Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band: Live in New York City

Updated on Dec 11, 2023

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Released March 27, 2001 Live in New York City (2001) The Rising (2002) Label Columbia Records		Recorded June 29 July 1, 2000 Release date 27 March 2001 Genre Rock music

Artists Bruce Springsteen, E Street Band Similar Bruce Springsteen albums, Rock music albums

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City is the name of a concert film done by HBO, featuring the first ever major televised Bruce Springsteen concert. It was later released on DVD with eleven extra songs not televised, and as a CD of the same name.

All of these forms document Springsteen and the E Street Band's highly successful 1999-2000 Reunion Tour, their first concert tour together in eleven years.

Film

Running 90 minutes, the film was recorded at concerts on June 29 and July 1, 2000. These were the final two shows in the Band's ten-show tour-ending run at Madison Square Garden in New York City. HBO received six Emmy Award nominations (including "Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special") and won two Awards for the film.

Setlist

"My Love Will Not Let You Down"
"Prove It All Night"
"Two Hearts"
"Atlantic City"
"Mansion on the Hill"
"The River"
"Youngstown"
"Murder Incorporated"
"Badlands"
"Out in the Street"
"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"
"Born to Run"
"Land of Hope and Dreams"
"American Skin (41 Shots)"

"Born to Run" was a late addition to the special. As a result of this, there is a crossfade into and out of the song on the film and DVD and there is a complete fade-out before it on the CD. Also, its placement on the CD (at the end of the first disc, before "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out") was a result of this late decision. It is not listed as a track on the back of some pressings of the CD, but is on all pressings of the DVD.

Springsteen debuted many new songs over the final leg of the tour, and two were included on this special:

" Land of Hope and Dreams", a lengthy American ode for which a studio version would not be released until 2012's Wrecking Ball.

"American Skin (41 Shots)," a controversial ballad about the shooting of Amadou Diallo. A studio version was released as a rare promo single in 2001. Springsteen re-recorded the song in 2013 and released this version on his 2014 High Hopes album.

Also, many songs on the tour were performed with significant differences from their recorded versions. The songs on this special like that were:

"Two Hearts" included a short cover of Marvin Gaye's "It Takes Two"

"Atlantic City" and "Youngstown," from two of Springsteen's solo folk albums, were performed as rock songs, with the full band backing Springsteen.

"Mansion on the Hill," another folk song, was also performed with the entire band, but much mellower and softer than the other two.

"The River" was performed not on guitar, but as an extended saxophone and piano ballad.

"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" was extended to include the band introductions, as well one of Springsteen's monologues and a short cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River", a portion of "It's All Right" written by Curtis Mayfield and a short version of his own "Red Headed Woman" during Patti Scialfa's intro, afterwards performing a verse from one of her own songs ("Rumble Doll") with the band.

Disc one

Contains the entire HBO special, plus credits, a photo gallery, and New York City Serenade, a 15-minute documentary about the concerts.

"My Love Will Not Let You Down"
"Prove It All Night"
"Two Hearts"
"Atlantic City"
"Mansion on the Hill"
"The River"
"Youngstown"
"Murder Incorporated"
"Badlands"
"Out in the Street"
"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"
"Born to Run"
"Land of Hope and Dreams"
"American Skin (41 Shots)"

Disc two

Contains the following previously unseen performances:

"Backstreets"
"Don't Look Back"
"Darkness on the Edge of Town"
"Lost in the Flood"
"Born in the U.S.A."
"Jungleland"
"Light of Day"
"The Promise"
"Thunder Road"
"Ramrod"
"If I Should Fall Behind"

In audio only, under the end credits:

"The E Street Shuffle"

Limited Edition Bonus CD

"My Hometown"
"This Hard Land"

Again, some of the songs were performed with significant alterations from their recorded versions.

"Born in the U.S.A." was performed as a solo folk/blues song with Springsteen on slide 12-string guitar.

"Light of Day" included a prolonged rap about the tour and a series of jokes comparing New York unfavorably to New Jersey.

Also noteworthy is that this performance of "Lost in the Flood" was the first performance of that song since 1978.

CD

Released on March 27, 2001, the album reached #5 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the Billboard Internet Album Charts. The album was later re-released on SACD with a 5.1-surround multichannel mix; the SACD running order is identical to that of the CD release.