Your Friday Bruce Fix

Bruce Springsteen, That's What You Get, Baby I, The Castiles

In recent weeks, an earlier post of Your Friday Bruce Fix received a couple of comments from Lisa Manniello, the daughter of Vinny Manniello who played drums for Bruce Springsteen's first band, The Castiles. Prior to The Castiles, it seems Bruce may have practiced with a band called 'The Rogues', but was not a full-fledged member.

It was great to hear from Lisa and her comments inspired me to dig into the archives and feature the first two songs Bruce ever recorded, which he did with The Castiles. Lisa, if you happen to see this post, please let me know if you can confirm or correct any of the details I've pulled together below.

While it was Elvis Presley who first inspired Bruce to pick up the guitar at the age of 8, it was the Beatles and the whole British Invasion of the early-mid 60s that really infected Bruce with a love of rock 'n roll.  So, at around age 13 or 14, while growing up in Freehold, NJ, the music bug bit Bruce hard, and he started playing guitar with a conviction bordering on obsessive.

Meanwhile, also in Freehold, George Theiss was bitten by the same bug and he eventually formed a band named The Castiles (named after a popular shampoo).  At that time, George happened to be dating Bruce's sister Ginny.  The band needed another guitar player and I imagine George felt that it would be good for his standing with Ginny to have Bruce in the band.  No idiot that George Theiss. I wonder if George had any sense of how special this kid Bruce was. Was his talent and charisma obvious at that early stage or did it slowly emerge in following few years?

Bruce joined the Castiles and, as it turned out, it was pretty good for the band, too.  Before long, the Castiles earned a reputation as one of the best bands on the New Jersey shore and unlike most of their contemporaries, they even managed to extend their reach beyond the Jersey shore and score a number of gigs at the Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village.

One day, their manager Tex Vineyard suggested they make a record. Bruce and George co-wrote two songs in Tex's car on the way to the studio. Tex paid the $50 fee for one hour of studio time at the Brick Mall Shopping Center in Bricktown, NJ.  The recording took place on one of the two dates I've seen cited, May 18 or May 22, 1966.

One source indicates that there are 4 known copies of the acetate pressings made that day, and that recently a two-track tape recording of that session has recently been found. Perhaps these songs might find their way onto a 'Tracks II' box set.

I believe this first clip features George Theiss on lead vocals on 'That's What You Get' , followed by maybe both Bruce and George singing on 'Baby I'.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Leap of Faith, Blinded By the Light

With Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in the middle of a three-night stand at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, speculation is building about night three on Saturday night. Sunday, September 23rd is Bruce's 63rd birthday, and the speculation is around whether Bruce will push the proceedings past midnight to reach his birthday, and whether doing so will break the four-hour barrier and perhaps break his record by going past the 4:05 mark.

I don't know and we'll all find out soon enough. Saturday's show will be his 3rd in 4 nights, and second in two nights, and well, he IS almost 63 years old! On the other hand, Bruce is on his home turf, I'm sure resting quite nicely at home between shows with Patti and the kids, and he'll have a month off to recuperate before hitting the road again.  I'm thinking he'll go for it!

Bruce set the 4 hour, 5 minute record in Helsinki on July 31, 2012. You can listen to the entire show here. It was the final stop on the European leg of the tour and Bruce had a mere two weeks to recover before his next show, PLUS he had to fly across the Atlantic to go home to rest. So, with a month to recover at home, this should be easy. :)

One interesting feature of the Helsinki marathon was that it was preceded by a 5-song acoustic set that was in addition to the 4 hour full band performance. I guess Bruce likes being on stage! Actually, he did it as a thank you to the early arrivals, many of whom had been following Bruce around Europe all summer.

You can watch the whole acoustic set here, but I thought for today's fix I'd feature two clips from a closer vantage point.

