The essential Bruce and more.
By: Hank Kalet
In the CD player:
Bruce Springsteen, "The Essential Bruce Springsteen," a three-disc set that spans his career. The disc augments the original, flawed "Greatest Hits," which ignored the Boss’ first two albums. I have no complaints with what was chosen, though I wonder why the two live cuts from "Live in New York" were tacked to the end, out of order.
I would have added several cuts, made it a five disc set, three of best of material, one of live cuts and the rarities disc.
Missing are: "Hard to be a Saint in the City," "Kitty’s Back," "Backstreets," "10th Avenue Freeze Out," "Candy’s Room," "Racing in the Streets," "Sherry Darling," "Ties that Bind," "Reason to Believe," "My Hometown," "Downbound Train," "Spare Parts," "Better Days," "Souls of the Departed," "If I Should Fall Behind," "Youngstown," "Across the Border," "Nothing Man," "You’re Missing" and "My City of Ruins."
The live disc should feature:
"The River" and "Devil with a Blue Dress Medley" from the "No Nukes" soundtrack, "War," "Seeds," "Because the Night," "Fire," "Raise Your Hand," "Jersey Girl," "This Land is Your Land" and "Paradise by the ‘C’ " from "Live 1975-1985," "Be True" and "Chimes of Freedom" from the "Chimes of Freedom" E.P., "Light of Day" from "Plugged," "American Skin (41 Shots)"and "Land of Hope and Dreams" from "Live in New York City," "Rendezvous" from "Tracks" and "Held Up Without a Gun," "Trapped" and "Code of Silence" from new collection. I’m sure I’m leaving off some great stuff, but this is what I’ve come up with.
And a plea to the Boss: Release the Bottom Line shows. I have a bootleg of the shows, but they demand a real cleansing and remastering. They were historic shows that forced the record company to rethink their approach to the Boss and helped propel "Born to Run" into the stratosphere.
Also in the disc player are "Let It Be… Naked" (see Thursday’s Dispatches for more on this) and Dido’ s latest, the lovely "Life For Rent." Highlights are "Mary’s in India" and the title cut.