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, 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, Kitty's Back, Merry Christmas Baby, Conan O'Brien, The Gift Of Bruce

One wintery Friday morning in the first week of December 2007, I emailed a video clip of Bruce Springsteen to four friends.  Without giving it much thought, in the subject line I wrote "Your Friday Bruce Fix".  In the body of the email, all I wrote was "Admit it, you need it.", and provided a link to a clip on YouTube. 

I had no thoughts of sending more clips in the future, certainly not every Friday, and I could have guaranteed you that it would never become a blog.  I'm not sure I even knew what a blog was.  A year later, and a year ago this week, after 52 Fridays of emails to a growing list of friends and assorted Friday Bruce Fixees, Your Friday Bruce Fix became a blog. 

Last week I featured what I feel is the definitive performance of 'Incident On 57th Street'.  This week, I give you another definitive version of a song from Bruce's second album 'The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle'.  This performance of 'Kitty's Back' comes from Bruce's appearance on 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien', on December 11, 2002, aligning nicely with the anniversary date of the launch of Your Friday Bruce Fix.  I suppose one could make the argument that Bruce was the original Bruce Fixer, but December 11 fell on a Wednesday that year, and "Your Wednesday Bruce Fix" just isn't sticky enough to catch on. 

This clip of 'Kitty's Back' is the one that I sent to the original four Bruce Fixees two years ago.  This amazing performance is the source of my inspiration and motivation to share the gift of Bruce with my friends.  The band on stage that night was a hybrid of the E Street Band and the Max Weinberg 7, and on the second and final song of the night, they were joined by "the man himself", Conan O'Brien, on guitar.  Ordinarily, I would rather wait until later in the month to feature 'Merry Christmas Baby', but it comes bundled with 'Kitty's Back' in this clip.  I guess it's not too early to start spreading some Christmas cheer.

So, happy Friday Bruce Fix anniversary to us, to the original four fixees, and to every other Bruce Fixee that has come along for the ride ever since.  In fact, today would be a great day for everybody to spread the gift of Bruce.  Wish your friends, family and colleagues a Happy Friday Bruce Fix by sending them the link to this blog.  It's a great way to mark the day, and to begin the holiday gift giving season.  Here's my gift of Bruce to you, and yours to them, and theirs to whoever.  Here's 'Kitty's Back'.  Crank up the volume and watch repeatedly until you no longer tap your toes.  It could be a while....

Kittys Back-Merry Xmas Baby- bruce springsteen live
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Happy Friday Bruce Fix!

Bruce Springsteen, Clarence Clemons, David Letterman, Paradise By The 'C', From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come), Dave Edmunds, Big Man

This week, I'm proud to present what may be the biggest Friday Bruce Fix ever, if not in content, then certainly in spirit.  My inspiration comes from last week's big news that the change was made uptown and the Big Man joined Twitter.  The avid Bruce Springsteen community that exists on Twitter has happily welcomed Clarence Clemons, and since many of those fine folks have found their Friday Bruce Fix through my interactions with this community, I thought it would be a great idea to welcome Clarence through this huge blog post. 

Clarence, once you find your way here, please post a comment, or say hi on Twitter.  And, so long as I'm speaking to you directly, is it "Big Man" or "The Big Man"?  Perhaps "Big Man" when addressing you directly, but "The Big Man" when referring to you in the third person? 

This week's massive post is the perfect segue from last week's post that featured Bruce on David Letterman's show.  The thread that runs from last week to this week is David Letterman, but this week I'm supersizing Your Friday Bruce Fix by featuring the man Bruce has called many things including the King of the World, the Master of Disaster, and two of my personal favorites, the Duke of Paducah and the Mayor of Half of Bayonne.  I'll let Bruce handle the introductions.

Bruce frequently opened the second set of the 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town' tour with this original composition called 'Paradise By The C' or perhaps 'Paradise By The Sea'.  It certainly set the tone for the party that was the second set, and of course, Clarence's playing is brilliant.  Bruce, we are still waiting somewhat impatiently for the 'Darkness' box set with re-mastered audio and a full concert DVD.  Clarence, I'm hoping you could give Bruce a little nudge and set the whole thing in motion.  Much appreciated!

