Dry Lightning
Imagery… You want imagery, you listen to this song and read these lyrics.
Well the piss yellow sun
Comes bringin’ up the day
She said “ain’t nobody gonna give nobody
What they really need anyway”Well you get so sick of the fightin’
You lose your fear of the end
But I can’t lose your memory
And the sweet smell of your skinSick. Absolutely sick what this man does with words and music. These words have moistened my eyes more than once. Didn’t think I was the sensitive type, did ya?
Yeah, I’m starting to itch for Bruce. Since the Seeger Sessions tour ended a few months ago, he’s been off the radar a bit. Rumors have started to pop up about him recording in Atlanta and Nashville, but nothing definitive. The man leads a low profile life, you gotta respect him for that.
So because it’s been quiet on the Boss front lately, I thought I’d share this Ghost of Tom Joad gem, live from the Joad tour back in 1996.
Steve Earle at Tradewinds, Part Deux
“They’ll let anybody in here!” – Steve Earle, as The Boss joins him on stage
Well who do you think was lurking in the crowd that fateful New Jersey night? The Boss joined Steve and the Dukes for the last six songs of the evening. That’s gotta be one of the greatest things about being a Springsteen fan in New Jersey. You never know when he’ll materialize.
Well materialize he did this night in 1998. It’s another spirited set by Steve and the Dukes, and when the Boss joins, they rip into a Carl Perkins classic, a couple of Stones tunes, and a few Steve tunes. Bruce pretty much sticks to his rule of not stealing the spotlight, but he does take a verse of “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby”, and how cool is it to hear him sing background on “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied” and the Stones tunes? Right. Very cool.
Steve Earle & the Dukes
February 6, 1998
Sea Bright, NJPart Two [ZIP]
The Other Side Of Town
Somewhere Out There
Billy Austin
The Devil’s Right Hand
Nothin’ But You
All My Tears (w/ Julie Miller)
Goodbye
Johnny Too Bad (Slickers cover)
N.Y.C.
The Unrepentant
Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby (Carl Perkins cover w/ Bruce Springsteen)
Sweet Virginia (Rolling Stones cover w/ Bruce Springsteen)
Guitar Town (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
I Ain’t Never Satisfied (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
Dead Flowers (Rolling Stones w/ Bruce Springsteen)
Johnny Come Lately (w/ Bruce Springsteen)One interesting omission from the night was Bruce’s “State Trooper”, which Steve plays quite a bit in his shows. “New Jersey turnpike, riding on a wet night…” would’ve fit right in.
Steve Earle at Tradewinds, Part 1
I haven’t posted about my favorite left-wing Tennessee via Mexico via East Texas outlaw in a while. Steve Earle hasn’t been quiet lately though. He’s a modern-day renaissance man: musician, poet, protester, playwright, you name it. He jokes that he has to keep himself that busy to keep him sober. He wasn’t doing so good there for a while (in the late 80’s and early 90’s). Well, since he got sober, and inspiration took over, Steve has been hitting us hard with some great albums: I Feel Alright, Train a Comin’, El Corazon, Jerusalem, among others. In ’98, Steve was on tour supporting one of my personal favorites, El Corazon (a tour that didn’t bring him to Phoenix, so I flew my butt to Montrose, Colorado to see him – well, actually my brother flew me).
This is a special show, folks. The locale is Tradewinds in Sea Bright, New Jersey. It’s February 6, 1998, and a certain someone is lurking in the audience watching this great show. I’ll give you part one here. In part two later this week, this certain someone hits the stage with Mr. Earle to fully complete roof tearage off the sucker.
Steve Earle & the Dukes
February 6, 1998
Sea Bright, NJPart One [ZIP] ♦ [Part two here]
Christmas In Washington
Here I Am
Taneytown
Hardcore Troubador
My Old Friend The Blues
Someday
If You Fall
Mystery Train Part II
You Know The Rest
Windfall (Son Volt cover)
Copperhead Road
Telephone Road
More Than I Can Do
Now She’s Gone
Ft. Worth Blues
I Feel Alright
Poison LoversIn recent Steve Earle news, he signed with New West Records recently. I’m looking forward to good things in ’07 from ol’ Steve.
Boss for the Holidays: Coliseum Night
Happy Holidays Bruce fans….
Bruce Springsteen & the E. Street Band
Coliseum Night
December 29, 1980
Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New YorkWell what we have here is a live Bruce classic. A few of the tunes made it on to the Live 75-85 box set (“Darkness”, “You Can Look..”). It’s the only River tour version of “Incident on 57th Street”, and the very last time it segued into “Rosalita” (like the originals on The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle). It’s holiday time, so we get “Merry Christmas Baby” and “Santa Claus..” And we get a Boss-flavored “This Land is Your Land”, a cover of CCR’s “Who’ll Stop the Rain”, and tons more. From the moment “Night” kicks in to the last notes of Mitch Ryder’s “Devil With a Blue Dress On”, the energy level is unbelievably high.
Part 1
1.
Night
2.Out in the Street
3.Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
4.Who’ll Stop the Rain
5.Darkness on the Edge of Town
6.Factory
7.Intro
8.Independence Day
9.Two Hearts
10.Prove it All Night
11.The Promised Land
12.This Land is Your Land
13.The River
14.BadlandsPart 2
1.
Thunder Road
2.Cadillac Ranch
3.Sherry Darling
4.Hungry Heart
5.Merry Christmas Baby
6.Fire
7.Candy’s Room
8.Because the Night
9.4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
10.For You
11.Stolen Car
12.Wreck on the HighwayPart 3
1.
