<: Springsteen News
News Updated January 18, 2016
JANUARY 16, PITTSBURGH: THE RIVER WHERE THE RIVERS MEET
Thirty-five years after the River Tour, the River Tour begins.
A good deal of rehearsing,
in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania, paid off in one of the strongest tour openers in memory.
At its close, Springsteen thanked the Pittbsburgh crowd multiple times for being an &incredible& audience, helping make for a great opening night, and that was spot-on & not just cheering at the mention of &the Johnstown company& and &through the Pennsylvania night,& but right there every step of the way. There might as well have been terrible towels waving as a roaring crowd greeted Bruce and the E Street Band, dressed in shades of black and taking the stage just before 8:00 to begin the tour with
a marathon
straight out of the gate, lasting well over three hours.
As a concert opener, &Meet Me in the City& is as strong a statement of intent as anything in the Springsteen catalog. On paper the song may share the most with &Out in the Street,&
but kicking off this night it had the zero-to-sixty thrust of &My Love Will Not Let You Down,& with the same call for connection, and it was a soundtrack for the scene: &I shoved my way through the heart of the crowd / Past the sign saying this is not allowed / To where someone's standing straight and shouting out loud...&
There's some magic in the night already, just seeing the E Streeters onstage for their first full show since 2014, and some additional
enchantment
with the band stripped back down to &just& a ten-piece. Much as I loved the contribution of the singers these last few years, and much as many of us pined and lobbied for another horn section for years after the Tunnel of Love Express Tour, seeing just the core band on stage & the band, not the orchestra &&felt like coming home. Sometimes, as they say, less is more, and this was just the right unit to tackle the promise that was right there on the ticket: &Full 'The River' Plus!' Nevermind the fact that fully half of the players on stage weren't there in 1980-'81, this is
who you want taking you down to the river in 2016. And after the promised River outtake, it was right into the full album, in slots 2 through 21.
&The River was the record where I was trying to figure out where I fit in,& Bruce told the crowd. &By the time I got to that record, I'd taken notice of the things that bond people to their lives: work, commitments, families. I wanted to imagine, I wanted to write about those things, and I figured if I could write about them, maybe I'd get one step closer to reaizing them in my own life.... I wanted the record to contain fun, dancing, jokes, good comradeship, love, faith, sex, lonely nights, and of course, tears. And I figured if I could make a record that was big enough to contain all those things, maybe I'd get a little closer to the home I was searching for.&
Given that there won't be setlist shake-ups for this sizable portion of the show, it's
good to be starting with something so unshakable. From the jokes to the lonely nights, the built-to-last record sequence has all the peaks and valleys of a typical Springsteen concert in its bones.&More than any other of his albums, as Springsteen told us in
last month, The River was really created and sequenced to give listeners something like the experience of an E Street Band concert: &That's why we took all the time we did with it,& Bruce told us, &it was our idea of new material that played like a show... with The River, we were taking a swing at trying to get some of that feeling and some of that ambiance onto the album.&
So seeing it come full circle & from the
live show everyone raved about, to studio material meant to simulate it, back to the concert stage & is a deeply satisfying cycle.
Jake Clemons, holding it down for most of the night between Charlie Giordano and Max Weinberg, is a big enough man to not make the old horn section home base look lonely. And when he came down front for the solo on &The Ties That Bind,& a friend leaned over and said, &Well, he's living up to the pedigree.& No doubt about it. This was a big night for Jake, starting his first tour as the only sax player & the only horn & on stage. There's a lot of heavy lifting for him on The River, from &Sherry Darling& (&Party noises, we need party noises!& hollered Bruce) through &Cadillac Ranch& to &Drive All Night,& and Jake was, in short, magnificent.
Jake even broke out harmonica on &Jackson Cage& & unusual to hear live, but it is on the record. That's
indicative of the thought and attention to detail that went into this full River performance. Sure, it was informed by live touches that are familiar from recent years, including the &It Takes Two& coda on &Two Hearts& and Springsteen's crowd surfing on &Hungry Heart& (yep, he did it on opening night & hoisted from the back of the pit to the stage on outstretched hands). But Springsteen and the band also looked back to the original River tour for certain elements that hadn't been revived in decades. Roy Bittan's electrifying piano intro to &Point Blank& was last heard that way in 1981; commencing &I Wanna Marry You& with an extended &Here She Comes Walkin'& prologue was straight out of 1980 & and one of the most compelling moments of the night.
Well sometimes at night
When I lie in bed
I still see that face
Runnin' 'round my head...
Here she comes
Walkin' down the street
She looks so fine
She's looking so sweet...
Though they hit us with one song after another for the first few tracks without pausing for breath, Springsteen also broke up the album performance as it went on with some stories and reflections. It's effective, engaging, and further skirted any danger of this feeling like a recital. Speaking before &Independence Day,& Bruce called it &The kind of song you write when you're young, and you're startled by your parents' humanity. You're shocked to realize that they have their own dreams, and their own desires. Because all you can see is the adult compromise that they had to make. And when you're young, you haven't had to do that yet. The idea of it frightens you. It frightened me. And all I could see was the world that they seemed locked into, and all I could feel was the desire to escape that world.& Springsteen began the song
alone at center stage, with the rest of the band ba subtle shifts in lighting as &Independence Day& added nicely to the drama.
