Bruce Springsteen
Douceur de Vivre
Capitol Theatre
Passaic, NJ
September 20, 1978
JEMS Archive

2011 transfer: 1/2-track, 15 IPS master soundboard reels > azimuth-adjusted playback on professional reel to reel > 24/96 capture > Wavelab 5.0 edit and mastering > iZotope MBIT+ resample to 16/44.1 > FLAC

01 Good Rockin’ Tonight
02 Badlands
03 Spirit in the Night
04 Darkness on the Edge of Town
05 Independence Day
06 The Promised Land
07 Prove It All Night
08 It’s My Life
09 Thunder Road
10 Jungleland
11 Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town
12 Fire
13 Candy’s Room
14 Because the Night
15 Point Blank
16 Kitty’s Back
17 Incident on 57th Street
18 Rosalita
19 Born to Run
20 Tenth Avenue Freeze-out (small patch at start from video soundtrack)
21 Detroit Medley
22 Twish and Shout (small patch at end from video soundtrack)

From the original uploader.

JEMS could not be more thrilled to release this significant upgrade of the second show at the Capitol Theatre, one night removed from the historic radio broadcast that would go on to become one of, if not the most bootlegged recordings in Springsteen history, Piece De Resistance. In homage to that bootleg classic, we’ve titled the upgraded second night Douceur de Vivre, which translates to “the sweetness of life.”

And how sweet this set is, with a looser vibe than that of its predecessor and a few key set-list changes, including “It’s My Life,” the first “Santa Claus” since December 1975 and the rare-but-always-welcome coupling of “Incident on 57th Street” directly into “Rosalita.”

We’re fortunate to have many excellent recordings from Springsteen’s greatest tour, among them the five radio broadcasts (now including the upgraded Atlanta pre-FM JEMS released last year) and numerous other soundboard tapes such as those from Portland (June 24) and Charleston, WV (August 4). What makes Douceur de Vivre so special is that it, like the radio broadcast the night before, was professionally recorded on reel to reel by a mobile recording truck outside the theatre.

What we get is a live-as-it-happened recording of incredible clarity: If you ever wanted to learn the individual parts each band member is playing, this is the tape for you. Which isn’t to say that it is a multi-track, mixdown recording; this is a raw, mixed-on-the-fly, wide stereo recording done on 1/2 track at 15 inches per second. Compared to the cassette sources circulating of other raw board tapes from this tour, the quality here should be a revelation. A 24/96 edition will be forthcoming. Samples provided.

The transfer was handled as JEMS did for last year’s upgrade of The Ties That Bind so I’ll quote those notes: “There was baking involved, as the tapes had degraded in the [33 years that had passed]. This time, the reel-to-reel tape deck was best of breed, what the pros use, in a proper studio, calibrated and adjusted in every way for optimal playback and capture at 24/96 using the best possible sound card, cabling, etc.”

There are two missing pieces on the new reels, at the start of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out” and the end of “Twist and Shout.” We’ve patched those from the video soundtrack. On the bright side, “Thunder Road,” “Jungleland” and “Incident on 57th Street” are all complete here unlike the circulating board tape.