Your Friday Bruce Fix

Bruce Springsteen, I Wish I Were Blind, Better Days

I don't know what came over me, perhaps it's just that I'm feeling a bit under the weather this week battling a cold, but today I'm going to feature two songs from Bruce Springsteen's wilderness years away from the E Street Band.  I hope you E Street purists won't mind.  I struggle with this period of Bruce's career, but it is certainly worthy of an examination every now and then.

I'll lead off with an overlooked gem from Bruce's extensive catalogue.  'I Wish I Were Blind' was released on the 'Human Touch' album.  It's a hurtin' song, about a guy longing for his former lover who now has a new man.  I think it's a great song, off a much maligned album culled from 30 songs recorded over 19 months between September 1989 and March 1991.  Had he asked, I might have counseled Bruce to include songs like 'Sad Eyes' and 'Secret Garden' in place of some of the duds that made the final cut. 

I believe this clip comes from his appearance on MTV's 'Unplugged', for which Bruce performed plugged in, other than the opening song, which was an acoustic rendering of 'Red Headed Woman'.

After completing the 'Human Touch' recording sessions, perhaps sensing he hadn't quite assembled the right collection of songs, Bruce didn't release the album right away, and instead headed back into the studios in July of that year.  The sessions went well and he emerged in January 1992 with enough material for the 'Lucky Town' album.  He apparently completed recording 15 songs in these sessions.  'Happy' is the most notable song from these sessions that was left off 'Lucky Town'.

'Lucky Town' and 'Human Touch' were released simultaneously on March 31, 1992.  Most consider 'Lucky Town' to be the superior of the two, despite the fact that Bruce had recorded only half as many songs for that album.  Some feel that he should have edited the 45 songs from the two recording sessions down to what might have been one pretty solid album.  I refer to that might have been album as 'Better Town'. 

'Better Days' is a less overlooked song than 'I Wish I Were Blind'.  It seems to have been written by a guy who had gone through some rough times ("It's a sad man my friend that's livin' in his own skin but can't stand the company"), but had gotten to a better place, to better days.  "Tonight this fool's halfway to heaven and just a mile outta hell, and I feel like I'm comin' home."

Happy Friday! 

Bruce Springsteen, David Letterman, Lonesome Day, Glory Days

If you've caught Bruce Springsteen live, chances are you've learned he has a pretty good sense of humor.  It certainly came through in those early years in small clubs during the stories he used to tell in the introduction to or the middle of a song.  As he moved into the larger venues, into arenas and stadiums, the long rambling stories didn't work as well, and so the stories got shorter and Bruce evolved into doing more physical comedy.  You really see this now, as he and the band mug for the camera, fully aware their faces are being projected up on the big screen.  As always, this is all about connecting with the audience, and having fun.

If you see Bruce live with any frequency, you realize that some of these comedic efforts are to some degree scripted or part of the routine, while others are spontaneous in reaction to whatever else is happening at that moment, on stage or in the audience.  It isn't easy to think quickly on your feet in front of an arena full of people watching your every move (I know this from personal experience, of course) but I suppose Bruce has had some practice.

While we have seen a lot of Bruce's serioius, political side in the media in recent years, I prefer his more light hearted appearances.  Today's Friday Bruce Fix includes one of my favorites.  Bruce typically finds his way onto late night television to promote his latest CD release and tour and our first clip features an appearance with David Letterman as 'The Rising' CD had just been released, and that tour was about to begin.  Here are Bruce and Dave having a chat.

One of the clips Bruce played that night on Letterman seems rather fitting these days.  Dave is now going through some difficult and likely very lonesome days, particularly at home.  While I'm guessing that Dave's self-inflicted wounds aren't earning him a great deal of sympathy, he certainly is kicking some serious butt in the ratings, which maybe just says a lot about the general public's fascination with celebrity and scandal.  In recognition of David Letterman's lonesome days, here is 'Lonesome Day'.

Back in 1993, Dave left NBC to move over to CBS.  Bruce appeared as Dave's musical guest on his last show on NBC.  Bruce wasn't hanging with his E Steeters in those days and declined to bring those guys from that other band with him.  Instead he joined Paul Shaffer and the 'The World's Most Dangerous Band', who handled their supporting duties quite nicely in this blazing version of 'Glory Days'.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Tracks, Sad Eyes, Brothers Under The Bridge, Happy

This week I decided to follow the road less travelled in my search for fixworthy songs.  As I perused my collection of Bruce Springsteen CDs, I picked up the 'Tracks' 4 cd box set and quickly realized I just wasn't terribly familiar with many of the songs on disc 4.  I've probably only played that disc a handful of times.  I'm not sure why, but I suspect it's because I love discs 1 and 2 so much that I reach for them first and rarely make it past disc 3.

