It was 30 years ago today (April 12th, 1993) that Bruce Springsteen released his In Concert / MTV Plugged live set. The collection was recorded on September 22nd, 1992 at L.A.'s Warner Hollywood Studios and featured Springsteen's solo ensemble just prior to heading out on Springsteen's first world tour without the E Street Band. The album mixed classics with cuts from his then-new 1992 sets Human Touch and Lucky Town. Among the evergreens performed by “The Boss” and his new band were “Darkness On The Edge Of Town,” “Atlantic City” and “Thunder Road.”
The concert was originally broadcast on MTV on November 11th, 1992 with an accompanying radio simulcast. In addition to the previously released new tracks and classics, two Springsteen tunes made their debut on the MTV Plugged set — the concert-opening acoustic track, “Red Headed Woman” and “Light Of Day,” which Springsteen had premiered on the 1988 E Street Band tour and had previously been gifted to Joan Jett & The Blackhearts for inclusion in the 1987 movie of the same name.
Although In Concert / MTV Plugged went gold, selling over 500,000 copies, the album stiffed on the charts, “peaking” at a dismal 189 on the Billboard 200. The VHS version of the show featured five additional tracks — “Local Hero,” “Growin' Up,” “The Big Muddy,” “57 Channels (And Nothin' On),” and “Glory Days” — with the eventual DVD adding “Roll Of The Dice.”
Upon hitting the road with the solo band in 1992, Bruce Springsteen explained why he went over four years between releasing 1987's Tunnel Of Love collection and the double-shot 1992 albums: “One of the reasons I had a long time off between records was because it was the only way that I could really reflect on what was happening on me outside of my work life. (And) have a chance to experience and come up with something new that I'd have to bring to an audience. I think the two most important relationships are the relationship with my son and my wife and my close friends and then the relationship that I've worked for over for 20 years with my audience. So, (I'm) tryin' to find a way to do both as (laughs) best as possible.”
The original tracklisting to Bruce Springsteen's In Concert / MTV Plugged album is:
“Red Headed Woman”
“Better Days”
“Atlantic City”
“Darkness On The Edge Of Town”
“Man's Job”
“Human Touch”
“Lucky Town”
“I Wish I Were Blind”
“Thunder Road”
“Light Of Day”
“If I Should Fall Behind”
“Living Proof”
“My Beautiful Reward”
