Tunnel of Love Express Tour

There was talk that Bruce wasn't going to tour to support the album-hence the lag between record release and start of tour.

Bruce and Viv were obviously something other than bandmates given the way they were looking at each other. No one was in their "normal" position on stage. The theatrical bits: the opening skit before TOL, the park bench routine during All That Heaven Will Allow, La Bamba's shtick during You Can Look... were way over the top, and not a part of what one would expect at a Bruce show.

I remember those shows as being poor overall. Of course, it got better once it hit Europe. I hated the schtick and found it un-inspiriing compared to the interaction in the BUSA tour. Having Bruce come out all dressed up was very un-rock and roll to me. I agree the album is very good but I prefer to forget the tour.

Being 22 at the time, I have pretty good recollection of the events leading up to the tour and the tour itself.

Tunnel came out on 10/2/87, around there, Bruce I believe was in the backlash against the Born in the USA hype, and wanted noting to do with all that hype this time around.

Obviously, from what happened later, we can tell that his relationship to the first wife was going south during the recording of the album, but he hung in there for whatever reasons we wont ever know probably.

There was no initial talk of a tour when the album came out, I wonder if it was Bruce putting the brakes on that, or if they wanted to see what the response and sales were of the album. I remember the sales of it initially being somewhat not so great, maybe that is why they decided to tour after a couple months of so so sales?

To the tour, specifically, I was there, 2/25/88 in Worchester, MA for opening night. I had decent seats on the floor, near the mixing board. I saw Julianne there, she was hanging out near the board for most of the show, nothing seemed amiss, though who the heck knows, I can confirm she was at the opener for sure.

Now, to the song list that night. Me and my buddy I went with, on the way up from NJ, we were joking, like what "no chance" in a million years would we hear played live that night- you know, like Be True, Roulette, we actually mentioned those songs-

God Damn if both weren't played live that night! The band was in totally different spots on stage, it truly was Bruce, as he said in interviews at the time, wanting to shake things up, put people in different spots on stage, to get things fresh again. Damn well worked. Sure, some of the "skits" were cheesy, bringing out a park bench, for him and Clarence to have a supposed conversation in a park, then rolling into All that Heaven Will Allow, etc.

But the addition of horns, rarely played songs and the changing up of everything in my mind made this a very interesting tour.

One could almost say it lead eventually to the Reunion Tour idea of bringing back rareley played songs, maybe in some way, helped get traction for the Tracks idea, as those rarities at the time were pretty welcomed things by fans.

The dressing up idea, at least early in the tour, that was consistent with the theme, this was NOT Born in the USA anymore, and we were adults. At least for this record, haha.

Of course, like every tour, the original idea got watered down, and became the Amnesty International thing we got in later 1988, but the 88 TOL tour had its merits.

The two things that always stick out to me from this tour are the syrupy keyboard effects, and really lousy drum sound, made worse by the use of electronic drum triggers. They really dived head-first into 1980s-style sound tricks (just as the 1980s were ending).

On the "Roses and Broken Hearts" CD, at the beginning of Roulette, they screwed up the sequencing of the drum triggers, and it sounds like a trainwreck. Really bad.

It didn't seem like a happy tour, either. I've never seen the ESB look as dour and joyless as on the Spare Parts video from that outdoor show in the UK that summer.

Definitely one of Bruce's weakest tours, imo...

From listening to bootlegs, this tour was also the beginning of Bruce's vocal decline. Some songs were sung well, but on others, a sort of "pre-twang" was starting to rear its head.

yup, that's a good point..."Aint Got You", "Cautious Man". The first hints of the dreaded twang...

It was the first two times I saw Bruce & the band, first Stockholm#1 and then Oslo. By then, Bruce's relationship/affair with Patti had for sure hit the papers, so we KNEW something was up..

As this was my first tour, it was special to me, like "man, is it really happening?! I'm seeing him LIVE!".

HOWEVER, I've never liked songs like "I'm a coward" and "Part Man, Part Monkey" with a loooong intro (in fact, a lot better in the Devils&Dust setting) and "Light of Day". The bench intro to "All that heaven..." was ok when I saw it in TWO shows. Listening to it on bootlegs, though, is a test of my patience, - and I usually use SKIP.

