May 22: Bruce Springsteen played Milton Keynes in 1993 (videos)
Great 93-concert – 22 years ago today!
The concert (all or some of it) was professionally shot with multiple cameras for an (never happened) upcoming DVD release. Instead a DVD bootleg is circulating:
I’ve always had a weak spot for “Downbound Train“.. and this is a great version:
April 27: Bruce Springsteen LA Sports Arena 2012 (Videos)
Early-birds in the LA Sports Arena get an unexpected treat – an hour before the show Bruce appears on stage with a party (Bruce claimed they were his relatives, but we’re not so sure!) and plays an acoustic version of “For You“.
~Brucebase
For You:
The three-hour set opens with “No Surrender”, the first of two tour premieres from Born In The U.S.A. – “Bobby Jean” is the other. The “this train” introduction is dropped from “Land Of Hope And Dreams” for the second and final time of the first American leg. Tom Morello joins Bruce on stage for the same songs as the previous night, plus “Land of Hope And Dreams”. Springsteen’s guitar tech Kevin Buell is honoured on the occasion of his 1000th show – Bruce lures him to the front of the stage with a fake guitar failure. “My City Of Ruins” includes “People Get Ready”.
~Brucebase
April 26: Johnny Cash American Recordings was released in 1994
…Always, the choice of material is a revelation. The Beast In Me (written by former son-in-law, Nick Lowe) could be autobiographical. And while writers like horrorpunk figurehead Glenn Danzig or Tom Waits probably would never have figured on his radar were it not for Rubin; time and again the duo found songs that were, in Cash’s hands, to take on new life. This willingness to experiment was to set a precedent: Subsequent albums were to see him work magic on material from Nine Inch Nails to U2 and Depeche Mode. But Johnny Cash’s final road to redemption and artistic fulfillment starts here…
~Chris Jones (bbc.co.uk)
American Recordings did something very important — it gave Cash a chance to show how much he could do with a set of great songs and no creative interference, and it afforded him the respect he’d been denied for so long, and the result is a powerful and intimate album that brought the Man in Black back to the spotlight, where he belonged.
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)