New York Monday 9th April 2012 - show 11

OK just an excuse to include a photo of me outside MSG in November 2009

No travelling for us today but no one minds staying in NYC for a couple of days do they?

 Here is a Review from night 2 .  

Bruce Springsteen Gives a Master Class at the Garden on Being a Rock Star

I've picked out a couple of bits here:

Three hours–three freakin’ hours– that’s how long Bruce Springsteen‘s show at Madison Square Garden was on Monday night...He’s 62 years old and he has the looks and energy of a 32 year old. ...  he gives a show that’s a once in a lifetime experience, completely free of hubris or arrogance or self importance.

And for those of you that might be in the front at the europe shows

during “Dancing in the Dark.” ... did I mention that ... at the end of three hours, he pulled two different girls out of the audience and danced with them?

I'll try and sneak my camera in and take a picture from the big screen if any of you get up there.

Finally my opinion _ wow!  This for me is easily the best set list so far.  Backstreets is in my all time top ten or even top five.  It replaced Thunder Road which had been played every night so far.  I know for many it is sacrilege to leave out Thunder Road - but for Backstreets?- well I for one think it was worth it.  I wish I'd been there.  There isn't one song on the list that I don't like although, if I was to be really picky, I would have Shackled And Drawn instead of Because The Night.  I would like to have squeezed Atlantic City in too but shouldn't be too greedy.

So here's the list together with the first show again for comparison.  The most striking thing is the length of the shows lately compared to Atlanta.

Atlanta 18/03/12 Time 8.10 to 10.44	New York  09/03/12 Time 8.26 to 11.29aware
We Take Care Of Our Own	Badlands (7)
Wrecking Ball	We Take Care Of Our Own (11)
Badlands	Wrecking Ball (11)
Death To My Hometown	Out In The Street (4)
My City Of Ruins	Death To My Hometown (11)
The E Street Shuffle	My City Of Ruins (11)
Jack Of All Trades	Spirit In The Night (1)
Seeds	Thundercrack (3)
Easy Money	Jack Of All Trades (11)
Waitin' On A Sunny Day	Trapped (4)
The Promised Land	She’s The One (4)
The Way You Do The Things You Do	Easy Money (11)
634 -5789	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (11)
Shackled And Drawn	The Promised Land (10)
Lonesome Day	The Way You Do The Things You Do (11)
The Rising	634 - 5789 (11)
We Are Alive	Because The Night (4)
Thunder Road	The Rising (11)
Rocky Ground	We Are Alive (11)
Land Of Hope And Dreams	Backstreets (1)
Born To Run	Land Of Hope And Dreams (9)
Dancing In The Dark	Rocky Ground (11)
American Land	Rosalita (2)
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out	Born To Run (11)
	Dancing In The Dark (11)
	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (11)

And for my You tube Clip?  No contest

New Time but same Old Stuff

For the benefit of my regular readers - thank you one and all- I will start this blog 

with a short

  announcement

My routine has changed in the last few weeks and this has had an unexpected knock on effect on my blog.  This means that my Weekly blog is going to become my Sunday Evening blog.

Hopefully my musings will round off your weekend nicely and set you up for the week ahead.

So as promised during the week I listened to the Born to Run outtakes.  Arcade Fire was put on the back burner.  Well it goes without saying that Bruce must take precedence.

We downloaded this collection of songs a long time ago and I realise now why I haven't checked this out more thoroughly before.  At the time I wouldn't have been interested in alternative versions.  I was only just getting to know some of the officially released stuff.

I assume the whole thing suffers a little from not being finished - the two versions of 'Backstreets' sound really tinny.  I haven't got a very musical ear but there are definitely strings in version 1 which seems to lick along at an unnaturally speedy pace.  I prefer version 2.  This is more similar to the official version musically but has different lyrics.

Born To Run has strings too and weirdly backing singers pop up from time to time - very unerving and a bit Partridge Family - ish.  Could this be Mike Appel's influence? Anyway yuck!

There are three versions of Thunder Road and I must admit I really like this one.





Takes a bit of getting used to after hearing the familiar track so many times but if you have never heard it before give it a chance.  You will be singing along to the new tune in no time.

The two songs that are new to me are 'Walking In The Street' and 'Lonely Night In The Park' which (as I mentioned last week) was the track that prompted me to dig out the CD again - both great songs.  I'd never heard of 'The Heist' before either but this turns out to be 'Meeting Across The River' by another name.  It's not one of my favourite tracks but this version has more trumpet on it and it's OK.

Anyway on to other things.

