Being a fan of any classic rock act is not cheap and Bruce Springsteen just made life harder on your bank account. The Boss announced a massive box set dedicated to the making of his seminal 1980 double album The River.
Titled The Rites That Bind: The River Collection, the box set includes the two-CD album; two CDs of outtakes and songs from the sessions (some never released before); a DVD with The Ties That Bind documentary; and two DVDs with the two-hour, 40-minute Nov. 5, 1980 show in Tempe, Arizona. You can also get the set with the video content on Blu-ray.
The first CD of bonus material is interesting because it’s a recreation of the single album version of The River that Springsteen originally intended to release as the follow-up to Darkness on the Edge of Town. It runs only 10 songs and includes songs that didn’t make the released double album.
In addition to all that stuff, there’s a 148-page coffee table book with never-before-seen photos and pages from Springsteen’s notebooks. There’s also a new essay by journalist Mikal Gilmore, Rolling Stone’s original 1980 review and notes Springsteen wrote for 1998’s Songs book.
Springsteen also released “Meet Me In The City,” a track that didn’t make the final cut of The River.
The set retails for $129.99.