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Product Description

The first retooling of any album in the mighty Springsteen catalog is an exemplary labor of love by Columbia. The original 1975 release was the make-or-break record of Bruce's career and arguably still his best collection of material. It is presented here on one disc unsullied by outtakes or inferior versions--just pristine digital remasters of those eight grittily romantic songs of street life that defined the artist's signature styles. The substantial bonuses are two new DVD programs, one featuring a full concert performance by Bruce and the E Street Band on their first date outside the U.S. at London's Hammersmith Odeon in November 1975, and the other a "making of" documentary including band interviews and contemporary concert footage. The whole handsome box truly honors a legendary recording while providing generous value for fans.

The meat of the bonus material is the London show. A mythology has built around it that the band were so disorientated by travel and culture shock and Bruce so enraged by label-generated hype that they gave one of the worst performances of their career. Primitively shot by today's standards, the footage captures the brilliance of the relatively new band's ensemble playing. Highlights include a "Thunder Road" accompanied only by keyboards that opens the show, fiery solos on "Kitty's Back," a dynamic "Saint in the City," and a number of songs that have long since been retired. It's certainly notable how pensive and joyless Springsteen appears when compared to his later, animated stadium persona, but it's also fun to see the far greater role as foil played by Clarence Clemons. As he now testifies in the sleeve notes, putting lie to the myth, on that night they had "gone for broke," and as this writer can bear witness, the British audience exalted the show as the arrival of the greatest live performer of his generation. --Rob Stewart

The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle (1973)
After a folk-rockish debut album that bubbled with ideas and dense lyrical play, this is where Springsteen began to find his voice as a rocker and as a songwriter. The prisoner-of-love romanticism of "Rosalita" and "Incident on 57th Street" hinted at what was coming, and this early version of the E Street Band--jazzier and more spare than later versions, thanks largely to David Sancious's piano--sounds great, if a little ragged, these many years later.

Born to Run (1975) and Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
These two records, which belong on any compilation of the top 100 rock albums of all time, sketched the themes that he would spend his whole career chasing, and defined the expectations fans would bring to his records ever after. The first chords of "Born to Run" sounded like freedom itself the first time I heard them on the radio, and the album lived up to them. "Thunder Road" is still the greatest rock & roll love song anyone's ever written. The record sounded so big and impassioned and propulsive it was easy to miss the dread running underneath it. Darkness... put the dread front and center. There are more of his best songs here than anywhere else, even if the sound is muddy and leaden at times.

Nebraska (1982)
After The River (the best record that didn't make this list) and the ensuing tour answered his rock & roll prayers--he was a big star now, not just a perennial critics' favorite--Springsteen holed up in a rented house on the Jersey shore, where he wrote these songs and sang them into a four-track recorder in his living room. The tape was supposed to be a demo for the band, but after several false tries he concluded that the tape he'd been carrying around in his pocket was the record. Quiet and bleak, Nebraska nonetheless grabbed you by the collar and made you listen as surely as his rock & roll records ever had.

Tunnel of Love (1987)
The glare and hubbub surrounding the Born in the USA tour (the tour was great--the record itself overrated) made him pull back again, this time to write a cycle of songs about love and fear and self-doubt. After this, Springsteen's first marriage broke up, and he started a family with Patti Scialfa, disappearing for the better part of 10 years, notwithstanding the pair of not-bad, just-disappointing albums he released in 1992, Human Touch and Lucky Town.

The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995)
Some call it Nebraska II, but his second acoustic album was not a repeat of his first--the characters and settings had changed, and their circumstances were more expressly desperate, and social--though it did share the same interest in what happens to people whose isolation or marginal status renders them invisible.

The Rising (2002)
Everybody, including Springsteen, seemed to think it was a record about 9/11, but the subject was broader--death and loss as seen from more than halfway down life's road. Dave Marsh nailed it: "A middle-aged man confronts death and chooses life" Brendan O'Brien's production sounds great.

CONCERT DVD Never-before-seen 1975 concert from Hammersmith Odeon, London featuring over 2 hours of music.

DOCUMENTARY DVD Definitive story of "Wings For Wheels: The Making of Born to Run" with new interviews & rare archival footage.

BORN TO RUN CD First time in newly-remastered digital sound. Includes 48 page booklet of rare and unpublished photos.

Japanese pressing includes an additional booklet. Features the exact same content as the US 2DVD/CD set. Sony. 2005.

Japanese Issue of the 30th Anniversary Edition of the Monumental Springsteen Album. Includes One CD, Two Dvds and a 40 Page Booklet in a Long Box.

