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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND: Live in New York City By Mark Leffler The altar call comes during "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out" which has always been one of the foot-stomping arm-waving highlights of any performance by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. Their traveling road show has always been a crazy blend of Elvis, Woody Guthrie, Elmer Gantry tent revivals and 60's Philly blue-eyed soul, but one that, like most great live bands, is an experience that's difficult to get across after the fact. But for the true believers who have been along for the ride since the 70's, there is finally a video document to augment the live recordings (official releases as well as basements full of bootlegs) that made the band's reputation as one of the greatest shows on earth. "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live In New York City" is both a two-hour HBO special (the band's first full-length televised concert debuted April 7th) and a 20 song double CD release on Columbia Records. The live CDs also include seven additional songs that don't appear in the HBO special. The TV special and the CDs were recorded June 29th and July 1st, 2000 during the last two nights of a sold-out ten night stand at New York's Madison Square Garden celebrating the end of a world tour that kicked off in April of 1999 in Barcelona, Spain. Springsteen and the band are one of New Jersey's most famous exports and New York City and Jersey settings like Asbury Park and Atlantic City are familiar landmarks for the hometown crowd. And lemme tell ya folks, it was some kind of homecoming. "My Love Will Not Let You Down": Recorded during the early 80's but left off of 1984's "Born in the USA", this song was a frequent show opener. Lots of energy and a nice showcase for the full band. A taste of the Springsteen/Van Zandt vocal harmonies that decorate several songs. "Prove It All Night": A reach back to 1978's "Darkness on the Edge of Town". Solid backbone rhythm section provided by bassist Gary W. Tallent and "Mighty" Max Weinberg (famous for a new generation as the house drummer on "Late Night with Conan O'Brian"). A nostalgic drive back to youthful rendezvous: "Baby tie your hair back in a long white bow/Meet me in the fields behind the dynamo/You'll hear their voices tell you not to go/They made their choices and they'll never know/What it means to steal, to cheat, to lie/ What it's like to live and die/to prove it all night." Might Max drum rolls...rolling thunder...rapid-fire artillery. "Two Hearts": Interesting on record but much more exciting live. The main
duet vocal isn't with wife Patty Scialfa but guitarist Steven Van Zandt.
Van Zandt and Springsteen go back more than thirty years and he was a full
time member of the band before leaving after recording 1984's "Born in the
USA". But these two rock and roll obsessed Jersey kids defined the sound of
the E Street Band and Van Zandt's band "Southside Johnny & the Asbury
Jukes". "Two Hearts" pays tribute to partnerships of all kinds. Their
mike-sharing harmonies have ties in the 50's do-wop bands and the 60's frat
rock they grew up on ("Louie, Louie", "Double Shot of My Baby's Love",
"Raise Your Hand").
"Atlantic City", which first appeared on the largely acoustic solo "Nebraska" album, here is transformed into a full band arrangement with Van Zandt on mandolin and keyboard player Danny Federici on accordion. The sound is reminiscent of Seventies supergroup, The Band. What was a haunting solo number becomes a soaring anthem to the frustration of small town hustles and fragile dreams. "Mansion On The Hill" offers a vocal duet with Patty accented by slide guitar. Their delicate harmonies blend tenderly with this story of a father driving his son past the wealthy estates of the rich, which seems like another world compared with their working class neighborhood. Bruce Springsteen Live in NY...Click the pic for a better view! "The River": A silhouette of Clarence Clemons bathed on indigo light begins a jazz-blues version of "The River". Roy Bittan's electric piano is joined by Springsteen on harmonica. What is surprising is what an amazing harp player he has become from his decade of solo work. In concert these slower numbers were difficult to connect to basketball arena-size audiences. The quiet section of the show sparked an exodus to snack vendors and restrooms. But the HBO show demonstrates just how powerful these somber ballads of love and loss play to an audience quiet enough to listen and devoted enough to care. Springsteen's blue-collar roots have always shone through and this song always played well in mill towns. "Now those dreams come back to haunt me/ They haunt me like a curse/Tell me is a dream alive if it don't come true/Or is it something worse?" Thank you HBO for the close-ups that show every facial gesture with the lilting falsetto and harmonica that winds the song down. A wide angle then shows Bruce direct the band's closing with slow, languid hand gestures. Poetry in motion. "Youngstown": Time to let the fans in the beer line know that they're going loud again. Its another chronicle of a working class hero betrayed by promises that hard work will lead to security and success. Guitarist Nils Lofgren turns in an astonishing solo that's the equal of any Eddie VanHalen lick. When did "the new guy" get so good? This is another example of why you have to see the video to fully appreciate how incredibly good these guys are as musicians. Close-ups and camera angles afford a view very few concertgoers enjoy. Lofgren finishes with a crunching flourish that's kind of like Neil Young's live stomping heavy metal frenzies (well, DUH... Lofgren did a tour of duty with Young's back-up band Crazy Horse back in the 70's).
