Well, it's Friday, and Friday is a good day for a party (as is Saturday). Whether you wish to celebrate the end of the week, the beginning of the weekend, the arrival of spring, Friday the 13th, the middle of May, the fact that it's not winter anymore, the fact that the next winter is a long way off, the fact that summer is approaching or the fact that you've just started into Your Friday Bruce Fix, I'm happy to bring you a party.
Today's party leads off with Bruce Springsteen onstage with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and their famous show closer, Sam Cooke's 'Having A Party'. Now, get up and dance around your desk at the office!
Southside and Bruce go way back, and Steven Van Zandt was right there with them. Here's a fun clip of Southside, Stevie, and Bobby Bandiera jamming on Sam Cooke's 'Bring It On Home To Me' and then 'Key to the Highway', written by Charles Segar and Willie Broonzy.
This next clip is a Bruce Springsteen Band performance of 'Key to the Highway'. Steve was in this band and he and Bruce trade some scorching leads. I'm always amazed to listen to this stuff in contrast to the fact that he was about to be discovered and marketed as the next Bob Dylan. As you can see in the opening seconds of this clip, the venue where this was recorded, The Student Prince, marketed Bruce as 'That Sensational Soul Man'.
Well, after a first last week (a Saturday Bruce Fix), this week I've got a couple of lasts for you. Now and then I like to dig deeply into the archives to see what gifts the bootleggers bestowed upon us by having the wisdom to record some local Jersey Shore band. Today I've found a couple of last ever performances by bands called 'Dr. Zoom and The Sonic Boom' and 'Steel Mill', both featuring a young, long-haired guitar hero named Bruce Springsteen.
Today's first clip is from the final live performance by Dr Zoom at their May 15, 1971 gig at Newark State University in Union, New Jersey. This took place at the first annual "Ernie the Chicken Festival". For more details about this festival and the Dr. Zoom band, and two more songs, have a look in the archives at my post dated August 28, 2009. There is also a great comment from a guy named Walter Planer who was there, very much involved, and kind enough to enlighten us on the source of the name of the festival.
Here is 'Southside Shuffle', which according to band member Albee "Albany Al" Tellone, was written by Bruce to showcase Southside Johnny on harmonica.
A few months earlier, on January 23rd of that year, Bruce was playing for the final time with his band 'Steel Mill' at The Upstage in Asbury Park. This is an original composition called 'Sweet Melinda'. The second vocalist you'll hear is Robbin Thompson.
In last week's Friday Bruce Fix, I featured a clip of a young, complete unknown singer/songwriter named Bruce Springsteen in an appearance at Max's Kansas City in New York. I also mentioned that earlier that year, a day after meeting Bruce, John Hammond had Bruce come in to record some demos. Based on those early acoustic demos and solo performances, Columbia saw an opportunity to market Bruce as the next Bob Dylan.
What they didn't understand was that Bruce really wasn't an acoustic act. Sure he could do that, and do it well, but there was so much more to him. He had been playing in rock bands for about eight years to that point. This "next Bob Dylan" thing was a bit of a challenge for Bruce to overcome and he really had to fight to record fuller band arrangements of some of those demoed songs during the recording sessions for 'Greetings From Asbury Park'.
In early 1972, before the fateful meeting with John Hammond, Bruce was mostly playing with the Bruce Springsteen Band, which included the nucleus of the E Street Band, most notably Clarence Clemons and Steve Van Zandt. This was a big band with a big, bluesy sound. Oblivious to this, Columbia went about promoting their next Bob Dylan.
They might have taken a different approach or been very confused if they had heard this week's recordings, instead of or in addition to last week's performance, or the demo recording session the next day. There doesn't seem to be any video of the Bruce Springsteen Band around, although there is some decent audio.
The first clip is from one of the final Bruce Springsteen Band gigs at The Back Door in Richmond, Virginia, in February of 1972. It is an original composition called 'Cowboys of the Sea', which is one of the songs that Bruce recorded acoustically for the Columbia demos, just three months later.
