{"id":14538,"date":"2023-05-04T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=14538"},"modified":"2023-04-23T12:43:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-23T11:43:44","slug":"springsteen-is-still-the-boss-around-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2023\/05\/04\/springsteen-is-still-the-boss-around-here\/","title":{"rendered":"SPRINGSTEEN IS STILL THE BOSS AROUND HERE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

and Norman Warwick has seen that in writing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior editor of Paste on-line, Garrett Martin, writes about videogames, comedy, travel, theme parks, wrestling, and anything else that gets in his way. He\u2019s also on Twitter. He is, then, an opionated and eclectic writer who sprinkles his work with a seasoned wisdom. So, when I noted he was discussing Bruce Springsteen (ostensibly, at least) I looked forward to an interesting read. I wasn\u00b4t disappointed. Come follow your art down sidetracks & detours to see what more we can learn any more about the man who is still \u00a8The Boss\u00b4around here.!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bruce Springsteen (left)<\/strong> is in his mid 70s,<\/em> Garrett Martin immediately reminded us, and is currently capable of greater physical feats than any I have ever been able to accomplish. He\u2019s got 30 years on me and yet I\u2019m positive I was more tired out by standing through his amazing three-hour show than he was performing it. What he and the E Street Band do at their age, in the year 2023, is unfathomable. Their recent show at State Farm Arena in Atlanta was just as great as the last show I saw them play\u00a023 years ago. It was just as long, just as energetic, just as triumphant, and despite the loss of a couple of iconic E Street members in the decades since, probably even better in pure musical terms. It\u2019s inexplicable, and we are all better off for it\u2014or at least the people who can afford to get tickets.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music must keep us young. What was it Steve Goodman said about \u00b4these wise old gents grey and bent\u00b4 who played everyone else under the table that night?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruce and the band pull out all the expected cheeseball arena rock moves, and it\u2019s all completely awesome. Do you want to see elder statesmen of rock leaning back to back while shredding on their guitars? See this show. Do you want to see a five-piece horn section march in unison to the front of the stage and flank their lead singer like a brass phalanx? Get to that arena. Do you want to see Bruce Springsteen do little toot toots with his right arm, yanking it down like he\u2019s trying to get a trucker to blow his horn, while marching in place? Of course you do. Do you want to see\u00a018\u00a0people on stage for almost three hours, blasting through 50 years of iconic hits, each getting their own little spotlight moment at the front of the stage (except for sunglasses-sporting bass player Garry Tallent, who\u2019s\u00a0too fucking cool\u00a0for that jive)? You know what to do.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wikipedia describes Garry Tallent (right)<\/em><\/strong> as having grown up in\u00a0<\/strong>Neptune City<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0around the\u00a0<\/strong>Jersey shore<\/strong><\/a>, Tallent took up first the\u00a0<\/strong>tuba<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and then the bass.\u00a0Tallent attended\u00a0<\/strong>Neptune High School<\/strong><\/a>, together with future bandmate\u00a0Vini Lopez<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was influenced, they say, by <\/strong>James Jamerson<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>Donald “Duck” Dunn<\/strong><\/a>, and <\/strong>Paul McCartney<\/strong><\/a>. He started playing with Springsteen in 1971 in two earlier bands and then was an original member of the E Street Band, who formed in 1972His bass plays a key role in Springsteen’s music (both live and in-studio). Notable Tallent bass parts can be heard on “<\/strong>Fire<\/strong><\/a>“, “<\/strong>Prove It All Night<\/strong><\/a>“, “<\/strong>Kitty’s Back<\/strong><\/a>“, and “<\/strong>Incident on 57th Street<\/strong><\/a>“. During the E Street Band’s early years, he occasionally played the tuba in concert and on record (most notably in “<\/strong>Wild Billy’s Circus Story<\/strong><\/a>“).