Springsteen Challenge Day 29: How Many Times Have You Seen Bruce in Concert? Where?

Today will be a three-post mega-update.  The reason for this is because Hurricane Sandy struck earlier this week, and, while I was able to prep on Monday and write an update early, I was not able to prep for Tuesday because I was without internet and power.  I already knew that I was going to write two for Halloween.  Turns out it will just be three today. This is the second.

This is a quicker post.  This is a very straightforward, unable to be interpreted writing prompt.  To make it slightly longer, I’ll post them with my three favorite songs from each.  This won’t be as hard as you’d think – I keep a spreadsheet of the setlists for the concerts I’ve seen. I also keep track of the official studio releases to see what songs I’ve seen in concert, and which ones I haven’t.  I’ve only seen all the songs off of Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town live, though, it’s important to note, Bruce did all of these during his “album” sections of his tours – 2009 at Giants Stadium and beyond. To answer the first part of the question, I’ve seen Bruce live 16 times.

Springsteen Challenge Day 28 (SANDY!!!): Favorite Video of Bruce (music video, interview, concert footage)

Today will be a three-post mega-update.  The reason for this is because Hurricane Sandy struck earlier this week, and, while I was able to prep on Monday and write an update early, I was not able to prep for Tuesday because I was without internet and power.  I already knew that I was going to write two for Halloween.  Turns out it will just be three today. This is the first.

At any rate, to me, a video of Bruce has to be something like a found item.  We’ve already discussed Music Videos on Day 18. Streets of Philadelphia.  Boom.  This post will not be about a music video, a medium that Bruce doesn’t utilize well, and doesn’t really suit his music.  Additionally, I’ve discussed at length many of the Bruce concert DVDs and live footage that I love.  This needs to be something else.  This needs to be something that is so sporadic and intimate, more than an interview (another medium that doesn’t suit Bruce, as most televised interviews tend to be of the 8-12 minute variety, and Bruce really needs more of the long-form interview to say what he wants to say.  There are some good Jimmy Fallon interview performances recently as Fallon has become a “friend of the artist,” dedicating entire shows to the release of Bruce’s Darkness on the Edge of Town box set, and to the release of Wrecking Ball, but to really dig deeply into Bruce, he needs something like “The Fog of War” by Errol Morris – him in a chair, telling his story, interspersed with concert footage, news coverage, and the found items like the one I’m going to talk about.  The video I find to be my favorite is a grainy handheld tape, no professional recording equipment, and truly was spur-of-the-moment, and it happened almost 25 years ago in Copenhagen, Denmark, on a nondescript street.

Springsteen Challenge Day 27: Favorite Bruce Instrument

This one is easy.  Bruce Springsteen plays a lot of instruments. On the Devils and Dust tour, I saw him play the acoustic guitar, the piano, a pump organ, a keyboard, the harmonica, and a bass stomp pad.  He’s pretty damned good at all of them.  When he goes on tour, he has guitar cases for the purpose of keeping his guitars in an kind of environmental stasis.  In fact, given all guitars that are brought on tour – Garry’s bass guitars, Soozie’s acoustics, Nils’ array of guitars, Stevie’s variety of stringed instruments – small and large, as well as the guitars of the family Springsteen – both Bruce AND Patti, it’s safe to say the guitar tech is one of the most important members of Bruce’s road crew.  He’s so important, in fact, that most people know him by name – Kevin Buell.  At one of the MetLife stadium shows, during Dancing in the Dark, Bruce pulled a woman on stage with a sign requesting a Dancing in the Dark dance with Kevin (she didn’t get it.)  I think you can see where I’m going with this.  Bruce is a rocker.  The tool of a rock and roll star is a guitar.  But my favorite Bruce instrument isn’t *just* a guitar. It’s the guitar.

Springsteen Challenge Day 26: Favorite Character from a Bruce Song

To think of Bruce’s songs not as small bits of music, but rather, divorced from their music, and independent universes in which there are people, places, and things that all carry on past the limits of the track is to be deeply affected by the poetry that Bruce creates.  Bruce even released a collection of his lyrics in book form – aptly titled “Songs.” Bruce’s words have meant a great deal, and there are a number of characters that strike me as favorites – the unnamed narrator of Backstreets, Teri from Backstreets (or is it Terry?), the narrator and his girl from Racing in the Street, and Bill Horton from Cautious Man.  I actually am not a huge fan of Pete from Outlaw Pete – I think he’s pretty one dimensional, but he’s supposed to be an archetype of a strong, silent, John Wayne-esque cowboy.  There aren’t too many named characters on The Rising, or even in albums like Lucky Town.  Rainey Williams from “Black Cowboys” is a good character, but that which makes him unique is external; he is reactive to his environment.  No, my favorite character from a Bruce Springsteen song comes from the Nebraska album, and the song “Highway Patrolman” in the form of Joe Roberts.

Springsteen Challenge Day 25: Favorite Bruce Collaboration with another Artist/Band (Live)

To me, in order for a performance to be a great live collaboration, I had to see it.  So, the amazing collaborative efforts Bruce had with his tour mates on the 1988 Human Rights Now! Tour, sharing the mic with Sting and Tracy Chapman, among others are off limits.  The MTV VMAs in 1997 with the Wallflowers on “One Headlight” is out.  Even the massive collaborative effort a few years ago with Lady Gaga, Sting, Debbie Harry, and Elton John on stage is off limits (all available on YouTube, by the way.) Another great is when U2 invited Bruce on Stage in Philly in 1987 to play guitar (Bono’s arm is in a sling for some reason), and they had a fantastic version of “Stand By Me.” But, all of these songs are off limits, because I wasn’t there, and live music is different live and in the moment than when it is felt after the fact, on a recording.