My rental car had Sirius radio. Sirius has been broadcasting the station “E Street Radio” for several months, and I’ve enjoyed listening when I’ve had a rental car. For Memorial Day weekend, they played non-stop live music, concert by concert, from Friday morning through Monday night.
Saturday afternoon, I was on my way home from having lunch with my buddies Larry and Vincent, and the concert was the Cleveland Agora show from 1978. This was an amazing show; I’ve listened to the broadcast a couple of times, and there are thousands of bootlegs out there. The show was originally broadcast on WMMS in Cleveland, and there’s a soundboard mix out there as well as an official remaster that was broadcast on KSAN1. I listened to this great lead-in to Growing Up, and I just HAD to call Company Co-owner to rave about it. I got his voice mail, so I left a message.
I got an e-mail from him this morning, asking if I had the show. Apparently I was babbling when I left the message. I replied that I didn’t, but I had heard it on Sirius, and what an awesome show, and does he have it, and did he go? He replied that no, he didn’t go, and he used to have it on two cassettes, and would pay big money to have a CD quality version.
Later that day, instead of working, I googled. The link at footnote one led me to google “Just in time for summer” Springsteen Cleveland Agora and led me to this page at Addicted to Vinyl. Lo, what did I behold but three compressed files, containing CD’s 1,2 and 3 of the Cleveland Agora show. I downloaded them. The sound quality was amazing. I frantically called and e-mailed Company Co-owner. Later, I found a VM from him that he was downloading now, and “where did you find this? I’ve been looking for this for ten years.”
I called him later and told him - I spent time I should have been doing work for you googling, and I found this. He said that was fine, under the circumstances. After all, he said he’d pay big money for it, and all he lost was 30 minutes of the time I should have been working.
I’m excited for everybody to be out tomorrow so I can give it a thorough listen.
I’d say, “job security rocks,” but you’re simply priceless.
Deb
Glad you found my website. You mention the Growing Up story as a classic moment, and that’s what I love about the show, as a diehard Springsteen fan. There are SO many great moments like that Growing Up story within the Agora show.
The story that leads into Thunder Road, is one of my favorites….still gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.
I LOVE the version of Promised Land.
I could go on.
If you’d like another good show, I can suggest the Winterland show from that same year, which is another classic bootleg among the fans.
But I imagine that the Agora show will keep you busy for a while!
Thanks for the link - Best Regards….Matt
Thirty minutes? Guess he doesn’t know how much time you really spend, huh?
Congrats on finding the music.