In the early days of Springsteen’s career, the early adopters and his near cult following survived his paucity of product by circulating, swapping and watching for bootlegs. I only own one vinyl bootleg and it’s a Brazilian recording of the famous Bottom Line Concert, August 5, 1975 which was broadcast on WNEW-FM 102.7. The hilarious part about this bootleg is that in the middle of Born to Run, they must have botched the recording because they dubbed in the actual missing parts from the original Columbia release. Then when the missing part is filled in it returned to the scratchy bootleg. More hilarious is that it’s such a botch job, they actually overlap parts of the song at the end of the dub. I found the record in a stack of used records in a bookstore in Greenwich Village. I saw the odd Bruce artwork on the cover and I bought it on the blind faith that I had found something unusual. It is audio junk but it made for an unusual and amusing artifact. If nothing else, I could flip it on my turntable instead of using a tape cassette to play my other bootleg copy. Now I keep it as another Bruce oddity. Note the wear marks. That’s not because I used it so much; it’s worn because whatever coating they made to the cardboard cover, it is nowhere near the quality of a commercial record. Below is the cover and the back. This was a two disc. The two inside covers are below the outside covers.

On this website page are the four hand-written lists of bootlegs that my sister had bumped into while she was attending Rosemont College in Philadelphia. I had loaned her my Bottom Line concert poster for her dorm room. She hung it because I had introduced her to Bruce four years earlier and liked his songs. She was not expecting the reaction she got as word spread that she had THE Bruce poster. As Villanova students frequented the Rosemont campus (the two schools are separated by about a thousand feet of trees) eventually a fanatical Bruce acolyte turned up and during his pilgrimage to the poster, intimated that he had access to bootlegs and was she interested. She knew that I would be and I purchased two batches of selections and valued the raw audio tapes over the recorded vinyl at the time. I bought them at some nominal cost and suspected I was getting a deal, because he knew I was a real fan, especially since I had the holy grail of Bruce posters. So I have about ten tapes but the cassettes are so old (about 36 years) that I am now studying websites to learn how to restore any that haven’t found their way to YouTube.

I have tried the best I can to match up those lists with the tour dates list. In some instances I have made educated guesses which session or concert they were. Most are obvious but the bootleg list also contains some of the studio outtakes that were floating around at the time.

One disclaimer, and I make this point in the book, I knew that he had mislabeled the Nassau Coliseum tape (6-3-1978) because I remembered the particular story Bruce told during Growing Up and the one on the tape does not match my memory. And I know I am not mistaken because the Nassau concert was my first experience of The Boss live and that story and an incident during Spirit in the Night at that concert do not match the tape, Maybe someday I’ll get a copy of that concert.

Another real handy marker is the time listed after each bootleg. The “m” is how long the tape is in minutes. Along with listings and descriptions in BRUCEBASE, the minutes listing helps identify the performance, especially when there are performances a few days in a row at a particular venue and the bootlegger was vague about the date. In one instance, BRUCEBASE explains that Bruce filled in for Southside Johnny when he became ill and Bruce is backed by a combination of the Asbury Jukes and the E Street Band. (https://brucebase.wikispaces.com/) That performance is not listed in the number of concerts he’s done touring the different albums because he was filling in for the Jukes, playing mostly their music and adding in a few of his songs.

I noticed that at the end he duplicated some numbers. I listed the duplicates at the end of the list. The list follows the following four pages. One note about the list. The first number is the number of concerts from the tour list, the date, location, venue, the number that corresponds to the boot list and the length of the recording.

The Bootlegger’s list

 

These bootlegger recordings are not on the tour list – some are cassette copies from bootlegged vinyl pressings. (view as attached PDF Bootleg – webpage PDF )

So, for example, for this listing:

                            42 2/23/1975 Westbury Westbury Music Fair 23 150m

42 –  number concert on the Born to Run tour.

2/23/1975  –  concert date

Westbury  –  location, in this instance Westbury, Long Island, NY

Westbury Music Fair  – the name of the venue

23  –  the number from the four sheets above – his identifying number to order, if there is no number then no bootleg exists  (or he didn;pt have one to sell) at the time he made the list

150m   – the recording is 150 minutes long – in some cases it ran to two cassettes.

