This rendition of “Drive All Night” is from Bruce’s solo tour in support of Devils and Dust, with a little help from a couple of friends, Stevie Van Zandt and Clarence Clemons, who may be familiar to you. This video comes from the November 19, 2005 tour stop in Hollywood, Florida, at the Hard Rock Live Arena.
I caught this tour when it came through Toronto and I have to say it was one of my favourites. Seeing Bruce in a solo format really let the songs themselves shine, and highlighted the strength of Bruce's song writing.
There is a lot of poor quality video from this tour, but this one's not too bad. I wonder if there might be some pro shot video from this tour lurking somewhere in a vault, hopefully a complete show that will someday be made available for purchase. In the meantime, we must enjoy what we have!
10 years have passed since we lost George Harrison on November 29, 2001. I thought it would be appropriate to pay George a visit, through Bruce Springsteen.
Like most musicians of his generation, and so many in the generations that followed, Bruce was influenced by the Beatles, although not as directly as he was by others. Still, now and then over the years, Bruce has covered Beatles tunes.
Today's Friday Bruce Fix leads off with a video you have no need to watch. Just hit play and listen to George's great composition 'Something'. The audio comes from The Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ, on December 3, 2001, just a few short nights after George died.
Bruce opened the show with 'Something', followed by 'My Sweet Lord'.
I'll keep this week's fix short after two very long ones in the past two weeks. This closing video features Bruce Springsteen and George Harrison on stage together, perhaps for the only time, along with a whole bunch of other people you might recognize, doing The Beatles' 'I Saw Her Standing There'. This is from Bob Dylan's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction on January 20, 1988.
For this week's Friday Bruce Fix, I'm going to do something a little different - a whole Bruce Fix with no Bruce videos. After spoiling you with 11 versions of 'Thunder Road' last week (voting is still open), and by my count 221 straight Fridays of Bruce Springsteen videos, I'm hoping you'll take this little side trip with me.
Today I'm going to feature musician friends of mine. This is the right week to do it as both The Weber Brothers and Ariana Gillis are performing in Toronto within the next week on their respective Canadian CD release tours. Both happen to have connections to Bruce Springsteen, which I'll explain shortly. Both are also flying under the radar right now, deserve wider acclaim and I encourage you to check them out before they reach a wider audience.
The Weber Brothers
Ryan and Sam Weber are performing tonight and tomorrow night (Nov 18 & 19) at Toronto's Dakota Tavern in support of the release of their 8th CD 'Baddest Band in the Land'.
Ryan and Sam are hard-working road warriors, seasoned performers and highly skilled musicians, singers and songwriters. They are also long-time members of rock and roll legend Ronnie Hawkins' band 'The Hawks' that spawned 'The Band' and many other great musicians. Their own band kicks butt and always delivers. They perform mostly originals and will throw in the odd cover, much like a certain Mr. Springsteen enjoys doing.
Like the rest of us, the Weber Brothers love Bruce Springsteen. I've stood with them in the pit in front of the stage, maybe 10 to 15 feet from Bruce when the Magic tour came through Toronto. They've also driven all night just to see Bruce perform somewhere in the American mid-west while they were on their own tour of western Canada.
I've seen them cover several Bruce tunes, including 'Tenth Avenue Freeze Out', 'Born to Run', 'No Surrender' and 'Rosalita'. Who knows, if you catch them at the Dakota this weekend, maybe they'll do a Bruce tune for you if you ask nicely and tell them you heard about them on Your Friday Bruce Fix. Check out their website for more info.
Here are three original tunes, follow by a cover:
Some People
Take The Back Roads
Risk It All
Shelter From The Storm
Ariana Gillis
Ariana Gillis is performing November 24th at Hugh's Room in Toronto as part of her CD release tour in support of her second CD 'Forget Me Not'. I first heard of Ariana when she was maybe 15 years old. I've been following her more closely the last few years and now, at the age of 21, I feel as though she's on the verge of a breakthrough. Like the Webers, Ariana is immensely talented. She's a great singer and songwriter which, combined with her engaging personality makes her a riveting performer.
