Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce

It’s Bruce Springsteen’s sixtieth birthday today.

Yeah, you read that right.

Wish I had a ticket to the Stone Pony tonight. Not to mention airfare to Newark…

And while Glory Days will indeed pass you by in the wink of a young girl’s eye, it’s good to remember what got a guy where he is.

Someone did the world the estimable service of posting videos shot at two concerts at the old Capitol Theater in Passaic, New Jersey – sorta Springsteen’s home turf in those years after he outgrew the clubs on the Shore, but before he could fill the Meadowlands. It was from two nights just a shade over 31 years ago, on the epic Darkness on the Edge of Town tour. Bruce and the band – a very young Max Weinberg, a very thin Miami Steve, a very skeezy-looking Gary Tallent, a very tough-looking Danny Federici, a very Scorsese-esque Roy Bittan, and a very fly Clarence “Big Man” Clemons – were in probably the best form ever, on home turf, playing as the rocket to “legend” was just blasting off from the station.

The concert shows sides of the band we’ve rarely seen since super-super-stardom hit in the eighties; Federici stepping out front with the accordion on “Sandy”; the whole band coming down front to sing along on “Not Fade Away”; Miami Steve taking as many solos as Bruce (“Jungleland”, “The Promised Land”); the Big Man and Roy singing lots and lots of background vocals back in the days before Patti Scialfa and Nils Lofgren took them over, Clelmons’ jungle sounds in “She’s The One”…

Check them out. I’ve thought about trying to put the links in concert order – but that’s a project that’s gonna have to wait.

Anyway – happy sixtieth, Bruce!

15 thoughts on “Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce”

That would have been the show to see. I didn’t get to see Bruce until 1984 and by then everything got so gigantic that the concert experience tended to distort what made Bruce so great.

I have a friend who was in Chicago last Sunday night and he could not buy a scalped ticket for the show that night. No one was selling them that he could find.

Backstreets with and old angry version of Drive All Night woven in. My favorite.

I was at the Stone Pony just about 20 years ago, long after the Boss put it on the map, and even longer after it helped put him on the map. It was a tourist stop on my part, hoping to hear some aspiring rock acts. Turned out to be a night of head banging that was beyond my tastes. I imagine today that it would include a lot of pale faced rap artists.

I think he was 35 the first time I saw him I saw in in concert at the Met Center, my how time flys.

The last concert I saw him at was at the Target Center when he toured after the Human Touch/Lucky Town double release. Our seats were behind the stage. A guy in front of me threw his cigarette lighter. It bounced off the stage and hit Bruce in the ass.

Best Springsteen song that I’ve never heard on the radio: Lost in the Flood.

Odd that the title of a post about the Boss would quote ELO lyrics… (ok, too obscure?)

Unfortunately, no! 🙂

It took me a second, Jeff, but that’s funny.

…Or at least misheard ELO lyrics.
It’s actually “Groos”.

I have a friend who was a huge ELO fan and I remember discussing with him that “Don’t bring me down, groos” made no sence, but that’s what it said on the liner notes lyrics.

I guess that’s why Bruce is still filling stadiums and Jeff Lynne and the boys are playing the Ramada Inn by the airport…

Thanks for the links…….
Maybe I should get back to work.