In Concert: MTV Plugged [Live]

Bruce Springsteen | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 26, 1997)
• Original Release Date: August 26, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002C3M
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45,970 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Red Headed Woman [#]

2. Better Days

3. Atlantic City

4. Darkness on the Edge of Town

5. Man's Job

6. Human Touch

7. Lucky Town

8. I Wish I Were Blind

9. Thunder Road

10. Light of Day [#]

11. If I Should Fall Behind

12. Living Proof

13. My Beautiful Reward

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bruce Live Minus the E Street Band, October 10, 2000

By 

Thomas Magnum (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In Concert: MTV Plugged (Audio CD)

This is the cd version of the MTV Plugged show Bruce did back in 1992 with the band he assembled to tour with him on his Human Touch/Lucky Town tour. Unfortunately, the shows from this tour are always compared to those with the E Street Band and they, of course, fall short. That being said, there are some good performances on this disk. Bruce knew what were the best songs from those two disks were and they appear here. The performances of "Lucky Town", "Living Proof", "I Wish I Were Blind" & "Better Days" are all solid and among his older songs "Atlantic City" stands out. The performance of "Light Of Day" has a tremendous amount of energy and there is some excellent guitar interplay on it. All in all, it's not the pinnacle of Bruce's career, but still fun to listen to.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice little record, April 25, 2004

By 

Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Concert: MTV Plugged (Audio CD)

I can't help but wonder why MTV allowed Bruce Springsteen to play a regular electric "club date" instead of actually playing unplugged. There are hours of live Springsteen available, but only a few acoustic songs, and it would have been a lot more interesting to hear him recast some of his songs in an acoustic format.

On "MTV (Un)plugged", Springsteen opens with an acoustic solo performance, the dirty but good-natured "Red Headed Woman", after which he completely abandons the unplugged format, playing a regular (if slightly subdued) electric concert featuring mainly songs from his then-current albums "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town". And while it's a shame that he took the easy way and played a predictable electric set instead of an acoustic show, this is actually a really good little concert album.

This is from Springsteen's non-E Street Band period, but the most immediately recognizable part of his "sound", keyboardist Roy Bittan, is onboard, and the five-piece band plays well, although without a whole lot of personality.
The track list includes a couple of old war horses ("Thunder Road", "Atlantic City", "Darkness On The Edge Of Town"), but the vast majority of these thirteen songs are from the 90s, and Springsteen fortunately plays almost all the best songs from "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town", most of which actually sound better in this live setting than on the original studio recordings.

The pleasant trifle "Man's Job", which features harmony vocals by 70s soul crooner Bobby King, is really good, as is a slightly subdued by quite moving version of "I Wish I Were Blind".
"Human Touch" is better in the original rendition, but "Lucky Town" really benefits from the tough live arrangement and a great lead vocal by Springsteen. And the band lays down an extremely hard-rocking 8-minute version of "Light Of Day", a low-key Bob Dylan-like "Should I Fall Behind", and a nice, swinging "Better Days".

A folkish "Thunder Road" is disappointing compared to the definitive version on "Live 1975-1985", but "Atlantic City" and "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" in particular are good.
The final couple of songs are minor ones, but "MTV (Un)Plugged" generally holds up very well, and while it is not really a necessary purchase for casual Springsteen fans, it is a nice collection of small pleasures. I have had it since it came out, and I continue to play it now and then.
3 3/4 stars.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Springsteen Grown Up, February 11, 2001

By 

E. M. Gilmore (Scotch Plains, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Concert: MTV Plugged (Audio CD)

I've been listening to Bruce for 25 years an enjoy just about all of his music. It is CD's like this that keep me listening. It doesn't matter if you've heard it before--he always delivers a different slant. How many Thunder Road versions are out there? This one is beautiful. Far and away the best of the slow songs here is "I Wish I Were Blind".