Bruce Springsteen Douceur de Vivre Capitol Theatre Passaic, NJ September 20, 1978 JEMS Archive 2011 transfer: 1/2-track, 15 IPS master soundboard reels > azimuth-adjusted playback on professional reel to reel > 24/96 capture > Wavelab 5.0 edit and mastering > iZotope MBIT+ resample to 16/44.1 > FLAC 01 Good Rockin' Tonight 02 Badlands 03 Spirit in the Night 04 Darkness on the Edge of Town 05 Independence Day 06 The Promised Land 07 Prove It All Night 08 It's My Life 09 Thunder Road 10 Jungleland 11 Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town 12 Fire 13 Candy's Room 14 Because the Night 15 Point Blank 16 Kitty's Back 17 Incident on 57th Street 18 Rosalita 19 Born to Run 20 Tenth Avenue Freeze-out (small patch at start from video soundtrack) 21 Detroit Medley 22 Twish and Shout (small patch at end from video soundtrack) JEMS could not be more thrilled to release this significant upgrade of the second show at the Capitol Theatre, one night removed from the historic radio broadcast that would go on to become one of, if not the most bootlegged recordings in Springsteen history, Piece De Resistance. In homage to that bootleg classic, we've titled the upgraded second night Douceur de Vivre, which translates to "the sweetness of life." And how sweet this set is, with a looser vibe than that of its predecessor and a few key set-list changes, including "It's My Life," the first "Santa Claus" since December 1975 and the rare-but-always-welcome coupling of "Incident on 57th Street" directly into "Rosalita." We're fortunate to have many excellent recordings from Springsteen's greatest tour, among them the five radio broadcasts (now including the upgraded Atlanta pre-FM JEMS released last year) and numerous other soundboard tapes such as those from Portland (June 24) and Charleston, WV (August 4). What makes Douceur de Vivre so special is that it, like the radio broadcast the night before, was professionally recorded on reel to reel by a mobile recording truck outside the theatre. What we get is a live-as-it-happened recording of incredible clarity: If you ever wanted to learn the individual parts each band member is playing, this is the tape for you. Which isn't to say that it is a multi-track, mixdown recording; this is a raw, mixed-on-the-fly, wide stereo recording done on 1/2 track at 15 inches per second. Compared to the cassette sources circulating of other raw board tapes from this tour, the quality here should be a revelation. A 24/96 edition will be forthcoming. Samples provided. The transfer was handled as JEMS did for last year's upgrade of The Ties That Bind so I'll quote those notes: "There was baking involved, as the tapes had degraded in the [33 years that had passed]. This time, the reel-to-reel tape deck was best of breed, what the pros use, in a proper studio, calibrated and adjusted in every way for optimal playback and capture at 24/96 using the best possible sound card, cabling, etc." There are two missing pieces on the new reels, at the start of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out" and the end of "Twist and Shout." We've patched those from the video soundtrack. On the bright side, "Thunder Road," "Jungleland" and "Incident on 57th Street" are all complete here unlike the circulating board tape. The release of Douceur de Vivre is sure to coincide with the announcement of new 2012 tour dates, and once those dates begin, collector focus move to new recordings, so we wanted to get this out ahead of time. Now if only there were an upgraded video source to go with this audio… Please respect our wishes and DO NOT post this on DIME. Wayne Darlington