Yes, it is the only album you'll ever need, but than again, with over 200 minutes of music, its nearly 5 times longer than the average Springsteen album!

The Live Box Set is an extremely impressive collection of Springsteen, arranged chronologically (with exception of the last track)

The First Track, Thunder Road, is the only one taken from the '75 tour (Born To Run). Its missing its Rock and Roll feel, but stripped to the piano and no guitars or drums, it has a much more intimate feel to it that you can really appreciate.

The Next 8 Tracks are taken from the '78 Tour (Darkness On The Edge Of Town) and interestling enough, only 1 from the album released during that time. Here you'll find many early classics, from Its Hard To Be A Saint In The City, Rosalita and Growin' Up to an previously unreleased "Paradise By The 'C.'" Its also important to note that Bruce covers the song "Fire," a song he wrote, but was never released before, which had become a #1 hit for another group. These are all immaculately recorded, and sound better than their original albums, they are taken from the Roxy, which holds only a few thousand, if even that (some say closer to 1000) so you get that small, intimate feeling

The next several tracks are from the "River Tour" in '80 and '81 and are mostly tracks from his '78 album (Darkness On the Edge Of Town) Including blistering versions of Badlands, Darkness On The Edge Of Town and Candy's Room. Also included here is an electrifying previously unreleased version of "Because The Night" the song Springsteen co-wrote with Patti Smith. Also included is a cover of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" and a very good cover at that. 3 of his songs from his recent album are also included in Cadillac Ranch, You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) and Independence Day. These tracks are nearly all taken from Arenas.

The rest of this collection (final 5 Tracks of Disc 2 and All of Disc 3) are taken from Bruce's most recent tour (when this came out) and his record-breaking one, the Born In The USA tour. First, we have 3 songs from his Album "Nebraska," which, while they don't have the feel they have on his album, sound much better because of first rate recording equipment. Than, there is a thunderous organ version of Born In The USA, which, upon first listen, doesn't measure up to the Album's version, but the more you listen to it, the better it sounds to you.

The highlights of this tour are a version of Born To Run that blows away the album's version, and it is the definitive version of the song. Great recordings of "The River" and "The Promised Land", along with a great cover of the song "War" which makes the original look poor in comparison. An acoustic version of "No Surrender" and a fanstastic horn version of "Tenth Avenue Freezeout."

Overall, the songs sound much better live than they do in the studio, particularly songs from Darkness On The Edge of Town and The River. Some of the songs from Born In The USA sound exactly the same (Bobby Jean, Working On The Highway, Darlington County) and some a little worse (Cover Me) Some great previously unreleased material (Fire, Because The Night, War, Raise Your Hand, Seeds) also helps. The first disc, as you can see by the picture, is supposed to be from small, intimate settings, holding not much more than 1000 people. The second disc, as seen by its picture, is mostly from Arena shows, and the third disc, is from giant, Stadium concerts.

In all cases, the recordings are immaculately done, and are as clear as possible. Springsteen's music sounds better here than on album, and considering the amount of stuff here, this is essential for anyone even remotely interested in Springsteen. There is a reason this is the highest selling box-set of all time! Even though its missing a few songs that should be on it (Blinded By The Light, Prove It All Night, Out In The Street, I'm Goin Down, Dancing In The Dark, Glory Days) it doesn't suffer much from not having them. Get this album today, you won't regret it, and will listen to it rather than to the studio albums.

This was a long awaited box set. It comes as close to a Bruce Springsteen Concert as possible without buying a ticket. The "Boss" takes you down the thundering road of his musical history of this time frame. If you have never seen the "Boss" live then you don't know what your missing.From the hard core Bruce Springsteen listener to the newly discovered fan this set is a MUST HAVE.The pure sound and feeling I get from this historical recording is unsurpassed. Bruce Springsteen's performance from Thunder Road to Jersey Girl will evoke feelings of joy,sadness and pure outright feeling of having you heart dancing in the aisle. Springsteen's cover of "War" and "This Land is Your Land" are the best I have ever heard. Bruce includes songs such as "Beacuse the Night" and others that have never been included in a studio recording before makes this more of a treat. Owning this set is not an option in the life of a Bruce Springsteen Fan's music collection. This is the live set to rival all others. If you don't own all of the Boss' recordings this will make you want more and more!

