Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen, born 1949 aka 'The Boss' - is an American singer/songwriter, guitar, keyboard and harmonica player, and an entertainer, this is a review of the DVD of the Complete Video Anthology 1978- 2000.
Having owned the original video of the Anthology 1978-1988, and enjoyed it for many years, I now have it on DVD along with the extra DVD featuring 15 bonus tracks, bringing in more recent material. This brings the dates of his videos up to the year 2000. As a DVD there is no beginning, middle and end, therefore I am reviewing it as a DVD of music and video complete.
BACKGROUND:
Bearing in mind the time span of this DVD (22 years), it has to be mentioned that if you are not already a fan of Bruce Springsteen, you may not appreciate the early content, as the quality is not of such a high quality as more recently produced videos. I however enjoy watching it even now. The lyrics Springsteen writes are often about people struggling for freedom from the lives they are leading, and pressures they are under they also contain lots of personal subject matter. He has also been involved with many emergency relief efforts.
DISC 1:
ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) 1978 - Lively stage performance, poor quality, but watchable to see a very young Springsteen wowing the crowd along with a very young E Street Band. This appeared on one of his first albums.
THE RIVER 1980 - In concert, poor quality, but such an excellent ballad that its stands up well. It was written about his brother-in-law and his sister, Springsteen introduces this as a new song! Anyone studying body language might know the cause of him fluttering his eyelids throughout the song! Good piano playing, and Bruce gets his harmonica out!
THUNDER ROAD 1980 - Filmed at the same concert as previous track, Brilliant!
"You can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain, make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain, Waste your summer praying in vain for a saviour to rise from these streets…"
ATLANTIC CITY 1982 - Black and white video of what I presume to be Atlantic City! Makes it look a run down dated place! Great track though. Gives an impression of life being a struggle.
DANCING IN THE DARK 1984 - Beginning of the Bruce Springsteen Fever! Notice a very young Courtney Cox in a cameo role as a girl that gets to dance with her idol on the stage! A good pop tune.
BORN IN THE USA 1984 - Song about Americans going to Vietnam. Very bad dubbing spoils this track to a degree, saved only by a few snippets of film about the sixties.
I'M ON FIRE 1985 - I remember seeing this video at the time of its release. Short track but entertaining story video about a mechanic and a wealthy lady who only lets 'him' fix her car, much to his mates amusement! The song is about his thoughts and fantasies, that never go anywhere.
GLORY DAYS 1985 - A song about a baseball player reminiscing. I love this song, the E Street Band finally get noticed! as does Patti Scialfa who joined the E Street band, and ended up a few years later as Mrs Springsteen. A good rhythm track. All guitars to the right - swing!
MY HOMETOWN 1985 - Good Ballad, title self explanatory.
WAR - The only song that Springsteen didn't write. This is introduced with a father and son watching a TV news bulletin about President Nixon being sworn in, and by Springsteen telling us what growing up in the 60s was like amid the Vietnam war and conscription, and how having blind faith could get you killed. The video finishes with the father alone watching TV. Quite a powerful song.
FIRE 1986 - A light hearted track, I remember the Pointer sisters doing this one! Accompanied by guitar and accordion, Bruce flirts and teases the audience!
BORN TO RUN 1987 - "Remember in the end, nobody wins unless everybody wins" A brilliant track full of energy, and a video montage of footage from the numerous massive concerts played in enormous stadiums. Showing the band having fun with the audience and each other on stage. The atmosphere is caught here for ever, and I wish I had got to be in the audience! This video shows how big 'Brucemania' became in the 1980s.
BRILLIANT DISGUISE 1987 - Black and white slower song, Bruce singing and playing guitar while seated, the camera closes in slowly and then backs away.
"So tell me what I see, when I look in your eyes, Is that you baby, or just a brilliant disguise?"
