Your Friday Bruce Fix

Bruce Springsteen, Incident On 57th Street, The Main Point, Widener College

One of Bruce's legendary concerts from the early days took place on February 5, 1975 at The Main Point club in Bryn Mawr, PA, in the suburbs of Philadelphia.  (Bryn Mawr is Welsh for "big hill" in case you were wondering.) The show was a benefit for the club, and was broadcast, but not quite simulcast, by WMMR-FM on a two hour delay.  The broadcast was bootlegged and circulated, initially as a double album called "You Can Trust Your Car To The Man Who Wears The Star".  The album title was borrowed from a Texaco advertising slogan in use around that time, and the album art featured a great drawing of Bruce dressed as a Texaco gas attendant wearing the Texaco hat with the star that was a central part of the Texaco brand imagery in the early 1970s.

Conventional wisdom says that a rock act must take the stage with a great deal of vigor and immediately blow the fans out of their seats by leading off with some high energy rock anthem.  A few examples of Bruce Springsteen's anthemic openers that leap to mind are 'Badlands', 'Born In The USA' and 'The Rising'.  There is another approach, however, that Bruce has used to great effect, especially in those early years in the smaller clubs.

In this particular case, Bruce came out accompanied only by Roy Bittan on piano and Suki Lahav on violin, and a well timed stage prop siren at the end.  I think this is the definitive version of 'Incident On 57th Street'.  It's perfection.

Two nights later, Bruce was at Widener College in Chester, PA, also close to Philadelphia.  Some black & white video footage from this show in the school gymnasium has been circulating among collectors since the late 1970s, and one rumor has the source of this video as Widener College film students who may have in fact had permission from Bruce to film this show.  The audio quality is not great, but I thought you might like to get a glimpse of what such a great concert opening (in a gymnasium) looked like.  Once again, here's 'Incident On 57th Street'.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Conan O'Brien, Working On The Highway, Working On A Dream

As the 'Working On A Dream' tour comes to a close this Sunday night in Buffalo, I can't help but wonder how many more tours Bruce and his E Street Band have left in them.  They're going to take a break now, and maybe they'll settle in and get comfortable, happy to be home with family and friends.  Maybe they'll reflect on how important that is too, and how they need more of that in their lives, after so many years and so many miles on the road.

Yet, I suspect they'll be back.  I can't imagine Bruce ever stopping.  Maybe he'll write his memoirs, as has been suggested.  Maybe he has another solo project and tour in mind, maybe another Seeger Sessions CD and tour, or maybe both.  If he does some combination of, or maybe all of these things, how many years will pass... three.... five.... seven....?  How would a 70 something Clarence Clemons with bad Knees, hips and back feel about hitting the road again?  I have no doubt his heart would be willing, but could he do it?  I can't imagine an E Street Band without Clarence, and speaking of essential band members, with all due respect to Nils, it never felt right to me when Steve was away.

Here's good news.  It looks like Bruce has been listening to me (I knew you were reading, Bruce, why didn't you just say something?) and that we're finally going to get that Darkness box set I've been asking for.  Jon Landau says it's "93 percent done" and that a 'Working On A Dream' tour DVD will be out "fairly soon, post-Christmas".  Here's a link to the full report in yesterday's Rolling Stone Rock & Roll Daily blog.  http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/11/19/whats-next-for-springsteen-darkness-on-the-edge-of-town-box-set-dream-tour-dvd/

We've been blessed these last 10 years.  If I have my facts straight, Bruce has done four tours with the E Streeters, plus a Seeger Sessions and a solo tour, oh and maybe another half tour if we count 2004's Vote For Change mini tour, totaling maybe five or six hundred shows.  (hmmm.... let's see, 500 shows, 20,000 people per show, paying $100 each...  ooh boy, that's a big number!) It has been quite an extraordinary run for a bunch of middle aged musicians outworking others half their age. 

With two shows left in this tour, one tonight in Baltimore before Sunday's finale in Buffalo, I recall watching Bruce turn up one night on Conan O'Brien's show.  It was February 26, 1999, and he was there to pick up Max, to take him on the road, to go 'Working On The Highway' for the Reunion Tour, and begin a very hard working decade.  Have you had enough, Max?

working on the highway - bruce springsteen live
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Here's a fun clip of the same song from 1992, with that other band, at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The best part of the clip comes towards the end when Bruce is joined on stage by that dancing machine mother of his.  You'll see where Bruce got all his moves.