Leap of Faith

Blinded By The Light

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, The River, Loose Ends

For today's Friday Bruce Fix I thought I'd drift back 32 years to the tour in support of 'The River'. I loved that tour and I'd be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to plug the idea of a special box set treatment with the usual outtakes, full concert video and making of documentary.

I'll lead off with the title track, a song that likely finds its way onto most Bruce fans' all-time top 10 song list.

Bruce has already released quite a few excellent outtakes from the recording sessions for 'The River', most notably on the 'Tracks' box set. 'Loose Ends' is a song that I've loved since I first heard bootlegs of it back in the early '80s. Here's the official version released on 'Tracks' in 1998.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Thundercrack, Rosalita, Incident on 57th Street

After taking last week off, I thought I'd pick up where I left off on the subject of sign requests for Bruce Springsteen's August 24th Toronto performance .  No, Bruce did not play any of my requests from my last Friday Bruce Fix, but I have to admit he did deliver three pretty stellar tunes in response to requests. All three songs were written in 1972-73 and were recorded for Bruce's second album.
 
First up, was 'Thundercrack', which didn't make the cut for inclusion on 'The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle', although it did become his show closer for a couple of years until 'Rosalita' took over. I'll let the video speak for itself but the sign did "crack" everyone up.

'Rosalita' is always a highlight and made its appearance during the encores. Bruce and Steve certainly had fun hamming it up for the crowd. Too bad the videographer couldn't have gotten any closer to Bruce...

Finally, here's my personal highlight from late in the set list, pre-encores. In my books, a solo piano performance of anything is always special. When the song is 'Incident on 57th Street', it rises to another level.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Gotta Get That Feeling, Restless Nights, Save My Love

It's Friday, and tonight's the night for a big-time Friday Bruce Fix in Toronto! Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band roll into town today with their Wrecking Ball to tear down Toronto's Rogers Centre. It's a pretty big stadium with lots of concrete and steel, so it may take them a while, maybe 3 1/2 hours or so, but I'm sure they'll get the job done!

I don't have GA seats, I won't be down in the pit and I won't be able to request any songs with a clever home-made sign, so I thought I'd try the next best approach. Bruce, I know you read this blog regularly because even you need Your Friday Bruce Fix. So, I thought I'd send you my requests below.

My general theme for these requests are songs I haven't yet seen you perform in person, and songs where Stevie gets to sing along and especially when he shares the microphone with you, because it's just sooooooooo rock and roll.

So, welcome back to Toronto, and please please play one (or all) of these songs. Thanks in advance! See you soon! 

Oh yeah, if you feel like a pint before the show, I'll be hanging at Grace O'Malley's (14 Duncan Street) with a few friends, starting around 6pm. Drop by and say hi!

Happy Friday!

 

 

 

Bruce Springsteen, Something in the Night, Wreck on the Highway, Fire, Cadillac Ranch, My Ride's Here

Well, just one week or seven sleeps to go before Bruce Springsteen hits town, but who's counting. To continue Your Friday Bruce Fix's welcoming of Bruce to Toronto, I thought I'd dig back through the archives to find some great performances from his previous Toronto appearances. I expect we'll hear more fine performances next week!

1977 - Something in the Night (Maple Leaf Gardens)

1981 - Wreck on the Highway (Maple Leaf Gardens)

 1984 - Fire (CNE Grandstand)

 1985 - Cadillac Ranch (CNE Stadium)

 2003 - My Ride's Here (a tribute to his friend Warren Zevon who had just died, from Bruce's last appearance at The Rogers Centre/Skydome, with the dome open, as it will hopefully be next week!)

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, The New Yorker, New York City Serenade, New York State of Mind, Billy Joel

I just finished reading David Remnick's profile of Bruce Springsteen in The New Yorker, dated July 30, 2012. It's quite a long piece but I highly recommend taking the time to read it. Whether you're a long-time fan or have discovered Bruce more recently, there's something in there for everyone.  In fact, I have a suggestion.

