 The Light in Darkness
A Limited Edition Companion Book to the
New Bruce Springsteen The Promise Box Set.
 
From the same publisher of the sold out book, For You Original Stories
and Photographs by Bruce Springsteen's Legendary Fans.
I spent those years in between [Born to Run and Darkness] waiting for his return, both
sonically and in the flesh. And when he did return, a changed man, a grownup with a new anger and dissonance to his sound, I felt bereft.
I had to fucking adjust. I mean, I really had to listen to that album, hard, over and over again, to find where I could meet him, or
really, where he was meeting me. This was when listening to an album meant lying on the floor, head between your speakers, dropping that
needle over and over to play that song again and again. Skipping this one or that one, it's formulaic and tired, or is it? Play it again
and realize, no, there's something different here. And when I listen now, I can hear it all. The genius of that album. The anger and
the disenchantment. And the rage in those guitars! - Suzanne Scala
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There are friend stories and loner stories and love stories
and break-up stories and sad stories and happy stories, and yet they are
all of a common voice. The very best parts of the Springsteen community
are represented in this book.
- Tom Cunningham
The Bruce Brunch
What makes this a must-have for the Springsteen fan on your
holiday shopping list are the hundreds of photographs here — many
of which were shot by fans as well, and thus are seen here for the very
first time.
- Glen Boyd
blogcritics.org
Come "For You", il nuovo libro è costruito
sulla base delle originali testimonianze dei fans che all'epoca hanno avuto
la fortuna di assistere a quei straordinari show e che oggi consentono
ai lettori di rivivere almeno in parte le stesse emozioni.
- Openallnight.it
Après le superbe For You ce livre qui représente
encore une fois une masse de travail hallucinante ne peut que figurer en
bonne place dans la bibliothèque de tous vrais fans de Bruce.
- www.brucespringsteen.fr
I just wanted to let you know the book arrived safely yesterday.
I got home from work and saw the parcel on the coffee table - the little
Canadian flag logo told me what was inside. The 'Do Not Disturb' sign went
up on the study door, and my family didn't see me for the rest of the evening.
This is a wonderful book, Lawrence - thank you!
- Kevin Smith
West Yorkshire, UK
| The Light in Darkness
With so many
Springsteen-related books available, you might not know where to begin to get the perfect gift for the Bruce fan in your life. You cannot
do better than The Light in Darkness. - David Lifton
Popdose.com
Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town broke
new ground for The Boss in 1978. A counterpoint to the operatic elegance of Born to Run, the album was an angry, raw record that
burst forth after a three-year hiatus. Because of its darker tones, some might call Darkness a difficult album, but despite
this, it's a cherished gem for many. Collecting stories and photos from hundreds of fans, The Light in Darkness celebrates this
classic record, allowing readers to revisit the excitement of that moment when the needle found the grooves in that first cut and the
thundering power of "Badlands" shook across the hi-fi for the very first time. Or the uninitiated, but soon-to-be-converted
teenager, brought along by friends and finding salvation at one of the legendary three-plus hour concerts - shows that embodied all the
manic fury of a revival meeting. The book is also for those more recent converts to The Boss who may have stumbled across a dusty
bootleg in a used record store - discovering the magic of the Agora or the Winterland shows. Finally, The Light in Darkness is
for those who never gave Bruce's fourth album much consideration; those more partial to the high-polished sounds of Born to Run or
the stadium-rousing choruses of Born in the U.S.A. For the skeptics, just read the tales of those who struggle with the dark and
trembling frustration of "Something in the Night," the open-road emptiness of "Racing in the Street," and the too-faraway hope of "The
Promised Land." A troubling album indeed. But the passion, the connection, the thrill of the fans as they explore this classic record
will make a convert of anyone. The Three-Year Wait
It was a long wait. From the time Born to Run came out until the
release of Darkness on the Edge of Town, fans had to suffer through a three-year hiatus, a lifetime for a musician to be off the
radar back then. And in the days before the Internet and MTV, Bruce's devotees often had no idea what was taking him so long, and
little means to find out. They resorted to scouring the pages of Rolling Stone and Creem magazines for any mention of Springsteen, any
hint or clue about when the new record would be released. And when that produced no results, they turned to prayer. We all know now
that legal wrangling with his first manager, Mike Appel, kept a new record off the shelves for those three years. When Bruce finally came
out victorious and replaced Appel with music writer Jon Landau, the stage was set for the next record to be released. But few would
anticipate the frustration that had built up during those years, anger that Springsteen would channel into the new album. The Light
in Darkness shares the stories of fans coming to grips with this new record and this very different sound from The Boss, finding that
Bruce's struggles and frustrations often mirrored their own battles in life. A frayed relationship with a father, a body made sore with
factory work, or the suffocating fear of being trapped in the badlands, fans have lived the stories Bruce tells on Darkness - the
album is part of their history, a history they share in this book. Springsteen Live
From the Palladium in New York to
Detroit's Cobo Hall, from the famed Winterland to the year's final show at Cleveland's Richfield Coliseum, Springsteen's 1978 tour is
legendary. Bruce, who was already famous for his incredible shows, pioneered a whole new kind of concert experience on this tour. Just