Bootlegger list, retyped to be legible:

8/15/1969 Asbury Park, NJ Student Prince 1 50m
8/16 or 8/17 Asbury Park, NJ 2 30m
April, 1970 Richmond, VA Masrshall Street Poarking Deck 3 85m
5/4/1970 Long Branch, NJ Monmouth College 71 40m
7/17 -7/18, 1970 Asbury Park, NJ Sunshine Inn 72 30m
8/14/1970 Richmond, VA Marshall St. Parking Deck vinyl* 85 90m
*known as “Steel Mill Springsteen”
11/23/1970 Richmond, VA Millhiser Gym, Univ. of Richmond 4 70m
year-1971 New Jersey unknown 5 75m
2/18-2/27 1972 Richmond, VA The Back Door 71 180m
2/4-2/6, 1972 Richmond, VA The Back Door Club 73 160m
5/3/1972 New York City vinyl demos – John Hammond 74 45m
year-1973 studio outtakes Fire On The Fingertips 6 35m
7/5 to 7/9 1973 Bryn Mawr The Main Point 7 55m
7/18 to 7/23 New York City Max Kansas City 9 50m
7/31/1973 Roselyn, NY My Father’s Place 10 60m
10/31/1973 Bryn Mawr The Main Point 11 80m
6/2/1973 Besada, MD WHFS-FM broadcast 12 80m
1/5/1974 Cambridge, MA Joe’s Place 13 105m
3/3/1974 Washington, DC Gaston Hall 76 90m
4/9/1974 Boston WBCN-FM broadcast 14 45m
5/9/1974 Boston Harvard Square Theatre 15 70m
6/3/1974 Cleveland The Agora 16 60m
7/13/1974 New York City The Bottom Line 17 120m
1/12/1974 Parsippany, NJ Joinht in the Woods 75 90m
year – 1975 Main Point, Philly known as “Live” – vinyl bootleg 20 30m
year – 1975 studio outtakes known as “E ticket” – vinyl bootleg 21 30m
issued 1975 vinyl boot var perf Hot Coals from the Fiery Furnace 8 90m