This set earns five stars, because it contains very good music ... and it's live, a very rare experience for a Springsteen fan. It is out of question that there are a lot of unreleased songs by BS - I own about 2,000 bootlegs by him, all of them rare live and studio songs and I know what I am talking about when I say that this collection of live recordings does not offer much of them. But the songs it offers are really great. I would recommend you to buy this album together with the recently released Live In NYC cd. It might be great fun to listen to the way he did his songs back in the late 70's and early 80's and how performs them today. For exemple, the live version of "Born in the U.S.A." on LINYC is completely different than the version contained in this box-set. "Badlands" sounds pretty much the same, while you get a very emotional introduction (more than 5 minutes) by Bruce Springsteen to "The River" on this album, yet the sound of the music is not as sinister as on LINYC.

My favorite songs from this box-set, my top five, are:

1. Thunder Road 2. Born To Run 3. No Surrender (my favorite song by BS) 4. The River (because of the intro) 5. Racing In The Street

LINYC:

1. Lost In The Flood 2. If I Should Fall Behind 3. Atlantic City 4. American Skin 5. Born In The U.S.A. (very fresh compared to the earlier vs.)

If you scan this list of my 10 fav. songs I get from these 5 cds, you will notice, that if you own both of them you'll have a very fine collection of live music by one of the greatest song-writers/singer of all time. Bruce Springsteen's music offers a huge spectrum of different facettes: darkness, despair, sadness, outrage, humor, passion, humanity.

His music is very true to people, to our lives, to our fears and the way we deal with them - expressions built upon our memories and our dreams. I think that not only the music on these 5 cds (LINYC and Live: 75-85) is very a very rare live collection, but that Bruce Springsteen himself is very rare. He has the power to not only express his thoughts but to let us feel.

If you have never listened to BS before and you want to try him out, I'd suggest that you start out with the 3-cd box-set first before checking out LINYC.

If you want to get convinced of buying one of his two live albums or even both of them, let me tell you one thing: this is Rock'n'Roll - the way it has been and the way it is supposed to be, because after all "we learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school." And you might want to listen to these records.

..."Screen door slams...Mary's dress sways..."

--from THUNDER ROAD.

Ok, ok, so what if I am now 48, and married and I have 5 sons. When I hear this song I still feel the passionate intensity I felt the first time I heard it. Bruce Springsteen is a poet and he continues to infuse my life with his remarkable writing. I never try to separate his words from his music however--that would be a waste. They have a dual integrity that is stunning. I just funnel both the words and the music way down in deep--right to my soul--and suddenly I am eighteen again and I am ready to run...

and I never get tired of listening to his music.

by the way: you younger people: say age 20 or so: this is valuable for you to listen to. In fact, it is definitely one of THE quintessential musical collections of this era. Possibly, a time will come when you need help understanding your parents. They might want to explain what they were like when they were young to you, who knows why. Humor them and they might give you money! You never know! best, Jean

This album has been criticized for what it does not contain- too little material from 75, no interlude during Backstreets, no uncut show, no full-band Thunder Road, etc. Those may be valid complaints but they overlook the many strengths of this fine album. My very first exposure to Springsteen outside of a few Born in the USA songs on the radio was disc 3 of this set. I had no interest in Bruce in 1987, but someone had told me that it was a good way to show off the full potential of the new CD player I'd just gotten for Christmas. I popped in disc 3, heard the introduction to The River and then the live version of that song- I haven't stopped listening since. I had never heard anything like it, and it taught me that music was something more than a pleasant distraction in the background. The emotions, the power, the pure joy of Springsteen's music is captured perfectly on this album. There are many defnitive live versions of Bruce's songs from BIUSA and earlier on here- Born to Run, the piano Thunder Road, The River, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Jersey Girl, even Backstreets. No bootleg could ever surpass any versions of these songs. The few spoken bits that are included, like the aforementioned intro to The River, are also essential Springsteen (makes you wonder why he's stopped speaking much in concert over the past 4 years) and don't really get old. Yes, Bruce does need to release a full, uncut concert recording (a series of them covering each tour in his career is what's needed), but until then, this set epitomizes the absolute best of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. There is simply nothing like them, period.