I've been hearing about the remastered CD of Springsteen's Live at Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 with the E Street Band for a while, so I bought a copy.
Somehow I never got into buying Springsteen's records. I like the music just fine; maybe it was so ubiquitous that I never felt a need to actually own any. Anyway, this is the first album of his I've ever owned.
This is emphatically not the polished band it later became; this is raw and raucous rock n' roll. The band absolutely cooks, and they've done a great job of remastering it to get all the extraneous crap live albums often have out of here. (I'm thinking screaming fans at the wrong moments, microphone stands tipping over, that kind of thing.)
Oh, yeah. It's damn near 2 hours of music.
Posted by Linkmeister at June 20, 2006 11:21 AM | TrackBackWhat I love about this album (and there's a DVD of the same concert in the remastered "Born to Run" package) is that it captures the time when Springsteen was really at his best and most creative. I became a fan back in 1973 where he was really unknown on the west coast. (I just happened to turn on the radio to a local station the one time they played "Blinded by the Light," which sounded like Van Morrison on speed.) I saw him in Oakland in 1975, around the same time this concert was recorded, and it was the most memorable of all the shows I've seen him play (about 10). Bruce used to be a lot more ambitious musically, incorporating elements of jazz, Phil Spector, Broadway and Bob Dylan into his wild, circus-like mix. With "Darkness on the Edge of Town" he evolved into more of the blue-collar spokesman he's tried to be ever since. He remained a great songwriter and performer, so I've stayed with him throughout most of his albums. But I've always regretted that he gave up the persona you get on this disk.
(a.k.a DzzrtRatt from Dodger thoughts)
Posted by: John Stodder at June 24, 2006 09:50 AM