Her Bruce Springsteen connection is pretty impressive. If you've followed Bruce over the years, you probably know that esteemed author and music critic Dave Marsh has written extensively on Bruce, including four books, and has to be considered part of Bruce's inner circle. His impressive bio tells you he has listened to a lot of music since 1969 when he co-founded and edited Creem magazine at the age of 19.
In short, Dave Marsh knows musical talent and so you should take note of what he said recently about Ariana:
"Ariana Gillis is the best new emerging artist anywhere, PERIOD!"
If I didn't already believe it to be true, I'd be sure to find out for myself, and you might like to do the same. Ariana appeared live on Dave’s Sirius/XM Radio 30 program ‘Kick Out The Jams’ on Nov. 13th, so the word is getting out!
Here's Ariana's website, and three original tunes, follow by a cover:
Simon Brooke
Caroline
Shake The Apple
Eclipse (All Yours)
I hope you enjoyed this week's Bruce related non-Bruce Friday Bruce Fix, and maybe I'll see you around catching The Weber Brothers and Ariana Gillis. They're great people, as are their band mates, and I'm privileged to know them. I'll be back next week with more Brooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooce!
Alright, here’s a rare occasion…. Bruce Springsteen and Levon Helm together on stage.
This seems to have happened in Asbury Park on the Jersey Shore, in the small but storied club called The Stone Pony. Apparently Bruce dropped by to do a couple of songs at Levon’s gig. There seems to be evidence that this may have happened in 1987, which makes sense to me judging by Bruce’s hair, and Levon’s pre throat cancer voice. Of course, seeing the red baseball cap stuffed in Bruce's back pocket suggests this was around the time of his 'Born in the USA' album and tour, potentially placing this during 1984 or 1985.
The thing that throws me off is that this looks like low resolution digital from a cell phone or a point and shoot camera, yet no such thing existed in 1987. It doesn’t look like it was shot on film. Maybe just some low grade video. Hmmmmm…. Any ideas?
Unfortunately, you’ve got to work for this one. It’s in 5 parts, the audio is lousy and features a lot of fine close ups of Bruce’s back.
For a little twist here on the Friday Bruce Fix, fast forward to 2008 and watch post throat cancer Levon back out touring, performing Bruce’s “Atlantic City”.
This one’s a bit of a stretch, but for Levon, I’m prepared to stretch. Both Bruce and Levon have covered this Eddie Cochran classic, although I don’t believe Bruce ever appeared on SCTV! First up is Levon on SCTV, followed by Bruce opening his stop in Landover, MD on the Darkness tour in 1978. If you've still got the Summertime Blues after those two, the Eddie Cochran original follows.
When John Kerry was running for President in 2004, Bruce Springsteen headlined a tour in his support of his candidacy called “Vote for Change”. REM was one of the other acts and this led to some great collaborations on stage.
First, here’s Michael Stipe guesting with the E Streeters on Bruce’s 'Because the Night'.
With REM on stage, Bruce joined in for a rousing version of their 'Man on the Moon'.
Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne have a friendship that dates back to the early 1970s in New York City, when both were trying to get their careers off the ground. The first time I became aware of their friendship was through their involvement in the No Nukes concert at Madison Square Gardens in 1979, and in particular when Jackson joined Bruce on stage to perform 'Stay'.
I'll lead off this week's fix with a couple of clips from the 'Rally for Disarmament' concert in New York’s Central Park in the summer of 1982 where Bruce guested with Jackson Browne for two songs, 'Running on Empty' and 'The Promised Land'. The boys seemed to have a good time.
Here Jackson joins Bruce and the E Street Band during the 'Vote for Change' tour in 2004 for a great rendition of 'Racing In The Street' featuring Roy Bittan on piano.
