Wrecking Ball, Part 2

I admit that I sometimes fall into the trap of overrating new Springsteen albums. Over the past decade, the one exception was “Working on a Dream,” which I enjoyed but knew right away would never be confused for “Born to Run” or “Darkness on the Edge of Town.” The point is probably most apt for “Magic,” which I placed above “The Rising” a few years back when I compiled my list of Top 25 albums from the 2000s. Given the opportunity for a re-do of that list, the order would be reversed – there are just too many songs on “Magic” that I’m tempted to skip (they’re not horrible, just not that memorable), whereas with “The Rising” the only song I don’t care if I ever hear again is “Let’s Be Friends (Skin to Skin).”

So, perhaps one way – not the only way, and maybe not even the right way – to judge new releases is to identify those songs which serve as the album’s core – the “instant classics,” so to speak – and compare that group of songs with a similar group from a past release. Let’s try that today, and then in a future post I’ll talk about the songs that I wouldn’t put in the “core” category.

Here are the songs I’d identify as being the core of “Wrecking Ball:”

1. We Take Care of Our Own
2. Jack of All Trades
3. Death to My Hometown
4. Wrecking Ball
5. Rocky Ground
6. Land of Hope and Dreams

There are a couple of other songs that might bubble up to this list, but they’re not quite there yet. But even with just those above, you’ve got 6/11, which is a very solid showing. I’d give “Magic” a score of 6/12, while “Rising” clocks in at an impressive 10/15 (and for now, you’ll just have to guess which songs are which).

Of those songs above, Numbers 1, 3 and 4 are pretty obvious choices because they are the album’s “anthems” – the songs that are going to get the crowd going, and get Bruce and the band energized. “Land of Hope and Dreams” has to be on there, because even though it’s an old song, it’s also (in my not-so-humble opinion) one of his all-time best songs. Right now I still prefer the original version (captured on “Live in New York City”), but that’s a quibble. This version is different enough to keep it fresh, and with a song this great, you really can’t keep it down.

But right now, I think the two best songs on the album are “Jack of All Trades” and “Rocky Ground.” The former song is fairly easy to make fun of (as son #2 has proven, with a pretty amusing impression), but there’s a reason for that – it is archetypal Springsteen, doing the things that he is known for, things which bring admiration from some quarters and disdain from others. The camp I fall in was decided long ago, so I have nothing but praise for the song. The story it tells is a stark one, but it is a story for our times. It begins with this:

I’ll mow your lawn, clean the leaves out’ your drain
I’ll mend your roof, to keep out the rain
I take the work that God provides
I’m a jack of all trades, honey we’ll be all right

And ends with this:

So you use what you’ve got and you learn to make do
You take the old, you make it new
If I had me a gun, I’d find the bastards and shoot ‘em on sight
I’m a jack of all trades, we’ll be all right

But so far, the song that has taken over my brain is “Rocky Ground,” which in its music and lyrics sounds like it came straight out of a revival meeting. In fact, it reminds me of something off of a Moby album, the songs where he has recorded a new musical backing over a track of an old-time minister preaching to the flock. Essentially, that’s what Springsteen is doing here.

Take a look:

You use your muscle and your mind and you pray your best
That you best is good enough, the Lord will do the rest
You raise your children and you teach them to walk straight and sure
You pray that hard times, hard times come no more
You try to sleep you toss and turn the bottom’s dropping out
Where you once had faith now there’s only doubt
You pray for guidance only silence now meets your prayers
The morning breaks, you awake, but no one’s there

But the song is a musical triumph as well, with Michelle Moore’s impassioned, insistent refrain “We’ve been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground” lifting the song to a level of tension that it could not have reached without her, good as Bruce’s vocal is.

So far, I’m liking how "Wrecking Ball" stacks up against its immediate predecessors. And if, like I said, a couple of other songs bubble up into the core, than it might be time to do some comparisons with the giants of the catalogue.

Wrecking Ball, Part 1

When you've been in business as long as Bruce Springsteen has been in business, there are going to be few people who haven't already made up their minds about the quality of your work and your role in the rock and roll continuum. It's an ongoing, never-ending challenge - how does an artist maintain his identity, while sounding new and fresh at the same time? Go too far in either direction, and that artist is bound to hear things like "sounds like everything he's ever recorded before" or "why is he trying to sound like something he's not?"

Put another way, everyone in the world made up their mind about Bruce Springsteen long before the release of "Wrecking Ball." So when you write about the album, you can't do so with the expectation that you're going to change anyone's mind. It just isn't going to happen.

So maybe this is written for the fans. And this is just the first glance; there will be more. But after just over 24 hours of listening, I hear something in "Wrecking Ball" that I haven't heard for a very long time, perhaps since "Tunnel of Love" 25 years ago - a fully realized, wholly consistent view of the world, unified both in themes and in sound. No, it's not going to change any minds; it's far too late for that.

But this isn't "Working on a Dream," or even "Magic" or "The Rising" - as great as some parts of each of those albums were. This is something different. I feel confident in saying, even though it's only March, that this is the album of the year.

More to come.

Thoughts on "The Promise"

Like many others, I'm sure, my main Christmas present this year was "The Promise," the deluxe Bruce Springsteen "Darkness on the Edge of Town" box set. It's not for the casual fan, and can hardly be absorbed in one sitting. In total, you've got:

- The remastered version of the original album, "Darkness on the Edge of Town."

- A 2-CD set, "The Promise," which includes songs recorded for "Darkness" that did not make the final cut on the album.

- A documentary on the making of the album.

- A DVD that includes the band playing "Darkness" from start to finish, in an empty auditorium, in December 2009; random footage of the band recording some of the "Darkness" outtakes, and several songs from the 1978 Phoenix concert.

- A DVD of an entire concert (Houston) from the 1978 tour.

The packaging is impressive and frustrating at the same time. It's a spiral notebook, with notes that Bruce made during the period that he was contemplating and then recording "Darkness." There are handwritten lyrics, there are typed lyrics, and there are pages of Bruce trying to come up with the perfect song sequence for the album. A lot of it is interesting, but without much in the way of context, it's a bit like a photo album with a bunch of pictures in it that aren't in chronological order.

