Chapel Hill Soundcheck 1988

Bruce Springsteen
Dean E Smith Student Activities Center
Chapel Hill, NC
March 4, 1988
Soundcheck
(DS Archives Volume 45)

Transfer: Low Gen DS Archives Tape > Nakamichi DR-01 (azimuth adjusted) > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity > iZotope RX / ozone 5 (mastered) > Peak Pro 6 (post production) > xACT 2.39 > FLAC

01 Let It Be Me
02 Ballad Of Easy Rider (snippet)
03 He Was A Friend Of Mine
04 Goin' Back
05 My Back Pages (snippet)
06 I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better (snippet)
07 Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)
08 Brown Eyed Girl
09 Tupelo Honey >
10 Crazy Love
11 I Shall Be Released
12 Mr. Tambourine Man
13 Mr. Tambouring Man (snippet)
14 Just Like A Woman
15 Tunnel Of Love

Known Faults:
-Tunnel Of Love: end cut

A Bruce Springsteen soundcheck is a dimension where preparedness, creativity, and playing music for the sheer enjoyment take turns, and sometimes join forces. Maybe an unreleased song gets worked up, like �Beneath the Floodline� (in 1984, at the Spectrum in Philadelphia) or �Devils & Dust,� which got its first-known tryout in Vancouver B.C., before a 2003 concert. And recordings like ones made both afternoons at Red Rocks in 1981 let us hear sounds that complement the adventure of the shows themselves.

On this count, collectors surely recall the 1988 recording from the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. Springsteen sounds like he�s there for fun, taking leisurely strolls through a range of unusual material, relative to any setlist. Though the sound quality isn�t the best, it�s a perfect invitation to that other dimension, full of music Springsteen is unlikely to play anywhere else.

Now we welcome an upgrade of another soundcheck recorded that year, on March 4 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the second city on the Tunnel of Love Express Tour. Its 14 songs include ones by The Byrds and Bob Dylan. And note the appearance of several Van Morrison numbers: did Springsteen consider something like �Crazy Love� for the set? What a choice call that would have been!

Despite playing it just hours before shows in both southern cities, it�s possible that Springsteen was merely scrolling through his own list of favorite songs, strumming chords and finding melodies while technicians worked to dial in the sound for this instrument or that, with the E Street Band joining in. Like other recordings, this one features plenty of that: random elements sounding before something emerges, if only for a few moments.

You�ll hear that within the first minute, when �Let It Be Me� (the Gilbert B�caud composition made popular by the Everly Brothers in 1960) takes shape, seemingly out of thin air. A short segment of �Ballad of Easy Rider� appears, too, the Roger McGuinn song that Springsteen and the E Street Band performed live just once, for Vietnam Veterans at the famous 1981 benefit concert.

The previous iteration of the Chapel Hill soundcheck recording verges on the unlistenable, one reason why that song�s presence seems to have escaped notation until now. Same with �I�ll Feel A Whole Lot Better�: its short turn gets added to the record, too.

Springsteen had performed both Carole King�s �Goin� Back� (written with Gerry Goffin) and �Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),� the Woody Guthrie composition (played once, in 1981). Here, Nils Lofgren puts a stamp on both: a second vocal on the former � which is fitting, of course, because it�s on his 1975 debut solo LP. And on the latter, we hear a hint of the steel guitar sound that he would formalize years later on the Reunion Tour.

Capturing a soundcheck typically requires more stealth than the concert itself, as there�s little place to blend in. While we make an educated guess about how the taper did it, we can listen to the mystique of Chapel Hill, as a really cool soundcheck plays out in reasonably good quality. Now, just imagine how either �Let It Be Me� or �Crazy Love� would have accented the encore on the 1988 tour.

- slipkid68

As I continue to mine the DS Archives for upgrades and alternate sources occasionally one will jump out and immediately rise to the top of the stack. After popping this one in I immediately recognized it as a substantial upgrade to past releases. The distance to the recording was still present as was the heavy bass creating a murky buried sound, however, I could tell underneath the heavy bass there was a range of frequencies previously absent from any of the versions I have heard.

Modern technology really came through on this one pulling out the previously missing frequencies making the aforementioned unrecognizable songs emerge now recognizable, unfortunately nothing could be done for the distance and reverb present but it has gone from pretty much unlistenable to not only listenable but quite enjoyable.

In addition, I removed dozens upon dozens of coughs, mic bumps, tinkling glass sound, what sounds like a high pitched beep when a smoke detector needs the batteries replaced, pops and clicks.

One other interesting note, the tape contains 18 extra seconds at the start compared to other versions and you can clearly hear the final notes of "Let It Be Me" fade out at as the tape begins indicating the band soundchecked this song at least twice, possibly considering it for inclusion in the show? What could have been...

As I've mentioned many times before, the biggest thanks go to Dan S for supplying his archives that continues to give us beautiful snapshots in time to enjoy again and again.

A big thanks to slipkid68 for the performance notes and so elegantly painting a picture of what you are now listening to as well as helping correct the record for this particular night.