Your Friday Bruce Fix

Bruce Springsteen, Dr. Zoom and The Sonic Boom, Jumbeliah, Look Towards The Land

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.

Happy Sonic Boom 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, Meeting Across The River, Jungleland

It's a warm and sunny summer day here in Friday Bruce Fix land.  I've not been able to say that very often this summer.  The rain has never seemed far away the last couple of months, always lurking on the horizon, ready to pounce on our rare and precious sunny days.  Sometimes the rain falls so hard that I imagine it's the hardest rain I've ever seen fall.  Other times, we're blessed with a soft summer rain, and this not-so-young-any-more man's thoughts turn to a bare foot girl sitting on the hood of a dodge. (Then I realize she's drinking a warm beer and run to my fridge to make sure it's still keeping my beloved Caffrey's just north of freezing.)

One of the many great moments on the Born to Run album is the transition from 'Meeting Across the River' to 'Jungleland' and how beautifully the former sets up the latter.  I can remember listening to that album over and over in the basement of my parents' house in 1975.  I'd lie on the floor in the dark with the headphones on, late at night after everyone else in the house had gone to bed.  I think I used to turn the volume up a bit for 'Meeting Across the River'.  Somehow that seemed to fit the song's mood and atmosphere, and I could almost picture Eddie, crossing over to the other side, trying his best to make that one big score.  I don't know whether he needed to prove it to himself more than to his girl Cherry, but maybe they both needed to feel that Eddie really was somebody.

Both clips today come from a widely bootlegged classic performance at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ in September of 1978.  Watch them in proper sequence, with as little time between them as possible.  In fact, turn off the lights, lie down on the floor (especially if you're at work) and turn the volume up to 11.  Really, I don't think anyone around you will mind.  Tell them it's been a long week and you need Your Friday Bruce Fix.  They'll understand. 

'Jungleland' is unquestionably one of my all-time favorite Bruce tunes.  (I probably have only 50 or so such favorites.)  It's a great story, it is cinematic, it rocks, it can make you cry, it is a powerful and sprawling epic with a great emotional arc, and it features the single greatest sax solo in the history of rock 'n roll. 

I thoroughly enjoyed watching 'Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run', the documentary DVD that Bruce included in the 30th anniversary edition box set released in 2005. As much as anything, I loved the story of how Bruce pieced together Clarence's sax solo from the numerous tracks they had recorded. Once Bruce had assembled all the best bits in the right order, he taught Clarence the solo and the rest is history.  Bruce was just like a master wine blender assembling the best lots of wines made from different grapes, from different vineyards, resulting in one classic wine for the ages.

I loved the performances on the Darkness tour for the sheer force and passion of a band both proving and discovering how great there really were. (By the way Brucie, I know you're reading this... Isn't it about time you gave us that Darkness box set we're all waiting for, complete with full concert footage, a making-of documentary, etc.)  This performance of 'Jungleland' has it all, with special mention going to Roy's piano, Vinnie..., I mean Steve's solo, Clarence's solo and Bruce's vocal, particularly that final, mournful wail.

Happy Summery Friday, and try giving 'em one of those final mournful wails on your way out the door at the end of your working day! 

Bruce Springsteen, Steel Mill, The Train Song, Goin' Back To Georgia

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.

Happy Friday!