The bootlegger’s recordings, cross referenced to the complete concert list

Born to Run Tour
North America
1 9/19/1974 Bryn Mawr The Main Point
2 9/20/1974 Upper Darby Twp Tower Theater
3 9/21/1974 Oneonta Hunt Union Ballroom
4 9/22/1974 Union Township Kean College Campus Grounds
5 10/4/1974 New York City Avery Fisher Hall 18 150m
6 10/5/1974 Reading Bollman Center
7 10/6/1974 Worcester Atwood Hall
8 10/11/1974 Gaithersburg Shady Grove Music Fair
9 10/12/1974 Princeton Alexander Hall
10 10/18/1974 Passaic Capitol Theatre
11 10/19/1974 Schenectady Memorial Chapel
12 10/20/1974 Carlisle Dickinson College Dining Hall
13 10/25/1974 Hanover Spaulding Auditorium
14 10/26/1974 Springfield Julia Sanderson Theater
15 10/29/1974 Boston Boston Music Hall
16 11/1/1974 Upper Darby Tower Theater
17 11/2/1974
18 11/6/1974 Austin Armadillo World Headquarters
19 11/7/1974
20 11/8/1974 Corpus Christi Ritz Music Hall
21 11/9/1974 Houston Houston Music Hall
22 11/15/1974 Easton Kirby Field House
23 11/16/1974 Washington, D.C. Leonard Gym
24 11/17/1974 Charlottesville Memorial Gymnasium
25 11/21/1974 Blackwood Lincoln Hall Auditorium
26 11/22/1974 West Chester Hollinger Field House
27 11/23/1974 Salem Salem State College Auditorium
28 11/29/1974 Trenton Trenton War Memorial 24 150m
29 11/30/1974
30 12/6/1974 New Brunswick State Theatre 19 150m
31 12/7/1974 Geneva Geneva Theater
32 12/8/1974 Burlington Burlington Memorial Auditorium
33 1/5/1975 Asbury Park The Stone Pony
34 1/12/1975
35 1/19/1975
36 2/5/1975 Bryn Mawr The Main Point 22 90m
37 2/6/1975 Chester Widener Field House
38 2/7/1975
39 2/18/1975 University Heights John Carroll Gymnasium
40 2/19/1975 University Park Eisenhower Auditorium
41 2/20/1975 Pittsburgh Syria Mosque
42 2/23/1975 Westbury Westbury Music Fair 23 150m
43 3/7/1975 Owings Mills Painters Mill Music Fair 31 55m
44 3/8/1975 Washington, D.C. DAR Constitution Hall
45 3/9/1975
North America
46 7/20/1975 Providence Palace Concert Theater
47 7/22/1975 Geneva Geneva Theater
48 7/23/1975 Lenox Music Inn 77 45m
49 7/25/1975 Kutztown Keystone Hall
50 7/26/1975 25 140m
51 7/28/1975 Washington, D.C. Carter Barron Amphitheatre
52 7/29/1975 78 40m
53 7/30/1975
54 8/1/1975 Richmond The Mosque
55 8/2/1975 Norfolk Chrysler Hall
56 8/8/1975 Akron Akron Civic Theatre
57 8/9/1975 Pittsburgh Syria Mosque
58 8/10/1975 Cleveland Allen Theatre
59 8/13/1975 New York City The Bottom Line
60 8/14/1975
61 8/15/1975 27 90m
62 8/16/1975
63 8/17/1975
64 8/21/1975 Atlanta Electric Ballroom 30 80m
65 8/22/1975
66 8/23/1975
67 9/4/1975 Bryn Mawr The Main Point
68 9/6/1975 New Orleans Theater for the Performing Arts
69 9/7/1975 Ya Ya Lounge
70 9/12/1975 Austin Municipal Auditorium
71 9/13/1975 Houston Houston Music Hall
72 9/14/1975
73 9/16/1975 Dallas Dallas Convention Center Theatre
74 9/17/1975 Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall
75 9/20/1975 Grinnell Darby Gymnasium
76 9/21/1975 Minneapolis Guthrie Theater
77 9/23/1975 Ann Arbor Hill Auditorium
78 9/25/1975 Chicago Auditorium Theatre
79 9/26/1975 Iowa City Hancher Auditorium
80 9/27/1975 St. Louis Ambassador Theatre
81 9/28/1975 Kansas City Memorial Hall
82 9/30/1975 Omaha Civic Auditorium Music Hall
83 10/2/1975 Milwaukee Uptown Theater 79 140m
84 10/4/1975 Detroit Michigan Palace Theater
85 10/10/1975 Red Bank Monmouth Arts Center 80 135
86 10/16/1975 West Hollywood Roxy Theatre
87 10/17/1975 28 90
88 10/18/1975
89 10/19/1975
90 10/23/1975 New York City Gerde’s Folk City
91 10/25/1975 Portland Paramount Theatre
92 10/26/1975 Seattle Paramount Theatre
93 10/29/1975 Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
94 10/31/1975 Oakland Paramount Theatre
95 11/1/1975 Santa Barbara Robertson Gymnasium
96 11/3/1975 Tempe Gammage Memorial Auditorium
97 11/4/1975
98 11/6/1975
99 11/10/1975 Tampa Jai Alai Fronton
100 11/11/1975 Miami
Europe
101 11/18/1975 London Hammersmith Odeon 26 135m
102 11/21/1975 Stockholm Konserthuset
103 11/23/1975 Amsterdam RAI Congrescentrum Theater
104 11/24/1975 London Hammersmith Odeon
North America
105 12/2/1975 Boston Boston Music Hall 70 70m
106 12/3/1975 81 135m
107 12/5/1975 Washington, D.C. McDonough Gymnasium
108 12/6/1975
109 12/7/1975
110 12/10/1975 Lewisburg Davis Gym
111 12/11/1975 South Orange Walsh Gymnasium
112 12/12/1975 Brookville C.W. Post Dome Auditorium
113 12/16/1975 Oswego Laker Hall
114 12/17/1975 Buffalo Kleinhans Music Hall
115 12/19/1975 Montreal Théâtre Maisonneuve
116 12/20/1975 Ottawa NAC Opera House
117 12/21/1975 Toronto Seneca College Field House
118 12/27/1975 Upper Darby Tower Theater
119 12/28/1975 Township
120 12/30/1975
121 12/31/1975 29 170m

