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I watched Dan Rather interview Bob Weir tonight on his very insightful show The Big Interview. It's on AXS TV.  He interviews all the great stars of music and does it as well as anyone ever has.  If you get a chance to watch, I highly recommend it.

One of the questions Dan asked was how come they allowed tapers at their concerts, especially the taper section.  The answer he received was very enlightening especially for that time and era especially when all the record companies were against it. The Dead's label was also against it but nobody had the balls to wade out into the crowd and tell them they couldn't tape.

What struck me was Bob's very clear vision as a young musician that these tapes would be passed around  to the taper's friends, sons, daughter's, etc. and make them even more fans. 

Myself I think it took a little while for Bruce to come around to that point of view,  if in fact he has fully embraced it.

In my mind, the bootlegs did for Bruce Springsteen exactly what they did for The Grateful Dead.  The boots spread the word about this great live band and the passion of the fan extolling the greatness of these live shows and tapes reinforced those feelings. 

All of the above got me to thinking about this.  A lot of the older bootlegs were shall we say not meant for audiophiles, they left a lot to be desired.  As technology evolved and the years passed by they became much, much better.

We have IEMs, ALDs, Matrix's of both.  

Now we have Official Live Downloads with the best soundboards available and the best sound engineers behind them.

My question to you is this:  Do you think these official downloads are being passed around and making new fans the same way it happened for us?

Or is it just another official release, they're not being passed around and it's only 2000 die hard fans listening to them.  Is Bruce making new fans with these live downloads or is it too late in the game?

____________________________________

The SPL Rocks!

Prego che tu stia danzando con San Pietro alle porte perlacee del cielo





Pulled up to my house today
Came and took my little girl away!
Giants Stadium 8/28/03



Oats

Original Post

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I think part of the bootleg culture (and passing them around) was the fact that they were unofficial and rare.  That encourages people to share them and rave about the show/quality.

I just don't see that happening with official releases where they release every show of a tour.  I even have friends that went to the shows that don't have any interest in the official recording of the show (which baffles me).

In the 90's the idea of having a recording of a show I actually attended seemed too good to be true.

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Also, to add to this.   My wife is a huge fan of P!nk and she took me to my first P!nk show.  It was amazing, by far my favorite concert outside of Bruce.  I went online to see if there were any live audio shows and there is zero bootleg culture for her.  It took me a while to find an audio rip of a DVD she officially releases.  It seemed so strange to me coming from being a fan of bands (Bruce, U2, Jimmy Buffett) that have a huge live presence (both bootleg and official).

 

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I agree on the importance of bootlegs for Bruce’s career. Prior to BITUSA, bootlegs and tape trading was how people learned about Bruce if they hadn’t gone to a show. There were a lot of people I turned on to Bruce by giving them a tape of a particular show. Also, the live broadcasts and the subsequent bootlegs, especially the five Darkness tour broadcasts, created a major increase in the number fans. Just the fact they went from small halls to arenas was due to the increase in fans due to the broadcasts and the bootlegs, not daily radio airplay and album sales.  

Nowadays, there isn’t the same sense of the importance of popular music in our culture due to a host of reasons too numerous to expound upon here. So the official live downloads/CDs are not being passed around as in the past though I suspect that there are people who download a show out of curiosity and discover that, yes, the assertions they’ve heard and read that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are the greatest live band in history are true and so they become a fan.


 

"I've done my best to live the right way"

Last edited by LB
LB posted:

I agree on the importance of bootlegs for Bruce’s career. Prior to BITUSA, bootlegs and tape trading was how people learned about Bruce if they hadn’t gone to a show. There were a lot of people I turned on to Bruce by giving them a tape of a particular show. Also, the live broadcasts and the subsequent bootlegs, especially the five Darkness tour broadcasts, created a major increase in the number fans. Just the fact they went from small halls to arenas was due to the increase in fans due to the broadcasts and the bootlegs, not daily radio airplay and album sales.  

Nowadays, there isn’t the same sense of the importance of popular music in our culture due to a host of reasons too numerous to expound upon here. So the official live downloads/CDs are not being passed around as in the past though I suspect that there are people who download a show out of curiosity and discover that, yes, the assertions they’ve heard and read that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are the greatest live band in history are true and so they become a fan.

I used to think like you do  when you told us  at the end of your comment, you suspect....

But I've yet to see that.  In the old days on this board, we would get newbies joining due to the new albums and the tours generated from same, The Rising and Devils and Dust come to mind.  Not so much after 2007. Maybe a few during the Magic Tour.  I can't remember the last time a newbie approached me due to hearing a boot or any official live release.  I don't think there has been one.

____________________________________

The SPL Rocks!

Prego che tu stia danzando con San Pietro alle porte perlacee del cielo





Pulled up to my house today
Came and took my little girl away!
Giants Stadium 8/28/03



Oats

Part of it is I don't think Bruce is the greatest live performer anymore.  He was a true groundbreaker in the amount of energy and passion and time he put into his shows but that's not unique anymore. 

I could see being amazed at his shows in the 70's and even 80's but what he does now is normal for most acts.  I love his shows because I love his music but I never leave shaking my head thinking I saw something I hadn't seen before.  So if you brought a new person to a Bruce show now, it wouldn't have the same impact.

My last 2 concerts were Queen and P!nk and I would imagine (if you were neutral about P!nk, Queen and Bruce), the Bruce show would have been the least impressive and impactful show out of the three.

 

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