Shrinking the aural stash

I've been putting some of my vinyl collection up on eBay, motivated by a couple of things - mostly that sometime in the next year we'll be moving a second time (sold the old house, planning to build new, and currently living in an interim place) and moving 30 boxes of LPs was not fun. But it's also to pay down my personal debt a bit - no album sounds as beautiful as the sound of "Goodbye, MasterCard!"

This week I'm parting with my more recent Bruce Springsteen albums, and I'm using this blog to direct your attention there - and sharing some of the product descriptions, because I had a little fun writing 'em ...


Such as the Bruce Springsteen in Concert (Plugged) import album ...

Made in England. Sticker identifies it as "Limited Edition 1993 European Tour Double Album," and the itinerary is printed on the back cover, from Glasgow, Scotland on March 31 through June 1 in Oslo, Norway. The actual recordings are from the MTV "Unplugged" appearance with the "Un" crossed out, because, as we all know, he came out and performed one new acoustic song and then plugged in for a set with his tour band of the time.

The group includes E-Streeters Roy Bittan and Patti Scialfa along with Zack Alford (drums), Shane Fontayne (guitar), Tommy Sims (bass), Crystal Taliefero (guitar) and several other singers. Highlights include a stripped-down version of "Thunder Road" and a blistering eight-minute version of "Light of Day."

 Or the Live in New York triple set ...

This three-record set captures the music featured in an HBO concert and DVD release from the last two nights of the Springsteen & E Street Band Reunion Tour that began in 1999, on vinyl, the format on which all great music deserves to be heard.

There is nothing like a concert by this band, and this album does probably the best job of catching that experience in a recording.

 Or Human Touch and Lucky Town ...

In the dark days of the early 1990s, when vinyl all but disappeared from music store shelves full of cassettes and CDs, I had to special-order this album to keep my collection of Bruce Springsteen LPs complete. Thanks to the Internet it's not THAT hard to find anymore, but this one still doesn't grow on vinyl trees. I'm not sure if it's still in print, but I can tell you this was purchased in 1992 so it's an authentic early copy.

The Boss released two albums simultaneously, the first representing years of meticulous and painstaking work in the studio and the other representing the two-week burst of creativity that followed the completion of the first. Of course the latter album was better, but the carefully crafted one (this one) is pretty darn great, too. 

Now, you may suspect I'm blogging about this to get you to head over to eBay and bid early and often. Who, me?