Chicken Scratch Tour

North America
122 3/25/1976 Columbia Township Auditorium
123 3/26/1976 Atlanta Fox Theatre
124 3/28/1976 Durham Cameron Indoor Stadium
125 3/29/1976 Charlotte Ovens Auditorium
126 4/1/1976 Athens Memorial Auditorium
127 4/2/1976 Louisville Macauley’s Theatre
128 4/4/1976 East Lansing MSU Auditorium 32 140m
129 4/5/1976 Columbus Ohio Theatre
130 4/7/1976 Cleveland Allen Theatre
131 4/8/1976
132 4/9/1976 Hamilton Cotterell Court
133 4/10/1976 Wallingford Paul Mellon Arts Center
134 4/12/1976 Johnstown Cambria County War Memorial Arena
135 4/13/1976 Penn State, PA Rec Hall 82 130m
136 4/15/1976 Pittsburgh Syria Mosque
137 4/16/1976 Meadville Shafer Auditorium
138 4/17/1976 Rochester Strong Auditorium
139 4/20/1976 Johnson City Freedom Hall Civic Center
140 4/21/1976 Knoxville Knoxville Civic Auditorium
141 4/22/1976 Blacksburg Burruss Auditorium
142 4/24/1976 Boone Varsity Gymnasium
143 4/26/1976 Chattanooga Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium
144 4/28/1976 Nashville Grand Ole Opry House
145 4/29/1976 Memphis Ellis Auditorium
146 4/30/1976 Birmingham Boutwell Memorial Auditorium
147 5/3/1976 Little Rock Robinson Municipal Auditorium
148 5/4/1976 Jackson Mississippi Coliseum
149 5/6/1976 Shreveport Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium
150 5/8/1976 Baton Rouge LSU Assembly Center
151 5/9/1976 Mobile Mobile Municipal Theater
152 5/10/1976
153 5/11/1976 Auburn Memorial Coliseum
154 5/13/1976 New Orleans Municipal Auditorium
155 5/27/1976 West Point Eisenhower Hall Auditorium
156 5/28/1976 Annapolis Halsey Field House

8/5/1976 Red Bank, NJ Monmouth Arts Center 83 115m

U.S. Tour a/k/a Lawsuit Tour

North America
157 9/26/1976 Phoenix Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum
158 9/29/1976 Santa Monica Santa Monica Civic Auditorium 33 45m
159 9/30/1976
160 10/2/1976 Oakland Paramount Theatre
161 10/3/1976 Santa Clara Toso Pavilion
162 10/5/1976 Santa Barbara Santa Barbara Bowl
163 10/9/1976 Notre Dame Athletic & Convocation Center
164 10/10/1976 Oxford Millett Hall
165 10/12/1976 New Brunswick College Avenue Gymnasium
166 10/13/1976 Union, NJ Wilkins Theatre (Kean College) 84 130m
167 10/16/1976 Williamsburg William & Mary Hall
168 10/17/1976 Washington, D.C. McDonough Gymnasium
169 10/18/1976
170 10/25/1976 Philadelphia The Spectrum 34 115m
171 10/27/1976
172 10/28/1976 New York City The Palladium 35 120m
173 10/29/1976
174 10/30/1976
175 11/2/1976 36 125m
176 11/3/1976
177 11/4/1976 37 105m

