Your Friday Bruce Fix

Bruce Springsteen, Jazz Musician, Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?, John Hammond

In this week's Your Friday Bruce Fix, I'll finish up the story I started two weeks ago regarding Bruce Springsteen's audition for John Hammond of Columbia Records on May 2nd, 1972.  After being blown away by Bruce's audition performance, John invited Bruce to come in the next day to record some demos. 

Five of the songs that Bruce recorded that day would end up being re-recorded and released on 'Greetings From Asbury Park".  Our first clip today features a song from the demo session that didn't make it onto Greetings and received very little subsequent attention other than from bootleg collectors. 

Here is 'Jazz Musician', sounding absolutely nothing like last week's full band arrangement of 'Cowboys Of The Sea', an acoustic version of which was also recorded during the demo session.  That's the voice of John Hammond himself introducing the song, and if you listen really carefully, you can hear some lyrical bits that would evolve into 'Tenth Avenue Freeze Out' a few years later.

One of the songs from the demo sessions that did make it onto Greetings was 'Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street'.  On May 31, 1973, Bruce was in Richmond, Virginia.  That night, he was playing the Richmond Coliseum, on the second of a twelve show run opening for Chicago.  In the afternoon, Bruce went into Alpha Sound Studios for a live via remote radio broadcast on WGOE-FM.  This next clip is from that broadcast.

Finally, here's a rare clip from what I believe is the very first televised interview that Bruce did.  Both the video and audio quality are poor, but you can make out a newly beardless Bruce talking about John Hammond.  John was a central figure in Bruce's evolution from complete unknown to rock and roll future, and Bruce seemed quite fond of him.  This appears to be an excerpt from a longer documentary on the career of John Hammond.  Does anyone know anything more about this clip?

Happy Friday.

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! 

Bruce Springsteen, Ride On Sweet William, Blinded By The Light

Inspired by the cold winter weather, last week's Friday Bruce Fix brought you two rather obscure tunes called 'Winter Song' and 'Randolph Street'.  Inspired by little more than last week's obscurity, this week's Friday Bruce Fix dares to be perhaps even more obscure, although I'm not sure how we'd settle the debate over which week's fix is most obscure.

'Ride On Sweet William' is a song that made a few live appearances in 1974 and does not appear to have ever been recorded in studio.  The audio recording in the clip that follows has been attributed to a concert at Liberty Hall in Houston on March 10, 1974, however the track listings I've seen from that show do not list 'Ride On Sweet William' or the song's other name, 'She's So Fine'.  So, perhaps it is from another show.  If anyone out there can clear up this confusion, please post a comment. 

If the date is right, another obscure fact about this song is that the drummer was Ernest "Boom" Carter, who had joined the band just a couple of weeks previously, for what would turn out to be a short tenure as drummer for the E Street Band.  Ernest's claim to fame is that he was the drummer on the officially released recording of 'Born to Run', his only recording credit with Bruce.  If the date is wrong, then don't read this part about Ernest.  Oops, too late.

I like 'Ride On Sweet William' musically more than lyrically.  In fact, I suspect its lyrical shortcomings are the reason Bruce relegated this composition to his considerable scrap heap of discarded original songs.  How are these for lyrical shortcomings?

"She's sweet, she's educated, she knows about history, geometry, she's so fine"

or

"I'll get in my car and burn it up, now switch on the radio and turn it up" 

Now, ride on sweet William.... 

Speaking of obscure, here's a version of an early Bruce Springsteen composition that was and still is known for its lyrics.  This is so obscure, that I had never heard it before, and was completely unaware of its existence, prior to finding it in my search for something obscure to go with 'Ride On Sweet William'.  Should I try to use the word "obscure" one more time?

This funky arrangement of 'Blinded By The Light' is from the Allen Theatre in Cleveland on February 1, 1974, just a month or so before the previous clip.  This band featured Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez on drums, and David Sancious on piano and keyboards, before they LEFT THE BAND (good idea guys....) and were replaced by Max Weinberg (after Ernest went "Boom") and Roy Bittan.  I think it's safe to say that the musical character of the E Street Band shifted with this personnel change.  It is also fair to say that extended jam intros of this type were not uncommon during the early 1970s.

Happy Obscure Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Land of Hope and Dreams, Happy New Year

On a morning that begins the new year, a song that looks forward with hope feels like the right fit.  I believe that with the new year comes new opportunities.  As we transition into the new year, it is a time to look forward to realizing our goals and fulfilling our dreams. 

I first heard 'Land of Hope and Dreams' on the reunion tour in 1999.  I still remember my reaction.  I was astounded that Bruce could close a show with a song no one had ever heard, and still blow everyone away.  While I couldn't quite make out all the lyrics, I grasped their optimism and inclusiveness, and the music was entirely uplifting.  When I think about my long list of favorite Bruce tunes, this is one that doesn't always come to mind, yet when it does, I always end up thinking it's one of his best.