But for the hardcore Bruce fan, the entire package is a delight. I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of it yet, but a few first thoughts:

* What is striking about many of the songs on "The Promise" is that they sound as if they would have fit perfectly on Bruce's last album, "Working on a Dream." That was hardly the most-loved album of his career, but what the old songs demonstrate is that there has always been a side of Bruce - even as he was making what may have been the toughest and bleakest album of his career - that wanted to do nothing but record pop songs.

* It pains me to say it because I didn't see him until 1980, but when you listen to the 1978 concert video, it's easy to see why long-time aficionados consider this to be the greatest tour of his long career. Having said that, there is something to the minority view that at this point of their career, the band was almost too manic. Bruce is so energetic, a veritable whirling dervish, that there are moments that it almost seems like parody. But then you come back to the music, remarkable music, and you remember that these were young men, playing to a young audience, and having the time of their lives. And you can only wish that you'd been there.

* Although I've written about it before, I have to say something about the version of "Prove It All Night" that the band played on the 1978 tour. On that tour, they played a version of the song that was never heard again - one with a lengthy, almost 6 minute intro, that stretched the song to almost 12 minutes. The intro would begin with just Roy on piano, and then Bruce would join in, usually with a verbal interjection at some point, and then the rest of the band, increasing the tempo and the tension until you can almost feel the song explode on itself. But what is most amazing about the '78 version is this - I've now heard five versions from that tour: The Roxy, Phoenix (on the box set), Passaic, Houston (also on the box set), and Winterland, and they are all different - Roy's piano varies, as does Bruce's solo. Even though I never saw it in person, I'm convinced that this was the band's single finest moment live.

* So far, my favorite part of the set is the 2009 concert played to no one. The band is no longer young, and the songs are no longer young. Everyone is dressed in basic black, and there's no playing to the audience, because there is no audience. Bruce and the band - and with the exception of Charlie Giordano for the late Danny Federici, this is the 1978 band (no Nils, no Patti, no Soozi) - are playing for themselves, and the results are wonderful. There is less movement, and sure, Bruce can't hit all of the same notes now as he could back then - but it hardly matters. What the show proves is that you don't have to be young to rock out, and that the band today is just as vital as it was more than 30 years ago.

All in all, pretty damn good stuff.

30 Years Ago Tonight...

I saw my first Bruce Springsteen concert. Below are my thoughts from that night, reprinted from an earlier post.

The fall of 1980 was my first quarter at U.C. Berkeley, and those first few months were among the most memorable of my life. First time away from home, first time thrown into the chaos of dorm life, first time having to manage life with not one, but two roommates. As anyone who’s lived in a university dormitory can attest, the science of matching roommates with like interests and habits is an inexact one, at best. But that first year, in my “triple” at Deutsch Hall, they did a pretty good job. One of my roommates was from South Korea, and while he didn’t socialize with us much, he kept the same hours as the rest of us – something that is absolutely essential to peaceful co-existence. Rob Danin, my other roommate, and I got along great. In another lucky break, we shared similar tastes in music – also an essential component of successful dorm life. I haven’t kept in touch with Rob since college, but he has gone on to have a nice little career for himself in foreign relations, and now happens to be the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. In fact, I'm proud to say that I got a better grade than Rob did in a course we took together, on Jewish History of the 20th Century. But he's the one with the Ph.D., so I suppose it's not nice of me to point that out.

Rob was a huge Springsteen fan, and while I wasn’t quite there yet, I owned all of his albums and enjoyed them a great deal. Having subscribed to Rolling Stone for four years, I knew that Springsteen’s live shows were legendary, and when it was announced that he was heading to Oakland, getting there was a must. Cool guy that he was, Rob agreed to buy tickets for me. In those days, the only way to get them was to “sleep” overnight at the Arena where the tickets would go on sale in the morning, and luckily Rob and a group of his friends from Southern California were willing to make the vigil.

This was the era of marathon shows, and 28 October 1980 was no exception: On the night of the lone Ronald Reagan-Jimmy Carter debate, Bruce Springsteen sang 32 songs, played for more than three hours, and covered nearly every song from The River. I remember being blown away by the first part of the show, which focused on past works, and then falling hard for the River material, after having been skeptical about the double album on the first few listens. I remember Rob’s friends going absolutely crazy when he sang “Wreck on the Highway,” and I remember the utter joy of those last few moments when the lights came on and “Detroit Medley” began.

Needless to say, it was a great show.

Set list:

Good Rockin’ Tonight/Badlands/10th Avenue Freeze-Out/For You/Darkness On the Edge of Town/Factory/Independence Day/Jackson Cage/Two Hearts/The Promised Land/Out In The Street/Racing In the Street/The River/Prove It All Night/Thunder Road/Cadillac Ranch/Fire/Hungry Heart/I Wanna Marry You/The Ties That Bind/Wreck On the Highway/Stolen Car/Point Blank/Crush On You/Ramrod/You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)/Drive All Night/Rosalita/I’m A Rocker/Jungleland/Born to Run/Detroit Medley

Bruce and "The River"

Last night at Madison Square Garden, Bruce Springsteen did something he’s never done before, and is unlikely to ever do again – he played “The River” in its entirety, in sequence.

As this year’s tour has neared an end, Bruce and the band have taken to playing entire albums in sequence, within the scope of an entire concert. This was something they first tried in May 2008, when at a fundraising show they played both “Born to Run” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town” from start to finish. But until this past weekend, only three albums had gotten the full in-sequence treatment: the two aforementioned works, and “Born in the U.S.A.”

But Bruce obviously wanted to do something special for the Garden party, and this past weekend added two more albums to the mix: “The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle” on Saturday night, and “The River” on Sunday night. And while the first show would have been fun, I would have given just about anything to be at last night’s show.

Even though I know “The River” isn’t Bruce’s best album – I still get annoyed every time I hear “Hungry Heart” in concert – it may be the one with the most personal meaning for me. It was the album that came out just a couple of weeks before I saw my first Springsteen concert, the concert where I heard him sing 17 out of the 20 songs on the record (and yes, in those days they really were records). It was my first quarter at Cal, and everything about that first quarter was burned into my memory – the experience of being away from home for the first time, what it was like to be in “real” college classes, the camaraderie in the dorms, my first (and worst) failure in a real college mid-term –it’s all up there somewhere – if not like it was just yesterday, like it was a lot more recent than nearly 30 years ago.

