Springsteen at 75
He remains a musician writ large. Thoughts in advance of "Tracks II: The Lost Albums."
Tracks II: The Lost Albums will be released in full at the end of this month (Friday, June 27) following the trickle of teaser tracks doled out over the past weeks. The seven-LP set explores Springsteen’s unreleased, albeit frequently bootlegged, output over the years from 1983 to 2018, tracking his evolution as a working artist and a restless songwriter.
It’s a lot — and it’s filled with gems. I’ll be writing more about it in the coming days.
My first Springsteen show was the Palladium in New York City, 1976 — the Born To Run tour. I recall going to the show solo, having wrangled a single seat in the last row of the top-most balcony. I had to stand on tip-toe to see the stage over the lip of the railing, and despite the discomfort, I stood that way for nearly the whole show.
It was an amazing performance, a glimpse of living with an intensity I wanted to tap into, to unpack, or at least get a better view of. It was one of those experiences that alters your perspective and sets your compass.
Few musicians I saw back in those days are still alive, let alone performing at a high level. The Palladium is now an NYU dorm. Springsteen, now 75 years old, is moving slower these days. But, damn — here’s a taste of a show I caught last year in Albany, New York.
It was a typically great show, which showed his evolution as a songwriter — an evolution that gets brilliantly illuminated on The Lost Albums.
For now, though, lets recap recent Springsteen news. In Manchester last month, he played the first of a three-night run to kick off his Land of Hope and Dreams tour in the UK. In addition to potent sets that revolve around some of his most socially-conscious songs, he spoke eloquently about the state of the United States of America, an address he repeated at subsequent shows.
His words did not go unnoticed. The Nation announced “This is the Bruce We’ve Been Waiting For.” The president tweeted insults and threats. Op-eds abounded, some of them quite good.
Springsteen didn’t shrink from the moment. He doubled down, repeating his speeches each night. He posted a supercut of them on his website. He rush-released a live EP that prominently features some of them. And he’s been updating them as the tour progressed and new outrages take place on American streets.
The EP also includes some great songs. For me, the version of “Long Walk Home” — a 2007 single from Magic that I never paid much attention to until now — landed hard.
Springsteen’s example echoed through the music world. At a Pearl Jam concert in Pittsburgh following Springsteen’s first show, Eddie Vedder played “My City of Ruins.”
At the band’s next show, Vedder reprised some of Springsteen’s Manchester oratory, followed by a fierce version of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.” (Neil Young himself, meanwhile, offered words in solidarity with Springsteen on his website.)
MJ Lenderman, performing in Philadelphia that week, ended his show with a cover of Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” with raw guest vocals from Dan Wriggins, of the great Philly band Friendship.
Jeff Tweedy posted a cover of “Born In the U.S.A.” to his Substack, along with thoughts of his own on Springsteen — a musician who inspired him perhaps more than you’d think.
There' have been more — check Morgan Wade’s recent “I’m On Fire” Facebook post (“I don’t really do cover songs, but Bruce Springsteen melts me”). I imagine there are very few ambitious singer-songwriters in America, certainly those in the rock, folk and country worlds, not inspired one way or another by Springsteen. He’s a musician who has evolved quite a ways from the urban street poet I wrote about in Love Goes To Buildings on Fire, who was himself inspired by the sanctified spirit of Southern soul music, the poetics of Bob Dylan, and increasingly over time, the politicized folk singers who inspired Dylan, particularly Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
Springsteen isn’t the only prominent musician speaking out. Bono spoke with brief eloquence about Gaza at the Ivor Novello awards. Doechii did the same regarding the recent Los Angeles protests at the BET Awards. The relative silence among American musicians has been notable, if understandable. But with artists like these taking the lead, things seem to be changing.
Amidst all the honorific covers by his peers, it’s fitting Springsteen has been ending his shows with his own honorific cover, of Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom.” The pre-recorded outro music fans heard through the soundsystem as they exited the arena was Woody Guthrie singing “This Land is Your Land.” Let all these songs be beacons for the days ahead. — Will
PS — Speaking of covers, this version The Clash’s timely “London Calling” is absolutely brutal. It opened the tremendous 2009 Hyde Park concert (one of the final shows with Clarence Clemons), the excellent film of which was recently re-posted.
Love this post! Even moreso because I, too, was at that 76 Palladium show!
Well done.