Now, on to the David Letterman thread.  Clarence appeared on Dave's daytime show prior to Dave's move to late night television.  The timing of this seems to be 1984 near the start of the massive 'Born in the USA' tour.  This was Clarence's take on Bruce's composition 'From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)'.  Crank up the volume and I defy you to sit still while watching this one.

Since this is Your Friday Bruce Fix, I thought maybe I should give The (?) Big Man's sidekick a little screen time. Here's Bruce's orginal recording of the same song, an outtake from the late 1979 recording sessions for 'The River'. He would eventually release it on the bonus third disc of the 'Essentials' box set.

Perhaps Bruce felt that a song this great needed to be heard. Since it didn't make the cut to be on 'The River', he gave it to Dave Edmunds who, in 1982, released what some say is the definitive version of this song.  Of course, I can't actually say that here on Your Friday Bruce Fix, where Bruce is better than everybody else, so I won't say that Dave Edmunds' is the definitive version.  What I will say is that I love the arrangement, the horns and how it really cooks.

I also wanted to highlight the fact that Clarence has recently released his new book 'Big Man'.  You can read more about it and order your very own copy here:  http://www.bigmanthebook.com/  Since the current tour is rapidly coming to a close, the Big Man will need a significant new source of income, so please, buy a copy, in fact buy several, and tell all your friends to buy copies, too.  Clarence needs our support in order to continue living the lifestyle to which he has become accustomed. 

An enormously Big and Happy Friday to all!

Bruce Springsteen, David Letterman, Lonesome Day, Glory Days

If you've caught Bruce Springsteen live, chances are you've learned he has a pretty good sense of humor.  It certainly came through in those early years in small clubs during the stories he used to tell in the introduction to or the middle of a song.  As he moved into the larger venues, into arenas and stadiums, the long rambling stories didn't work as well, and so the stories got shorter and Bruce evolved into doing more physical comedy.  You really see this now, as he and the band mug for the camera, fully aware their faces are being projected up on the big screen.  As always, this is all about connecting with the audience, and having fun.

If you see Bruce live with any frequency, you realize that some of these comedic efforts are to some degree scripted or part of the routine, while others are spontaneous in reaction to whatever else is happening at that moment, on stage or in the audience.  It isn't easy to think quickly on your feet in front of an arena full of people watching your every move (I know this from personal experience, of course) but I suppose Bruce has had some practice.

While we have seen a lot of Bruce's serioius, political side in the media in recent years, I prefer his more light hearted appearances.  Today's Friday Bruce Fix includes one of my favorites.  Bruce typically finds his way onto late night television to promote his latest CD release and tour and our first clip features an appearance with David Letterman as 'The Rising' CD had just been released, and that tour was about to begin.  Here are Bruce and Dave having a chat.

One of the clips Bruce played that night on Letterman seems rather fitting these days.  Dave is now going through some difficult and likely very lonesome days, particularly at home.  While I'm guessing that Dave's self-inflicted wounds aren't earning him a great deal of sympathy, he certainly is kicking some serious butt in the ratings, which maybe just says a lot about the general public's fascination with celebrity and scandal.  In recognition of David Letterman's lonesome days, here is 'Lonesome Day'.

Back in 1993, Dave left NBC to move over to CBS.  Bruce appeared as Dave's musical guest on his last show on NBC.  Bruce wasn't hanging with his E Steeters in those days and declined to bring those guys from that other band with him.  Instead he joined Paul Shaffer and the 'The World's Most Dangerous Band', who handled their supporting duties quite nicely in this blazing version of 'Glory Days'.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Remember When The Music, Harry Chapin, Cats In The Cradle, Mail Order Annie

Harry Chapin died July 16, 1981, 28 years ago yesterday, in a fiery car crash on the Long Island Expressway.  The official cause of death was cardiac arrest, though it was unclear whether his heart failed him before or after the crash. Whichever happened first, it led to the other.

