Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
The New Sound of ’84: Oakland First Night 
October 21, 1984 // Oakland Coliseum Arena // Oakland, CA
Walt K. master recording
1994 JEMS transfer by Tapeboy; 2019 remaster by BK
With post-production by mjk5510
Artwork by Mattereater Design
Presented by slipkid68 in association with JEMS Archive

Recording Equipment: Sony ECM-150 mics > Sony WM-D6C

JEMS Transfer: Walt K. Master Audience Cassettes (Maxell XLII-S 90) > Nakamichi 670ZX azimuth-adjusted transfer > Sony 75ES DAT Recorder > Analog Master Clone DAT > Fostex D5 DAT Playback > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 16/48 capture > iZotope RX MBIT+ resample 16/44.1 > iZotope RX and Ozone mastering > Peak Pro 6 (volume smoothing / edit / index) > xACT 2.39 > FLAC

Known Faults:

“Born in the U.S.A.” (first 19 seconds patched with Recorder 4)
“Darlington County” (first eight seconds patched with Recorder 4)
“Badlands” (first four seconds patched with Recorder 4)
“Cover Me” (first 36 seconds patched with Recorder 4)
“Pink Cadillac” (first three seconds patched with Recorder 4)
“Rosalita” (1:36 patched during band introductions with Recorder 4)
“Twist and Shout” (two seconds patched in middle and 1:30 patched at end with Recorder 4)

While working on Walt's master, we discovered that "Twist and Shout" has a two-second gap in the middle and is missing the end. Oddly, the Crystal Cat version presents a complete track, so we concluded it used a source other than Walt's. So, this is the first time "Twist and Shout" from Walt's capture is available, patched here with Recorder 4.

Seamless transfer (suggested CD breaks)

101 Born in the U.S.A.
102 Who'll Stop the Rain
103 Out in the Street
104 Atlantic City
105 Johnny 99
106 Reason to Believe
107 Mansion on the Hill
108 State Trooper
109 Prove It All Night
110 Darlington County
111 Glory Days
112 The Promised Land
113 My Hometown
201 Point Blank
202 Badlands
203 Thunder Road
204 Cover Me
205 Dancing in the Dark
206 Hungry Heart
207 Cadillac Ranch
208 Downbound Train
209 I'm on Fire
210 Pink Cadillac
211 Growin' Up
301 Bobby Jean
302 Racing in the Street
303 Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
304 Jungleland
305 Follow That Dream
306 Born to Run
307 Detroit Medley > Travelin' Band
308 Twist and Shout > Do You Love Me?

In 2016, a fellow collector applauded recordings made in the San Francisco Bay Area. Why? “The Grateful Dead tapers that like other bands and tape them, too, always turn out the best recordings,” wrote Dimeadozen user sturnerbig. That’s the case with The New Sound of ’84: Oakland First Night, Walt K.’s brilliant master recording of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on October 21, 1984 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

One of five known recordings, this one circulated with titles like Oakland Night and Reason to Believe in Oakland. Now, remastered using a DAT tape source made directly from Walt’s cassettes (for patch information, see "Known Faults," above), it represents a clear and thorough upgrade from mid-’90s silvers. This remastered edition is sharper and clearer, and packs considerably more punch, moving 10/21/84 into the upper echelon of U.S.A. tour audies alongside Ames, Lincoln, and Kansas City.

Bruce Springsteen hit the road in 1984 with two new LPs, two new band members, and a revamped sound that took cues from mainstream ’80s music. Keyboards came up, guitars came down, and by autumn, a “trigger” effect gave Max Weinberg’s drums a whole new dimension. As E Street sonics expanded, 30 new songs appeared, from “Johnny 99” to “Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart.” 

Springsteen hadn’t played Northern California since 1980, and four years of pent-up demand met his skyrocketing popularity head-on: “Dancing in the Dark” and “Cover Me” were back-to-back top 10 singles, a career first, and MTV broadened his appeal even more. Promoter Bill Graham estimated that 200,000 people tried to get tickets for Oakland; whatever the true figure, Springsteen’s star was rising to its highest point. That proved irresistible to the Reagan campaign, and the president invoked Springsteen at a Hammonton, New Jersey rally in September. 

Though caught off guard, Springsteen responded by sharpening his setlist and his remarks. He set up songs by touching on themes like powerlessness and blind faith. He plugged community organizations from the stage — here, a hunger relief service called the Berkeley Emergency Food Project — and left their coffers fuller by thousands of dollars. Moreover, Springsteen explained why, speaking of “people who’ve been cut down by the injustices in our social system, and by the economic policies of the current administration.”