So poor maligned and neglected (at least by me) disc 4 gets some attention this week.  I've picked 3 songs that I think are under appreciated and overlooked (at least by me) and have largely flown under my radar.  These are not mind-blowing, pant-dropping, bring-the-house-down, lock-up-your-daughters. classic rockers.  Unlike most Fridays, I'm afraid this week's fix won't get you up dancing on top of your desk, attracting co-workers from up and down the hall, who want nothing more than to be just like you.

Instead, sit back, relax, maybe grab a fresh cup of coffee, and marvel at how three songs of this caliber can hardly get noticed (at least by me).

First up is 'Sad Eyes', a Human Touch/Lucky Town outtake.  It was covered by several artists including Enrique Iglesias (in both English and Spanish), Trisha Yearwood and Elliot Murphy.

Second is 'Brothers Under The Bridge', which was recorded in 1995 and is the final track on 'Tracks'.

Third and last (at least for this week) is 'Happy', another Human Touch/Lucky Town outtake, which I think is the real gem of the three.

'Happy' Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Forever Young, The Times They Are A Changin', I Want You

This week's Friday Bruce Fix is inspired by the recent news that Bob Dylan was detained by police as he wandered the streets of Long Branch, NJ one rainy Thursday evening in July.  Bob apparently stood a little too long in front of a house for sale, peering into the window, thus spooking its occupant.  This led to a suspicious person phone call to the Long Branch Police.  The police officers probably thought it was a bit unusual for a scruffy looking 68 year old wearing a hoodie and a dark raincoat to be wandering around by himself in the pouring rain in a working-class neighborhood. 

When asked for identification, the guy who almost singlehandedly changed the course of popular music couldn't produce any and the young police officers didn't recognize him, nor were they buying his claim to be Bob Dylan.  Long Branch's finest drove Bob back to his tour bus (he was in town, on tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp) where his manager vouched for him.

There are all kinds of great reports and blogs out there on this incident that you may want to find through Google, but I want to focus on the rest of the story.  What was Bob doing?  He said he was looking at houses for sale.  It just so happens that when police found him, Bob was just a couple of blocks away from the home where Bruce Springsteen lived in 1974, and where he wrote the songs for his breakthrough 'Born to Run' album.  It also just so happens that within the last 9 months, Bob has visited the childhood homes of Neil Young and John Lennon.  Since Bob hasn't seen fit to explain what he's up to, I thought it would be entirely appropriate to speculate, and I'd like to encourage everyone reading this blog to post your own theories.  Here are a few of my own unfounded speculations to kick things off.

• He's searching for inspiration for a song about how the best songs are written in dumpy old homes (apologies to the parents of Neil and John).
• He's planning to buy at least one previously lived in home of everyone in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, and then sell the whole lot of them to a wealthy Dubai developer at a tidy profit.
• He's studying to get his real estate broker's license as a fall back plan in case his singer/songwriter thing doesn't work out.

I look forward to your comments.  Now onto this week's clips.  Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Bruce Dylan, or is it Bob Springsteen?  I got it.... from Hibbing, New Jersey, Mr. Frederick Zimmerman!

To wrap up our little tribute to Bob, here is an outstanding audio only clip from a show in early 1975, before 'Born to Run' was released, and I suppose while Bruce was still living in that house in Long Branch. I think this must be Bruce's best cover of all, and maybe the best all time cover of a Dylan song, although there are probably a lot of good counter arguments to that last statement, and you might also argue I am biased. The photo looks to be post 'Born to Run' as he had shaved off his beard.  Nice ride. Hmmm, do you suppose that's the house in Long Branch? Does anyone know?

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Family Guy, Family Song, Long Time Comin'

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.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Back in Your Arms, Blood Brothers

In last week's fix, I wrote about the wilderness years (aka the Shane and Zach era) which was a difficult period for long time fans of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. We might think of that period as a time when Bruce had a bit of a fling with some other band. Maybe he needed a change, or got bored, or just wondered what it would be like to play with some other musicians. Whatever the case, Bruce returned to his true love, the E Street Band, in January of 1995.

Bruce decided to release a greatest hits anthology in early 1995, and he wanted to include in this release a few new songs that he had written over the previous year and a half. For the first time since March of 1984, Bruce assembled the E Street Band, including Little Steven, to record in the studio for the first time since the 'Born in the USA' recording sessions. One of my favorite songs to come out of those sessions was 'Back in Your Arms'. A version from these sessions would later be released in the 'Tracks' box set.

