The Essential Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen - The Essential Bruce Springsteen

The Essential Bruce Springsteen
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Music CD Cover

Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Edition: Music CD
Format: Extra tracks, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2003-11-11
Model: N03-009978
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Blinded By the Light
  2. For You
  3. Spirit In the Night
  4. 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
  5. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
  6. Thunder Road
  7. Born To Run
  8. Jungleland
  9. Badlands
  10. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
  11. The Promised Land
  12. The River
  13. Hungry Heart
  14. Nebraska
  15. Atlantic City
Music CD 2
  1. Born In The U.S.A.
  2. Glory Days
  3. Dancing In The Dark
  4. Tunnel Of Love
  5. Brilliant Disguise
  6. Human Touch
  7. Living Proof
  8. Lucky Town
  9. Streets Of Philadelphia
  10. The Ghost Of Tom Joad
  11. The Rising
  12. Mary's Place
  13. Lonesome Day
  14. American Skin (41 Shots) (Live)
  15. Land Of Hope and Dreams (Live)
Music CD 3
  1. From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)
  2. Big Payback
  3. Held Up Without A Gun (Live)
  4. Trapped (Live)
  5. None But The Brave
  6. Missing
  7. Lift Me Up
  8. Viva Las Vegas
  9. County Fair
  10. Code Of Silence (Live)
  11. Dead Man Walkin'
  12. Countin' On a Miracle (Acoustic)

Free Music Notes for The Essential Bruce Springsteen

Free Music Review: A Third Disc Of Hits Would Have Made This Truely Essentail
Hit: 5 Stars

I could go on and on about Springsteen for pages, but this collection is fairly easy to review. "Essential' does everything right that "Greatest Hits" did wrong, while still managing to miss a few necessities. I had been smacking my head in disbelief for a long time at how Columbia can keep releasing Essential collections from even their most minimalist artists and we still didn't a definative Bruce collection, so when I heard they were finally releasing this - and it would be three discs long - I was salivating.

So, here it is at last!

We all knew it would put the sloppy and under-nurished "Greatest Hits" to shame but what I didn't count on was that disc 3 would be all rarities. DON'T GET ME WRONG, I like that disc and I'm all for having most of Bruce's rarities on a nicely mastered recording, but I'm more for having the definative hits/fan favorites set. If we are still going to be left without "Growin' Up," "Hard to Be A Saint...," "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," "Backstreets," "Kitty's Back," "She's the One," "Prove It All Night," "Racing In the Street," "Out In the Street," "Cadillac Ranch," "I'm A Rocker," "Cover Me," "I'm On Fire," "I'm Goin' Down," "Bobby Jean," "Tougher Than the Rest," "One Step Up," "Better Days," and at least three other deserving tracks from "The Rising," then it is something of a slap in the face to have a third cd that could have eassily accomidated those songs and made this collection perhaps everything we were all hoping for, consumed by the least essential thing to any artist - rarities. RARITIES - That very name deems them UNESSENTIAL.

So its not three discs of hits, but the two discs do a pretty decent job of sellecting, I guess what you'd call, the major-most highlights of Springsteens career, but it is shy of being essential.

(Two of the biggest wrongs from "Greatest Hits" are corrected, at least in terms of tracks that should never be left off any Springsteen hits compilation and songs even non-Bruce fans have probably heard umpteen times blasting from the radio: "Rosalita" and "The Promissed Land," but by those same standards they still miss two others, again that even the uninitiated might be asking where they are: "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and "I'm On Fire." Even if you disagree as to wether these are classic Springsteen songs, they are recognizable enough that it would seem a no brainer that they be included among his "hits." Again, if we were talking about personal and die-hard fan favorites I'd be mentioning "Backstreets," "Prove It All Night," "Adam Raised A Cain," etc. again; but in terms of pure essentials, radio hits, what-have-you; those two songs should have made the cut.)

What is also a little disapointing is there isn't much imagination in the selections. How about including some of the tracks that Springsteen made hits for other artists like "Fire," and "Because the Night." The Springsteen versions are seldom heard on radio, but are fan favorites and Bruce plays them often on tour. To that degree it might have been fun to include (live, or any version of) "Red Headed Woman;" and how about the piano-and-Bruce-only version of "Spirit In the Night" from Barcelona, which turned up as a B-Side on the "Lonesome Day" single? This performance completely reinvents that song, the audience participation ("ALL NIGHT!") drives the whole thing home, and even though Bruce flubs a line in the last verse, that only makes the whole thing more endearing. "Pink Cadillac" was a hit but homeless until it finaly showed up on "Tracks;" but putting it on this collection would have made a lot of people happy. All of these tracks would be appropriate on the rarities disc, if not mixed in with the true essentials. Personaly I love "Worlds Apart," but if you just want to be technical about it, "The Rising" had two other singles ("Waiting On a Suny Day" and "My City of Ruins" - or how about the 9/11 tribute version for variety - again something that would be nice for fans who didn't pony up for that compilation but would like to have this one song),although Bruce does address in the liner notes there will be songs that probably should have made the cut, but couldn't. Perfectly understandable given the amount of great material, but agian, if a whole disc is going to be contributed to rarities instead genuine classics... well, you know...

Well, shoulda, woulda, coulda... It's possible hardcore fans of any artist can never be satisfied when it comes to things like this, so for the uninitiated this will probably do the trick (while their hardcore fan friend stands around telling them that they also need this song and that song and this other song too). I would be 100 times more comfortable giving this to someone I wanted to introduce to the Boss than "Greatest Hits," but I wouldn't feel the intro. was complete.

All that said, I love the songs that are here, love the remastered sound. I just wish there were more of them.
I'm still giving this collection 5 stars because the material that is here is 5-star quality and because of the Springsteen collections available it is far and away the best.
Write your own review
More free music notes:
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The Essential Bruce Springsteen Poster

This two CD set collects together thirty tracks spanning Bruce Springsteen's varied career so far. The album features some of his most recognisable hits including 'Born In The USA' and 'Born To Run', but also includes tracks taken from hislesser known albums as well. This collection serves as a great introduction into Springsteen's huge back catalogue of work.
Vastly expanding 1995's single disc Greatest Hits, The Essential Bruce Springsteen easily surpasses the earlier best-of set by serving up all its true essentials and tossing in less appreciated treats and a full disc of rarities. Disc one spans the first decade of Springsteen's recording career, serving up at least two tracks each from the six albums that laid the groundwork for his '80s burst into superstardom. Disc two picks up with his mainstream breakthrough, 1984's Born in the U.S.A., and carries on through 2002's The Rising, tossing in live recordings of "American Skin" and "Land of Hope and Dreams" for good measure. The selections and sequencing surpass those made on Greatest Hits, though there's not too much in the way of surprises, other than that it appears that Born in the U.S.A. hasn't aged all that well for the Boss; here, he selects only three songs from the hit-laden smash, one fewer than is found on the skimpy Greatest Hits. Disc three is where the fun really starts for all but neophytes. The live "Held Up Without a Gun" is as gutsy a one minute and 20 seconds as Springsteen as one could ask for, and the likes of "Trapped," "Countin' on a Miracle," and a cover of "Viva Las Vegas" rank with his signature songs. --Steven Stolder

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