All fall Bruce has been recreating his classic albums on stage to much acclaim. What if he could recreate his classic concerts? Wouldn't that be something? Well, that's not what's going to happen exactly. But the famous cover band Tramps Like Us is planning to recreate what has been called the single greatest Bruce live performance ever: the September 19, 1978, concert at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ. Yes, on February 11, 2010, the almost 20 year old cover band will be on stage at the BB King's Blues Club on Time Square playing the legendary concert from start to finish, including no doubt extended versions of "Prove It All Night", "She's the One" and "Backstreets" just the way they were played on that night more than 30 years ago. If you live in the area, this is not to be missed.
For those of you who may not know, the Passaic show was broadcast live on the radio and released on the historic bootleg Piece de Resistance. The show has since been rereleased on bootleg CD in several versions, and it has even turned up as a bootleg DVD, albeit in the shape of a rather questionable b/w recording. Still, I bet the members of Tramps Like Us are going to study it intensely in the next couple of months.
Our friends at SpringsteenRadio.com are currently doing a scientific research on what exactly you like about Bruce. Nah, just kidding, they have some shirts to give away and want you to work a little bit for the chance to receive one. But you don't even have to visit their site to participate (although it would be a mistake not to as it's a very useful place) because you can find all the questions and practical information right here.
There's been a lot of speculation this time around about whether the Working on a Dream Tour would be the last E Street Band tour. Well, now we have the official word from Bruce himself: the band plans to continue for "many, many years". The statement is put forward by Bruce in an interview in Billboard conducted before the Nashville show. Of course, Bruce doesn't go into details about whether indivial members are up for it, and if you belong to the group of fans who thought the band was already more or less over with when Danny Federici passed away, this, of course, doesn't change anything. But for the rest of us, there is reason to believe that we haven't experienced the thrill of the legendary E Street Band for the last time. Read the Billboard interview yourself if you don't believe me.
In other news, Jon Landau has recently confirmed that a Darkness box is still planned for release and also hinted that there may be some sort of DVD release culled from the Working on a Dream Tour coming out in the new year. All we can do is wait and hope.
As I'm writing this Bruce and the band are gearing up for the last show of the tour, in Buffalo, NY. It is also by Bruce's own words the last show with the E Street Band "in a while". Some think it will be the last show with the E Street Band ever.
Whatever the case, tonight feels like the end of an era that started 10 years ago with the Reunion Tour. Even if the E Street Band does return - and both Bruce and Jon Landau have indicated that it could very well happen - chances arethere will be some changes in the lineup that will seriously alter the face of the band. Max Weinberg could be forced to stay with the Tonight Show, and Clarence... what about Clarence? While his playing has been better than on the last couple of tours, he looks fragile and in pain. So could tonight be his last show? And without him, can you still call it The E Street Band?
Well, in order to predict the future, it's always a good idea to look back at what has gone before. The tour started only eight months ago, but if you look at the show as it looks today compared to back then, you would hardly even guess they were part of the same tour. Only half a dozen songs from the beginning of the tour have remained stables in the same positions as where they started out. The Working on a Dream album, while never very prominent in the show, has been completely abandoned. "Outlaw Pete" finally saw his own demise in October (except for a short one-off revival in DC) leaving only the title track to represent the album that gave the tour its name.
Instead the tour was taken over by performances of full albums with the Born to Run album being all-dominating. This may be the first time of his career that Bruce has been being glaringly nostalgic. And not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that at this point of his career, but just imagine how that would have been received in 1999 or 2002. Back then he was on a mission to prove that the band was still vital and moving forward. Playing full albums would have made critics and fans write him off as a has-been. Today, 10 years on, Bruce has proven just about all there is to prove and has cleared the road for himself to do and sing whatever he damn well pleases - and broken all his own rules in the process.
That's why even ending the tour tonight in Buffalo with the album that started it all, Greetings From Asbury Park, could be seen as a last, solemn farewell to the band, but could also just be another impulse by Bruce that we shouldn't attach too much importance to. If it's the last E Street Band show ever, we probably won't know it anytime soon, and if it's just the closing of another chapter in the band's history, well, then that shouldn't be a surprise. A lot of things that seemed impossible 10 years ago have happened. Why not another couple of tours further on up the road?
With the Buffalo show being the last show of the tour and, many believe, the last E Street Band show ever (don't believe them!), it is quickly turning into one of the hardest tickets of the tour. But if you are willing to spend your family savings or sell your car, you and three of your friends or family members still have a chance to gain access. And not only to the show itself, but also to the E Street lounge, including a guaranteed meet 'n' greet with Bruce himself. The tickets have been donated by Jon Landau Management, and the auction is hosted by charitybuzz.com where all proceeds go to a good cause, in this case Musicians On Call/The Kristen Ann Carr Fund. Current bid is at $11,000, and the auction runs through November 19. Check it out.
