Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Municipal Auditorium Mobile, Alabama February 12, 1981 (Recorder 2 Source) Transfer: Early 1980's tape trade > early 2000's raw tape transfer > CDR > xACT > MacBook Pro > Peak Pro XT (Pitch Correction/Volume Smoothing/Edit/Subtle Tweak/Re-Indexing) > xACT > FLAC 101 Prove It All Night 102 Two Hearts 103 Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out 104 Darkness On The Edge Of Town 105 Independence Day 106 Who'll Stop The Rain? 107 The Promised Land 108 Out In The Street 109 This Land Is Your Land 110 The River 111 Badlands 112 Thunder Road 201 Cadillac Ranch 202 Sherry Darling 203 Hungry Heart 204 Fire (16 seconds at end patched with the Freezer tape) 205 You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) 206 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) 207 For You 208 Wreck On The Highway 209 Point Blank 210 Candy's Room 211 Ramrod 301 Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) 302 I'm A Rocker 303 Jungleland 304 Born To Run 305 Detroit Medley (w/ I Hear A Train) This is an alternate recorder to the commonly circulating Art "Mr. Freezer" Parr's (r.i.p.) tape. The Freezer tape was used as the source for 'A Night Of Singing, Dancing & Howling', the name of course coming from girlfriend Freezer's singing, dancing & howling abilities, as the info file says, she duets with Bruce on Hungry Heart and Fire, does a rip roaring rendition of Sherry Darling, screams and howls through Tenth Avenue and the quiet parts of Jungleland. It's a fine recording unfortunately marred by the aforementioned over singing, dancing & howling which you get a taste of during the final 16 seconds of 'Fire' on this recorder due to a needed patch. I don't see a need to go into the specifics of the show but suffice it to say it's a fine representation of the early 1981 shows. The 2 previous dates, Lexington and Indianapolis, were re-scheduled due to unknown reasons so the band is working on 4 days rest (more on Indy later with an alternate 2nd recorder source in the works). Bruce and the band sound re-charged and firing on all cylinders. It was mentioned in JEMS recent wonderful release of the 1980-12-18 show about Steve and Roy being up front in the mix during the River tour, that is very evident in this recording, in my mind's eye can see Roy playing smooth as silk from 'Out In The Street' through the drop dead gorgeous 'Point Blank'. In my opinion these River shows were Bruce AND the E Street Band with a lot of focus on the musicianship of the band and how they anchored the shows so much more than the thinner mixes we've gotten in the more "digital" era tours. Louder and mixed more toward the middle ground does not equal better but I digress. Now about the tapes, they may or may not be gone. I did an early 2000's raw tape transfer after Mrs. mjk5510 became concerned tapes had taken over every available flat surface in the house, shortly to be replaced by CD's taking over every available flat surface. The transfer sounds nice and clean for the most part but if I ever come across the tapes I may take another go out it. I honestly don't recall if I did anything to the digital transfer at the time or not, there may be a touch of noise reduction used back in the day before I realized that is not the way to go being young(er) and naive. If so, I was smart enough to make it subtle and it does not detract from the overall niceness of this beauty in the least. The recording itself is a "where has this been for the last 32 years" recording. This is my favorite audie of the early leg of the 1981 portion of the tour and is flat out awesome. There is absolutely NO audience noise and I mean none. I can't imagine where the taper positioned his or her self to product such a recording. The atmosphere of the recording reminds me of the Genesis OAM (open air mic) recordings from the Lamb Lies DownÉ tour but in an arena instead of a theater. It doesn't quite have that SB sound but is clean and clear with excellent instrument separation away from the audience with zero audience interference. The master of this recorder would likely be breathtaking and hopefully will surface some day. I'm not really aware of any OAM recordings Bruce might have done or any of the crew but if they did this is what I imagine it would sound like. You can now enjoy this fine show in all it's glory sans the singing, dancing and howling. Only one known issue with this recorder, the final 16 seconds of Fire is cut and I've patched it with the Freezer tape to make the show complete. A few thank you's that were very helpful in bringing this show to you. 'EarlMV' for his suggestion of a little needed speed correcting, I believe it is spot on after I sinked it with one of the wonderful JEMS early 1981 audies (thank you JEMS) and a BIG thank you to the always willing to assist in any way 'hrubesh' for supplying the "Fire" patch. Samples in the comments but you are not going to want to pass this one up... Enjoy! mjk5510