So, here are two renditions of what I feel is one of Bruce's most overlooked and underrated songs.  The first is an acoustic version that comes from the Flood Aid concert in Pittsburg on December 2, 2004.

The second version comes from the reunion tour on its stop in Washington, DC on September 3, 1999. This was actually the second to last song of the night, with 'Ramrod' closing the proceedings on this night.

Happy Friday and a very Happy New Year to all!

Bruce Springsteen, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

I'm going to keep this short and sweet, after all, it's Christmas morning and I've got presents to give out, and hopefully even a couple to receive.  I also have to prepare myself for all the overindulgences of the day that will surely follow last night's overindulgences.  It won't be easy, but I'm sure if I stay focused, I will somehow get through it all. 

So, here you go.  If Santa hasn't yet arrived, then maybe this will tide you over until he does.

If that wasn't enough, how about this from the Max Weinberg Seven, with support from key members of New Jersey rock royalty, including Bruce, Little Steven, Jon Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny, and Bobby Bandiera, with Nils Lofgren, Gary US Bonds and Willie Nile thrown in for good measure.

Merry Christmas and Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, The Fever

I just got off the phone with a friend who's not feeling well.  No, it's not H1N1 flu, but he does have a fever, and it seems to get worse at night.  Many Fridays I have no idea what I'm going to write about, but sometimes the inspiration comes from somewhere unexpected, like a friend's misery.  If my friend has a fever, then I think it's only fair that we spread 'The Fever' around on this Friday, for everyone who's feeling under the weather today. 

Hmmmm, I know that any flu is no laughing matter, but since having a fever tends to be one of the symptoms of flu patients, do you suppose there might be an opportunity for 'The Fever' to become the official song of the 2009/2010 flu season?  Is it even possible to sponsor a flu season?  You can sponsor the Olympics and they only last a couple of weeks.  A good flu seaons lasts for months!  Might be a great opportunity.  You don't see Jon Landau coming up with gems like this. Hey Bruce, let's do lunch.

Bruce wrote 'The Fever' back in 1971 and considered releasing it on his second album, 'The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle'.  He did record it in studio and his manager Mike Appel sent a copy of the recording to radio stations, perhaps including KLOL-FM in Houston.  On a subsequent tour through Houston in 1974, Bruce recorded it at KLOL for broadcast the same afternoon.  The next night, Bruce played it live in concert, for the first time following its only other live performances about a year earlier.  Here is that second ever live performance, from March 10, 1974, at Liberty Hall in Houston.

Bruce never did release 'The Fever' back in those days and in 1976 he let his Jersey shore pal Southside Johnny record it for his debut album.  This great song certainly helped Johnny launch his recording career.  If you haven't already seen it, be sure to check out the great live video clip of Bruce joining Johnny on stage in August of 1978 to perform 'The Fever', which you can find in the July 24, 2009 edition of Your Friday Bruce Fix. 

In December of 1978, Bruce played two shows at Winterland in San Francisco, site of The Band's 'The Last Waltz'.  The clip is from the first of those shows, and is one of my favorite performances of this great song. 

Happy Feverish Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Thundercrack

I didn't plan it this way, but over the past month I have featured four cuts from Bruce Springsteen's second album, 'The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle'.  The catalyst for this flurry of classic tunes was Bruce's November 7th first ever top to bottom performance of the seven cuts off that album.  This week I'm featuring a song that might have been cut number eight were it not for the fact that there simply wasn't enough room left on the disc for another long song.

Bruce's sophomore effort yielded some of his most beloved concert pieces, including 'Kitty's Back', 'Incident On 57th Street' and 'Rosalita'.  'New York City Serenade' is one of Bruce's most rarely played in concert songs, and yet judging by its performance and the crowd reaction on November 7th in Madison Square Gardens (see the November 13, 2009 fix), I think we'd all love to be in the audience some night for a reappearance, with strings of course.

Now this is an educated guess, but I think 'Rosalita' was Bruce's pre-encore show closer for every full length concert from the beginning of the 'Born to Run' tour in 1975 (and many shows in 1974) until midway through the 'Born In The USA' tour towards the end of 1984, (and perhaps several times thereafter, and also as an encore).  I doubt that there are official records anywhere on this, but perhaps that makes 'Rosalita' the Cal Ripken of show closers.

Before 'Rosalita', a common closer was the song that opened the great aforementioned November 7th show, 'Thundercrack'.  I was fortunate enough to be in the pit (about 10 feet back, slightly on the Steve side of Bruce) in Toronto on the 'Magic' tour and caught my only ever 'Thundercrack'.  To this day, it is still my clearest memory from a night of many great ones. 

Here's the first of two of the many ways to do 'Thurdercrack', acoustically on piano from the great 'Devils and Dust' tour.

Way number two is from a May 1, 1973 performance at Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, with the inimitable Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez on drums.  By the way, on this night, Bruce opened for Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show and headliners New Riders of the Purple Sage.  I hope the marquee was big enough for all those names.

Happy Thundercrackin' Friday!