Your Friday Bruce Fix

Bruce Springsteen, Henry Boy, Growin' Up

Bruce Springsteen's first manager, Mike Appel, managed to get Bruce an audition in Manhattan on May 2nd, 1972, with legendary talent scout John Hammond of Columbia Records.  All John had managed to do to that point in his abysmal career was discover Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Aretha Franklin, Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan.

According to Hammond, on the day of the audition, he came out of his office to welcome Bruce and Mike, and "Mike started yakking.  He said 'I want you to know that we're just, you know, being nice to you because you're the guy who discovered Dylan and we just wanted to find out if that was luck or whether you really have ears.'  So I said 'Stop, you're making me hate you!'".  An angry Hammond apparently sat down, looked at Bruce and said "Play!"

After hearing Bruce play for a half hour or so, Hammond decided he needed to hear how Bruce interacted with a live audience.  Within a few hours, Appel had booked Bruce into the Gaslight Au Go Go, a 300 seat venue in Greenwich Village that opened the month before following the merger of the Cafe Au Go Go, and the Village Gaslight (made famous by Bob Dylan in the early '60s).  Bruce played for maybe 30 minutes.  John Hammond was impressed and invited Bruce back to CBS the next day to record a demo tape.  Bruce recorded 14 songs in two hours.  Some of those songs found their way onto Bruce's first album. 

There is no known audio or video recording of that night at the Gaslight, although today's clip is sometimes attributed to that evening.  In fact, this clip comes from a gig a few months later, in August of 1972 at Max's Kansas City, in New York.  Bruce was an un-promoted, unbilled solo act for a six nights, opening for Dave Van Ronk.  At least one of the shows was filmed and this two song clip comes from that show.

From his short lived solo career, here is Columbia's new Bob Dylan, a complete unknown named Bruce Springsteen.  Would you have signed this guy?

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Twist & Shout

Well, I don't know about you, but I've had a pretty hectic and tiring week and with the weekend mere hours away, I'm in the mood to shake it up, baby.  So, with that simple truth as my catalyst, today will feature the first ever all 'Twist & Shout' Friday Bruce Fix. 

For many years, from the 'Born to Run' tour in 1975 through the 'Tunnel of Love' tour in 1988, Bruce Springsteen closed a lot of shows with 'Twist and Shout'.  I suspect it was Bruce's secret weapon, the song he'd tack onto the end of the encores if he suspected the audience had even the slightest bit of energy left and he wanted to hit them with that one last knockout punch. 

This first clip is the final song of the night at the end of what is widely regarded as one of Bruce's finest shows on the 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' tour, and maybe one of his best ever.  From the Capitol Theater in Passaic, New Jersey, on September 20th, 1978, here's 'Twist and Shout'.  Check out Bruce's sweat soaked jacket and shirt, just shy of the 8:00 mark, and then the dancing fool that takes over from there. 

I thought it would make for an interesting contrast to have a listen to the original recording. I think for most people, the first time they heard 'Twist and Shout', they were listening to The Beatles' version. With that great recording, and astonishing vocal performance from John, The Beatles pretty much made this song their own. 

The original was recorded in 1961 by a band out of Philadelphia called The Top Notes.  It was produced by a 21 year old named Phil Spector.  I'm guessing The Beatles weren't familiar with The Top Notes' version, but were inspired by The Isley Brothers' recording from a year later.  It was written by Phil Medley (who as far as I can tell, was not related to Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers) and Bert Russell (who as far as I can tell was not related to Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics). 

 

If The Beatles all but stole 'Twist and Shout' from The Top Notes and The Isleys, Matthew Broderick hijacked The Beatles' version, at least for a little while, in his hilarious and joyous performance in 'Ferris Beuller's Day Off'.  As you shut out the light and close your office door behind you at the end of the day today, hold this image of Ferris in your mind, because it's the end of the week, and time to celebrate. While you're doing your best Ferris moves on your way home, I'll be over here, dancing like Brucie in the last minute or so of today's first clip before leaving the stage to the final strains of 'Twist and Shout'.

