Bruce Springsteen has just issued Tower Theatre – 12/9/95, the latest official bootleg of his ongoing monthly archive series. The show, recorded in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania just outside of Philadelphia, was culled from his 1995/1997 solo acoustic tour behind his 1995 Grammy Award-winning album, The Ghost Of Tom Joad.
The set marks "The Boss'" fifth dip into the soundboards from the historic tour, which has also seen the release of Freehold, NJ – November 8th, 1996; Belfast, UK – March 19th, 1996; Asbury Park, NJ – November 26th, 1996; and Nice, France – May 18th, 1997.
The new release features the first dip into the solo acoustic tour's initial leg, and marks the first of vault release from the tour to include all 12 songs from the then-recent The Ghost Of Tom Joad album. Older highlights include acoustic takes of "Darkness On The Edge Of Town," "Born In The U.S.A.," "Adam Raised A Cain," "Blinded By The Light," and the Tunnel Of Love favorite "Spare Parts."
The tracklisting to Bruce Springsteen's Tower Theatre – 12/9/95 is: "The Ghost Of Tom Joad," "Adam Raised A Cain," "Straight Time," "Highway 29," "Darkness On The Edge Of Town," "Murder Incorporated," "Mansion On The Hill," "It's The Little Things That Count," "Born In The U.S.A.," "Dry Lightning," "Spare Parts," "Youngstown," "Sinaloa Cowboys," "The Line," "Balboa Park," "The New Timer," "Across The Border," "Blinded By The Light," "This Hard Land," "Streets Of Philadelphia," "Galveston Bay," and "My Best Was Never Good Enough."
At the time of the Tom Joad tour, Bruce Springsteen explained how and why he downshifted into being a one-man-band solo acoustic troubadour: ["I did Nebraska, a record called Nebraska, in 1982 and that was acoustic. And so, when I did the Tom Joad record, I said, 'Well, this is the time now, where I'm gonna. . . Plus I was feelin' closer to my folk voice, I felt like I had something I knew I wanted to say in that voice, rather than sort of the rock n' roll stuff at the moment. Y'know, it just felt like, y'know, where I'd be most valuable and useful to my fans at the moment, y'know? So, that's how I ended out up here by myself. It's a little, little tricky, though (laughs)."] SOUNDCUE (:25 OC: . . . little tricky, though (laughs))