The River sequence had it all &&good opportunities to play to the back (the CONSOL Energy Center was packed to the rafters, with plenty of fans behind the stage) on songs like &Sherry Darling& and &Out in the Street,& and moments for each band member to shine: Charlie on &Fade Away,& Max pounding mightily on &I'm a Rocker,& solos on &Cadillac Ranch& by not only both Nils and Steve, but also Soozie on fiddle. Great to see Ms. Patti Scialfa back on stage, she and Bruce shimmying toward each other and sharing harmonies at center mic. And of course, if you watch Garry & you do watch Garry, right? &&back there next to Roy in his cool shades, there's a highlight every few bars. But probably most fun of all was seeing Steve Van Zandt so damn engaged. This is his wheelhouse, and it showed. From
mugging on songs like &Crush on You& and &Ramrod,& to his guitar playing & check out the mournful lines on his Gretsch Chet Atkins during &Point Blank& & to his crucial backing vocals throughout, the River co-producer is putting it on the line.
It's worth talking about those backing vocals, too. It's been a few years since the E Streeters have had to fully carry that weight, and
based on their strength on certain numbers, it's clear that attention was paid. Ethereal backing harmonies on a monumental &Stolen Car,&
the full choral effect on &The Price You Pay&... it was a powerful blend of the voices we know and love: Soozie, Nils, Stevie and Patti all at their mics, and Jake back there, too. Of course Cindy and Curtis could have killed it &&of course. But there's something about this material that makes it even more powerful with just the band, the band, the band.
As for Bruce's voice, he was in great form all night, but most astounding in soul-singer mode. &I Wanna Marry You,& &Fade Away,& and &Drive All Night& were all killer examples of the form. Springsteen prefaced &I Wanna Marry You& by calling it a &daydream&: standing on a corner, watching &someone you'll never meet walk by, and you imagine an entire life with this person. Where you're gonna live, what kind of kids you're gonna have. Of course, it's the easiest kind of life: the one without the consequences. It's a young man's song! It's imagining love, in all of its glory! And its tentativeness. It's not the real thing. But you've gotta start someplace. So this is where I started.& Bruce introduced &Fade Away& as &Steve's favorite song&; &Drive All Night& is where I literally got goosebumps, coming in waves as Bruce's vocal intertwined with Jake's saxophone at the end.
I could go on & about the fun of getting seldom-played rave-ups like &You Can Look& and, yes, &Crush on You&; the depth and power of &Stolen Car& and &Point Blank& & but hey, we'll have lots of chances to get into more River nitty-gritty, with all the full album shows to come. Suffice it to say that the dynamic, rarity-packed album sequence formed the heart
of the show in more ways than one.
But Bruce wasn't close to through after &Wreck on the Highway.& Given that 24 or 25 songs is probably average for a night with the post-reunion E Street Band, many fans were anticipating this tour as the 20-song River album plus a few more. The reality on the ground: 34 songs. It was a monster of a show in that way, backloaded with so many biggies, starting with &Badlands& (which drove the place nuts) and also including &Born to Run,& &The Rising,& &Thunder Road,& &Dancing in the Dark,& and &Rosalita.&
Some of the selections tied in nicely with The River: for instance, before &Wreck on the Highway,& Springsteen told the crowd that the album was also about time: the limited time we have, for work, for love, for life. Which made &Wrecking Ball,& two songs later, feel like more than just Springsteen making sure he worked in a modern-era song. The crowd went nuts for that one, too. Separated by just a few songs, &Badlands& was a good reminder that Bruce had already written about &the price you (gotta) pay.&
But it does seem apparent that this is where Springsteen's challenge will be, crafting a B-set after The River that feels like more than just The Hits. There must be a sense that, after more casual fans in the audience have experienced an album sequence that doesn't consist of popular favorites (a la Born in the U.S.A. or Born to Run), it doesn't make sense to dig deep for further obscurities. And how can you play a show without some of those warhorses? All true. But then there are the fans who are hoping for more of those River outtakes... so finding a balance should remain a challenge as the tour goes along, and an interesting one to watch Springsteen wrestle with.&
(To anyone too frustrated by the concentration of chestnuts at the end, it's at least gotta be pointed out: &Waitin' on a Sunny Day& took a breather.)
But on opening night & or for anyone's first show as the tour goes along & the chance to see Bruce and the E Street Band blasting those big guns after a couple years off is bread from heavenly skies. And after such concentration on 1980, the back half of the show brought us a five-decade span of material, including a grand &Backstreets& and a welcome dip into Tunnel of Love, with Bruce and Patti sharing a mic on &Brilliant Disguise.&
One big question of the night &&how or whether Springsteen and the band would pay tribute to the dearly departed David Bowie & was answered as the encore began. &I don't know if people know it,& Bruce said, &but he supported our music way, way, way back in the very beginning, 1973. He rang me up and I visited him down in Philly when he was making the Young Americans record. He covered some of my music &&'Hard to Be a Saint in the City,' 'Growin' Up' & and he was a big supporter of ours. I took the Greyhound bus down to Philadelphia, that's how early that was! Anyway... we're thinking of him.& And with that it was into &Rebel Rebel,& a fantastic blast of rock 'n' roll that felt perfect for the E Street Band. But then again, what doesn't?