Our man has been fairly busy this week here he is visiting The Upstage Club
I must say I'm not sure about the outfit here - perhaps it's because I'm not used to seeing him in beige. Showed it to Mike who has always kind of liked Bruce's fashion sense.  He won't be going out to buy anything similar any time soon.

Bruce also popped in to Little Steven's Underground Garage to chat about this and that.  The interview will be aired in three parts this weekend and 8th and 15th April.  Don't know if we can hear this in the UK.

And in a spare moment he has found time to put pen to paper.  As I write this I wonder if he actually sent a letter or just emailed.  A letter might be worth a few $$$ on Ebay!

A good few years ago now Mike did a stint as a city councillor.  He had to hold regular surgeries where the same complainers turned up time after time.  These folk often wrote to the local paper and I couldn't help but think about this when Bruce wrote his letter to the local rag.  Not that Bruce is complaining about his dustbins not being emptied

And finally he also turned up at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park last night



Interesting to compare this to another You Tube clip on the same page from way way back



My sign off for this week is another blog.  Wouldn't mind swapping locations with this woman, and if I knew how, I would put the clip of Bruce on my own blog.  A project for some other time maybe.

Even if you don't want to read the blog just click on the link - it will make you smile and you all know how I feel about smiles.

See you next Sunday.  Have a good week.

Beyond The Palace

So we did indeed get a few You Tube gems from Light of Day.  I love the sing-a-long-a ‘Thunder Road’.



The sound of a crowd singing along together is so uplifting.  It only goes to prove that most people there were Springsteen fans and they seem to have been treated to a great night.

In 2005 I had an urge to go to LOD.  We had a Badlands email advertising their trip and did a lot of research regarding flights.  I had managed to convince myself that I didn’t care if Bruce appeared or not.  The thrill of going to Asbury Park was enough.  In the end Mike persuaded me that I was kidding myself and he was right. Bruce didn’t turn up that year and I was relieved that we didn’t go.

We considered going this year but things have moved on since 2005.  We have now been to Asbury Park.  It was the most amazing day.  I would love to go back but the thought of the boardwalk on a cold January day doesn’t really appeal.

Seeing a show at the Paramount Theater would be fantastic.  Mike and I follow many of the acts that perform at LOD but, with apologies to those other artists, I have to admit that I would be gutted if Bruce didn’t put in an appearance.

Anyway back to the You Tube clips. This one along with a couple of others have been posted by Backstreetsbev.



I assume this is the same Backstreetsbev who I first came across on BTX. She’s quite the celebrity over there. All her posts include a photo of her and Bruce.

This was the first photo I had seen of Bruce with a fan and I was so envious - still am.

I seem to remember she was at Emirates night 2 when Bruce played 'Backstreets' and someone posted a brilliant photo of her listening in awe. This was the night I fell in love with the song.  It had sort of passed me by before but hearing it live I realised what an amazing song it is.

My little Bruce world is a bit subdued at the moment.  The excitement of the Darkness Box set has faded and there is nothing to look forward to.  For the first time for, well, possibly years I don’t feel the need to listen to Bruce music all the time.  I’m not getting the usual withdrawal symptoms if I choose the non Bruce play lists on my iPod so I’ve had a go at Biffy Clyro, The Goo Goo Dolls, Lifehouse, Matchbox Twenty and 12 Stones.  Can’t say I love any of them on first hearing although most will merit a second and third play.

We didn't even get excited about Bruce night on the Beeb.  In fact Mike hardly watched any of it.  I stuck it out until the end though although I'd seen it all before.

Anyway today Mike suggested we make Saturday a sixties day (so also a non Bruce day).  Some of you reading this weren’t even alive in the sixties but most of you will know hundreds of sixties songs and loads of those songs influenced Bruce.  So... whilst I was washing up I played The Monkees - the first band I really loved - but who had absolutely no influence on Bruce I imagine.  This afternoon I chose a compilation featuring girl groups - the likes of The Shirelles and The Crystals.  A bit more influence there then.

By the way the drum roll at the beginning of 'The Locomotion' is eerily similar to 'Born to Run'. I must have heard both songs hundreds of times over the years and never noticed this before.

This week when I was researching LOD I came across this piece about the Paramount show.

Sara has written a book which I have ordered.  I read the first page on Amazon.com and I am very much looking forward to reading the rest when the book arrives.  I’m not into e-reading yet so it‘s the paper version for me.  I’ll let you know what I think in a few weeks.




And to round off this week.  The folks on BTX are suggesting that Patti needs to hang on tightly to her man.  Apparently Shakira has split with her long time boyfriend.  I believe she is a bit of a Bruce fan and she's a good looking woman in anyone's book.   Just joking Patti - I think you are probably stuck with him for life now!