This rendition of “Drive All Night” is from Bruce’s solo tour in support of Devils and Dust, with a little help from a couple of friends, Stevie Van Zandt and Clarence Clemons, who may be familiar to you. This video comes from the November 19, 2005 tour stop in Hollywood, Florida, at the Hard Rock Live Arena.
I caught this tour when it came through Toronto and I have to say it was one of my favourites. Seeing Bruce in a solo format really let the songs themselves shine, and highlighted the strength of Bruce's song writing.
There is a lot of poor quality video from this tour, but this one's not too bad. I wonder if there might be some pro shot video from this tour lurking somewhere in a vault, hopefully a complete show that will someday be made available for purchase. In the meantime, we must enjoy what we have!
It's Friday, Dec 23rd and I would imagine that if you're at work this morning, you won't be there very long, as you've probably still got plenty to do before Christmas arrives. If you don't happen to celebrate Christmas, then you can certainly pretend you do so you can get out of the office early. Of course, if you're not already in the office today, don't go in there but then, you didn't need me to tell you that, did you?
Since you've got so much left to do, let's dive right in with a December 6, 2001 performance of 'Jingle Bell Rock' from one of five nights of Christmas Concerts at Asbury Park's Convention Hall.
With the news that Bruce and the E Street Band will tour again in 2012, their first tour without Clarence Clemons, it feels quite right to close off with the last song from the last time Clarence performed with Bruce and the band, almost exactly 9 years to the day later, on December 7, 2010. This rendition of 'Blue Christmas' comes from a performance videotaped just a short walk south along the boardwalk from the Convention Hall, this time at the Carousel. Five songs from this show were later shown via webcast, and were also included as bonus material in 'The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town'.
How fitting, that Bruce sang the words "I'll have a blue Christmas without you" his last time on stage with his pal Clarence Clemons.
On October 5, 2002, Bruce appeared on Saturday Night Live while in the midst of his tour in support of his CD ‘The Rising’. Like most of SNL’s musical guests, Bruce was given two time slots to fill. In the first slot, Bruce and the E Street Band performed ‘Lonesome Day’, the opening track from ‘The Rising’. Later in the show, Bruce took the stage by himself, sat at the piano and performed ‘You’re Missing’. I enjoyed both performances, especially ‘You’re Missing’, which is a song I’ve loved since the first time I heard it.
I’ve occasionally seen video of that performance, and I may actually have it somewhere on VHS, but the odds of my actually finding it are slim at best. I have seen that performance of ‘You’re Missing’ on YouTube, but any such clips tend to vanish as quickly as they appear, likely due to copyright infringement. A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon a Bruce Springsteen video I hadn’t yet seen, and that video inspired me to snoop around a bit to see what I could find.
Here’s the video I stumbled upon featuring Bruce rehearsing for the show later that evening. This clip cuts in towards the end of ‘You’re Missing’ and then follows up with an abridged but lovely ‘My Hometown’.
Then I found this next rehearsal clip which features a full rendition of ‘You’re Missing’.
I thought I was going to be forced to give you an audio only version of his live performance on SNL, and then I found this video:
10 years have passed since we lost George Harrison on November 29, 2001. I thought it would be appropriate to pay George a visit, through Bruce Springsteen.
Like most musicians of his generation, and so many in the generations that followed, Bruce was influenced by the Beatles, although not as directly as he was by others. Still, now and then over the years, Bruce has covered Beatles tunes.
Today's Friday Bruce Fix leads off with a video you have no need to watch. Just hit play and listen to George's great composition 'Something'. The audio comes from The Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ, on December 3, 2001, just a few short nights after George died.
Bruce opened the show with 'Something', followed by 'My Sweet Lord'.
I'll keep this week's fix short after two very long ones in the past two weeks. This closing video features Bruce Springsteen and George Harrison on stage together, perhaps for the only time, along with a whole bunch of other people you might recognize, doing The Beatles' 'I Saw Her Standing There'. This is from Bob Dylan's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction on January 20, 1988.
November 11th is a special day every year, being Remembrance Day in Canada, Veterans Day in the US, the first day of Carnaval in Mainz, Germany (starting at precisely 11 seconds after 11:00am), or who knows what in other countries. The maple leaf in the Canadian flag has 11 points, and today is also the debut of the movie 11/11/11.
Today is extra special because it is one of those rare days on the calendar, 11/11/11, where all the numbers line up, and if you happen to be looking at a digital clock at precisely the right time, say 11:11:11 am or pm, well all I can say is enjoy it, and maybe do something special, because you won’t be alive the next time all those six 11s, or 12 1s come around.
So, in honour of this extraordinary moment in our lives, what better way to celebrate than with 11 versions of Thunder Road, the one Bruce Springsteen song that most often comes to mind whenever someone presses me to come up with my number one all-time favourite song. Since we have a lot of music to get through today, let’s get right to it. My sincerest apologies to your boss/partner/spouse or whoever will be pissed off about your loss of productivity or attention. Here's my #1, 11 times.