TUNNEL OF LOVE 1987 - A funfair, snake lady, fire eater, and sword swallower, are mixed together to feature in a black and white 'swirl' inside the funhouse, while Bruce sings (in colour) in the tunnel of a changing relationship, probably mirrored from his own failing first marriage. This shows (I think) Patti Scialfa walking through the tunnel at one point.
"Ought to be easy, ought to be simple enough. Man meets woman, and they fall in love. But the house is haunted, and the ride gets rough. You got to learn to live with what you can't rise above."
ONE STEP UP 1988 - Ballad, I like this one. The video shows Bruce in a dim bar, with only an old man for company, his wedding ring is prominent, and he is remembering and regretting the past. There are snippets of a couple touching skin on skin, although what parts are not clear as they are shot very close up and have water spraying about, very tasteful I have to add.
"Another fight and I slam the door on, another battle in our dirty little war, when I look at myself I don't see, the man I wanted to be…"
TOUGHER THAN THE REST 1987 - Slower song, Patti Scialfa has had a makeover, slimmed down, short skirt, and appears to have caught Springsteens eye now, as the video captures the way the pair are singing to each other on stage, and the electricity is there in their body language! When I first saw this I hardly recognised her from previous appearances. She looks if anything much younger.
SPARE PARTS 1988 - This is the one song I am not so keen on, but then one isn't so bad, its about a woman who is treated badly by her husband, and finally breaks away with her child. I think it was filmed in Sheffield UK, while on tour. There is footage of the people making their way there to Queue.
BORN TO RUN (ACOUSTIC) 1988 - I love this slow version of an old favourite. Bruce introduces it, as a song he wrote when he was 24, in his bedroom in Long Branch, New Jersey. He says he feels he has been trying to find the answers to the questions it asks ever since!
"Together Wendy we'll live with the sadness I'll love you with all the madness in my soul, Someday girl I don't know when we're gonna get to that place, Where we really want to go and we'll walk in the sun, But till then tramps like us baby we were born to run"
In 1989 the E Street band were disbanded and other musicians played on further recordings, during the 90s Springsteen married Scialfa, and they had 3 children. The E Street band regrouped with Springsteen officially in 1999.
Disc 2:
HUMAN TOUCH (year not given) - Video of a tram at night moving through a city, passing young people hanging about getting up to no good, Bruce is filmed performing the song for camera, as well as being a passenger on the tram. Patti Scialfa can be heard doing the backing vocals, which greatly add to this track. Title is self explanatory.
BETTER DAYS 1992 - A good song performed on set and resembling a sound check, as there is no audience! There are some new performers on stage with Patti and Bruce. Very relaxed and looking like they are having fun
"Now a life of leisure and a pirate's treasure Don't make much for tragedy But it's a sad man my friend who's livin' in his own skin And can't stand the company"
57 CHANNELS (AND NOTHIN' ON) 1992- A short song about a man who found that even if you can afford anything, maybe there are still some things you can't get! Quite a funny story-song in my opinion!
"I bought a bourgeois house in the Hollywood hills With a truckload of hundred thousand dollar bills, Man came by to hook up my cable TV We settled in for the night my baby and me, We switched 'round and 'round 'til half-past dawn There was fifty-seven channels and nothin' on"
LEAP OF FAITH 1992 - A big concert performance, showing various new musicians, and a very happy audience. Not too sure if I like this one on this DVD.
STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA 1993 - A song written for the film Philadelphia, this song won an academy award, and tells the story of a gay man dying of aids. The video shows Springsteen walking through an area of Philadelphia, and while he is singing, groups of people look up and acknowledge him. We also get a few shots of Tom Hanks who was in the film. Day changes to night and he is still walking. Not a happy tune.
"I was bruised and battered and I couldn't tell what I felt I was unrecognizable to myself Saw my reflection in a window I didn't know my own face Oh brother are you gonna leave me wasting away On the streets of Philadelphia"
MURDER INCORPORATED 1995 - Powerful, serious song, hailing on this DVD the return of the E Street Band for a big crowd performance. The song seems to be telling you how everyone is watching their backs for attack, and no one is safe.