With the crowd shouting along (&Hot tramp, I love you so&!), &Rebel Rebel& w but really, taking top honors tonight was the tour's namesake, the River album, full of heart and soul. Good thing it's gonna bear repeating. While perhaps lacking the &OMG& element of its one previous performance, at , this River had more subtlety, texture, and rehearsal. Which means they can do it again & 23 more times, at least & after all.
For the full setlist from this and other recent shows,
- January 18, 2016 - Christopher Phillips reporting - photographs by Guy Aceto
TAKE YOUR TIME, HURRY UP, THE CHOICE IS YOURS, DON'T BE LATE
Slight adjustment for tomorrow night's tour opener in Pittsburgh: doors will open at 6pm (earlier than previously stated), 90 minutes prior to the ticketed showtime of 7:30. Visit
for info on the General Admission lottery, which has lottery wristband distribution between 2 and 5pm.
- January 15, 2016 - photograph via
LET'S DANCE
With the devastating loss of David Bowie coming in the midst of the E Street Band's rehearsals for The River Tour, and
in tribute, it wouldn't be crazy to anticipate some kind of musical
offering in honor of the man's passing at the tour opener this Saturday in Pittsburgh.&Of course, no such thing appears on the
that @springsteen tweeted yesterday, but then, going offroad is sort of the man's stock-in-trade, full River performances or not.
The obvious choices might be the Springsteen songs that Bowie himself covered, &Growin' Up& or &&It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City.& For those who don't know the story, Bowie discovered Springsteen in '73, when he went to Max's Kansas City to see Biff Rose, who Bruce was opening for at the time. David didn't care for the acoustic set, but he was floored by the electric perfor he promptly went out and bought Greetings and listened to it obsessively.
But if Bruce wanted to dive into the Bowie catalog for a cover, here are some suggestions, in order of possibility/reality.
1. &Rebel Rebel&
Yes, it's the Captain Obvious of Bowie covers, but there's a good reason for that: it's an amazing rock 'n' roll song, with gritty, crunchy guitar chords (played by Bowie himself in the studio) and a gloriously Motown-like bass line just waiting for Garry Tallent. Thematically, it's about youth and rebellion, and rock 'n' roll style and flash, so that fits just fine. And it is really a perfect cover because of the crowd participation factor: can't you just imagine Bruce turning the mic to the crowd for
&Hot tramp, I love you so&?&
2. &Suffragette City&
If Bruce is
looking for something more straight ahead, may we suggest the pedal-to-the-metal flavor that is &Suffragette City&? More glorious dirty guitar riffs, audience response opportunities in the verses & &Hey, man!& & and honky-tonk piano on the choruses, along with awesome sax work in the background. The live version even accommodates a guitar solo, should he choose to pursue that rendition. And the coup de grace: while not exactly G rated, the opportunity to watch Bruce shout
&Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!&
would be a once-in-a-lifetime event. There's no great thematic unity here, just a great rock 'n' roll song.&
3. &Modern Love&
More in the pop vein, this hit from 1983's Let's Dance is more of a dance number with a gentler pace. But it's a great song, opening with classic chicken scratch guitar and strong rhythm, good horn lines, rock 'n' roll piano, and of course, that glorious sax solo, courtesy of none other than Asbury Jukes alumnus Stan Harrison.& Bowie loved to have the crowd waving &bye bye& at him when he sang the line, and Bruce would love it, too.&
4. &Young Americans&
Bowie loved soul and R&B, and he spent more than a few years trying to turn himself into a soul singer. The apex of this attempt was the 1975 Young Americans album, recorded in Philly's Sigma Sound studios. You can hear it in the vocal delivery, which Bruce would undoubtedly love to wrap his voice around. The underlying musical arrangement is sparse, dominated by tasteful jazz-like drumming, solid bass, and of course, amazing sax work from David Sanborn. And lyrically, it's a story Bruce tells in different ways on many of his songs, young love and facing adulthood and broken dreams.
5. &Heroes&
Yes, it's been covered to death, and covered badly.& But it is possible to execute a good rock 'n' roll version of &Heroes,& and Bruce's voice would be absolutely amazing, singing those lyrics. &Heroes& has had so many lives, as a tale of despair, remembrance, and even triumph, themes that all ring just as true in this camp.& Even a solo acoustic version would be gorgeous.&
6. &Look Back in Anger&
You may be thinking, &What is this song from the last album in the Berlin trilogy doing on this list? There could be few things less Springsteen than that.& Yes, a bit of a wild card here, but &Look Back In Anger& is the most straightforward rock 'n' roll composition on Lodger, and devoid of its electronic niceties (as Bowie performed it on the &Serious Moonlight& tour) it's a powerful, driving rocker, the story of an angel coming to earth, delivered in a commanding voice, with a guitar solo that stands out by being a rhythm guitar solo. Bowie's range is slightly lower than Bruce's, but he could still pull this one off.