In life, Harry's heart along with his passion for living and giving, motivated him to do something to make a difference in his world.  Harry earned a substantial amount of money over his career and gave much of it away, with an emphasis on causes related to battling hunger in America.  It was estimated he donated a third of the proceeds from his paid concerts to charitable causes.  The following two paragraphs are directly from Wikipedia.

One report quotes his widow saying soon after his death — "only with slight exaggeration" — that "Harry was supporting 17 relatives, 14 associations, seven foundations and 82 charities. Harry wasn't interested in saving money. He always said, 'Money is for people,' so he gave it away." Despite his success as a musician, he left little money and it was difficult to maintain the causes for which he raised more than $3 million in the last six years of his life. The Harry Chapin Foundation was the result.

Chapin was interred in the Huntington Rural Cemetery, Huntington, New York. His epitaph is taken from his song "I Wonder What Would Happen to this World." It is:

Oh if a man tried

To take his time on Earth

And prove before he died

What one man's life could be worth

I wonder what would happen

to this world

This week's first clip features a very fine solo acoustic performance by Bruce Springsteen at the Carnegie Hall Tribute show in December of 1987 honoring Harry Chapin's life, and includes a great little story about how Bruce met and got to know Harry.

Harry's big hit was 'Cats in the Cradle', a song based on a poem his wife Sandy wrote about her first husband's relationship with his father.   The birth of his son Josh inspired Harry to turn Sandy's poem into a song, and it became his only #1 hit.

Here's Harry at his story-telling best.

Thanks Harry. Happy Friday.

Bruce Springsteen, Blowin' In the Wind, Bob Dylan, Bad Moon Rising, John Fogerty, This Land Is Your Land, Woody Guthrie

This week's Friday Bruce Fix features Bruce Springsteen showing us his folksy, rootsy roots, along with social and political commentary and a little protest thrown in for good measure.  These clips feature songs written by some of Bruce's key influences, Bob Dylan, John Fogerty and Woody Guthrie. 

We lead off today with a double shot.  This clip is from Chateau de Vincennes in Paris, France at the SOS Racism Concert, which was broadcast on French television in June of 1988.  Bruce performed just 4 songs, all acoustically.  These are the final two songs in the mini-set.

As the 'Born in the USA' tour wound down in late 1985, after being on the road for about a year and a half, Bruce and the band rolled into LA for their final stop.  The final night of the tour was filmed and this next clip was from late in the show, sandwiched between 'Rosalita' and 'Born to Run'.

In 1940, Woody Guthrie wrote 'This Land is Your Land' as a response to Irving Berlin's 'God Bless America'.  Woody felt that the America he knew was a lot different from the one Irving wrote about.  Woody's America was suffering from Dust Bowl conditions and the Great Depression, while emigrant and blue collar workers battled racism and classism as they roamed around looking for work.  Woody's lyrics addressed liberty, individual rights and property ownership. 

I suspect that a song like this has been a source of inspiration for Bruce in taking up the cause in fighting for the disadvantaged and for what he believes is right.  His spoken intro provides some insight into how Bruce interprets Woody's lyrics.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, The Castiles, The Who, My Generation

On Bruce Springsteen's current tour in support of the 'Working On A Dream' album, an interesting game of Stump the Band has emerged as a centerpiece of each evening's performance.  Informed by reports in both the on and off line media, through fan sites and blogs, as well as by You Tube clips, fans are fully aware of the routine and arrive at shows ready to stump the E Street Band. 

If you have general admission tickets (note I didn't say "general admission seats"), you may actually luck into standing in the pit down in front of the stage.  Those who do, often bring signs with song titles that they pass towards the front of the stage.  Bruce collects these song requests towards the middle of his set, and then combs through them, picking songs that will keep the band on their toes.  Often these have been requests for obscure Bruce compositions, but lately this has increasingly become a game of Stump the Band.

One recent example was The Who's 'My Generation', which you'll note in the introduction to the song, Bruce explains that "we're gonna play something that we've never played before".  What he really meant is that the E Street Band had never played this before.  Amazingly, Bruce recalls the exact year, 1967, when he and Steve last played 'My Generation'. 

