Tracks

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ALBUM INFORMATION

Total Tracks: 66   Total Length: 250:03

eMusic Review

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Glenn Kenny

eMusic Contributor

06.30.09
Bruce Springsteen, Tracks
1998 | Label: Columbia

Marking time during a fallow period in the mid-'90s, Springsteen offered fans this 66-song collection of audition recordings, demos, alternate versions, and most excitingly, unreleased tunes that were previously the provenance of bad, bad bootlegs. Kicking off with stripped-down acoustic solo versions of "Mary, Queen of Arkansas," "Growin'Up," and other early songs, you hear such confidence and craft that you think, "Of course this kid was always gonna be a star!" The set ends almost as it begins, with a latter-day Springsteen on his own, giving a clear picture of where this journey's taken him…and us.

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Not definitive, but a great companion

downingcr

This selection is actually missing a few tracks, most importantly THE PROMISE, which was belatedly released on 18 TRACKS. This set does however, feature some very important tracks from three important periods ('72-'75, '77-'80, and '82-'85). Each disc essentially has a wealth of previously unreleased material, some of which was better than the offial releases (see Disc 2, out-takes from The River). The only low point here are the majority of tracks on Disc 4. Most are from the HUMAN TOUCH sessions, and aren't very good. There are some gems on disc 4, though, including GAVE IT A NAME, LOOSE CHANGE, and BROTHERS UNDER THE BRIDGE.

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Icon: Bruce Springsteen

By Glenn Kenny

If ever there was a rock 'n 'roll icon who needed no introduction, Bruce Springsteen - who got his nickname "The Boss" because, from very early on, he was the guy who made sure the band got paid - is surely that guy. As for that band, the current lineup of his longtime crew the E Street Band is Nils Lofgren on guitar, Miami Steve Van Zandt on guitar and sundries, Clarence "the Big Man"… more »

They Say All Media Guide

For years, decades even, Bruce Springteen was legendary for the amount of recordings he did not release. Every time he cut an album, he recorded a surplus of songs and left some out, not always on the basis of quality, but often because they simply didn’t suit the mood of the record. It was inevitable that dedicated fans and collectors would bootleg these recordings, and for many years, he was one of the most popular bootlegged artists, rivaling even Bob Dylan. Dylan released a box set of unreleased songs in 1991, paving the way for the long-overdue appearance of a similar Springsteen set, Tracks, in 1998. Spanning four discs, it isn’t entirely devoted to unreleased material — a few B-sides pop up here and there — nor is it truly definitive, since it misses a number of key outtakes, plus his original version of “Because the Night,” the sole hit for Patti Smith. Instead, the compilation is an unassuming sampling of what’s in the vaults, from his early acoustic demos to polished outtakes from Human Touch and Lucky Town. Along the way, there are a number of great songs — “Bishop Danced” is every bit as terrific as its legend, as are “Thundercrack,” “Give the Girl a Kiss,” “Hearts of Stone,” “Roulette,” and many others. Tracks merely offers fans an enjoyably sequenced selection of what was left behind. If the end result isn’t as revelatory as some may have expected (even the acoustic “Born in the U.S.A.,” powerful as it is, doesn’t sound different than you may have imagined it), it’s because Springsteen is, at heart, a solid craftsman, not a blinding visionary like Dylan. That’s why Tracks is for the dedicated fan, where The Bootleg Series or The Basement Tapes were flat-out essential for rock fans. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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