The cover of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s “No Nukes 1979” album.
Bruce Springsteen usually announces new releases in his archival music series on the first Friday of every month. But as a bonus, this Christmas Eve, he has posted that the next release in the series is of the Sept. 21-22, 1979 performances by him and his E Street Band at the No Nukes benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Downloads are available now, and the CD will be released on Jan. 21. Visit live.brucespringsteen.net.
It’s no exaggeration to say that these performances were among the most important of The Boss’ career.
Springsteen, who was just about to turn 30 (on Sept. 23, 1979), had released his Darkness on the Edge of Town album the year before, and would release The River, the year after. There were five No Nukes shows (Sept. 19-23), but he was booked for only the third and fourth nights. Other artists who performed in the course of the run, organized by Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) to raise money and awareness for the fight against nuclear energy, included Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Tom Petty, The Doobie Brothers, Gil Scott-Heron, Chaka Khan and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
A movie and soundtrack album were released. Springsteen, who had not released any live music at this point in his career (and had virtually no television exposure, since MTV didn’t exist yet) , was represented by “Stay” (featuring Browne and Rosemary Butler) and his “Detroit Medley” on the triple live album, and by “The River” (performed live for the first time at these shows), “Thunder Road” and “Quarter to Three” in the concert film. For all those who had not yet seen him in concert, the No Nukes album and film was, very possibly, their first opportunity to experience his live show.
On the second night that Springsteen performed, Petty joined Springsteen, Browne and Butler in singing “Stay.” That recording is being released here, for the first time.
For each sale of this new album, $2 will be donated to MUSE.
All songs from both shows are included in the package. The setlists were very similar on the two nights. Here they are.
SEPT. 21
“Prove It All Night”
“Badlands”
“The Promised Land”
“The River”
“Sherry Darling”
“Thunder Road”
“Jungleland”
“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”
“Born to Run”
“Stay” (with Jackson Browne and Rosemary Butler)
“Detroit Medley”
“Rave On!”
SEPT. 22
“Prove It All Night”
“Badlands”
“The Promised Land”
“The River”
“Sherry Darling”
“Thunder Road”
“Jungleland”
“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”
“Born to Run”
“Stay” (with Jackson Browne, Rosemary Butler and Tom Petty)
“Quarter to Three”
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