All I can say is that I hope they filmed this show.



As the tour winds down, a lot of people are beginning to get the feeling that this just might be the last time for the E Street Band, at least as we’ve all known it for so long. And yeah, I know they’ve been saying stuff like that about the Stones for almost as long as the E Street Band has been together, but the simple fact of the matter is that none of them are getting any younger, and Clarence in particular is probably not up to many (if any) more tours like the one that is about to wrap up.

So if these are the last shows, at least in the current incarnation of the band, they’re certainly going out in style. Below, reproduced verbatim, are the notes from last night’s show on the Backstreets setlist page.

November 8 / Madison Square Garden / New York, NY

Notes: Context has always been important to Bruce Springsteen's music, and he reinforced that notion with a galvanizing performance of The River in its entirety for the first time on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. In a precise, exhilarating, and high-energy show, Springsteen faithfully reproduced all 20 of its songs. Most have appeared in shows on various tours since the album's 1980 release, and usually to great effect. But hearing the songs in their original order left many in the building gasping in astonishment.

Springsteen introduced the 20-song cycle as a "gateway to my future writing," singling out "Stolen Car" and the title track as seed work for Tunnel of Love and Nebraska, respectively. He also mentioned the album was "made during a recession," an obvious connection to the hard times of the present. Then he lit it up, and as he made his way from "The Ties That Bind" to "Wreck on the Highway," Springsteen positively radiated with passion and energy.

On the rockers, Bruce got physical: that was evident by the last verse of "Jackson Cage," where he sang with the force and conviction of a young artist trying to win over an audience with a new song. That investment extended to the fun rockers, too: "Crush on You" and "I'm a Rocker" weren't simply dusted off for the night. Rather, they were full-tilt, all-in exhibits A and B of what attracts fans to rock 'n' roll in the first instance, and to Bruce Springsteen's music in particular. Simply put, Bruce couldn't have put any more of himself into those two songs if he had tried. He prowled, vamped, sang, and played guitar as if his very life depended on it. Call it Springsteen uncorked, vintage 1980.

But there's another side to the music from this album, and there Springsteen made an equally resonant connection. "I Wanna Marry You" stood out, as did Bruce, singing at the front of the stage, maracas in hand to keep time. His voice sounded sweet and soulful, his delivery balanced in sentiment and sincerity, and he ended it by taking Patti Scialfa for a slow dance. "Fade Away" was equally resplendent, but this time Bruce ended on his knees as the song faded away. "Drive All Night" was perhaps the evening's emotional high-water mark: the band found one groove after another, and Bruce asked Clarence Clemons for a second sax solo to put a stamp on the crescendo. Steve Van Zandt had a great night too. He was all over the guitar for "Crush on You" and "Cadillac Ranch," and his background vocals — as integral to the album as his role as its co-producer — sounded exactly as they should have: right behind Bruce's voice in the mix. That made for an especially strong version of "The Price You Pay" in only its second appearance since 1981. Props, too, to Charles Giordano for his stately organ playing on this song.

At the outset, Springsteen said that the album would be played like this just once because "it's too long to do it again." Clocking in just shy of two hours, The River felt like a show in and of itself. Afterward, he wasn't ready to end the set, and appeared unknowing of how to end the set. So he departed markedly from his handwritten list of songs, adding a thunderous "Atlantic City," and a romping “Seven Nights to Rock.” In the encore, he treated the audience to a work-up of and then a fine, off-the-cuff "Sweet Soul Music." Another treat appeared as Bruce led the band through "Can't Help Falling in Love." Throughout, he appeared to be a bottomless well of energy. At the end he escorted his vocalists to the platform at the back of the pit to conclude "Higher and Higher."

On this night, where the past met the present, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band lifted the veil, lifted themselves, their music and their audience. Bruce may be wise to let this performance stand alone, because it's one that even he probably can't replicate.- (Jonathan Pont reporting)

Setlist: Wrecking Ball (with Curt Ramm)/The Ties That Bind/Sherry Darling/Jackson Cage/Two Hearts/Independence Day/Hungry Heart/Out in the Street/Crush on You/You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)/I Wanna Marry You/The River/Point Blank/Cadillac Ranch/I'm a Rocker (with Curt Ramm)/Fade Away/Stolen Car/Ramrod/The Price You Pay/Drive All Night/Wreck on the Highway/Waitin' on a Sunny Day/Atlantic City/Badlands/Born to Run/Seven Nights to Rock/Sweet Soul Music (with Curt Ramm)/No Surrender/American Land (with Curt Ramm)/Dancing in the Dark/Can't Help Falling in Love/Higher and Higher

Bruce - Officially An Old Guy!

Bruce makes the cover of AARP Magazine! I'm sure this has been a source of much amusement with the band.

The article inside is short but very good, having been written by Ariel Swartley, whose work appeared in Rolling Stone and Village Voice way back in my yoot.

And of course, you can't say anything bad about one of the critics immortalized in Stranded, the classic rock tome edited by Greil Marcus in 1979.

Happy Birthday, Bruce

Happy 60th birthday to Bruce Springsteen. Let’s celebrate with videos of some of his best songs:



“Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart”



“I want to go tonight/I want to find out what I got”



“I’m a cool rockin’ daddy in the USA”



“Tramps like us/baby we were Born to Run”

I Can't Get No...

Bruce and the band performing "Satisfaction," last night in South Carolina.

Seems pretty satisfying to me.

Born in the U.S.A. Turns 25

I’d be remiss if I didn’t say a few words in recognition of the 25th Anniversary of the release of Born in the U.S.A. It still is, and barring some kind of miracle always will be, Bruce Springsteen’s most popular album – in terms of sales. But for many of those who consider themselves on the scale of Springsteen fandom to be somewhere between devotee and fanatic, it is not as beloved.

