Bruce Springsteen: Tracks, a four CD set containing 66 songs and over four hours of
material, will be released by Columbia Records on November 10th, 1998. The collection spans Bruce Springsteen"s
entire 25 year career as a recording artist.
The box set includes 56 previously unreleased masters, many of which were recorded during the making of The River
and Born In The U.S.A. albums. The remaining ten masters on Bruce Springsteen: Tracks are b-sides, some of which
were released only internationally. Bruce Springsteen: Tracks is comprised of:
Disc 1:
Featuring 17 masters from 1972-77, including Springsteen's very first Columbia Records recordings, made in 1972
with legendary A & R executive John Hammond. This disc also features additional songs recorded for (but never
released on) Greetings From Asbury Park; The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle; Born To Run and
Darkness On The Edge Of Town.
Disc 2:
Featuring 17 masters from 1977-83, taken primarily from sessions for The River, as well as from Born In The U.S.A.
recordings. The original version of the song "Born In The U.S.A.", recorded in 1982 for the Nebraska CD, is also
featured on this CD.
Disc 3:
Featuring 18 masters from 1982-87 -- additional music recorded for (but never released on) Born In The U.S.A., as
well as tracks from the Tunnel Of Love sessions.
Disc 4:
Featuring 14 masters from 1989-98 -- including 13 previously unreleased songs recorded by Bruce Springsteen in the
'90s, from Human Touch up to and beyond sessions for The Ghost Of Tom Joad.
In the liner notes, Bruce Springsteen describes the box set as follows:
"During the long intervals between my record releases, as I was spending more and more time in the studio, when I
met a fan on the street I was often asked, "What are you guys doing in there?" I regularly pondered that question
myself.
What we were doing in there was making a lot of music, a lot more music than I could use at any one time. As a result,
my albums became a series of choices -- what to include, what to leave out? I based my decisions on my creative
point of view at the moment -- the subject I was trying to focus on, something musical or emotional I was trying to
express. In certain instances, as on Darkness on the Edge of Town, Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad, these
choices crystallized the album I was making. On some of my other records the reasons I had for choosing one song
over another, in hindsight, feel a good deal less significant. One of the results of working like this was that a lot of
music, including some of my favorite things, remained unreleased.
This collection contains everything from the first notes I sang in the Columbia recording studio, my early and later work
with the E Street Band, through to my music in the 90s. It's the alternate route to some of the destinations I travelled to
on my records, an invitation into the studio on the many nights we spent making music in search of the records we
presented to you. I"m glad to finally be able to share this music; here are some of the ones that got away."
Bruce Springsteen
September 1998
Bruce Springsteen: Tracks will be accompanied by a 56-page book of lyrics, liner notes and rare photos. The
members of the E Street Band, past and present, who appear on this set include: Roy Bittan, Clarence Clemons,
Danny Federici, Nils Lofgren, Vini Lopez, David Sancious, Garry Tallent, Stevie Van Zandt and Max Weinberg. Other
musicians who join Springsteen on various tracks include: Mario Cruz, Michael Fisher, Bob Glaub, Omar Hakim,
Randy Jackson, Gary Mallaber, Ed Manion, Ian McLagen, Frank Pagano, Shawn Pelton, Jeff Porcaro, Mark "The Love
Man" Pender, Marty Rifkin, Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg, Mike Spengler, Soozie Tyrell and Jerry Vivino.
The box set was produced by Bruce Springsteen and Chuck Plotkin. Among the original producers of the tracks were
Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, Stevie Van Zandt, Roy Bittan, John Hammond, Mike Appel and Jim
Cretecos. Many of the selections were originally recorded by Toby Scott, Jimmy Iovine, Neil Dorfsman or Louis Lehav.
Toby Scott also served as technical coordinator on the box set, which was mixed by Ed Thacker, Bob Clearmountain
and Thom Panunzio.
10/98
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