Steven Van Zandt Preps New Version of ‘RockNRoll Rebel’ Box Set with Rare Concert Films

Little Steven is prepping a new CD/DVD version of his RockNRoll Rebel box set that will feature three rare concert films.

RockNRoll Rebel was originally released last December, a seven-LP/four-CD set that boasted Steven Van Zandt’s first six solo albums, over 50 unreleased tracks and a smattering of outtakes, B-sides, rehearsals and live performances. The new CD/DVD version, out July 31st, will contain the six solo albums and the bonus material, plus three concert DVDs: Live at the Ritz 1987, Live at Rockpalast 1984 and Live at Rockpalast 1982.

Along with the box set, Van Zandt will release his six solo albums individually throughout July, pairing three of them with one concert DVD each: Freedom — No Compromise will arrive July 10th with Live at the Ritz 1987; Voice of America will arrive July 17th with Live at Rockpalast 1984; Men Without Women will arrive July 31st with Live at Rockpalast 1982. Individual CDs of Van Zandt’s first two solo records, Revolution and Born Again Savage, are available now, while an individual CD release of Sun City — his 1985 album with Artists United Against Apartheid — will drop July 24th.

To coincide with the release campaign, Van Zandt will share select performances from the live DVDs on YouTube for the first time. On Tuesday, June 30th, he released a rendition of “Trail of Broken Treaties” taken from Live at the Ritz 1987, which was filmed at the New York City rock club and originally aired on Japanese TV.

“‘Trail’ was one of the two songs dedicated to Native Americans on my Freedom – No Compromise album, the other being ‘Leonard Peltier,’ an American Indian Movement activist that was tragically, wrongfully imprisoned,” Van Zandt said in a statement. “I’m currently on my fifth president trying to get him out. ‘Trail’ referred specifically to the ‘Trail of Tears’ forced relocation of tens of thousands of Native Americans from the Southeast to across the Mississippi River following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, and symbolically to the hundreds of broken treaties with Native America.”