Honorable Mention: &&Teenage Wildlife&
Structurally, this track already feels Springsteenian. It opens with a echoing, aching guitar line, underscored by a more melodic one, the vocal delivery is muscular, and the keyboards add color and brightness amidst the bleakness. Of course, the latter is courtesy none other than Mr. Roy Bittan, who walked across the hall at the Power Station to add his contribution to Scary Monsters while he was there working on The River. Lyrically, it's a tale of fame and youth and ambition, Bowie's tales of the &New Wave boys& can map to flashing guitars like switchblades, the same desire at their cores. But at almost seven minutes long, this one seems unlikely, more's the pity.
- January 14, 2016 - Caryn Rose reporting
&BORN IN THE U.S.A.& STILL A STUMPER
&Born in the U.S.A.& has been used and misused on the campaign trail practically since it was released in 1984; call it . Ronald Reagan famously hoped to attach it to his '84 reelection campaign, and Bruce Springsteen has had to object to its co-opting by Bob Dole and Pat Buchanan as well. In 1996, Bruce penned a quick letter to the Asbury Park Press: &'I read in The Press this morning that my music was appropriated for the Republican rally for Bob Dole in Red Bank yesterday. Just for the record, I'd like to make clear that it was used without my permission and I am not a supporter of the Republican ticket.'' The song has been blared at political events on both the left and right, including Obama's acceptance of the Democratic nomination in 2008; as Parker Molloy wrote in 2014 for , &years passed and politicians of all stripes continued to make use of 'Born in the U.S.A.' during campaign events, rallies, and victory speeches.&
Donald Trump, who already received a cease-and-desist from
for playing &Rockin' in the Free World,& has this week taken to playing &Born in the U.S.A.& at campaign stops, as the
reports. The twist this time: beyond whatever rah-rah anthem anyone might hear, it's apparently a birther jab at Ted Cruz,
senator from Texas over questions of his citizenship.
Springsteen wrote in Songs, &For years after the release of the [Born in the U.S.A.] album, at Halloween, I had little kids in red bandanas knocking at my door with their trick-or-treat bags singing, 'I was born in the U.S.A.' They were not particularly well-versed in the 'Had a brother at Keh Sahn...' lyric. But they all had plenty of lung power when the chorus rolled around. I guss the same fate awaited Woody Guthrie's 'This Land is Your Land' around the campfire. But that didn't make me feel any better.&
Happy Halloween, everybody!
- January 14, 2016
GENERALLY SPEAKING: ON 2016 G.A. LOTTERY PROCEDURE
For all those wondering about General Admission entry works for the upcoming River Tour, the
has posted the GA lottery procedure for Saturday night's Pittsburgh opener.
It should be said up front, participating in the lottery (which involves picking up a numbered wristband between 2pm and 5pm on the day of the show, and being in line by 5pm) is not a requirement for GA ticketholders. As the procedures state:
The &lottery& allows holders of general admission tickets a random chance to enter the forward barricade area on the floor, closest to the stage. This is entirely optional and can be disregarded by GA ticket holders who do not wish to enter the lottery for a chance to be placed in the forward barricade.
But those who want a chance at &the pit,& or a better position on the main floor, should familiarize themselves with how the lottery works . While these procedures are specific to the Pittsburgh show, and we recommend checking venue websites for other cities as the tour goes along, we expect the basics to remain the same. Venue links for each show can be found on our
- January 13, 2016
DAVID BOWIE,
In the midst of
of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer , it's worth remembering his significant and longstanding E Street connections. Bowie was the first artist ever to cover a Springsteen composition, recording a version of &Growin' Up& (with
Ronnie Wood on lead guitar) in 1973 during the sessions for his album Diamond Dogs. It remained unreleased, however, until the 1990 reissue of his all-covers album Pin Ups.
Bowie recorded &Growin' Up& nine months after seeing his first Springsteen concert at New York's legendary club Max's Kansas City on February 5, 1973. In some of his mid-1980s interviews, Bowie recalled seeing Springsteen and the E Street Band
as he said on WNEW in 1986: &I thought it was another Dylan copyist, when he came on and started his
acoustic set. Then the band came on, and I think it was probably the
best rock band I've ever seen in my life, for about a half an hour.... I went out and bought his album, Asbury Park, and I thought, this is a great songwriter.&
to 's animated &minimation& derived from that WNEW interview.
In late November 1974, one year after recording &Growin' Up,& Bowie was busy at Philadelphia's famous Sigma Sound Studios working on various tracks for what would become his Young Americans album, including a version of Springsteen's &It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City& featuring Roy Bittan on piano. (Bittan later would work with Bowie on sev see
As the recording session approached midnight, legendary Philly radio personality Ed Sciaky, his wife Judy and their friend Bruce Springsteen arrived at Sigma Sound as invited guests of producer Tony Visconti. Despite Bowie already having seen Springsteen in concert, this was the first time the musicians had a face-to-face meeting.