I’ve never understood the disdain that so many Bruce-philes have for the album, and I’ve always suspected that it has more to do with the circumstances surrounding it than with the music itself. Bruce had enjoyed enormous success in 1980 with The River, and seemed poised to take that next big step into mega-platinum popularity that had been enjoyed in the late 1970s by bands like Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles. Looking back on it today, I’m not sure how comfortable Bruce’s most loyal fan base was with that – the tickets for each successive tour had become harder to get, and the level of the relationship between Springsteen as an artist and those fans who had followed him since the early days (what I sometimes call the “Oh, you saw him in ____? Well you should have seen him the tour before that – that’s when he was really good!”) was such that I wondered then (and still wonder now) how willing those long-time fans were to allow “newbies” into the house.

The release of Nebraska delayed Bruce’s becoming “the next big thing” – it was a magnificent work, but to this day it remains the least commercial album of his career, to the point where it was interpreted by some as a challenge to his fans – “if you’re with me, then you need to be with me all the way, into the depths of my most challenging and dangerous work.” Even with its stark nature, the album sold well – but by the time June 1984 rolled around, it had been nearly four years since the release of a “full blown, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, rock and roll album.”

In retrospect, it’s obvious that Columbia Records knew it had a winner on its hands. The star-making machinery was put into full force – the advertisements were in the trades and the posters were up on the record store walls well in advance of the June 4 release date. The cover was slick and professional, complete with Annie Leibovitz photography. Since it was the year of the blockbuster, with Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Prince’s Purple Rain leading the way, the Columbia execs were probably thinking to themselves, “why not get another one out there?”

And they did. It was a huge, huge success, probably far beyond what anyone expected. Mega-platinum indeed – with hit singles! – and yes, an entirely new fan base that made it damn near impossible to get tickets for the first leg of the tour. For the second leg, Bruce had little choice but to move from arenas – into which his entry had been a big step just a few years before – into baseball and football stadiums.

To this day, I think there are some who hold all of that against the album. Even Backstreets, which is as thoughtful a fan site as you’ll find anywhere, made a comment in a concert setlist commentary a couple of years ago, “A Springsteen concert without a song from Born in the U.S.A.? Priceless!” In my opinion, it’s not about the music – it’s about the clothes that Bruce wore on that tour (and sure, they looked really goofy, but then so did what I was wearing in 1984), it’s about the “disco” nature of “Dancing in the Dark,” it’s about the slick Leibovitz photography, it’s about the young girls screaming at concerts like they were watching Rick Springfield instead of Bruce Springsteen, and it’s about the fact that folks who were used to sitting down on the floor were now three rows from the top at a cavernous ballpark.

So what about the music?

It’s great. For my money, even given the landmark status that I believe Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town deserve, it’s his most consistent album. From the moment Max’s sticks hit the drums like rifle shots at the beginning of the title track, it’s obvious that this is an album that’s meant to be turned up – way, way up.

I’ll concede that songs like “Darlington County” and “Working on the Highway” don’t fit into the Springsteen pantheon as neatly as “Badlands,” “The Promised Land” and “Thunder Road.” But man, they sure sound good. And while they may not be the most visionary expressions of the Springsteen ethos, I’d argue that they fit within that ethos just as well as anything he’s written. As do songs like “Downbound Train” (despite the clumsiness of the lyric), “No Surrender,” and “My Hometown.” Meanwhile, on songs like “I’m Goin’ Down” and “Glory Days,” Bruce comes on like a latter-day Elvis, just having a grand old rockin’ time with some really funny songs. And of course, there’s the title track, which to my ears is only one of the greatest songs he’s ever written.

The sound of the album was critical to it success. As much as I admire what Brendan O’Brien has been able to do with the band during the past decade, the production on Born in the U.S.A. remains my favorite of all Springsteen albums. There’s a crispness and vitality there that you just can’t find on any of his other records. As Robert Christgau wrote at the time, “the aural vibrancy of the thing reminds me like nothing in years that what teenagers loved about rock and roll wasn’t that it was catchy or even vibrant but that it just plain sounded good.”

So I hope that on its 25th birthday tomorrow, people will celebrate Born in the U.S.A. It deserves every toast that it gets.

Who Knows What's Next?

It's looking more and more as if this Springsteen tour will be remembered less as the "Working on a Dream Tour" than it will be known as the "Stump the Band" tour.

The trend began at the tail end of last year's "Magic" tour, when Bruce started pulling hand-made signs out of the audience once or twice each night (sometimes more) to play something from way back in his catalogue, or a golden oldie that hadn't been part of the set list for years.

This year, things have really gotten wild - a week or so ago he played "I Wanna Be Sedated," and last night in Philadelphia he played "London Calling."



All of which leads one to wonder what's next: Sex Pistols? Flipper? X? Fear? These days, who knows?

Bruce Springsteen: Working on a Show

A few days late, but there were a few things that I wanted to think about before I committed words to paper. So without further ado, a few random comments on the opening night of the "Working on a Dream" tour, April 1 in San Jose.

General Admission Seating. This was the first show I've seen from the floor, and it will probably be the last. I like being able to stand up and move around to the music (I won't even presume to call it "dancing") as much as the next person, but more than 3 hours of continuous standing is a bit too much of a good thing. I'm in pretty good shape, but my legs were in agony by the end of the show - and just a breather every now and then would have made an enormous difference.

As far as the process goes, it was handled pretty poorly by the HP Pavilion staff, especially when you consider that the venue hosted a Springsteen show just a year ago. We didn't care about getting "in the pit" so I can't comment on how the lottery was handled, but once we found our way to the General Admission staging area, it was obvious that the staff had no plan for what to do with those who were just arriving, and it was only the good will of the crowd which kept the situation from descending into chaos. When you walk up to a staff person for guidance and they tell you "sorry, I don't know what to tell you - they don't tell us anything," that's generally not a good thing.

The sound. It may have been my imagination, or I may just be getting old, but it sure seemed to be a heckuva lot louder on the floor than it's sounded in other parts of various arenas over the years. The mix was a little spotty - there were entire stretches of the show where I couldn't even hear the background singers, and times when Clarence was miked so low that you couldn't tell if he was playing or not.