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his work with Springsteen, Tallent has recorded with numerous other artists. In 1987 Tallent produced the song “<\/strong>Crying, Waiting, Hoping<\/strong><\/a>” for <\/strong>Marshall Crenshaw<\/strong><\/a> on <\/strong>La Bamba<\/em><\/strong><\/a> soundtrack. During the long time the E Street Band was inactive in the 1990s, Tallent moved to <\/strong>Nashville<\/strong><\/a>, having an affinity for <\/strong>country and western<\/strong><\/a> and <\/strong>rockabilly<\/strong><\/a> music. (By this point, Tallent had already long been referred to by the nickname “The Tennessee Terror”, a name given to him after once driving through Tennessee briefly on a roadtrip). There he opened the MoonDog recording studio and helped start the D’Ville Record Group label. Tallent has produced such artists as <\/strong>Jim Lauderdale<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>Kevin Gordon<\/strong><\/a>, and <\/strong>Steve Forbert<\/strong><\/a>, one of my favourite writers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Springsteen and the E Street Band performed on <\/strong>Saturday Night Live<\/strong><\/a> on December 12, 2020 however Tallent opted out of the performance due to <\/strong>COVID-19<\/strong><\/a> travel concerns. This marked the first time that Tallent had missed a show with the E Street Band. Jack Daly of the Disciples of Soul filled in for him.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Martin alos reflected  that Bruce Springsteen is a 73-year-old man who gets paid obscene amounts of money to act like a total cornball with his lifelong buddies, and if that isn\u2019t the best life possible I don\u2019t know what could be. I\u2019ve been told that Bruce himself has said something almost exactly like that, and that points out a huge part of the appeal of his shows: despite being one of the biggest bands in the world for 40 years, despite accomplishing everything any band could ever hope to accomplish, despite making millions upon millions of dollars, they\u2019ve never taken any of it for granted. They still work harder than pretty much every other band while making it look like the most fun they\u2019ve ever had in their lives. (Again, except Tallent. He\u2019s all business, and business is good.) They still give the fans the kind of marathon, hours-long shows they\u2019ve always been known for, even though they could easily get away with sets half as long at this point. They give it their all not because they have to, but because they want to\u2014because they still enjoy giving it their all. And I don\u2019t think there was a single person in that basketball arena last week who didn\u2019t appreciate it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what an E Street Band show is like in 2023. At the start of the show the core members come out one by one through a stairwell at the back of the stage, and that alone lasts as long as some punk sets I\u2019ve seen. Like every show so far this tour, the Atlanta show opened with \u201cNo Surrender\u201d from Born in the U.S.A., kicking it all off with a triumphant rocker from what\u2019s still his best-selling album. They quickly jumped forward 35 years while looking back several decades by playing 2020\u2019s \u201cGhosts,\u201d which was a highlight of the night, and which began the show\u2019s recurring motif of Bruce thinking back on the friends and bandmates he\u2019s lost over the years. Whatever you might<\/em> think about his more recent albums, the best of those songs land with all the power and majesty of the classics once the band puts \u2018em through the paces, and \u201cGhosts\u201d is a rousing start to the show<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From there the band cycles through classics from almost every major Springsteen album. Expect to hear \u201cCandy\u2019s Room,\u201d \u201cThe Promised Land,\u201d \u201cProve It All Night,\u201d and \u201cThe E Street Shuffle\u201d\u2014all in just the first hour or so. A lengthy cover of \u201cNightshift\u201d by the Commodores glides effortlessly into the Ben E. King song \u201cDon\u2019t Play That Song (You Lied),\u201d both of which appear on Springsteen\u2019s 2022 covers album\u00a0Only the Strong Survive; none of the E Street Band play on that album, and after seeing them crush these songs live it makes me wonder how that record would\u2019ve sounded with them backing up the Boss. \u201cBackstreets\u201d remains a high water mark for American music, and is still somehow even better live than on record. They plough through the decades at the end of the set, moving from \u201cShe\u2019s the One\u201d to \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d to \u201cThe Rising\u201d to show-closer \u201cBadlands,\u201d still as righteous an anthem as you\u2019ll ever hear.