PARADISE BY THE "C"

Live 07 Jul 1978 version

[Instrumental]

Info

PARADISE BY THE "C" is an instrumental written by Bruce Springsteen. It was performed on-tour with The E Street Band in 1978 and 1988. A live version recorded on 07 Jul 1978 at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, CA, was first released on the Live/1975-85 box set in 1986.

PARADISE BY THE "C" was also released on The Ties That Bind: The River Collection box set in 2015. Though it was included on the box set's "The River: Outtakes" disc, the song was never recorded during The River sessions as far as it's known. It's the same above-mentioned live 07 Jul 1978 version that was used for the 2015 release; the 24-track tape was transferred via the Plangent Process and engineered in 2015 to remove crowd noise and enhance the audio.

PROVE IT ALL NIGHT and PARADISE BY THE "C" from the 01 Jul 1978 show in Berkeley, CA, were used as promo cuts for radio play. They debuted on air on 04 Jul 1978 on Los Angeles' KMET-FM when Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, and Dave Marsh turned up together at the station's studios at 6:30 p.m. for a lengthy live on-air Springsteen program hosted by DJ Mary Turner.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were staying at the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood, CA. The previous night, 03 Jul 1978, Springsteen was up all night mixing tapes recorded at his 01 Jul 1978 concert in Berkeley, CA. Dave Marsh wrote in Rolling Stone magazine issue #272 (24 Aug 1978): "At noon [on 04 Jul 1978], producer/manager Jon Landau, Bruce and I disappear into Springsteen's room to play the Berkeley concert mixes. There are two mixes of an eight-minute rendition of 'Prove It All Night' that shatters the LP version, and one mix of an unnamed, shorter instrumental, often called 'Paradise by the Sea,' which opens the second half of his concerts. Even on a small cassette player, it's clear that something considerable is going on."

The 07 Jul 1978 Show

On 07 Jul 1978, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band performed a special concert at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, CA. The full show was originally broadcast live on the now-defunct local radio station KMET-FM, and later became one of the main source concerts for the Live/1975-85 box set which includes eight recordings from this show. One more recording didn't make it onto the box set but was released as a b-side. Prior to its official release in 2018, this show circulated in its complete form on bootlegs (and unauthorized releases) sourced from tapes recorded off the airways.

Ticket stub for the 07 Jul 1978 show at The Roxy Theatre, West Hollywood, CA
(Taken from Brucebase)

It was Jon Landau who suggested to Paul Rappaport, Columbia Records' west coast promotion manager at the time, the idea of a live broadcast on KMET-FM to widely promote Springsteen in Los Angeles. Rappaport had only a few days to organize a concert. The Roxy Theatre, which had a seating capacity of only 500, was selected and the band already booked to play the venue on that date has to be bought out. Ma Bell laid special high-fidelity phone lines at the venue to send audio to the radio station and a remote-recording truck was procured to handle the mix and record the concert on multi-track tapes for future use.

Reel-to-reel tape from which the official release was transferred

Rumors that a special show is happening on Friday 07 Jul 1978 at The Roxy Theatre started circulating just 48 hours prior to the show, and this was later confirmed in the 06 Jul 1978 issue of the Los Angeles Times. Tickets went on sale at noon on Thursday and the venue's limited capacity made getting tickets extremely difficult. With such short notice, tickets were simply stamped onto standard Roxy Theatre stubs (see above scan). It has been reported that the record company had bought half of the tickets, but Springsteen requested that they return half of them to various Los Angeles radio stations who would distribute them to fans.

In July 2018 the complete 07 Jul 1978 concert was officially released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net (see the "Official Live Downloads" section below for more details). It was recorded live with the Wally Heider Mobile truck by Jimmy Iovine and his crew consisting of Pete Carlson, Biff Dawes, Dennis Mays, Phil MacConnell, and Paul Sandweiss. The audio was freshly mixed by Jon Altschiller from 24-track 2-inch 15 IPS master tapes, assisted by Danielle Warman. It was mastered to DSD and PCM by Adam Ayan at Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, ME.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Roxy July 7, 1978

The 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre was commercially released in Europe. Since 2005 some enterprising record labels in Europe (mostly in the UK) have been releasing Bruce Springsteen radio and TV broadcasts (and some soundboard recordings) from the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Though these releases are not authorized by Bruce Springsteen or his record company, they are lawful due to a legal loophole in Europe.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Roxy Theater, West Hollywood July 7, 1978

3xCD - Rox Vox (RV3CD1001) - UK, 2015

This release contains the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Roxy Theater, West Hollywood July 7, 1978

4xLP - Rox Vox (RV4LP1001) - UK, 2015

This release contains the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Roxy Night 1978

3xCD - Leftfield Media (LFM3CD534) - UK, 2015

This release contains the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen -- 1978 Roxy Night Volume 1

2xLP - Let Them Eat Vinyl (LETV386LP) - UK, 2015

This release contains part 1 of two of the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen -- 1978 Roxy Night Volume 2

2xLP - Let Them Eat Vinyl (LETV387LP) - UK, 2015

This release contains part 2 of two of the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Roxy 1978

Digital album - Lilith Records (no catalog number) - UK, 2016

This is a download-only digital album. It contains the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- The Complete 1978 Radio Broadcasts

15xCD - Sound Stage (SSCDBOX10) - UK, 2015

This release contains the 09 Aug 1978 broadcast from The Agora, the 07 Jul 1978 broadcast from The Roxy Theatre, the 19 Sep 1978 broadcast from Capitol Theatre, the 30 Sep 1978 broadcast from Fox Theatre, and the 15 Dec 1978 broadcast from Winterland Ballroom.

Official Live Downloads

Prior to the High Hopes Tour, Bruce Springsteen's management announced a new service allowing fans to download concert recordings approximately 48 hours after each show. The initial plan required fans to purchase a special USB wristband, which could then be used to download a single High Hopes Tour show of the purchaser's choice and also functions as a regular reusable USB flash drive. The wristband, which could be purchased online or at the concert venue, was priced at $40. Following some negative response from fans over the high cost for the wristband, Springsteen's management subsequently announced a separate cheaper option for purchasing shows directly, without the need for the wristband. The shows were available for purchase and download via Live Nation, Bruce Springsteen's concert promoter, priced at $9.99 for MP3 and $14.99 for FLAC. Audio recordings for 31 of the 34 High Hopes Tour dates (all except 16 Feb 2014, 06 Apr 2014, and 03 May 2014) were released as such and they were available until 30 Jun 2014.

On 17 Nov 2014, Live.BruceSpringsteen.net was launched. It's a new addition to the official website, serving as an online store offering high-quality live concert recordings as well as high-resolution digital releases of Springsteen's album catalog. The download store is powered by Nugs.net in cooperation with Columbia Records. Audio recordings for 30 of the 34 High Hopes Tour dates (all except 16 Feb 2014, 06 Apr 2014, 03 May 2014, and 18 May 2014) were re-released on the new download store in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Nugs.net adopted the MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) format on 24 May 2017. From then on, all Bruce Springsteen live concert recordings, including the previously released ones, became also available in MQA.

Audio recordings for all 75 The River Tour 2016 dates were also released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Each show was generally released within a month after it took place.

Audio recordings for all 14 Summer '17 Tour dates were also released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Each show was generally released within a month after it took place.

Archival releases were periodically released on the same site, as part of the Bruce Springsteen Archive Series. These shows were also made available in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless FLAC or ALAC, 24-bit FLAC or ALAC or MQA, DSD, and audio CD-R. So far 90 shows (or sets of shows) were released from the ongoing series.

The Live/1975-85 Box Set

With the Born In The U.S.A. album and tour, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band reached the highest level of rock stardom. Columbia Records was expecting a follow up studio album and tour that would, like it's predecessor, achieve a huge commercial success. Instead, Springsteen released Live/1975-85, an over-three-hours-and-a-half-long live compilation album consisting of 40 tracks recorded at various concerts between 1975 and 1985.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -- Live/1975-85

The set was produced by Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, and Bruce Springsteen, and hit the stores on 10 Nov 1986. It was released as a box set with either five vinyl records, three cassettes, or three CDs. Live/1975-85 is the first album to be credited to "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band" instead of "Bruce Springsteen" only.

The highly-anticipated live album generated advance orders of more than 1.5 million copies, making it the largest dollar-volume pre-order in the history of the record business at the time. Record stores around the country found fans waiting in line on Monday morning before opening and one New York store reportedly sold the album right off the back of the delivery truck. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart and also became the first five-record set to reach the top 10 and the first to sell over a million copies. Live/1975-85 is the second-best-selling live album in U.S. history based on RIAA certification. It has been certified by the RIAA for 13 times platinum, trailing only Garth Brooks' Double Live.

The Ties That Bind: The River Collection

The Ties That Bind: The River Collection is a Bruce Springsteen box set released in 2015 on Columbia Records to celebrate the 35th anniversary of The River album. The 10"x12" box set contains four CDs, two Blu-Ray discs or three DVDs, and a hardcover 148-page coffee table book featuring 200 mostly unseen studio and live photographs, pages from Springsteen's notebooks, single covers, images and outtakes from the original album package, and other memorabilia documenting the album, plus a new essay by Mikal Gilmore. The box set was announced on 16 Oct 2015 and released to retail on 04 Dec 2015.

The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (box set cover art)

The first two discs consist of the 2014 remastered version of The River album. The third disc contains The River: Single Album, a 10-track album originally planned for release in 1979, under the title "The Ties That Bind". "The songs lacked the kind of unity and conceptual intensity I liked my music to have. So we went back in the studio," Springsteen wrote in his 1998 book Songs. He scrapped the project and went on to rework some of the songs and write and record some others, leading to the double-disc release the following year. All but one of these ten tracks were previously released.

The fourth discs contains The River: Outtakes, a 22-track album collection consisting of outtakes from the 1979-1980 sessions that didn't make the cut for either the single- or double-album versions of The River. The CD is divided into two parts, "Record One" (the first 11 tracks) and "Record Two" (the remaining 10 tracks). The former consists of unreleased songs while the latter consists of previously released songs.

The fifth disc contains the 60-minute documentary, The Ties That Bind, produced and directed by Grammy and Emmy-winning filmmaker Thom Zimny. The documentary features an intimate interview with Bruce Springsteen as he reflects on writing and recording of The River. The film transitions between Springsteen telling the stories behind the music ─ and illustrating them with solo acoustic guitar performances ─ interspersed with period concert footage and rare photos of him and the band in and out of the studio.

The sixth disc (on the Blu-Ray release) or sixth and seventh disc (on the DVD release) feature(s) The River Tour, Tempe 1980, a new professionally shot film consisting of 24 songs from Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's 05 Nov 1980 concert at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. The film uses four cameras and is recorded in multitrack audio and clocks at 2 hours and 40 minutes. The tapes were edited by Thom Zimny and the audio was mixed by Bob Clearmountain and mastered by Bob Ludwig.

The last disc also contains The River Tour Rehearsals, which consists of a 5-song 20-minute bonus footage from Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's private rehearsals in late September 1980 at Clair Brothers Audio in Lititz, PA. Springsteen and the band can be seen working through live arrangements of what was then unreleased material from the upcoming album.

Other Official Releases

Other versions of PARADISE BY THE "C" were also officially released.

The live 01 Jul 1978 version of PARADISE BY THE "C" was released on the Berkeley, July 1, 1978 official live download in 2021.

The live 09 Aug 1978 version of PARADISE BY THE "C" was released on The Agora, Cleveland 1978 official live download in 2014.

The live 03 Jul 1988 version of PARADISE BY THE "C" was released on the Stockholm Stadion, Sweden 1988 official live download in 2017.

Live History

In preparation for the Darkness On The Edge Of Town Tour, PARADISE BY THE "C" is known to have been practiced on 19 May 1978 at Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, NJ, during the only known/confirmed private rehearsal prior to the tour's start.

PARADISE BY THE "C" is known to have been performed at least 57 times during the Darkness On The Edge Of Town Tour (111 dates, May 1978 to January 1979). A few of that period's setlists are incomplete or unknown, and therefore, the song must have been played on some more dates during the Darkness On The Edge Of Town Tour, especially in the tour's first three months. The live 01 Jul 1978 version of PARADISE BY THE "C" was released on the Berkeley, July 1, 1978 official live download in 2021. The live 07 Jul 1978 version of PARADISE BY THE "C" was first released on the Live/1975-85 box set in 1986. The live 09 Aug 1978 version of PARADISE BY THE "C" was released on The Agora, Cleveland 1978 official live download in 2014.

PARADISE BY THE "C" was performed 12 times during the Tunnel Of Love Express Tour (67 dates, February to August 1988), all of them in the tour's European leg. The live 03 Jul 1988 version of PARADISE BY THE "C" was released on the Stockholm Stadion, Sweden 1988 official live download in 2017.

Covers

At least 2 artists have recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's PARADISE BY THE "C".

Clarence Clemons Temple Of Soul -- Live In Asbury Park

CD - Valley Entertainment (VLT 15165) - USA, 2002

This is a live album. It includes three Bruce Springsteen covers: FROM SMALL THINGS (BIG THINGS ONE DAY COME), PARADISE BY THE "C", and SAVIN' UP.

Various artists -- Light Of Day: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen

3xCD - Good Sounds / DiscMedi Blau (DM 797-02) - Spain, 2003

This is a Bruce Springsteen tribute album. There are five issues of this album (with three track configurations) and this track was only included on the issue listed above. PARADISE BY THE "C" is performed by Greg Martin & Friends.

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Available Versions

List of available versions of PARADISE BY THE "C" on this website:

Page last updated: 27 Dec 2020