Your Friday Bruce Fix

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, Columbia Records, Mike Appel, Darkness of the Edge of Town, The Promised Land

This past week marked an important milestone of sorts.  On June 9th, 1972, Bruce Springsteen was signed to Columbia Records.  Note that I didn't say that Bruce Springsteen signed with Columbia Records.  The difference is subtle but important.  I suppose I should give you my take on the contractual developments of 1972.  By all means, if anyone has a different view of this, please post a comment.  I read much of the following in Rob Kirkpatrick's book "The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen."

On June 9, 1972, CBS Records signed an agreement with Laurel Canyon Productions, who then subcontracted Bruce's services to Columbia Records.  Bruce had previously entered into an agreement with Laurel Canyon, which was owned by Bruce's manager Mike Appel.  The story goes that Bruce signed that contract on the hood of a car in a dimly lit bar parking lot, I believe in March of that year. 

In 1976, following the success of Born to Run and the increasing involvement and influence of Jon Landau in Bruce's artistic decisions, Bruce began to examine his contract with Laurel Canyon.  He discovered that not only was he receiving miniscule royalties on record sales and airplay, but Laurel Canyon, not Bruce, owned the publishing rights to every song on the first three albums.  Shortly after making this discovery, Bruce's relationship with Mike Appel fell apart.

Bruce fired Mike and sued him for fraud and damages, Mike countersued and later obtained an injunction preventing Bruce from recording with Jon Landau.  A long battle ensued which was eventually settled out of court in the spring of 1977.  Bruce bought his way out of his contract with Laurel Canyon, paying Mike Appel a sum of money and giving him a royalty split on the first three albums.  In turn Bruce now owned the publishing rights to his own songs and was free to record with Jon Landau.

In the summer of 1977, Bruce headed back into the studio and during the sessions that went into the spring of 1978 he recorded about three dozen great tracks, of which ten would make the cut to be included on 'Darkness on the Edge of Town'.  This week's fix features two of those ten, the title track and 'The Promised Land'.  These two songs capture a great deal of Bruce's fierce determination, passion and defiance in the face of bleak period in his life when he almost lost control of everything that mattered to him, and face the possibility that his dreams might not come true.

"Tonight I'll be on that hill, 'cause I can't stop, I'll be on that hill with everything I've got, Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost, I'll be there on time and I'll pay the cost, For wanting things that can only be found, In the darkness on the edge of town."

"Blow away the dreams that tear you apart, Blow away the dreams that break your heart, blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and broken hearted."

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro, You Talkin' to Me?, Raise Your Hand, Clarence Clemons

Well, the truth has finally come out.  Robert De Niro owes his fame, fortune and his stellar acting career to none other than Bruce Springsteen.  Why?  He built his career on a line he stole from Bruce.  Without that line De Niro would have been left to eek out a living through his meager acting talent.  That line of course, is "You talkin' to me?" from Martin Scorsese's 1976 film 'Taxi Driver'.

The New York Daily News reported on May 31st that 25 years ago, De Niro told Clarence Clemons this little secret while Clarence was coaching Bob how to play the sax for his role in 'New York, New York'.  Now Clarence is talking and the secret is out.  Apparently, De Niro had attended a Springsteen concert, I'm guessing in 1975.  In response to the audience yelling "Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuce", Bruce responded "Are you talking to me?".  At the time, this was part of Bruce's routine, particularly during frequent encore performances of Eddie Floyd's 'Raise Your Hand', which Bruce started performing on the 'Born to Run' tour in 1975.  I guess it made quite an impression on young Bob.

I would love to tell you that I happen to have the clip of the exact night and the exact moment when Bruce inspired Robert De Niro with the line that would change American movie history, but I don't.  As a reasonable facsimile of that great moment, I do have a clip from 1978 that is likely quite similar to how things unfolded on that fateful night.

Even if you've never seen 'Taxi Driver', there's a good chance you know the line.  Just in case you haven't seen the scene, I dug it up for you.  Apparently, De Niro ad libbed his way through this scene, and according to Clarence, was channeling Bruce for "the line".

Why is this news coming out now?  It's quite a coincidence, but it seems that Clarence has a book coming out this fall called, of all things, 'Big Man'.  I wonder how many other big secrets the Big Man has been keeping.  Maybe he knows the Caramilk secret, the formula for Coca-Cola or whether Lee Harvey Oswald was truly the lone assassin.  Since one short Bruce clip doesn't quite make a fix, here's a little Big Man for you.

Big line, Big Man, Big Happy Friday!