On July 23, 1971, The Bruce Springsteen Band played an outdoor concert in Damrosch Park at the Lincoln Center in New York City. This is primarily 'CC Rider', but it also morphs into 'Down The Road A Piece', at least lyrically. It features some searing guitar leads from a 21 year old Bruce who was building a reputation as a long haired Jersey Shore guitar hero. Had Columbia heard these recordings, the words "Bob Dylan" would not likely have come to mind. So, if you hadn't heard acoustic Bruce, would you have signed this guy?
After last week's mammoth Friday Bruce Fix featuring The Big Man (or is it Big Man?) himself, I've decided I need to pare this one down a little. I just can't feature five clips every week. That pace would kill me, and that wouldn't do any of us any good, would it?
By the time Bruce Springsteen went into the studio to record his first album, 'Greetings From Asbury Park', he had been writing and performing his own songs for perhaps seven or eight years in a variety of bands. He had amassed a wealth of material from which to choose featuring a range of styles and themes.
When choosing tracks to include on any of his albums, Bruce is always careful to ensure that those he chooses work well with each other and form a coherent whole. This sometimes means great songs are left off albums, and many of those found their way onto 1998's 'Tracks' 4 cd box set.
Today's first clip features a song that didn't make it onto 'Greetings From Asbury Park'. From a July 31, 1973 gig at My Father's Place in Rosalyn, NY, 60 minutes of which were broadcast on radio, here's a great version of 'You Mean So Much to Me'. It was originally written for and performed with the Bruce Springsteen Band in 1971.
Bruce never released 'You Mean So Much to Me' but later gave it to his Asbury Park buddy Southside Johnny who released it in 1976 on his first album 'I Don't Want to Go Home'. For that recording, Southside shared vocal duties with Ronnie Spector of the "Ronnettes", and also the former wife of Phil Spector, he of the wall of sound and Russian roulette fetish. Here's how it sounded with the Southside Johnny & Miami Steve wall-of-horns treatment.
The mid to late '70s were a particularly fertile song writing period for Bruce, with many outstanding songs being left off 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town' and 'The River'. 'Hearts Of Stone' is one such example. He wrote it in 1977, quite possibly with the intention of giving it to Southside Johnny. Whether or not that was his intent, this great song didn't really belong on 'Darkness'. Instead, it became the title track of Southside's all-time best album in 1978.
Clip number three for this week is Bruce's original recording that was later released on 'Tracks', followed immediately by Southside's classic interpretation. I think I hear Miami Steve singing background vocals on both tracks, and that's Stevie's fine lead guitar work on Southside's recording.
There, that wasn't nearly so mammoth, was it? Well, maybe just slightly less mammoth.
Today's Friday Bruce Fix features what was known as The Bruce Springsteen Band, which had at its core, Bruce, Steve Van Zandt, Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez, Gary Tallent and David Sancious. Bruce formed this band in July of 1971, and the line-up would expand for gigs, perhaps depending upon the song, to include Bobby Feigenbaum on sax, and Harvey Cherlin on trumpet, along with Barbara Dinkins and Delores Holmes on backing vocals. I believe that Danny Federici may have, at times, played some organ for this band.
Our first clip features a song titled 'Don't You Want To Be An Outlaw', although its correct title may actually be 'Ballad Of Jesse James'. I can't be sure. Maybe Bruce will post a comment for us to clear up the confusion. This recording appears to come from a March 14, 1972 rehearsal session at Challenger Eastern Surfboards in Highlands, NJ, featuring the five core band members and some nice dual lead guitar work by Bruce and Steve.
And here's a live double shot, that starts out as a bluesy rendition of the Goffin/King composition, 'I'm Into Something Good', made famous by Herman's Hermits, and later segues into 'Take Out Some Insurance', a Singleton/Hall composition from 1959. This live recording is from The Back Door Club in Richmond, Virginia, where The Bruce Springsteen Band performed nine nights over three of four weekends in February of 1972. It's not clear which night this clip was recorded.
I owe a special thanks this week to two websites, www.springsteenlyrics.com and www.brucebase.org.uk . They enabled me to easily research the stories behind this week's clips, and are a wealth of information that I turn to regularly.
