When it comes to holiday season reissues, it's gonna be tough beating the redux of Bruce Springsteen's 1978 classic Darkness on the Edge of Town. It's a six-disc box set-- three CDs, three DVDs-- dubbed The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story and due out November 16 on Columbia.
On the audio side, there's a remastered version of the record, along with two discs filled with 21 previously unreleased songs that Springsteen says "could have/should have been released after Born to Run and before the collection of songs that Darkness on the Edge of Town became," according to a press release. (A legal battle with former manager Mike Appel famously delayed the recording of Darkness.) The unreleased songs include a rock version of epic ballad "Racing in the Street" and the original recordings of "Because the Night" and "Fire". The two CDs of unearthed material will also be sold on their own as The Promise. Over at Springsteen's website, you can hear the previously unreleased track "Save My Love".
Over on the visual side, we get the new 90-minute documentary The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, which features previously unseen footage of Springsteen and the E Street Band from between 1976 and 1978 along with new interviews with all the principals behind the record. (It'll premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 14 and screen on HBO October 7.)
Also, there are two more DVDs worth of live footage, highlighted by a 26-track, high-quality bootleg of a Houston show from 1978. Assorted live tracks from the period are also included, as well as a 2009 performance of the entire album at Asbury Park's Paramount Theater.
There's an 80-page booklet with pages from Springsteen's notebook as well as a new essay from the singer, too.
Anyone who bought the remarkable, 10.0-earning Born to Run reissue in 2005 knows Bruce takes his reissues seriously, and this Darkness revisit looks to be just as extensive. The box set's staggering tracklist is below:
CD1: Darkness on the Edge of Town (Remastered):
01 Badlands
02 Adam Raised a Cain
03 Something in the Night
04 Candy's Room
05 Racing in the Street
06 The Promised Land
07 Factory
08 Streets of Fire
09 Prove It All Night
10 Darkness on the Edge of Town
CD2: The Promise:
01 Racing in the Street ('78)
02 Gotta Get That Feeling
03 Outside Looking In
04 Someday (We'll Be Together)
05 One Way Street
06 Because the Night
07 Wrong Side of the Street
08 The Brokenhearted
09 Rendezvous
10 Candy's Boy
CD3: The Promise:
01 Save My Love
02 Ain't Good Enough for You
03 Fire
04 Spanish Eyes
05 It's a Shame
06 Come On (Let's Go Tonight)
07 Talk To Me
08 The Little Things (My Baby Does)
09 Breakaway
10 The Promise
11 City of Night
DVD 1: The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town
DVD 2: Darkness on the Edge of Town (Paramount Theater, Asbury Park, NJ, 2009)
01 Badlands
02 Adam Raised a Cain
03 Something in the Night
04 Candy's Room
05 Racing in the Street
06 The Promised Land
07 Factory
08 Streets of Fire
09 Prove It All Night
10 Darkness on the Edge of Town
Thrill Hill Vault (1976-1978)
01 Save My Love (Holmdel, NJ '76)
02 Candy's Boy (Holmdel, NJ '76)
03 Something in the Night (Red Bank, NJ '76)
04 Don't Look Back (NYC '78)
05 Ain't Good Enough for You (NYC '78)
06 The Promise (NYC '78)
07 Candy's Room Demo (NYC '78)
08 Badlands (Phoenix '78)
09 The Promised Land (Phoenix '78)
10 Prove It All Night (Phoenix '78)
11 Born to Run (Phoenix '78)
12 Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (Phoenix '78)
DVD 3: Houston 1978 Bootleg:
01 Badlands
02 Streets of Fire
03 It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City
04 Darkness on the Edge of Town
05 Spirit in the Night
06 Independence Day
07 The Promised Land
08 Prove It All Night
09 Racing in the Street
10 Thunder Road
11 Jungleland
12 The Ties That Bind
13 Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
14 The Fever
15 Fire
16 Candy's Room
17 Because the Night
18 Point Blank
19 She's the One
20 Backstreets
21 Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
22 Born to Run
23 Detroit Medley
24 Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
25 You Can't Sit Down
26 Quarter to Three