Please note that I've given each version a name, and if you'd like to vote on your favourites, you can do so here:
Wings For Wheels, Main Point, 1975 (Angelina instead of Mary)
Acoustic Guitar, Studio Outtake, 1975 (Christine instead of Mary)
By most normal standards, I'm a pretty big Bruce Springsteen fan. My friend Howard, who saw Bruce live before I ever did, who has seen Bruce more times and in more places than I have, and who has a vastly bigger Bruce bootleg collection than I do, and who in fact, along with my other big Bruce fan friend Jeffrey is/was the source of most of the bootlegs in my collection, is arguably a bigger fan. (All he needs now is weekly blog about Bruce.... naw... that would be a bit excessive.)
So when Howard called me out of the blue last weekend to tell me that 'Downbound Train' was one of Bruce's most overlooked or underappreciated gems, or something to that effect, he got my attention. I considered his point of view for all of about 2 seconds and quickly agreed.
As with most great Bruce Springsteen songs, 'Downbound Train' is filled with great and memorable lyrics. My favourite, which immediately pops into my head when I think of this song, is "Now I work down at the carwash, where all it ever does is rain". Another characteristic this song shares with other great songs is how its greatness shines through in different arrangements.
'Downbound Train' was originally recorded for 'Nebraska' and thanks to one of the many other big Bruce fans out there, that recording has been posted for us on YouTube.
Here, from Paris in 1985, is a live performance of the more familiar arrangement that made it onto 'Born In The USA', featuring some fine work on the synthesizer by Roy Bittan.
Just so I don't leave you on too high a note to end your work week, here is a lovely dark and depressing reading of what was already a pretty bleak downer of a song, featuring Bruce on pump organ during the 'Devils and Dust' tour.
"Now I swing a sledge hammer on a rail road gang, knocking down them cross ties working in the rain, don't it feel like you're a rider on a downbound train."
Now and then I run into what I would call a novelty Bruce Springsteen video or two which I generally don't bother sharing with you. I thought I'd share two in this week's Friday Bruce Fix, just because they are so well done.
If you have kids, or if you've ever been a kid, or if you are still a kid (possible despite your advanced age) you may have played with a Lego block or two at some point. Well, some talented big kid went to a lot of trouble to create and animate the E Street Lego Band and give us this stirring performance of 'Promised Land'.
As if a Lego Bruce wasn't enough to make your day, how about Bruce in clay? I'm just guessing clay, but I have to say that whatever filmmaker Roberto Ciriani used, the results are pretty astounding.
Check out the lighting, variety of camera angles, the mouth movements and shapes to match the vocals, the guitar playing, the leap onto the piano, clay Bruce's moves, all the little details, etc. Roberto is quite talented and clearly knows his Bruce.
His choice of songs is interesting, too, as 'Restless Nights' is quite obscure and may have never been played live, that is until Steve Van Zandt requested it on his birthday, in Buffalo, NY on November 22, 2009. This is the first ever Friday Bruce Fix appearance for 'Restless Nights', so a second play, this one from that night in Buffalo, seems like a good idea.
When John Kerry was running for President in 2004, Bruce Springsteen headlined a tour in his support of his candidacy called “Vote for Change”. REM was one of the other acts and this led to some great collaborations on stage.
First, here’s Michael Stipe guesting with the E Streeters on Bruce’s 'Because the Night'.
With REM on stage, Bruce joined in for a rousing version of their 'Man on the Moon'.
Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne have a friendship that dates back to the early 1970s in New York City, when both were trying to get their careers off the ground. The first time I became aware of their friendship was through their involvement in the No Nukes concert at Madison Square Gardens in 1979, and in particular when Jackson joined Bruce on stage to perform 'Stay'.
I'll lead off this week's fix with a couple of clips from the 'Rally for Disarmament' concert in New York’s Central Park in the summer of 1982 where Bruce guested with Jackson Browne for two songs, 'Running on Empty' and 'The Promised Land'. The boys seemed to have a good time.
Here Jackson joins Bruce and the E Street Band during the 'Vote for Change' tour in 2004 for a great rendition of 'Racing In The Street' featuring Roy Bittan on piano.
Clearly, they’ve retained their friendship and Bruce delivered the induction speech welcoming Jackson into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. If you've got ten minutes, it’s good for a few laughs and probably made Jackson feel pretty special.
I'm still thinking about last week's Friday Bruce Fix with Sting and I've decided to feature another duet that I enjoyed, this time with Pearl Jam's front man, Eddie Vedder. Both clips of this collaboration took place on October 13, 2004 on the 'Vote For Change' tour at its stop at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
'No Surrender' does seem like a perfect Bruce song for Eddie to sing.
'Better Man' does seem like a perfect Eddie song for Bruce to sing.
Recent Comments