Is This Bruce Springsteen’s Single Greatest Live Moment?

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To many fans, this version of “Prove It All Night” from 1978 is the high-water mark of Springsteen’s touring career

has played somewhere in the ballpark of 2,600 concerts since signing to Columbia Records in 1972. Many of the ones beforecame out in 1975 have been lost to history, but the vast majority since have been bootlegged and traded within fan circles. Five years ago, Springsteen’s team made the wise decision to eliminate the need for bootlegs of his current shows by offering fans the chance to download every one them in pristine sound quality.

With all of this in mind, naming his single greatest concert is a very difficult task. And zooming in even further to pick out his best performance of a singular song is just absurd. After all, he’s played “Born to Run” 1,744 times, “Thunder Road” 1,424 times, and “The Promised Land” 1,375 times. Hell, he’s even done the 1984 B side “Shut Out the Light” 35 times, and “Jump” by Van Halen” twice. One time he even did Bon Jovi’s “Bad Medicine,” though nobody is going to pick that one.

It begins with a four-minute piano and guitar duel between Springsteen and E Street Band keyboardist Roy Bittan before the vocals kick in. The version of the song that follows makes the “Prove It All Night” onsound like a limp, lifeless demo by comparison. The group had been touring the album for four months at this point and were in absolute peak form as a live band.tour and only a tiny handful survive in crystal-clear audio like this show. Even fewer were caught on film.

Springsteen kept “Prove It All Night” in his live repertoire after 1978, but the extended version from thetour vanished. The fans never gave up on hearing it again, though, and one even managed to ask Springsteen about it during a 2010 appearance on E Street Radio. “You’re one of the ’78 piano intro guys!” Springsteen said. “There are clones of you in various places throughout the United States. … It was just a device that worked nicely at the time.

Just two years later, however, he revived it at a show in Barcelona and then did it again a handful of times throughout the tour. The fans were ecstatic, but it never quite reached the highs of 1978 or, more specifically, the high of September 19th, 1978. Feel free to disagree with us, though. And if you pick “Backstreets” from a 1978 show with a long “Sad Eyes” interlude, you might have a decent case to make.

 

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Born to Run released August 25th 1975. If he's played the title track 1,744 times live, then from that day to this he's played it live once every 9.2 days.

WOW

we are talking rock n roll show moments, so yeah. but ... 'Springsteen on Broadway' altho scripted was an incisive, honest, revealing self portrait of an artist filled w such moments. if you missed it live, catch it on Netflix. you won't be sorry.

Winterland, San Francisco, Dec 1978 Bill Graham dressed as Santa comes down in a sleigh from rafters. Clarence had Santa cap on. “Santa Claus is coming to town” was the song. Stunning Springsteen!

Well, if it's a RS poll, him dancing with Courtney Cox will come in 6th.

scalped ticket for $45.00 for this tour in palladium or beacon can't remember thanks for posting

I saw him do that intro again at MetLife in 2012!

Has to be Quarter to Three on his 30th Birthday at MSG. Was featured in the No Nukes movie. Although his greatest performance I ever witnessed was Light of Day at Mohegan Sun Arena in May 2014.

Thunder Road from No Nukes

sepinwall it’s the long, slow “e street shuffle/having a party” from the hammersmith odeon dvd in the born to run boxed set.

The best live 'moment' was the entire Born To Run concert I saw at the bottom line sitting about five feet from the stage. Bruce and the band were pumped. It can never get any better then this.

sepinwall For my money this version is superior. Watch Bruce's reaction at the end of the solo. Total connection with the song, the band and the audience.

Vote Labour

Rosalita, Chile Sept 2013

For me it was June 29, 1984. St. Paul Civic Center. I was privileged to have been there.

Right now. Each new breath.

asdombroff

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