Your Friday Bruce Fix

Bruce Springsteen at The Bottom Line

Over the years, Bruce Springsteen has performed his interpretations of a great number of songs written by other artists.  My completely subjective and biased opinion is that Bruce is a superb interpretive singer.  When I listen to a great interpretive singer, I find that I really don't hear the original version; I hear only the interpretation and the interpreter really makes it their own.  It helps that Bruce has a fairly distinctive style, but I do think he does a fine job of interpreting other people's songs and branding them with his sound.

Today's first clip sounds as though it was recorded in a bar or a small club.  Perhaps whoever recorded this was sitting near the bar judging by the ambient sounds.  From what I've read, this recording likely comes from August 16, 1975, at the early show during Bruce's heavily publicized 10 show, 5 night stand at the legendary, but now defunct Bottom Line club in New York City.  The second clip also seems to come from one of these shows.

The band had just wrapped up the recording, mixing and production of the Born to Run album and the story goes that the band went straight from the studio to the Bottom Line for their first of the 10 shows.  Born to Run would be released in the US just days later on August 25th.  The days of playing small intimate venues were just about over. 

Today's clips are two interpretations that suit the Bottom Line venue nicely. First up is Bruce's take on the Drifters' hit 'Up On The Roof'.  I have an old cassette recording of this one lying around so I'm thrilled that someone saw fit to post it on YouTube for the world to enjoy.  Embedding of these clips has been disabled on YouTube so please click on the links to view them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEVizk37EZI

And, we follow that with a nice rendition of Ike and Tina Turner's 'It's Gonna Work Out Fine'.  The other advantage of the smaller venues was that it was easier for Bruce to indulge in his love of storytelling, as he does here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvmCLx5JC0A

Happy Friday.

Bruce Springsteen, More Castiles, Rare Live Recordings

Most bands start out covering songs written by other artists.  If they discover they have a gift for songwriting, they may start to work a few of their tunes into their live shows, and those bands or solo artists who really go anywhere end up performing all their own original material.

One of the great aspects of catching a band in their formative years is that you don't have to listen very hard to determine their musical influences.  They will play them for you, right along side their original compositions.

This week's Bruce Fix features ultra rare live recordings that I've just heard for the first time.  First up is the Castiles covering Donovan's 'Catch the Wind'.  This certainly sounds like a young Bruce Springsteen on lead vocal.  The year is 1967, which would mean Bruce was 17 or 18 years old.

Here's something called 'Steve's Song', perhaps an original compostion, unquestionably influenced by the music of the times. I hear the sounds of San Francisco and the summer of love. I don't know what happened to the sound just short of the 5 minute mark, but there's nothing more to hear beyond that point.

And finally, with Bruce on lead vocals, The Castiles cover Leonard Cohen's 'Suzanne', apparently recorded in January 1967 in a church in Freehold, NJ. The song ends around 4:25 in the clip and there's nothing to hear beyond that point.  Embedding has been disabled on this one so you'll have to follow the link over to YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdWBtv7PUrQ&feature=related

Happy Friday.

Bruce Springsteen, The Castiles, Not Just Any Shampoo

After much consideration, I've decided I don't know anything, at least not the things I thought I knew.  I was sure Bruce would win an Oscar for 'The Wrestler', but he didn't even get nominated.  I had doubts that Bruce would win a Grammy for 'Girls in Their Summer Clothes', (Bruce didn't even know he was nominated!) but last Sunday night he did, for Best Rock Song.  Congratulations Bruce, and sorry for doubting you.  Hope you won't cancel your subscription to Your Friday Bruce Fix. 

That aside, after several weeks of "Bruce Springsteen is Everywhere" currrent events related fixes, I've decided it's time to dig way back, and I mean WAAAAAAYYYYYYY back, into the archives for this week's fix.  As far as I know, there's no further WAAAAAYYYYY back we can go than this far back, but then, maybe this is something else I don't know.

While it was Elvis who first inspired Bruce to pick up the guitar at the age of 8, it was the Beatles and the whole British Invasion of the early-mid 60s that really infected Bruce with a love of rock 'n roll.  So, at around age 13 or 14, while growing up in Freehold, NJ, the music bug bit Bruce hard, and he started playing guitar with a conviction bordering on obsessive.

