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Yeah, yeah, it’s an AC/DC reference but it fits. This is Giants Stadium
being prepped for the five night stand by Bruce and the E Streeters.
Another bonus–each of the five nights will find Bruce and the band doing a
complete album during the course of the show:
– Wed, Sep 30 – *Born to Run*
– Fri, Oct 2 – *Darkness on the Edge of Town*
– Sat, Oct 3 – *Born in the U.S.A.*
– Thur, Oct 8 – *Born to Run*
– Fri, Oct 9 – *Born in the U.S.A.*
I’d love to see that Darkness show. The Bruce brain trust promised some
sort of 30th anniversary reissue of the album, but nothing has appeared–and
it’s now been 31 years since Bruce’s finest album dropped. Wouldn’t it be
perfect to release, in it’s entirety, one of the 1978 tour shows that were
broadcast live by radio stations in major markets (I would love to hear
again the Capitol Theatre show from Passaic, NJ that was broadcast live on
both NY and Philadelphia radio–and I heard on a crappy FM radio in my Penn
dorm room.)
Both the album and the live shows from 1978 are clear Bruce career
highlights for MANY fans. The Born To Run box set included a DVD (and later
a separately released CD) of an entire concert in London from 1975.
Darkness deserves no less! Meanwhile–congrats to those with tix to the
final Giants Stadium concerts ever.
Word out of the Springsteen camp is that the new tour dates announced this week, stretching the tour out until the end of November, will be the last dates. And Buffalo is the last city standing! November 22nd at the HSBC Arena.
My wife is going to kill me, but how can I not go?
Fwd: Joe Strummer Was A Tramp!
My two favorite bands of all time are Bruce and The Clash. For years I had heard that Joe Strummer never really liked Bruce, thought him a phony, not a true spokesman for blue collar folks. But as it turns out, Strummer was a Tramp . . . a Springsteen fanatic: as in: "Tramps like us/Baby we were born to run."
Check out this piece on how Joe Strummer lobbied the folks behind the Glastonbury festival in England to book Bruce.
At the Glastonbury festival, Bruce paid tribute to Joe by opening with “Coma Girl” a tune Joe did with his last band, The Mescaleros. The next day, at an outdoor show in Hyde Park in London, he opened with–what else?, “London Calling.”
In the comments section of my prior post, I mentioned that if Bruce really wanted to showcase this new album, the bulk of which is romantic pop songs, he should put together a different kind of show–a pop concert rather than a rock show.
Here’s my stab at what that set list might look like:
My Lucky Day (WOAD)
Outlaw Pete (WOAD)
Pink Cadillac (Tracks)
Local Hero (Lucky Town)
Working On A Dream (WOAD)
Hungry Heart (The River)
The Fever (Tracks)
What Love Can Do (WOAD)
Tunnel of Love (Tunnel of Love)
All That Heaven Will Allow (Tunnel of Love)
Sherry Darling (The River)
Kingdom of Days (WOAD)
Two Hearts (The River)
Tomorrow Never Knows (WOAD)
Spirit In The Night (Greetings)
Girls In Their Summer Clothes (Magic)
Out In The Street (The River)
Give The Girl A Kiss (Tracks)
I’m On Fire (Born In the USA)
My Love Will Not Let You Down (Live In NYC)
Tenth Ave. Freezeout (Born To Run)
*******(Encore)
Growin’ Up (Greetings)
Born To Run (Born To Run)
The Wrestler (WOAD)
Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (The Rising)
Rosalita (E. Street Shuffle)
This gives you 7 songs off of the current album, not the 11 he was playing off Magic on his last tour, but still better than the anemic 3 he’s doing on this tour. If Bruce doesn’t want to end up like the Rolling (we only play our greatest hits on tour) Stones, he’s got to shake it up.
That being said, I repeat here what I said in one of my comments on the prior post: I’d go see a show of Bruce reading from the phone book.
The big news from the Bruce concert last night was the fact that 18 year old Jay Weinberg was the drummer for the entire show–filling in for his dad, who is unable to take long stretches away from his day job, television bandleader for Conan O’Brien as he takes over the Tonight Show. The son may be young, but he brings the power, just like his dad.
Awhile back, I linked to an article where Bruce ruminated on how he puts a tour together, the rationale. I realize now that the Working On A Dream tour, while quite entertaining, has a hole at its center. The album that Bruce is ostensibly touring to support, just doesn’t fit with the band, the crowds or the tenor of the times.
Why tour the sports arenas with the hottest band in the land, to sing an album of pop songs whose strength is subtlety and whose charms are evident only after many plays (and some songs charms–I’m looking at you Outlaw Pete–remain hidden?) So Bruce has largely ditched the album, playing only three songs from WOAD last night, and put together a different type of show.