The Lawsuit Drags On Tour

North America
178 2/7/1977 Albany Palace Theatre
179 2/8/1977 Rochester Rochester Auditorium Theatre
180 2/9/1977 Buffalo Kleinhans Music Hall
181 2/10/1977 Utica Utica Memorial Auditorium
182 2/12/1977 Ottawa Ottawa Civic Centre 41 30m
183 2/13/1977 Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens
184 2/15/1977 Detroit Masonic Temple Theatre
185 2/16/1977 Columbus Veterans Memorial Auditorium
186 2/17/1977 Richfield Twp Coliseum at Richfield
187 2/19/1977 Saint Paul St. Paul Civic Center Theatre
188 2/20/1977 Madison Dane County Coliseum
189 2/22/1977 Milwaukee Milwaukee Auditorium
190 2/23/1977 Chicago Auditorium Theatre 86 135m
191 2/25/1977 West Lafayette Elliott Hall of Music
192 2/26/1977 Indianapolis ICC Ballroom
193 2/27/1977 Cincinnati Riverfront Coliseum
194 2/28/1977 St. Louis Fox Theatre
195 3/2/1977 Atlanta Atlanta Civic Center
196 3/4/1977 Jacksonville Civic Auditorium
197 3/5/1977 Orlando Jai Alai Fronton
198 3/6/1977 Miami
199 3/10/1977 Toledo Toledo Sports Arena
200 3/11/1977 Latrobe Saint Vincent College Gymnasium
201 3/13/1977 Towson Towson Center 87 90m
202 3/14/1977 Poughkeepsie Mid-Hudson Civic Center
203 3/15/1977 Binghamton Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena
204 3/18/1977 New Haven New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum
205 3/19/1977 Lewiston Central Maine Youth Center
206 3/20/1977 Providence Alumni Hall
207 3/22/1977 Boston Boston Music Hall
208 3/23/1977 69 90m
209 3/24/1977 38 160m
210 3/25/1977

Darkness Tour

5/13/1977 Red Bank, NJ Monmouth Art Center* 39 90m
* filled in for an ill Southside Johnny
12/31/1977 Passaic, NJ Capitol Theatre 40 110m
1977 to 1978 NYC studio outtakes 42 40m
211 5/23/1978 Buffalo Shea’s Performing Arts Center
212 5/24/1978 Albany Palace Theatre
213 5/26/1978 Philadelphia The Spectrum 88 90m
214 5/27/1978 43 150m
215 5/29/1978 Boston Boston Music Hall
216 5/30/1978 44 150m
217 5/31/1978
218 6/2/1978 Annapolis Halsey Field House
219 6/3/1978 Uniondale Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum 45 90m
220 6/5/1978 Toledo Toledo Sports Arena
221 6/6/1978 Indianapolis Indiana Convention Center
222 6/8/1978 Madison Dane County Memorial Coliseum
223 6/9/1978 Milwaukee MECCA Arena
224 6/10/1978 Bloomington Metropolitan Sports Center
225 6/13/1978 Iowa City Hancher Auditorium
226 6/14/1978 Omaha Civic Auditorium Music Hall
227 6/16/1978 Kansas City Memorial Hall
228 6/17/1978 St. Louis Kiel Auditorium
229 6/20/1978 Morrison Red Rocks Amphitheatre
230 6/23/1978 Portland Paramount Theatre
231 6/24/1978
232 6/25/1978 Seattle Paramount Theatre
233 6/26/1978 Vancouver Queen Elizabeth Theatre
234 6/29/1978 San Jose San Jose Center for the Performing Arts
235 6/30/1978 Berkeley Berkeley Community Theatre 47 150m
236 7/1/1978
237 7/5/1978 Inglewood The Forum 68 160m
238 7/7/1978 West Hollywood Roxy Theatre 48 165m
239 7/8/1978 Phoenix Veterans Memorial Coliseum
240 7/9/1978 San Diego San Diego Sports Arena
241 7/12/1978 Dallas Dallas Convention Center Theater
242 7/14/1978 San Antonio Memorial Auditorium
243 7/15/1978 Houston Sam Houston Coliseum
244 7/16/1978 New Orleans Municipal Auditorium
245 7/18/1978 Jackson Jackson Municipal Auditorium
246 7/19/1978 Memphis Dixon-Myers Hall
247 7/21/1978 Nashville Nashville Municipal Auditorium
248 7/28/1978 Miami Jai Alai Fronton
249 7/29/1978 St. Petersburg Bayfront Center Arena 49 140m
250 7/31/1978 Columbia Township Auditorium
251 8/1/1978 Charleston Gaillard Municipal Auditorium
252 8/2/1978 Charlotte Charlotte Coliseum
253 8/4/1978 Charleston Charleston Civic Center
254 8/5/1978 Louisville Louisville Gardens
255 8/7/1978 Kalamazoo Wings Stadium
256 8/9/1978 Cleveland The Agora 50 165m
257 8/10/1978 Rochester Rochester Community War Memorial
258 8/12/1978 Augusta Augusta Civic Center
259 8/14/1978 Hampton Hampton Coliseum
260 8/15/1978 Landover Capital Centre 89 90m
261 8/18/1978 Philadelphia The Spectrum 52 160m
262 8/19/1978 90 160m
263 8/21/1978 New York City Madison Square Garden
264 8/22/1978 53 150m
265 8/23/1978 54 90m
266 8/25/1978 New Haven New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum 55 150m
267 8/26/1978 Providence Providence Civic Center
268 8/28/1978 Pittsburgh Stanley Theatre
269 8/29/1978
270 8/30/1978 Richfield Twp Coliseum at Richfield
271 9/1/1978 Detroit Masonic Temple Theatre
272 9/3/1978 Saginaw Saginaw Civic Center 56 170m
273 9/5/1978 Columbus Veterans Memorial Auditorium 57 160m
274 9/6/1978 Chicago Uptown Theatre
275 9/9/1978 Notre Dame Athletic & Convocation Center 58 130m
276 9/10/1978 Cincinnati Riverfront Coliseum
277 9/12/1978 Syracuse Syracuse Memorial Auditorium 59 160m
278 9/13/1978 Springfield Springfield Civic Center
279 9/15/1978 New York City The Palladium 60 180m
280 9/16/1978 61 125m
281 9/17/1978
282 9/19/1978 Passaic Capitol Theatre 62 180m
283 9/20/1978 sound check for 9/19 Capitol concert 91 45m