- Bowie, Sciaky, and Springsteen, Sigma Sound Studio, Philadelphia, 1974. Photograph by
has extensive archived materials documenting this in-studio meeting, including more photos and a reprint of an article that appeared in the now-defunct Philly independent newspaper The Drummer. While The Boss and The Thin White Duke hung out and chatted between takes for quite some time, Springsteen never got to hear Bowie's version of &Saint,& as Bowie felt it still needed more work. The track remained unreleased until 1989, when it first was released on Bowie's Sound + Vision box set.
On a 1979 , Bowie stated that after hearing Springsteen's original recording of &Saint& on Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, he &never rode the subway again... That really scared the living ones out of me, that.&
Roy Bittan on David Bowie
&What a loss. A true original. It was my honor to record with him over the
years, especially his Thin White Duke period. In the studio, he would
point in a direction and then let you be interpretive. He was always
looking for a surprise and an addition he hadn't thought of. A real
gentleman and one our most brilliant. I will miss him greatly.&
& as told to Chris Phillips. In addition to playing on
Bowie's version of &It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City,& Roy Bittan appears on 1976's Station to Station and
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).
Bowie's version also appeared on the 1997 benefit tribute
CD One Step Up/Two Steps Back: The Songs of Bruce Springsteen, where Bowie recalled his 1974 meeting with Springsteen in his witty liner notes: &Springsteen came down to hear what we were doing with his stuff. He was very shy. I remember sitting in the corridor with him, talking about his lifestyle, which was very Dylanesque & you know, moving from town to town with a guitar on his back, all that kind of thing. Anyway, he didn't like what we were doing, I remember that. At least, he didn't express much enthusiasm. I guess he must have thought it was all kind of odd. I was in another universe at the time. I've got this extraordinarily strange photograph of us all & I look like I'm made out of wax.&
And speaking of Bowie's famously sly wit, four decades after seeing his first Springsteen show and recording his first Springsteen cover, his The Next Day Extra EP featured the song
and a rather familiar-sounding chorus. For old times' sake, Major Tom floated by E Street one more time.
Always changing and ahead of the curve, he was an artist whose excellence you aspired to. He will be sorely missed. - Bruce& Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen)
- January 11, 2016 - Shawn Poole reporting
BIG SMILES AND JOY
Thanks to photographer , who today sent us this shot from Clarence's wedding day to celebrate the Big Man's birthday
with &big smiles and joy,& as Jo says. One of his favorite shots, as Clarence lounged on the hotel room bed while getting dressed and ready for his marriage to Victoria, this image was also used on the cover of the memorial service program in 2011. See our interview with Lopez, Clarence's longtime friend and sax tech, in our .
- January 11, 2016 - photograph by Jo Lopez
HAPPY CLARENCE CLEMONS DAY
The Big Man was born 74 years ago today, which makes it Clarence Clemons Day &
in New Jersey, as
in 2013, and everywhere else too, as far as we're concerned. This image was captured by photographer Guy Aceto on the Magic tour stop in Pittsburgh, where Bruce and the E Street Band will return this weekend to open the 2016 River Tour & with, of course, Clarence's nephew Jake Clemons keeping the spirit alive. Happy birthday, Big Man.
- January 11, 2016 - photograph by Guy Aceto [November 14, 2007]
PICTURES OF ALL YOUR LEADING MEN & MORE AT MORRISON HOTEL
Just in time for the Madison Square Garden shows, Morrison Hotel Gallery is staging a Springsteen photography exhibit & The River Collection & featuring
the work of key photographers who were there back in the day: Joel
Bernstein, David Gahr, Lynn Goldsmith, Jim Marchese, Neal Preston and
Frank Stefanko.&
The exhibit features images from the six photographers, featuring some of their work that was shot in the time period around The River,
as well as other images of Bruce shot by the artists from . So
you get to see the raw Frank Stefanko image shot for the cover of The River in a gallery setting, as well as that amazing Neal Preston shot from Wembley Stadium during Born in the U.S.A., along with other images you'll recognize from the Ties That Bind box set and documentary.
The River Collection also features some never-seen-before
images from David Gahr (whose work you will remember from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle and the legendary 1975
Bottom Line shows, among others) and Jim Marchese (the photographer
behind the wonderful European shots of Bruce and the band in the box
set's book).&
The exhibit runs from January 22 to February 10 at Morrison Hotel Gallery, located at 116 Prince Street in Soho. Some
images will be available for sale. The gallery is open from 11am-7pm Monday to Saturday, and 12-6pm on Sunday. More information is available at . (Note: the catalog of images on the website is not final and is still a work in progress.)&
- January 7, 2016 - Caryn Rose reporting - photograph by Joel Bernstein
GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK:
JUST AROUND THE CORNER...
On Saturday, January 9, BIG RoaD Productions will present the
at Bar Anticipation in Lake Como, New Jersey.
This year&s event, supported by house band the BIG RoaD Allstars, features a little something for everyone, including a J. Geils Band tribute, an Elvis Presley tribute, and a headlining set by the Del Lords. Other local and national luminaries set to appear include Ricky Byrd (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts), J.T. Bowen, JoBonanno, Nick Clemons and Matt O&Ree.
The day-long event will benefit , a non-profit organization that provides free services to families suffering from addiction. Advance ticke visit the
for further information.