The band. There's no doubt that as a unit, the band is playing as well as it ever has. Steve didn't seem to be in the spotlight as much as I remember him being for the last few shows that I've seen, but Nils was white-hot throughout the night, with blistering solos on several songs. Charlie Giordano has filled in quite nicely for Danny Federici (on both organ and accordion), and of course Roy Bittan was in fine form behind the piano. But for me, the star of the night was Max Weinberg. I could hear the crispness of the drums better than I can remember hearing it in years, and he never fails to amaze me with the sounds he's able to get out of that kit. It will be fun to see his son Jay fill in later on the tour after Conan O'Brien takes over The Tonight Show, but as positive as the reports have been about Jay's drumming, it's hard to believe that the show won't lose a little punch.

The conundrum. The show led off with "Badlands," the heart of it was the three-song combination - "Seeds," "Johnny 99," and "The Ghost of Tom Joad," and the encore set begain with a searing electric version of Stephen Foster's "Hard Times." So it's clear that Bruce is looking to build a show that reflects on the hard times that so many are facing right now. The problem? "Working on a Dream," the album which he's touring behind, is the lightest album he's released since "Human Touch," and quite possibly the lightest album of his career. There's nothing wrong with that - I'm liking the album more and more with the passage of time - but it does present a problem. Bruce played only 6 songs off "Working," a remarkably low number in comparison with the ratio of songs from the new album on recent tours. I'm not sure how big a problem this is, but it does result in a reliance on the warhorses of the catalog - songs like "Badlands," "No Surrender," and "The Promised Land" - that have been in heavy rotation for so long now that the show threatens to become something that Bruce has never been in concert: predictable. Over the course of the tour, I hope that he works some more of the new songs into the show; I can think of at least 4 or 5 that I'd love to hear live (and that I think would sound great live). And who knows, I get it that they're his signature songs and that they produce an energy in the crowd that few other songs can match, but maybe it's time to give the signature songs a little rest. There's a lot of great work in the catalog, stuff that hasn't been played for years, and it would be fun to hear some of it again.

Of course, in the end this is all nit-picking. Did I think it was a great show? Of course I did. Did I have a great time? Of course I did. And for the third straight show I attended with someone who was seeing Bruce for the very first time, and I sure didn't hear him complaining. There were enough highlights in the 26-song show to last a lifetime, and hearing "Land of Hope and Dreams" again was worth the price of admission all by itself.

Highlights:

- The brilliant electric version of "The Ghost of Tom Joad;"

- The musicianship on "Good Eye," even if the weird microphone (whatever it's called) distorted every word Bruce sang beyond recognition;

- The shock of hearing "Good Rockin' Tonight," the very first song I heard Bruce play back in October 1980;

- "The Wrestler," which with the passage of time sounds like one of the all-time classics; and

- "Land of Hope and Dreams" - the song really says everything there is to know about Bruce.

Until next time!

Set list: Badlands/Outlaw Pete/My Lucky Day/No Surrender/Out in the Street/Working on a Dream/Seeds/Johnny 99/The Ghost of Tom Joad/Good Eye/Good Rockin' Tonight/Darlington County/Growin' Up/Waitin' on a Sunny Day/The Promised Land/The Wrestler/Kingdom of Days/Radio Nowhere/Lonesome Day/Born to Run/Hard Times/Thunder Road/Dancing in the Dark/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Land of Hope and Dreams/American Land

E...Street...Band!

Ok, so it might be a little hard to see them, but this is the band taking a bow at the end of the show (pre-encores), after playing "Born to Run."

Yes, I Know the Way to San Jose

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be heading to San Jose for my 11th Bruce Springsteen show, and I'm really looking forward to this one since it is the first show of the tour. Even though there was a hint of what might be played in his rehearsal shows last week, I suspect that there will be some major surprises tomorrow night. I'm probably looking forward to this one more than any show since the 1999 reunion tour. And for the third straight show, I'll be going with someone who is seeing Bruce for the first time - always a treat. Oh, yeah - this will also be my first show seen from the floor, although by night's end I may not be so excited given my advancing decrepitude.

I was hoping to post a review of the only show I've yet to review on the site, Sacramento 2003, but alas work has conspired against me. Too much to do; too little time. But there will definitely be something up later this week about tomorrow night's show.

Working On A Dream

Some initial thoughts, which I expect to revisit at some point in the future.

• Among his fans, I suspect this will be the most polarizing album of Springsteen’s career. The people who could never come to grips with “Born in the USA” – a bonafide classic that has stood the test of time – are really going to have an problem with this one.

• I never thought I’d live to see the day when a Springsteen song (“Outlaw Pete”) was accused of being a rip-off of a Kiss song. But, since I’m not a Kiss fan and rarely hear a Kiss song outside of those on the radio, I have no idea what they’re talking about.

• In his review of Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell,” Robert Christgau wrote, “Bruce Springsteen, beware – this is what you've wrought, and it could happen to you.” I have to confess that quote came to mind upon my first listen to “Queen of the Supermarket.” After a couple of listens, I’m feeling better about the song, but not the background vocal during the last verses – which absolutely smacks of Meat Loaf-type hokum.

• There are at least three songs that, upon initial listens, are candidates to become classics: the title tune, “My Lucky Day,” and “The Last Carnival.”

• OK, it must be dealt with – “Surprise, Surprise” may be catchy and all, but so was “Run, Joey, Run.” It may indeed surprise me at some point and work its way into my brain like the termite art that Manny Farber wrote about all those years ago, but what I know right now is that Son #2 gleefully made fun of it when he first heard it, and continued in that vein this morning. And I can’t really answer him, because right now it sounds like the least substantial song he’s ever recorded.

Is this a great album? Clearly not, at least in comparison to classics like “Born to Run,” “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” and “Born in the USA.” But should it be held to that standard? That makes the conversation more interesting. Based on what he’s said about the album, this is the first time Bruce decided to make an album on a whim, just taking the energy from a tour and throwing down some songs without a lot of forethought as to themes, lyrical or musical. Personally, I think that’s great. It’s a challenge to himself, and it’s a challenge to the band, but it’s also a challenge to a group of fans whose expectations sometimes outstrip the ability of Bruce to meet them.

So I’m not surprised that the critical reaction is all over the map. You’ve got everything from the 5-star review in Rolling Stone, to Ann Powers’ slam in the L.A. Times, to the predictable “going to enter a few catch phrases in my trusty “Rip Springsteen a New One” computer program and see what comes out” piece from Jim DeRogatis in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Who knows? Maybe this time, everyone is right.