Inspired by the fact this profile is in The New Yorker, I thought I'd play two songs with New York in the title.  You might try reading the profile which you can find here, while playing the videos below.  You may have to replay the videos a couple of times, depending on your reading speed, but I think you'll enjoy the background music.

I've always thought of 'The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle' as Bruce's jazziest album. 'New York City Serenade' is from that album. Bruce's vocal on 'New York State of Mind', in a performance with Billy Joel that had me smiling the whole way through, is the jazziest vocal I've ever heard from Bruce. So, aside from the New York theme, we have a little jazz thread running through this week's Friday Bruce Fix.

Happy Friday!

Bruce Springsteen, Dancing In The Dark

Warning: This Friday Bruce Fix contains more than the usual number of Springsteens. Proceed with caution.

The inspiration for my Friday Bruce Fix most weeks comes to me from a single source, a news item I saw, a video clip I stumbled upon or as was the case last week, a suggestion from a friend.  This week, my inspiration comes from two friends who independently of each other and for quite different reasons each pointed me to 'Dancing In The Dark'.

I'll lead off with the second friend's suggestion, who asked if I had seen the clip of Bruce dancing with his daughter Jessica, standing in for Courtney Cox as the dancer at the end of the song. Jessica, by the way, is a nationally ranked equestrian who tried out for the US Olympic team. She won't be competing in London but perhaps she'll make the team next time around! This came from last week's show in Paris.

Seeing that reminded me that Bruce has also had his Mom up in this same role on the last tour when it passed through Philadelphia in 2009.

And then I discovered that Bruce has also danced with his sister, Pamela, in Courtney Cox's dancer role. Is there anyone he hasn't danced with?

The initial inspiration came from another friend who directed my attention to this hilarious installation of Grantland's "Rembert Explains" series in which 25 year old Rembert Browne explains a video from the 1980's, in this case the official video of 'Dancing in the Dark', this time with Courtney Cox in the Courtney Cox dancer role.  Feel free to watch the video below, but you can also see it along with Rembert's dissection of the video at the link above.

Happy Friday!

 

 

Bruce Springsteen, Independence Day

This week's Friday Bruce Fix was inspired by my friend Sunny who alerted me to Bruce Springsteen's fine solo piano performance of his 'Independence Day', filmed earlier this week on the 4th of July during his 'Wrecking Ball' tour's stop in Paris, France. For all the joyous rock and roll that Bruce and his band are delivering on this tour, sometimes the most gripping and memorable moments come during ballads like this, perhaps accentuated by the contrast to the rock and roll.

For comparison, let's flash back 34 years to a very early performance of 'Independence Day', a full three years before being released officially on 'The River'. From July 7th, 1978 at The Roxy in Los Angeles, here's Bruce sitting at the piano, giving just about everyone in the audience their first chance to hear 'Independence Day'.

Which version did you like most?

Happy Friday!

 

 

 

Bruce Springsteen, Blood Brothers, Back In Your Arms, Without You

My Friday Bruce Fixes are sometimes very random and spontaneous.  Today is an example. 

I came home last night from a Blue Jays baseball game (thanks Steve), fired up my computer, opened a browser and went to YouTube.  I searched on Bruce Springsteen and saw a song called ‘Without You’ which I couldn’t immediately place.  I watched the video and quickly decided that would inspire this week’s fix. 

When Bruce assembled the E-Street Band in 1995 to record, four songs from those sessions were added to the Greatest Hits CD compilation issued in 1995.  I’ll lead off with one of the four that made the cut, ‘Blood Brothers’, and will then follow it with two other songs from those sessions.  ‘Back in Your Arms’ features a vocal performance that I’ve always considered superior to the one he chose to release on ‘Tracks’.  To my knowledge, ‘Without You’ hasn’t surfaced anywhere else other than the via the video of these sessions which were part of the ‘Blood Brothers’ feature length documentary released in 1996.

 

Happy Friday!