''The Agora, Cleveland 1978'' is a live album by Bruce Springsteen &

the E Street Band The E Street Band is an American rock band, and has been musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. For the bulk of Springsteen's recording and performing caree ...

, released in December 2014 and was the second official release through the Bruce Springsteen Archives. The concert is available on

CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the i ...

and digital download at http://live.brucespringsteen.net. Recorded at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio on August 9, 1978, during the band's

Darkness Tour Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Darkness Tour was a concert tour of North America that ran from May 1978 through the rest of the year, in conjunction with the release of Springsteen's album ''Darkness on the Edge of Town''. (Like mos ...

, 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 ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' 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 WMMS (100.7 FM) – branded ''100.7 WMMS: The Buzzard'' – is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Widely regarded as one of the most influential rock s ...

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 The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

radio stations. The audio mix and recording were supervised by Springsteen's manager

Jon Landau Jon Landau (born May 14, 1947) is an American music critic, manager, and record producer. He has worked with Bruce Springsteen in all three capacities. He is the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and re ...

and audio engineer

Jimmy Iovine James Iovine ( ; ; born March 11, 1953) is an American entrepreneur, record executive, and media proprietor best known as the co-founder of Interscope Records. In 2006, Iovine and rapper-producer Dr. Dre founded Beats Electronics, which produces ...

. Engineer Toby Scott, who remastered the 2014 release, found tapes of the concert at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 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 Bruce Springsteen, except where noted.

Set one

Summertime Blues "Summertime Blues" is a song co-written and recorded by American rock artist Eddie Cochran. It was written by Cochran and his manager Jerry Capehart. Originally a single B-side, it was released in August 1958 and peaked at number 8 on the ''Bi ...

" – 3:20 (

Eddie Cochran Ray Edward Cochran (; October 3, 1938 – April 17, 1960) was an American rock and roll musician. Cochran's songs, such as " Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", " C'mon Everybody" and " Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desir ...

, Jerry Capehart) #"

Badlands Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, m ...

" – 4:46 #"

Spirit in the Night "Spirit in the Night" is a song written and originally recorded by American singer/songwriter Bruce Springsteen for his debut album ''Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.'' (1973). It was also the second single released from the album. A cover versi ...

" – 8:04 #"Darkness on the Edge of Town" – 5:36 #"Factory" – 3:22 #" The Promised Land" – 6:00 #" Prove It All Night" – 11:49 #" Racing in the Street" – 8:58 #" Thunder Road" – 6:44 #"

Jungleland "Jungleland" is the closing song on Bruce Springsteen's 1975 album ''Born to Run''. It contains one of E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons' most recognizable solos. It also features short-time E Streeter Suki Lahav, who performs the deli ...

" – 10:18

Set two

#"Paradise By the "C" – 4:04 #"

Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

" – 3:06 #"Sherry Darling" – 6:12 #" Not Fade Away/ Gloria/ She's the One" – 14:53 ( Buddy Holly,

Norman Petty Norman Petty (May 25, 1927 – August 15, 1984) was an American musician, record producer, publisher, radio station owner, and considered to be one of the founding fathers of early rock & roll. Biography Petty was born in the small town of Clo ...

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

/ Springsteen) #" Growin' Up" – 13:02 #" Backstreets" – 14:02 #"

Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" is a 1973 song by Bruce Springsteen, from his ''The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle'' album, and is especially famed as a concert number for Springsteen and The E Street Band. The song, which clocks in at ju ...

– 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 ''Born to Run'' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on August 25, 1975, by Columbia Records. As his effort to break into the mainstream, the album was a commercial success, peaking at number three ...

" – 6:09 #" Because the Night" – 8:12 #" Raise Your Hand" – 6:37 ( Steve Cropper,

Eddie Floyd Edward Lee Floyd (born June 25, 1937) is an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s, including the No. 1 R&B hit song " Knock on Wood". Biography Floyd was born in ...

Al Bell Al Bell (born Alvertis Isbell; March 15, 1940) is an American record producer, songwriter, and record executive. He is best known as having been an executive and co-owner of Stax Records, based in Memphis, Tennessee, during the latter half of the ...

)

Second encore

Twist and Shout "Twist and Shout" is a 1961 song written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns (later credited as "Bert Russell"). It was originally recorded by the Top Notes, but it did not become a hit in the record charts until it was reworked by the Isley Brothers ...

" – 7:24 (

Phil Medley Philip Medley (April 9, 1916 – October 3, 1997) was an American songwriter, notable for his composition "Twist and Shout", which he wrote along with Bert Russell. The song was made famous by both The Isley Brothers and The Beatles. Medley also ...

Bert Berns Bertrand Russell Berns (November 8, 1929 – December 30, 1967), also known as Bert Russell and (occasionally) Russell Byrd, was an American songwriter and record producer of the 1960s. His songwriting credits include " Twist and Shout", " Piec ...

)

Personnel

* Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

, harmonica *

Roy Bittan Roy J. Bittan (born July 2, 1949) is an American musician best known as a long-time member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Nicknamed "The Professor", Bittan joined the E Street Band in 1974. He plays the piano, organ, accordion and synthe ...

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

Clarence Clemons Clarence Anicholas Clemons Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death in 2011, he was the saxophonist for The E Street Band. Clemons released several s ...

–

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, clarinet *

Danny Federici Daniel Paul Federici (January 23, 1950 – April 17, 2008) was an American musician, best known as the organ, glockenspiel, and accordion player and a founding member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. In 2014, Federici was posthumously induct ...

– organ, electronic glockenspiel, accordion *

Garry Tallent Garry Wayne Tallent (born October 27, 1949), sometimes billed as Garry W. Tallent, is an American musician and record producer, best known for being bass player and founding member of the E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band si ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

Steven Van Zandt Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandoli ...

–

* Max Weinberg – drums * Plangent Processes – Archival analog to digital transfer

References

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