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From backstreets.com:

@backstreetsmag
This Just In: Following the release of Indianapolis 2008, the Live Archive series will go dark this month to put the full spotlight on The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts. Holiday goodies are in the oven for the series return in December.

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living is easy with eyes closed

Last edited by desa33
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but our knowledge of the vaults is very uncertain.

That’s why Nugs should let us know what is actually in the vaults prior to the Reunion Tour. We can stop wondering/complaining about Vietnam Vets or the Bottom Line or Halloween 1984 or Shoreline 1988 if we actually know if any of those were professionally recorded. Nugs and Bruce, Inc. have now had plenty of time to assess what actually exists. They should let us know. If one wants an example, compare Nugs/Bruce, Inc., to what Neil Young has been doing.

At this point, I assume they don’t want to operate with transparency for whatever reason(s). One thing history has shown us is that choosing to operate without transparency nearly always ends up being a mistake.


 

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

Seriously, seriously, but seriously, transparency is for shareholders or investors in publicly owned companies.  Bruce, as a private citizen and private entity is more than entitled to keep secret everything and anything he wants to.  He owes no accountability to ‘us’ or any other fans.
History has shown us that an artist can do whatever he wants to with his work, from reveal it to tamper with it to destroy it.  (Thank you Kafka, no thank you Kafka.)  The only ‘right’ we have is to whine like babies when we don’t get what we want - and ALL of us do that from time to time, myself NO exception.  To paraphrase an old parental expression “Just because Neil Young jumped off a bridge, does it mean YOU have to?”  

Now, here is your assignment.  Pretend it’s 1974.   You badly want a rumored recording you heard about from a friend’s friend.  You live in North Dakota.   Bruce has just played a gig at a small school in western Massachusetts.  Find a first generation copy of a tape of that show, if it even exists, within 3 months.   Bonus points if no songs are cut or missing from tape flipping, mike failure or running out of D-60s, there is no tape hiss or flutter and  it’s not distant and muddy.  Extra extra credit if the tape speed is correct. You may begin ….. NOW.  

PS.  JEMS does not exist yet. 😸

As they say at the other end of the pond, cheers!!!🤠🤠🤠

It’s always a treat to have one’s post misinterpreted and distorted. I never said Bruce, Inc.,didn’t have the right to do whatever they want with his recordings. As the owner, If he wants to, Bruce can create a huge bonfire on his ranch/farm and burn the masters of his entire archives. What I said is that  would be better to let people know what he has in the vaults to prevent the endless questions about what may be available.

As for Nugs, their lack of transparency about their operations has been discussed here on the SPL and lots of other forums. And I do believe it will come back to create public relations problems in the future since it seems to have already done so. Unfortunately, Brad Serling seems to display the same sort of arrogance as the owners of a lot of other internet companies.

As for your assignment, I don’t have to pretend it’s 1974 since I’ve been buying bootlegs since before then. The second boot I purchased in 1971 was Neil Young’s “I’m Happy That You All Came Down” on Rubber Dubber Records. Neil is going to release that performance as part of his “Official Bootleg” series. The announcement includes this statement by Neil:

“We have ripped off all of the original art from the bootlegs.

No expense will be spared. The only difference will be the radically better sound from our masters.

“We are going full bore with our series right now, so write letters in to me with your favorite bootlegs and we will find them and use the best audio we can locate, either from the NYA vaults or somewhere else. Watch for this coming soon. We are building it starting today."

Can you imagine Bruce doing the same thing and asking his fans to let him know their favorite bootlegs?


 

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

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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