Muther's Music Emporium
Nashville, TN
from silver
(misidentified as Kent State University)
tracks 01-05: Set One
tracks 06-10: Set Two
ONE show, double bill, with Springsteen opening for headlining Texas blues guitar legend FREDDIE KING (and his band). King was booked for a 6-night residency, however Springsteen was a special guest only for the first two nights. Bruce played before King both nights but was allowed to give a headliner-length performance. The above-mentioned 10-song setlist represents Bruce's complete performance and is from an excellent quality soundboard that is most commonly found on the widely circulating CD "YOU MEAN SO MUCH TO ME" (Great Dane). Unfortunately the folks at Great Dane incorrectly attributed this audio to a 19/01/74 show at Kent State University - and this erroneous information has widely propagated ever since. Please refer to the 19/01/74 Kent State listing for specific details about that show, which took place in a much larger venue before a substantially larger crowd.
Bruce's booking at this small, 300-seat club came about after Mike Appel became aware of a CBS Sales Convention taking place in Nashville and, additionally, that the entire CBS contingent would be staying in a hotel near this club. Appel conducted a handbill/leaflet drop to each room in the hotel, inviting nearly 200 CBS sales and marketing people to attend one the shows. However, according to Appel, nobody from CBS turned up and the club was painfully empty. The audio evidence certainly backs up Appel's recollection. There doesn't sound like there are more than 100 people in the club for Bruce's show. It is speculated this soundboard was recorded because Appel wanted to have momento material from the show to give to the CBS people he (wrongly) anticipated would show up. This was a single show consisting of two sets. There was a short intermission after "Thundercrack". The opening song of the second set, "You Mean So Much To Me", is missing its opening minute or so. Similarly "Blinded" was the final song in the 2nd set and the opening minute of the first encore, "Let The Four Winds Blow", is missing. "Rosalita" (which contains the "Shotgun" segment, as well as a very brief snippit of "High Heeled Sneakers") was the final encore.