ASBURY PARK 1996 – PARAMOUNT THEATRE, ASBURY PARK, NEW JERSEY, 24 NOVIEMBRE 1996 – 3CD – OFICIAL SONIDO DEFINITIVO

PARAMOUNT THEATRE, ASBURY PARK, NEW JERSEY, 24 NOVIEMBRE 1996

Bruce vuelve a tocar en Asbury Park por primera vez desde los años 70.

Editado de los archivos de Bruce Springsteen.

El sonido definitivo. 3CD oficiales.

Grabado por John Kerns. Mezclado por Jon Altschiller.

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Su primera aparición completa en un concierto en Asbury Park desde los años 70, Springsteen lleva la gira del Tom Joad a donde comenzó todo. En consecuencia, Bruce despliega un set centrado en canciones de la Jersey Shore con una explosión de tres canciones de Greetings: «Blinded By The Light», «Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street» y «Growin ‘Up». Con el apoyo de Danny Federici, Patti Scialfa y Soozie Tyrell, Bruce se mueve a través de sorpresas escogidas para Asbury Park («Wild Billy’s Circus Story», «Rosalita» y «Sandy»), rarezas conmovedoras («When You’re Alone» y «Shut Out The Light») y maravillosas tomas de «Racing In The Street» e «Independence Day» entre muchas otras destacadas.

Making his first full concert appearance in Asbury Park since the ’70s, Springsteen brings the Joad tour to where it all began. Accordingly, Bruce unfurls a Shore-centric set that opens with a three-song blast from Greetings: “Blinded By The Light,” “Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street” and “Growin’ Up.” With sympathetic support from Danny Federici, Patti Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell, Bruce moves through apropos surprises (“Wild Billy’s Circus Story,” “Rosalita” and “Sandy”), moving rarities (“When You’re Alone” and “Shut Out The Light”) and wonderful takes of “Racing In The Street” and “Independence Day” among many highlights.

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT / DOES THIS BUS STOP AT 82ND STREET? / GROWIN’ UP / ATLANTIC CITY / INDEPENDENCE DAY / STRAIGHT TIME / DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN / JOHNNY 99 / MANSION ON THE HILL (with Patti Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell) / WILD BILLY’S CIRCUS STORY (with Danny Federici and Soozie Tyrell) / RED HEADED WOMAN / TWO HEARTS (with Patti Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell) / WHEN YOU’RE ALONE (with Patti Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell) / SHUT OUT THE LIGHT (with Danny Federici, Patti Scialfa, and Soozie Tyrell) / BORN IN THE U.S.A. / THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD / SINALOA COWBOYS / THE LINE / RACING IN THE STREET (with Soozie Tyrell) / ACROSS THE BORDER / WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY / THIS HARD LAND (with Danny Federici) / ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT)(with Danny Federici and Soozie Tyrell) / 4TH OF JULY, ASBURY PARK (SANDY) (with Danny Federici) / THE PROMISED LAND

Start of an incredible three night stand with many rarely played tracks. The night begins with three straight songs from Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and features five tour premieres, including the only tour performance of «Independence Day» and three songs from The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle. Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell, and Danny Federici guest on various songs throughout the show.

Bruce Springsteen – Lead vocals, guitar, harmonica
Kevin Buell – Keyboards (offstage)
Additional Musicians: Danny Federici – Accordion on Wild Billy’s Circus Story, Shut Out the Light, This Hard Land, Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) and Fourth Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy); Patti Scialfa – Backing vocal on Mansion On The Hill, Two Hearts, When You’re Alone and Shut Out The Light; Soozie Tyrell – Violin, backing vocal on Mansion On The Hill, Wild Billy’s Circus Story, Two Hearts, When You’re Alone, Shut Out The Light, Racing In The Street and Rosalita (Come Out Tonight).
Recorded by John Kerns
Mixed by Jon Altschiller from multi-track digital master tapes; Additional engineering by Danielle Warman
Mastered to DSD and PCM by Adam Ayan at Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME
Post Production by Brad Serling and Micah Gordon
Art Design by Michelle Holme; Cover Photo by Neal Preston
Tour Director: George Travis
Jon Landau Management: Jon Landau, Barbara Carr, Jan Stabile, Alison Oscar
HD Files are 24 bit / 44.1 kHz ; DSD files are DSD64

A Place Where You Could Find Yourself
Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, NJ, November 24, 1996
By Erik Flannigan

Three decades on, one can underestimate the significance of the Ghost of Tom Joad tour. Fans had been talking about the prospect of a solo acoustic tour since Nebraska, a dream reinforced by the Bridge School appearance in 1986 and the sublime sets Springsteen turned in at the Christic Institute concerts in 1990. (The Bridge and Christic shows are available for download as part of the live archive series.) But it would be another five years for Bruce to go it alone for real, starting his first solo tour in December 1995 and continuing well into 1997.