30 Years Ago

Thirty years ago today, Bruce Springsteen played a concert at Winterland in San Francisco. The concert was broadcast live on FM radio, and I remember listening to it in my room on that wintry Friday night (though stupidly, not taping it). It's one of a handful of Springsteen concerts that can rightly be called legendary, and in all likelihood one of the three of four greatest shows he has ever performed - which means it is one of the greatest rock concerts in the history of rock itself.

Thanks to the miracle of Wolfgang's Vault, the complete concert can be streamed and listened to on your computer. It's well worth your time - the amazing performance of "Prove It All Night" is worth the price of admission alone.

Steven Rubio, who has seen a lot more Bruce concerts than I have, writes about the show here. One thing to note - the embedding of Wolfgang's Vault songs is problematic when you're using Internet Explorer, so don't scratch your head if you see "The Traveler" embedded instead of the Bruce songs which Steven references. Move over to Firefox, and you'll see what was intended.

The Magic Tour - That's A Wrap

Marking a celebratory but at the same time melancholy occasion, Bruce Springsteen’s Magic Tour formally concluded earlier this week in Kansas City. The tour began in Hartford, Connecticut in October 2007, and saw the band criss-cross the country twice, as well as make two jaunts across the pond into Europe. While the tour was a triumph – I saw them twice, and can attest to the fact that the band sounded better and stronger than ever – there was also tragedy along the way, with the loss in April of Danny Federici to melanoma.

The boys in the band aren’t getting younger, so with each passing E Street Band tour, the likelihood that this one will be the last increases. Of course, people have been saying that about the Stones since 1978, but consider: there were three years between the Reunion Tour and The Rising Tour, and nearly five years between that tour and the current one. Since the turn of the century, Bruce has demonstrated a desire to stretch out, following The Rising with an album of near-solo material (Devils and Dust), and following that with something completely out of left field, The Seeger Sessions (complete with full band tour). So who knows how long it will be before we see another E-Street Band album. I’ll be optimistic and say four years, but even then you’d be confronted with what my son would probably call “Old Guy-Palooza.” Would they still be up to it? Hard to say.

On the last leg of the Magic Tour, Bruce and the band played as if it were a valedictory. Songs that hadn’t popped up on the setlist for years started showing up, and the setlists varied widely from night to night (buoyed by Bruce’s new habit of plucking home-made request signs out of the audience). The second year of a Springsteen tour is always less rigid in the setlist than the beginning, but this time around he took that tendency to new extremes. In the last month of shows alone, the band played the following:

Summertime Blues
Growin’ Up
Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart
Held Up Without A Gun
Pretty Flamingo (a staple of early to mid-1970s shows)
Blinded By The Light
Little Latin Lupe Lu (I actually saw him play this once, in 1988)
You Can’t Sit Down
Loose Ends
Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love)
Stand On It (saw him play this, in 1984)
Crush On You (he hadn’t played this since the first year of The River tour, and referred to it as “the worst song we ever put on vinyl.”)
Boom Boom
Part Man, Part Monkey (saw this one in 1988)
Seven Nights to Rock
Gloria
the “Mona” and “Not Fade Away” intros to She’s the One
I Fought the Law
Then She Kissed Me (I had a great version of this on a bootleg tape I had back in the early 80s, but the damn thing gave up the ghost)
Rendezvous
Mountain of Love
Little Queenie
Ricky Wants A Man of Her Own
Cynthia
Boys (Max Weinberg singing lead!)

I’m hoping against hope that this wasn’t the end, and that in a few years time I’ll be poised at my computer at 10 a.m. on a Monday morning, hoping against hope that this time will be the time I actually am able to score floor tickets. But if not, then the last month, as well as the entire Magic tour, was a pretty damn fine way to go out.

Springsteen at Madison Square Garden? It Doesn't Get Much Better Than That

I guess you could say that I burned myself out with all the golf and basketball posts over the past week. But when inspiration is fleeting, one can always find it in the work of Bruce Springsteen. So now seems as good a time as any to get back to my accounts of the Springsteen concerts I’ve been lucky enough to attend. For those who can’t wait for this little project to end, take heart – there’s only two to go!

Show #8, June 2000
Madison Square Garden
New York City

This account is going to be a little different from those in the past, in that it quotes liberally (and verbatim) from an e-mail I wrote to friends shortly after I returned from the concert. After all, it’s not every day that you fly across the country to see a concert – at least not for me. This was the only trip I’ve made to New York City in my lifetime, and it was all a little overwhelming. Don’t get me wrong; it was about as much fun as you can pack into a two-day period – but when you live in a city where the tallest building isn’t as high as every building you can see around you for blocks around, it sort of puts things in perspective.

The year 2000 was the year I turned 40. In an e-mail exchange early in the year, shortly after Springsteen had announced a two-week stand at Madison Square Garden to close out the E Street Band’s triumphant reunion tour, I had joked with my friend Craig that we should treat ourselves to a 40th birthday present and go to one of the shows. As it turned out, since Craig works for a major airline, this was not as difficult as it might have seemed at first glance. When he and his family visited Sacramento during the spring break holiday, he told me, “just say the word, and we can do this.” I didn’t take much convincing.

Because I was flying on a family and friends pass, it made the most sense to fly direct to Kennedy Airport out of San Francisco. This brings us to vignette #1:

Upon advice from friends in San Francisco, I arrived at SFO on Thursday a mere six hours prior to my flight, the expected traffic never having materialized. After a couple of drinks in the bar and reading three magazines from cover to cover and doing the SF Chronicle crossword, there were only 2 hours left, which were somewhat nerve-wracking - because I was flying on a Friends/Family pass, I was designated standby. Fortunately, because he works in their corporate office my friend Craig was able to track ticket sales to the last minute, and had sent me an e-mail earlier that day saying that I had a "90% chance" of getting on the flight, but probably in coach." After checking in, and waiting until everyone on the flight boarded, and then waiting for other standbys to be called, I was literally the last person they let on the plane (we did have contingency plans, but all of which included a changeover - this was a direct flight). And I made it in first class - which I could easily get used to. And flying a 767 is not the same as one of the little puddle-jumpers they use for LA-Sacramento flights; this is a real plane well-equipped to handle such things as turbulence. So, after my complimentary champagne and cocktail, and my "midnight snack" of pizza with sun-dried tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms (and glass of cabernet, of course) I settled down for a little nap in my reclining chair with footrest (having declined to watch a movie on the offered personal DVD player). Oh, and I mustn't forget the hot towels to freshen up every now and then.

