01 Down to Mexico
02 I remember
03 All I wanna do is dance
04 You sure can dance
05 Magic kind of loving
06 Love is a crazy thing
07 The band's just boppin' the blues
08 I just can't change
09 When you dance
10 Like a stranger
11 Make up your mind
12 Cowboys of the sea
13 Something you got
14 Darkness darkness
15 It's all over now baby blue
16 Down the road apiece
17 Bright lights, big city
18 Sitting on top of the world
19 I'm into something good [Mixed with take out some insurances]
Notes: ONE show, with THE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN BAND the sole act on the bill. This was opening night of 9-show residency that encompassed three of the four weekends in February. The above-mentioned 19-songs are culled from circulating audience audio from the 9-show residency that would seem to encompass parts of four of these nine shows – consequently there are multiple performances of some songs (a total of 25 recordings encompassing 229 minutes). Most of these 25 recordings have been in circulation since the mid 1980’s and more than half have been issued on various mainstream bootleg titles. The remainder of the audio is only circulating via private CDR sources. The overall sound quality is good.
The so-called “Backdoor Club Tapes” represent some of the most perplexing live audio to sort out, primarily due to the fact that nearly all the between-song audio appears to have been cut by the original taper prior to the audio entering into collector circulation. Because of the lack of audio continuity it is extremely difficult to tell which recordings emanate from which shows - and virtually impossible to decipher the correct running order. Although the shows of Feb 4th and 26th are often cited on trade lists, these two dates appear to based on the fact that for many years these were the only two dates known to have been played at the club. It is now known the residency was much longer, so this material could be from any of the shows. However it is more likely that most of it comes from the final weekend’s performances.
Southside Johnny was a guest on the first weekend. However Southside’s harp playing is only heard on one track, “Bright Lights Big City”. Bruce handles the harmonica on “Just Cant Change”, one of his better songwriting efforts of 1971. Two other standout songs are “Like A Stranger” and “Make Up Your Mind”. The most interesting track is the full band version of “Cowboys Of The Sea” – a song that clearly foreshadows the change of lyric style that Bruce was adopting at the time.