the audience, Bruce and the E Street Band for a marathon three-plus hours, with an intermission in the middle just long enough to let the
audience catch their breath. The Light in Darkness brings these shows to life through the testimony of those who were there,
concerts that can still be heard through the magic of bootlegging. The stories fans tell from those electrifying 1978 shows only
increases the power of hearing these coveted, semi-legal tapes still circulating today. The Darkness tour also marked the last
time many would get to see The Boss in small concert halls, as Bruce's exploding popularity forced him to trade up to hockey arenas
during several stops on the tour. Stadiums would soon follow. Today, many fans lucky enough to have attended the Darkness tour are
glad they did whatever it took to land a ticket, a memory they can still cherish as they now watch Bruce from the nosebleeds. Over
200 Photos
The Light in Darkness features stunning photography from the Darkness tour. With over 200 photos taken by
dozens of photographers, many of them never before published, this is a book you'll come back to time and time again. Many notable
Springsteen-era photographers contributed to the volume, including: - James Shive
- P. Jay Plutzer
- Lynn Goldsmith
- Peter
Howes
- Anastasia Pantsios
- Mark Wyville
- Cliff Breining
- Lawrence Kirsch
About the book: Limited Collector's
Edition
This 208 page, large format, 9.25" x 12" full-color book is printed on Premium Gloss 200m paper stock and contains more
than 200 photographs reproduced from the original negatives and slides. The book is only available online for purchase at: www.thelightindarkness.com
The reason that I
haven't written you before now is that I just completed the book. I've been savoring it. It's just terrific-wonderful photos and
compelling stories. - Lauren Onkey
Vice President of Education & Public Programs
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
"...maybe you just want to take your favorite Springsteen fan by complete surprise with something else that packs a wallop. The connection and bond made between performer and audience during this tour set the stage for all future albums and tours to come...The book will give readers at least a small perspective of what we experienced in 1978."
- Marianne Meyer, Digital Music
Examiner.com
"The Light in Darkness" is a Coffee Table Must.
If you are from New Jersey or if you just plain love Bruce Springsteen, then
you need to nab yourself a copy of The Light in Darkness, a photo book featuring
the lore and history of the Boss.
- Amy Sciarretto
ArtistDirect.com
Bruce Springsteen sortait en 1978 un de ses chef-d'oeuvres, "Darkness on the Edge of Town". Plus de 30 ans plus tard, Lawrence Kirsch publie un recueil de témoignages uniques, "The Light in Darkness". Un magnifique cliché inédit illustre le livre et on en retrouve plus de 200 autres, pour la plupart jamais publiés avant, tous pris par des fans.
- Margaux Lanier
brucespringsteensite.com
From stories of intimate in-your-face clubs shows early in his career to the
misquoted myth of the five-hour show, the adoration and fervent followings
Springsteen has amassed over the decades is almost unparalleled and on full
display in a new book chronicling the 1978 Darkness on the Edge of Town tour, The
Light in Darkness . The real treasures of the book are the hundreds of
pictures and memorabilia that fill the pages in between the stories. Newspaper
ads for the shows, flyers for on-sale dates, pins from the Madison Square Garden
stand, concert tickets, specially made posters, backstage passes and special
promotional items not seen for years.
- Anthony Kuzminski
antimusic.com
And as for those of us who weren't there? If you've been touched by the album
and by Springsteen's work since, that doesn't matter. "I may have missed
the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour," writes Jeffrey Blout, "but
it didn't miss me." Get this book and it won't have to miss you either.
- Peter Chianca
blogs.wickedlocal.com/springsteen/
1978 was and always will be the time when everything clicked for the most
people when it comes to Bruce. These tales all tell the story of the unprecedented
magic and intensity that was the Darkness era. And very often, the
writing lives up to its subject and sends shivers down your spine and makes
you check your CD shelf for that Agora or Roxy bootleg that you haven't listened
to in two years.
- Karsten Andersen
GreasyLake.org
Lawrence Kirsch’s mammoth (weighing in at 4.5 pounds on my bathroom
scale) The Light in Darkness embraces—nay, celebrates—the
Springsteen devotee’s tendency to go a little off the handle by giving
a variety of fans 208 pages to share their stories about Bruce’s 4th
album, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and the legendary 7-month, 117-show
tour that supported it.
- Matt Soniak
Philadelphia Weekly
The book is a reminder of a different time, before we all knew what setlist
Bruce was playing every night, when information about upcoming tours came
through scanning ads in the newspaper or religiously perusing the "Random
Notes" column in Rolling Stone magazine, to a time when you could leave
a concert feeling your life had changed forever.
- Jean Mikle
Asbury Park Press, New Jersey
It will make an awesome gift for Bruce fans, especially anyone who was fortunate
to experience the Darkness Tour.
- Stan Goldstein
blog.nj.com/springsteen
I did spend a lot of time listening to Darkness on the cassette player
of my Chevy Nova while flooring it on the Atlantic City Expressway on the way
home from high school every afternoon. And there was also that bootleg tape
from an August 1978 Darkness tour stop at the Agora Theater in Cleveland
that I played as I waited impatiently to see Springsteen live for the first
time in December 1980 at the Spectrum. That's the show that starts off with
Eddie Cochrane's "Summertime Blues" and is chronicled in great detail
in The Light in Darkness, Lawrence Kirsch's coffee-table book of fan
recollections and superb concert photos.
- Dan DeLuca
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Order your copy now!
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