Springsteen Returns to the Road
Back in U.S.A. for summer tour; 120,000 attend six shows in New Jersey
CHRISTOPHER CONNELLY / August 20, 1981I've never seen nothing like this," an ecstatic Bruce Springsteen confided to 20,000 of his closest friends early last month as he kicked off his summer U.S. tour with six sold-out dates at New Jersey's Brendan Byrne Arena. Springsteen's open-mouthed enthusiasm was clearly directed less at the fine new concert-sports facility than at the overjoyed reaction of his Jersey brethren. "That was the best show ever," he said in his dressing room after the first night's performance. "We couldn't hear each other onstage. I felt like the Beatles."
Even so, the opening set of his three-hour-plus show seemed curiously lackluster. Concentrating on the more pensive, brooding songs in his repertoire ("Darkness on the Edge of Town," and his new Elvis tribute, "Bye-Bye Johnny"), Springsteen remained relatively inert onstage. The most surprising point came before "Independence Day" and it's concomitant rap, when he muttered quickly to the crowd, "I'm gonna need a little quiet on this song, thank you." Not a graceless moment, surely, but an off-key one, as if Bruce had lost sight of his fans' savvy. He repeated a line before a solo version of "This Land Is Your Land," replete with characteristic minor chords and overly mournful vocals. Somewhat uninspired renditions of "Badlands" and "Thunder Road" closed out the set, leaving a few Springsteen aficionados knitting their brows worriedly.
But Bruce and the E Street Band erased all doubts in Act Two. Taking the stage with fire in their eyes, they launched into a whammo streak of ass-shaking rockers: "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)," "Cadillac Ranch" (sung by Bruce while wearing a humongous foam-rubber cowboy hat) and "Sherry Darling." The good-natured Springsteen swagger was back, and when saxman Clarence Clemons, resplendent in a powder-blue polyester suit, swung into "Hungry Heart," the euphoric house screamed out the first verse and chorus to the visible delight of the band.
Much of the rest of the show passed in a blizzard of dancey delight, and for the encore, Springsteen came up with a masterstroke cover: Tom Waits' "Jersey Girl," a bittersweet ballad on the vicissitudes of love in what used to be called the armpit of the nation. Miami Steve Van Zandt then got into the act, crooning his own "I Don't Wanna Go Home," and an extended Mitch Ryder medley brought an end to the proceedings -- that is, until a hopped-up Bruce stopped his bowing and lurched the band into their European tour curtain-closer, a John Fogerty foot-stomper entitled "Rockin' All Over the World."
Later shows had Springsteen juggling the first night's lineup and adding a scintillating new song, "Trapped," reportedly a Jimmy Cliff number reworked in the searing mode of Darkness on the Edge of Town. But not everything went his way: during the third show, a firecracker exploded smack in the middle of the emotional "Racing in the Streets," angering Springsteen and perceivably altering his relationship with the audience for the duration of the set.
After inaugurating the Brendan Byrne Arena, Bruce and the band made an unannounced appearance at the opening of Clarence Clemons' restaurant-club, Big Man's West, in Red Bank. Declaring to the 400 fans who'd braved temperatures in excess of 100 degrees that "this is a night for bar music," Bruce led the group through Chuck Berry's "Around and Around," Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" and a handful of others before declaring, "Game called on account of heat!" and splitting.
Once done in New Jersey, it was on to Philadelphia for another series of shows, to be followed by similar engagements in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and a host of cities to be named later. Also on the boards is a benefit for Vietnam veterans, the details of which have yet to be announced.
Native Sons: Bruce and Bon Jovi
Jersey rockers surprise the Stone Pony
MARK COLEMAN / June 4, 1987What do you do on a Sunday night in Asbury Park, New Jersey? If you head over to the Stone Pony bar, you can catch Cats on a Smooth Surface playing their regular gig. And if you're as lucky as a couple hundred Garden Staters were recently, you may catch a bit of rock & roll history.
On April 12th, Bruce Springsteen and most of the E Street Band (except for Clarence Clemons and Nils Lofgren) took the stage just before the midnight hour. They rolled through a sweaty hour-plus set of originals ("Light of Day," "Stand on It," "Darlington County," "My Hometown" and "Glory Days") and golden oldies ("Lucille," "Carol," "Wooly Bully" and "Twist and Shout"). After that, the Boss told the crowd, "Don't leave yet." Turns out Jon Bon Jovi was lurking in the wings. He joined Bruce for a rendition of "Kansas City," then Jon and his guitarist Richie Sambora, and his drummer, Tico Torres, tackled Tom Petty's "Breakdown." According to Stone Pony regular Kerry Layton, a very good time was had by all -- "for the bargain price of four bucks!"
Still the Boss in Europe
Springsteen slays 'em in Stockholm
J.D. CONSIDINE/ August 6, 1992Bruce Springsteen seemed genuinely pleased with the way his new show had gone over with the crowd at Stockholm's Globe Arena on June 15th, the opening night of the European leg of his tour. "Det ar skitbra att vara i Stockholm," he said in halting Swedish, and if his pronunciation left a little to be desired -- "At least I got Stockholm right," he laughed -- it was easy to understand why he felt that it was "good as shit to be in Stockholm."
For one thing, starting his tour in Sweden meant that Springsteen could finally put some distance between his new show and the media's doubts about his post-E Street Band future. There were no stories in the Swedish press wondering why Human Touch and Lucky Town slipped out of the Top Ten so quickly; the closest any of the Stockholm papers came to complaining about Springsteen was when Expressen's automotive columnist wrote a piece lamenting the lack of car songs on the new albums. Further, both Stockholm shows had been sold out for weeks (U2, by contrast, failed to fill the Globe five nights earlier), with the tour-opening show setting an attendance record (15,800) for the building.
Best of all though, was the show itself. This performance was nothing like the Springsteen shows of old; in fact, the bulk of Springsteen's twenty-six-song set was drawn from Lucky Town, Human Touch and Born in the U.S.A., with only one song each from Tunnel of Love, The River and Darkness on the Edge of Town. It was not, in other words, a show meant to please Springsteen classicists. Yet that hardly dampened the enthusiasm of his Swedish fans. Indeed, the crowd in Stockholm was so bowled over by the show that it kept cheering for six full minutes after the house lights came up.
Why? Most of the excitement may have come from the fact that Springsteen quite simply has never sounded better. Sporting a surprisingly soulful sound, his ten-piece ensemble -- E Street vet Roy Bittan on synths, Shane Fontayne on guitar, Tommy Sims on bass, Zachary Alford on drums, Crystal Taliefero on acoustic guitar and percussion, plus vocalists Bobby King, Angel Rogers, Carol Dennis, Cleo Kennedy and Gia Ciambotti -- gave Springsteen greater musical range that the E Street Band ever did.
Some songs were radically rearranged such as "57 Channels (and Nothin' On)," which jettisoned the jittery rockabilly sound used on Human Touch and instead relied on Fontayne's wah-wah guitar and Taliefero's congas to build a throbbing funk groove, spiked with news sound bites and chants of "No justice, no peace!" There was an even stronger R&B flavor to "Man's Job," where Springsteen played Sam Moore to Bobby King's Dave Prater.
Even "Born in the U.S.A." seemed transformed, from its Hendrixian "Star-Spangled Banner" intro to its lean-and-mean rhythm arrangement. It was almost as if the new band had given Springsteen the means to rediscover his own songs. "My Hometown," for instance, was imbued with a staggering sense of loss, as if an entire way of life had disappeared with the hometown of his youth. But the most stunning reinterpretation of all was "Brilliant Disguise," a song about sneaking around, which Springsteen and wife Patti Scialfa (in one of the two cameos during the show) somehow turned into a moving testament to marital fidelity.
No wonder, then, that by the time Springsteen and company had roared through adrenalized encores like "Glory Days" and "Bobby Jean," the Swedish fans were cheering like maniacs. Which is why "My Beautiful Reward," though a wonderfully apt ending for the show, barely seemed enough for these fans -- after hearing the new Springsteen, it's impossible not to want more.
Springsteen Finds 'A Sense of Place'
Bruce shines in his stripped-down Florida show
FRED SCHRUERS / February 6, 1997SUNRISE, FLORIDA: "Don't make me come out there and slaaaap that tan off ya." Bruce Springsteen's warnings to potentially restless crowds tend to have a local flavor. In September 1995, he began his tour in support of The Ghost of Tom Joad by telling a Los Angeles crowd to turn off their cellular phones. Here at the 3,068-seat Sunrise Musical Theater, in early December, some 100 shows later, he's still asking for quiet. What's changed is that a show he admits was initially "austere" is now a kaleidoscope of jokes, shaggydog stories, paeans to cunnilingus and, yes, plenty of the brooding, socially conscious fare that marks the album.
If a few fans out there still holler for "Thunder Road" (one Floridian reprovingly shouted, "Rock & roll," midshow, before exiting), most are attentive as Springsteen works with his seventeen acoustic guitars, his harmonicas and a vocal attack that now includes an evocative, high-pitched keening. He will rock, slamming out a percussive "Johnny 99" or "Working on the Highway," but pointedly deconstructs certain old rockers like the much-misinterpreted "Born in the U.S.A."
Sitting backstage after a strikingly eclectic set on his second night at Sunrise, Springsteen notes, "Tonight was a bit experimental. I've tried to rearrange a lot of the Darkness [on the Edge of Town] stuff, because it was some of the first adult music I wrote -- really about people hanging by a thread. That music fits real well into what I'm doing now."
Springsteen has gained momentum from events along the road, including a benefit for the John Steinbeck Center, at California's San Jose State University. Days later, he performed at a Los Angeles rally against the California state proposition blocking affirmative action. (Jesse Jackson stood beside him as the singer warned, "The seeds of racism and injustice do not sleep.") And in places like Fresno, California, and San Diego, backdrops for current, edgy songs, he jabbed at then-campaigning Bob Dole.
Springsteen is aware that some found his sobering record to be an arbitrary departure, but he explains, "[Tom Joad] wasn't that different from the legacy of my own family. My parents struggled a lot. The material followed ideas that I started out with -- things that bothered me, and I wrote about them. You've got to find your own isolation, your own sense of being between the road and the void...After that, what else does a writer do? He looks around." What Springsteen found, he says, is "a sense of place" -- namely his adoptive California and the long scar marking its border with Mexico. His sets close with a suite of brooding songs from Joad. The show's reflective stretch can be "challenging," he admits. "I'm trying to hold my place and write about the things that I felt were, and still are, important."
The newest song in Springsteen's repertoire was introduced with a mention of his wife, Patti Scialfa. It's a plain, pure love song called "There Will Never Be." "I never played anything quite like that before," he says. "It's been a long time coming."
Springsteen's last trips to his other home, in New Jersey, were for a benefit show and then a trio of homecoming gigs in Asbury Park, with one set featuring Scialfa on vocals, Soozie Tyrell on violin and Danny Federici on accordion -- a possible preview, he confirms, of the next record's instrumentation. "I've got probably half a record," he says, "and I don't know if it's any good. I've got to wait and see, record it and hear it back." His reunion with the E-Street Band was "fun" ("I love the guys -- if I was going to go out and play with a rock band, that's the one"), but don't look for a major reunion soon: "I'm not sure exactly what I'd do that would be new." Studio plans aside, Springsteen will play a series of shows in Japan and Australia early this year, after which he'll probably tour further in the States. "I certainly don't feel like stopping now," he says. "I feel I have a chance to be a fresh force with these things . . . fundamentally drawn from my personal emotional experience.
"There was a period after 1985 where I didn't know if I'd write about them again," he continues. "I didn't know if I had anything new to say. And then, with this record, I really felt a deep re-connection to that part of my own life. And, you know, thirty years down the line, I feel pretty lucky that I've got a job to do."
Fame '98
Fifteen legends nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
HEIDI SHERMAN (no date)Although the ballots are not in, word is out. Fifteen legendary musicians have been nominated as candidates for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
The nominees, who represent the rock idiom from gospel to metal, from the Piano Man to the Superfly, are: Black Sabbath; the Staples Singers; Paul McCartney (who has already been inducted as a member of the Beatles); the Flamingos; Darlene Love; Dusty Springfield; Solomon Burke; Gene Pitney; the Moonglows; Del Shannon; Ritchie Valens; Billy Joel; Curtis Mayfield; Steely Dan and Bruce Springsteen, who recently met the twenty-five-year requirement for eligibility having released his first album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., in 1973.
According to Suzan Evans, executive director of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a panel of seventy music historians compiled the list and sent it to co-chairmen Seymour Stein, president and CEO of Sire Records, and Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen's longtime manager. Ballots were postmarked last Monday to some 800 voters in the music industry around the world. Based on the highest number of votes, up to eight nominees will be selected for induction into the Hall of Fame sometime in November.
We assume, naturally, that Springsteen will make the cut.
The Boss and Big Ben
Bruce Springsteen prepares to argue in London's High Court;
box set street date official
JIM IRVIN/ no date (1998)It's Tuesday, Oct. 6, and Bruce Springsteen is standing outside of London's High Court, amicably meeting his fans. His single-breasted charcoal grey suit, polished Dr. Martens, cloud-blue shirt and indigo tie suggest a groom who's mislaid his wedding, but the American rocker is a picture of casual confidence.
The Boss is here to give evidence in a dispute against Masquerade Music, who plan to release an album of songs demoed by a baby-faced Bruce in 1972. Masquerade, a London-based company that specializes in rare recordings, claims to have acquired the rights to thirty-two songs via Jim Cretecos, Springsteen's first manager and producer. Springsteen blocked an earlier attempt by a Bristol-based company called Flute International to release an album of these songs in 1996. When Flute went into liquidation, Masquerade acquired the tapes and scheduled a nineteen-song album, Before The Fame, at which point Springsteen filed another injunction in 1997.
Springsteen, whose smart attire and twin-tower bodyguards helped him enter the court unrecognized by fans who'd gathered in the Strand, appeared to be enjoying the occasion and was apparently impressed by the historic surroundings and sense of ancient ritual. He was described by his counsel as "an extremely well-known popular figure and songwriter."
"This is something I believe in very strongly," Springsteen said after Tuesday's session. "I'm not nervous. I'm looking forward to giving evidence tomorrow." He'll take the stand this afternoon.
Another thing the Boss is not the least nervous about is the pending release of his box-set, Tracks. Springsteen's publicity company confirmed yesterday afternoon that the much-ballyhooed four-disc set, which contains sixty-six songs and more than four hours of material dating back to '72, will hit the streets on Nov. 10. Fifty-six tracks -- many of them culled from the sessions for The River and Born In the U.S.A. -- will reach consumers' ears for the first time. The other ten songs are b-sides, many of them never made available in the States.
In his liner notes, part of a fifty-six-page booklet of notes and photos that accompanies the set, Springsteen says that over the years some of his favorite tracks have ended up on the cutting room floor. "I'm glad to finally be able to share this music," he writes. "Here are some of the ones that got away."
Really Randoms:
The Boss acts
(no date)Though he won't join the likes of Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and the Velvet Underground on the loaded soundtrack for High Fidelity, Bruce Springsteen will make a cameo appearance in the movie. The Boss will appear as himself in the film based on Nick Hornby's book of the same name about a Springsteen-reverent record store owner. "I was thrilled to bits," says Hornby about getting Springsteen to appear in the film, though he expressed disappointment that a short blues riff played by Springsteen in the film was left off of the soundtrack. "What Springsteen's appearance in the movie really underlines, however, is the difference between John Cusack and Rob [the protagonist]," he says. "Rob fantasizes about getting advice from the Boss; Cusack phones him up and asks him to appear in the movie." It is Springsteen's first role in a feature, other than concert films. High Fidelity is scheduled for national release on March 31...
First Dates on Springsteen's U.S. Tour Announced
Bruce & the E Street Band kick off American tour with five nights in Jersey
RICHARD SKANSE / May 18, 1999The first five dates of Bruce Springsteen's much anticipated American tour with the reunited E Street Band have been announced, and to no one's surprise, they're all in the Boss' home state of New Jersey. Bruce and the band will play five nights -- July 15, 18, 20, 24 and 26 -- at New Jersey's Continental Airlines Arena.
Additional dates -- spread out across the rest of the country -- will be announced soon. The Springsteen camp does reveal that other major cities will likely receive the multiple-night treatment to accommodate fans.
Tickets for all five New Jersey shows go on sale Saturday, May 22 and will cost $37.50 and $67.50. Tickets for the first seventeen rows, which will be limited to two per customer for one show only, will only be available through Ticketmaster charge-by-phone. All other seats can be purchased at regular Ticketmaster outlets.
Springsteen and the E Street Band, currently in the thick of a thirty-six-date, twenty-six-city European tour spanning twelve countries, should be well limbered up by the time they hit the States. Fans can expect marathon runs through the bulk of the Boss catalog, with surprise guests certain to pop up whenever possible. At a recent (May 16) tour stop in Birmingham, England, the band was joined by Edwin Starr for a storm through the R&B legend's "War."
The full lineup of the E Street Band for this tour includes drummer Max Weinberg (on extended leave-of-absence from the Late Show with Conan O'Brien), guitarists Steve Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren, saxophonist and percussionist Clarence Clemmons, keyboard players Danny Federici and Roy Bittan, bassist Garry Tallent and singer/guitarist (and Springsteen spouse) Patti Scialfa.
Springsteen Busts His Own Record
The Boss sells out fifteen New Jersey shows in thirteen hours
RICHARD SKANSE / May 24, 1999It's hard enough to be a saint in the city, but getting tickets to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band this summer could prove to be a considerably harder endeavor. The first five shows on Springsteen's American tour -- all at New Jersey's Continental Airlines Arena -- sold out so fast Saturday (May 22) that five additional dates were added. Three hours later, five more shows were added. Thirteen hours after the first tickets went on sale at 9 a.m., all 308,000 tickets for the fifteen shows -- July 15, 18, 20, 24, 26, 27, 29, August 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12 -- were snatched up by eager fans.
Springsteen's fifteen-night sell out trounces the previous concert industry record for the most consecutive shows at a single arena (eleven), but odds are the previous record holder is taking the one-upmanship in stride. Springsteen set that record himself back in 1992, also at the Continental Airlines Arena.
Assuming Springsteen ever makes it out of his home state, a full-scale tour is planned for the rest the country, which hasn't seen Bruce and the E Street Band tour together in more than a decade. Dates and cities for the rest of the tour have yet to be revealed, though the Springsteen camp promises enlightenment "soon." Multiple dates are expected to be booked for other major cities on tour, though few fans in other regions are likely to get fifteen shots at seeing the Boss.
And what of the approximately 7,806,011 Jersey residents who weren't able to grab hold of one of the 308,000 tickets sold Saturday (assuming, absurdly, that none were sold to those Yanks across the Hudson)? Hope appears to be slim. A spokesperson for the Continental Airlines Arena would not comment on the possibility of any additional dates being added.
"Right now we have fifteen shows and we're very happy for that, since it sets a record," said the source.
The Week in Weird
Bruce Springsteen 101
DAVID SPRAGUE / January 14, 2000So the ivory-tower types over at Oxford have finally decided that working-class hero Bruce Springsteen is a topic worthy of study. However, in a move characteristic of folks who drive on the wrong side of the road, they've determined that The Boss would be best served up by their geography department. In what sounds like a scenario dreamed up by one of those folks who craft course loads for the Great American College Athlete, the department raves that a dissection of Broooooce's more Jersey-centric lyrics is an ideal fit since "they help the complete geographer have a sense of landscape." And no mention of the Ramones and "Rockaway Beach"? Hmph!
Springsteen to Tour U.S. in Spring
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band ready to return to the road
RICHARD SKANSE / January 25, 2000If you somehow missed Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's highly trumpeted, eighty-seven-night 1999 world tour and are still kicking yourself, stop. The Boss' camp has just announced the first twenty-eight days of a spring North American tour set to kick off Feb. 28 at the Bryce Jordan Center at State College, Penn., and wrap up with a five-night stand at New York's Madison Square Garden in mid-June.
The MSG dates will be Springsteen's first in more than a decade -- the last time he played the Garden was on the 1988 "Tunnel of Love Express" tour.
The announced dates for Bruce Springsteen's spring tour are:
2/28: State College, Penn., Bryce Jordan Center
3/4: Orlando, Fla., Orlando Arena
3/9: Tampa, Fla., Ice Palace
3/13: Dallas, Reunion Arena
3/14: Little Rock, Ark., Altel Arena
3/18: Memphis, Tenn., Pyramid Arena
3/19: New Orleans, New Orleans Arena
3/30: Denver, Pepsi Arena
4/3: Portland, Ore., Rose Garden Arena
4/4: Tacoma, Wash., Tacoma Dome
4/8: St. Louis, Kiel Arena
4/9: Kansas City, Mo., Kemper Arena
4/12: Nashville, Nashville Arena
4/14: Louisville, Ken., Freedom Hall
4/17: Austin, Frank Erwin Center
4/18: Houston, Compaq Arena
4/21: Charlotte, N.C., Charlotte Coliseum
4/22: Raleigh, N.C., Raleigh Entertainment Center
4/25: Pittsburgh, Civic Center
4/30: Cincinnati, Firstar Center
5/3: Toronto, Air Canada Arena
5/7: Hartford, Civic Center
6/12, 15, 17, 20, 22: New York, Madison Square GardenA handful of additional U.S. and Canada shows are expected to be added at a later date. Tickets for the Orlando, Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale, Dallas, New Orleans, Denver, Portland, Tacoma and Kansas City shows go on sale this Saturday (Jan. 29). The other announced shows go on sale Feb. 5 (State College, St. Louis, Austin, Houston, Charlotte, Raleigh, Cincinnati), Feb. 12 (Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, Toronto), Feb. 19 (Hartford and New York), Feb. 26 (Pittsburgh) and 3/3 (Louisville).
Bruce's "Nebraska" Springs Eternal
Artists pay tribute to Springsteen's "Nebraska" with "Badlands"
STEVE BALTIN / November 8, 2000When Bruce Springsteen first released Nebraska in 1982, many considered it to be career suicide. Just two years earlier, he had released The River, a sprawling double opus that left him poised on the brink of becoming rock's biggest superstar. But Springsteen felt the stark, intimate nature of songs like "My Father's House," "Atlantic City" and "Johnny 99" were best expressed minimally, and he successfully insisted Columbia Records release Nebraska in its original four-track, demo state.
The record was a critical smash, and thanks to Springsteen's diehard fans, it debuted in the Top 10, but it failed to match the mainstream success of The River or the blockbuster Born in the USA two years later. Falling between those two mammoth statements, Nebraska has often been viewed as an odd detour in Springsteen's career, occasionally even ignored. "I've seen books and biographies of Springsteen on TV and none of them even mention Nebraska," marvels fan Damien Juardo, a Seattle-based singer-songwriter. But for Springsteen fanatics, Nebraska is often counted amongst the Boss's finest hours. Massachusetts-based producer Jim Sampas, who produced the Jack Kerouac tribute disc, Kerouac Kicks Joy Darkness, is one of those people.
Sampas is the mastermind behind the just-released all-star tribute album Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" (Sub Pop). "I felt it might be interesting, perhaps even a little bit more interesting, to have various artists recording songs of one body of work that was written and recorded at one time," Sampas says. The idea, hatched in spring of 1999, was to have the participating artists each record their songs in the no-frills manner that Springsteen did the originals.
The roster of talent on Badlands is an impressively eclectic one. Ben Harper, Ani DiFranco, Chrissie Hynde and Adam Seymour, Los Lobos, Dar Williams, Aimee Mann with Michael Penn, Johnny Cash and the aforementioned Juardo are just a few of the artists paying tribute to Springsteen.
Mavericks frontman Raul Malo, who contributes a version of "Downbound Train" to the set, admits that he's usually not much for tribute albums but was nonetheless lured in by the focused approach of Badlands. "This album seemed like it was going to be a really cool thing because it's not a tribute to Springsteen per se," he says. "It's a tribute to a specific piece of work." ("Downbound Train," like "I'm on Fire" -- covered here by Cash -- both appeared on Born on the USA, but they were included on Badlands because Springsteen wrote them during the Nebraska sessions.)
Harper, who tackles the moving "My Father's House," says his fondness for Nebraska dates back to his childhood. "I heard Nebraska when I was ten, eight maybe. My mom had it in the house and just played it constantly," he says. "I appreciated it then because among my family's records, which ranged from Stevie Wonder to Little Feat, I would play Nebraska on my own. So he was in my childhood A-list."
Not all of the artists featured on Badlands were diehard Bruce fans, however. Take Los Lobos, for example. "We just got a call and we thought it was a pretty cool idea," says guitarist Louie Perez. "It sounded like a pretty eclectic bunch of people. So we said OK." Perez notes that it was the process of recording "Johnny 99" in the four-track manner that Springsteen did that Los Lobos became genuine fans. "At that point, when we recorded, it got us to really appreciate and respect what he's all about. Not that we had any disrespect for him before. But to really just get in his head was kind of cool."
The talent involved in Badlands is a testament to Springsteen's influence, and particularly the admiration his peers have for Nebraska, which Jurado says is the Springsteen album underground and indie artists identify with most. It was only a few years ago though that the thought of any indie musicians praising Springsteen seemed about as likely as professional wrestling finding a permanent home on MTV. There was, as expected, an inevitable backlash against Springsteen, who has always worn the mantle of rock & roll artist proudly.
That seems to have ebbed with time, and as Sampas found, it is once again cool to admit to liking Springsteen. "There wasn't anybody who was hesitant to do this project," Sampas says. "I got great response from artists and managers alike immediately." He then adds that if they could've waited a few more months to do the album, Beck, Tracy Chapman and Counting Crows would've also been part of the Badlands CD.
"I think that [Springsteen] started writing in a very different style with this album, a sort of new style for him, which was a bit more personal and detail oriented," Sampas says when asked about the secret of Nebraska's enduring appeal. "Every single song on that album is just as good as the other and they're all quite extraordinary."
Or, as Harper puts it, "He's telling a haunting story in a rare way that only a few people in a generation can do and get away with."
Springsteen to Play Holiday Benefit Shows
Bruce Springsteen and Max Weinberg 7 to play charity concerts
ANDREW DANSBY/ December 13, 2000Having rested several months following the completion of his international tour with the E Street band, Bruce Springsteen will take the stage again on Dec. 17-18 for two benefit concerts at Asbury Park Convention Hall in Asbury Park, N.J., along with E Street drummer Max Weinberg's ensemble, the Max Weinberg 7.
The Dec. 17 show will begin at 7:30 p.m., and the Dec. 18 show starts an hour later. The shows are billed as Bruce Springsteen with the Max Weinberg 7 and Friends, though specifics on the "friends" were not available at press time.
The two performances will benefit eight local charities including the Greater Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce, the Epiphany House (a transitional housing service), the Center in Asbury Park (a personal service AIDS charity), Substance Abuse Resources, the Boys and Girls Club of Monmouth County, the Women's Center of Monmouth County, the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties and the Parker Family Health Clinic.
Tickets for the event go on sale Wednesday at 12 p.m., exclusively through Ticketmaster's phone service, 201-507-8900, 609-520-8383 and 212-307-7171. Tix are $50 each and there is a limit of two per customer.
Springsteen Readies Two DVD Releases
January release set for two Springsteen DVDs
JAAN UHELSZKI / December 21, 2000Bruce Springsteen has two DVDs set for release on Jan. 16. The first of the two releases, Bruce Springsteen: Video Anthology 1978-2000, will be a double DVD, featuring thirty-three performances culled from twenty-two years of concerts, music videos and television appearances by the Boss. The collection, which runs for two hours, includes every one of Bruce Springsteen's videos, as well as fifteen rare and previously unreleased bonus performances. In fact, fifteen of the clips on the Anthology 1978-2000 were not on the original 1989 home video release. Among the highlights on the DVD are a clip for "Highway Patrolman" directed by Sean Penn this year (featuring footage from the his film, The Indian Runner), Springsteen's 1995 appearance on the Tonight Show (when he performed "The Ghost of Tom Joad") as well as a solo acoustic performance of "Born In The U.S.A." from a 1998 visit to the Charlie Rose Show.
The second DVD, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Blood Brothers, is a ninety-minute documentary of the legendary band, chronicling the recording sessions for Bruce Springsteen Greatest Hits, which was released in 1995. The film captures Springsteen's reunion in the studio with the E Street Band, the first time they collaborated in the studio since their work on 1984's Born In The U.S.A.
Blood Brothers premiered on the Disney Channel in March 1996, and was released on VHS in November of that year. The DVD includes songs "Blood Brothers," "High Hopes," "This Hard Land," "Back In Your Arms Again" and "Without You," as well as music videos for "Murder Incorporated" and "Secret Garden." Both videos retail for $24.98.
Police Group Urges Springsteen Boycott
New Springsteen tune ruffles law enforcement feathers
ANDREW DANSBY / June 13, 2000As Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band roll into New York City's Madison Square Garden for ten sold-out shows (their first in a decade), they are being greeted with a boycott. The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association of the City of New York and the New York Chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police have both organized boycotts of the shows in the wake of Springsteen's debut of a new tune, "American Skin (41 Shots)," obviously based on the February 1999 shooting of West African Immigrant Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. (Springsteen unveiled the song last week before an Atlanta audience as a test run for his New York City shows.)
In a letter to delegates and members, PBA president Patrick Lynch criticized the song. "American Skin (41 Shots)" doesn't mention West African immigrant Amadou Diallo by name, but makes numerous references to the forty-one shots fired at him as well as to his billfold, which had been mistaken by NYPD for a weapon. "I consider it an outrage that [Springsteen] would be trying to fatten his wallet by reopening the wounds of this tragic case at a time when police officers and community members are in a healing period," Lynch wrote. "I strongly urge any PBA members who may moonlight as security or in any other kind of work at rock concerts to avoid working Springsteen concerts," Lynch wrote. "The PBA strongly urges you not only not to work this or any other Springsteen concert, but also not to attend. Let's stick together on this important issue."
According to the New York Post, the song has impressed Diallo's parents to the point where they are hoping to meet Springsteen. "It keeps [Amadou's] memory alive," said Diallo's mother, Kadiatou of the song. She also expressed an interest in meeting the singer/songwriter. "He's here for ten days, we will have time for that."
Springsteen isn't the first musician to take on the Diallo shooting, as the hip-hop community was quick to tackle the issue. Last year, Public Enemy recorded "41:19" about the number of bullets that were fired at and hit Diallo, while Wyclef Jean has recorded a tribute to Diallo on his upcoming album.
At press time, Springsteen's camp had no comment on the boycotts.
New York Cop Apologizes for Springsteen Comments
Police leader issues an apology for remarks about Springsteen
ANDREW DANSBY / June 17, 2000Amid cries of homophobia and calls for resignation, Robert Lucente, president of the New York State Chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, issued a public apology regarding comments he made June 12 about Bruce Springsteen. Lucente called Springsteen a "fucking dirtbag" and a "floating fag" upon hearing of the rocker's new song "American Skin (41 Shots)," which makes reference to the 1999 police shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African Immigrant in the Bronx.
Springsteen gave the song a test run in Atlanta last week before bringing it to New York City, where he is currently in the middle of a ten-performance run at Madison Square Garden.
Lucente, a twenty-seven-year veteran with the New York City Police Department, addressed the concerns of the gay and lesbian community, which took offense at his "floating fag" comment: "Most police departments, including the New York City Police Department, have associations which include gay and lesbian groups. The New York State Fraternal Order of Police has a long-standing reputation of supporting those groups and individuals. I offer to those persons and their families my most sincere apologies for a comment made in anger over the many deaths of those in law enforcement."
While Lucente retracted his comments, he stopped just short of apologizing to Springsteen. "The statement was made out of disgust towards a public figure whom I once admired, not against someone's sexual preference," he said. "I wish that Mr. Springsteen would put his efforts and his notoriety towards healing wounds rather than fanning the fires of prejudice for profit. I would welcome Mr. Springsteen's efforts, as he has done in the past, to correct the problems that now exist by getting involved in programs designed to better educate our law enforcement and communities to face the tensions and fears that unfortunately exist in society today."
Bruce Concert to Air on HBO
Springsteen gets his first ever television special
Andrew Dansby / February 8, 2001Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the first-ever televised concert featuring Springsteen and his band, will air on April 7th on HBO.
"We have long wanted to have Bruce Springsteen on HBO, and the wait has been well worth it," said Nancy Geller, senior vice president of HBO Original Programming. "Being a life-long fan of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, it was a passion of mine to bring this unrivaled performance to our subscribers."
The two-hour concert will air at 9 p.m.
Springsteen
Goes Live Again
Double live album to coincide with Springsteen HBO special
ANDREW DANSBY / February 27, 2001
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will release Live in New York City on April 3rd. The two-disc set features nineteen songs culled from the final two performances of the band's most recent world tour: June 29th and July 1st 2000 at New York City's Madison Square Garden.
The album will be released just before the April 7th broadcast of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the group's first-ever televised special, on HBO. Thirteen songs will appear in both the television program and the album, with an additional six on the CD set. Two new tracks, "American Skin" and "Land of Hope and Dreams" will also be included in both. Fourteen of the nineteen songs included on the album have not been released on Springsteen's two previous live releases, 1986's three disc compilation Live 1975-1985 and "Plugged: In Concert from 1992.
Track listing from Bruce
Springsteen and the E Street Band: Live in New York City:
My Love Will Not Let You Down
Prove It All Night
Two Hearts
Atlantic City
Mansion on the Hill
The River
Youngstown
Murder Incorporated
Badlands
Out in the Street
Tenth Avenue Freezeout
Land of Hope and Dreams
American Skin
Lost in the Flood
Born in the U.S.A.
Don't Look Back
Jungleland
Ramrod
If I Should Fall Behind
Springsteen
Wins Early Songs
U.S. judge rules that album of earliest recordings belongs to
Bruce
ANDREW DANSBY / June 27, 2001
A U.S. District Court Judge awarded Bruce Springsteen copyright control of an album of songs he composed and recorded between 1970 and 1972, dismissing a suit filed against Springsteen by Pony Express Records, who attempted to gain control of the songs' rights.
The songs were held for two decades by a former Springsteen manager. In the early Nineties, he sold them to Pony Express, without the artist's permission; the songs were subsequently licensed to a British label. Pony Express released the songs as an album titled Before the Fame.
In 1998, Springsteen won a court battle that granted him control of the album in the U.K., a ruling that helped helped shape the new ruling, by U.S. District Court Judge Harold Ackerman in Newark, N.J. As a result of Ackerman's ruling, Pony Express has been ordered to stop selling the recording and to destroy existing copies. Springsteen still plans to seek damages based on court costs and copies already sold.
In
Brief:
Springsteen to offer live DVD
September 13,
2001
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will release a two-DVD set, "Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Live in New York City," which will include nearly ninety minutes of footage that didn't appear in the HBO special of the same name. The set, which features interviews and rehearsal footage, will be released on November 6th . . .
Bruce,
Alicia Do TV Special
"America: A Tribute to Heroes" simulcast to benefit terrorist
victims
BILL CRANDALL / September 19,
2001
Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow and Paul Simon are among the artists participating in America: A Tribute to Heroes, a two-hour, commercial-free TV special to be broadcast live Friday night at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on the four major networks: ABC, CBC, NBC and Fox. All proceeds from the simulcast will benefit those most affected by last week's terrorist attacks.
In addition to live music, America: A Tribute to Heroes will feature words of inspiration from such Hollywood icons as George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz and Robin Williams. Other musicians taking part in the event include Neil Young, the Dixie Chicks, Billy Joel, Faith Hill, Tom Petty and Will Smith.
The show will be broadcast live in the Eastern and Central time zones and run on tape delay in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. It will also be streamed on various Web sites. See abc.com, cbs.com, fox.com, nbci.com, aol.com or yahoo.com for further information.
Telethon
Raises $150M
Springsteen, Petty among "America" performers
ANDREW DANSBY / September 25, 2001
The September 21st telethon, America: A Tribute to Heroes, generated more than $150 million for the United Way in pledges from calls in the U.S. and Canada, as well as its Web site. One hundred percent of the money will be directed to those most affected by the September 11th terrorist attacks.
The program featured numerous live musical performances, including songs by Bruce Springsteen ("My City of Ruins"), Tom Petty ("I Won't Back Down"), Neil Young ("Imagine"), the Dixie Chicks ("I Believe in You"), words of inspiration delivered by the likes of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, while Brad Pitt, Meg Ryan and Jack Nicholson were among those who manned the phones.
More than thirty-five U.S. broadcast and cable television networks carried the event, as well as 8,000 radio stations and various Web sites. The program was also broadcast in more than 200 countries.
The telethon fund continues to raise money. Donations can be made to www.tributetoheroes.org or mailed to The September 11th Telethon Fund, P.O. Box 203103, Houston, Texas 77216-3103. Checks should be made payable to The September 11th Telethon Fund.
Bruce,
Bon Jovi Lead NJ Show
New Jersey benefit to
aid area victims of September 11th attacks
ANDREW DANSBY / October 16, 2001
Bruce Springsteen has lined up a long list of performers for Allegiance of Neighbors, a two-night benefit performance in Red Bank, New Jersey, to benefit Monmouth County victims and survivors of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
The performances are scheduled for October 18th and 19th at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank. In addition to a performance by Springsteen, the two shows will feature appearances by Jon Bon Jovi, Joan Jett, Joe Ely, the Smithereens and side projects by E Street Band members Gary Tallent and Max Weinberg. Also appearing are former Elvis Presley backers D.J. Fontana, Sonny Burgess and Jerry Sheff.
The sound check for the first performance will be opened up to families of the more than 160 Monmouth County victims of the tragedy. The October 19th show will be televised on CN8, the Comcast Network, which serves parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. The channel will also air a toll-free number during the broadcast to help raise additional funds for the effort. Those seeking to make donations can also go to www.allianceofneighbors.org.
Holiday
Greetings From Asbury Park
Springsteen gets intimate in New Jersey
TONY GERVINO / December 10, 2001
At a time when folks are respooling their lives and recasting their priorities, it's awfully nice to have a guy like Bruce Springsteen living nearby.
Springsteen's concerts have always been a potent mix of familiar and exotic; always engaging, always entertaining, always striking the right balance with the particular mood of the populace. He's never been a cheerleader, this Bruce Springsteen, but he has offered his fans a moral compass, a political north star, reminding them to appreciate what good they do have in their lives, while encouraging them to scratch out a little bit more and hang on for dear life.
On Friday evening, Springsteen's star was shining down past Exit 105 on the Garden State Parkway, to Asbury Park, a faded beauty queen of a boardwalk town and its Asbury Park Convention Hall. The city itself, immortalized with the release of Springsteen's first album, Greetings From Asbury Park NJ, is poised for a renaissance, thanks in no diminished part to its reluctant local hero.
From the opening note of the fourth of five Holiday shows, it was clear: Bruce Springsteen was in the giving mood. Free of the professional obligations of being the larger-than-most lifetimes "Bruce Springsteen From New Jersey" (only Santa Claus and the Beatles have more recognizable landscapes), the man played it loose like a jazz riff, dusting off older classics and subbing them in for concert staples. Everyone benefited from the experience, most of all the local businesses and charities that Springsteen shamelessly pimped from the stage. ("Hope you never need it, but if you do . . ." he said laughingly, referring to a local pawn shop.)
The festive show opened against type: Springsteen, alone at the piano, coaxing the first solo version of "Incident on 57th Street" heard in twenty-five years. After a galloping rendition of "Jingle Bell Rock" and couple of other band numbers, Springsteen introduced his longtime sideman Clarence Clemons over the opening notes of his lost classic "Thundercrack," and pretty much all hell broke loose right there.
The song, left off Born to Run for some crazy reason and all wrong for any subsequent release, was both powerful and slinky, the horns evoking the white-boy soul era that helped establish Springsteen as a revelatory life performer. For those tape-traders who held their muffled bootlegged versions so dear for so long, it was a celebratory moment and very nearly worth the price of admission ($50 and $100 tickets) alone.
Over the next two-and-a-half hours, a ferocious Max Weinberg 7 and E-Street Band stalwarts Clemons, Danny Federici, Gary Tallent and Nils Lofgren added context, camaraderie and musical chops to the proceedings and gave Springsteen an even wider berth for improvisation, evidenced by such fresh-from-hiatus teeth-rattlers "Kitty's Back" and "Rosalita."
But this was not merely a Bruce Springsteen concert, as he made sure he deferred the spotlight to guests like Bruce Hornsby, wife Patti Scalfia and local legends Bobby Bandiera, Soozie Tyrell and Southside Johnny Lyon, in between gift-wrapping his own gems, including the old school "Seaside Bar Song" and the new school "My City of Ruins." Of particular note: the two Bruces' duet on "You Sexy Thing" was surprisingly funk-ified, considering that Hornsby is about fourteen feet tall, can't dance and was playing accordion riffs throughout. And the choice of "End of the Innocence" was both surprising and inspired. Local guy Bobby Bandiera's solo, acoustic "Here Comes the Sun" was arguably as powerful as any other music made on that stage that particular evening. Southside Johnny? The palpable undercurrent of sibling rivalry seemed to bring out his best and he ably dueted during his moments in time: "This Time It's for Real" and "I Don't Wanna Go Home".
Over the final bars of "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" and with the stage crammed with spouses, kids, band members and two guys dressed like Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Bruce Springsteen crouched low and asked his son what he wanted for Christmas. The kid paused for a moment, then yelled "Nintendo!" at the top of his lungs. Bruce shook his head, laughed, and it became clear that, although the world is a rapidly changing organism, some things -- like a child's request for the latest bells and whistles and a quality Bruce Springsteen concert -- remain a constant.
Stone
Pony Faces Demolition
Music fans rally to save the club that launched
Springsteen
ANDREW DANSBY / January 11, 2002
Preliminary redevelopment plans in Asbury Park, New Jersey, are calling for the relocation of the music club, the Stone Pony, and fans, musicians and owner Domenic Santana are fighting to keep the legendary venue from being demolished.
The Stone Pony, which was instrumental in cultivating the careers of Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith and others, is being targeted for demolition and relocation as part of a redevelopment project for the beachfront area of Asbury Park. According to plans, condominiums will be constructed in an attempt to boost summer interest in the deteriorating city, which once prospered on the Jersey Shore.
At the heart of the dispute are disparate visions of how to best present a cleaner, safer and busier Asbury Park. Owner Santana is a supporter of redevelopment ("We call it 'Beiruit by the shore,'" he says of the city's current state), but from an angle of preservation of the past, rather than a new face for the future. Santana envisions a return of the city's history and grandeur, citing shuttered or ailing establishments including former beer garden and pizzeria Mrs. J's, Fifties nightclub the Rainbow Room and the Sunshine Inn as examples of the city's more prosperous past that should be rejuvenated. "There's a lot of notable names that we'd like to see incorporated into the so called 'entertainment zone,'" he says. And Santana sees the Stone Pony as an anchor in that vision.
The venue is certainly with few peers as far as rock & roll venues go. "It is to the New Jersey Shore what the Ryman Auditorium is to Nashville," says Howard Kramer, associate curator at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. "It's the birthplace of music from there. It is so ironic that the Pony would be in danger, because it is the only thing that has withstood time there."
But the Asbury Park, and its City Manager, Terrance Welden, have aggressively been pursuing new development plans, working with New York City-based investment firm, M.D. Sass and Company and its local Ocean Front Acquisitions affiliate. Last October, M.D. Sass and Ocean Front began a oceanfront demolition work, including the James A. Bradley Hotel.
More recently, Ocean Front has called upon developer Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company, to work on the project. Duany Plater-Zyberk, founded by husband and wife team of Andres M. Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, is an acclaimed Florida-based firm that has been crucial in the "New Urbanism" movement. The company laid the groundwork for the revitalization of hundreds of American cities, notably Seaside, Florida, one of the company's earliest projects, based upon the concept of ending a trend of suburban sprawl characterized by strip malls, parking lots and housing clusters. Duany Plater-Zyberk's developments (discussed in their book Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream) are focused on reversing the outward flow (likely sparked by the automobile) and reestablish a focus on the notion of towns.
Asbury Park's woes over the past two-plus decades sent summer beach-goers, one of the area's primary sources of revenue, just south to the re-developed town of Ocean Grove, a dilemma that resulted from and yet still feeds the city's slide. Representatives from Duany Plater-Zyberk plan to arrive in Asbury Park next week and begin observing the city before working on redevelopment specifics. "We're being called in to reach consensus on issues that are still not resolved between the city and the current developer," says Demetri Baches of Duany Plater-Zyberk. "We try not to get too swayed by any one group's opinions and desires until we actually get to the site, so we can see what's happening and speak with people face to face and make more educated decisions."
Fans, musicians and patrons started the Save the Pony Organization, in an effort to help preserve the club. Santana and the Stone Pony had balked at working actively with the organization, as they were still active in negotiations with the developers. After talks between the Stone Pony and developers broke off, Santana joined the fray. "I'm going to take a frontline position from this day forward to fight and stay there," he says. "All along their plans called for condos on Ocean Avenue [where the club is located], so we're the thorn in their side. It's a numbers game to these bottom-feeders. They're in it for the money, and they don't care about the history."
According to Santana, development plans called for pushing the city's entertainment venues south, a plan he says will outrage Ocean Grove. "They will rage over our town and music and the noise pollution," he says. "That was a very Methodist community; you couldn't even drive in that town on Sundays until about five or six years ago. It's a very religious town, and they would rage when we had one of the hard, modern shows with all the piercings and spiked purple hair floating in the area. I think they would cringe at the notion."
A petition protesting the relocation has been started, and Save the Pony held a press conference yesterday, which was attended by Springsteen's management, to discuss plans for fighting the proposed redevelopment. Little Steven Van Zandt has also thrown his support behind the club. "Like Convention Hall, the Berkeley Carteret Hotel and the boardwalk, the Stone Pony has become an institution of Asbury Park," Van Zandt said. "It has an important place in history and is a great source of pride for the state of New Jersey as well as being an international tourist attraction. Leave it where it is."
Santana has already planned a rally at City Hall on January 16th and at the club on January 19th. And next month, the Stone Pony celebrates it's twenty-eighth birthday, with a series of concerts that are still taking shape. "February is going to be a very big month at the Stone Pony," Santana says. "It's gonna be a great month. Joan Jett and Patti Smith, they're already lining up."
Welden and Asbury Park City Hall could not be reached for comment. The specific development recommendations are expected to be presented to the public on January 23rd.
In
Brief:
Bruce at work with the
E Street Band
May 15, 2002
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have enlisted longtime Pearl Jam producer Brendan O'Brien to work on their next album, which they're currently recording in Atlanta . . .