The following week brings the return of the
Winterfest. The weeklong celebration, which now includes events in both New York and Philadelphia as well as Asbury Park, will feature longtime participants like Joe Grushecky, Garland Jeffreys, Boccigalupe & the Bad Boys, Jesse Malin, Willie Nile and Joe D&Urso, with The Smithereens headlining the Saturday night
show at the Paramount Theatre. Also on tap are sets by Jersey Shore favorites like Sunday Blues, the Danny White Band and Dawg Whistle, as well as Steve Forbert, Dramarama and a co-headlining show by Peter Asher and Albert Lee, with Malin set to headline the Friday night
show at the Stone Pony.
The Asbury Park area events begin on Sunday, January 10 with a
event highlighted by a Cats on a Smooth Surface reunion. Tickets are available via . Visit the
for complete venue and lineup information.
- January 6, 2016 - Lisa Iannucci reporting
OUR SPIRITS RISE
We say goodbye to Stevie Wright, Natalie Cole, and Haskell Wexler
They say celebrity deaths often come in threes, and sadly that was the case over the holidays as it relates to the music of Bruce Springsteen. Just after Christmas, we lost Stevie Wright, lead singer and songwriter for the 1960s Australian band, The Easybeats. Their pop anthem &Friday on my Mind& is a favorite song of both Bruce and Steven Van Zandt and served as an inspiration for &Out in the Street.& The E Street Band broke out the Easybeats song
twice on their last visit to Australia inculding the Sydney performance below, of which Bruce wrote, &Steve's lifelong dream comes true!... as the band pulls off 'Friday On My Mind' (working on it since high school).& Known early on as &Little Stevie,& Wright was 68.
On New Year's Eve, one of the great voices of soul and R & B, Natalie Cole, passed on at 65. Back in the 1980s, Natalie helped further popularize the &Dancing in the Dark& B-side, &Pink Cadillac,& by recording her own dance version of the track. It shot up the charts in 1988, giving&her own and Bruce's career a further boost.
Natalie Cole on &Pink Cadillac&
&Both ' and
were the brainstorms of producer Dennis Lambert& When I went to his house to work on 'Cadillac,' I was nervous. This was a dance song & and you remember how I felt about that disco dance stuff & but then I&d never worked with anyone quite like Dennis before. He was very passionate about his work, which turned out to be great for me, because his enthusiasm gave me the confidence that I could pull this off. Two very hot mixers named David Cole and Robert Clivilles (known collectively as C&C Music Factory) put a mix on 'Pink Cadillac' that was over the top, and it ended up as a huge hit in every dance club around the world. I had a dance hit. Me! It was hysterical.
&I thought to myself, 'I'm too old to be doing this kind of stuff.' I couldn&t imagine myself onstage rockin' to the music like Tina Turner. But 'Pink Cadillac' turned out to be a big song, and it took us all over the place. With 'Pink Cadillac,' I started playing club dates where the gay crowd hung from the rafters & it was my Grace Jones kind of a vibe. The song became very big in Europe. It was wild, and it was a lot of fun. I was really very surprised. I never got a chance to talk to Bruce Springsteen, but word got back that he was blown away by it. He thought it was very cool that a woman could do this and it would come out so great.&
- from Angel On My Shoulder: An Autobiography by Natalie Cole with Digby Diehl
The third death may be lesser known to some, but Haskell Wexler, a legend in the world of cinematography, passed on just before the new year. Wexler had a 50-year career as a cinematographer and director and worked on some of the greatest films of the 1960s and 1970s, including In the Heat of the Night, One Flew&Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Days of Heaven. He won two Oscars and was nominated three other times. Throughout his career, Wexler worked hard for social justice and his art resonated with&efforts by workers and others to&improve their lives. In fact, one of Wexler's Oscars was for the 1976 biopic of&the champion of the underdog, Woody Guthrie, another one of Bruce's heroes.
In 1979, Wexler was the photographer who&filmed Bruce performing at the legendary, all-star No Nukes concert by Musicians United for Safe Energy in New York City. Springsteen's performances of
demonstrate Haskell's amazing skills.
Both videos & until recently the only filmed performances officially released of Bruce's classic
period&& show the two&dominant sides of the Springsteen myth and persona.&Wexler perfectly highlights the joyful exuberance of &Thunder Road,& especially where Bruce is grinning&on the side of the stage, guitar in hand and ready to meet The Big Man for the song's triumphant finale.
&The River,& which debuted at these shows, is also one of Bruce's greatest videos, thanks in no small part to Haskell's work. You can feel the burning intensity in his voice as Wexler closes in on the singer, then snaps back to a shot of&a woman in the audience clearly mesmerized by the song.
The cinematographer also worked with frequent Bruce collaborator John Sayles on several films, including the superb
Matewan.&Haskell Wexler was 93.&
- January 5, 2016 - Prakash Gandhi reporting, additional reporting by Shawn Poole
LAST DAY OF OUR YEAR-END SALE!
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Simply use the coupon code SOLONG15 for a 15% discount on your entire order, applied at checkout. .
