SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT

Live 07 Feb 1977 version

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[Spoken:] Here we go. One, two, three, four.

Woahhh
Woahhh
Woahhh
Woahhh
Woahhh

Well I'm riding down Kingsley figuring I'll get a drink
I turn the radio way up loud so I don't have to think
And I take her to the floor looking for a moment when the world seems right
And I tear into the guts, whoa whoa whoa, something in the night

Well now God's angels can tear this town down and blow it all into the sea
Because I don't care that there ain't nothing here for me
The street's a living sewer, there ain't nothing human inside
Just mutations living on, whoa whoa whoa, something in the night

Now, nothing is forgotten or forgiven when it's your last time around, huh!
And I got stuff running 'round my head that I just can't live down

Well I found the things we loved, crushed and dying in the dirt
I tried to pick up the pieces and get away without getting hurt
But they stopped us at the state line and burned our cars in a firefight
And left us running burned and blind, whoa, chasing something in the night

Woahhh
Woahhh
Woahhh
Woahhh
Woahhh
Woahhh
Yeahhh

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Info

The above lyrics are for the live 07 Feb 1977 performance of SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT at Palace Theatre in Albany, NY, during what is known as The Lawsuit Tour.

This version of SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT was used between 07 Feb 1977 and 15 Feb 1977, and it features the lyrics that would later appear on the album version, except on the second verse.

Verse 1: later appeared on the album version.
Verse 2: rewritten.
Verse 3: later appeared on the album version.
Verse 4: later appeared on the album version.

The line "Well now God's angels can tear this town down and blow it all into the sea" was later adapted in THE FAST SONG ("I wish God's angels would tear this town down and blow it into the sea").

Despite the marvelous reception received by both Born To Run and the tour which followed, the relationship between Bruce Springsteen and his now former manager and producer Mike Appel was deteriorating. In July 1976 the storm broke; Mike Appel wrote to Springsteen saying that he would not allow Jon Landau (Springsteen's friend and co-producer of Born To Run) to produce the next album, citing a particular paragraph from their original agreement. Springsteen replied on 27 Jul 1976 by firing manager Mike Appel and suing him and his management company Laurel Canyon Ltd. in Federal Court in Manhattan, claiming fraud, breach of trust, and undue influence. Appel counter-sued on 29 Jul 1976 in New York State Supreme Court, asking the court to prohibit Springsteen and Jon Landau from working together in studio. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band were slated to enter the studio that year for the recording of a new album, except that on 15 Sep 1976 the judge in the lawsuits case ruled that Springsteen was enjoined from any further recording with Columbia Records until Appel's suit was resolved. This would drag for about a year. Meanwhile, Springsteen continued gigging, and in the process broke his self-imposed rule of not playing the larger arenas. This was basically because he was not able to put a record out, and it was the only way his fans would be able to hear him at all. The tour became known as "The Lawsuit Tour" (62 know dates, August 1976 to March 1977).

The 07 Feb 1977 Show

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band performed a concert at Palace Theatre in Albany, NY, on 07 Feb 1977, during what is known as The Lawsuit Tour. In 1977, mired in litigation and unable to record in the studio, Springsteen probably had neither the desire nor the resources to bring a mobile recording unit with him on the road. Therefore, for forty years, no soundboard recording of the 1977 leg of tour has ever circulated among collectors.

But in August 2017, the complete concert (with a few cuts due to tape flips) was officially released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net (see the "Official Live Downloads" section below for more details). The audio is in mono and is sourced from front-of-house mix tapes recorded by Chas Gerber. No soundboard or even audience recording of the 07 Feb 1977 show have circulated among collectors prior this release.

On 02 Aug 2017, during an interview with host Jim Rotolo on Sirius XM's E Street Radio channel, Nugs.net's Brad Serling revealed in a surprise announcement that music from the 1977 tour would comprise the next download from the Bruce Springsteen live archive. Two days later, Nugs.net released recordings of the first two dates of 1977: the 07 Feb 1977 concert in Albany, NY, and the 08 Feb 1977 concert in Rochester, NY. Serling also said in the interview that the 1977 tapes were part of a larger cache of tapes made by Chas Gerber. These recordings, made for reference on the fly, are typically in mono and often incomplete.

Chas Gerber, who now runs Florida-based Gerber Acoustic Systems, worked as Springsteen's front-of-house (FOH) sound engineer from the middle of 1975 through the spring of 1977. And sometimes, he threw a cassette tape into a high-end deck and recorded the concert on the fly. That Gerber's underlying recording is mono likely stems from the fact that the front-of-house PA was not mixed in stereo, meaning the same sounds were sent to both the left and right PA speakers. Because the tape is the FOH mix, it too is in mono; modest post-production can widen the soundscape, making even a mono tape sound more like a stereo recording.

In early 2017, Gerber sent a cache of cassette tapes to Springsteen's longtime archivist Toby Scott. "I kept my tapes," Gerber told Backstreets.com in an unpublished 2015 interview. "I never gave copies to anyone." Over the years he meant to digitize them but never got around to it. In fact, Gerber hadn't even listened to them. But a series of chance encounters over the past couple years led to the tapes joining others in the Springsteen archive.

The digital transfers and restoration were made by John K. Chester and Jamie Howarth, using the Plangent Process. Howarth said he was impressed by what he found on the cassettes. "The fidelity is surprising," he told Backstreets.com. He credits Gerber for capturing a complex dynamic range, from the low-end kick to Max Weinberg's cymbals. "There's a constant balancing and re-balancing that goes on, whether it's pushing Roy Bittan's piano up or pulling it back, and then Bruce has to stay above that the whole time." The two 1977 recordings (Albany and Rochester) mark a milestone for Howarth: it's the first cassette-sourced commercial release for Plangent. Howarth used a heavily modified Nakamichi 680ZX for the task, whose only stock parts, he said, are the head and the Dolby chip ─ he's customized many of its elements, including the audio outputs.

Official Live Downloads

Prior to the High Hopes Tour, Bruce Springsteen's management announced a new service allowing fans to download concert recordings approximately 48 hours after each show. The initial plan required fans to purchase a special USB wristband, which could then be used to download a single High Hopes Tour show of the purchaser's choice and also functions as a regular reusable USB flash drive. The wristband, which could be purchased online or at the concert venue, was priced at $40. Following some negative response from fans over the high cost for the wristband, Springsteen's management subsequently announced a separate cheaper option for purchasing shows directly, without the need for the wristband. The shows were available for purchase and download via Live Nation, Bruce Springsteen's concert promoter, priced at $9.99 for MP3 and $14.99 for FLAC. Audio recordings for 31 of the 34 High Hopes Tour dates (all except 16 Feb 2014, 06 Apr 2014, and 03 May 2014) were released as such and they were available until 30 Jun 2014.

On 17 Nov 2014, Live.BruceSpringsteen.net was launched. It's a new addition to the official website, serving as an online store offering high-quality live concert recordings as well as high-resolution digital releases of Springsteen's album catalog. The download store is powered by Nugs.net in cooperation with Columbia Records. Audio recordings for 30 of the 34 High Hopes Tour dates (all except 16 Feb 2014, 06 Apr 2014, 03 May 2014, and 18 May 2014) were re-released on the new download store in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Nugs.net adopted the MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) format on 24 May 2017. From then on, all Bruce Springsteen live concert recordings, including the previously released ones, became also available in MQA.

Audio recordings for all 75 The River Tour 2016 dates were also released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Each show was generally released within a month after it took place.

Audio recordings for all 14 Summer '17 Tour dates were also released on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless CD-quality FLAC or ALAC, and 24-bit HD FLAC or ALAC or MQA, as well as audio CD-R with custom artwork. Each show was generally released within a month after it took place.

Archival releases were periodically released on the same site, as part of the Bruce Springsteen Archive Series. These shows were also made available in multiple formats, including MP3, lossless FLAC or ALAC, 24-bit FLAC or ALAC or MQA, DSD, and audio CD-R. So far 90 shows (or sets of shows) were released from the ongoing series.

Available Versions

List of available versions of SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT on this website:

SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Album version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Early outtake]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 01 Aug 1976 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 22 Aug 1976 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 09 Oct 1976 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 27 Oct 1976 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 28 Oct 1976 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 30 Oct 1976 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 04 Nov 1976 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 07 Feb 1977 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 08 Feb 1977 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 13 Feb 1977 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 14 Mar 1977 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 19 May 1978 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 31 May 1978 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 18 Oct 2002 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 07 Oct 2005 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Live 13 Dec 2009 version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Aram's cover version]
SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT [Matthew Ryan's cover version]

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Page last updated: 20 Aug 2017