Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
featuring the Miami Horns
Towson Center, Towson State University
Towson, MD
March 13, 1977
"Official Audience Recording"
Nothing to Lose: The 1977 Tour Revisited Vol. Four
JEMS Archive

Lineage: low-gen cassettes (likely second generation) > DAT (circa 1993-94 16/48 transfer)

JEMS 2015 Transfer: 1994 DAT > Fostex D-5 > Sound Devices UBSPre2 > iZtotope RX > pitch correction > iZotope Ozone and MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1 .wav > Peak Pro XT (volume smoothing / patch / index) > xACT 2.21 > FLAC

01 Night
02 Don't Look Back
03 Spirit in the Night
04 It's My Life
05 Thunder Road
06 Mona > She's the One
07 Tenth Avenue Freeze-out (w/ Miami Horns)
08 Action in the Streets (w/ Miami Horns)
09 Backstreets
10 Jungleland
11 Rosalita (w/Miami Horns)
12 Born to Run
13 Quarter to Three (w/ Miami Horns)

Known Faults:
- Tenth Ave Freeze-Out: 10 seconds patched at the start with alternate recorder
- Rosalita: 1:30 patched about 2/3 of the way through with alternate recorder

Welcome back to the fourth chapter of JEMS' Nothing to Lose series revisiting Bruce's remarkable 1977 tour. For the full history of our obsession with this era and the back story on these "Official Audience Tapes," please refer to the notes in Vol. One found here:

http://jungleland.dnsalias.com/torrents-details.php?id=38539

Installment No. 4 brings Springsteen to Towson, MD, 14 miles outside of Baltimore on the campus of Towson State University. In terms of the '77 tour, this stop is somewhere on the fourth turn, heading for the home stretch, with just 12 days left to go before the tour memorably wraps up in Boston on March 25. 

There's one very significant change to the set list this night, the introduction of one of Springsteen's greatest rockers, "Don't Look Back," which would not be released for another 22 years. The song debuted three nights earlier in Toldeo, OH, and it is still in embryonic form, with lyrics evolving show to show. 

At this point in the song's evolution, Springsteen has the first verse and a half basically set, before we hear the couplet "riding out by the dynamo / pushing daddy's car as fast as it would go" in the place of the eventual and more memorable "white lights burning, pocket's full of cash / angel writes her name in lipstick on my dash," most of which is found here in the third verse. The bridge is also different, centered around the lines "someday I want to hold you / someday I want to make you mine." It's a thrill to hear this wonderful song take shape. 

Of the so-called "official audience tapes," Towson is probably the least known, as it has never been bootlegged. We think you'll find this new transfer an improvement over circulating copies. Like all these '77 official audies, the sound does vary slightly throughout the show, sometimes sounding more locked in than others, but, overall, the Towson tape is a fine listen. Samples provided.

Special thanks yet again to: M and J from JEMS for pulling out our many versions of these DATs and helping make new transfers; the folks on the Stone Pony message board whose thread sparked this series; and to mjk5510 who continues to stand at the ready in support of our efforts and add his magic to the finished product.

There's much more to come from '77, so stay tuned.

BK for JEMS