Tracks (4CD) [Box set, Original recording remastered]

Bruce Springsteen | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 10, 1998)
• Original Release Date: November 10, 1998
• Number of Discs: 4
• Format: Box set, Original recording remastered
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Columbia
• ASIN: B00000DHTF
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (194 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,602 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #54 in Music > Rock > Singer-Songwriters
  • #57 in Music > Box Sets

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Next time you find yourself debating the worth of Bruce Springsteen, pull out this brilliant four-disc outtake set. With a flick of his grease-monkey wrist, Springsteen proves--simply by issuing long-unreleased material--why he's the most consistent (read: important) composer in the pop-rock field of his generation. It's there in a dozen included B-sides ("Pink Cadillac," "Shut Out the Light," "Janey Don't You Lose Heart"). It's there in countless rabble-rousing anthems, the singer's stock in working-class trade ("Roulette," "Stand on It," "Car Wash," "Brothers Under the Bridges"). But, mainly, it's there between the lines, in the small idiosyncrasies Springsteen detected within almost every cut that made him--until now--withhold this material. Some are glaringly obvious--the singsong "Living on the Edge of the World," whose lyrics were later lifted for the more sinister "Open All Night"; the morphing of several "Iceman" verses into sentiments expressed on Darkness on the Edge of Town. Some are collectible curiosities, like the starkly disparate alternate takes of "Stolen Car" and "Born in the U.S.A." And others are more meticulous, often coming down to a simple phrase, riff, or melody line that wound up flunking final-cut muster. And when you stumble across those tiny, fleeting moments, moments that would matter to only a true perfectionist, the true artistry of Springsteen unfurls in all its ragged glory. --Tom Lanham

Product Description

item is in great condition plastic has just been removed. great gift for any music lover.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential listening for Bruce fans, September 26, 2003

By 

Aaron Collins (Concord, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tracks (4CD) (Audio CD)

I know it's tempting to pick up the single disc 18-Tracks compilation instead of the whole four disc set, but this is truely four discs worth of great music. Fans of Springsteen should definitely pick up this set. I'm usually bored to death by B-Sides and rarities collections, but I absolutely adore this set. Every song has something to say. When most bands are struggling to include one or two decent songs on an album, Bruce has come forward with stuff that didn't make the cut at first, and it's more consistent then most albums coming out today. He is an amazing musician and this release helps to display that. It's hard to believe that most of these songs stayed in the vaults for no one to hear for so long. One highlight is My Love Will Not Let You Down, which consistently made it's way into live sets when the E Street band reunited in 1999. There's a great recording of This Hard Land, which is one of my favorite songs Bruce has ever written. Overall, I like the recording found on his Greatest Hits set more, but this recording is still wonderful. This set is a must buy for fans, and it is certainly good for anyone seeking an education in what real music is all about.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ****1/2 - very impressive, November 22, 2003

By 

Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tracks (4CD) (Audio CD)

Not a career retrospective, Bruce Springsteen's "Tracks" gathers four discs worth of unreleased songs, B-sides, and alternate takes.
It does miss out on a few great songs, like the superb rock n' roll gem "From Small Things" (which is now finally available on the "Essential Bruce Springsteen" collection), and the grinding, bluesy folk of "If I Was The Priest" (which isn't).

But that's a minor complaint, because this big, handsomely packaged and well annotated set is a real treasure trove. Bruce Springsteen has always been famous for leaving great songs off his records simply because they didn't fit in with the overall mood or the theme of the record, and the quality of much of this material is amazing.

The songs are logically sequenced, beginning with a few early acoustic demos of songs which would appear on Springsteen's debut album, and ending with outtakes from "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town".
The first 2 1/2 discs are the best, but there is a lot of excellent material on all four CDs, ranging from acoustic folk-rock to tremendously gritty electric rock songs like "Give The Girl A Kiss" and the rough and emotional "Hearts Of Stone".
Other highlights include the driving hard rock of "Where The Bands Are" and "Rendezvous", the original version of "This Hard Land", and of course the classic "Pink Cadillac". And numerous other songs, many of which will be completely unknown to most listeners.

