Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
'Watch Out For The Monster Bag'
Electric Ballroom
Atlanta, GA
August 23, 1975
ER Archives via JEMS

Soundboard Recording (equipment unknown)

JEMS Transfer: very likely 2nd generation reel to reel tapes > Otari 5050mkII azimuth-adjusted transfer > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 (24/96) capture > iZotope RX click repair > Peak 6.0 with iZotope Ozone 5.0 (speed correction) > resample 16/44.1 > Peak Pro XT (volume smoothing / channel repair / indexing) > xACT > FLAC

01 Spirit In The Night
02 Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?
03 It's Gonna Work Out Fine
04 When You Walk In The Room
05 Growin' Up
06 It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City
07 The E Street Shuffle
08 She's The One
09 Born To Run
10 Then She Kissed Me
11 For You
12 Kitty's Back
13 Rosalita (cut at start)
14 Sandy (cut at start)
15 Twist And Shout


Welcome back to the eighth in a series of releases from the ER Archives, the collection of an active '70s taper and trader who stepped away from collecting, leaving his tapes dormant until now. ER's collection contains previously uncirculated shows as well as upgrades to circulating tapes, both audience and soundboard. He used high-end tape decks and good tape, so his copies of even well-known shows have proven to be improvements.

Installment No. 8 is an upgrade to another soundboard classic: the Electric Ballroom in Atlanta, August 23, 1975. As explained in detail here (http://jungleland.dnsalias.com/torrents-details.php?id=36408), the ER Archive tapes of this show were copied from Ed Sciaky's reels in the late '70s. And like previous soundboard upgrades in this series, to our ears it is a clear upgrade.

The Atlanta '75 board has always had some issues, and unfortunately, this tape pretty much confirms that the cuts in the show and issues on some tracks must be on the master. The warble on "Born to Run" and "She's the One" remain, but may sound less pronounced here because of the generational upgrade. On the bright side, this new version is full, clear and has that "you are there" quality that you hope to gain as you move closer to the master, much more so than the recent Godfather issue of the same recording, Sparks on the Ballroom. Samples provided.

This final night of three ATL shows is a charmer, coming some 20 shows into the Born to Run tour and on the heels of the historic five-night run at the Bottom Line. As the indispensable Brucebase notes, the show likely opened with "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out," but our recording starts with "Spirit in the Night." The setlist is representative of this part at of the tour, albeit with a bounty of terrific cover songs. Bruce assails "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," "When You Walk in the Room" and "Then She Kissed Me" this night, all three of which are delightful. In fact, it was the last appearance of "Then She Kissed Me" until its miraculous resurrection in 2008.

The set also includes first known 1975 appearance "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street," which finds Clarance Clemons in fine form during an extended instrumental intro. It's an appealing show for Miami Steve lovers, too, as he shares vocals with Bruce on the aforementioned covers and drops tasty licks across the set. The performance was the last concert before the actual release of the album Born to Run on the 25th, so Bruce is still introducing songs like "She's the One" and the title track as coming from his upcoming album. Lastly, it is the earliest true soundboard from the BTR tour (August 15, 1975 was a radio broadcast), which makes it an all the more essential document even with its flaws.

To take this one the last mile, smooth the volume fluctuations and repair the missing channel, is our comrade MJK5510. Thanks to him for final finishing and prepping.

And of course, thanks once again to the ER Archive for opening up the vault doors and sharing this recording with the fans. Feel free to let him know how you feel in the comments.

BK for JEMS