In the March 13, 2009 Friday Bruce Fix, I featured what I thought was the first of only two live performances of Bruce Springsteen's band 'Dr. Zoom and The Sonic Boom'. The date was May 14, 1971 at the Sunshine Inn in Asbury Park, NJ. This week's fix features the final live Dr. Zoom performance from May 15, 1971 in Union, New Jersey, at Newark State College. This Dr. Zoom gig was part of the "1st Annual Ernie The Chicken Festival", an all day outdoor party featuring several local bands. Don't ask, I don't know, but something tells me that festival isn't still running.
It turns out that an earlier incarnation of 'Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom' had done two other shows, both on March 27th of that year, opening for the Allman Brothers. By this point Steel Mill had broken up, and so Bruce assembled a band from the many musicians he was jamming with at that time on the Jersey Shore. They needed a band name for promotional purposes and Bruce hastily came up with Bruce Springsteen and Friendly Enemies. Sometime after the promotional material was printed, but prior to the performance, Bruce changed the band name to 'Dr. Zoom and The Sonic Boom". So, all those Allman Brothers fans expecting to be warmed up by 'Bruce Springsteen and Friendly Enemies' had to settle for 'Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom'. I'm sure that caused quite a ruckus.
Bruce wrote 'Jumbeliah' for the Dr. Zoom band in early 1971, and the Bruce Springsteen Band that followed by July of 1971 also performed it a few times.
At one point during this final Dr. Zoom show, 2nd drummer Big Bad Bobby Williams' bass drum pedal broke. Bruce grabbed band manager Tinker West's acoustic guitar (Bruce didn't own one at the time) and bought time for Bobby to make his repairs by playing this solo acoustic performance of Bruce's original composition 'Look Towards The Land'. If you listen closely (a good excuse to crank the volume up at work...) you can hear Tinker's dog JD Woofer barking in the background.
The contrast between this and 'Jumbeliah' was an early opportunity for some insight into the depth and range of Bruce's talent. These are the closing lyrics:
Oh and I'd be singing look towards the lovers For they are the key Keep an eye on the lovers And an eye on the war machine
And that's why at night I'm afraid to sleep 'Cause some of my dreams frighten me
A special nod today goes to www.springsteenlyrics.com as the source of much of this week's content and a great ongoing resource for Your Friday Bruce Fix.
Do you remember where you were on February 22nd, 1970? Perhaps some of you may not have even been born by then, while others may have been indulging in too many illegal substances in 1970 to have retained any memories from all those years ago. I can't be any more certain about where I was than to say that I was likely in school and likely not liking it.
What I can tell you with some certainly is that on February 22nd, 1970, Bruce Springsteen was in the Pacific Recording Studio in San Mateo, CA, along with his band, Steel Mill. The band had played at Bill Graham's Fillmore West, Graham wanted to record the band and offered to sign Steel Mill to his just formed Fillmore Records.
Steel Mill consisted of Bruce, Danny Federici, Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez and Vinnie Roslin. To this day, I believe Steel Mill holds the record for the most Vini/Vinnies in one band, both in absolute terms and also expressed as a percentage of the total number of band members. ("Man, you should've seen us back then, we were half Vini/Vinnie in those days....").
Steel Mill turned down Bill Graham's offer, returned to the east coast, and Vinnie Roslin left the band. When no suitable Vini/Vinnie could be found, he was replaced by Steve Van Zandt. I suppose Steve could have changed his name to Vinnie, but he didn't capitalize on that glorious opportunity, and Steel Mill was never quite as Vini/Vinnie again, and Steve never became Vinnie Van Zandt (nor Miami Vinnie, or Little Vincent).
Today's first clip features one of the three songs recorded on that early 1970 day in San Mateo. It is called 'The Train Song', also known as "Long Time Riding'.
That nice little country rock tune was rather uncharacteristic of Steel Mill, which Bruce has referred to as "a Humble Pie type band". Have a listen to this tune called 'Goin' Back to Georgia'. Hard to believe it's the same band.
This week's Bruce Fix features two songs that were written more than 30 years apart, yet seem strangely joined at the hips. In both, the family guy in Bruce Springsteen writes about family and the relationships within. Not surprisingly, the early one is written from the perspective of a son, while the later one is seen through the father's eyes.
