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OK; write an intro for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s live version of “Prove it All Night,” Phoenix, 1978 (above). Shoot, just listen to it and you can hear that Bruce plays a better intro than I could ever write. Not to mention that the man has done some really great inteviews recently (like this one with Ed Norton) and let’s face it, over a whole lot of years has spawned his own bibliography of critical and biographical writings.
No, I do not feel the need to write about this other than as a fan. I first saw Bruce and the E-Street Band on “The River” tour (St. Paul Civic Center) and that was a perfect time for a teenager to experience that. I didn’t know the whole album before the show, but I certainly learned that if your group of friends attending the show included a girl named Sherry Dahlman, you’d best protect your eardrums during “Sherry Darling.” I saw them (hard not to think of Bruce as a “them” in concert mode) again on the 1st and 3rd shows of the “Born in the USA” tour (again, SPCC). I was disappointed in the muted version of “Thunder Road,” but the vision of Clarence on top of the amps during “Rosalita” (from the 4th row, no less) is seared forever into the brain.
See what I mean? I can’t write about Bruce Springsteen in concert in terms other than, “yeah, when I saw him.” I think that has to be true of most of his fans. I could write about how the song “Promised Land” served as, promise, mantra, and proof over so many shows, in so many places, but unless you’ve been there, just buy the new record and enjoy (with the rest of us) the live performances.
For the rest – please share your own experiences at the shows in all the places, over all the years. Leave a comment below. That’s what it’s really been all about.
– Ron Swanson
The Promise, an album of unreleased material from the Darkness at the Edge of town sessions, has just been released, along with a remix of Darkness and a documentary about the recording of Darkness. More information is available here, at the official Springsteen site.
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Ron Swanson’s Updatable Top 25
Seeking classic pop song lyrical couplets – Post your faves, by Ron Swanson
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