Bruce Springsteen
Lovers Run Into The Night
Sports Arena
Toledo, OH
March 10, 1977
JEMS Master
Nothing to Lose: The 1977 Tour Revisited Vol. Nine
16/44 Edition

Recording Gear: Teac M-100 microphone > Sony TC-153SD cassette recorder

JEMS 2015 Transfer: master cassettes > Nakamichi 670 azimuth-adjusted playback > Wavelab 24/96 > iZotope RX4 > iZotope Ozone 5 > iZotope RX MBIT+ resample 16/44.1 > Peak Pro XT (volume smoothing / edit / index) > xACT 2.21 > FLAC

01 Night
02 Don’t Look Back
03 Spirit In The Night
04 Something In The Night
05 Thunder Road
06 Mona > She’s The One
07 Tenth Avenue Freeze-out (with Miami Horns)
08 Action in the Streets (with Miami Horns)
09 Backstreets
10 Growin’ Up
11 Rosalita (with Miami Horns)
12 Born to Run
13 Jungleland
14 Quarter To Three (with Miami Horns)

Known Faults:
-None

Welcome to the ninth edition of JEMS' Nothing to Lose series revisiting Bruce's remarkable 1977 tour. For the full history of our obsession with this era and the back story on the "Official Audience Tapes" that made up the first five volumes of the series, please refer to the notes in Vol. One found here:

http://jungleland.dnsalias.com/torrents-details.php?id=38539

Installment No. 9 teleports us back to the home stretch of the tour and a 14-song set at the Sports Arena in Toledo. It is the third and final Springsteen master recording JEMS made in 1977, and, dare I say, we think you're going to enjoy this as much as you liked the first two, Toronto and Detroit.

In terms of the history of this recording and its dissemination, Toledo is different from Detroit and Toronto in that we do not believe the master cassettes were ever transferred to and circulated from DAT or any other digital medium, so this is not only the first torrent off the master, it is the first digital version from the master, period. Amusingly, until about two years ago, even I didn’t know JEMS had recorded Toledo, which seems crazy, but until I pulled it out of a drawer at JEMS North and asked, I honestly thought it was someone else’s recording. Such is the wonder of J. Even now I’m still learning what he taped.

If for no other reason, Toledo ‘77 earns a place in Springsteen history for the debut of what for me is one of his greatest rockers, “Don’t Look Back.” Until its release on Tracks in 1999, “Don’t Look Back” was like a secret handshake for super fans, bonding over a song most people had never heard. Over the course of the next two weeks of the tour, between Toledo and night four in Boston, the song’s lyrics would evolve materially; here it is in its most embryonic form, including the line that provides our title but didn’t make the final version.

“Don’t Look Back” isn’t the only highlight of course: we get another heart-wrenching “Something in the Night” with Steve Paraczky’s gorgeous trumpet intro; the welcome return of “Growin’ Up” with the “Mr. Spaceman” story;  a long, positively hopping “Quarter To Three” featuring the Miami Horns; and yet another epic “Backstreets.”

The recording is in glorious mono and holds its own against the high bar of Detroit and Toronto. In fact, Toledo boasts remarkable separation of music and audience and at times one of the most up front Springsteen vocals I’ve heard on an audience tape. It’s never been lauded as one of the better tapes of the tour but it likely will be now. Samples provided.

Massive credit goes to J for his outstanding original recording and for pulling out the masters one last time to capture them at 24/96 and giving me so much to work with. Thanks yet again to M, for providing his '77 source tapes; to the folks on the Stone Pony message board whose thread sparked this series; and to mjk5510 who continues to provide invaluable assistance as JEMS' finishing and distribution superstar.

Toledo was scheduled to be the last release in our 1977 Tour Revisited series, but we’ve identified one other extant recording we believe we can upgrade. That will come early in the new year. Until then, enjoy “Don’t Look Back” and the rest of the wonderful Toledo ‘77 show.

BK for JEMS