"Out In The Street": Once again, this song isn't the same on the studio recording. In concert it comes alive...harmonies with blood brother Miami Steve..."When I'm out on the street...oh oh oh OH oh...I walk the way I wanna walk/When I'm out on the street I talk the way I wanna talk" This really has the crowd on their feet. Nils and Clarence twirling, dancing arm in arm...each member of the band taking a turn at the chorus "Meet me out in the street, baby". The whole audience is singing along and they're ready for their baptism of fire. It's time for the altar call. "Born To Run": This originally wasn't going to be included in this set, but was added to the CD after the cover art was printed. Springsteen said in a USA Today interview, "We screened it a couple of weeks ago and realized something was missing. It was that summational song. "Born to Run" somehow includes everything I did and everything I'm still thinking about. It's a spiritual connector through all the material I've written." "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" "You gotta let them hear you in Jersey, man" The build up on this song is indescribable...just watch it. Bruce climbs the piano and is squeezing every decibel out of the faithful. This is the epic of the band's formation and for years he's used it to introduce them. It's the story of how a struggling Bruce (Bad Scooter) added Clarence (The Big Man) to the E Street Band. "Teardrops on the city/Bad Scooter searching for his groove/Seem like the whole word walking pretty and you can't find the room to move/ Well everybody better move over, that's all/Cause I'm running on the bad side and I got my back to the wall/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out" The Boss starts pacing the stage and testifying like a televangelist, blending into Rev. Al Green's "Take Me to the River". Then the gospel rap starts: "I want to find that river of life...I wanna find that river of faith... of hope... that river of sexual healing and companionship...I wanna find that river of joy and happiness...that's why we're here night after night, after night after night...because you can't get to those places by yourself...you got to have help. But that's where I want to go tonight and I want you to go there with me...because I need to go with you that's why I'm here.I'm gonna throw a rock an roll exorcism... a rock and roll baptism and a rock and roll bar mitzvah ..we're going to do it all tonight...everything...I want those waters to fall down on me and set me free. But I stood alone as a young man before a grove of trees and I was frightened to pass through those trees...even though I knew that on the other side the river of life was waiting...but I stood paralyzed...by my own fear...and then a gypsy woman called me onward and she said "Son, come here, let me help you...what's your line?" and I told her and she said "What you need is a band". Here Springsteen introduces the band members one by one. "Land of Hopes and Dreams": The Woody Guthrie "Bound for Glory" influence is heard in this new song, which debuted as the tour began and became a signature of the tour, played each night in the encores (which often lasted longer than some headliners shows). Soulful sax solo about two-thirds of the way through, like so many E Street songs. "This train.../Carries saints and sinners/This train.../Carries losers and winners/This train.../Carries whores and gamblers/This train .../Carries lost souls/ This train.../Dreams will not be thwarted/ This train.../Faith will be rewarded/ This train.../Carries broken hearted/This train.../Thieves and sweet souls departed... "American Skin (41 Shots): The final number of the HBO show, this was written during the tour and debuted during a June 4th concert in Atlanta. At the time many people, including police organizations, mistakenly thought it was an attack on the police. While the song is, in part, about the Amadou Diallo 1999 shooting, Springsteen told Robert Hilburn in the Los Angeles Times that "the first verse is about people trying to cross the river of race, and how the river is tainted with blood. The second verse is about a mother sending her child to school, having to give very specific instructions about how to act. It's so painful for her because most people assume their children will be safe, but she can't make that assumption. She knows that the slightest movement or slightest misunderstanding could mean the end of your life." (Note: The double live CD also contains "Lost in the Flood", "Born in the USA", "Don't Look Back", "Jungleland", "Ramrod", and "If I Should Fall Behind". The HBO special is being replayed. Check cable listings or call you local cable provider. For those of you without HBO, it will eventually be released on video for sale.
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