Clearly, they’ve retained their friendship and Bruce delivered the induction speech welcoming Jackson into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. If you've got ten minutes, it’s good for a few laughs and probably made Jackson feel pretty special.
Back in the mid-1960s, in Bruce Springsteen's formative years as a musician and band-leader, Roger McGuinn and the Byrds were reinventing popular music and in the process creating folk rock and country rock. They (and others) were also instrumental in bringing Bob Dylan to the masses with debut hit 'Mr. Tambourine Man' and the 12 other Dylan covers they recorded between 1965 and 1970.
Roger and the Byrds were clearly an early influence of Bruce's. I first became aware of this upon hearing a recording from the 'Born to Run' tour in 1975 from The Roxy in LA. In October of that year, Bruce played 6 shows over 4 nights, each time performing 'Goin' Back', which the Byrds had recorded. 'Goin Back' was written by song-writing duo Carole King and Gerry Goffin. On opening night at the Roxy, Carole King was in the audience and Bruce dedicated the song to her.
Fast forward about 33 years to 2008, on April 23rd during the 'Magic' tour's stop in Orlando, Florida. Roger McGuinn joined Bruce and the E Street Band for two songs, 'Mr. Tambourine Man' and this great rendition of 'Turn! Turn! Turn!'. The grins on Bruce and Stevie Van Zandt's faces during Roger's solo tell you they probably each played 'Turn! Turn! Turn!' over and over in their respective homes in late 1965, trying to learn that solo.
Finally, to complete our little Byrds fest, here's Roger explaining how this guest appearance happened.
I'm still thinking about last week's Friday Bruce Fix with Sting and I've decided to feature another duet that I enjoyed, this time with Pearl Jam's front man, Eddie Vedder. Both clips of this collaboration took place on October 13, 2004 on the 'Vote For Change' tour at its stop at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
'No Surrender' does seem like a perfect Bruce song for Eddie to sing.
'Better Man' does seem like a perfect Eddie song for Bruce to sing.
In 1988, Bruce Springsteen toured with his E Street Band from February to August in support of the 'Tunnel of Love' album. That tour had barely ended and a month later, Bruce set back out on the road, this time in support of Amnesty International.
This tour was called 'Human Rights Now!' and went around the world with 20 performances in two months. Bruce was joined by Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman and Youssou N'Dour, plus special guests from the countries in which they played.
This talented line up created opportunities for some interesting collaborations. This week's fix features two examples with Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, who is a little better know by his stage name, Sting. First up, Bruce joins Sting on his "Every Breath You Take'.
A nice bookend to that first clip features Sting joining Bruce on his composition 'The River'.
Well, it's Friday, and Friday is a good day for a party (as is Saturday). Whether you wish to celebrate the end of the week, the beginning of the weekend, the arrival of spring, Friday the 13th, the middle of May, the fact that it's not winter anymore, the fact that the next winter is a long way off, the fact that summer is approaching or the fact that you've just started into Your Friday Bruce Fix, I'm happy to bring you a party.
Today's party leads off with Bruce Springsteen onstage with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and their famous show closer, Sam Cooke's 'Having A Party'. Now, get up and dance around your desk at the office!
Southside and Bruce go way back, and Steven Van Zandt was right there with them. Here's a fun clip of Southside, Stevie, and Bobby Bandiera jamming on Sam Cooke's 'Bring It On Home To Me' and then 'Key to the Highway', written by Charles Segar and Willie Broonzy.
This next clip is a Bruce Springsteen Band performance of 'Key to the Highway'. Steve was in this band and he and Bruce trade some scorching leads. I'm always amazed to listen to this stuff in contrast to the fact that he was about to be discovered and marketed as the next Bob Dylan. As you can see in the opening seconds of this clip, the venue where this was recorded, The Student Prince, marketed Bruce as 'That Sensational Soul Man'.
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