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Live from the Count Basie! (via YouTube)
Posted on May 10, 2008 by Pete
Filed Under Concerts, Video | 1 Comment
What did we do before YouTube? Well, we were exposed to this a lot less, which was good … but we certainly couldn’t see clips like the following just a few days after a historic show like the Count Basie benefit.
This user has put up eight separate clips from the night, and while slightly discombobulating, they certainly give you a sense of what the show was like. Let’s hope for an official release, so you can watch it without having to take Dramamine first.
Springsteen Cover of the Week
Posted on May 8, 2008 by Pete
Filed Under MP3 | 2 Comments
There are people out there — I’m not naming names — who will swear to you that back in the ’80s sometime, Aretha Franklin did a cover of “Pink Cadillac.” They will bet you the giant fur coat off their back that this is true, but it’s actually one of those myths that came out of the ’80s, like the idea that skinny leather ties were at one point cool.
Those people are of course thinking of “Freeway of Love” (1985), which references Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac” in two very significant ways: One, with the lyric “Ridin’ down the freeway of love in a pink Cadillac” (duh), and two, with a very identifiable sax line by none other than the Big Man, Clarence Clemons.
The R&B star who actually covered “Pink Cadillac” in the ’80s was Natalie Cole, who hit No. 5 with her version in 1987. And it’s OK — it’s got a little bit of a Prince vibe going on, at least until the fake synthesizer horns kick in. But Cole will always be best remembered for her duet with her late father, which was played at every single wedding held between 1991-1993.
Meanwhile, in the interest of full disclosure: I loved “Freeway of Love.” And skinny leather ties. So sue me.
“Freeway of Love,” Aretha Franklin
UPDATE: Interesting piece of trivia, courtesy of “Earthslayer” over at The Circuit on Greasy Lake: “The person who actual premiered Springsteen’s song ‘Pink Cadillac’ to the world was…..Bette Midler. She opened nearly every one of her shows on her 1982-83 tour with it. At the time Bruce hadn’t ever played it live or released it on record.”
Who knew? But he’s right — I just turned up a recording from that tour, if you’re morbidly curious.
Count Basie update
Posted on May 7, 2008 by Pete
Filed Under Brucenalia | 3 Comments
It’s 10:36 p.m., and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have just performed the “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and “Born to Run” albums in their entirety, in sequence, at the Count Basie Theatre. Really.
Up next: “Human Touch,” all the way through!
UPDATE: Here’s the setlist (thanks as always to Gina):
Bruce anounces they will play Darkness in sequence!!
Starts with Badlands… messes up… lots of laughter… starts again!
1. Badlands
2. Adam Raised A Cain
3. Something In The Night
4. Candy’s Room
5. Racing In The Street
6. The Promised Land
7. Factory
8. Streets Of Fire
9. Prove It All Night
10. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
They’re taking a break. 
setting up horns…
9:50 Bruce is talking… “here we go”
11. Thunder Road
12. Tenth Ave Freezeout
13. Night
14. Backstreets
15. Born To Run
16. She’s The One
17. Meeting Across The River
18. Jungleland
19. So Young And In Love
20 Kitty’s Back 
21. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
22. Raise Your Hand
UPDATE 2: RedBankGreen offers a nice roundup of post-show coverage.
Help the monks help in Burma
Posted on May 7, 2008 by Pete
Filed Under Brucenalia | 1 Comment
Springsteen fans are a generous sort — we know that from their response to Bruce’s pleas to help the various food banks he collects for at his shows, and from the overwhelming response to the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund.
So I know you’d want to help out in Burma, where more than 100,000 are feared dead in the wake of the recent cyclone. But how to get the aid to that country when it’s common knowledge that the government there is brutal, corrupt and not particularly interested in helping its own people? I have one word for you: monks.
So says the independent global campaigning organization Avaaz.org:
Humanitarian relief is urgently needed, but Burma’s government could easily delay, divert or misuse any aid. Today the International Burmese Monks Organization, including many leaders of the democracy protests last fall, launched a new effort to provide relief through Burma’s powerful grass roots network of monasteries—the most trusted institutions in the country and currently the only source of housing and support in many devastated communities. Click below to help the Burmese people with a donation and see a video appeal to Avaaz from a leader of the monks:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/burma_cyclone/77.php
Giving to the monks is a smart, fast way to get aid directly to Burma’s people. Governments and international aid organizations are important, but face challenges—they may not be allowed into Burma, or they may be forced to provide aid according to the junta’s rules. And most will have to spend large amounts of money just setting up operations in the country. The monks are already on the front lines of the aid effort—housing, feeding, and supporting the victims of the cyclone since the day it struck. The International Burmese Monks Organization will send money directly to each monastery through their own networks, bypassing regime controls.
We now return to your regularly scheduled Springsteen blog, already in progress.
Coming up for ‘The Rising’ in Iraq
Posted on May 6, 2008 by Pete
Filed Under Video | Leave a Comment
The description just says “Homemade movie from Iraq,” but darn it if this isn’t one damn good video:
Great job over there, guys. And not just on the homemade videos.