- January 4, 2016
THE TIME THAT WAS... 2015&
With 2015 now a wrap, just about everyone and everything has a Top Ten list. We already know that 2016 will be a very busy year for B but despite no actual tour, 2015 also had its fair share of interesting moments.&Looking back through our
from the past year, we've compiled the top stories for 2015, with relevant dates so you can peruse the
pages for further details.&So here you go, in no particular order.... Max, drum roll please:
1. Down to The River
The long awaited, multi-disc&River&box set,&The Ties That Bind: The River Collection,&is announced on October 16, the eve of the 35th anniversary of the release of the double album.&
Before the release, Thom&Zimny premieres&The Ties That Bind&documentary at the DOC NYC film festival&on November 14. On November 17, Thom brings the documentary and a one-hour cut of Tempe 1980 to New Jersey, screening both films in front of a packed house at Monmouth University's Pollack Theatre (presented by&The Friends of the Bruce Springsteen Special Collection, along with Backstreets and Monmouth University). On November 27, a larger population of&fans get a preview of the box set as HBO broadcasts the television premier on December 2, E Street Radio premieres The&River Outtakes&in a special evening edition of&Live From E Street Nation. &The box set is officially released on December 4.
2. Into the River Tour We Dive
On December 4, Bruce and the E Street Band announce 24 live dates to celebrate The Ties That Bind. The tour focuses on 21 US cities with one stop in Canada. The announcement also notes: &Each night of the tour will be mixed for release on&&as high-quality downloads and CDs. Recordings will be available within days of each performance.&
On December 7, Bruce announces that the entire River album will be played in sequence at each of the announced 2016 shows. (The full&River&album has been performed only once in concert to date, on November 8, 2009 at Madison Square Garden.)&Tickets for the 2016 concerts go on sale on December 11, many of them selling out in a matter of minutes. Frustrated fans, the media and government officials question the ticket selling process.&
3. Seaside Bar Song
Bruce joins Joe&Grushecky&and the&Houserockers, along with special guest Ed Manion, for a surprise two-hour-plus show at The Wonder Bar on July 18. The 15-song set is performed in front a packed house, as word leaks quickly after the soundcheck. A large crowd of fans who were not able to get into the club listen to the show on the streets of&Asbury&Park outside the iconic Jersey Shore bar. This was only the third time Springsteen has played the Asbury Park landmark.&
4. Just Around the Corner
Springsteen makes his 11th unannounced appearance at the annual Light of Day benefit, at the 2015 finale at Asbury Park's Paramount Theater on January 17. Bruce performs with Willie Nile, La&Bamba and&Southside&Johnny, before hitting the stage for a solo &Janey Don't You Lose Heart,& followed by a 14-song set with Joe&Grushecky&and the&Houserockers.&The show ends with Bruce leading a sing along with all the&LOD&artists, and the packed house, on&&Thunder Road&&and&&The Promised Land.&&
5. Where the Bands Are
During the summer, Springsteen makes a number of surprise guest appearances, mostly along the Jersey Shore:&
On July 1, Bruce joins Brian Wilson at the&PNC&Arts Center in&Holmdel, NJ for the encore and sings backing vocals on two songs,&&Barbara Ann&&and &Surfin' USA,&&strapping on a guitar as well for the latter.&
On July 31, &Bruce joins U2 on stage at Madison Square Garden for two songs,&&I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For& and&&Stand By Me.&&
The very next night, August 1, Bruce makes another appearance at The Wonder Bar and sits in with Timepiece&for a series of classic covers.
On the eve of his 66th birthday, September 22, Bruce surprises the crowd&at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, NJ, &by joining old friend Jackson Browne for&the last two songs of the night, &Take It Easy&&and &Our Lady of the Well.&
6. 57 Channels
Bruce appears on several late night tellyvision shows during the year:&
On August 6, Bruce and the E Street Band appear on The&Daily Show&for a final farewell to his buddy and New Jersey compatriot Jon Stewart, with a rousing rendition of &Land of Hope and Dreams.&That segues into&&Born to Run,&with the entire Daily Show crew joining the band on stage.&
On December 17, Bruce makes a guest appearance (no musical performance) on&The Tonight Show&with Jimmy Fallon to promote the Ties That Bind box set and discuss the upcoming tour.&
On December 19, we get a glimpse of the upcoming tour as Bruce and the E Street Band perform &Meet Me in the City& and &The Ties That Bind& on&Saturday Night Live.&&As the credits roll, the band plays&&Santa Claus is Comin' to Town&&as the entire&SNL&cast comes to the stage along with a surprise guest, Paul McCartney.&
7. A Good Man is Not Hard to Find
Springsteen appears at a number of charitable events throughout 2015:&
On February 6, Bruce performs at the&MusiCares&tribute to Bob Dylan. Joined by recent E Street Band member Tom Morello, he performs&&Knockin' on Heaven's Door.&&
On May 18, Bruce has a&mini-reunion with members of the Sessions Band&at the Kristen Ann Carr Fund's &A Night to Remember,& and they revisit four tracks:&&Pay Me My Money Down,&&&O Mary Don't You Weep,&&&Jesse James,& and&&My Oklahoma Home.&&