As luck would have it, an audio recording from 1967 of Bruce's first band The Castiles doing 'My Generation' was just posted the other day, and I just happened to spot it.  Steve wasn't in the Castiles, but perhaps they played it together in another band, or in a late night jam in a Jersey shore bar.  So, 42 years apart, here are two different renditions of the same song.

The original was of course written by Pete Townsend for his band, The Who. According to Wikipedia, it was "Written by Pete Townshend in 1965 for rebellious British youths called mods, it expressed their feeling that older people "just don't get it"."  As a just turned 18 year old in 1967, Bruce may well have identified with that point of view.  As a guy on the verge of 60, and a father of three kids, I imagine the song may mean something a little different to him now.  More than anything, it's probably just a whole hell of a lot of fun to play, and to prove that a bunch of 60ish Jersey shore musicians can still rock with the best of them.

No mention of 'My Generation' would be complete without letting The Who show us how it was meant to be played. The following clip is from their infamous performance on the Smothers Brothers' television program.  I seem to remember reading somewhere that drummer Keith Moon had paid one of the stage hands to rig the song ending explosion to be a little more powerful than it was supposed to be.

Unfortunately for Pete, he happened to be destroying his guitar directly in front of the explosion site.  I believe this was the beginning of Pete's hearing loss in his right ear.  Of course, a few more decades of loud performances likely didn't help.  You can see Pete putting his hand up to the right side of his head as the smoke clears. Rock 'n Roll is not for the faint of heart.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Girls in Their Summer Clothes, Grammy Awards

With the Super Bowl behind us, we now know that Bruce took some of our advice by playing 'Born to Run' and 'Working on a Dream', sanwiched by a couple of his classics, '10th Avenue Freeze Out' and 'Glory Days'.  So, nothing too shocking, Bruce delivered a party-like atmosphere, lots of recognizable music for the worldwide audience, and a plug for the new album, which just happened to have been released the same week, and seems to be selling briskly.

One final comment on the Super Bowl relates to the stories I've been reading these last couple of days claiming that while Bruce's microphone was live and he and Steve's vocals (at least on Bruce's mic) were live, the legendary E Street Band was unplugged and simply acting out their parts in time with this 4 song medley that they had prerecorded earlier in the week. 

Apparently, this is standard Super Bowl practice and applies to all musical performances.  In this case, it has nothing to do with concerns over the band's ability to deliver, and everything to do with the impossibility of setting up such a complex stage in 5 minutes and having the whole thing transpire without some sort of audio malfunction in front of a massive worldwide audience.  I'm assuming this is true.  It does seem plausbile, though I don't like it.

So, due to significant technical challenges in the face of the highest stakes possible, nothing is left to chance and the world's greatest live rock 'n roll band is reduced to the lowest common denominator.  I guess we shouldn't be surprised, though it does seem wrong to muzzle the E Streeters, a band I'd put my money on anytime to deliver under the toughest of conditions.  The Super Bowl half-time show is just that, a show.  It is much more about the spectacle than the performance.

Thinking about this some more, that could just as easily been me at the piano instead of Roy Bittan.  With a couple of rehearsals and some coaching from Roy, I probably could have faked my way through it.  I bet every camera angle and every shot was scripted, and knowing when the camera would be on me, Roy could have ensured I was appearing to be playing the right parts. 

I hate to suggest this, but this is a great promotional opportunity for the half-time sponsor.  They should hold a contest to place one lucky consumer on stage at the Super Bowl.  Each time you buy the sponsor's product, you get an entry into the contest.  It's a dreadful thought, but maybe it's just a matter of time.  Once everyone accepts that it's just a specatacle, not a true performance whose integrity needs to be respected, then many things become possible.   