Customer Reviews:

• 30 years later
  and still exceptional.... The remaster sounds great and the 2 DVDs make it worthwhile to any Bruce fan (or anyone for that matter) who wants to hear (and see how it was made) one of the great records of the 70s....more info
• Good, not great
  Definitely expecting more but overall worth the price and has a lot of great material. Definitely a must by for any fan that doesn't already own a collection package....more info
• Growing up in New Jersey with Born to Run
  Being from New Jersey Springsteen was ours. When this album came out, his promoters got him on the cover of Newsweek and Time Magazine on the same week. Presidents have trouble doing that! He became the Boss, and soon became an International Star. To me, he is the Boss from New Jersey, a friend, although I never met him. He not only spoke to the youth at the time, he spoke directly to New Jersey youth "Born to Run" crashed in at the decade's midpoint. Many of the `60s icons (the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Who, the Byrds, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Crosby Stills Nash & Young) were either gone or on cruise control, and punk still hadn't come kicking and screaming to life. What Springsteen offered was not a new sound, but a full-on celebration of an old one. He self-consciously fused Dylan's lyricism with Phil Spector's production values and Roy Orbison's operatic vocals.
  This was Springsteen's last-ditch effort to make a commercially viable record; its wall of sound production had an enormous budget and had become bogged down in the recording process.
  
  Bruce Springsteen spent everything he had -- patience, energy, studio time, the physical endurance of his E Street Band -- to ensure that his third album was a masterpiece. Springsteen's reputation as a perfectionist on record begins here: There are a dozen guitar overdubs on the title track alone. He was also spending money he didn't have. Engineer Jimmy Lovine had to hide the mounting recording bills from the Columbia paymasters. "The album became a monster," Springsteen told his biographer, Dave Marsh. "It just ate up everyone's life." But in making Born to Run, Springsteen was living out the central drama in the album's tenement-love operas ("Backstreets," "Jungleland") and gun-the-engine rock & roll ("Thunder Road," "Born to Run"): the fight to reconcile big dreams with crushing reality. He found it so hard to get on tape the sound in his head -- the Jersey-bar dynamite of his live gigs, Phil Spector's Wagnerian grandeur, the heartbreaking melodrama of Roy Orbison's hits -- that Springsteen nearly scrapped Born to Run for a straight-up concert album. But his make-or-break attention to detail -- including the iconic cover photo of Springsteen leaning onto saxman Clarence Clemons, a perfect metaphor for Springsteen's brotherly reliance on the E Street Band -- assured the integrity of Born to Run's success. In his determination to make a great album, Springsteen produced a timeless, inspiring record about the labors and glories of aspiring to greatness.
  
  
  The Song- Born to Run or New Jersey or Bust
  
  According to the 30th anniversary addition to this album, (which comes with a live show from London in the early 1975 and a documentary on the making of Born to Run), the song Born to Run took nearly SIX Months to record. The lyrics to the song are appropriately epic for his last-ditch, all-or-nothing shot at the stars, yet they remain rooted in the universal desperation of adolescence. We gotta get out while we're young, he writes, 'cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run. This album was "one long endless summer" as Springsteen put it. Each song phrase and each word with the association of the music become alive, for all to see. Even though MTV was 6 or 7 years away, this was the first album, song by song, I heard with my eyes. With the elegance of the music that included a glockenspiel, (what ever the hell that is), just poured out visionary vibes about a do or die situation that all teenagers feel from the heart. Written in the first person, the song is a love letter to a girl named Wendy (Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend I wanna guard your dreams and visions...; I wanna die with you Wendy on the streets tonight/in an everlasting kiss!), whom the protagonist certainly has the passion to love, but may not have the patience. However, Springsteen has noted that it has a much simpler core: getting out of Asbury Park. This "mini epic" became an anthem for everyone who grew up in New Jersey!. It is our secret handshake that many tried to replicate, but no one ever came close. Through this song and the others on this album, we were connected like no other group of teenagers in the country. We knew what it meant to be tramps, or the "RAT", in a world that mocked New Jersey each and every night on late night television. As Springsteen comes of age in 1975, WE do to. High School daze turns into College dreams and this metamorphosis takes place in a world that is about to explode in every direction. From internal life decisions, to the world economy spinning in and out of control, the technological explosion of new toys for the home and office, to Ronald Reagan and so on and so on. The world was changing at a rate that was almost impossible to grasp, but with music and certainly the Boss in the front seat, there was an unwavering constant to settle on and to rely on getting us through each and every day.
  
  And I'm all alone, I'm all alone
  And kid you better get the picture
  And I'm on my own, I'm on my own
  And I can't go home
  
  The Painful Recording Sessions
  
  In recording each song, Springsteen first earned his noted reputation for perfectionism, laying down as many as eleven guitar tracks to get the sound just right. The recording process and alternate ideas for the song's arrangement are described in the Wings For Wheels documentary DVD included in the 2005 reissue Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition package.
  