Point Blank
2.The Ties that Bind
3.Ramrod
4.You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
5.Incident on 57th Street
6.Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
7.Santa Claus is Coming to Town
8.Jungleland
9.Born to Run
10.Devil with a Blue Dress On
11.Good Golly Miss Molly
12.CC Rider
13.Jenny Take a Ride / Boogie
14.I Hear A Train / Devil with a Blue Dress OnBoss Holiday Treats
A reader from New Orleans wrote me and mentioned that Dec. 14th was not only Ickmusic’s birthday, but also the very same day he saw Bruce and the E. Street Band at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee back in 1984. For the encore, Little Steven joined the boss for a great version of Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away”. It went a little something like this… well, actually, it went exactly like this…
Bruce Springsteen & the E. Street Band:Drift Away(mp3) – Live, Memphis, TN, Dec. 14, 1984
Earlier that year, Bruce joined La Bamba & the Hubcaps at the Stone Pony for a couple of songs. La Bamba is Richie Rosenberg, who you’ve seen playing trombone on the Seeger Sessions tour, as well as on the Conan O’Brien show.Bruce with La Bamba and the Hubcaps:
Travelin Band(mp3) – CCR coverI’m Bad, I’m Nationwide(mp3) – ZZ Top cover (Live at the Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ – Aug 22, 1984)Speaking of La Bamba, Bruce, and the Conan O’Brien Show, here’s a great E Street performance of “Merry Christmas Baby” from 2002 (Conan joins in on guitar, which he does for all of Bruce’s appearances on Conan, right?).
Dublin’s Highway Patrolman
The Seeger Sessions fall tour hit Dublin a few nights ago for a 3 night stand. On night two, Bruce began to sing…
My name is Joe Roberts I work for the state / I’m a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number 8 I always done an honest job as honest as I could I got a brother named Franky and Franky ain’t no good.
That’s right, it was “Highway Patrolman”, Seeger Sessions style. What do you think?
Bruce Springsteen & the Seeger Sessions Band: Highway Patrolman (mp3) – live from The Point, Dublin, Ireland, November 18, 2006.
MP3 Note: you’ll have to turn this one up a little. May I remind you to turn down your speakers or iPod immediately after the song or you will experience an unpleasant jolt like I just did.
Buy the Seeger Sessions: The American Land Edition.
Buy Nebraska.
The Nebraska page on Bruce’s web site.The Missing Years
Whether you’re familiar with John Prine or not, you should at least make yourself familiar with The Missing Years. Produced by the late Howie Epstein of the Heartbreakers, and including such special guests as Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt, and the Boss himself, the album is full of warm melodies, and funny & insightful lyrics. You can end the weekend just right by listening to this tune…
John Prine:
The Sins of Memphisto(mp3)Buy The Missing Years on eMusic or Amazon.
Bonus: Todd Snider:
That’s the Way That the World Goes ‘Round(mp3)A Goldmine of Bruce Oslo Goodness
First off, a very cool video interview / press conference of Bruce before the Oslo show can be found here. The quality of the video itself is amazing, IF you have some patience. The Norwegian server that’s hosting it is probably getting slammed, and maybe it’ll get better. But some … patience … is … required.
And look what happened on the road to Oslo…
Bruce Springsteen music gear truck blocks Sweden-Norway crossing
dpa German Press Agency
Published: Sunday October 29, 2006Oslo – A truck laden with equipment for a concert being given by US rock musician Bruce Springsteen blocked the Sweden-Norway border crossing at Svinesund for several hours Sunday. The driver was slightly hurt after he skidded on the icy road, rammed a railing and was left with the trucked slewed side-on to the traffic, blocking it, the NTB news agency said.
The contents were undamaged, meaning the Oslo concert could go ahead later as scheduled.
And go on it did!
Bruce Springsteen & the Seeger Sessions Band
Oslo, Norway
October 29, 2006Atlantic City
John Henry
Ol’ Dan Tucker
Further On Up the Road
Jesse James
O Mary Don’t You Weep
Love of the Common People
Growin’ Up
Erie Canal
My Oklahoma Home
The River
Mrs. McGrath
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?
Jacob’s Ladder
Long Time Comin’
Open All Night
Pay Me My Money DownEncore:
Fire
Land of Hope & Dreams
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
When the Saints Go Marching In
This Little Light of Mine
American LandBuy the Seeger Sessions American Land Edition, okay? Okay!
Bruce’s Love of the Common People
‘Twas 5 nights ago, in the 2100 year old Spanish city of Valencia, that Bruce Springsteen and his fabulous Seeger Sessions Band did play this 39 year old song for the 1st time, to almost 30,000 people en el Estadio Ciutat De Valencia (the city’s soccer stadium).
From El Backstreets: “Written in 1967 by Ronnie Wilkins and John Hurley, it was the title track of a Waylon Jennings album that year; it was later a hit for Paul Young and has been also covered by Stiff Little Fingers, Elton John, Indigo Girls, John Denver, and others.”
Bruce puts away the throaty growl for a song and gets smooth. The recording leaves a little to be desired (the taper must have been pretty far away), but somethin’ is always better than nothin’, si?
Bruce Springsteen & the Seeger Sessions Band:
Love of the Common People(mp3)Buy the Seeger Sessions: American Land Edition (mp3)
Join my Boss Board.
The Boss in Rotterdam: Factory
Hey I went a whole week without a Bruce post! I thought I’d post another tour debut, “Factory”. There’s no new arrangement here, it actually sounds quite the same as the E Street reunion tour version. But still good in my most humble opinion. And all those who think that Bruce could stand on stage and fart into a microphone for an hour, and I’d still enjoy it, well – yeah, you may be right. But put me back in the 10th row.
Bruce Springsteen & the Seeger Sessions Band: Factory (mp3) – Live in Rotterdam, Oct. 13, 2006And of course the original can be found right here:
