This is the cd version of the MTV Plugged show Bruce did back in 1992 with the band he assembled to tour with him on his Human Touch/Lucky Town tour. Unfortunately, the shows from this tour are always compared to those with the E Street Band and they, of course, fall short. That being said, there are some good performances on this disk. Bruce knew what were the best songs from those two disks were and they appear here. The performances of "Lucky Town", "Living Proof", "I Wish I Were Blind" & "Better Days" are all solid and among his older songs "Atlantic City" stands out. The performance of "Light Of Day" has a tremendous amount of energy and there is some excellent guitar interplay on it. All in all, it's not the pinnacle of Bruce's career, but still fun to listen to.

I can't help but wonder why MTV allowed Bruce Springsteen to play a regular electric "club date" instead of actually playing unplugged. There are hours of live Springsteen available, but only a few acoustic songs, and it would have been a lot more interesting to hear him recast some of his songs in an acoustic format.

On "MTV (Un)plugged", Springsteen opens with an acoustic solo performance, the dirty but good-natured "Red Headed Woman", after which he completely abandons the unplugged format, playing a regular (if slightly subdued) electric concert featuring mainly songs from his then-current albums "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town". And while it's a shame that he took the easy way and played a predictable electric set instead of an acoustic show, this is actually a really good little concert album.

This is from Springsteen's non-E Street Band period, but the most immediately recognizable part of his "sound", keyboardist Roy Bittan, is onboard, and the five-piece band plays well, although without a whole lot of personality.
The track list includes a couple of old war horses ("Thunder Road", "Atlantic City", "Darkness On The Edge Of Town"), but the vast majority of these thirteen songs are from the 90s, and Springsteen fortunately plays almost all the best songs from "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town", most of which actually sound better in this live setting than on the original studio recordings.

The pleasant trifle "Man's Job", which features harmony vocals by 70s soul crooner Bobby King, is really good, as is a slightly subdued by quite moving version of "I Wish I Were Blind".
"Human Touch" is better in the original rendition, but "Lucky Town" really benefits from the tough live arrangement and a great lead vocal by Springsteen. And the band lays down an extremely hard-rocking 8-minute version of "Light Of Day", a low-key Bob Dylan-like "Should I Fall Behind", and a nice, swinging "Better Days".

A folkish "Thunder Road" is disappointing compared to the definitive version on "Live 1975-1985", but "Atlantic City" and "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" in particular are good.
The final couple of songs are minor ones, but "MTV (Un)Plugged" generally holds up very well, and while it is not really a necessary purchase for casual Springsteen fans, it is a nice collection of small pleasures. I have had it since it came out, and I continue to play it now and then.
3 3/4 stars.

I've been listening to Bruce for 25 years an enjoy just about all of his music. It is CD's like this that keep me listening. It doesn't matter if you've heard it before--he always delivers a different slant. How many Thunder Road versions are out there? This one is beautiful. Far and away the best of the slow songs here is "I Wish I Were Blind".

I grew up listening to Bruce's music, official and bootlegged, so much it's part of my DNA. I like Bruce, though not as feverently as my siblings. Reading what I've read, and hearing what I'm hearing for the first time, I think the Plugged cd is quite good. Older songs are refreshed, newer songs, dripping with energy. I know how good the E Street Band are, believe me, but this band he was playing with enabled Bruce to do something different, and perhaps to do something basically for himself. I think he succeeded in a big way. A chance to play with other people and reinterpret his catalog. Dylan does it all the time, and everyone knows about the history of comparison between those two. Regretfully the 'fans' couldn't accept the change.

At first I thought it was... too plugged, too live, if such a thing exists. It just had me out of breath, no pauses between songs, it seemed too hurried up. But after repeated listenings I have realized what a great cd this is. A true gem. I always thougt Lucky Town and Human Touch were truly under-rated, and here I have proof. His renditions of these two songs, plus Better Days, Man's Job, My Beautiful Reward, and one of my favorites, If I Should Fall Behind, are even better than the original recordings! And of course, a great, strong yet restrained version of Thunder Road -- this is a keeper for Springsteen's fans, or for those who only own the Greatest Hits!