  The Born to Run track was recorded well in advance of the rest of the album, and featured Ernest "Boom" Carter on the drums and David Sancious on keyboards; they would be replaced by Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan for the rest of the album and in the ongoing E Street Band (which was still uncredited on Springsteen's records at the time). The song was also recorded with only Springsteen and Mike Appel as producers; it would be later, when work on the album bogged down, that Jon Landau was brought in as an additional producer.
  It turns out Clarence Clemons' extended saxophone solo on "Jungleland" really wasn't a solo at all, but a meticulously scripted musical passage that required 16 hours to record, note by painstaking note. Even the title track went through numerous incarnations, including one with strings and a backing choir that makes Springsteen cringe as he listens to the playback decades later in the 90-minute documentary DVD, "Wings for Wheels: The Making of `Born to Run. " But as far as recorded solos go, this is the best solo of any instrument of all time- bar none!
  Springsteen calculated every gesture, down to the expansive introductions for the songs, all of which were composed on piano. The E Street Band had to relearn how to play, as Springsteen aimed for a simpler, denser sound, rather than the hyperactive sprawl of his previous albums. Out were Boom Carter and David Sancious and in came Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg. This change took months to solve and the album already had songs in the can. In fact on the Wings For Wheels documentary DVD, Max Weinberg admits that to this day he can not reproduce what Carter had recorded on drums for the song Born to Run. Springsteen ended leaving in what Carter had recorded.
  After it was done, Springsteen and rock itself would be changed. His lyrics would become even sparser, his stories bleaker, his music more hard-hitting and direct on subsequent albums, such as "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and "The River." By the time of "Born in the U.S.A.," the Jersey soul stirrer would give way to the muscular celebrity in blue jeans, with an American flag as his backdrop.
  On "Born to Run," Springsteen knew he was losing his innocence, and that knowledge gives the album its enduring power. He was going for broke, calibrating every note for maximum impact. He knew that even as a gateway was opening, another was closing behind. Or, as he warns on "Thunder Road": "The door's open, but the ride ain't free."
  Fed by release of an early mix of "Born to Run" to progressive rock radio, anticipation built towards the new album's release. On August 13, 1975, Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, ten-show stand at New York's Bottom Line club; it attracted major media attention, was broadcast live on Philly's WMMR's sister station in New York, WNEW-FM, and convinced many skeptics that Springsteen was for real. (Decades later, Rolling Stone magazine would name the stand as one of the 50 Moments That Changed Rock and Roll.) With the release of Born to Run on August 25, 1975, Springsteen found success: while there were no real hit singles, "Born to Run", "Thunder Road", and "Jungleland" all received massive FM radio airplay and remain perennial favorites on many classic rock stations to this day. "Born to Run" represents a last gasp for a certain kind of songwriting: the Romantic escapism of Orbison and Buddy Holly and written in the manifestation of Dylan. Punk's sarcasm and skepticism were just around the corner, and the age of irony would soon follow.
  One thing I hope to portray to you about music back in the day, is it was soooo personal, it could speak to you on so many different levels, as well as to a couple, or a group, but at the time mean absolutely nothing to the person next to you. Born to Run and the songs on it, took what Dylan had started a decade earlier and made Rock n Roll more tangible, more spiritual and made the poetry easier to feel, made your heart beat to the chords and made each line real and come to life. "Stranded in a jungle taking all the heat that is giving" is a profound line in that it was the way that I feel when I hear these songs together as they were recorded and not chopped up on mixed tapes or CD's that your father is so famous for. These songs NEED to be heard as the Album was recorded to really get the sense of the magic that was created way back in 1975.
  The beauty of all the women described in these songs, from Wendy to the ones that found their way down "Flamingo Lane", are portrayed so wonderfully by the piano's resonance on each song. Just listen to the piano play on this album. The sound is stunning and makes songs like Backstreets and Jungleland so illustrated that you sometimes forget that the jungle that is soooooo clear in your head has only been seen by your memory of these songs and no one else. Visual is the only way to explain what the E street band accomplished on this Album. I can close my eyes and still vividly see the same images and reflections I experienced 30 years ago when I listened for the first time. I do not think I could say that about any other album to this point in my life. The enchantment of the words combined with the music's splendor makes it difficult to see "What's flesh and what's fantasy". That line means something different to each person who hears it. Only Great Song writers have that unfathomable touch with Mr. Webster's vocabulary.
  
  The Boss was a very important and special friend to me "Growing UP" in the "Backstreets" of the "Jungleland". As friends we had grown through a lot of stuff. Each of us helped the other when able to. From lost loves, cars," Sandy" to children, he was always someone I could depend on for help. That was the beauty of music back in the day; the Boss and I were good friends through thick and thin, although we have never met!...more info
• Re-casing the Promised Land
  Reviewing this disc, even in its reissued form, seems almost beside the point. Surely everyone knows by now the music contained therein, its significance, and whether or not it's for them...It is, decidely, for me...From the opening "invitation" (as Bruce describes it) of the beautiful piano arpeggio voicings beginning "Thunder Road" to the somber, funereal ending strains of "Jungleland", the intelligence, and artistry and emotion are apparent in every note...(Okay, there is one weak spot: "Night". It's 2nd rate Springsteen, but this is such an awesomely powerful musical juggernaut, its momentum doesn't falter at all)...
  
  The remastering is nice - I definitely can discern musical information that was not there before - it's crisper, sharper, and there's more spatial definition.
  
  And of course, the DVDs are the real news here. Particularly, the huge find the Hammersmith Odeon concert represents. This is just magnetic, dynamite footage of the Boss plying his trade, and it very handily provides visual testament to Bruce's vaunted reputation as a performer....
  
  The making-of doc is quite nice, too, with tons of great interviews and breakdown of tracks.
  