284 9/21/1978
285 9/25/1978 Boston Boston Garden
286 9/29/1978 Birmingham Boutwell Memorial Auditorium DUP 170M
287 9/30/1978 Atlanta Fox Theatre 63 180m
288 10/1/1978
289 10/17/1978 West Hollywood The Troubadour
290 11/1/1978 Princeton Jadwin Gymnasium 93 93
sound check for #93 94 94
291 11/2/1978 Landover Capital Centre 64 150m
292 11/4/1978 Burlington Patrick Gym
293 11/5/1978 Durham UNH Field House
294 11/7/1978 Ithaca Barton Hall
295 11/8/1978 Montreal Montreal Forum 51 150m
296 11/10/1978 St. Bonaventure Reilly Center
297 11/12/1978 Troy RPI Field House 65 140m
298 11/14/1978 Utica, New York Utica Memorial Auditorium
299 11/16/1978 Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens
300 11/17/1978 East Lansing Munn Ice Arena
301 11/18/1978 Oxford Millett Hall
302 11/20/1978 Champaign Assembly Hall
303 11/21/1978 Evanston McGaw Hall
304 11/25/1978 St. Louis Kiel Opera House
305 11/27/1978 Milwaukee MECCA Arena
306 11/28/1978 Madison Dane County Memorial Coliseum
307 11/29/1978 Saint Paul St. Paul Civic Center Arena
308 12/1/1978 Norman Lloyd Noble Center
309 12/3/1978 Carbondale SIU Arena
310 12/5/1978 Baton Rouge LSU Assembly Center
311 12/7/1978 Austin Special Events Center
312 12/8/1978 Houston The Summit
313 12/9/1978 Dallas Dallas Convention Center Arena
314 12/13/1978 Tucson Tucson Community Center Arena
315 12/15/1978 San Francisco Winterland Ballroom 66 150m
316 12/16/1978
317 12/19/1978 Portland Paramount Theatre
318 12/20/1978 Seattle Seattle Center Arena
319 12/27/1978 Pittsburgh Stanley Theatre
320 12/28/1978
321 12/30/1978 Detroit Cobo Arena
322 12/31/1978 Richfield Twp Coliseum at Richfield 67 210m
323 1/1/1979

DUPLICATED BOOTLEG LIST NUMBERS
72 9/29/1978 Birmingham Boutwell Memorial Auditorium 72 170M
71 12/3/1975 Boston Boston Music Hall 71 140
73 2/3/1977 Chicago Civic Auditorium 73 135m
74 10/10/1975* Red Bank Monmouth Arts Center 74
*CANCELLED – he did 2 shows on 10-11
75 year 1975 Asbury Park Sunshine Inn 75 50m
76 5/4/1970 Long Branch, NJ Monmouth College 76 40m
77 2/4-2/6, 1972 Richmond, VA The Back Door Club 77 160m