I have to say, nearly 8 years later, that the wait was really excruciating. I didn’t do a lot of flying in those days, and when I did it was not a long flight. Having crossed the country numerous times now in my current job, I’ve gotten used to flying, but back then it was way down on the list of my favorite things.

After the red-eye flight, I landed at Kennedy at 6:30 a.m. on a Friday morning (the concert was that night). Which brings us to vignette #2:

Craig picked me up at JFK at 630 am, and we headed to our accommodations - the apartment that his employer rents in the City. It was on the 48th floor of a 72-story apartment building, on E. 38th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue. About 1600 square feet, with a "great room" consisting of a half circle of all windows, overlooking the United Nations building, the East River (Queens and Brooklyn in the distance), and the financial district to the south.

Needless to say, this was an amazing place. I probably didn’t know well enough to appreciate it properly.

After freshening up, we were afoot - walked to Grand Central Station, through Rockefeller Plaza to see the Today Show Concert (Sting), and then through Central Park and up to 5th Avenue to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After 3-4 hours there, we cut through the park to Central Park West, walked to Broadway and then down through Times Square, Herald Square, a quick lunch at a diner, by the Empire State building and other sights, and I made my only real "touristy" purchase, a Late Show with David Letterman t-shirt, at the CBS Store next to the Ed Sullivan Theater where they film the show. Then, back to the Apartment for a much-needed afternoon nap. Around 6 p.m., we cabbed it to have a quick dinner at the Carnegie Deli, and then walked down to Madison Square Garden for the Springsteen concert, which of course was the reason for the trip in the first place.

I should also mention that it was really, really hot that weekend. And New York City hot isn’t the same thing as Sacramento hot – there really is something to that old “but it’s dry heat!” cliché.

Of course, the show was great, and seeing him at Madison Square Garden just added to the greatness. I remember getting there really early; in fact, we must have been among the first people in the arena to take our seats. They were the best seats I’ve ever had at a Springsteen concert – not on the floor, but very close to the stage, close enough that you could see everything perfectly without having to resort either to binoculars or the big screens. The highlight of the early part of the show was “American Skin (41 Shots),” which he had just started playing a couple of months beforehand. Sitting in front of us that night were three firemen who were joined by one of their sisters, and I remember one of the firemen being so offended at the song (it had gotten quite a bit of notoriety) that he stood with his back to the stage during the entire song. I also remember that by the time the night was over, for the first time I really understood the phrase “stinking drunk on beer.” Even though they all kept their faculties (more or less), by the end of the evening they smelled like a keg left out overnight after a frat party. And when the first notes of “Jungleland” hit, we got to witness one of those classic “this is the greatest moment of my life!” moments that you only see when someone has had, oh…9 or 10 beers or so. It was great, and just added to the atmosphere.

In truth, the show was really one long highlight – the heart of that tour, which never changed from night to night, was the Youngstown/Murder Inc./Badlands/Out in the Street/Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out sequence, and I don't know how it could have sounded better than it did on this night. And “Point Blank?” “Dead Man Walkin’?” Wow. But the best moment may have been Bruce’s hilarious monologue during the middle of “Light of Day,” during which he played a bit with the New York City crowd:

“New York City !....New York City !....but everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve seen people lost in confusion....I´ve seen people lost in loneliness on the subways....I´ve seen people lost in the wilderness of the concrete jungle....I´ve seen people lost in envy of the Jersey Devils winning the Stanley Cup....I´ve seen people lost at the Statue of Liberty which is actually in New Jersey, come to think of it....I´ve seen people lost in the New York Giants memorabilia, who actually play in New Jersey....should be called the Jersey Giants, baby....I´ll show you some controversy !....I´ve seen people lost to the strains of the theme song ´New York, New York´ ....actually sung by a man from New Jersey....”

But that wasn’t the end of the trip; we had one more full day in the city, and made the most of it. Which brings us to our final vignette:

Saturday, we had a leisurely stroll down to Greenwich Village where we explored used book stores and had brunch, and then walked back up the piers to around the Javits Center when we decided that a cab sounded like a great idea (it was hot both days - 90s and very humid). We went through the Museum of Natural History, and then explored the Upper West Side for a few hours before heading back down Broadway to have drinks and dinner. And then, an early Sunday morning flight back, again in first class (and this time I took the DVD player), with mimosas and a full-blown Sunday brunch. All in all it was a wonderful time, and probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience (though I hope not).

I took quite a few pictures on this trip, and in many of them are the twin towers of the World Trade Center. In retrospect, that was probably the most touristy thing I did during that weekend. But, hey – what better way to prove that you were in New York City than to frame as many pictures as you can around the World Trade Center? But I’m glad I did.

To date, it still counts as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but someday I’ll make it back. And next time, my wife Debra will be with me.

Setlist: Code of Silence/The Ties That Bind/Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street/Two Hearts/Darkness on the Edge of Town/Point Blank/American Skin (41 Shots)/The Promised Land/Youngstown/Murder Inc./Badlands/Out in the Street/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Human Touch/Dead Man Walkin'/Meeting Across the River/Jungleland/Light of Day/Hungry Heart/Born to Run/Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)/Thunder Road/If I Should Fall Behind/Land of Hope and Dreams

Darkness on the Edge of Town at 30

I was planning to post this on Monday, the actual 30th anniversary of the album's release, but since it's finished and not likely to get any better over the weekend, here goes:

“Occasionally, a record appears that changes fundamentally the way we hear rock & roll, the way it's recorded, the way it's played. Such records – Jimi Hendrix' Are You Experienced, Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, Who's Next, The Band – force response, both from the musical community and the audience. To me, these are the records justifiably called classics, and I have no doubt that Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town will someday fit as naturally within that list as the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" or Sly and the Family Stone's "Dance to the Music.”