  So...the bottom line is, if you don't own this album, you should, and this is the version to get, or alternately, even if you do own it already, you still need this....more info
• History Lesson: The Making of a Rock Star
  Without a doubt, the highlight is the DVD of the 1975 show in London. "Born to Run," the album, had put him on the cover of "Time" and "Newsweek" the same week in October, 1975, one of the very few times that has happened for a non-news story.
  
  The publicity and hype generated by Columbia records was so overwhelming that there was a backlash: "Nobody can be that good."
  
  So here we see his first show ever in the UK, playing to an audience of professional critics and amateur skeptics, people thinking, "hey, 'Rock and Roll Future,' this is the land of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, The Who - who do you think you're kidding. No unknown kid from America deserves 'Time' and 'Newsweek.'"
  
  The show begins in almost total darkness, a piano softly plays, then harmonica, and a soft spotlight lights the kid from New Jersey who sings "Thunder Road," accompanied by only piano. An unknown song at the time, "Thunder Road" has become a Springsteen classic. IMHO, especially given the expectations, it is a perfect understated opening.
  
  The DVD has the entire show, including everything from the hard rock of "She's the One," and "Born to Run," the song, to a much slowed down version of "For You," an underated sleeper on his first album, "Greeting From Asbuty park, NJ." Bruce accompanies himself on the piano and I swear, this version of "For You" is so beautiful it could be the scruffy New Jersey kid channeling god.
  
  Any skeptic who walked out of this show thinking Springsteen was merely hype has no ears, no taste, or was xenophobic. The show gives more than a big hint that this Springsteen guy is for real, as a songwriter and performer, and that "Born to Run," especially, is an extraodinary album. There are only eight songs, but none are fill. Repeated listenings of the four corners of the album (before CDs) "Backstreets," "Jungleland," Thunder Road," and the title song are so good they become... well, addictive, works of genius, and lead to still more listening. "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out," "Night," and especially "She's the One" could each be the centerpiece of almost any other album. Even the whispered "Meeting Across the River," fits and helps the album become a coherent whole. The songs taken together are more than the sum of the parts.
  
  As a footnote I'll offer the opinion that Bruce only wrote one other album that is as good as "Born to Run" and that is his next one, "Darkness on the Edge of Town." Everything he has released is good; a good bit of it is great, but I don't think anything else matches "Born To Run" or "Darkness." I don't know if two other back to back albums this good have ever been released.
  
  The DVD of the show gives us a big early peek at the guy who would develop into rock's greatest performer. By 1985 he would be the biggest rock star in the world, selling out multiple nights at football stadiums.
  
  The remastered CD is nothing special to my ears. Perhaps an audiophile could hear improvement. The DVD, "The Making of 'Born to Run,'" is interesting, but will probably appeal mainly to fans.
  
  However the DVD of the 1975 London show ought to appeal to anyone who likes Bruce, or rock & roll, or showmanship, or history. Its a treat....more info
• Brings Back Memories
  30 years: that is amazing. I remember I had a friend who loved Bruce Springsteen. As we came into the 80s his output was not exactly mainstream. I remember my friend getting very upset when Bruce came out with "Born in the USA" and he said that Bruce had sold out. That's a long time ago now, but listening to the music here from his formative years I feel and hear how deep and unique his roots go. It is indelibly evident. I see what my friend was talking about. This is a very good package. The live concert by itself is astounding to look at and is a bit mesmerizing. If, like me, you have any link back to those days however minor or insignificant you may think they are this will bring back so many memories you never even knew you had.
  ...more info
• Do you get it?
  When it comes to Bruce's music, you either "get it" or you don't. For anyone that doesn't get it or gave this new release a one or two star rating, I can only assume you aren't a Springsteen fan and don't know the significance of Born to Run. This 30th anniversary edition is wonderful. For anyone who has followed Bruce through the years, it's interesting to see him examine his music in "Wings for Wheels." The Hammersmith Odeon concert is unreal. This is a young Bruce, not yet 30, singing and performing his heart out, like he always does. Not everyone sounds good in concert. Bruce does. If you love the cookie cutter pop stars of today and your idea of music is some choreographed, lip-syncing teen star, you might not like this. If you like great music with a message, you will love this I think. It's definitely worth the money. ...more info
• yet more lame products
  To all those who wrote proper reviews on this cd/dvd set. Thanks, see below. oh so many are going to vote me down, why he didnt even buy it how can he know! So I have to continue to buy everything and continue to lose money so many times? No, tired of that. I cant say how much I have spent on lame music over the years. 1000's. when there is no other reason than it should of been done right in the first place. So there, vote no me, whatever. go enjoy your WWE Wrestling and A Team DVD's, thats real life shows also huh.
  