SECRET GARDEN 1995 - Seated, playing his guitar and singing, the film cuts in and out to show women, of all ages living their lives, I think its all about how different men and women are!
"She'll look at you and smile, and her eyes will say, she's got a secret garden Where everything you want, where everything you need, will always stay a million miles away"
HUNGRY HEART 1995 - Typical (by now) video of Bruce walking, and shots of him performing although this looks like a much smaller, possibly surprise performance for the fans, (like bands that play on roofs!) Good upbeat song, and lots of smiling faces! This video really does include a bit of all his others!
DEAD MAN WALKING 1996 - This is from the soundtrack of the film of the same name, and it is about a man on death row who befriends a nun. A seriously depressing tune if you ask me! Maybe it fits the film, but I don't think it fits on this DVD very well. It shows plenty of the film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.
THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD 1996 - Another video that I don't really like, apparently I am not alone! It is from a solo album, which from what I have heard was poorly received because the songs were very much all like this! The word used was 'didactic' meaning dictating or instructing! Lots of black and white footage of nothing specific, reminded me of a spaghetti western!
THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD ( FROM THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO) 1995 - An acoustic version performed of the previous song.
HIGHWAY PATROLMAN 2000 - And Unfortunately yet another depressingly slow song, This is from a film too, called 'Indian Runner' the video was directed by Sean Penn. It's about 2 brothers, and how the good bails the bad one out of trouble, because it's the thing to do, even if its wrong!
IF I SHOULD FALL BEHIND 2000 - Excellent! With just the one guitar being gently played, Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa sing in turn, and then the deep but gentle voice of Clarence Clemons takes a turn before they go round again. Really an emotional reunion of the original E Street band at their best.
"We said we'd walk together baby come what may That come the twilight should we lose our way If as we're walkin' a hand should slip free I'll wait for you, and should I fall behind Wait for me"
BORN IN THE USA (FROM CHARLIE ROSE) 1998 - An acoustic twangy version of this song, and I don't think it is very nice. Must have been a phase he was goingthrough!
SECRET GARDEN (ALTERNATE VERSION WITH STRINGS) - This was just what it says!
MUSICIANS:
THE E STREET BAND: Roy Bittan - Keyboards Clarence Clemmons - Saxaphone Danny Federici - Keyboards Nils Lofgren - Guitar Patti Scialfa - Vocals, Guitar Bruce Springsteen - Vocals, Guitar Gary Tallent - Bass Steve Van Zandt - Guitar Max Weinberg - Drums
ALSO PERFORMING:
Zachary Alford - Drums Shane Fontayne - Guitar Tommy Simms - Bass Crystal Taliefero - Guitar, Percussion and Vocals Gia Ciambotti - Vocals Carol Dennis - Vocals Cleopatra Kennedy - Vocals Jens Streifling - Horns, Vocals Carl Carlton - Guitar, Vocals Ken Taylor - Bass Wolfgang Neidecken - Guitar, Vocals Bertram Engel - Drums, Vocals Axel Buechel - Keyboards, Vocals
OTHER INFORMATION:
Not Certificate rated 5.1 Surround sound or pcm stereo Running time - 165 minutes £15.24 in Tesco
I would recommend this as an excellent collection of Springsteen material, I really enjoy the first disc and several of the videos on the second disc, however the depressing tone of the main part of Disk 2 is not so much to my taste, maybe if I had watched the films that a few of them were from, I would be more tuned in. Maybe I just need to get used to them!
4 Stars because of the videos that I didn't think were right for the DVD.
I havent listed the various directors, etc, as the performers list was long enough, if you need to know anything more, let me know and I will try to find out.
and features 33 performances spanning 22 years of concerts music videos and television appearances by Springsteen. The two-hour collection represents a complete ...
