s mix and the intensity of Springsteen and The E Street Band, we can believe Bruce’s exhaustion we he asks the crowd, “Have I died and gone to Heaven?” It’s the perfect question really, because after hearing these two new releases from Springsteen’s greatest tour, you’ll probably be asking the same thing. You might have expected that this would be a more enjoyable listening experience in comparison to the December 15th show seeing as I’d never heard it before, and though sometimes I’d take that into account when rating, this doesn’t quite touch the first night in San Francisco. Courtesy of “Streets of Fire”, no mistakes in “Racing in the Street” and the best interlude in a ’78 “Backstreets”, December 15th is the stronger of the two shows if you’re wanting to check out just one for now. And once you’ve overplayed that one, definitely spend some time playing this, because there’s a lot to love in here.