Not only was he playing on sans band, but he was performing in theaters the size of which he hadn’t seen since the Darkness tour. The period is also notable for the debuts of several original songs (e.g. “It’s the Little Things That Count” and “There Will Never Be Any Other for Me But You”) in a set that grew more exploratory in assaying Bruce’s back catalog as the tour carried on.

Then came a series of remarkable hometown bookings. In November 1996, Bruce played his old high school, St. Rose of Lima, in Freehold, NJ (also available in the live download series). Later that month, a three-show stand at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, which was not only the namesake of his debut album, but the city whose clubs had served as a finishing school for the young musician and his future bandmates. Based on available information, Springsteen had not played Freehold in the E Street Band era, and he hadn’t done a proper concert in Asbury Park since sometime in 1973.

Given the so-called trilogy of recent projects looking back at his life (the book Born to Run, Springsteen on Broadway and Western Stars), one could suggest the November 1996 Shore shows were the first steps in literally revisiting his history.

Armed with that awareness, the first thing Bruce says as he takes the Paramount Theatre stage is, “Greetings, from Asbury Park.” We’re treated to three tracks from the album: a shambolic “Blinded By the Light,” plus lively takes of “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” and “Growin’ Up.”

“What the hell was I thinking about when I wrote all that stuff?” he asks with a hearty laugh as he wraps the trio. One likeable hallmark of the Joad tour is an unmistakable streak of humor, darker in tone and language, that seemed to intentionally contrast with a more earnest persona that had become the de facto depiction of our hero.

When someone shouts for “Mary Queen of Arkansas,” Bruce’s candor is priceless. “No. I ain’t gonna be playing that tonight. I tried to play that at home a few nights ago, and I couldn’t figure out what it’s about.”

The top of the show is appealingly loose but turns more meaningful with a distinctive reading of “Independence Day.” The song’s only tour performance is lightly Joad-ified and resolute, as the protagonist tells the tale with wistful distance and perspective. The 12-string “Darkness on the Edge of Town” is captivating as always, and “Johnny 99” is excellent — it, too, carries a tinge of reflection.

All four Shore shows featured supplemental musicians, and this night showcased the critical contributors: Danny Federici, Patti Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell. Phantom Dan sneaks on stage appropriately in a rare outing for “Wild Billy’s Circus Story,” while Soozie and Patti bring one of those aforementioned deep cuts to life in an exquisite version of the criminally underplayed “When You’re Alone” from Tunnel of Love. The deceptively simple rumination on the loss of love remains as poignant as ever.

Staying in the hidden gems lane, all three contribute to one of Springsteen’s songwriting masterpieces, the “Born in the U.S.A.” b-side “Shut Out the Light.” Introduced as a song he wrote shortly after Nebraska, “Shut Out the Light” pulls another narrative thread on returning Vietnam veterans and the war they brought home with them. Bruce recalls the draft board in Asbury Park in the late ’60s and acknowledges his luck in getting out (a story told in greater detail in his autobiography) as he introduces a song about someone who wasn’t as lucky.

The homestretch of the set sticks to the established and powerful Joad-tour core, including “Born in the U.S.A.,” “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” and “Sinaloa Cowboys.” But Bruce makes one fascinating and to some degree unlikely inclusion, placing “Racing in the Street” between “The Line” and “Across the Border.” Not unlike the earlier performance of “Independence Day,” “Racing” carries subtle notes of retrospection and world weariness as it rides Soozie Tyrell’s melancholy violin. It’s not a long rendition like it would be in the hands of the E Street Band, but composed, potent, and unique to this tour.

Every live version of “Across the Border” and the story which precedes it truly capture the heart of Tom Joad. Bruce movingly recounts seeing John Ford’s movie Grapes of Wrath and the moments in the film that so deeply affected him, calling out specific scenes and camera framing with a director’s eye and quoting key lines of dialogue that form a sort of outline for the questions Bruce explores on the album and tour.

For the encore, the mood turns upbeat, starting with “Working on the Highway” and continuing with a fine “This Hard Land,” again featuring Danny Federici on accordion. Of course Danny returnsl two songs later as well for Bruce’s ultimate boardwalk homage, “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” introduced with a sweet remembrance of the music scene and players that were there from the beginning. What comes in between is the tour debut of “Rosalita,” in a highly uncommon acoustic arrangement that makes up in liveliness what it lacks in musicality.

We end with the powerfully reimagined “The Promised Land.” While “Dream Baby Dream” was more of a pure mantra in the same set position on the Devils & Dust tour, “The Promised Land” a la Joad is a hymnal, too. Bruce’s acoustic guitar thump serves as the rhythm track propelling a reinterpretation that transports the song from exaltation to something more humanistic.

In the two nights that followed, Springsteen was joined by more guests and debuted a host of other rarities as the tone shifted ever more festive. But at his first show in Asbury Park in more than 30 years, recognition of a return to the place of origin is a compelling presence in nearly every song.