Setlist:
Badlands
Radio Nowhere
Outlaw Pete
No Surrender
Out in the Street
Working on a Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
The Ghost of Tom Joad
Raise Your Hand
Thunder Road
Mony Mony
Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Backstreets
Kingdom of Days
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born to Run
* * *Encore
Hard Times
Kitty’s Back
Land of Hope and Dreams
American Land
Glory Days
The show is built around a three song mini-set that has been dubbed “The Recession Trio.” “Seeds” and “Johnny 99″ were written about the unemployment and displacement of workers at the beginning of the Reagan recession of 1980-81. People forget that Reagan wrung the inflation out of the economy by busting unions, eliminating meaningful regulation of industry and presiding over the deindustrialization of our nation. Working folks and family farms took it in the neck. These songs are angry and the music bites back as hard as the class war lyrics:
Well there’s men hunkered down by the railroad tracks
The Elkhorn Special blowin’ my hair back
Tents pitched on the highway in the dirty moonlight
And I don’t know where I’m gonna sleep tonightParked in the lumberyard freezin’ our asses off
My kids in the back seat got a graveyard cough
Well I’m sleepin’ up in front with my wife
Billy club tappin’ on the windshield in the middle of the night
Says “Move along man move along”
–Seeds
The trio is finished off with a full-band version of the originally solo acoustic gem “Ghost of Tom Joad.” Here, Bruce muses that the poor of our time are searchin’ for the ghost of the Steinbeck protagonist whose moral compass compelled him to be:
Wherever there’s somebody fightin’ for a place to stand
Or a decent job or a helpin’ hand
Wherever somebody’s strugglin’ to be free
Look in their eyes mom you’ll see me.
Bruce introduced this section (using his itinerant preacher of rock ‘n’ roll schtick) by imploring the audience to work with the band to build a house, taking the fear, uncertainty and danger that exist in our lives today–and use our will and the power of the band to construct what we want and what we need.
What we really want and need, is then summed up in the basic frames of the night’s encore. It starts out with Bruces’s haunting adaptation of a Civil War-era Stephen Foster song: “Hard Times”–imploring our troubles to leave us alone after lingering around our homes for too long.
Bruce uses a break in the rollicking Irish reel-meets-rock “American Land” to credit the individuals in the band, but the song–seemingly just a fun stomp, is actually a call to honor our immigrant heritage, acknowledge their contributions to building our society. It’s a slyly subversive method of getting people to equate the hardest working band in show business (whom they love) with the hardest working group in America (immigrants–many of whom are not loved, but demonized.)
The emotional core of the show is finally summed up by the song “Land of Hope & Dreams”, the song that was written in the midst of the E Street Band reunion in 1999, but has come to mean so much more over the past year. Bruce kept playing “The Rising” during Obama rallies, but this is his real Obama song:
Grab your ticket and your suitcase
Thunder’s rolling down the tracks
You don’t know where you’re goin’
But you know you won’t be back
Darlin’ if you’re weary
Lay your head upon my chest
We’ll take what we can carry
And we’ll leave the restBig Wheels rolling through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreamsI will provide for you
And I’ll stand by your side
You’ll need a good companion for
This part of the ride
Leave behind your sorrows
Let this day be the last
Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine
And all this darkness pastBig wheels roll through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams
Oh, did I mention the part about the hottest band in the land? Yeah, this was a rock show, not a graduate seminar and no one delivers those goods like Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Closing in on 60, Bruce still runs, jumps, rolls on the floor, mugs for the crowd and gets everyone in on the action. Nils Lofgren isn’t doing flips anymore due to double hip replacement, but he still flies around the stage during his solos. We were treated to an accordion faceoff between Charlie Giordano and Roy Bittan, looking like twins with their shaved heads and glasses. “No Surrender”, “Out In The Street”, “Waiting On A Sunny Day” and “Kitty’s Back” all turned into massive sing-a-longs. The classics still sounded fresh: no matter how many times he plays Born To Run, Bruce still looks and sounds like he’s the 24 year old that wrote the song.
This was the first time I got to see “the sign set.” While the band cruises along on the instrumental part of their bar-band-by-the-sea chestnut “Raise Your Hand”, led by Little Steven, Bruce wades into the sea of folks at the front of general admission and starts taking handmade posters with the names of folks’ song requests. After gathering up a dozen or so, he sorts through them, picks one and shows the band their next song. Last night we got “Thunder Road”. “Mony Mony” (the Tommy James & the Shondells classic rock hit) “Backstreets” and “Kitty’s Back” thanks to the fan’s signs. (This was the second night in a row for “Mony Mony” and judging by the band’s and the fans’ reaction, it will not be the last.)
Disappointments? I had a few. Rosalita did NOT come out tonight, despite being in 3 of the last 4 shows so I have still not seen it done live. Without Patti (at home recuperating from an injury) to sing harmony and make goo goo eyes at Bruce, the love song Kingdom of Days fell flat (my wife backed out of going to the concert due to illness as well, so I guess I can’t complain.) My personal favorite Bruce song and inspiration for this blog, Racing In The Street, stayed in the garage. Speaking of garages, Albany parking sucks–I paid $15 bucks to park in the venue garage because I was running late–and ended up waiting for a half hour in a snaking line to get out after the show.