The news media has been full of Bruce this weekend. Google news has registered more than 500 news stories about our man. No, he didn't announce a new album, and no, he didn't get injured in a fall from the stage. He simply forgot that Detroit is in Michigan rather than Ohio. Three times during the first couple of songs of his Detroit show on Friday, he called out to "Ohio" before Steve Van Zandt was able to get his attention and inform him that they were in Michigan. Bruce of course made a joke out of it calling it a rock stars worst nightmare coming true. The Michigan crowd took it well and still got their money's worth. Read Steve Van Zandt's comments about the incident on Rolling Stone and watch the YouTube video below:
After many rumors, it has just been officially announced that the last show of the tour, in Buffalo on November 22, will see a full performance of the Greetings From Asbury Park album. This is the first time Bruce's debut album from 1973 will have been played ín full on this or any tour. The lucky fans in attendance will be treated to classics like "Growin' Up" and "Lost the Flood" and rarities like "The Angel" and "Mary Queen of Arkansas". With the Greetings album added to the list of full album shows, all of Bruce's classic E Street Band albums will have been played live on this tour. Of course, fans are already speculating if this latest move - the first album at the last show - indicates a full circle being closed and thus symbolizing the end of the E Street Band. While Bruce, or anyone close to him, has never suggested such a thing, it does seem like it could be a fitting end to a long journey, whether it's a permanent end or just the end of this decade of E Street activity.
I recently discovered that the contact form wasn't working, so if you have tried to contact Greasy Lake through that contact form in the last few weeks, we probably didn't receive your message. However, the problem has now been fixed and you can once again send along all your thoughts, questions, praise, criticism, etc., and someone will read it and, if necessary, get back to you. You will find the contact form here. Sorry about the inconvenience the problem may have caused you.
The time when it seemed it was years between Springsteen books are long gone. The last few years have seen an influx of new titles that has made it hard to keep up, let alone read them all. As a librarian and a Bruce fan it is my goddamn duty to try to do something about that. No, I can't read all those books either - nor would I want to - but in this new section called The Bruce Librarian I will talk about some of the books and perhaps make a few recommendations. I may also go back in time and look at some of the books that have gone before and let you know which ones may be worth searching for.
In this first installment of The Bruce Librarian we'll look at two books that have been released in the last couple of months. They both focus on one of the classic eras of Bruce: Runaway Dream by Louis P. Masur is an extensive look at the Born to Run album, and Lawrence Kirsch puts the whole Darkness period in perspective with his book The Light in Darkness.
Runaway Dream, with the subtitle Born to Run and Bruce Springsteen's American Vision, is an attempt to closely examine the Born to Run album. From the grueling studio sessions through interpretations of the songs and the public reception, to a look at the album in the view of Springsteen's later work and career. It's all there. Louis Masur has performed an amazing research. There are countless quotes from more or less obscure Seventies sources, and every claim is backed by a quote from Bruce or the people who were involved in the album.
Although most of the information in the book is relatively well known among fans, not least in light of the Wings For Wheels documentary from 2005, this book may still be the most complete look at how the Born to Run album came to be and its impact on the world that we have seen. If you have read Dave Marsh's books and seen the Wings For Wheels documentary there is not a whole lot of brand new, surprising information, and it looks like most of the book is based on written sources from the Seventies rather than new interviews. But that can actually be seen as one of its strengths. The post-rationalization is saved for the last chapter. Instead we get a great sense of the time that the album was created in, and released into, before it became a classic, and that's really what all good history is about.
Most of all, the book gives you an excuse (not that you need one) and a strong urge to pull out the Born to Run album for the two billionth time and once again appreciate its drama and majesty. And maybe that's all Louis Masur wants us to do. If so, he succeeded.
Another album you don't really need an excuse to listen to is Darkness on the Edge of Town. But regardless of that, you sure get a fine excuse after flipping through Lawrence Kirsch's new fan tale compilation: The Light in Darkness. A couple of years ago Lawrence published the book For You, which was about Bruce Springsteen in general and consisted of nothing but the fans' own stories and tales about their Bruce experiences. The new book is the exact same concept, but focuses entirely on the Darkness era.
So unlike Runaway Dream, in The Light in Darkness facts and research don't play any role at all. It's all about the emotion and how that album and tour made you feel. And if these fan accounts are any indication (actually, they are all the proof you could ever ask for), 1978 was and always will be the time when everything clicked for the most people when it comes to Bruce. These tales all tell the story of the unprecedented magic and intensity that was the Darkness era. And very often, the writing lives up to its subject and sends shivers down your spine and makes you check your CD shelf for that Agora or Roxy bootleg that you haven't listened to in two years.
Unlike the first book, it seems like this time Lawrence hasn't put any limit on how many words the stories were allowed to be. Some of them take up several pages and usually they are not a paragraph too long. And even if they were, it helps the reading experience that every single page is enriched with pictures that in most cases have never been published in a book before.
Altogether, everything from the paper quality to the layout of this book gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling while you devour the words. Great care seems to have been put into every detail. It's just a beautiful publication that fully lives up to its predecessor. That one is said to sell for good money on eBay, and I wouldn't be surprised if The Light in Darkness will fare the same way.
What fans barely hoped to believe is now official: Bruce will perform The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle in its entirety on the first night of the Madison Square Garden stand and The River on the second. This will be the first time he performs these albums from start to finish. Several of the songs are rarely performed gems and will be sure to make hardcore fans swoon. Songs like "Wild Billy's Circus Story" and "Wreck on the Highway" have not been performed with The E Street Band in the last almost 30 years, so these shows will be two big "holy shit" moments. Oh, to be in New York City this weekend, ya bastards!
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In this first installment of The Bruce Librarian we'll look at two books that have been released in the last couple of months. They both focus on one of the classic eras of Bruce: Runaway Dream by Louis P. Masur is an extensive look at the Born to Run album, and Lawrence Kirsch puts the whole Darkness period in perspective with his book The Light in Darkness.