So began Dave Marsh’s Rolling Stone magazine review of Darkness on the Edge of Town, published in July of 1978. Thirty years later, we are armed with the knowledge that Marsh has been Springsteen’s greatest critical champion, his biographer, and his friend. But does that necessarily render his 1978 opinion invalid? Even then, Marsh had to know the gamble he was taking. In 1978 he was already known as a close friend of Jon Landau, the rock critic turned producer who, over time, would become Springsteen’s manager and advisor, and in all likelihood the single most important person to the development of his career. In fact, Marsh and Landau had been together at the 1974 Springsteen show which became legendary because of what Landau wrote about it: “I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” In effect, Marsh was placing every ounce of his credibility on the chopping block – had the album proven to be a stiff, few people would have taken him seriously again.

Marsh needn’t have worried. In 2008, the relevant question is not “Is Darkness on the Edge of Town a great album?,” but rather “How great an album is Darkness on the Edge of Town?” And the answer is that Marsh was correct – Darkness today stands as a landmark of rock history, as well as the most important album that Bruce Springsteen has made. And here’s where I take a deep breath, gaze over the precipice, and jump – it is his best album.

There’s a Pete Townshend quote about Darkness that I remember, because it is a pretty good summation of what the album is about. If I remember correctly, it went something along the lines of “what Bruce Springsteen is singing about on his new album, that’s not fun – that’s f*cking triumph, man.” But what Townshend said is only partly true, because while triumph is a part of the story, it’s not the only part. When the last notes of the last song are played out, you’re still not certain how things are going to end– the protagonist is defiant, but could very well be trapped at the same time, with a final chapter left to be written at some point in the future.

The tone is set at the very beginning, in the first words of “Badlands”:

Lights out tonight
trouble in the heartland
Got a head-on collision
smashin' in my guts, man
I'm caught in a cross fire
that I don't understand
But there's one thing I know for sure girl
I don't give a damn
For the same old played out scenes
I don't give a damn
For just the in betweens
Honey, I want the heart, I want the soul
I want control right now

“I want the heart, I want the soul, I want control right now.” And there you have it, in a nutshell. From that point on, the album depicts a life’s journey, and the battles – simple or otherwise – which must be fought, sometimes on a daily basis, to keep from “dying little by little, piece by piece,” as he later sings in “Racing in the Street.” As the album progresses, each individual song raises the ante, making clear just how high the stakes are. The music’s intensity is like nothing Springsteen had previously recorded (even Born to Run, great as that album was), and the lyrics match that intensity, verse by verse and word for word:

In the darkness of your room
your mother calls you by your true name
You remember the faces, the places, the names
You know it's never over it's relentless as the rain

“Adam Raised A Cain”

Nothing is forgotten or forgiven,
when it's your last time around,
I got stuff running 'round my head
That I just can't live down

“Something in the Night” (a particular favorite of mine, for what should be obvious reasons)

I've done my best to live the right way
I get up every morning and go to work each day
But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold
Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode
Explode and tear this whole town apart
Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart
Find somebody itching for something to start

“The Promised Land”

I'm wandering, a loser down these tracks
I'm dying, but girl I can't go back
'Cause in the darkness I hear somebody call my name
And when you realize how they tricked you this time
And it's all lies but I'm strung out on the wire
In these streets of fire

“Streets of Fire”

Everybody's got a hunger, a hunger they can't resist,
There's so much that you want, you deserve much more than this,
But if dreams came true, oh, wouldn't that be nice,
But this ain't no dream we're living through tonight,
Girl, you want it, you take it, you pay the price

“Prove It All Night”

And, finally:

Tonight I'll be on that hill 'cause I can't stop
I'll be on that hill with everything I got
Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost
I'll be there on time and I'll pay the cost
For wanting things that can only be found
In the darkness on the edge of town

“Darkness on the Edge of Town”

By this point, it should be clear that the journey is not over. But there is hope, there is faith, and there is the drive to sustain both through the long days and nights yet to come – in the battle against what critic Greil Marcus would later call “a long, uncertain fight against cynicism.”

It would be criminal to praise Springsteen’s songwriting on this album without also giving due praise to the band which gives the songs their life. Simply put, the band is amazing. There are enough great musical moments on Darkness to last most bands a lifetime, whether it be the late Danny Federici’s heartbreaking organ on “Racing in the Street,” Roy Bittan’s beautiful piano introduction to “Something in the Night,” or the general brilliance of the rhythm section throughout. Though the Big Man is featured less on this album than on others, when his time comes on “The Promised Land” and “Prove It All Night,” he is there to deliver. And while the production by Springsteen, Landau and Steve Van Zandt has been criticized by some over the years for being too muddy, I think that’s unfair – the instrumentation throughout is clear as a bell, and the album has a sound that is entirely appropriate to the depth and gravitas of the material.

But in the end, what takes Darkness from being simply outstanding to that rare level of greatness which few albums reach are the four songs that serve as the album’s bookends – on Side 1, “Badlands” and “Racing in the Street;” on Side 2, “The Promised Land” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town.” All four are among the best songs Springsteen has written, and it is no accident that two of them – “Badlands” and “The Promised Land” – remain, thirty years later, the moral and emotional centerpiece of his live concerts.

Dave Marsh wrote that the promise of Bruce Springsteen was “That someday, Bruce Springsteen would make rock & roll that would shake men's souls and make them question the direction of their lives. That would do, in short, all the marvelous things rock had always promised to do.” Since 1978, Springsteen has made good records, he has made excellent records, and he has made great records. But in terms of the impact that Marsh described, Springsteen has never topped Darkness on the Edge of Town. And for that reason, it is his best album.

laff riot

Danny on "Kitty's Back"

I have to admit that "Kitty's Back" was never a favorite of mine. That changed with Bruce's release of the 1975 Hammersmith Odeon concert, first as a DVD in the 30th anniversary Born to Run package and later as a separate CD. That 17-minute epic version, and particularly the long instrumental break (with its Van Morrison homage), is probably one of the band's greatest moments. This clip isn't from that concert, but here we see Danny playing his "Kitty's Back" solo.