Meanwhile, also in Freehold, George Theiss was bitten by the same bug and he eventually formed a band named The Castiles (named after a popular shampoo).  At that time, George happened to be dating Bruce's sister Ginny.  The band needed another guitar player and I imagine George felt that it would be good for his standing with Ginny to have Bruce in the band.  No idiot that George Theiss.

Bruce joined the Castiles and, as it turned out, it was pretty good for the band, too.  Before long, the Castiles earned a reputation as one of the best bands on the New Jersey shore and unlike most of their contemporaries, they even managed to extend their reach beyond the Jersey shore and score a number of gigs at the Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village.

One day, their manager Tex Vineyard suggested they make a record.  Bruce and George co-wrote two songs.  Tex paid the $50 fee for one hour of studio time at the Brick Mall Shopping Center in Bricktown, NJ.  The recording took place on one of the two dates I've seen cited, May 18 or May 22, 1966.

I've read that acetate pressings of these two recordings still exist.  Perhaps Bruce has them.  Perhaps he'll let us know sometime, given that he reads this blog regularly.  Perhaps those acetates would be worth a few bucks to a collector.

Not surprisingly, today's clips are audio only, with some fun photos to look at.  Can you spot Bruce?  The embedding of these clips has not been enabled in YouTube so please just click on the links to watch them.

Here's 'Baby I', with what sounds to me like George and Bruce sharing the vocal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw2FolPmSD8

and 'That's What You Get', with George singing lead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw5sp1h3mEE

Happy Friday

Bruce Springsteen, Girls in Their Summer Clothes, Grammy Awards

With the Super Bowl behind us, we now know that Bruce took some of our advice by playing 'Born to Run' and 'Working on a Dream', sanwiched by a couple of his classics, '10th Avenue Freeze Out' and 'Glory Days'.  So, nothing too shocking, Bruce delivered a party-like atmosphere, lots of recognizable music for the worldwide audience, and a plug for the new album, which just happened to have been released the same week, and seems to be selling briskly.

One final comment on the Super Bowl relates to the stories I've been reading these last couple of days claiming that while Bruce's microphone was live and he and Steve's vocals (at least on Bruce's mic) were live, the legendary E Street Band was unplugged and simply acting out their parts in time with this 4 song medley that they had prerecorded earlier in the week. 

Apparently, this is standard Super Bowl practice and applies to all musical performances.  In this case, it has nothing to do with concerns over the band's ability to deliver, and everything to do with the impossibility of setting up such a complex stage in 5 minutes and having the whole thing transpire without some sort of audio malfunction in front of a massive worldwide audience.  I'm assuming this is true.  It does seem plausbile, though I don't like it.

So, due to significant technical challenges in the face of the highest stakes possible, nothing is left to chance and the world's greatest live rock 'n roll band is reduced to the lowest common denominator.  I guess we shouldn't be surprised, though it does seem wrong to muzzle the E Streeters, a band I'd put my money on anytime to deliver under the toughest of conditions.  The Super Bowl half-time show is just that, a show.  It is much more about the spectacle than the performance.

Thinking about this some more, that could just as easily been me at the piano instead of Roy Bittan.  With a couple of rehearsals and some coaching from Roy, I probably could have faked my way through it.  I bet every camera angle and every shot was scripted, and knowing when the camera would be on me, Roy could have ensured I was appearing to be playing the right parts. 

I hate to suggest this, but this is a great promotional opportunity for the half-time sponsor.  They should hold a contest to place one lucky consumer on stage at the Super Bowl.  Each time you buy the sponsor's product, you get an entry into the contest.  It's a dreadful thought, but maybe it's just a matter of time.  Once everyone accepts that it's just a specatacle, not a true performance whose integrity needs to be respected, then many things become possible.   

This week, our attention turns to the Grammy Awards, where Bruce could potentially win two awards for 'Girls in Their Summer Clothes'.  He has been nominated in two categories, Best Rock Song and Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance.  I like the song (I loved it as a great sing along from the pit down in front of the stage on last year's tour) but I don't think it is quite as strong as other songs of his that have won in the past, such as  'Streets of Philadelphia', 'The Rising' and 'Devils & Dust'.  If he doesn't win, he'll just have to make do with the 18 Grammy Awards already collecting dust on his shelves at home.

Our first clip this week is 'Girls in Their Summer Clothes'.

And, let's take a look back at a couple of previous winners, in fact the performances he gave at the awards ceremonies.

Happy Friday.