Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Maple Leaf Gardens
Toronto, ON
January 21, 1981

mackeck master via JEMS

Recording Gear: handheld portable cassette recorder with built-in mic

2013 Transfer: Maxell UD-90 master cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A (azimuth-adjusted) > Sound Devices USBPre2 (24/96 Audacity 2.0 capture) > iZotope RX 3 click removal and gap fixes > iZotope MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1 .wav > Peak Pro XT (patch / edit / index) > xACT > FLAC

Seamless transfer, suggested CD breaks below…

101 Night
102 Out In The Street
103 Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
104 Darkness On The Edge Of Town
105 Independence Day (10 second patch)
106 Who’ll Stop The Rain
107 Prove It All Night
108 Two Hearts
109 The Promised Land
110 The Price You Pay
111 The River
112 Badlands
113 Thunder Road
201 Cadillac Ranch
202 Sherry Darling
203 Hungry Heart
204 Fire
205 You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
206 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
207 Growin’ Up
208 Fade Away
209 Stolen Car
210 Wreck On The Highway
211 Candy’s Room
212 Ramrod
213 Backstreets
301 Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (7 second patch)
302 I’m A Rocker
303 Jungleland
304 Born To Run
305 Detroit Medley
306 Raise Your Hand

Known faults:
-Independence Day: 7 seconds patched with Recorder 2 (pitch corrected)
-Rosalita: 10 seconds patched with Recorder 1 (pitch corrected)
-Several recorder bumps were removed, 1 or 2 remain that could not be seamlessly removed

JEMS is pleased to present a previously uncirculated and complete master recording of the second night of Toronto ’81. It’s also the second show from the work of the taper(s) mackeck.

d.j.mackeck reached out earlier this year to report that his dad had recorded several Bruce shows between 1978 and 1984 in their hometown of Toronto, as well as cities within spitting distance like Detroit and Buffalo. He was kind enough to ship an initial batch of three masters, from which we made fresh transfers here at JEMS South.

The shows were recorded on a small portable recorder with built-in mic (likely a Toshiba or Sony, but memories have faded) in mono. As with the Buffalo ’80 recording, mackeck manages to avoid most audience chatter or noise, yielding a recording that is clear, relatively close, consistent and highly listenable. It only needed two small patches as noted above.

The only material flaw in this new Toronto recording was again micro gaps, like those found on the Buffalo master, only this time there were even more of them. In 50-60 random spots across the three hours, the recorder cuts out momentarily leaving an audible gap.

On the Toronto recording, the micro gaps are all well under a second in length, though absolutely noticeable. But happily for us, it isn’t 1981 but 2013 and audio technology has come a long way. Using iZotope RX and its magical “Spectral Repair” plug in, JEMS was able to repair the gaps in a manner that should make most of them inaudible to all but the most committed and headphone-wearing trainspotter. It was a more challenging tape to repair than Buffalo, but the end result is still quite remarkable. Samples provided.

As for the show itself, the second night of Toronto is obviously not nearly as well known as the first, for which there is an extant 90 minute soundboard recording (we will be doing mackeck’s 1/20/81 recording next). But like a lot of second nights, it is probably the more spirited performance. These would prove to be the fading days for some River classics, as this would be one of the last ten outings for “The Price You Pay” and “Fade Away,” both of which are sublime here, as are other tour stalwarts, “Stolen Car” and “Wreck on the Highway.” This early in ’81 it is still a classic River tour show, just one you haven’t heard very often.

To take this one the last mile and provide the patching is our comrade and the unchallenged king of multiple source recordings, MJK5510. Thanks to him for final finishing and prepping.

Big big thanks to d.j. mackeck and his dad for loaning JEMS their masters and recording the show in the first place.

BK for JEMS

Recorder Information
Recorder 1: River Floor Version / ‘From Asbury Park In Love’
Recorder 2: Incomplete 14 song tape transfer (mjk5510)
Recorder 3: ‘Mackeck’ Master Tape Transfer