Product Description

This handsomely packaged box set goes a long way towards illuminating the darker corners of Springsteen's recording career. Apparently, almost every time the Boss went into the studio he recorded more songs than he could possibly fit onto a record, and most of those extra tracks languished in obscurity. The four-disc TRACKS aims to change that. The amazing thing about the never-before-heard material here (and the little-known b-sides also included) is that most of the songs are just as impressive as the ones ultimately chosen to go on Springsteen's albums. Spanning various phases of his career, the selections chronicle Springsteen's journey from Dylan-inspired folk-poet to funky working class hero to larger-than-life rock icon, and each era is given a new coat of paintvia the previously unreleased songs that represent it. Of special note is the innovative manner in which the package itself was put together, the box folding out to reveal a four-cornered tapestry of candid Springsteen photographs that pull out to expose the four glorious discs underneath.

Track Listing

1. Mary Queen Of Arkansas
2. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City
3. Growing Up
4. Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street
5. Bishop Danced
6. Santa Ana
7. Seaside Bar Song
8. Zero And Blind Terry
9. Linda Let Me Be The One
10. Thundercrack
11. Rendezvous
12. Give The Girl A Kiss
13. Iceman
14. Bring On The Night
15. So Young And In Love
16. Hearts Of Stone
17. Don't Look Back
18. Restless Nights
19. Good Man Is Hard Find (Pittsburgh)
20. Roulette
21. Dollhouse
22. Where The Bands Are
23. Loose Ends
24. Living On The Edge Of The World
25. Wages Of Sin
26. Take 'em As They Come
27. Be True
28. Ricky Wants A Man Of Her Own
29. I Wanna Be With You
30. Mary Lou
31. Stolen Car
32. Born In The USA
33. Johnny Bye Bye
34. Shut Out The Light
35. Cynthia
36. My Love Will Not Let You Down
37. This Hard Land
38. Frankie
39. TV Movie
40. Stand On It
41. Lion's Den
42. Car Wash
43. Rockaway
44. Days
45. Brothers
46. Under The Bridges
47. Man At The Top
48. Pink Cadillac
49. Two For The Road
50. Janie Don't Lose Your Heart
51. When You Need Me
52. Wish
53. Honeymooners
54. Lucky Man
55. Leavin' Train
56. Seven Angels
57. Gave It A Name
58. Sad Eyes
59. My Lover Man
60. Over The Rise
61. When The Lights Go Out
62. Loose Change
63. Trouble In Paradise
64. Happy
65. Part Man
66. Goin' Cali
67. Back In Your Arms
68. Brothers Under The Bridge

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31918 in Music
• Released on: 1998-11-09
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Box set, Original recording remastered

Amazon.co.uk Review
Next time you find yourself debating the worth of Bruce Springsteen, pull out this brilliant four-disc outtake set. With a flick of his grease-monkey wrist, Springsteen proves--simply by issuing long-unreleased material--why he's the most consistent (read: important) composer in the pop-rock field of his generation. It's there in a dozen included B-sides ("Pink Cadillac", "Shut Out the Light", "Janey Don't You Lose Heart"). It's there in countless rabble-rousing anthems, the singer's stock in working-class trade ("Roulette", "Stand on It", "Car Wash", "Brothers Under the Bridges"). But, mainly, it's there between the lines, in the small idiosyncrasies Springsteen detected within almost every cut that made him--until now--withhold this material. Some are glaringly obvious--the singsong "Living on the Edge of the World", whose lyrics were later lifted for the more sinister "Open All Night"; the morphing of several "Iceman" verses into sentiments expressed on Darkness on the Edge of Town. Some are collectible curiosities, like the starkly disparate alternate takes of "Stolen Car" and "Born in the U.S.A." And others are more meticulous, often coming down to a simple phrase, riff, or melody line that wound up flunking final-cut muster. And when you stumble across those tiny, fleeting moments, moments that would matter to only a true perfectionist, the true artistry of Springsteen unfurls in all its ragged glory. --Tom Lanham

Customer Reviews

Bruce's hidden gems
It is rare for an artists outtakes and demos to rival their recorded work, but in Tracks you have exactly that. Any of these tracks could of featured on an album. There are acoustic demos, full band rave ups and up to date outtakes. Bruce could always write a brilliant song, but these hidden tracks demonstrate just how prolific and constant his ability is. Worth every penny.

The Boss is still the best
An absolutely brilliant box-set and a total musthave for all Bruce fans.Some of the previously unreleased tracks are Bruce at his very best.

Amazing
Not a career retrospective, Bruce Springsteen's "Tracks" features primarily unreleased songs, but several B-sides and alternate takes also pop up along the way.

It does miss out on a few great songs, like the superb rock n'roll gem "From Small Things" (which is now finally available on the "Essential Bruce Springsteen" collection), and Springsteen's original version of "Because The Night".
But that's a minor complaint, because this 4-disc set is a real treasure trove. Bruce Springsteen has always been famous for leaving great songs off his records simply because they didn't fit in with the overall mood or the theme of the record, and the quality of most of these songs is amazing.

The songs are sequenced, beginning with a few early acoustic demos of songs which would appear on Springsteen's debut album, and ending with outtakes from "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town".
The first 2½ discs are the greatest, but there is a lot of quality material on all four CDs, including the tremendous hard rock of "Where The Bands Are", "My Love Will Not Let You Down", "Rendezvous" and "Roulette", the bluesy 11½-minute "Thundercrack", the acoustic ballad "When You Need Me", the swinging, near-legendary outtake "Bishop Danced", the slow, stately "Gave It A Name", the tough, sturdy rockers "Give The Girl A Kiss", "Pink Cadillac", "Janey Don't You Lose Heart" and "Rockaway The Days", and the rough, emotional "Hearts Of Stone".

"Tracks" may not be quite as essential as, say, Bob Dylan's 1991 collection of rarities, but Bruce Springsteen isn't really a blidning visionary like Dylan, he is a solid craftsman, and a really great, down-to-earth rock composer. And that's not half bad.
4½ stars.