  
  Thanks for giving us the truth and saving some of us money. I also have made the mistake of reading about other cd's and made the same mistake of buying, when all the reviews are great. then I buy and its junk. then I go do a correct review, tell it like is and should be, and people vote no all over me. I tell you, either people are major tone deaf, and or have cheap sound systems, play dvd's through tv speakers and cd's though boom boxes, and or a bunch of reviewers are people that sell music, and or to many people are "so easily pleased". I know lots of all these types of people. I to am tired of wasting money of junk product. I swear I really dont understand why its so hard to film a show, with the camera on the right people, the sound to turn out. Look at Led Zep's dvd set from 2003, some of that was filmed in 1970 and it all sat in a vault and look how killer it is! I tell ya, its all in the producing and who is cleaning up. so many boneheads doing the filming, sound, and producing. I sell most of what I buy. its just flat junk. we all should start writing honest real reviews, untill then, nothing is going to change. same ole same ole will go on. shame ...more info
• A song for the ages
  This should be marketed as a DVD box set moreso than a music box set, as the major disc in this set is Bruce's memorable performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. Surprisingly, Bruce didn't choose to include live recordings of the music on CD, or offer any other versions of the songs, or any other songs that may have been discarded. One is left with the impression that Born to Run sprung full blown from his head like some Mozart concerto rather than being something he worked on over time.
  
  The packaging is not all that great either for a labor of love. The slip cases are cumbersome as are the little tabs holding them in place. Nothing like the beautiful Santana retrospective that was put out a few years ago.
  
  Sadly, the songs seem dated, a product of another time and place. Hard to believe this was the guy that almost single-handedly broke up the over-extended Disco party with a brash, folk and funk inspired rock that was a much needed breath of fresh air in the late 70's. As such, Born to Run, is a major milestone in the world of Rock and Roll, and deserved better treatment than this....more info
• THE DVD IS BAD, AS IN NOT WORTH WATCHING !!!!!
  I READ ALL THE REVIEWS ABOUT THIS BOXED SET AND NOBODY EVER SAID THAT THE DVD IS SO DARK THAT MOST OF THE TIME YOU SEE A OUTLINE OF BRUCE ONLY. I DON'T CARE IF THIS IS A PIECE OF HISTORY, IF YOU CAN'T SEE THE MAIN PERFORMER THEN WHY WASTE THE SPACE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THE ONLY PERSON THAT YOU CAN SEE GOOD IS THE SAX PLAYER BECAUSE HE'S WEARING A WHITE SUIT AND ONCE IN A WHILE THEY PUT A WHITE SPOT ON HIM. SAVE YOUR MONEY AND BUY THE OTHER DVD'S.........................more info
• Grande disco, excelente edi??o
  A se no Brasil as gravadoras primassem pela qualidade e est¨¦tica dos produtos. Esta caixa contendo o disco original, dois DVDs e mais um livreto ¨¦ sensacional. Recomendo, pois al¨¦m de um pre?o muito bom, ¨¦ de extremo bom gosto e qualidade. ...more info
• Another Retread from his "Glory Days"
  How many times is "The Boss" going to re-package the same old songs. Instead of trying to come up with ways to sell us the same songs year after year, he should try writing some new ones, or maybe even a entire album worth anything. ...more info
• Five stars for the concert
  In the late 70's I listened to KZOK-FM in Seattle, and they had a concert reviewer they called Mavis the Morning After. I remember her review of a Springsteen concert -- she simply said, "I'm speechless." I was 17 or so at the time and had no idea what that was all about. But, some 30 years later, after watching the live concert that is packaged with this reissue, I understand.
  
  Although I love the album, I'm not sure I get the point of remastering the muddy production of Born to Run, and the included documentary is too long and self-congratulatory. But if you are any kind of a Springsteen fan you should buy this reissue for the concert DVD. It is incredible....more info
• Legendary & Essential; Springsteen Conquers America
  After his first two album sold very poorly this would become his make or brake sessions. Springsteen could hardly pay his band anymore and his legendary scruffy look of the time had more to do with him not being able to buy new clothes than carefull image building. The music press were raving about him. Both Rolling Stone and Time magazine featured article with him on the cover. The sales not on par with the hype. Not everybody was confident he could make it at the time, even in his innercircle. After recording the Rock & Roll classic Born to Run his drummer and keyboard player left the band. The Born to Run sessions found Springsteen plagued by insecurity but determinate to hit big. He stripped down his writing creating songs that had a cinematic quality to them. The opening lyrics of the album continue to be some of the most vivid songwriting in history of Rock.
  
  "The screen door slams
  Mary's dress waves
  Like a vision she dances across the porch
  As the radio plays
  Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
  Hey that's me and I want you only
  Don't turn me home again
  I just can't face myself alone again"
  
  The Album finds Springsteen trying to find everything he's ever loved in R&R and cramp it into one album. He puts layer on layer. Trying to recreate the Phil Spector sound he loves. He keeps scratching away at the words in an attempt to equal the mini opera's of Orbison. His guitar scream as uninhibited as Chuck Berry's and the horns shout Sweet "Stax" Soul Music at you. This record has to be everything R&R symbolizes, not only to Springsteen but to us all.. "Kids flash guitars just like switch-blades hustling for the record machine, The hungry and the hunted explode into rock'n'roll bands, That face off against each other out in the street down in Jungleland", as Springsteen realizes the competition is big.
  
  Born to Run marks a important turning point in Springsteen's career. Although much of the album still deals with his experiences in New Jersey, it's the first album we find Springsteen looking out on the road to the rest of America. "When the change was made uptown And the Big Man joined the band, From the coastline to the city, All the little pretties raise their hands" Springsteen sings in 10th avenue. Here he's still the punk with a R&R dream getting his band together. But by the time we get to Born to Run he realizes the confinements of the Jersey shore. "Baby this town rips the bones from your back, It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap, We gotta get out while we're young, 'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run" he screams, he's ready to go for broke. "the poets down here
  Don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be" he rants in Jungle Land as he realizes R&R should be more, lager than life. And that's just what he's about to become.
  