He was the Cosmic Kid
Posted on May 5, 2008 by Pete
Filed Under Brucenalia, Huh? | Leave a Comment
First there was the Springsteen-Flintstones parody that somehow passed me by, and now, something else from the “How did I miss this?” department: a 1986 Springsteen comic book! You would think I would have been all over that.
You can read all about it in this post from last November in the Chronological Snobbery blog (please don’t ask me how I find this stuff). Apparently the comic book didn’t use the actual names of Springsteen or the E Street Band members — something about not being able to get permission, fear of lawsuits, yada yada yada. But who it was about was fairly obvious:
The four vignettes are “The Motel” (in which Springsteen and his entourage, including Clemons, check into a fleabag motel, flee from cockroaches, and then find two women at a local bar with whom to stay), “The Binkers” (in which Springsteen and Clemons dine with Archie and Edith “Binker” in an “All in the Family” parody), “The Rogue Gallery” (which features fictional former bandmates who conform to certain rock stereotypes), and “They Call Him Bruce” (chronicling another series of misadventures featuring Springsteen and Clemons).
Take that, Iron Man!
‘I’m from Joisey! You from Joisey?’
Posted on May 4, 2008 by Pete
Filed Under Miscellaneous, Video | 3 Comments
Happy New Jersey Hall of Fame Day! Let’s check that lineup one more time: Bruce Springsteen, check; Vince Lombardi, check; Frank Sinatra, check; Meryl Streep, check … Hey, wait a minute — where’s Piscopo??
Anyway, it seems as good a time as ever to revisit Bruce’s reminder of why New Jersey is better than New York:
As for Jon Bon Jovi … I’m sure he’ll get in next year.
Meanwhile, if you need a reminder as to why Bruce belongs in any and every hall of fame that will take him, read this. Excerpt:
“He met us and signed things for us,” Rudder said on Friday. “He went out of his way to treat me as a friend, with familiarity. He gave me a stack of CDs and gave me the set list he wrote up before the concert. He made sure I had an experience I would remember forever.
“I felt like I knew him forever, and I was not just meeting him.”
UPDATE: Star-Ledger coverage of the ceremony here, and YouTube clips here: Bruce being announced, Bruce’s induction speech, Bruce inducts Frank Sinatra, Bruce jams with the Hubcaps before “Glory Days.” (Thanks to Backstreets.)
This must be that last-chance power drive you’ve heard about
Posted on May 2, 2008 by Pete
Filed Under Huh? | 2 Comments
First there was the woman who stabbed her boyfriend when he wouldn’t let her listen to Springsteen music (”I mean, who doesn’t like Bruce Springsteen?” she asked the arresting officer, and frankly, we had to agree).
And now, another story tying Bruce to criminal activity: A man in France was stopped by cops going 125 mph while watching a Springsteen DVD on a player he had mounted to his dashboard.
An officer said: “He said he had a long drive to Paris and was bored.”
Understandable, but I don’t understand why he couldn’t have passed the time doing what everybody else does when driving long distances: Texting.
Springsteen Cover of the Week
Posted on May 2, 2008 by Pete
Filed Under Brucenalia, MP3 | Leave a Comment
I saw the Counting Crows at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre back around 1996, and it was a great show — they were touring behind the underrated “Recovering the Satellites” album, and I remember a particularly smoking performance of “Angels of the Silences” that really made the night. That said, Adam Duritz always seemed just a little too pleased with himself, like he was the only one in the world capable of stretching out the ending of a song for five minutes by adding extra syllables that nobody ever heard of.
Anyway, a lot of time has passed since then, and the Crows have had their shares of ups and downs in their career. And you know what? Adam Duritz still seems pretty pleased with himself.
But the Crows have always seemed to have a healthy appreciation for their forebears, judging from their covers of the likes of Elvis Costello, the Stones and this one from Bruce. If it were on their new album, “Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings,” it would probably fall somewhere in between, in that space between the end of “Saturday Night Live” and when the infomercials start.
“Atlantic City,” Counting Crows
You didn’t have to tell us
Posted on May 1, 2008 by Pete
Filed Under Press | 2 Comments
The “Time 100″ list is out — you know, their annual list of the most influential people in America — and guess who’s made it under the “Artists & Entertainers” category? That’s right: Miley Cyrus! Oh, and Bruce Springsteen too.
I guess it’s only appropriate that Ms. Cyrus would be on there, what with the $1 billion she’s going to make for Disney this year. But let that not detract from Bruce’s inclusion. In the words of Sean Penn, who wrote the accompanying testimonial:
Sense of self, and the way one shares it, is perhaps the most valuable and poetic gift in the arsenal of one’s life and craft. In contemporary American music, Springsteen, 58, is its most enduring and robust giver. Whether in a song or an appearance on The Charlie Rose Show, you always get a sense of personal truth, humility and passion.
Agreed. And also: People on ‘ludes should not drive. (Sorry. Spicoli reference.)
Finally, here is that naked picture of Miley Cyrus.
(Thanks to Lawrence at ForYouBruce.com.)
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