The Complete 1978 Radio Broadcasts

The Boss's 1978 "Darkness Tour" of the US was a marathon starting in Buffalo in May that year and ending in Richfield on January 1st, 1979. It has passed into legend despite the fact that some venues were not sold out and superstardom was a number of years away. Indeed, it was that graduation from the theater to the stadium that Springsteen initially resisted fearing that his intimate relationship with the audience would be lost. Yet with his reputation burgeoning his rise was irresistible. Greatly assisting this was the fact that several complete shows were broadcast live including one from the Roxy in Hollywood in July 1978, from the Agora Ballroom Cleveland in August and then in September we hit the mother load. Back on his home turf on September 19th, 1978 WNEW-FM broadcast his entire show with the E Street Band at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey. On the 30 September, the band hit the steamy South and play a great show at the Fox Theater Atlanta and then Santa Claus comes to town in the form of Bruce Springsteen and the E Band at the seminal Winterland concert on December 15th in San Fransisco deemed by some to be their greatest live outing.This good value box set includes 15 disks covering these five concerts. They have all been released before and the sound quality on some disks are better than others with the Agora Ballroom most pristine. The advantage is having all these concerts gathered in one place and the Passaic concert is complete and sounding better than the horrible Klondike release of recent years. It comes in a robust box with straightforward card sleeves on each CD and a covering booklet including reviews drawn from the time by Springsteen experts like Dave Marsh. The sound is taken from the original FM broadcasts and is fine, although others will need to verify whether the claim to digital remastering on the box is correct?The Roxy concert is by far the most intimate and the crowd noise is "up front". By the time the band reaches Winterland six months later the E Street Band is a finely tuned purring engine and Bruce Springsteen has become the Boss. In short Rock 'n' Roll's high priest preaching in his temple on the concert stage. Anyone who has witnessed it will know it is one of the greatest forces of nature in modern music. This is, of course, the "Darkness" tour and that brilliant album forms the core of these shows. The version of "Racing in the Street" on Passaic is in this reviewer's opinion the finest live version out there. In each concert, the extended "Prove it all night" stands out especially in Cleveland makes the version on the formal album sound second rate and songs like "Streets of Fire" have a more powerful lustre in front of an audience. All the "Born to Run" songs especially "Thunder Road" and "Jungle-land" are by now honed to live perfection. "Rosalita" and the "Detroit Medley" at Winterland are so powerful they knock you off balance and it's great to see "Because the Night" appearing and sounding awesome. It is interesting to note that Springsteen performs "Santa Claus is coming to town" as early as September in these gigs and treats it as an early Christmas present. If you have any sense you will also ensure that a friend or relative slips this is excellent boxset into your Xmas stocking.

I saw this advertised in Amazon and being a Bruce freak I bought a copy. I already possess the Winterland bootleg in vinyl and on CD. This was always the most highly rated bootleg of a live Springsteen concert from the 1970's and the copy I bought is the same, great quality and containing some great performances by Bruce.The other live concerts are also pretty good quality. Yes there are some repeats of Bruce's most loved songs but each performance does contain different stuff. Personally I thought the whole package was very good value and provided some of the reasons why Bruce is the Boss. Get It.

Ok so these gigs have been made available already but a bargain box for the whole lot - absolute essential!!If you want pristine modern soulless digital computer created recordings, then don't get this. However if you want to hear one of the great performers going all out when he still played small venues , then you'll love it. The recordings are not always brilliant but are sure good enough to enjoy and you can almost sense the perspiration oozing from the speakers. Bruce certainly gave the crowds what they wanted on these gigs which go on forever - on one, you (the listener) are returned to the studio as the announcer says he's heard from the venue that Bruce is exhausted and that the show was over. The recording then cuts to another announcement that he is coming back on stage after 15 mins of applause!The packaging is a clamshell box with all the CDs in slipcases with a 20 page booklet with notes/comments about the gigs and photos - all in all an amazing package for the price. If I were you I would get it whilst it's cheap (pre-order price was under fifteen pounds), as the other recent radio box of the 75 shows has trebled in price since release!!If you are a fan of The Boss, and want to hear him at what some consider his peak, then invest in this box, you will not be disappointed!

