1978-10-26 Telegraph Hill Studio, Holmdel, NJ

Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

After a month's break in the Darkness Tour, and a few days away from the start of the final tour leg, Bruce convenes a band rehearsal in a converted barn on his farmhouse property on Telegraph Hill Road in Holmdel, NJ. This barn, which Bruce had been using for band rehearsals since mid-1976, was nicknamed the "Telegraph Hill Studio", although in reality it was not a studio - there were no high level room acoustics or recording facilities. The rehearsals would have lasted much longer, over a number of days, so the known audio likely represents only a part of a single session on October 26. The audio includes three takes of "The Ties That Bind", six takes of "Tonight", one take of the Buddy Holly-ish "I’m Gonna Treat You Right (Wild Kisses)". As it turned out, "The Ties That Bind" made its public live debut at Princeton a few days later. The well-known rehearsal take of "Janey Needs A Shooter" was previously listed here actually dates from May 1979, please see The River - Studio Sessions page for details on this track.

Closed Rehearsal

The above-mentioned partial setlist (the actual performing order is not known) is culled from very crudely recorded audio that is believed to emanate from this October 1978 rehearsal. Unfortunately the sound quality is not good and Springsteen’s vocals are buried beneath the instruments. All this audio has been in circulation since 1984 (originally among only a few people in cassette form). However the audio seems to have quickly been broken up into individual tracks and didn’t circulate complete. This material then soon trickled into the hands of vinyl bootleggers and within 15 months all the material had appeared on various different (vinyl) bootlegs – most of it misidentified. The 1984-1994 history of this rehearsal audio from cassette tape (just a few collectors) to vinyl (a limited group of collectors) to CD (a very wide group of collectors) warrants elaboration here. "Wild Kisses" first appeared in mid-1985 as a bonus 7" single in the very rare colored vinyl edition of the ten-LP box set 'All Those Years' (SC Records). Soon afterwards, in early 1986, both "Wild Kisses" plus one of the takes of "Tonight" appeared on the scarce four-LP set 'Studio Collection' (Babel Records). In mid-1986 one of the takes of "Ties That Bind" and another take of "Tonight" appeared on the vinyl LP boot 'Fever' (Backstreets Records). Finally, in early 1987 all of the audio appeared on the extremely rare vinyl LP boot 'At Home' (Rock Records). However due to the scarcity of these (above noted) vinyl bootleg titles this rehearsal audio was not well known in the collector community until it appeared in the 1990s on widely distributed CD format bootlegs. This material is often listed as emanating from the Darkness On The Edge Of Town studio sessions – however the audio dynamics are clearly from a rehearsal location, not a studio environment. All this audio became widely known when it appeared on the big-selling 1990s era CD boot 'Unsurpassed Springsteen Vol. 6 The Boss Vol. 1' (Yellow Dog).

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