A nice little record

I can't help but wonder why MTV allowed Bruce Springsteen to play a regular electric "club date" instead of actually playing unplugged. There are hours of live Springsteen available, but only a few acoustic songs, and it would have been a lot more interesting to hear him recast some of his songs in an acoustic format.



On "MTV (Un)plugged", Springsteen opens with an acoustic solo performance, the dirty but good-natured "Red Headed Woman", after which he completely abandons the unplugged format, playing a regular (if slightly subdued) electric concert featuring mainly songs from his then-current albums "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town". And while it's a shame that he took the easy way and played a predictable electric set instead of an acoustic show, this is actually a really good little concert album.



This is from Springsteen's non-E Street Band period, but the most immediately recognizable part of his "sound", keyboardist Roy Bittan, is onboard, and the five-piece band plays well, although without a whole lot of personality.

The track list includes a couple of old war horses ("Thunder Road", "Atlantic City", "Darkness On The Edge Of Town"), but the vast majority of these thirteen songs are from the 90s, and Springsteen fortunately plays almost all the best songs from "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town", most of which actually sound better in this live setting than on the original studio recordings.



The pleasant trifle "Man's Job", which features harmony vocals by 70s soul crooner Bobby King, is really good, as is a slightly subdued by quite moving version of "I Wish I Were Blind".

"Human Touch" is better in the original rendition, but "Lucky Town" really benefits from the tough live arrangement and a great lead vocal by Springsteen. And the band lays down an extremely hard-rocking 8-minute version of "Light Of Day", a low-key Bob Dylan-like "Should I Fall Behind", and a nice, swinging "Better Days".



A folkish "Thunder Road" is disappointing compared to the definitive version on "Live 1975-1985", but "Atlantic City" and "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" in particular are good.

The final couple of songs are minor ones, but "MTV (Un)Plugged" generally holds up very well, and while it is not really a necessary purchase for casual Springsteen fans, it is a nice collection of small pleasures. I have had it since it came out, and I continue to play it now and then.

3 3/4 stars.

MTV Plugged?

I'm a big fan of "The Boss", but for the life of me, can't fathom why he is unable to follow the lead of larger acts, and actually "unplug" for MTV Unplugged. This CD offers no new material that can't be found elsewhere, and is basically nothing more than a "live in concert" CD that just so happened to be filmed by MTV.



This concert took place in 1992, and you know it's pretty bad when you have bands ribbing you three years later about going on MTV UNPlugged, and then having to go and plug in. It's not like Bruce doesn't know how to play acoustic guitar, because he does. I'm a big acoustic guitar fan, and for someone of Bruce's talent level, to not be able to write songs that can be played acoustically only serves to bring down the level of respect I have for his talent.



Not what I would consider an essential recording, and not recommended, unless you are such a die-hard "Boss" fan that you have to own every album he puts out. Otherwise, save your money.

The guts to do it plugged

Yeah, Bruce Springsteen had the guts to do a very plugged show in the Unplugged series. As much as everybody wants to dismiss his non-E-street road band, the results are superb, the live HT/LT songs being much better than the studio ones. This CD has a haunting version of My Beautiful Reward, a beautiful song that wasn't done with a full heart on the HT album. Here, Bruce and the band get right into the very core of it. Other highlights: Red Headed Woman, Light Of Day, Thunder Road and Big Muddy. No, Big Muddy isn't here, it's on the Streets Of Philadelphia single along with Growin' Up. And I miss the other two songs: 57 Channels with a 'No justice, no peace' routine' and a hard-rockin' Glory Days. A two-CD set would be a right thing to do. The missing songs are on the video tape and DVD. And that's why this CD doesn't deserve 5 stars. Yep, (just) because they didn't include Big Muddy with that haunting shout 'poison snake bites you and you're poison too'.