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Reply to "No archive release besides No Nukes for Nov '21"

I think that many people, and you may include or exclude yourself among them or not, unfairly and unjustly blame certain people for behavior or acts they are not responsible for.  Naming Brad Serling is an example.  Bruce and his massive corporate organization contracts with a concern to market a product of his.  Bruce and his massive corporate organization decide what to release, be it an item or information on their archives.  Nugs is not authorized to tell you anything other than what they are contracted to reveal.  Think of them as paid bank guards.  They are agents of the savings and loan, not your or my buddies.    If people want to expound piss and vinegar, get mad at Gary or Steve or Max or Roy or anyone else in the band who know everything about session work or filming and say nothing or lie when asked direct questions.  Friendship with Bruce, employment by Bruce, has always involved trust, and it’s main component is silence and privacy.  You don’t ask, and they don’t tell.  ‘Secrets’ that have been revealed are almost always leaks by accident or by an ex and usually disgruntled employee.  

You use the example of Neil Young as an outstanding model. If you want to get really pissed, I’d be pissed at Neil who had a recording you had to buy a crappy boot of in 1971.  Now that it’s 2021, 50 years later, I don’t find it particularly celebratory that he has only now decided to release it from, I presume, an excellent source.  Frank Zappa copied and released actual bootleg recordings under his own label over 30 years ago.  Neil could have done the same then too.    On a 180, I am sure you love JEMS and the recordings they release.  But do you know their holdings?  They are private collectors. Do you have a list of all the videos and audios they possess?   Should they release a complete list of outtakes or live recordings from their collection to you or I or anyone else because it would be ‘good public relations’?   Bruce may be a public figure, but his archives are still private.   Of course I want to hear what recordings he made with the Other Street Band, and with Roy Orbison and alternate mixes and takes from Lucky Town and Human Touch.  Did you ever hear the outtake of I Wish I Were Blind without a fade and the orchestration and vocals just seem to fall away at the end?  It’s unpolished and raw and makes you cringe.  I want that in crystal clear sound.   But Bruce nor anyone else that works for him has any obligation to even acknowledge that it exists, let alone give me a definitive listing  of all the takes.

Bob Dylan has an archive in Tulsa with reveals that would keep most of us in Depends for a decade.  It will take archivists at least that long to catalogue it.   It was Dylan’s secret for 60 years.   It’s an ongoing two generation game  trying to decipher and ‘understand Bob Dylan’.   There ARE people who know him. He has a brother.  Don’t expect an expose.  But next to Dylan, what you know and have officially from Bruce is a torrential rainstorm and a flood.  It’s just another year until Bruce faces that 50 year copyright expiration deadline himself that Dylan has run up against.  If we all just live long enough ….

Whatever the “arrogance … of other internet companies” means, none of that has anything to do with Bruce keeping anything he wants private, and asking or insisting that people under his employ do the same.

That’s all I am saying.  

Waren Zevon:  “Enjoy every sandwich”  

Q2   🍺🍺🍺



And now the addendum…  no moral, no boast, just a story and fact.   (Disclaimer: I am NOT an insider or in anyway connected to Bruce professionally or personally.  The closet I have been to him is about 4 feet and have never spoken to him directly.  I did make him laugh once, but that is another story.)   When Bruce was putting together Tracks, he asked people around him what they thought should be included and asked them for suggestions from fans.  Several songs, and if memory serves me well, The Iceman was one that he had totally forgot about, came from fan input, not his inner circle.  I was told that from a person who directly gave Bruce his list, and that was Bruce’s comment back to him - that he had forgotten about that song.  I was asked by that same source to send him my list of 20 outtakes I thought should be included.  I have no knowledge if what I sent was read, in a pile or discarded or what became of it. About half of what I sent was actually selected.  But when you ask “can you imagine Bruce asking his fans…” well, yes, personally, I can.   Bruce just does it in a different manner.  As someone I know frequently sang - “faith will be rewarded”   👍

( insert 3 more beers here)

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