» Listings for 2024

1. 2023/4 Albums Thing 349 - Bruce Springsteen “Springsteen On Broadway”

   Posted on 8:50am Thursday 30th May 2024

   In October 2017 Bruce Springsteen started a one man residency at the 975 seat Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway. The idea was for him to play a scripted show, 5 nights a week (Tuesday to Saturday), initially just until the end of November. But demand meant that he continued to play shows up until 2021. The Walter Kerr performances were filmed for a Netflix special and this soundtrack album was released to accompany that.

   One of the things that stuck out when I first saw Springsteen live back in 1981 was that he would tell long, sometimes rambling  stories between songs, and I loved them. You can hear some examples on the “Live 1975/85” box set. This Broadway show included (almost) as many of those stories as it does songs. The show itself was 2 and a half hours, over an hour of that was Springsteen just talking,  song intros. add in the extended monologues mid-song and it probably works out even…some of them even bring him to tears. The monologues in the Broadway show loosely follow the story arc of his biography, “Born To Run”. It’s a quite brilliant show, equal parts intensely personal, funny, sad and uplifting.

   Anyone with a vague knowledge of Springsteen’s work will be familiar with most of what is here. The big surprise on the setlist for me was “The Wish”. Originally recorded in 1987 in Bruce’s home studio, drums were added to that recording in 1998 for its inclusion on the “Tracks” outtakes set. Here it is used for exactly its correct purpose, for Bruce to sing the praises of his Mom, Adele. He has written a lot of songs over the years about his relationship with his Dad and one of those, “My Fathers House”, and a 5 minute introduction precede “The Wish”, which he he introduces with the line “OK I’m taking you off suicide watch now”. This is the only song I can think of that is so openly about his Mom. On 6th February 2024 Bruce played this song at Adele’s funeral service.

   The show was pretty much set in stone during its run, occasionally other songs were substituted in when Patti Scialfa couldn’t join him for their duets on “Tougher Than The Rest” and “Brilliant Disguise”. “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” sometimes made an appearance, particularly on the night Netflix recorded the show. The performance of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” is made quite special by the mid-song tribute to the E Street Band (“Now Garry, Danny, Little Steve and Mighty Max, Professor Roy, Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa is my 1+1=3” (the essential equation of rock ’n’ roll apparently)), and in particular The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, about whom Bruce says “Losing him was like losing the rain”…I may have had dust in my eye just about then.

   I know a couple of people who were lucky enough to go to New York and see this show. I wasn’t one of them, closest I got was the Netflix recording which is a quite astonishing performance. It must have been incredible to be that up-close with him while this show unfolded. I’d urge anyone to watch it, it’s a masterclass in storytelling.

   Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out - https://youtu.be/-8POkLCKgfM?si=XWzhFs8EERKjb4i3

2. 2023/4 Albums Thing 348 - Bruce Springsteen “Chapter And Verse”

   Posted on 9:45am Wednesday 29th May 2024

   A compilation issued to act as a soundtrack to Springsteen’s biography “Born To Run”. It’s an 18 track album and 12 of those tracks are the kinds of things you’d expect to find on a best of Bruce Springsteen album with some of the writers favourites that fit the narrative thrown in. The gems to be found in here are the the first 6 tracks on side one.

   Tracks 1 and 2 are by The Castiles, Springsteen’s first band. ”Baby I” was co-written by Springsteen and is a sprightly 60’s Garage band romp. After listening to a lot of US Garage band comps (Rubble, Pebbles etc.) in my time it’s not the best but I’ve also heard much, much worse. It does owe more than a passing nod of gratitude to Them’s “Gloria”. “You Can’t Judge A Book by The Cover” was recorded a year later in 1967 at a gig at a teen club in a church in New Jersey. It’s been very cleaned up for presentation here but it still screams of why recordings like this are usually confined to bootlegs (hint: they’re not very good!).

   Next up is “He’s Guilty (The Judge Song)” by Steel Mill who were Springsteen’s early 70’s heavy rock outfit. Lot’s of loud guitars, unnecessaryily dull soloing and bad lyrics (“speeding, running down his mother, Stabbing his wife then strangling her lover”). Very of it’s time and again, not really very good.

   That’s followed by the Bruce Springsteen Bands “Jesse James”. Springsteen’s voice is starting to sound like Springsteen’s voice and the sound has taken on a lot of The Band, there's a hint of what will be come to be known as Americana, slide guitars and the feel of the country. We’re also covering subject matter (the wild west thing) that Springsteen will return to later. The Bruce Springsteen Band is a direct ancestor of the E Street Band featuring as it did Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez, Steve Van Zandt, Garry Tallent and David Sancious. It’s better, we're now headed in a direction we can recognise.

   “Henry Boy” is a distant relative of “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” but this time it’s just Bruce and his acoustic guitar ala some tracks on his debut album. The melody from the off is that which we would later come to know as “Rosalita…” hence why we didn’t get to here "Henry Boy" followed up on. It’s the best of these 5 songs but as it obviously morphed into something else it’s not some great undiscovered classic.