  The special edition features an insightful documentary and a live concert at the Hammersmith Odeon. This live DVD is also an excellent demonstration of Springsteens Live performance. Something that made him even more legendary than his songs. Some performances would stretch out for four hours. His E-Street band is as much part of his reputation as his songs are....more info
• Sony Throws Us A Bone
  In an internet-centric world, an age of diminished returns where millions live their lives as if they're dealing with undiagnosed cases of agoraphobia, Bruce Springsteen is an anachronism. Experiencing life, romance, and many of the other things he used to sing about requires disconnecting from the grid, leaving the house or your local java emporium/internet cafe, and feeling the wind in your face, the pavement under your wheels, and a swelling in your heart. You just can't get that from MySpace or YouTube, even with a vivid imagination and enough Class 1 narcotics to stagger a Clydesdale.
  
  But spooling back 30 years to the pre-punk dark ages, before any of us knew any better, he was just about the greatest thing rolling, a scruffy, street urchin from Jersey with an expansive list of influences and an idealistic spirit who stood tall and sang into the light, mostly about cars, girls, redemption, salvation, and the sight of Freehold in his rearview mirror. Think Bob Dylan with two lungs instead of one, a better band, and without most of the poetic and faux political affectations, and you're getting warm.
  
  Three decades have done little if anything to dull the Spectoresque sheen coating his magnum opus, "Born to Run," now repackaged with a glory-years concert DVD and "making of" documentary. Springsteen's not everyone's cup of grog, most of his oeuvre making you either want to stand up and shout or sit down and weep, but for one brief instant at least he touched down light years beyond majestic, inspirational, and life affirming, the album completely deserving of the extravagant accolades thrown its way by an army of critics, admirers, and sycophants. And perhaps some of the barbs as well.
  
  Cinematic in scope, but not, say, in the same way as Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" or Stan Ridgway's "The Big Heat," it veers wildly between tender ballads which explode into twanging technicolor Telecasters ("Thunder Road"), multi-layered mission statements (the title track), self-mythologizing seaside swing ("Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"), hauntingly insistent chug-fests ("She's the One"), orchestrated mini epics ("Jungleland") and fairly straight-forward - for Springsteen, anyway - rock and roll ("Backstreets").
  
  Unfortunately, he would never again be this innocent, pure, na?ve, romantic, or unaffected, entirely consumed with dreams, broken hearts, towns full of losers, walks in the sun, death waltzes, velvet rims, and a rogue's gallery of colorful misfits with nicknames to match, content to expose his soul and drag his home movies of a seaside Jersey night across middle America and beyond.
  
  But based on the documentary disc "Wings for Wheels," it's understandable why Springsteen never tried anything like this again, all those involved in bringing his vision to fruition - even estranged ex-manager Mike Appel - trading horror stories of endless days and nights in the studio filled with countless takes, tweaks, hand wringing, and second guessing, and The Boss's inability to just let the album go, deliver it to the suits at Columbia, and never look back.
  
  The 1975 London debut, at Hammersmith Odeon, is a literal mash-up of concert, faith healing, and testimonial, Clarence Clemons, Miami Steve Van Zandt, and Roy Bittan pimped-out preachers with hats, suits, and corsages, the pagan Springsteen in a woolie rolling out the Version 1.0 template of his show for the next decade and change. Naturally the set list is skewed toward "Born to Run," but the band's garage roots are laid bare with "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)," the "Detroit Medley," and "Quarter to Three."
  
  There are those who would lead you to believe that the only Bruce Springsteen album you need is "Born to Run," and with good reason. Through damn near all of it, he sounds as if he should rule the world and for most of the latter part of the 1970's, he did. It's not an album where the big guns are reeled out at the start and the quality gradually fades until you hit the run-out groove, but a white-knuckle game of chicken between its creator, fate, and the American dream.
  
  He doesn't blink....more info
• NICE TRY BUT MAJOR MISCUE!
  
  These expanded editions are usually for DIE HARD fans and "the Boss" has plenty but more so for the label to make $$$ (hopefully the artist gets some too).
  
  They are a marketing ploy that sometimes works and sometimes miss big; this one does both, which is why I give it 3 stars!
  
  Born to Run is a phenomenal recording; a masterpiece if you will, and if you don't own it and want to then spend the extra money for this SPEC. ED. as it is well worth it UNDER THAT CIRCUMSTANCE. If you already own the album then you probably want it anyway (just like I do...I checked it out from my local library) but if you are like me you might want to find a USED COPY on the MARKETPLACE.
  
  WHY??? There is a good and bad to this story read on...There are three discs one CD and 2 DVD's and a booklet that is less than impressive. The CD is the original remastered "Born To Run" with a black disc (play side); not sure if this is better quality but it sounds awesome and is a 5 STAR ALBUM with NO BONUS TRACKS so that is ALL you get for AUDIO on CD, period!
  
