There are lots to be said about Springsteen as a live artist, his energy and stamina are most often focused on. His quiet moments in the shows are equally profound. He manages to make arenas small and intimate, we really feel like he is singing just to us. An incredible feat.
Let us start with one from Norway, Bruce Springsteen – The Promise Oslo, April 30, 2013. :
Continue reading 5 Fantastic piano ballads played live by Bruce Springsteen
This concert was the final show of the first leg of the “Working on a Dream Tour“.
Glory Days was next to last on the setlist… (Bruce ended with “Mony Mony”) and it contains the “Louie Louie” coda.
Continue reading Bruce Springsteen – Glory Days – East Rutherford, NJ – 23 May 2009 – Video
For me, I was somebody who was a smart young guy who didn’t do very well in school. The basic system of education, I didn’t fit in; my intelligence was elsewhere.
~Bruce SpringsteenThe best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with.
~Bruce SpringsteenThey call him the Boss. Well that’s a bunch of crap. He’s not the boss. He works FOR us. More than a boss, he’s the owner, because more than anyone else, Bruce Springsteen owns America’s heart.
~Bono (induction speech for at the 1999 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
Thunder Road – live @ Hammersmith 1975:
From Wikipedia:
| Also known as | The Boss, Bad Scooter |
|---|---|
| Born | September 23, 1949 (age 64) Long Branch, New Jersey, United States |
| Genres | Rock, folk rock, heartland rock,roots rock |
| Occupations | Musician, Songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, harmonica |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Labels | Columbia |
| Associated acts | The E Street Band, Steel Mill,Miami Horns, The Sessions Band, Southside Johnny, The Gaslight Anthem, Dropkick Murphys |
| Website | www.brucespringsteen.net |
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed “The Boss“, is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey and his lengthy and energetic stage performances, with concerts from the 1970s to the present decade running up to an uninterrupted 250 minutes in length.
Springsteen’s recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run, showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and more than 120 million worldwide and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him as the 23rd Greatest Artist of all time, the 96th Greatest Guitarist of all time on their latest list and the 36th Greatest Singer of all time in 2008.
Every good writer or filmmaker has something eating at them, right? That they can’t quite get off their back . And so your job is to make your audience care about your obsessions.
~Bruce Springsteen
Born To Run:
From allmusic.com – William Ruhlmann:
In the decades following his emergence on the national scene in 1975, Bruce Springsteen proved to be that rarity among popular musicians, an artist who maintained his status as a frontline recording and performing star, consistently selling millions of albums and selling out arenas and stadiums around the world year after year, as well as retaining widespread critical approbation, with ecstatic reviews greeting those discs and shows. Although there were a few speed bumps along the way in Springsteen’s career, the wonder of his nearly unbroken string of critical and commercial success is that he achieved it while periodically challenging his listeners by going off in unexpected directions, following his muse even when that meant altering the sound of his music or the composition of his backup band, or making his lyrical message overtly political. Of course, it may have been these very sidesteps that kept his image and his music fresh, especially since he always had the fallback of returning to what his fans thought he did best, barnstorming the country with a marathon rock & roll show using his longtime bandmates.
.. read more over @ allmusic
Some of his recognition’s:
Check out:
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Atlantic City (Live):
Other September 23:
I consider Bruce’s Darkness Tour of 78 to be one of the greatest “tours” ever….
This concert is one of the best from the tour I’ve heard.. and Yes, it helps that it was broadcasted on the famous rock station: WMMS-FM…
One of the reasons the 1978 Tour is so well-remembered, and often viewed as the peak of Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert, is that several complete shows were broadcast live on radio stations.
Setlist:
| From Brucebase: Soundboard and radio broadcast tapes (WMMS) available – great show. It’s interesting to note that this show was remastered by Bruce’s management and given to KSAN in San Francisco who broadcast it as a replacement for a scheduled Winterland rebroadcast sometime in 1979. The remastered show has fantastic stereo separation and coupled with the fact that this is a good show in the first place, it has to rank as one of the best of the available shows in 1978. Clarence’s intro during “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” contains a snippet of The Village People’s hit “Macho Man”. Released on LP and CD. The most recent (and best quality) CD releases of this show are ‘Agora Night’ by Crystal Cat and ‘Just In Time For Summer’. ‘Agora Night’ is from the Pre-FM reels. Also available on CD ‘Agora 1978’ from Supersonic. |
| From brucespringsteen.it:Max Weinberg, many years ago said this was the best show the E Street Band ever did. Broadcast on WMMS and about 9 other FM stations It was a free concert for WMMS’ 10th Anniversary as a radio station. The introduction by Kid Leo and the final chords of Twist and Shout. |
| From Wikipedia:Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Darkness Tour was a concert tour of North America that ran from May 1978 through the rest of the year, in conjunction with the release of Springsteen’s album Darkness on the Edge of Town. (Like most Springsteen tours it had no official name, but this is the most commonly used; it is also sometimes referred to as the Darkness on the Edge of Town Tour or most simply the 1978 Tour.)The tour has since become viewed as perhaps Springsteen’s best in a storied career of concert performances. Biographer Dave Marsh wrote in 1987, “The screaming intensity of those ’78 shows are part of rock and roll legend in the same way as Dylan’s 1966 shows with the Band, the Rolling Stones’ tours of 1969 and 1972, and the Who’s Tommy tour of 1969: benchmarks of an era.” |
Other August-09:
10 years ago today!
| Remarkable show played in remarkable weather. The rain begins to pours down during the full band “The River” and continues for several songs, punctuated with incredible thunder and lightning. A unique “Follow That Dream”. Many other highlights – an Italian story in “Growin’ Up”, the rain sheeting down in “Waitin’ On A Sunny Day”, “The River” and an impromptu “Who’ll Stop The Rain”. Jon Landau plays guitar on “Dancing In The Dark”. First ever performance in Italy of “Follow That Dream”. “Born In The U.S.A.” from the soundcheck is solo acoustic. Released on “Once Upon a Time in Italy” and “San Siro Night” (Crystal Cat). Several DVDs available, including the excellent screenshot “Blood Brothers On A Stormy Night” (brucevideos), plus many others. ~brucebase |
Setlist:
Here is a fantastic youtube playlist with most of the songs:
Check out:
-Egil