Bruce Springsteen
The Bottom Line
New York City, NY
July 13, 1974
Late Show (presumably)
(Joe Kivak Master Tapes via JEMS)

JEMS 2023 Transfer: Joe Kivak Master Cassettes > Nakamichi RX-505 azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX > iZotope RX9 Advanced and Ozone 9 > MBIT+ resample to 16/44.1 > Audacity > xACT 2.50 > FLAC

01 Tuning And Introduction
02 Then She Kissed Me
03 Spirit In The Night
04 Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?
05 The E Street Shuffle > Having A Party
06 It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City
07 No Money Down
08 Jungleland
09 Born To Run
10 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
11 Kitty's Back
12 New York City Serenade
13 Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

Known Faults:
- 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy): end cut
- New York City Serenade: splice

This release features Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performing live at The Bottom Line in New York City, July 13, 1974. It was recorded by Joe Kivak, unquestionably the first serious and committed taper of Springsteen concerts. While he would go on to tape Springsteen dozens, even hundreds of times, his earliest efforts starting in the summer of 1974 provide essential and otherwise unavailable documentation of Bruce s artistic development before the release of Born to Run in August 1975.

Joe would influence others — notably Cliff B — to follow his lead and now the entire hobby of recording and sharing live Springsteen recordings celebrates its 50th anniversary this year thanks to him. To call Kivak the Godfather of Springsteen concert taping is not hyperbole.

Last year, Joe graciously loaned his master tapes to JEMS so we could attempt a modern and hopefully definitive preservation, capturing the sound, correcting the pitch, and fixing issues to provide the best representation of each performance in this case, the last known recording of this iteration of The E Street Band.

The 12-song set is stocked with a full complement of styles (rock, jazz, blues), a few covers, and previews of songs that would appear a year later on Springsteen’s breakthrough third LP. Part recitation, part workshop, and part elegy, it plays back anew, transferred directly from Joe’s master cassette tapes.

What makes this particularly compelling is the presence of pianist David Sancious and drummer Ernest (Boom) Carter, musicians who left an indelible mark on E Street. Sancious, of course, is a founding member of the band, while Carter had joined up in February, some five months prior to this show. (They were nearing the end of their time with Bruce, departing within weeks; Mike Appel would place an ad in the Village Voice that would lead to Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg joining up.)

The February to August 1974 line-up brought an unmistakable swing to Springsteen’s music, a sensibility that took its cues from improvisation and the deepest wells of possibility. Just listen to the mid-song jam as they join forces in this capture of “Jungleland” — at this point, a work-in-progress. To borrow a phrase, it rides the line of balance and holds on by just a thread. If that type of musical adventure appeals to you, this one’s a real treat.

But this combination played with a straight-ahead sensibility, too, perfectly conveyed by the next number, another yet to be released, “Born to Run.” By July of 1974, they had already spent close to six months arranging most of its puzzle pieces in the studio. With the instrumentation largely in place, Springsteen uses this moment to refine lyrics and cadences; history shows us that he’s nearly at the finish line, but the audience at the Bottom Line gets to hear one of the last pushes to get there. 

This recording plainly shows all the ingredients Bruce would distill as he moved forward (well, the electric ones, anyhow). He sounds relaxed here, and his fastball is humming, whether the commanding blues of “No Money Down” or the jam the band conjures during “Kitty’s Back” — what a sound this combination made! Hearing the long arrangements, different styles, and early takes of songs still in development is a joy.

When the opportunity arose for JEMS to revisit Kivak's pioneering work, we jumped. This is the second show we’ve taken on (the first being Avery Fisher Hall, October 4, 1974). All the circulating audio from July 13 tape — copies, silvers, remasters — springs from his source. As far as we can tell, he was the only one in the house that night, and he is the only one to tell the story today. (The first confirmed two-recorder source show would take place just over two months later in Passaic, New Jersey, October 18.)

We’re grateful that Joe had the vision to capture the music. While we occasionally lament the dearth of official Springsteen recordings from before 1975, more often we’re grateful for Joe and his efforts, something to celebrate a half-century later. Thank you, Joe!

While we did not reference all previous iterations, we generally consider the release closest to the master as the go-to for comparison. In this case, it's "Watch The World Explode" (Kivak Master Series). Additionally, this has been released on Winged Wheel's "No Money Down".

This is the first azimuth-adjusted transfer directly from Joe's master tapes. Although this one didn’t need as much clean-up as the Avery Fisher Hall recording, there was one major issue: throughout, the left channel was recorded very hot, bordering on distortion up to “Rosalita” when the distortion overwhelmed the music. Through modern technology, we were able to neutralize the left channel distortion to that point. "Rosalita" ran too hot to fully correct but it is now a much more pleasant listening experience.

Additionally, we manually cleaned up mic bumps, audience noises and numerous loud instances of beer bottles clanging.

Huge respect to Joe Kivak for the foresight to capture Bruce multiple times before his star really took off. Thanks for allowing us to revisit your work! Thanks also to SE, who got the ball rolling on our little project and Goody for his never-ending work to ensure we present all our shows at the proper pitch.

mjk5510 and slipkid68 for JEMS