This week, our attention turns to the Grammy Awards, where Bruce could potentially win two awards for 'Girls in Their Summer Clothes'.  He has been nominated in two categories, Best Rock Song and Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance.  I like the song (I loved it as a great sing along from the pit down in front of the stage on last year's tour) but I don't think it is quite as strong as other songs of his that have won in the past, such as  'Streets of Philadelphia', 'The Rising' and 'Devils & Dust'.  If he doesn't win, he'll just have to make do with the 18 Grammy Awards already collecting dust on his shelves at home.

Our first clip this week is 'Girls in Their Summer Clothes'.

And, let's take a look back at a couple of previous winners, in fact the performances he gave at the awards ceremonies.

Happy Friday.

Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Super Bowl Set List, Vote Results!!!

Well, the countdown to the Super Bowl kickoff is just about over, and while we know which two teams will be competing for NFL supremecy, we still don't know which songs Bruce Springsteen is going to play at halftime.  But, I do know what you (the collective "you") would play, if you were Bruce, and now I'm going to share the results of your votes.

As you might have expected, the runaway leading vote getter was 'Born to Run' with 70% of all voters naming it as one of their three songs.  While I didn't ask for the songs to be put in order, I suspect that most expect him to close his set with Born to Run. 

The race for the number 2 and 3 slots was very tight, with 6 songs separating themselves from the pack as the main contenders.  Those 6 are:  #2 - Born in the USA, chosen by 32% of the voters, tied for #3 were Working On A Dream & Thunder Road both at (28%), followed by Badlands (26%), The Rising (23%) and Promised Land (19%). 

The biggest vote getter among the write in votes was Glory Days (11%).  My favorite sleeper pick in the write ins was Held Up Without A Gun.  Most original write in was "Crush Your Bones Beneath My Helmet (did he write that?)".  That must be one of those outtakes that didn't quite fit thematically on any of his albums.

It seems no one imagining they were Bruce would play 'Girls in the Summer Clothes'.  I put it on the list knowing it is up for two Grammy Awards on Feb. 8th, thinking that if you were Bruce, you might want to engage in a little last minute influencing of the judges.  It seems that you would not.

The Bonus Questions yielded some interesting results.  Here's what else you think is likely, or perhaps not so likely to happen:

Bruce is more likely to bring the Miami Horns to Tampa (28%) than he is to go down into the audience and mingle with people from Tampa (26%).

Clarence is more likely to sit (20%) than Nils is to flip (9%).  Now, if there was a way to lay a bet on Clarence flipping and Nils sitting, you might stand to make some serious money.

It was quite a race to see who you thought Bruce might pull out of the audience to dance with him.  Courtney Cox (51%) beat out Bruce's Mom (28%), with Barack Obama failing to win the only vote that matters with a measly (19%).  Dewey Cox, a ficticious character, with 2%, beat out Mike Appel, by all accounts a real character, who couldn't muster a single vote.

And, last but not least, the landslide winner who you feel is most likely to have a wardrobe malfunction is Steven Van Zandt, scoring an impressive (78%) of all votes.  Bruce could only manage 15%, and Clarence pulled up the rear with 7%.  I don't know if it was the complexity of Steve's wardrobe, or the fear of a Clarence malfunction, but either way, the vote was quite decisive.

There you go!  Thanks so much for voting.  It will be fun to watch on Sunday to see what happens.  I voted The Rising, Working on a Dream and Born to Run, but given that Bruce already played The Rising at the inauguration, I'm thinking he'll do Badlands instead.  Hmmm, maybe he'll do a four song medley of truncated versions of The Rising, Working on a Dream, Badlands and Born to Run.  Or, maybe he'll give us the "Stars on 45" treatment and do a medley of 50 of his greatest hits in 12 miniutes.  Maybe not.

OK, no Friday Bruce Fix is complete without a Bruce Fix.  Otherwise, it would just be Friday.  So, here you go:

And, I know this has nothing to do with Bruce, but here's some bonus material that does have something to do with the Super Bowl.  The Super Bowl television ads are often half the fun of watching the Super Bowl.  My favorite ad to make its debut on the Super Bowl is Reebok's "Terry Tate - Office Linebacker".  This is a compilation of all the full length ads from this series.

Happy Friday.