Springsteen
Takes E Street on Road
Bruce and Co. line up tour behind "The Rising"
ANDREW DANSBY / July 10, 2002
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have started to roll out dates for a yearlong tour behind The Rising, their first album of new material in nearly twenty years. The tour will begin in their home state of New Jersey, in East Rutherford on August 7th. The first leg will include thirty-nine North American dates, with a two-week interruption for a European jaunt. Springsteen and Co. will take a break after their December 13th show in Albany before heading to Australia and Europe in early 2003. The international dates will be followed with a second U.S. leg to run through next summer.
The Rising, which is set for release on July 30th, marks the first full album collaboration between Springsteen and the E Street Band since 1984's Born in the U.S.A., and Springsteen's first set of new songs since 1995's The Ghost of Tom Joad. It was recorded earlier this year in Atlanta with producer Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam). The album's first single, "The Rising," has been getting radio airplay and will be made commercially available on July 16th with a live version of "Land of Hope and Dreams" from last year's Live in New York City album, as the B-side.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street
Band tour dates:
8/7: East Rutherford, NJ, Continental Airlines Arena
8/10: Washington, DC, MCI Arena
8/12: New York, Madison Square Garden
8/14: Cleveland, Gund Arena
8/15: Auburn Hills, MI, The Palace
8/18: Las Vegas, Thomas and Mack Center
8/20: Portland, OR, The Rose Garden
8/21: Tacoma, WA, The Dome
8/24: Los Angeles, The Forum
8/25: Phoenix, America West
8/27: San Jose, CA, Compaq Center
8/30: St. Louis, Savvis Center
9/22: Denver, Pepsi Arena
9/24: Kansas City, Kemper Arena
9/25: Chicago, United Center
9/27: Milwaukee, Bradley Center
9/29: Fargo, ND, Fargodome
9/30: St. Paul, MN, Xcel Energy Center
10/4: Boston, Fleet Center
10/6: Philadelphia, First National Arena
10/7: Buffalo, NY, HSBC Arena
11/3: Dallas, American Airlines Arena
11/4: Houston, Compaq Center
11/6: Austin, Frank Erwin Center
11/9: Columbus, OH, Schotenstein Arena
11/10: Indianapolis, Conseco Fieldhouse
11/12: Cincinnati, U.S. Bank Arena
11/14: Lexington, KY, Rupp Arena
11/16: Greensboro, NC, Coliseum
11/19: Birmingham, AL, BJCC
11/21: Orlando, FL, TD Waterhouse
11/23: Miami, American Airlines Arena
11/24: Tampa, FL, Ice Palace
12/2: Atlanta, Phillips Arena
12/4: Pittsburgh, Mellon Arena
12/5: Toronto, Air Canada Center
12/8: Charlotte, NC, Coliseum
12/9: Columbia, SC, USC Arena
12/13: Albany, NY, Pepsi Arena
Springsteen
Ready to Rise
Bruce says he wanted to make an "essential" album
JENNY ELISCU / July 18, 2002
"I wanted to make an album that was essential, even if you have every single one of my other albums," says Bruce Springsteen of his new disc, The Rising, his first studio album with the E Street Band since 1984's Born in the U.S.A.. "This is what the band sounds like right now."
The disc, due out July 30th, was produced by Brendan O'Brien, who has worked with Rage Against the Machine and Pearl Jam. "We did things I couldn't have done producing it myself," Springsteen says.
Following The Rising's release, Springsteen and the band will kick off a thirty-nine-city American tour on August 7th in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The U.S. dates will be interrupted by a European tour in October, and the band will play additional shows in the States next summer.
The Rising's first single, the title track, is currently available in stores.
Springsteen
to Play VMAs
Eminem, Pink also scheduled to take the stage
ANDREW DANSBY / July 22, 2002
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will headline the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, set for August 29th at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. Eminem and Pink have also signed on to make appearances at the nineteenth annual event.
Eminem scored six nominations tying P.O.D. and Missy Elliott for the most. The Motor City rapper and P.O.D. will compete for Video of the Year, for "Without Me" and "Alive," respectively, going up against 'N Sync's "Gone," Linkin Park's "In the End," the White Stripes' "Fell in Love With a Girl," and Nas' "One Mic."
Saturday Night Live's Jimmy Fallon will host. Additional performers will be announced closer to the event.
MTV VMA nominees:
Video Of The Year
Eminem, "Without Me"
'N Sync, "Gone"
Linkin Park, "In the End"
P.O.D., "Alive"
White Stripes, "Fell in Love With a Girl"
Nas, "One Mic"
Best Male Video
Eminem, "Without Me"
Enrique Iglesias, "Hero"
Craig David, "Walking Away"
Usher, "U Got It Bad"
Elton John, "This Train Don't Stop There Anymore"
Nelly, "#1"
Best Female
Britney Spears, "I'm a Slave 4 U"
Pink, "Get the Party Started"
Shakira, "Whenever, Wherever"
Ashanti, "Foolish"
Michelle Branch, "All You Wanted"
Best Group Video
'N Sync with Nelly, "Girlfriend (Remix)"
No Doubt, "Hey Baby"
Blink-182, "First Date"
Linkin Park, "In the End"
Dave Matthews Band, "Everyday"
P.O.D, "Alive"
Best Rap Video
Eminem, "Without Me"
Nas, "One Mic"
DMX, "Who We Be"
Ludacris, "Saturday (Oooh! Oooh!)"
P. Diddy with the Bad Boy Family, "Bad Boy for Life"
Best R&B Video
Usher, "U Got It Bad"
Ashanti, "Foolish"
Aaliyah, "Rock the Boat"
Alicia Keys, "A Woman's Worth"
Mary J. Blige, "No More Drama"
Best Hip-Hop Video
Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott with Ludacris and Trina, "One Minute
Man"
Busta Rhymes with P. Diddy and Pharrell, "Pass the Courvoisier
(Part II)"
Jennifer Lopez with Ja Rule, "I'm Real (Remix)"
OutKast with Killer Mike, "The Whole World"
Ja Rule with Ashanti, "Always on Time"
Fat Joe with Ashanti, "What's Luv"
Best Dance Video
Kylie Minogue, "Can't Get You Out of My Head"
Britney Spears, "I'm a Slave 4 U"
Dirty Vegas, "Days Go By"
Pink, "Get the Party Started"
Shakira, "Whenever, Wherever"
Best Rock Video
Linkin Park, "In the End"
Creed, "My Sacrifice"
System of a Down, "Chop Suey!"
Korn, "Here to Stay"
P.O.D., "Youth of the Nation"
Jimmy Eat World, "The Middle"
Best Pop Video
'N Sync with Nelly, "Girlfriend (Remix)"
Pink, "Get the Party Started"
Shakira, "Whenever, Wherever"
Michelle Branch, "All You Wanted"
No Doubt, "Hey Baby"
Best New Artist In A Video
Ashanti, "Foolish"
John Mayer, "No Such Thing"
Avril Lavigne, "Complicated"
B2K, "Uh Huh"
Puddle of Mudd, "Blurry"
Best Video From A Film
Chad Kroeger with Josey Scott, "Hero" (Spider-Man)
Will Smith, "Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya Head)" (Men in Black
2)
Ludacris with Nate Dogg, "Area Codes" (Rush Hour II)
Nelly, "#1" (Training Day)
MTV2 Award
Dashboard Confessional, "Screaming Infidelities"
The Hives, "Hate to Say I Told You So"
Norah Jones, "Don't Know Why"
Musiq, "Half Crazy"
Nappy Roots with Jazze Pha, "Awnaw"
The Strokes, "Last Nite"
Viewer's Choice
Brandy, "What About Us"
Enrique Iglesias, "Hero"
Michelle Branch, "Everywhere"
B2K, "Uh Huh"
Eminem, "Without Me"
P.O.D., "Alive"
Breakthrough Video
DMX, "Who We Be"
Crystal Method, "Name of the Game"
Coldplay, "Trouble"
White Stripes, "Fell in Love With a Girl"
Maxwell, "This Woman's Work"
Cake, "Short Skirt/Long Jacket"
Professional Categories
Best Direction
Elton John (Director: David LaChapelle), "This Train Don't Stop
There Anymore"
P.O.D. (Director: Francis Lawrence), "Alive"
Eminem (Director: Joseph Kahn), "Without Me"
Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott with Ludacris and Trina (Director:
Dave Meyers), "One Minute Man"
Red Hot Chili Peppers (Directors: Jonathan Dayton & Valerie
Faris), "By the Way"
Best Choreography
Britney Spears, "I'm a Slave 4 U"
Kylie Minogue, "Can't Get You Out of My Head"
Usher, "U Don't Have to Call"
Mary J. Blige, "Family Affair"
Best Special Effects In A
Video
White Stripes, "Fell in Love With a Girl"
Will Smith, "Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya Head)"
P.O.D., "Alive"
Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott with Ludacris and Trina, "One Minute
Man"
Best Art Direction
Elton John, "This Train Don't Stop There Anymore"
Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott with Ludacris and Trina, "One Minute
Man"
Quarashi, "Stick 'Em Up"
Coldplay, "Trouble"
Best Editing
White Stripes, "Fell in Love With a Girl"
Eminem, "Without Me"
System of a Down, "Chop Suey!"
Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott with Ludacris and Trina, "One Minute
Man"
Best Cinematography
Alicia Keys, "A Woman's Worth"
Moby, "We Are All Made of Stars"
Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott with Ludacris and Trina, "One Minute
Man"
Shakira, "Whenever, Wherever"
Springsteen
Rises to the Top
"The Rising" gives Bruce his first Number One in more than ten
years
ANDREW DANSBY / August 7, 2002
One week after Toby Keith and his vengeful, bubba-culture boot rallied a chart-topping 339,000 people to buy his red, white and blue-draped Unleashed, Bruce Springsteen knocked him down with a more meditative take on September 11th and its continuing aftermath. Springsteen's The Rising, which marks his first album of new material with the E Street Band in eighteen years, sold a whopping 525,000 copies, according to SoundScan, to give him his first Number One album in more than a decade.
A whole host of factors put Bruce back on top: Last year's Live in New York City debuted in the Top Ten with sales of 114,000, suggesting that fans were hungry for the E Street Sound, particularly after a successful reunion tour. There's also Springsteen's decision to promote the album in the boy band manner (which has since been co-opted by U2), popping up tirelessly in numerous television appearances. There's a strong lead single in the title track.
And then there's the music. Neil Young once said that Harvest put him in the middle of the road, thus he headed for a ditch. After selling more than 15 million copies of Born in the U.S.A., Springsteen was to the Eighties what the Beatles were to the Sixties. A solo artist despite the E Street clothes, he wasn't capable of breaking up, so he headed for a ditch. Tunnel of Love, peppered with sonic snapshots from Springsteen's life, was one of the best-selling disappointments of all time, moving 3 million copies. By turning his writer's eye inward, Springsteen essentially turned his fans in the opposite direction. His 1992 dual releases Human Touch and Lucky Town revealed a Bruce happy in love and as a father. They dropped in at Number Two and Three, respectively, before disappearing. His last set of new songs, 1996's The Ghost of Tom Joad, is to this day the only Springsteen album that failed to register platinum status (actually, it never even got to gold). Painted in Guthrie and Steinbeckian colors, the album was perhaps too pure a shot of social commentary for his fans' delicate palates.
Armed with the promotion, the single and the successful reunion, The Rising's real drive is still derived from his ability to look outward and connect with those fans. A culture needing coddling got its hug from The Rising, and the sales are a welcome-back embrace and a fatted calf supper fitting a prodigal son.
Perhaps most telling about this week's chart is just how handily The Rising stomped Linkin Park's remix album, Reanimation, which debuted at a strong Number Two, with sales of 270,000. Hard to use a collection of rejiggied tracks as a yardstick, but the rap-metal subgenre has taken three big swings this summer, with Reanimation, Korn's Untouchables and Papa Roach's Lovehatetragedy. Sales in the hundreds of thousands are hardly the stuff of strikeouts, but the numbers aren't remotely comparable to each of the three bands' prior efforts, more resembling weak groundouts to the second baseman.
If sagging anger management sales and Springsteen's toppling of Toby Keith wasn't enough proof that -- at least in music -- anger is on the out, one need only look at another pair of debuts further down the charts. The once-platinum angry guys in Filter mustered 32,000 sales for The Amalgamut (Number Thirty-two), while the quieter Beth Orton sold only 4,000 copies fewer of Daybreaker (Number Forty). Actually, a better comparison might be how thoroughly Filter were clobbered by Eighties hard rockers, Def Leppard, whose X debuted at Number Eleven with sales of 72,000; a good melody (with or without hairspray) can stick with you all day long, a bad mood tends to pass.
Next week should be interesting. The XXX soundtrack looks to have the shot at shuffling things up top, but soundtracks, which are released days prior to their respective films, tend to make their biggest sales splash in the second week of release. Springsteen has more promotional duty and an anticipated fall tour on the docket, which could make The Rising his first blockbuster in more than a decade. Afterall, it's already topped Joad's sales, and is halfway to besting Human Touch and Lucky Town. There have been too many false starts over the past couple of years to cite The Rising as a field general in a return-to-rock battle. But until the general public expresses an interest in the genre again, Springsteen's success is still a welcome return.
This week's Top Ten: Bruce Springsteen's The Rising; Linkin Park's Reanimation; Nelly's Nellyville; Now That's What I Call Music! 10; Eminem's The Eminem Show; Toby Keith's Unleashed; the Dave Matthews Band's Busted Stuff; Avril Lavigne's Let Go; Amerie's All I Have; and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' By the Way.
Springsteen
Remains Number One
"The Rising" holds off Nelly, Eminem
ANDREW DANSBY / August 14, 2002
After weeks of speculation about which guys with guitars were going to bring rock back to the top of the charts -- the Hives, Strokes, Vines -- it's one of rock & roll's elder statesmen who gave the genre a blockbuster. Bruce Springsteen's The Rising sold 239,000 copies in its second week of sales, according to SoundScan, for its second straight week at Number One. The tally gives Springsteen three quarters of a million units sold in two weeks, and a seller that might not be in the same league as hip-hop titans like Nelly's Nellyville (2.5 million copies sold) and The Eminem Show (4.5 million), but nevertheless one that dusts any rock album this year that wasn't released by the Dave Matthews Band.
Speaking of Nelly, he's become something of the hip-hop equivalent of Smash Mouth, a soundtrack to the summer. After seven weeks of sales, Nellyville is holding tight at Number Two. Its sales, 208,000 last week, continue to drop, but at a considerably less acute rate than typical releases. The 208K it scanned last week, was only a decrease of 36,000. With Springsteen's sales receding at a faster rate, Nelly even stands a decent chance to leap back into the Number One spot next week.
In addition to Eminem and Nelly's continued success, all four of the chart's biggest newcomers were hip-hop, or hip-hop-related albums. Former Geto Boy Scarface's The Fix jumped in at Number Four with sales of 160,000; Trick Daddy's Thug Holiday was Number Six with sales of 130,000; the half-hip-hop/half-rock XXX soundtrack nearly hit the Top Ten, at Number Eleven with sales of 76,000; and Project Pat's Layin' Da Smack Down bounced in at Number Twelve with sales of 68,000.
Next week's chart entries are not likely to shake up the chart. James Taylor's October Road represents for the vets, while Bright Eyes' Lifted goes to bat for youthful indie rock.
This week's Top Ten: Bruce Springsteen's The Rising; Nelly's Nellyville; Eminem's The Eminem Show; Scarface's The Fix; Now That's What I Call Music! 10; Trick Daddy's Thug Holiday; Linkin Park's Reanimation; Toby Keith's Unleashed; Avril Lavigne's Let Go; and the Dave Matthews Band's Busted Stuff.