On May 28, Bruce presents&Pete Townshend with the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award at the&MusiCares&MAP Fund benefit &and performs&&My Generation&&with The Who, and &Won't Get Fooled Again&with The Who, Billy Idol, and Willie Nile. &
On November 10, Bruce performs for the ninth consecutive year at the Stand Up For Heroes benefit, playing a four-song acoustic set,&adding a few requisite dirty jokes, and raising nearly $1 million for the&Bob Woodruff Foundation&during the night's auction. &
On November 18, Bruce performs&&American Skin (41 Shots)& with&John Legend (supported by Roy Bittan, Tom Morello, and Max Weinberg)at Shining A Light, A Concert For Progress on Race in America.&
On January 8, Bruce is honored at, but&does not attend,&the First Annual Lincoln Awards: A Concert for Veterans and the Military Family. Springsteen is the first to be honored in the Entertainer category, recognizing outstanding achievement and excellence in supporting and giving back to veterans as a performer.&
8.& Thanks For Comin' Down to the Show
Over the course of the year, Springsteen's Live Archive series&releases&downloadable&versions of these classic shows:&
The Tower Theater, 12/31/75&
Nassau Coliseum, 12/31/80
Brendan&Byrne&Arena, 8/5/84
LA Sports Arena, 4/23/88
Value City Theater, Columbus, 7/31/2005
Ippodromo delle Capannelle,&Rome 7/11/2013
and a special Christmas eve gift, the 10 songs from the Tempe 1980 show that did not make it into the River box set's concert film.&
9.& We Get to That Place We Really Wanted to Go
Born to Run&turns 40 on August 25 and the anniversary is widely celebrated in the media.&
E St Radio celebrates the 40th anniversary with a week of special programming highlighted by a 3 hour special dedicated to the album. This special BTR40 program offers specially selected live versions of every track from&Born to Run, as well as some of the album's outtakes, interspersed with reflections and reminiscences from a variety of contributors.
Backstreets&celebrates the anniversary with numerous posts throughout the summer and into the fall, including new interviews with Born to Run&co-producer Mike&Appel.
Backstreets also spearheads the creation of an official
to benefit , also celebrating 40 years in 2015.&The 24& x 40& poster, overseen by photographer Eric&Meola&and current Columbia art director Dave&Bett, reproduces the classic album cover in crisp detail, upsized&150% and is still available from Backstreet Records.
10.& We Have a Call from &Bruce from New Jersey&
On December 9, Bruce calls into&Live From E Street Nation&and speaks with Dave Marsh and Thom&Zimn, revealing a solo project in the works that's being bumped by the River box set and 2016 tour.
On December 10, Bruce continues his holiday phone calls and speaks with Backstreets editor Chris Phillips.
is Phillips and Backstreets' third-ever interview withSpringsteen.
During the conversation, Springsteen touches again on the solo project, gives some hope to fans in cities other than the 22 on the schedule, reflects on his historical reluctance to document his concerts, and discusses what he loves about playing albums in their entirety. In the case of the upcoming River performances:
&I think it's going to be a relief to a certain extent! I mean, usually up there, I'm a third or two-thirds through the song, and my mind is already going, okay, what am I gonna play next? I enjoy doing that & and my band does that better than anybody out there & but it'll be fun playing music like it's a little opera or a little play. It'll be enjoyable to do that. I'm looking forward to it.&
Honorable mention:
Southside&Johnny's&Prove It All Night: The Music of Bruce Springsteen&at the Stone Pony on February 28
Rich Russo's final tour of The Upstage Club on March 27
Darlene Love's record release event at the Paramount Theater on September 12... Bruce contributed two songs to the Stevie Van Zandt-produced album,&Introducing Darlene Love.&
The opening of the photography exhibit&Bruce Springsteen: A Photographic Journey&at Monmouth University&on&September 27
Barbara Pyle's book of photography, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band 1975, published by Reel Art Press on November 23
- January 2, 2016 - Kevin Farrell reporting
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#91 IS HERE!
Our massive new issue honors a very Big Man. More than half of the 116-page, perfect bound Backstreets #91 is a tribute to the life and music of... do we have to say his name?
Scott Mervis previews the River Tour opener []
Updated 1/16/15
We also post all known concert dates for some of our favorite Jersey Shore (and Shore-adopted) musicians:
Willie Nile
Bobby Bandiera
Southside Johnny
John Eddie
Joe D'Urso... and more.
For more information on upcoming shows such as these, check out our .
SAVE TILLIE
Many from the Springsteen community banded together to preserve this Asbury Park landmark.... and Tillie has now been saved!
page for the latest developments.
THE SPRINGSTEEN SPECIAL COLLECTION
Organized by Backstreets in 2001, this storehouse of Boss books and magazines is the largest such collection outside of Bruce's mother's basement. Thanks to the generosity of fans around the world, total holdings are now well over 15,000. But the collection is by no means complete.
Check out the
page for more info.
FIGHT THE MONOPOLY
With the Ticketmaster / Live Nation merger approved, we encourage fans to get involved to help protect ticket-buyers.
page for the latest developments
& The Backstreets Publishing Empire