 

I'll close off this week with the one song from the "Working On A Dream' CD that was played at almost every stop on the current tour.  Here's the title track from Bruce's appearance at the Pinkpop Festival in Holland on May 30, 2009.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, The E Street Shuffle, New York City Serenade

After the rather long written portion in last week's Friday Bruce Fix, today I'll try to let the music do the talking, at least most of the talking.  There is someone else that has a few words to say.

The 'Working On A Dream' tour began at the end of March and will end shortly in Buffalo on November 22nd.  In the final two months or so of the tour, Bruce has frequently performed entire albums in their proper sequence.  By far, the album he has featured most often is 'Born to Run', which I would absolutely love to experience live.  However, I think if I could have picked one night to be in attendance, it would have been November 7th at Madison Square Gardens in New York, for what may end up being the one time that Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band played, in sequence, all seven tracks from 'The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle'. 

With horn and string sections on stage for the appropriate songs, here are two samples for you, in fact the opening and closing tracks from the album.  First up is 'The E Street Shuffle' followed by the rarely played 'New York City Serenade'. 

Finally, I just had to share this with you in case you hadn't seen it.  I thought it best to include this in a fix while the tour was still on.  It seems this fellow was a bit disappointed with his tickets to his very first Springsteen show.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, The Light In Darkness, Summertime Blues, Badlands, The Promised Land, Prove It All Night

In my entire life, only once have I lined up overnight in order to buy tickets for anything.  It was 1978, and my university buddies and I took turns holding our spots in line, eventually scoring two sets of six seats on the floor at the historic Montreal Forum for Bruce's November 8, 1978 concert.  That was a long time ago, and I have to confess I don't remember much about the show, nor do I think it changed my life, but I have no doubt that it was the most exhilarating performance I ever saw.  I also know that it was everything rock and roll should be and I walked out of the Forum knowing I would be a Bruce fan for life.

After all the hype and the well deserved breakthrough success of 1975's 'Born to Run', and the subsequent frustration and near career death experience of his legal battles with Mike Appel in 1976 and 1977, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were finally free to resume their assault on the rock and roll world.  They returned to the recording studio, and in 1978, Bruce delivered his latest masterpiece 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town' to Columbia Records.  On May 23rd, 1978, Bruce and the boys set out on a ferocious seven month tour of North America in support of the album.

Lawrence Kirsh's great new book 'The Light In Darkness' documents this tour through a collection of photographs and essays submitted by fans who, each in their own way, have strong emotional connections to and recollections of this tour.  I'm about half-way through the book, and I'm struck by all the passion and detailed memories people have regarding the Darkness album and tour.  Reading this book has inspired this week's Friday Bruce Fix.  It would also make a great companion piece to the much anticipated commemorative Darkness box set, with a remastered audio disc, full length concert DVD and any other goodies that might be hiding somewhere in a vault.  (Come on Brucie......  please???) 

One of Bruce's greatest talents is his ability to write, record and perform in a way that enables forming powerful connections with his fans, who in turn connect with important people in their lives and build families and communities. For a lot of people, Darkness and its tour came along at a time in their lives when they were figuring out who they were, where they were going, what they valued, where they drew the lines, and what they believed was possible. 

It is no coincidence that Bruce and his band were at the same point in their evolution.  It is something that naturally happens as we transition fully into adulthood.  Continuing to this day, I believe that people who were too young in 1978 to notice, or perhaps had not even been born, are able to go back to the Darkness album and tour and make those connections if they are at such similar points in their lives.  The themes Bruce dealt with on that album are easy for us to identify with and relate to in our own lives.  Those songs become our songs and our stories.

Reading Lawrence Kirsh's book reminds me that this band was on a mission, taking no prisoners, running from town to town simultaneously discovering and proving their greatness, and redefining what a rock concert could be.  There were many legendary moments and concerts on this tour, and in this week's fix, I'll highlight three great concerts.

The first clip (audio plus slideshow) features the opening two songs, 'Summertime Blues' and 'Badlands', from the August 9th show at the Agora in Cleveland. 

The second clip comes from the August 15th stop at the Capital Center in Largo, MD, featuring a joyous performance of 'Promised Land'.  I especially love the four consecutive solos from Danny, Steve, Clarence and Bruce. 

Finally, from September 19th at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ, comes a scorching performance of 'Prove It All Night', with Bruce in full guitar hero mode, proving it with everything he had, as he did in every song on every stop on this tour.

To learn more about 'The Light In Darkness', go to www.thelightinDarkness.com

 
  
Happy Darkness Friday!