Springsteen box set, documentary due out in November

When I was born in 1984, there were only a few artists carrying the Rock-n-Roll torch. One of them being Guns 'n Roses; the other being Jersey-born, working class hero Bruce Springsteen, whose songs about everyday life, teenage angst and romance won him generations of adoring fans -- myself included.

On Nov. 16, a special Bruce Springsteen box set will hit stores featuring a reissue of his 1978 record, Darkness On The Edge of Town, which, at the time, was being compared with Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone and Hendrix's Are You Experienced? and includes such classics as "Badlands," "Streets Of Fire," and "The Promised Land." But the thing that's got everyone talking is the documentary included in the box set, "The Promise: The Making of Darkness On The Edge of Town" (check out the trailer here). It is being billed as a raw look at Springsteen and the E-Street band as they harness the creative energy that reportedly produced enough material for four albums, but was eventually chiseled into the 10 songs that were released.

The box set also includes 21 outtakes (some of which Springsteen returned to the studio to finish), a three-hour 1978 concert filmed at Summit Arena in Houston, and an intimate performance of the E-Street band performing Darkness in its entirety to an empty Paramount Theater in Ashbury Park, New Jersey, last year.

I'm hoping the box set, documentary and all the attention being paid to Springsteen will introduce him to a new generation of fans. But, for the rest of us, he's always been there.