Truth and Salvage (Bruce's Promise)

Does one judge another by their treasures or their trash? This week, I've wrestled with this as I spin continuously Bruce's "The Promise", the two-disc set of unreleased "junk" from the Darkness on the Edge of Town sessions. Old masters, a couple of outtakes, rejected singles and incomplete songs that the man and others have completed.
It's amazing. As good as the album? No, and it's not supposed to be. Not even close. What it is, is simply what helped bring us, arguably, Bruce's greatest album. A friend from long ago called Darkness his best while I claimed that Born to Run was and yet while the argument is pointless since the context of the argument is bigger than the argument itself, Darkness captures something right now that we still are searching for, something we need, and these songs give us the hope that we may still find it. "The Promise" can easily be whittled down to a single disc, minus "Because the Night" and "Fire", singles for Bruce fans that bootlegs and live versions are far superior; what the eighty-minute album hands the listener is the soul-based late-70s album hardcores always wanted. Perfect? Not a chance. Find a perfect Southside Johnny album. They need not be perfect; they're just perfect for what I need this cold winter, with horns, four chords, a surprise nod to a future song or lyric progression that evolved into something identifiable on the lp. I wish my leftovers were just this perfect. As the rumors of a 2011 buzz around the Bruce boards, the questions abound - just how much of this 'garbage' will make up the main setlist? I've felt that since the Magic tour, the setlist is in major need of an overhaul. Casual fans be damned, it's time, my friend to pull out these closeted classics and live barnburners that WE want. Not the Promised Lands but the Thundercracks; Give WOAD a pass and Lonesome Day a rest and give us what you've denied us for over three decades - your Phil Spector/Ronnie Spector/Beach Boys/The Fever/early E Street record that will slam us cynical, middle-aged, over-weight/dulled-yet-hopeful music addicts with the hope that rock and roll, while middle-aged and slow like us, can still give us the hope we seek.

I'm still processing each individual track and will need to leave a synopsis for a later date. Until then, simply go and buy this. Or, save your pennies and do what I'm doing: skipping a mortgage payment and picking up the 3-cd/3-dvd set with concert footage, a making-of documentary, the massive remastered overhaul and booklets galore, which are photocopied renditions of Bruce's actual notebooks. Thank you, Boss.

A nod of thanks to my friend, Tony Holt, for a special holiday present of a bootleg live copy of our 12/5/09 Black Crowes concert. At the time, I felt it was one of the greatest concerts of my life, from the opening band to the headlining set, flow and execution of some great songs. For the last year, I've dreaded actually hearing a recording of the show in case my memory and reality clashed. After throwing the show on tonight, my memory is vindicated and this evening has just been elevated into the pantheon of great rock and roll performances. It was the first time I saw my now-favorites, the Truth and Salvage Co., whose performance from this night I've written about extensively. The Crowes's set started in typical fashion - hard-hitting, spot-on songs to pump up the audience. For a two-decade long fan, however, it isn't the "best" songs that are going to win me over, it's the covers, the b-sides and rarities that make concert-going the worth-while mission I've given my life to. The new songs, unfortunately few, ratcheted up the intensity but it's the second hour (second disc) of this performance that makes this the desert-island performance for me. Just peek:

Dowtown Money Waster - don't believe this song burns? I challenge you to listen to this and not think this is the band's greatest.

Lady of Avenue A - And to think, it's on the band's final album of new releases.

Highhead Blues - cool rarity, spot on.

I Ain't Hidin' - laugh that it's a Stones throwaway and yet that other band has yet to produce a performance in its five-decade career this incendiary. Incendiary.

Don't Do It - Steve, tell 'em. The Crowes doing the Band doing Marvin Gaye? C'mon, folks.

Descending - Steve, it's better on tape than we remember. Adam and Luther and Rich on rhythm are slaughtering this gospel-based Zeppelin-rooted beauty. It's really that good.

Hot Burrito #2 - My favorite song of the late-named group; one of Gram's best. Always delivered with passion by Chris and for me, a nod to my first show in 1995 when I first heard the song.

Will the Circle Be Unbroken - the song I'd waited for. The penultimate night of a great run for a tour of the band's best album. A delay in delivery; roadies running about pulling amps and mic stands and hopes for a great ending. The faithful rewarded. Chris thanked the opening band for being on the road with them for the last four months and wanted to treat us with a finale we'd not forget: The Truth and Salvage Co. on stage with the Black Crowes taking us to church. This was the song that sent me over the cliff a year ago; it's the song that still incapsulates the performances and the evening. How many of us know Delaney and Bonnie and Friends's "Motel Shot?" Well, those of us who do know that there's nothing better, and to see a dozen men and two women performing rock and roll music on acoustic instruments is a true spectacle; only history offers us a comparison: Music at Big Pink, the Rolling Thunder Revue, Mad Dogs and Englishmen. IT'S THAT F***ING PERFECT. The only way to have ended a night on such a perfect song was to stand outside in the drizzling rain waiting for your friends to pee or get another drink or chat with strangers only to have your concert poster signed by the Crowes. Or to later connect with the guys in the Truth and Salvage Co. and see them ten amazing times over the course of the next year. No other year in my life will match that of December '09 to now. No way, no how. Unless I meet Bruce, but I ain't holding my breath.