Ah, memories of trawling around record fairs in the 80s looking for live tapes. Pastel coloured paper with typed titles off of a typewriter and maybe a photocopied picture of Bruce. Getting excited about a live recording of Nebraska from Lincoln, NE this tape had luminous yellow paper for a change. But, this was nothing to getting your hands on bootlegged "outtakes" from the dealer from underneath the table. You got to know who had the good stuff and they would recognize you. There was a slight black market frisson.
I think I took a similar journey. The youngsters (or perhaps singular?) on the boards have no idea how hard it was to find bootlegs back in the day, and expensive they were if you were successful (not naming any names but subtly looking askance at @Mario Brega).
So my first handful of bootlegs were played down to a nubbin. Later, when Al Gore invented the internet and first trading became exponentially easier, if still crazy time-consuming, and then torrenting became a thing, I became even more bootleg-obsessed.
But beyond wondering if I really truly needed 55 different Rising shows, it actually made me start reconsidering the value of the studio LPs.
It's the difference, to some extent, between live theater and a film: both are wonderful, both are invaluable artforms, both ave many similarities...but they're not the same, and neither (in my ever so humble opinion) are better than the other. But it's very easy to get so focused on one that you begin to undervalue the other.
In my possible defence, I was around just before the floodgates opened and live shows were released in abundance.
I mean, yeah, I never had the struggle of finding and buying bootlegs like you lot did (mainly because I didn't know enough about them to bother looking and because I was content enough with Live in Barcelona and London Calling) but I faced struggles - oh boy did I face struggles.
So tonight, before you go to bed or get comfortable watching LSU, have a think about how poor young Mario Brega had to wait until, like, 2014 to get a live version of "The River" played in its true form.
Now I have 26 versions on my Apple Music (not as many as I thought tbh) and yeah listening to those live recordings does make me appreciate the freshness of the studio track ever odd time I play it, so you're pretty much spot on with every point made.
Also, I could most certainly do with 55 Rising Tour shows... 👀
Agreed - I'll take studio albums over live albums every day, especially with an artist like Bruce who makes proper studio albums (e.g. a solid theme and purpose running throughout)
I used to prefer the energy of the live recordings over the polished and clear sounding studio albums. Over time I have become more and more of a "studio guy".
I rarely listen to the studio album anymore, but with the releases of Western Stars and Letter To You I've been moved to revisit them. So this afternoon I decided to find the tracks that have been jumbled up in a random folder, compile them into where they should be, and then I added them to one of my favourite places.
Looks pretty nice if I say so myself. I've just been skimming through each album and playing select tracks. "Born in the U.S.A" on now - whoever said that album sounded dated?
I'm a sucker for these type of lists too, just so I can disagree with them! WS would definitely be higher, somewhere in the top 3, but I can't decide which one gets knocked out, so maybe it has to go in at 4.
Just checking my copy of Lucky Town... I think it's faulty. Apparently, it should have a 'miss' of a song called Ode To The Departed. Mine has a pretty good one called Souls Of The Departed instead.
Ah, memories of trawling around record fairs in the 80s looking for live tapes. Pastel coloured paper with typed titles off of a typewriter and maybe a photocopied picture of Bruce. Getting excited about a live recording of Nebraska from Lincoln, NE this tape had luminous yellow paper for a change. But, this was nothing to getting your hands on bootlegged "outtakes" from the dealer from underneath the table. You got to know who had the good stuff and they would recognize you. There was a slight black market frisson.
I have that many in my iTunes.
I think I took a similar journey. The youngsters (or perhaps singular?) on the boards have no idea how hard it was to find bootlegs back in the day, and expensive they were if you were successful (not naming any names but subtly looking askance at @Mario Brega).
So my first handful of bootlegs were played down to a nubbin. Later, when Al Gore invented the internet and first trading became exponentially easier, if still crazy time-consuming, and then torrenting became a thing, I became even more bootleg-obsessed.
But beyond wondering if I really truly needed 55 different Rising shows, it actually made me start reconsidering the value of the studio LPs.
It's the difference, to some extent, between live theater and a film: both are wonderful, both are invaluable artforms, both ave many similarities...but they're not the same, and neither (in my ever so humble opinion) are better than the other. But it's very easy to get so focused on one that you begin to undervalue the other.
I used to prefer the energy of the live recordings over the polished and clear sounding studio albums. Over time I have become more and more of a "studio guy".
That list is....bullshit. All 20 have their place in the cannon.
I'm not ranking anything anymore. He's constantly making new albums that I need to squeeze somewhere at the top. 😊
Damn right!
I'm a sucker for these type of lists too, just so I can disagree with them! WS would definitely be higher, somewhere in the top 3, but I can't decide which one gets knocked out, so maybe it has to go in at 4.
Just checking my copy of Lucky Town... I think it's faulty. Apparently, it should have a 'miss' of a song called Ode To The Departed. Mine has a pretty good one called Souls Of The Departed instead.
The top 3 is pretty interchangeable. But that list has some choices that seem ridiculous to me.
We Shall Overcome at 20? Get Outtah here!😫
I find the ranking highly questionable. Some odds choices and some flat out wrong ones. And...it's all a matter of taste, subjective etc. 😉