The set contains 52 tracks on 4 CDs and 4 hours of never-before-seen video on 3 DVDs. The box includes the entire double album, as well as the first official release of The River: Single Album; a CD of 1979/80 studio outtakes; a two-DVD film of never-released, newly edited multi-camera footage from Springsteen's famed 1980 show in Tempe, AZ; rare tour rehearsal footage; a new documentary The Ties That Bind about The River; and a coffee table book of 200 rare or previously unseen photos.

The River: Single Album is the 10-track album that Springsteen recorded in 1979 as a follow up to 1978's Darkness On The Edge Of Town but was never released. "The songs lacked the kind of unity and conceptual intensity I liked my music to have. So we went back in the studio," Springsteen wrote of that era in his book Songs. The early sessions marked the beginning of a 18-month long journey of writing and recording. Seven of the 10 titles on The River: Single Album eventually appeared on The River, some with alternate lyrics and arrangements, with outtakes like "Cindy" and a rockabilly version of "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)" never released.

The fourth CD on the box set is The River: Outtakes, which spans the entire The River sessions in 1979 and 1980, many of which have never even surfaced on bootlegs (some of them have already been released on the Tracks box set and on the bonus disc to The Essential Bruce Springsteen).

The Ties That Bind documentary is 60 minutes long and features an interview with Springsteen who reflects on the The River, and film transitions between Springsteen telling the stories behind the songs - and illustrating them with solo acoustic guitar performances - interspersed with period concert footage and rare photos of Bruce and the band in and out of the studio.