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The journalist tells us that Springsteen and his men (right)<\/em><\/strong> are now about a couple of hours into their gig, so from what we now know of him, he must be about as tired as his old granny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point the band\u2019s about two hours in, and nobody could blame them for wrapping it up and heading home. Again: they aren\u2019t young these days. When my grandmother was their age I\u2019m pretty sure she went to bed at 6 p.m. every single night. But after a barely there gap of 60 seconds or so, they\u2019re right back into the encore without ever leaving the stage. Most shows on this tour they\u2019ve played \u201cThunder Road\u201d somewhere around here, either at the end of the main set or at the start of the encore. If somebody made a law forcing Bruce and the band to play their three best songs at every concert they ever played, \u201cThunder Road\u201d would be one of the three; I feel terrible for everybody who was at the tour-opening Tampa show, not just because they live in Tampa, but because the band somehow didn\u2019t play this song. The rest of the encore reliably includes \u201cBorn to Run,\u201d \u201cGlory Days,\u201d \u201cDancing in the Dark,\u201d \u201cRosalita (Come Out Tonight)\u201d\u2014every song a banger\u2014before ending with the twofer of \u201cTenth Avenue Freeze-Out\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ll See You in My Dreams.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those last two songs express the two ends of the Springsteen spectrum. \u201cTenth Avenue\u201d is a good-time rocker about friendship and the nature of being in a band (among other things). It was recorded when Springsteen was 25, an ascendant young man unaffected by the weight of an additional 50 years of life and loss. During \u201cTenth Avenue\u201d Bruce leaves the stage and walks down to a thin walkway between the general admission section and the floor seats, where he spends the rest of the song shimmying and posing for photos while singing. It\u2019s all about rock music as an affirmation of life and an ironclad form of friendship, the kind of things you want to sing about when you\u2019re young and invincible. When it\u2019s over, the rest of the band exits after Springsteen returns to the main stage and plays one last song alone. Released in 2020, \u201cI\u2019ll See You in My Dreams\u201d is a somber (but not maudlin) address to everybody Springsteen has lost over the years\u2014friends, family, bandmates, industry connections, and others who have meant something to Springsteen and his career. It might sound like a depressing way to end the show, but it\u2019s a crucial dose of truth preparing us for the return to the real world once we step outside that arena.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Springsteen has combined melancholy and majesty for much of his career, but early story songs like \u201cThe River\u201d and the\u00a0Nebraska\u00a0record weren\u2019t necessarily grounded in lived experience. \u201cI\u2019ll See You in My Dreams\u201d is unmistakably personal, and it follows other songs from earlier in Springsteen\u00b4s set that strike the same tone. One of them, \u201cLast Man Standing,\u201d is a sad but sure-eyed ode to one of Springsteen\u2019s earliest bandmates, a high school friend who passed away in 2018, leaving Bruce as the last survivor from their garage band. As enriching and rejuvenating as this show is, there\u2019s still an aching sense of loss at its core, a recognition of how improbable it is that Springsteen and his band are still out here doing this in their 70s, and a reminder that we need to make the most of our time here while we can. For Bruce and his band and so many others, that means grabbing a guitar and bashing out jams with his buddies; it probably means something else entirely for you, but the lesson still<\/em> resonates. We\u2019re all here for a relatively short period of time, no matter how many decades we collect, so let\u2019s make the most of it while we can. <\/em>Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band certainly are.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paste on line is stuck full of excellent writers and contributors and is my favourite place for reading about my kind of music, Americana, and you will see from our acknowledgements below a whole raft of reading, listening and even writing real and virtual venues. that we gather together to which you can follow sidetracks and detours to an even more expansive and informed view of the arts than we can offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

acknowledgements<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

please note logo <\/strong>The primary sources for  this piece were written by Garrett Martin for Paste on line magazine and some contents of Wikiepedia- Wherever possible the original writers have been attributed,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images employed have been taken from on line sites only where  categorised as  images free to use.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

for a more comprehensive detail of our attribution policy see our for reference only post on 7th<\/sup> April entitled Aspirations And Attributions.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019ll See You in My Dreams\u201d is unmistakably personal, and it follows other songs from earlier in Springsteen\u00b4s set that strike the same tone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14544,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14538\/revisions\/14544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}