Today's clip is an alternate take from those recording sessions. This clip was used in the 'Blood Brothers' documentary. I much prefer this version for Bruce's more raw and passionate vocal. I don't know why Bruce chose to release the version with the lamer vocal performance on 'Tracks' instead of this one. I don't know why Bruce doesn't check with me before making such decisions. Bruce, (I know you're reading this), call me next time.

'Blood Brothers' is the story of the E Street Band. '10th Avenue Freeze Out' may have been the story of how they came together, but 'Blood Brothers' tells us a lot more about their relationship and the ties that bind them. This clip is also from the 'Blood Brothers' documentary and is slightly different from the version that Bruce chose to include on 'Greatest Hits'.

The reunion of the E Street Band eventually led to this band of blood brothers hitting the road in April of 1999 and touring until July of 2000 ending with a 10 night stand at Madison Square Gardens.  I was fortunate enough to catch on of those great shows in New York.  On the entire tour, Bruce chose to play 'Blood Brothers' only once, on the final night of the Reunion Tour, as the last song.  He added some great lyrics to the end of the song, which was clearly very emotional for Bruce and his Blood Brothers.

Here are those new lyrics added to the end of the song for this performance:

Now I'm out here on this road
Alone on this road tonight
[I] close my eyes and feel so many
friends around me
In the early evening light
And the miles we have come
And the battles won and lost
Are just so many roads traveled
So many rivers crossed
And I ask God for the strength
And faith in one another
'Cause it's a good night for a ride
'Cross this river to the other side
My blood brothers

Happy Friday.

Bruce Springsteen, Many Rivers to Cross, It's All Right, Jimmy Cliff, Curtis Mayfield

This week's Friday Bruce Fix features our man Bruce Springsteen indulging in his love of gospel. Our two feature clips come from his 1993 tour of Europe during what I call the wilderness years away from the E Street Band.  Bruce toured with this band for about a year from mid 1992 to mid 1993.  The musicians included Shane Fontayne (guitar), Tommy Simms (bass), Roy Bittan (keyboards), Zach Alford (drums) and Crystal Taliefero (guitar, percussion and vocals).  A friend of mine refers to this as the Shane and Zack Band.  Not surprisingly, he calls this tour the Shane and Zack Tour.

Bruce has always liked having a broad pallet of instruments and vocals to work with (see the March 13, 2009 fix featuring Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom) and to this band he added backing vocals from Gia Ciambotti, Carol Dennis, Cleopatra Kennedy and Angel Rogers.  Bobby King also provided his backing vocals as well as the occasional lead vocal.

On just a few occasions late in this tour, as a great counterpoint to the usual assortment of bring-down-the-house rock anthems, Bruce would throw in a cover tune selected from his melting pot of influences.  There were a couple of nods to John Fogerty with 'Who'll Stop the Rain?' and 'Rocking All Over The World'.  Another double noddee (not to be confused with "double naughty", which is something else entirely) was Jimmy Cliff with 'Trapped' and today's first clip.  In 1969 Jimmy Cliff released 'Many Rivers to Cross' and he later included it on the soundtrack album for the 1972 film 'The Harder They Come', in which Cliff starred.

Another influence covered on this tour was Curtis Mayfield and his group The Impressions.  'It's All Right' went all the way to #4 in the pop charts in 1963.  This was a show closer on a few occassions. Hey Brucie, let Bobby take the lead for a bit, alright?

 

And, what the heck, we may as well have a listen to The Impressions' original recording of 'It's All Right', because well, it really is all right!

It's All Right to haaaaave a goood Friday!

PS.  As a little news item for those of you who can access Fuse TV (I think you have to be in the USA), on Saturday June 20th, Fuse will be showcasing footage from the 2009 Bonnarro Festival at which Bruce and the E Streeters performed last weekend.  More info here:   http://fuse.tv/tours/bonnaroo-09/   Thought you might like to know.

 

Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, Angel Eyes, Jersey Girl, Tom Waits

In this week's Friday Bruce Fix, we mark the passing of "Il Padrone" (The Boss) Frank Sinatra almost exactly 11 years ago today, on May 14, 1998, at the age of 82.  Frank's last televised appearance took place November 19, 1995 at a star-studded 80th birthday tribute at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.  Bruce Springsteen, also "The Boss", was one of the many who performed for Frank that night.  Both men are of course from New Jersey, and years later both would be among the first 15 inductees into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. 

Yes, it's true, New Jersey does have a Hall of Fame.  Others inducted along with the two Bosses included Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Yogi Berra, Vince Lombardi, Meryl Streep and Malcolm Forbes.  The two Bosses are in good company.

