The Promised Land

So my seven loyal readers may have noticed that I like music. Although over the past few years I’ve rediscovered a love for the album as a work of art, for a long time I listened to almost nothing but live shows. And of the hundreds and hundreds of concerts I’ve listened to—almost all recordings as, perhaps oddly, I’ve never been all that big a fan of the actual live experience live—I’ve never heard one better than the show Bruce Springsteen gave in Passaic, New Jersey on September 19, 1978. Broadcast live, the show was only a few months after Darkness on the Edge of Town had been released.

The previous three years had been difficult ones for Springsteen, as his career had hinged on the success of the Born to Run album, an album which was incredibly hard to record. Once released, the album was tremendously successful, of course, but more trouble ensued, as he was seen by many as nothing more than an overhyped product of the record industry. And then he and one of his best friends in the world, his manager, found themselves entangled in legal troubles, a lawsuit between them prohibiting Springsteen from entering a recording studio, rendering him unable to record a follow up. When that was finally resolved, things didn’t get any easier, as Darkness on the Edge of Town proved every bit as difficult to record as Born to Run had.

But eventually, after three years, they got the album they were looking for—although it took recording 70 songs to find the 10 that ended up on the record—and the band went on tour. So. That’s what you’re hearing here: an artist finally, finally let loose, with a successful album before an adoring crowd in his home state.

And even by the standards of this amazing show, there’s a four song run which is as good as any I’ve heard in the thousands of hours of concerts I’ve heard. Today we’re starting with the first song of that run, the sixth song of the night.

With the exception of the new introduction, there’s nothing particularly different about the arrangement, as compared to the studio version—although the intro itself is wonderful and a great example of Springsteen’s qualities as an arranger. As the song transitions from the introduction into the body of the song, the bands speeds up slightly, giving a sense of unstoppable momentum, something which will continue through the song.

I’ll be coming back to this song at least two more times, eventually, but for now, that’s about all I have to say about that. Just a great performance of a great song, with Springsteen’s harmonica solo at the end especially inspired, and the band playing like a bunch of guys clearly feeling their oats.    

The Promised Land (Passaic 1978)

Comments

[Lissa]

You make me very happy.

[DT]

I've listened to this concert more times than I count, and to this four-song suite in particular more times than I can count as well. I posses it thanks to a friend who provided me with a copy of it a few years ago, and who - for the purposes of protecting his fragile, terminal shyness - will have to remain nameless.

If "Born To Run" was Bruce's pre-lawsuit statement of purpose - the song that defined him as a rocker, a performer, a writer and a romantic - I have always contended that "The Promised Land" is his post-lawsuit statement of purpose. The romance is gone, the dream of hitting the road is no longer bathed in starry eyed adventure and magic, but rather has been replaced with the task of simply getting to work. The song is harder and wearier, like a man who has been unwittingly zapped back to reality.

But still, the hope is still there, the belief in something better. The song contains the line that I think encapsulates who Bruce was then and who he is now - "I've done by best to live the right way. I get up in the morning and go to work each day." And interesting how his hope is not buoyed to one place and one place only - while the song is called "The Promised Land," he sings that he still believes in "A Promised Land." That always struck me as fascinating - if there's one out there, he'll take it. He doesn't care where it is.

And this version from the Passaic show perfectly shows where Bruce was at the moment, and almost serves as a roadmap for the decades to come. He is defiant, a little angry, somewhat beaten down, tired, hopeful, and willing to still believe. And it comes through in his voice and in the sounds the band makes behind him. And it all works because it is one of the great artists of the last century, singing in a voice all his own and singing a song that few have ever topped in quality.

Love this, BTW. Looking forward to reading all four. :-)

DT