ROCK/POP

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

'Born to Run' (Columbia)

For 30 years, all Springsteen fans had were those eight glorious songs that opened up a "chrome-wheeled fuel-injected" world of "midnight gangs," "broken heroes" and "runaway American dreams." There were no bonus tracks, no fancy reissues and very little that documented the making of a masterpiece that quickly put Springsteen on the level with the great ones.

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Now, suddenly, the vault opens and here comes the flood.

It's going to get financially distressing really fast for boomers if classic records start coming out as boxed sets, but this one's worth it. You get "Born to Run" in newly remastered form (it sounds brighter), a handsome package with a 48-page booklet of rare photographs and, most importantly, two DVDs worth repeat viewings.

The first is a concert film from 1975 at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, Bruce's first British invasion. For some artists, another old concert film is no big deal. But, with the exception of the "Rosalita" footage, we haven't seen Springsteen in this light before. In fact, this is the first full-length concert film ever released from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's first 25 years (says so on the box).

Don't expect state of the art. It's grainy, the lighting's bad and there aren't many cameras. But it's the performance that counts. We get to see Bruce as a scruffy kid -- part beat poet, part beach bum -- crammed on the stage with his mates and clinging to his oversized knit hat as if for comfort. Bruce hadn't learned to play to the back seats yet, so the focus stays on the music and his poetry, often delivered at a more hurried tempo than on the records. There's an infectious spirit to the proceedings and an intimacy you no longer get from Bruce and the E Streeters.

The second DVD is an extraordinary documentary called "Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run" that combines archival footage and new interviews with Springsteen, the band and producers Jon Landau and Mike Appel. Directed by Thom Zimny, it shows how this rag-tag crew from the Jersey shore joined forces with a brainy Boston critic to craft a rock 'n' roll epic. "He was an educated man," Little Steven says of Landau, "and that was ... new to us."

Over the two-year process "Born to Run" nearly turned into Springsteen's Moby Dick, threatening to sink the project and the band. Springsteen conceived "Born to Run" as a "warm, endless summer night," a record with songs that seem to start in the morning and flow, with passion and emotion, through the course of a day. Springsteen was painstaking with the lyrics, aware that he was "messing with classic rock 'n' roll images that easily turn into cliches."

The music almost did as well. The title track nearly came with a choir, strings and car racing sounds but, he says, he wanted it to feel grittier and "the strings took away some of the darkness."

Among the other revelations are that jazz drummer Ernest "Boom" Carter, who left during the making of the record (along with keyboardist David Sancious), had a drum burst on "Born to Run" that Max Weinberg was never able to duplicate; and that concerning the phrase "Tenth Avenue Freezeout," Springsteen says, "I have no idea what that means to this day."

Otherwise, he certainly knew what he was doing. In a beautiful closing sequence that shows him as a weary young kid in a white T-shirt doing the "Jungleland" vocal, the 56-year-old Springsteen articulates the themes of his 1975 classic: "What do you do when your dreams come true? What do you do when they don't? Is love real? 'Born to Run' was the album where I left behind my adolescent definitions of love and freedom -- it was the dividing line."

-- Scott Mervis, Weekend Mag editor

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GREEN DAY

'BULLET IN A BIBLE' (REPRISE)

Anyone lucky enough to have caught Green Day's victory lap at the Mellon Arena earlier this year will more than likely be a bit put off to find the band's spirited cover of "We Are The Champions" missing in action. But the celebratory nature of that Pittsburgh show remains in these explosive live performances at Milton Keynes, a 65,000-capacity venue in England. Of course, when you're not at the actual show, a little audience participation goes a long way. But the British crowd's enthusiasm is contagious, if not as contagious as Billie Joe Armstrong, who tips his hat to England by leading the Brits in a playful singalong of Monty Python's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" in the middle of "King for a Day."

The set list could have leaned a little less on "American Idiot," but hey, they're celebrating here, and older fans can still bask in the glory of "Longview," "Basket Case," "Hitchin' a Ride" and "Brain Stew." You also get a DVD that fleshes out -- or some would argue interrupts -- the concert with interviews and other documentary footage from their trip to England.

-- Ed Masley, Post-Gazette pop music critic

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ANDREW BIRD

'ANDREW BIRD & THE MYSTERIOUS PRODUCTION OF EGGS' (RIGHTEOUS BABE)

There's not much in the richly textured chamber pop of "Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs" to suggest the violinist's past association with Squirrel Nut Zippers. He's left the swing-revival shtick behind to arrive at a sound that's both more current and more timeless, not to mention better suited to his soulful singing style. It's more the kind of record Rufus Wainwright should be making, at times reminiscent of Mercury Rev's "Deserter Songs" (without the high-on-helium vocals). And it feels like an actual album, right down to the artwork -- illustrations as imaginative as the lyrics (playfully surreal yet heartfelt musings from a major talent with a tendency to whistle).

-- Ed Masley

Andrew Bird performs with Head of Femur at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium Friday night at 7:30. Tickets: $12 in advance, $15 at door. Call 412-362-8669.

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RONAN TYNAN

'RONAN' (DECCA)

Why is it that when top operatic singers find popularity they turn to sappy pop music? Money, I suppose, but it is too bad. Ronan Tynan is a tenor; for many a year he was an Irish Tenor. His voice belongs in operatic repertory, with occasional beautiful excursions into Irish songs (and, of course, "God Bless America"). It is in opera that the color of his rich voice comes through. But this debut on Decca has him cast more as the Irish Vocalist, singing with half the artistry of which he is capable.

It's simply painful to hear Tynan try to sing in the pop style in songs like "From a Distance," "The Light Inside of You" and, yes, a track by Richard Marx.

Only a few pieces on the CD tap into his talents -- "Amazing Grace (Going Home)," "La Roca Fria Del Calvario" and "Passing Through," a touching song he wrote for his Alzheimer's-stricken mother. Of course the disc will sell well, but the preponderance of adult contemporary selections sells Tynan and his audience short.

-- Andrew Druckenbrod,

Post-Gazette classical music critic

Ronan Tynan performs Friday at the Palace Theatre in Greensburg. Call 724-836-8000 for tix.

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HAM 1

'HAM 1' (HAM 1)

Self-released by Athens, Ga., schoolteacher Jim Willingham with drums by Olivia Tremor Controller Eric Harris, "Ham 1" kicks off with the quirky indie-pop of "Pop Song for a Funeral" before winding its way through several tracks of offbeat incidental music, a handful of rockers that bristle with raucous post-Guided By Voices abandon, tender indie ballads, one track that's practically psychobilly and a country-flavored waltz called "Floorida." It doesn't sound like something that should hold together as an album, but it does, if in part because Willingham's vocals and lyrics are as offbeat as the music.

-- Ed Masley

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COMET GAIN

'CITY FALLEN LEAVES' (KILL ROCK STARS)

These British indie-rockers never settle into any mood for very long, abruptly shifting gears from the starry-eyed power-pop hooks of "The Fists in the Pocket" to the melancholy post-Smiths balladry of "Days I Forgot To Write Down" to the abrasive post-punk edge of "Daydream Scars." And those are just the first three tracks. Before it's through, they've had their way with sneering, female-fronted post-punk, jaunty British folk-rock, one track that suggests The Streets gone punk and one whose spoken narrative feels like the opening scene of a British art film. The end result is an album that feels less like an album than a mix tape (which, coincidentally, would be the subject of not one but two songs here -- "The Ballad of a Mix Tape," in which they honor an obvious source of inspiration, the Go-Betweens, and "Fingernailed for You").

-- Ed Masley