However, he has been, at long last, opening his vaults and releasing classic live recordings from concerts spanning his entire career. In May, the announcement came that a show from 1984's Born in the U.S.A. tour was forthcoming. And now he's releasing a show from the next tour, promoting 1988's Tunnel of Love.

Those two tours, though, couldn't be any more different. Whereas in 1984, Springsteen had graduated from arenas to stadiums, and was actively pursuing pop stardom, by 1988, he was retreating from it, and willingly downsizing back into arenas. Born in the U.S.A. asked big questions about our country, and did it with production aimed at MTV and the pop charts. Tunnel of Love turned its gaze inward, asking questions about adulthood, and seemed not to care if anyone liked it. The E Street Band, featured fully on Born in the U.S.A., were essentially guest players on a couple of songs on Tunnel. And "Born to Run" was stripped of its stadium rock arrangements; instead, Springsteen did a solo acoustic version of it.