Friday, June 27, 2014

Something Extra

When I bought Springsteen's High Hopes the other day I didn't realise there was a DVD of the Boss & the E Street Band performing the whole of Born in the USA at a London concert, filmed in 2013. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't rate Born as one of my favourite Springsteen albums and the biggies from it got so much air-play in the late 80's as to lose some of their magic, for me at least. So when I put on the DVD to watch I wasn't really expecting much. What I got was a reminder of how infallibly great Springsteen is in concert and how much good material there is on the album. I suddenly remembered why I loved Downbound Train after not hearing it for years - and Working on the Highway is just so much fun in concert.

Funnily enough I don't have a CD of the original album. I had it on vinyl but that copy went missing forever ago. I'm not sure I need to acquire one though. The DVD is quite enough, thank you.

We live in strange times as far as the availability of creative works goes. It's wonderful to have so much, but I have a feeling this leads to an underestimating of the value of this material, on my part anyway. I would have gone crazy with delight to be able to see anything by Springsteen on the goggle box back in the 70's. Now, enthusiastic as I am, I am still somehow taking this for granted.

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