yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of what many consider to be the most important rock event in cleveland music history, and arguably bruce springsteen’s career. ‘born to run’ was released in 1975 and had catapulted him to critical acclaim and sold well, but a two year battle with his previous manager kept him on the sidelines from recording and touring for about two years. in promoting the ensuing album ‘darkness on the edge of town’, a number of nationally broadcast concerts were considered. larger markets were looked at for the initial broadcast, but eventually all agreed on cleveland as the first one, for a number of reasons. in a smaller market, it would be considered a marquee event, and would draw more media attention. keep in mind that bruce was still playing small venues and did not have the draw power to fill arenas. the second was his close friendship with local dj kid leo, who was the driving power behind the dominant rock station in northeast ohio, wmms. at that time wmms was one of the most influential rock stations in the country. rolling stone named them ‘radio station of the year’ nine years in a row. kid leo was personal friends with bruce, and his promotion of bruce’s work was profound even before ‘born to run’.

in addition to bruce, they were considered instrumental in breaking in rush, boston, roxy music, meat loaf, lou reed, the pretenders, and many others to a national market. my high school record collections were dominated by these bands. indeed, you were kicked out of my car if you changed the station from wmms.

the concert was scheduled as part of the station’s tenth anniversary and was announced less than two weeks beforehand. postcards were drawn from those that listeners sent in, and admission was free. beverages were not served, allegedly to keep the background noise down. it was simulcast by seven other midwest stations, and it is estimated to have reached over 3 million listeners. the sound quality was so good organizers assumed that it would be widely bootlegged, and so it was never considered for a live release. they were correct in their assumption, as it is considered to be one of the most widely circulated concert bootlegs in history. springsteen concert archivist toby scott found the original agora tape reels when visiting the rock and roll hall of fame’s ‘asbury park to the promised land’ exhibit, and it was remastered and released in 2014. to the best of my knowledge it is only available on nugs.com. i listened to the second half of the first set on my way home tonight from work. after the organ and piano prelude ends and the full force and gale of the e street band hits the first notes in the set closer ‘jungleland’, the hairs rise on the back of the neck and the chest swells. many consider the ‘darkness’ tour to be their finest hour, and this is a great snapshot of that era. the energy and freshness devoted to the anthemic stories of springsteen’s characters is breathtaking. i wish i had been there. i will settle with this instead. play it loud.