Bruce Springstee Brondbyhallen Copenhagen, Denmark May 2, 1981 Recorder 2 Low-generation reel and 2019 transfer via JEMS Archive JEMS 2019 Transfer: Low Gen reel at 3.75 IPS > Otari 5050 mkII azimuth-adjusted > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 capture > Peak Pro 6 (pitch adjusted +20 cents) > iZotope RX7 and Ozone 6 (mastered) > Peak Pro 6 (post production) > xACT 2.39 > FLAC 01 Follow That Dream 02 Prove It All Night 03 Out In The Street 04 The Ties That Bind 05 Darkness On The Edge Of Town 06 Independence Day 07 Factory 08 Who’ll Stop The Rain 09 Two Hearts 10 The Promised Land 11 This Land Is Your Land 12 The River 13 Badlands / Thunder Road 14 Cadillac Ranch 15 Sherry Darling 16 Hungry Heart 17 Because The Night 18 Fire 19 Wreck On The Highway 20 Point Blank 21 Backstreets 22 Candy’s Room 23 Ramrod 24 Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) 25 Born To Run 26 Detroit Medley 27 I’m A Rocker 28 Rockin’ All Over The World Known Faults: -Hungry Heart: 56 seconds patched at end -Because The Night: 12 seconds patched at start -Point Blank: 1 second patch in middle Once again, we’re excited to present a previously un-circulated during the torrent era alternate source from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s 1981 tour of Europe. We could leave it at that, and simply press play. But we’re historians, and we have a great story to tell, with a major assist from our ally and brother CB. He’s one of the earliest-known Bruce tapers out there: his amazing captures (like a wonderful Roxy ’75 recording) go back some four decades. Not long ago, he made dozens of reels available to the JEMS Archive. And what a cache: from sourcing to storage, he’d given us true value, namely lower generations and better sound. Moreover, they may be from recorders that have yet to circulate in the BitTorrent era. Right up top, a big shout-out to CB for keeping the flame burning clean and bright — thank you! Copenhagen joins Berlin, which we torrented in the summer of 2019. This one features five different songs, mainly ones from The River like “The Ties That Bind,” “Point Blank,” and “I’m a Rocker.” One of the European tour’s more notable additions, “Follow That Dream,” appears at the top of the performance. Its stark and bold arrangement set the tone for the 30-song set. In the weeks since Berlin (the tour’s second date, on April 9), Springsteen had clearly been swayed by the experience of his first lengthy European tour. Almost every night, he and the E Street Band played in a city where they’d neither been before nor played. Brøndbyhallen held about 4,500 people, making it one of the smaller audiences in recent memory (after Chicago, St. Louis, and Paris). New audiences, customs, and responses elevated the music to a new level — everything seemed to resonate more. Sets were shorter and more focused; within that construct, the E Street Band sounded sharp as they carved new grooves with seemingly each successive performance. Springsteen has never discussed at length his impressions of this time, but its tapes make it clear that discovery and enchantment were the rule. So yes — we’re fans of this tour! That made taking even a cursory listen to CB’s reels a cinch. In the midst of organizing thousands of tapes during a long working weekend at the JEMS Archive, we decided to audition a few things as we went along. These reels, stored in near-mint tape boxes, seemed particularly inviting. When we noticed the dates, we all looked at each other as if to say “well, yeah — let’s thread up some Europe ’81.” Unlike Berlin which we considered a significant material upgrade to what circulated, Copenhagen is not an upgrade to what circulates but we are always thrilled to offer a new source for a historic portion of a tour, especially one 38 years later. The Recorder 2 source is very similar in feel to Recorder 1 and has shared audience noises so definitely recorded in the same general area which always makes one question the audience noises one is hearing are the same or not. A giveaway was a short conversation near the mics right before "The River" intro found on Recorder 1 that is completely absent from Recorder 2 and of course the cuts in different places during the show. This one also took more than normal cleaning during the pre-mastering phase, it had tape 'ticks' every second or so in one channel that were extremely noticeable during the quieter songs as well as a nasty hum that needed to be removed before mastering. Thanks to CB for sharing his collection and to anyone who made the effort to record. Samples and artwork provided... Share it freely, and for free! - BK, mjk5510, slipkid68, and slowburn