It was my first tour, actually my first two concerts ever. Frankfurt and Bremen, Germany. By accident I ended in the first row in Bremen and this experience changed my life. 21 years later I'm still trying to reach the first rows. Not so easy anymore with 37. It was easier in '88 at the age of 16...

First I remember the Horns. They were great. Songs like "I'm a coward" and "Part Man, Part Monkey" were ok to me, even with the show elements. At the time he came on stage and threw a bunch of roses into the audience. I still have one which I cought in Bremen. And in europe I think the show was rocking at times as well. Boom Boom, Adam, Badlands, later in the show Spare Parts into War into BitUSA, again, all with the horns. The encores were party time: Cadillac ranch, Sweet soul music, Raise your hand, Twist and shout, Havin' a Party...

I loved it at the time, don't know what I would think today...

The horns were a good addition on this tour.
I liked that fact that they were there when the song called for them and hten they disappeared. When they suddenly reappeared it had a big impact.

The rest of the band should do that now.
If you really aren't doing anything, fade away, come back when you have something to contribute..

For some reason (one being only 14 when the tour hit Europe) I missed this tour, and I wish I would had been able to convince my parents to be able to go the show in Bremen, in retrospect at least. Despite deliving a predictable setlist, I always thought this was the show Bruce was most "happy" with - a bit contradicting giving the circumstances - on any tour. He obviously put a lot of thought into it.

At the time the TOL tour was a welcomed event. If you remember the Live 75 - 85 box was released in between BITUSA and TOL and it appeared that Born to Run as a rocker was all but shelved for eternity as Bruce moved in a different direction (nothing but acoustic BTR for a period and the live video even thanked the fans at the end which was another indication that BTR was being put to rest).

TOL album was mostly a solo act with some ESB members making cameo appearanced on the album. If I remember correctly, rumor was that Bruce was originally going to tour solo (or not at all) but changed his mind as he decided he wanted to give his fans (and the band) one last tour with the ESB. This rumor proved at least semi-true once he fired the band and went with the "other band" in the early 90's. At that time (the 90's that is)you really appreciated the TOL tour since it looked like E Street was closed for good.

But thank goodness things changed as we got deeper into the 90's and well, we all know how things have gone over the past decade.

I saw them three times on that tour - Stockholm twice and one time in Copenhagen. I really enjoyed the horns. My favourite version of Adam Raised A Cain is from the broadcasted concert in Stockholm - very powerful. I was blown away by the shows in Stockholm, mostly because I , for the first time, was standing only 3-5 meters from the stage right in front of Bruce. The third time I saw them (Copenhagen) I had grown tired of the "show elements", the shtick and skits and the 20-minute-versions of "Coward" and "Twist&Shout". When he fired the band I actually felt it was a good thing to do. To me it felt that he had taken that road as far as he could and a little further.

July 14 1988 in Basel, Switzerland was my first show. I wasn't a huge fan back then. Had BITUSA that i bought in 84 while living in america but that was about it.

What this show did for me was opening my eyes, my ears, my guts and my heart to a an artist i didn't know that well. I remember saying to my buddy after the show: "now i understand why they call this guy the Boss". I had never seen a frontman like that. I had never seen someone work a crowd that way. He had 60'000 people in his hands and he could do whatever he wanted with them. It was just amazing.

Now that i know the previous tours much better than i did back then, it's obvious that the TOL tour was way behind what had been done before. But for a first show, not knowing Bruce that well, it was wildest fucking thing i had ever experienced live.

chris

I think that is still true. The other day I've seen the second part of the "Trapped in Frankfurt" DVD. What he did during the encores is pure magic. I was there in the first rows but did not realise until I watched the DVD...

aston villa. big gig everyone passing beer around. quality trip from start to finish. went on my own. they all came out and handed tickets to a guy behind a booth best ever gig i've been to. was about 4 heads back and needed a pee all the way thru man it was a crazy balmy summer night got soaked with beer too

Hi to everybody,

i am looking for the CD or DVD-Version from the Concert Bruce Springsteen "Tunnel of Love Express Tour" from 19th July '88 in EastBerlin. Because i was there and i like to rehear this.

thanks a lot

the audience cd is comming up in lossless quality,but cd1 wil be only for the stereo system,got to work on 4 songs to make the sound equal to the rest.
cd2 is better
cd3 from from good to a great end.
cd1 is the most difficult to get it decent enough,it was much to wide,hopping from the left to the right speaker.
so i ame allmost there,and happy with it