Transmissions

01.08.2007

A la faveur de l'été, un OVNI discographique a fait une (discrète) apparition dans les bacs de plusieurs Fnac et sur les grands sites de vente en ligne : « Bruce Springsteen Transmissions ». Cette parution non officielle se compose d'un CD "enhanced" comprenant des extraits - dans le désordre- d'un concert bien connu des passionnés (5 décembre 1975, à Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvanie, diffusé à l'époque sur la radio WMMR, ainsi que deux vidéos (en Quicktime, donc lisibles sur tout ordinateur) de « Streets of Philadelphia » et « Dead man walkin', » datant l'une et l'autre des années 90 (pas le temps de rechercher leur origine nulle part mentionnée !), ainsi que d'un livret de 72 pages retraçant la carrière de Bruce jusque fin 2006, agrémenté de nombreuses photos couleur. Au total, un joli objet qui permet d'entendre deux titres rares, « Mountain of love» et « Back in the USA », mais qui donne surtout de se replonger dans l'enregistrement intégral du concert...
Pour les fondus anglophones, quelques infos sur l'histoire de ce concert, trouvées sur le site Jungleland

5/02/75 - THE MAIN POINT, BRYN MAWR, PA

MC intro - INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET (8.10) / MOUNTAIN OF LOVE (2.56) / BORN TO RUN (4.15) / E ST SHUFFLE (12.26) / THUNDER ROAD (5.34) / I WANT YOU (6.00) / SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT (5.52) / SHE'S THE ONE (5.50) / GROWIN’ UP (3.10) / SAINT IN THE CITY (3.18) / JUNGLELAND (9.26) / KITTY'S BACK (11.10) / NEW YORK CITY SERENADE (16.58) / ROSALITA (10.09) / SANDY (6.17) / A LOVE SO FINE (7.13) / FOR YOU (7.03) / BACK IN THE USA (6.17)

ONE show, held as a benefit for the club, with Springsteen & The ESB the sole act on the bill. The show was MC’d by DJ Ed Sciaky and began just after 9pm. It was not a true simulcast, rather it was broadcast by WMMR-FM on about a 2hr delay the same night. An attendee review of the show from 1975 by critic David Fricke (see NEWS below) states the show took place on Feb 3rd - but this appears to be a date error by Fricke given detailed interview comments by Sciaky (see below) and the recollections of other attendees.

The complete show was broadcast and the above-noted 18-song setlist represents the entire concert. Not only is it one of the longest (160 minutes) single-show gigs up to this point but it's one of the most compelling performances of Springsteen's entire career. There are spellbinding renditions of “Incident", “New York City Serenade” and "For You", as well as the earliest known performance of "Thunder Road" (with work-in-progress title/lyrics) plus a wild, majestic version of Chuck Berry's "Back In The USA".

This famous show had circulated on vinyl boots and tapes since the mid-1970's, but rarely the entire show (early vinyl boots were missing the final 6 songs in the setlist) and always in variable quality. The entire performance is now available in outstanding (though not flawless) sound quality on the CDs ‘THE SAINT, THE INCIDENT & THE MAIN POINT SHUFFLE’ (Gdr), ‘YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR’ (Labor of Love) and most recently (and in the finest overall quality yet) on ‘MAIN POINT NIGHT’ (Crystal Cat).

The final 55 minutes or so of this show (i.e., from “NYC Serenade” onwards) has never surfaced in collector circles in quite as crisp, clear and dynamic a sound quality as the rest of the show. There are a couple of possible explanations for this but the most likely reason is that the early part of the show has been sourced from pre-broadcast reels (or copies of them) but the later part of the show is sourced from a broadcast reel (which involves compression). In an interview in Backstreets Magazine #82 Ed Sciaky mentioned some important information --- "We didn't have a phone line from the Main Point, so they had to tape the show in hour-long segments and then drive them to the station and put them on the air…and after the final reel had played, Bruce's lighting guy Marc Brickman (nb – the Lighting Director) took all of the tapes. So we (WMMR) never got a good copy of the show”. Note: Contrary to myth the police siren heard at the conclusion of “Incident” was an audio prop that had been utilized at a few of Bruce’s shows just prior to this one (i.e., it wasn’t a real vehicle). Also – a promotion-only, 7” flexidisc issued to subscribers of Austrian pop magazine ‘Rennbahn Express’ in June 1981 contains MC Sciaky’s intro from this show, albeit edited to avoid references to WMMR and The Main Point. Thanks to Lost in the flood for that flexidisc info.