Springsteen may not be the blinding visionary that Bob Dylan is, but "Tracks" is almost as essential for Springsteen fans as Bob Dylan's renowned "Bootleg" series is for Dylan-philes. It is certainly hard to imagine another rock composer who could put out four CDs worth of outtakes and B-sides, let alone four discs which would maintain this level of quality.
This is not the place to start your Springsteen collection, of course, but it's a great stop to make along the way once you are hooked.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly good, but not quite his best, June 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Tracks (4CD) (Audio CD)

Most artists shouldn't have collections of outtakes and unreleased songs, but most nowadays do. Often they're disappointing. You have to be very prolific and very good to make them worthwhile. You also have to be a questionable arbiter of your own material to keep such good material off your "official releases" (something Bob Dylan's been accused of). But, there is a reason why Springsteen, like Prince, Neil Young, and Dylan, is widely bootlegged, and not just for his amazing concerts. He is prolific, he is very good. BUT, he is a pretty good judge of his own material. A few lapses, but he still bats close to a 1.000.

The set starts off with a few demos. Here's a young man, hungry, ambitious, exploding with nervous energy and ideas, rushing through his songs on just his voice and an acoustic guitar. Upon repeated listening, they pale to the live, full-band versions, all except "Growin' Up." A great, great version. Next up, a great live cut, "Bishop Danced," just Bruce with Federici on accordian. It's a lost classic, and so is "Thundercrack." "Seaside Bar Song" is a good-time, swinging record, but "Santa Ana," "Zero...," and "Linda..." don't take off, lyrically or musically. I almost turn off the record, but then things pick up with the lost classic "Thundercrack." The best of the rest, a rocking live "Rendezvous," the retro, pile-driving "Give The Girl A Kiss" and "So Young...," the slow, romantic "Hearts Of Stone," and a slow, brooding "Iceman" are all good, but they don't match what you find on "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" or "The River." Either it's not quite as good or thematically, it clashes too much, or both. On a few, Bruce doesn't get through the whole song without botching the lyrics (luckily, they print them up for you). Still, a song like "Restless Nights" has a killer guitar break even if it isn't one of Bruce's best songs. The middle of the set is sustained by some excellent B-sides from the singles off the "Born In The USA" Lp, but the stand-out is the acoustic version of that Lp's title track. It takes the song somewhere darker, more disturbing, and ultimately saves the song from being hijacked as a widely-misinterpeted arena anthem. Bruce's 'cars and girls' songs are getting better, too. By 1978, they already transformed into social commentary, anger, and frustration instead of the retro, romanticism of his early years, but as you can see from the outtakes, he was still writing and recording some in that mold as late as 1984. But, again, he had outgrown them, so the nice, romantic "Frankie" gets shelved and the swaggering "Pink Cadillac" is banished to B-side purgatory. This is where the pickings get slim, and Bruce nearly hits a brick wall. Most of the last disc is generic sounding. They're not bad, but they cover well-worn territory. If they were musically more compelling, he'd get away with that, but they aren't. They sound generic. Still, "Sad Eyes" creates a nice mood, as does "Happy." The last track, "Brothers..." (unrelated to the similarly titled song on Disc 3), however, ends the set on a high note. Not a lost classic, but better than anything on the "Tom Joad" album. Just excellent. Had his effective, underrated re-recording of "The Promise" and "Missing" been included here instead of being banished to "18 Tracks" and a Europe-only CD single, respectively, the last quarter would've been so much better. The former is a lost classic (previously recorded in intolerably slow versions), the latter a strong latter day song exploring new ground (done for a movie directed by Sean Penn). "The Fever" should've been here, too (also on "18 Tracks").

Bruce's studio albums from "Wild, Innocent..." to "Tunnel Of Love" are all very good to great. Each one had been called a masterpiece by somebody, and dropping the songs you hear on "Tracks" doesn't hurt them. But, one could have a very respectable career had they recorded the music you hear on "Tracks."