Bruce Springsteen - 1977 - The Boston Godfather
Bruce Springsteen
The Boston Godfather
The Definitive Boston March 1977 Tapes
G.R. BOX 17
March 22, 1977
Music Hall
Boston, MA
101. Night
102. Don't Look Back
103. Spirit In The Night
104. It's My Life
105. Thunder Road
106. Mona / She's The One
107. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
108. Action In The Streets
201. Backstreets
202. Jungleland
203. Rosalita
204. Born To Run
205. The Promise
206. Quarter To Three
207. You Can't Sit Down
March 23, 1977
Music Hall
Boston, MA
301. Night
302. Don't Look Back
303. Spirit In The Night
304. Incident On 57th Street
305. Thunder Road
306. Mona / She's The One
307. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
308. Growin' Up
401. Backstreets
402. Jungleland
403. Rosalita
404. Born To Run
405. Quarter To Three
406. Little Latin Lupe Lu
407. You Can't Sit Down
March 24, 1977
Music Hall
Boston, MA
501. Intro
502. Don't Look Back
503. Spirit In The Night
504. Incident On 57th Street
505. Thunder Road
506. Mona / She's The One
507. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
508. Growin' Up
509. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City
601. Backstreets
602. Jungleland
603. Rosalita
604. Born To Run
605. Quarter To Three
606. Little Latin Lupe Lu
607. You Can't Sit Down
608. Higher And Higher
March 25, 1977
Music Hall
Boston, MA
701. Night
702. Don't Look Back
703. Spirit In The Night
704. Incident On 57th Street
705. Thunder Road
706. Mona / She's The One
801. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
802. Action In The Streets
803. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City
804. Backstreets
805. Jungleland
806. Rosalita
901. Born To Run
902. Quarter To Three
903. Little Latin Lupe Lu
904. You Can't Sit Down
905. Higher And Higher
Hard on the heels of the no label releases Boston 1977: Are You Ready For The Final Moment? (featuring the show from 25th March) and Boston 1977: Legends From The Music Hall (containing the other three shows) comes Godfather’s handsome boxed set The Boston Godfather – The Definitive Boston March 1977 Tapes, which contains all four concerts. As with the no label releases, Godfather’s source for these shows is the recently torrented Steve Hopkins master tapes.
Listening to the Godfather and no label releases reveals no significant differences in sound quality, which is excellent throughout. However, The Boston Godfather: The Definitive Boston March 1977 Tapes has two distinct advantages. Firstly, it collects all the shows into one set. Secondly, and much more significantly, the packaging, in common with the other Godfather boxes, is gorgeous. The box front and the front covers of the tri-fold sleeves of each individual concert set (as seen above) feature posed black-and-white photos of Springsteen taken by Eric Meola, the photographer who took the iconic shot of Springsteen and Clarence Clemons that features on the sleeve of Born To Run. Several more appear in the twenty-page booklet. These photographs appear in the book Streets of Fire: Bruce Springsteen in Photographs and Lyrics 1977-1979. The four front covers also appear in miniature on the rear of the box, together with the track listings. The individual sets and booklets feature appropriate onstage shots, some of which will be familiar from the no label sets. There are also a couple of posed band shots, one of which also appeared on the packaging of Boston 1977: Are You Ready For The Final Moment? and another which was used in advertisements for the Darkness On The Edge Of Town album. The sleeves of the four individual sets also reproduce Springsteen’s between-song comments as compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi and contained in the “Storyteller” section of the Brucebase website. The booklet contains extensive notes charting “the most difficult years of Bruce Springsteen’s entire career,” and credited, as usual, to “Joe Roberts.” The discs themselves reproduce the photograph from the box lid on the “label” side. The overall effect is stunning. These fantastic Boston shows are an essential acquisition for Springsteen collectors and the care taken over the production of this set makes The Boston Godfather: The Definitive Boston March 1977 Tapes the version to have.