My wife questioned my sanity when I bought this (and she likes Springsteen!) but frankly just three back to back tracks on disc 8; Candy's Room, Because the Night, Point Blank, are worth the purchase price on their own!! consider the other 155 tracks a bonus.The quality of both the recordings and the packaging make this a joy to own. In the "good old days" we would have called this a bootleg but this is head and shoulders above the shonky live tapes us old people bought from dodgy market traders.A true testament to the Boss at the height of his powers, and that's coming from someone who's favourite Springsteen album is Nebraska!!I hope that this review in some small way convinces you to buy this and join in my joy :)

Great series of recordings. The third gig is my favourite but all are excellent and the sound quality is very good throughout.

I'm not a big Springsteen fan - although I bought the Born to Run single when it came out - there was so much about him in the music press at that time. He seemed all wall of sound and bluster - an opinion I still sort of hold today. However, after watching him on tv live at Glastonbury I was surprised how many of the songs I knew and have gone out to discover him. Thought this huge monster was a good place to start - and I paid £10 - it is high octane stuff - but I still think his concerts are just too long. So at about 60 mins a disc they're about the right length! People have mentioned the 1977 shows that don't seem to have appeared - and I haven't heard the London 1975 show yet. But to me these are probably the best - at least he plays "Because the night" a la Patti Smith - other versions I've heard by him have been pretty lame - but here they're full on.

The item was shipped within an hour of ordering it and the seller shipped it very well-packaged with tracking number & insurance.The item was as described being in brand-new shape and at a very fair price.Would not hesitate to purchase from the seller again.

These cds with the boss is just awesome. Had some bootleg recordings but these are the best. Heard of winterland but had the Fox on reel to reel. These are the best. Thanks for putting these on CD for listening.

Sensationelle Konzert in prima Klangqualität - als stehe man im Publikum, was man dann ja aber leider doch nicht tut.Preis-Leistung tiptop.

Excelente caja con 5 conciertos míticos de 1978 en EEUU. Muy buena la presentación en caja con todos los Cd y con gran sonido. Un pequeño archivo histórico del BOSS. Imprescindible, a un precio de risa.

Acquistato questo cofanetto per conto di mio padre, gran fan di Springsteen fin dalla sua adolescenza, quindi lascio completamente a lui la recensione (allego qualche foto giusto per farvi capire come è fatto il prodotto):Il tour del 1978 è considerato tra i migliori tour di Springsteen; dal mio punto di vista è senza dubbio il migliore; questo cofanetto contiene i 5 concerti trasmessi dalle radio. Alcuni furono proposti su vinile già molti anni fa, Winterland ad esempio, disco che ho letteralmente consumato, ma la qualità di queste registrazioni è nettamente superiore.La E Street Band è in forma strepitosa, il sassofono di Clarence Clemons preciso, rotondo, potente e "Jungleland" gli rende giustizia.La voce di Springsteen è, secondo il mio parere, al massimo della forma, Bruce ha 29 anni, una carriera ancora da consacrare, talento e carisma da vendere.Ci sono brani ancora leggermente acerbi, come "Independence Day" che verrà pubblicata due anni dopo, ma vi invito ad ascoltare l'intro di "Prove It All Night"; in un'intervista Mike Appel, ex manager di Springsteen ha testualmente detto "La prima cosa che ho sentito di Darkness è stata Prove It All Night (...) Quando ho ascoltato l'assolo ho pensato di morire. Mi sono detto: Che schifo!": mai stato più in disaccordo con Mike Appel. Mike non è stato manager di Springsteen ancora per molto."Racing in The Street" è da intenditori; Roy Bittan migliorerà ulteriormente la sua performance al piano (al momento la perfezione è stata probabilmente avvicinata al Giants Stadium il 2 Ottobre 2009), ma la voce di Springsteen in queste versioni è purtroppo ora irraggiungibile.Infine "Point Blank" è in una versione con testo in alcuni punti diverso da quello attuale, ed è interessante sentire l'evoluzione del brano nel tempo attraverso le modifiche al testo.Queste registrazioni mi fanno compagnia mentre torno a casa dall'ufficio a piedi per fare esercizio un paio di volte a settimana e, purtroppo, ora i 5 km sono diventati troppo brevi! :-)