But, hell–there are always a few bumps along Thunder Road. As the man says, “the door’s open, but the ride ain’t free.” It still kicks ass!
I’m sitting at work, but I’m not going to be able to get anything much of substance done today. In a few hours I’ll be jumping on Thunder Road and going to Albany to case the Promised Land. Bruce in a little over 10 hours.
This will be my 7th Bruce show. I know there are many folks out there who go to more shows than that on a single tour, and I guess I am a little jealous. But there’s something special about seeing just one show per tour. I remember every show and everything about every show. And the greatest thing about Bruce is his dedication to the shows–he and the band never seem to have an off night. They never phone it in. So the show you go to will be great, no doubts.
I’ve done my traditional preparation for the concert. For the past week I’ve had the several live Bruce CD’s in heavy rotation in the car and the iPod has been regaling me with a huge “Bruce Juice” playlist of all my favorite Bruce songs (and the list of faves currently tops out at 86 tunes.)
Today I enter radio silence, listening to anything but Bruce. The next Bruce I hear will be the man himself. (The parking lots complicate this as they are usually blasting Bruce–but I’m not one to hang around much before a show.)
An interesting story developing on this tour–the band has been taking requests from the fans in the form of homemade signs for special songs since last years’ tour. But lately, they have been picking one song, usually a classic, that they’ve never played in public before.
The E Streeters have banged out songs such as the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated,” the Who’s “My Generation,” the Rascals’ “Good Lovin’,” the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie,” the Soul Survivors’ “Expressway to Your Heart,” Willie Dixon’s “Seventh Son,” and ? and the Mysterians’ “96 Tears.” What’s in store for Albany? If I was close enough to get a sign up on stage, I’d go for “Cool Jerk” by the Capitols.
Bruce was nominated for two Grammy awards for “Girls In Their Summer Clothes”–one for best rock vocal and one for best rock song. Since the “Grammy year” runs from October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2008 “Girls” release date qualifies it for this year’s awards–even though Bruce won for best rock song at last year’s show with a single from the same album.
The rock song category is tailor-made for a Bruce win, since he’s the old fogey up against the young and hip bands. (Radiohead, Death Cab for Cutie, Kings of Leon, Coldplay) The Grammy’s are definitely into old and recognizable. As for Rock vocal he’s up against even older fogeys Paul McCartney and Neil Young, as well as newer Eddie Vedder and John Mayer.
Bruce has been on a Grammy roll in the minor genre categories in recent years, (shut out in the big album and song categories though.) I’d bet on two victories. After all, “Girls” is a much better song than “Radio Nowhere” that he won with last year. Oh, that’s right. Music doesn’t really enter into the calculus with these awards.
Amazed to see Robert Plant/Alison Krauss album “Raising Sand” nominated in the big album of the year category and their song “Please Read The Letter” nominated for record of the year. I don’t hold out much hope for them though. Great albums never win the Grammys.
From Backstreets.com
NEW ALBUM: WORKING ON A DREAM SET FOR JANUARY 27 RELEASE
It’s official: Bruce Springsteen’s new album is set for January 27 release on Columbia Records. Working on a Dream was recorded with the E Street Band and features twelve new Springsteen compositions plus two bonus tracks. It is the fourth collaboration between Springsteen and Brendan O’Brien, who produced and mixed the album.
Track list:
1. Outlaw Pete
2. My Lucky Day
3. Working On a Dream
4. Queen of the Supermarket
5. What Love Can Do
6. This Life
7. Good Eye
8. Tomorrow Never Knows
9. Life Itself
10. Kingdom of Days
11. Surprise, Surprise
12. The Last Carnival
Bonus tracks:
The Wrestler
A Night with the Jersey Devil
Springsteen said, “Towards the end of recording Magic, excited by the return to pop production sounds, I continued writing. When my friend producer Brendan O’Brien heard the new songs, he said, ‘Let’s keep going.’ Over the course of the next year, that’s just what we did, recording with the E Street Band during the breaks on last year’s tour. I hope Working on a Dream has caught the energy of the band fresh off the road from some of the most exciting shows we’ve ever done. All the songs were written quickly, we usually used one of our first few takes, and we all had a blast making this one from beginning to end.”
Working on a Dream is Bruce Springsteen’s twenty-fourth album and was recorded and mixed at Southern Tracks in Atlanta, GA with additional recording in New York City, Los Angeles, and New Jersey. [press release from www.shorefire.com]
The album drops just five days before Bruce and the E Street Band play the halftime show at Super Bowl XLIII. A preview of the album’s title track came last night on NBC’s Sunday Night Football, a 90-second edit of the song over halftime highlights.