  You get great concert footage from a show in London, his first time there, archival footage that is very good but only in DVD FORMAT and a 'Making of DVD' that you will probably only watch once.
  
  So what don't I like about it...BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T they put the audio tracks for this concert footage in CD FORMAT so you could listen to it without having to WATCH it on TV or your "Home Theater" when you want to hear these great live tracks?
  
  Major mistake by whoever put the package together which makes it not worth buying in my opinion so all you are really getting is a CONCERT DVD if you already own the CD and they MARKET it as SO MUCH MORE, but that is why it is called MARKETING and again the bottom line is to take a product and make a few changes to make the consumer believe they MUST HAVE IT!
  
  The concert footage is worth $10-$20 depending on how big a fan you are and how much you cherish concert DVD's and is really the only reason to buy it....more info
• Over compressed remastering hack job
  Nice packaging, but the remastering sounds absolutely horrid. WHY MUST EVERYTHING BE AS LOUD AS EVERYTHING ELSE?
  No definition, no dynamics. My vinyl sounds so much better....more info
• Excellent added value
  How do you top one the records you would take to a desert island. Remastering helps, a bonus dvd on making the record is fascinating, but ultimately only of value to obsessives like myself. A decent booklet would be nice, but no the booklet for this package is lame. Great pictures, but nothing that helps put this disc in context for those who weren't there (like my daughters). But then you throw in video of a legendary Springsteen show-now we're getting somewhere. The E Street Band in all their pimp daddy glory playing England, just as they are really finding their voice together. That's worth the money.
  
  An absolute winner, highly recommend just for the added features...more info
• stoned?
  The video is a rare view at an early live concert. Unfrotunetely, it is an EXTREMELY LOW quality picture.
  I'd be interested in knowing if anyone else thinks the Boss is stoned during the show.
  
  HOWEVER, it is still a great set well worth the price....more info
• Born To Run 30th Anniversary
  A Pleasant Surprise hearing the add'l detail hidden in the non-master recording. The concert video really rocks! This is a must have for true fans. GOD BLESS NJ!...more info
• No miscues, this is the perfect document...........
  .......of a perfect record. I bought this deluxe box simply because Born To Run is one of the finest records ever made by anyone. I'm not a big Springsteen fan either, trust me on that. Every album he's made after this (or before) falls short of what's found on this. A DVD peformance of the band during this phase and the "making of" documentary are both compelling and worthwhile things to have. Why wouldn't you want them? Why would you want bonus tracks on the album itself for that matter? What would bonus tracks do to enhance this record???
  
  Born To Run is perfection, and you never ever mess with perfect things. The audio on the album itself is steller and the anniversary DVD's are more than worthwhile owning. Folks like myself will love going back in time watching the recording session and watching a hungry E Street Band putting forth. They'll also love listening to the albums' stories and tales being told again. Kids might even like what real rock music sounds like if they buy this.
  
  Five stars and beyond here. This is such a no brainer of a purchase.
  
  ...more info
• The "future of rock and roll" is found here.
  First, put on the CD of "Born to Run". The new mix sounds brighter than the previous CD (there is an audiophile-targeted version that some people like better).
  
  If you've never heard the CD, it's something that was meant to be played in the car on a summer night. "Thunder Road" (the title taken from a Robert Mitchum movie) about a romantic young man begging Mary to "get the hell out of Dodge" because it's a town full of losers. Next is "Tenth Ave. Freeze Out", Bruce's bio of the E Street Band and meeting Clarence Clemons. "Night" is another "getting out" song, getting out of work to go racing in the night and cruising, something that "Darkness on the Edge of Town" would explore more. "Backstreets" is about broken friendships, where the best friend got out and left him there.
  
  "Born To Run", the unofficial anthem of Jersey, is another "getting out" song, pays homage to Phil Spector, and pours everything into it as if his life depends on it. "She's The One" has got the "Bo Diddley" beat about a heartbreaker. "Meeting Across The River", something that could've been off the first 2 albums, about 2 young guys doing something they shouldn't be doing. The song would be perfect for a "Sopranos" episode.... Clarence's sax playing on here is haunting. The final track, "Jungleland", winds it all up, not just for "Born To Run", but for the type of writing he did for his first 3 albums, specifically "Rosalita" and "NYC Serenade" off of his second album. The sax solo takes the song up a notch.
  
  The album cover is one of the most recognizable, with Bruce on one side, guitar in hand with an Elvis button and Clarence on the back cover playing the sax. It's not a dated "70s" album.
  
  The 2 DVDs are the reason to pick this up though. The first, called "Wings for Wheels", could've been part of the "Classic Albums" series. It goes into detail about Bruce being on thin ice with the label and having to put something out to put him on the map, and everything that happened during the sessions,including having to replace 2 band members. The band recounts working on grueling sessions for hours upon hours. Bruce is interviewed driving to the place he was trying to get away from as well as in the studio. As with "Classic Albums", Bruce and Jon Landau discuss the songs at the soundboard. There are a few surprises here: videotapes of the sessions that show Bruce at his crankiest and weary, but keeping it going; in Surround sound, you get to hear some of the demos on their own. Bruce's former manager Mike Appel is also part of it, which is kind of a surprise considering they battled in court after this album, but time must have healed some wounds, but both Bruce and Jon give Mike credit for keeping them going when they were stuck. ..
  