Happy 'Twist and Shout' Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Cadillac Ranch, Sherry Darling, Hungry Heart, In The Midnight Hour

Bruce Springsteen's 1980/81 tour in support of 'The River' was renowned for its marathon shows that routinely ran about 3 1/2 hours, with maybe a 20 minute intermission in the middle.  He'd do a 90 minute first set and in that one set give you a better show than most acts would in their full show, and you'd know that in 20 minutes, Bruce and the band would come back out and party with you for another 2 hours. 

Bruce would literally play to the point of exhaustion, with the band right there with him.  The audience would also have nothing left in the tank.  I remember the show I saw on that tour, (about 3 weeks after today's clips were shot) from the front row on the floor at the Montreal Forum.  I walked out of there a spent man, at the ripe old age of 23.  I remember having one quiet beer somewhere on Crescent Street with my friends, and then we all just packed it in and went home.  We were done.

Years later, I read a story somewhere that touched on those years in Bruce's life.  As I recall, the gist of that story is that Bruce was going through some serious personal issues at that time, primarily related to having little sense of who he was off stage.  He hated his off stage life, having no significant purpose beyond his music.  So, being on stage was an escape for him from his personal life.  He would play until he had nothing left to give because he just didn't want to leave the stage, knowing how unhappy he could be wherever else he might go.

Today's clips are from rare 8mm film shot by an audience member from the floor, near the stage.  These are from the legendary New Year's Eve show on Long Island as 1980 turned into 1981.  This show reportedly ran through 38 songs in about 4 hours.

'Cadillac Ranch' typically opened the second set on that tour.

'Sherry Darling' usually followed, with the dancer pulled up on stage towards the end of the song.

He'd follow that with 'Hungry Heart', his first big single.  Did you know Bruce wrote 'Hungry Heart' for The Ramones?  Wisely, manager Jon Landau wouldn't let Bruce give that one away.  Good call, Jon.

This being New Year's Eve, to mark midnight, Bruce played Wilson Pickett's 'In The Midnight Hour', then cracked open some champagne and shared it with fans.  Note the cast of characters on stage for the celebration.

As great as Bruce and his E Street Band are these days, so tight, so professional, and still playing with all the joy of rock 'n roll, there was something very special about those shows on the River tour.  Perhaps it was that man with the guitar giving you every last drop of his best, like his life depended on it, and maybe it did.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, I Wish I Were Blind, Better Days

I don't know what came over me, perhaps it's just that I'm feeling a bit under the weather this week battling a cold, but today I'm going to feature two songs from Bruce Springsteen's wilderness years away from the E Street Band.  I hope you E Street purists won't mind.  I struggle with this period of Bruce's career, but it is certainly worthy of an examination every now and then.

I'll lead off with an overlooked gem from Bruce's extensive catalogue.  'I Wish I Were Blind' was released on the 'Human Touch' album.  It's a hurtin' song, about a guy longing for his former lover who now has a new man.  I think it's a great song, off a much maligned album culled from 30 songs recorded over 19 months between September 1989 and March 1991.  Had he asked, I might have counseled Bruce to include songs like 'Sad Eyes' and 'Secret Garden' in place of some of the duds that made the final cut. 

I believe this clip comes from his appearance on MTV's 'Unplugged', for which Bruce performed plugged in, other than the opening song, which was an acoustic rendering of 'Red Headed Woman'.

After completing the 'Human Touch' recording sessions, perhaps sensing he hadn't quite assembled the right collection of songs, Bruce didn't release the album right away, and instead headed back into the studios in July of that year.  The sessions went well and he emerged in January 1992 with enough material for the 'Lucky Town' album.  He apparently completed recording 15 songs in these sessions.  'Happy' is the most notable song from these sessions that was left off 'Lucky Town'.

'Lucky Town' and 'Human Touch' were released simultaneously on March 31, 1992.  Most consider 'Lucky Town' to be the superior of the two, despite the fact that Bruce had recorded only half as many songs for that album.  Some feel that he should have edited the 45 songs from the two recording sessions down to what might have been one pretty solid album.  I refer to that might have been album as 'Better Town'. 

'Better Days' is a less overlooked song than 'I Wish I Were Blind'.  It seems to have been written by a guy who had gone through some rough times ("It's a sad man my friend that's livin' in his own skin but can't stand the company"), but had gotten to a better place, to better days.  "Tonight this fool's halfway to heaven and just a mile outta hell, and I feel like I'm comin' home."

Happy Friday!