I can't think of a way to work that other "Boss", Richard J. Daley, former Mayor of Chicago, into this week's fix (other than to say that I can't think of a way to do it...) although I will point out that if you ever happen to wander into "Boss Bar" next time you're in Chicago, don't expect to see a bunch of Springsteen or Sinatra memorabilia.  If you have to ask "Who's The Boss?" when you're in Chicago, then you don't know Chicago.

Our first clip features a brown eyed Jersey Boy singing 'Angel Eyes' to the blue eyed Jersey Boy celebrating his 80th birthday.  Ol' Blue Eyes made a pretty decent living singing this and other saloon songs like it.  Those other "Jersey Boys", Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, did not sing any saloon songs like this, to the best of my recollection.

Next, the brown eyed Jersey Boy gives us his best Tom Waits cover, 'Jersey Girl', which Bruce began performing on The River Tour.  It was first released as the B Side to 'Cover Me' in 1984, and was included in the Live 1975-1985 box set.

And to close the loop on Jersey Boys singing saloon songs, here's how it's done.

Take the rest of the day off. Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Lift Me Up, I'm On Fire, Johnny Cash

This week's Friday Bruce Fix leads off with something pretty obscure called 'Lift Me Up', which Bruce Springsteen recorded for the soundtrack of John Sayles' 1999 film 'Limbo'.  It ran over the closing credits, I imagine much in the way 'The Wrestler' does at the end of 'The Wrestler' (go figure).  If I remember correctly (a rare event, thus notable), John directed Bruce's video for 'I'm On Fire', as well as 'Born in the USA' and 'Glory Days'.

Bruce had started writing 'Lift Me Up' around the time of 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' album and tour, but never quite finished the song.  In 1998, John needed a song for his upcoming film and asked Bruce for "something that was healing but also something that was about risk".  Bruce dusted this one off, finished up the lyrics and, playing all the instruments himself he recorded and produced the track in his home studio.  (Thanks to www.springsteenlyrics.com for these details.)

Speaking of John Sayles, it seems an easy segue over to the John Sayles directed video for 'I'm On Fire'.

Does anyone know who played the mostly unseen woman in the video in the role as the object of Bruce's burning desire?  I've often thought that it might have been his first wife, Julianne Phillips.  I think Bruce overshadowed her with his acting in this video.  Perhaps that was the catalyst for the breakdown in their marriage....  professional jealousy....  "but Brucie... I'm supposed to be the actor in this family..."

Anyway, I seem to recall some buzz suggesting that Bruce's dramatic turn in this video led to his being approached for some film roles.  I suppose his immense popularity at the time might have also had something to do with that.  To my knowledge, his only film role so far came in a cameo role as some bit player in 'High Fidelity'.  Bruce did a nice job, but generally I think it's good that Bruce wisely stuck to doing what he does best, fixing us when we need it, which is every single Friday.  Here's the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo1npZWR5qk&NR=1

And, what the hell, why not have a listen to Johnny Cash covering 'I'm On Fire'.  This was a bonus track on 'Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska'.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, If I Should Fall Behind

In last week's fix, we saw Bruce Springsteen and that other band of his having a little fun on the road in support of the simultaneously released 'Human Touch' and 'Lucky Town' albums.  These albums didn't really achieve Bruce's usual level of commercial success,  nor were the critics all that impressed.  Most fans consider these albums low points in Bruce's catalogue, yet in looking back at them, it is easy to find a few gems.

A case in point is 'If I Should Fall Behind', a love song to Patti Scialfa, who Bruce had married just a couple of years earlier.  Bruce hasn't exactly carved out a career writing love songs, but the fact that this song has been covered by a wide variety of artists tells you that he struck the right chords with this one.

"We said we'd walk together baby come what may, that come the twilight should we lose our way, if as we're walkin' a hand should slip free, I'll wait for you, and should I fall behind, wait for me."

I'm always interested in how different arrangements can change how I hear a song and how it might mean something a little different to me because of that arrangement.  The first of today's two clips is a pretty intense presentation that was prominently featured on the Reunion tour of 1999-2000.  In this arrangement, I hear the intensity of the commitment.  Given the ensemble vocal delivery, perhaps Bruce wanted to take the meaning beyond a commitment between a husband and a wife, to the band members' commitment to each other, and to their rededication to the E-Street Band.  I don't recall thinking that when I heard this song in person a few times on that tour, but I wonder if Bruce might have had that in mind.

This second arrangement is as presented by Bruce and the Seeger Sessions Band.  On this tour in 2006, it was presented as a waltz in 3/4 time, and while the commitment between Bruce and Patti is clearly front and centre, it feels to me like more of a celebration of that commitment, which on a Friday feels about right.  I do wonder whether 'If I Should Fall Behind' will make an appearance on the current tour.

Happy Friday!