  A CBS promo film from 1973 is included here and is a far cry from the Bruce of the 80s or even "Born to Run". The E Street Band is loose and "jazzy", Bruce's acoustic roots that would come out in "Nebraska", "Tom Joad" and "Devils and Dust" are here. Too bad they didn't film the entire show, it looked like a lot of fun.
  
  The other DVD, "Live at Hammersmith Odeon" was long-forgotten until a few years ago. Bruce thought he put on a terrible show at the time because of how the British received them(politely, and if you see Old Grey Whistle Test DVD, the reviewer wasn't impressed). Supposedly he stormed off stage at the end, but it looked like he has fun in the film. On "Wings for Wheels", Bruce didn't care for how they were promoting him and started tearing down posters in the venue.
  
  But watching this, it's a crime that it was never released sooner. It's a representative setlist of his earlier shows, where "Rosalita" was the highlight, and a majority of "Born To Run" is done in concert, minus "Night" and "Meeting Across the River", both of which were rarely done in concert since, although the latter was done on his acoustic tour earlier this year.
  
  The "Live 1975-1985" CD is mostly Springsteen from 1978 on, a more polished show, samplings from different tours, and you can tell that the shows were a far cry from the early shows after watching this and the 1973 footage. "E Street Shuffle" is a far different version from the studio version, and you get to hear "Lost in the Flood", "Kitty's Back", and "For You", and towards the end, the closers "Detroit Medley" and "Quarter To Three" which turned the venue into a neighborhood bar, the E Street Band being the best bar band in the world.
  
  The footage is mixed quality, the footage from the stage looks like it was filmed last week, but from the front, it's more grainier, but not bad enough to be distracted from watching a great show unfold.
  
  Bruce is one of the most bootlegged artists, and justifiably so. The live shows were and are always what sold him to people more than the albums ever did, although from "Born To Run" on, he seemed to put more attention into his studio output, the "Tracks" box set shows that he always had a lot to work with, not to mention the overall tone of the albums could've been radically different with each of them.
  
  The tours have been recorded and filmed over the years, he's given the fans a lot in recent years, hopefully the tours from "Darkness on the Edge of Town" to the marathon "Born in the USA" shows will also see the "light of day" on CD and DVD.
  
  
  
  ...more info
• CD remastering could be much better
  First, let me state that I'm not that big a Springsteen fan, and that I bought the collection for my wife. The added material in the package is great and lends tons of information to the casual fan. But after listening to all the hard work that went into the album on the "making of" DVD, I was HIGHLY disappointed in the remastering job. Extremely flat and lifeless. I understand that we're talking about an old recording, but give me a break! Listen to "Lazy" on the 25th aniversary Deep Purple "Machine Head" CD if you want to hear excellent remastering. Or the Beatles "One" CD. I could go on with tons more examples. I wanted to be blown away by the disc, but can't say I have been. Great for people who have to have everything, but don't buy it for the remaster....more info
• Straw Boss
  This is a mediocre compilation of sights and sounds for Springsteen. I like the Bruce of the 1980s. He was a real powerhouse. He touched and moved me. He went toe to toe with those wild synthesized pseudo rockers of the 80s and walked the line with desire. I don't know what to make of this set. However, that's just my point of view. ...more info
• Purchased for the Husband
  I purchased this set for my husband after hearing him talk about it for quite some time. He is thrilled with it and plays it quite often. It is apparently a 'Must Have' for any Springsteen fan....more info
• Bruce and the band Raw
  Outstanding concert footage. The quality of course isnt there but its great to look back on the early days of the band. I hope there is more never before seen footage coming out from the past that would be spectacular or better yet, for Bruce and the band to find that kind of passion again before its too late or they are too old and put out some new jamming material....more info
• Excellent, excellent, excellent
  From every point of view, the Born To Run boxed set is an excellent set. The 1975 concert dvd is awesome in its presentation and splendor. Complaints about the lighting are over-wrought and just plain false, as this is an excellent 1975 concert recording. It is worth considering that this concert recording is derived from two sources, a professional filmographer and a bootleg film source. It was necessary to utilize the the bootleg source in order to fill gaps. Many people, myself included, have found that inclusion of the bootleg source adds a personal ambiance to the film that otherwise may have been lost. No doubt about it, this is a wonderful experience.
  
  The documentary on the making of BTR is also excellent, though it could have been longer. I would agree with complaints about the brouchure; it could have contained more dialogue and less pictures, as dialogue contained in the dvd is sufficiant, thereby allowing the brochure to serve as an accompanying picture book. I have no problem with the cardboard sleeves for the discs, as that method is common when trying to keep historical material in its original release context.
  
  The album itself does sound somewhat better, but obviously could have been mastered much cleaner. I would think that the original recording source was not up to standard and disallowed much improvement. I'm not sure. Nonetheless, it does sound better than the common market cd, as well as the gold disc I bought several years ago.
  
  I recommend this package without reservation....more info