   Finally the version of “Growin’ Up” presented here is a Bruce and his acoustic take rather than the later full band take on “Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ”. This is a demo recorded the day after Springsteen auditioned for John Hammond at Columbia in NYC on May 1972. It’s a great song and it’s a treat to hear it like this. Weirdly the next record we'll look at opens with an acoustic version of “Growin’ Up”...may the circle be unbroken.

   This one is definitely one for the hardcore fans, ya know those of us that would shell out for a double LP just for the six racks on one side ! The other 3 sides do make a very handy Springsteen primer for the casual listener and a great soundtrack while reading his biography.

   Henry Boy - https://youtu.be/lbc5Kus_Lkw?si=KC_7deJInE0k0IVF

3. 2023/4 Albums Thing 347 - Bruce Springsteen “High Hopes”

   Posted on 9:45am Tuesday 28th May 2024

   “High Hopes” is a strange one. Released in January 2014 it is effectively a compilation album, but it’s more than that. It’s a collection of cover versions, studio outtakes and re-recordings of songs from their previous incarnations. It’s also, strangely given its makeup, one of Springsteen’s more consistent albums since “Devils & Dust”.

   Personally there isn’t a track I don’t like on “High Hopes” and there  are a couple that have become Springsteen classics. The album starts and ends with a cover version. The title song was originally recorded by LA artist Tim Scott McConnell and also later by his band The Havalinas and was suggested to Springsteen by guitarist Tom Morello (yes, the guy from Rage Against The Machine was playing with The Boss). Last song, Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream”, was something Springsteen had performed on his “Devils & Dust” solo tour and the other cover on the album is Aussie Punks The Saints “Just Like Fire Would”, again suggested by Tom Morello.

   The bulk of “High Hopes is made up of previously unreleased studio outtakes. “Harry’s Place” was written during the sessions for “The Rising” and and recorded  during the “Magic” sessions. It sounds like it was unlucky to miss the cut on both. "Down In The Hole" was recorded for The Rising and includes backing vocals by all 3 of Bruce and Patti’s chldren, but it was thought to be too similar to Empty Sky and missed out. “Heaven's Wall" and "Hunter Of Invisible Game" date from 2002 to 2008 (“The Rising” to “Magic”); “Frankie Fell In Love”, Springteen has said, was recorded for “Magic” but studio footage appears to tag it as having been during the “Working On A Dream” sessions. Given the weakness of those two records how it didn’t make it on to either is baffling; “This Is Your Sword” is from 2012, pre “Wrecking Ball”; “The Wall” dates from 1998 and the wall in question is the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. One of the names on that wall would be Walter Cichon, childhood friend of Bruce Springsteen and frontman of The Motifs in mid 60’s New Jersey, of whom Springsteen said “they were gods” when talking about Walter and fellow Motif, his brother Raymond, in “Springsteen On Broadway”. Walter joined the US 4th Infantry Division during the Vietnam war and was killed in action in Kontum, South Vietnam in 1968.

   There are a couple  of re-recordings of songs that have appeared in other guises on previous Springsteen records. The controversial “American Skin (41 Shots)” was first released in 2001 on the album “Live In New York City”. It concerns the death of unarmed Amadou Diallo who was shot and killed by 4 NYPD officers in February 1999. The officers were charged with second degree murder but all were acquitted causing huge criticism and accusations of police brutality and racial profiling. When news reached New York that the song was to be played at Springsteen and the E Street Band’s 10 night stand at Madison Square Garden on their 1999/2000 re-union tour former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke out against Springsteen and the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association called for a boycott of the shows and organised a rally of hundreds of police officers at the Garden. Springsteen not only played the song every night but also met with Amadou Diallo’s family.

   The song itself has 3 verses, 1 concerning Amadou and the second sees a mother telling her child what to do if he’s stopped by the police, “promise Mama you’ll keep your hands in sight”. It’s a sad truth that for black men in America that is still good advice.

   The version of “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” here on “High Hopes” is, to my mind, very close to being the greatest thing Springsteen has ever recorded. Yes that’s hyperbole and I’m not even sure I’m down with it myself even though I just said it, but c’mon! Listen to it, it’s astonishing. Rage Against The Machine had covered the song (badly) and RATM’s Tom Morello was invited to guest on the song at a “Magic” tour show at Madison Square Garden in 2008. Morello sang a verse and took two guitar solo’s that sounded nothing like anything you would expect from the E Street Band. When Morello temporarily replaced Steve Van Zandt on an Australian tour in 2013, this version was recorded the night before they flew from LA to Aus. I’ve opined elsewhere that this song is one of Springsteen greatest creations and much to the chagrin of a number of my Springsteen fan friends I bloody love this version of it.

   “High Hopes” collects together some flotsam and jetsom but at the same time turns out to be one of Bruce Springsteen’s better albums.

   The Ghost Of Tom Joad - https://youtu.be/qUhtdAOn4k0?si=ura87fn1WTjOCmdT