His sense of rock sounded just as clear. In Oakland, he paired a thunderous “Born in the U.S.A.” with “Who’ll Stop the Rain.” The thematic start also made for a gracious nod to Creedence Clearwater Revival, who gathered just up the road in El Cerrito and recorded a live album in that very building in 1970.

This night marked the first time five songs from Nebraska appeared in succession. That tilt toward last resorts, people of lesser means, and isolation — all foreign to the day’s prevailing electoral message, if not downright anathema — served as musical resistance. Nebraska not only became the autumn’s lodestar, but also showed the band at its best, whether the all-in, electrified “Atlantic City,” the rugged acoustic poise of “Johnny 99,” or the beguiling swing that carried “Reason to Believe.”

For his dad (dressed in a jacket and tie for the evening), Springsteen sang “Mansion on the Hill,” delivering a heartfelt and resonant vocal. “State Trooper” closed the suite: its spooky, thrilling arrangement ratcheted up the narrator’s agitation, and the song’s unresolved tension lingered until Springsteen counted off “Prove It All Night.” A genuine rarity — played only 11 times — “State Trooper” was the tour’s most imaginative and compelling number. For anyone wondering what the band brought to the unreleased studio recordings, The New Sound of ’84 affords an educated guess. 

Updated arrangements reached lesser-played songs (“Point Blank,” “Follow That Dream”) while standards (“Badlands,” “Thunder Road”) sounded more robust. A superb “Cover Me” kicked off the second set, which also featured “Pink Cadillac” (with a story) and “Growin’ Up” (with a tree, a bear, and another story). “Racing in the Street” includes a new instrumental introduction; that song soon became the set closer.

The next night (10/22), Springsteen played ten different songs, among them “Highway Patrolman,” “Nebraska,” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town.” Honoring a request, “Stolen Car” got its first airing since the River tour. And “Shut Out the Light” debuted, then unknown (it came out as the B-side to the “Born in the U.S.A.” single the following week, making a perfect 45). Moreover, the E Street Band kept getting better: fans should seek out Mark P.’s excellent recording of 10/22, another amazing show. 

II.

I met Walt as we waited in line for Oakland tickets. We talked about our enthusiasm for taping and gushed about a Pretenders gig we'd seen in Berkeley on September 1. He taped that show and others by Lou Reed, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Prince, R.E.M., and of course, the Grateful Dead. Soon after we met, Walt loaned me his D6 so I could record U2. A decade later, Walt was as big on Pearl Jam as he was on the jazz great Max Roach.
 
Meeting Walt and sharing this recording remain central parts of my first Springsteen concert experience, as integral as hearing segments of “Mansion on the Hill” and “Out in the Street” at that afternoon’s soundcheck, or watching the band quietly walk off together and disappear backstage when it ended. After the concert, I got to say hello to Bruce and relay my appreciation of his work. (I celebrated my 100th show on the 2016 River tour in the same building.)
 
Thanks to Walt (who passed away in 2006) and Helen. They were there, with Tapeboy, Pjay, Stuart, A. Morg, Dr. Billy, Mark L., EM, and JM (with whom I made my first tape trade in 1982). Robin Williams sat nearby, and Jerry Garcia took in the show as well: apparently, he was so impressed that he called his Grateful Dead band mates to urge them to go the next night. Doc’s photos (via JEMS Archive) join my own; proof sheets courtesy of longtime Bay Area photographer Ron D. All images taken October 21, 1984.

My old comrade of 36 years BK was there, too. He inspired The New Sound of ’84 with That Old ’80 Sound, which features his first show (10/24/80, Seattle, recorded by RS). Both recordings share roots in the Grateful Dead community. For years, he searched diligently for Seattle while I devised similar treatment for Oakland (Jared had transferred Walt’s masters to DAT in 1994; BK shaped the revised soundscape, and mjk5510 made final adjustments, keeping songs, sonics, and standards perfectly aligned).

Thanks to them, all our fellow tapers in the Grateful Dead community, and to everyone who recorded Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on the Born in the U.S.A. tour, whether in St. Paul, Ames, Osaka, Milan, or Los Angeles.

One final note: now called Berkeley Food & Housing Project, the organization that Bruce Springsteen elevated in 1984, continues to serve the citizens of the East Bay. If you’re hearing this music, please consider making a modest donation at bfhp.org or to a similar non-profit of your choice.

And of course, as Walt himself said: share this freely, and for free!

 - slipkid68