''The Agora, Cleveland 1978'' is a

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...

& the E Street Band, released in December 2014 and was the second official release through the

Bruce Springsteen Archives ''Bruce Springsteen Archives'' is an ongoing collection of officially released live albums by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Beginning in November 2014 with the release of the 2012 Apollo Theater concert, Springsteen sought out to relea ...

. The concert is available on CD-R and digital download at http://live.brucespringsteen.net. Recorded at the

Agora Ballroom The Agora Theatre and Ballroom (commonly known as the Cleveland Agora, or simply, the Agora) is a music venue located in Cleveland, Ohio, founded by Henry "Hank" LoConti Sr. The Agora name was used by two other Cleveland venues in succession, the ...

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

on August 9, 1978, during the band's Darkness Tour, the show is considered by many fans and critics to be one of the most essential live recordings by Springsteen and the E Street Band. '' Rolling Stone'' said of the recording "This is simply the greatest live LP this greatest of live rockers has ever officially released." The show was originally broadcast live on the radio with bootlegs circulating for years but this marks the first official release of the album, completely restored and remastered.

Background

The concert was sponsored by radio station WMMS as part of their 10th anniversary. WMMS announced the concert on air just 12 days before the show and free tickets were sent to listeners who dropped off a self-addressed stamped envelope at a local record store chain. Two tickets each were sent to 375 fans chosen at random from the thousands of requests that were received. The concert was broadcast live on WMMS and seven other Midwestern radio stations. The audio mix and recording were supervised by Springsteen's manager Jon Landau and audio engineer Jimmy Iovine. Engineer Toby Scott, who remastered the 2014 release, found tapes of the concert at the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...

in Cleveland where they were part of the Springsteen exhibit "Asbury Park to the Promised Land." Comparing the tapes to other copies of the concert, Scott thought this was the best version and potentially the original master tapes. The exact source of the tapes is unclear as there were two audio feeds—one to Agency Recording studio, located on the second floor of the Agora building, and another to a production truck parked outside. The club's owner, Hank LoConti, had donated the Agora's 16-track master reels to the Western Reserve Historical Society in 2000.Feran, Tom. "Boss' 1978 show is still out there" ''The Plain Dealer'' May 10, 2005

Track listing

All tracks by

, except where noted.

Set one

#" Summertime Blues" – 3:20 ( Eddie Cochran,

Jerry Capehart Jerry Neil Capehart (August 22, 1928 – June 7, 1998) was an American songwriter and music manager. Capehart co-wrote the songs "Summertime Blues" and " C'mon Everybody" with Eddie Cochran, whom he also managed. One of his most-recorded so ...

) #" Badlands" – 4:46 #" Spirit in the Night" – 8:04 #"Darkness on the Edge of Town" – 5:36 #"Factory" – 3:22 #" The Promised Land" – 6:00 #"

Prove It All Night "Prove It All Night" is the penultimate song on Bruce Springsteen's fourth studio album ''Darkness on the Edge of Town'', and the first single released from it. Content In keeping with a storied tradition of rock songs, these lyrics equate love ...

" – 11:49 #"

Racing in the Street "Racing in the Street" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from his 1978 album ''Darkness on the Edge of Town''. In the original vinyl format, it was the last song of side one of the album. The song has been called Springsteen's best song by several c ...

" – 8:58 #" Thunder Road" – 6:44 #" Jungleland" – 10:18

Set two

#"Paradise By the "C" – 4:04 #" Fire" – 3:06 #"Sherry Darling" – 6:12 #" Not Fade Away/

Gloria Gloria may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Christian liturgy and music * Gloria in excelsis Deo, the Greater Doxology, a hymn of praise * Gloria Patri, the Lesser Doxology, a short hymn of praise ** Gloria (Handel) ** Gloria (Jenkins) ...

/ She's the One" – 14:53 (

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas ...

, Norman Petty/ Van Morrison/

Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originato ...

) #" Growin' Up" – 13:02 #"

Backstreets "Backstreets" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from the album ''Born to Run'', which was released in 1975. In the original vinyl release, it concludes side one of the record. Structure "Backstreets" begins with a minute-long instrumental introduc ...

" – 14:02 #" Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) – 12:51

First encore

4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)", often known just as "Sandy", is a 1973 song by Bruce Springsteen, originally appearing as the second song on his album ''The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle''. It was released as a single from the al ...

" – 8:44 #" Born to Run" – 6:09 #"

Because the Night "Because the Night" is a rock song written by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith that was first released in 1978 as a single from the Patti Smith Group album, ''Easter''. This version rose to No. 13 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, as well ...

" – 8:12 #"

Raise Your Hand "Raise Your Hand" is a song written by Steve Cropper, Eddie Floyd, and Alvertis Isbell (Al Bell). It was recorded by Floyd and appeared on his 1967 debut album '' Knock on Wood''. It was released as a single that year, where it reached #16 on th ...

" – 6:37 (

Steve Cropper Steven Lee Cropper (born October 21, 1941), sometimes known as "The Colonel", is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as Ot ...

, Eddie Floyd, Al Bell)

Second encore

#" Twist and Shout" – 7:24 ( Phil Medley, Bert Berns)

Personnel

* Bruce Springsteen –

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

, guitar,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

* Roy Bittan – piano, background vocals * Clarence Clemons – saxophone, percussion, background vocals,

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

* Danny Federici –

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

electronic glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The gloc ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

* Garry Tallent – bass guitar * Steven Van Zandt – guitar, background vocals *

Max Weinberg Max Weinberg (born April 13, 1951) is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' a ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* Plangent Processes – Archival analog to digital transfer

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agora Cleveland 1978 2015 live albums Bruce Springsteen Archives