Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen: Roxy Theater West Hollywood July 7, 1978
(Rox Vox)

Often bootlegged, certainly talked about, and revered by those who were lucky enough to see it, Broadway’s newest star has released the official version of his legendary Roxy July 7^th show, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, The Roxy July 7, 1978.

This is a sprawling collection of 28 songs presented at the legendary LA club of a four-hour show “Bruuuuuce” and his killer E Streeters were playing in support of his album, Darkness on the Edge Of Town. Just mere nights before the band and Bruce had knocked out a sold out LA Forum crowd and they did the same to me when I saw Springsteen, for what would be my first time ever. There were plenty more B.S. show’s in my future on that same tour a month later at MSG.

Opening up with a raving cover of Buddy Holly’s “Rave On,” the band settles in on “Spirit In The Night,” locked and loaded as the E Street Band was at this time, one of the best bunch of musicians on a singular mission. Roy Bittan’s piano and ‘Big Man’ Clarence Clemons’ sax, are at the fore here in a mix that’s actually pretty damn great (the show was broadcast on L.A. radio way back then, so this might account why we get a better sound here than is usual with this kind of stuff).

There’s a smattering of tunes from Born to Run played here; “Backstreets,” with the “Sad Eyes” section included. A bunch of ‘older’ Bruce songs, plus covers like the opener, plus “Heartbreak Hotel” “Twist and Shout.” Also here we hear at-the-time unreleased tunes like the perfectly Spanish-sway of the dangerous “Point Blank,” and “Independence Day.”

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, The Roxy July 7, 1978 is a perfect document of musicians at about their best ever, a secret gem just uncovered and absolutely a must-have.