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Springsteen's 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' Chronicled in New Documentary

Bobby Bank, Getty Images

A film prepared for the forthcoming reissue of Bruce Springsteen's beloved 1978 album 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' is slated to premiere on Sept. 14, when it will be screened as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. Thom Zimny, who prepared a similar movie for Springsteen's 2005 'Born to Run' reissue, directed the project.

Titled 'The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town,' Zimny -- who won a Grammy for the documentary 'Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run' and pulled down an Emmy for another Springsteen project, 'Live in New York City' -- is considered the Rumson, N.J.-based rock icon's personal archivist.

According to the Toronto Star, 'The Promise' includes scenes of Springsteen and his band working on radically different versions of the songs on 'Darkness' and purportedly includes at least one tune from the sessions that has never been released. Outside of announcing the TIFF screening, Springsteen's camp has little else to reveal about the planned reissue, except to say "Further details will be announced when they are finalized."

Meanwhile, TIFF's documentary programmer Thom Powers told the Star, "It's a pretty extraordinary look at the creative process of a musician. For Springsteen fans, it's like a trip to heaven. And for people who have never tapped into him before, it's still a worthwhile film."

'Darkness on the Edge of Town' boasts such classics as 'Racing in the Street,' 'Badlands' and 'The Promised Land.' Recorded at New York's Record Plant between Oct. 1977 and March of the following year, it was released on June 2, 1978.

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jane

With the much-anticipated release of a commemorative box set for Darkness on the Edge of Town slated for this Christmas, Bruce Springsteen's classic record is getting renewed attention in the music world. Details on the project are scarce; however, in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Steven Van Zandt mentioned that about 10 unreleased songs will be included in the box set. Fans are surely hungry for any and all material they can get from the 1978 recording sessions and subsequent tour.

For our own preview of what's to come, we contacted Dick Wingate, who was intimately involved in the launch and marketing of the album and tour. He offers an insider's view of what the Darkness era meant to Bruce and the band, while painting an often-humorous behind-the-scenes account of some of the tour's highlights... check out the book The Light in Darkness, which one fan said, "… would also make a great companion piece to the much anticipated commemorative Darkness box set…"

August 05 2010 at 5:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply