Bruce Springsteen - 1988-05-22 - Madison Square Garden (HQ Aud)

Bruce Springsteen 

& The E Street Band

1988-05-22

Madison Square Garden

New York, NY

Audience Recording

224 kbps (VBR)

Artwork Included

CD 1:

01. Tunnel Of Love

02. Boom Boom

03. Be True

04. Adam Raised A Cain

05. Two Faces

06. All That Heaven Will Allow

07. Seeds

08. Vigilante Man

09. Cover Me

10. Brilliant Disguise

11. Spare Parts

CD 2:

01. War

02. Born In The USA

03. Tougher Than The Rest

04. Ain't Got You >

05. She's The One

06. You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)

07. I'm A Coward

08. I'm on Fire

09. One Step Up

10. Part Man Part Monkey

11. Across The Borderline

12. Light Of Day

CD 3:

01. Introduction

02. Born To Run (Acoustic)

03. Hungry Heart

04. Glory Days

05. Have Love Will Travel

06. 10th Avenue Freeze Out

07. Sweet Soul Music

08. Raise Your Hand

09. Lonely Teardrops

Bonus Tracks:

10. Walk Like A Man (Chapel Hills SC, April 3, 1988)

11. Can't Help Falling In Love (Chapel Hills SC, April 3, 1988)

12. Love me Tender (Philadelphia PA, September 3, 1988)

13. Cautious Man (Minneapolis MN, October 5, 1988)

Bruce Springsteen - 1988-05-22 - Madison Square Garden (HQ Aud)

When I went to see Bruce Springsteen on May 23 19, 1988, I was expecting another of his high energy, full tilt boogie, rock and roll celebrations. Instead, I got darkness and pain. Perhaps the "This is a dark ride" sign that appeared on the stage as the band entered should have been a tip off. From the tone of lost love in many of the songs from the Tunnel of Love disc, to an angry version of Born In the USA, to an acoustic, stripped bare version of Born To Run, this was a different Bruce Springsteen. With the benefit of hindsight, it's now easy to see why. We know now that Tunnel of Love was about the disintegration of his marriage to Julianne Phillips. We know as well that Bruce was going through other dramatic personal changes at the time, which would lead, in the next 12 months, to dissolving the E Street Band (fortunately only temporarily) and moving from his NJ roots to LA with new love and future wife, Patti Scialfa. It was a time where one chapter was ending and a new one beginning. While I couldn't find a bootleg of the March 19 show that I attended, I do have this excellent audience tape from 1 night earlier at the Garden, May 22, 1988. The set list and mood mimic the concert I was at. Download it for a glimpse inside Bruce and the band at a moment just before their temporary breakup.