There's so much Bruce Springsteen
stuff going on, between his new album Working on a Dream (due out Tuesday), the Super Bowl performance, the summer tour (some European dates have already been announced) and of course his great song "The Wrestler" from the film of the same name.
Bruce and his team tend not to deal with archival projects often, and rarely when there is new stuff going on. But manager Jon Landau told Billboard that a Darkness on the Edge of Town box set, akin to the recent Born To Run box set, is in the works, which will probably entail remastering the album, including a live performance and a documentary on the album.
Landau also addressed the somewhat-controversal Walmart exclusive release, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Greatest Hits album. Obviously, the chain's record of treating workers badly is fairly well publicized, and would seem to go against Bruce's philosophy. Landau pointed out that 15% of Bruce's sales already come from Walmart and "We're not doing any advertising for Wal-Mart. We haven't endorsed Wal-Mart or anybody else. We're letting Sony do its job making sure the record is well-presented in as many places as possible." I don't like it either, but I think Bruce's people probably feel that this particular moment (Bruce is returning to blue-collar icon status after years as a politically progressive dude that may alienate some of the very folks who he tries to speak for) - between being pals with the President and playing the Super Bowl, and a Walmart exclusive with all the radio hits was a good way to reach out to an audience who maybe wasn't feeling Bruce for a few years. I don't love it, but I'm OK with it. I'm not buying it though. But to end this post on a positive note, I've heard Working on a Dream, and it's great.
No comments:
Post a Comment