Bruce Springsteen, new live album from a concert in ’81

He promised it when he finished publishing the official recordings of the 2025 tour shows: Bruce Springsteen returns to open the archives of live music with a new official bootleg, taken from a concert at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 6, 1981, during the “The River” tour. An epic concert, which fans partly know: three recordings were taken from this evening and later included in “Live/1975-85”, the Boss’s first live collection, published 40 years ago after “Born in the USA”. The publication is available for streaming by subscription or for paid download on Nugs.net, which has been responsible for the boss’s live releases for years, and anticipates the reissue of “Nebraska” with unreleased songs and the infamous “Electric Nebraska”, scheduled for October 17th.

The archivist Erik Flanagan writes about the concert in the notes:

This recording from E. Rutherford’s fourth night, July 6, 1981, captures what may have been one of the first concerts where Springsteen didn’t have to risk it all or prove it every night. This doesn’t mean it was an inferior performance, far from it. But having just conquered Europe and thus opened up a second-tier fan base that would sustain him for decades to come, Bruce’s return to New Jersey was a victory lap. A performance for the converted. Significantly, as joyful as the performance is, it is equally poignant when it touches on the darkest parts of the soul.

Three songs from July 6th were selected for and it’s easy to see why this “Independence Day” was chosen. Springsteen tells his father’s story at the kitchen table at his most compassionate, and his voice oscillates forcefully between spoken word and sung, including a final “ahh” held until the last note.

What followed River’s tour may have been marked by isolation and uncertainty, but that night Bruce Springsteen knew he had given it his all. “That’s it,” Springsteen concludes confidently. “There’s nothing else.”

Springsteen began releasing official recordings in early 2014, with concerts in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. At the end of the same year he opened his archives by also publishing historical concerts and creating the site live.brucespringsteen.net, now incorporated into Nugs, and following the example of artists such as Pearl Jam (who have published every concert since 2000) and the Grateful Dead (who have periodically published official concerts from their archives since the 1990s).
Over the years, dozens and dozens of historic shows have been published (here is a selection of the best).