First up is 'Family Song', also known as 'California', or 'California, You're A Woman'. It was written in 1971, and two versions were recorded in 1972, but it was never officially released.
33 years later, on the Devils and Dust CD, Bruce released a very different family song called 'Long Time Comin'', which was probably written in or around 1996. I'll let Bruce handle the intro.
On Bruce Springsteen's current tour in support of the 'Working On A Dream' album, an interesting game of Stump the Band has emerged as a centerpiece of each evening's performance. Informed by reports in both the on and off line media, through fan sites and blogs, as well as by You Tube clips, fans are fully aware of the routine and arrive at shows ready to stump the E Street Band.
If you have general admission tickets (note I didn't say "general admission seats"), you may actually luck into standing in the pit down in front of the stage. Those who do, often bring signs with song titles that they pass towards the front of the stage. Bruce collects these song requests towards the middle of his set, and then combs through them, picking songs that will keep the band on their toes. Often these have been requests for obscure Bruce compositions, but lately this has increasingly become a game of Stump the Band.
One recent example was The Who's 'My Generation', which you'll note in the introduction to the song, Bruce explains that "we're gonna play something that we've never played before". What he really meant is that the E Street Band had never played this before. Amazingly, Bruce recalls the exact year, 1967, when he and Steve last played 'My Generation'.
As luck would have it, an audio recording from 1967 of Bruce's first band The Castiles doing 'My Generation' was just posted the other day, and I just happened to spot it. Steve wasn't in the Castiles, but perhaps they played it together in another band, or in a late night jam in a Jersey shore bar. So, 42 years apart, here are two different renditions of the same song.
The original was of course written by Pete Townsend for his band, The Who. According to Wikipedia, it was "Written by Pete Townshend in 1965 for rebellious British youths called mods, it expressed their feeling that older people "just don't get it"." As a just turned 18 year old in 1967, Bruce may well have identified with that point of view. As a guy on the verge of 60, and a father of three kids, I imagine the song may mean something a little different to him now. More than anything, it's probably just a whole hell of a lot of fun to play, and to prove that a bunch of 60ish Jersey shore musicians can still rock with the best of them.
No mention of 'My Generation' would be complete without letting The Who show us how it was meant to be played. The following clip is from their infamous performance on the Smothers Brothers' television program. I seem to remember reading somewhere that drummer Keith Moon had paid one of the stage hands to rig the song ending explosion to be a little more powerful than it was supposed to be.
Unfortunately for Pete, he happened to be destroying his guitar directly in front of the explosion site. I believe this was the beginning of Pete's hearing loss in his right ear. Of course, a few more decades of loud performances likely didn't help. You can see Pete putting his hand up to the right side of his head as the smoke clears. Rock 'n Roll is not for the faint of heart.
Sometime in early 1971, Bruce Springsteen formed a band called Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom, with a nucleus consisting of Bruce, Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez, Steve Van Zandt, David Sancious and Garry Tallent. This would be the shortest lived of Bruce's bands, spending most of their time in rehearsal and, as far as I can tell, performing live a grand total of twice.
The most notable feature of this band was that it fluctuated in size from as few as the 5 core members, to as many as 30. Perhaps the size of the band had something to do with its inability to perform live, as I doubt there were many stages on the Jersey Shore large enough to accomodate the full line up.
I'm imagining Bruce trying to introduce each member of the band during the middle of some epic, sprawling anthem, complete with nickname and snappy intro, "and to my far, far, far, far, far, far, far, left, no, not him, the guy behind the guy with the blue hat and shades, yeah that guy, uh, I forget his name.... ah anyway...."
Their first gig took place on May 14, 1971 at the Sunshine Inn, in Asbury Park, NJ. Here, with Dr. Zoom himself on lead vocals, is a cover of the Carole King & Gerry Goffin composition 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?'. The Shirelles had already scored a hit with this song 10 years earlier, but Carole King had just released her version of it in March of 1971 on her landmark album 'Tapestry'. I think that's the version the good Doctor was listening to at the time.
And, from the same show, on their second to last night as a live performing band, here's 'Last Night in Texas'. I believe this is an original composition of Bruce's from that period.
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