Tag: bruce springsteen

Hurricane Sandy Concert Ends With Springsteen’s Hope

Springsteen Sandy Telethon When I heard that several stars like Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Christina Aguilera and Sting were going to appear last Friday on a one-hour “Coming Together” TV concert on NBC, I could not help thinking of the similar benefit that had aired on the four major broadcast networks September 21, 2001 after the 9/11 attacks. There were similarities to that benefit because both marked sad times with performances by many of the same artists in a darkened studio. There were some differences this time, though, such as the fact that the Fox network tried to stir up some controversy about NBC’s Sandy fundraiser.

Also, on Friday’s show, some of the performers were able to touch on some hopeful notes while still acknowledging the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. For example, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Tyler remembered better times and looked to the rebuilding when they sang “Under the Boardwalk,” accompanied by some of the other artists.

As the show went on, I tried to anticipate what Bruce Springsteen might sing. After reasoning that “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” probably would not fit with the night’s theme, I had suspected that Bruce Springsteen might perform the somber “My City of Ruins,” which he wrote about Asbury Park and which he performed after 9/11 and had performed at another show in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Instead, though, when Springsteen and the E Street Band took the stage for the final song, they reached into their catalog for one of Springsteen’s more hopeful songs, “Land of Hope and Dreams.”

For an explanation of the legacy, history and optimism of “Land of Hope and Dreams,” check out our previous Chimesfreedom post on the song, including how the song connects to Springsteen’s ending reference here to “People Get Ready.”

Finally, remember that organizations still need your help even after Hurricane Sandy is no longer on the front pages. Visit Red Cross’s website or some of the other organizations offering help to volunteer or donate. Or text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10.00 to help those hit by the hurricane.

  • Hurricane Sandy Is Rising Behind Us
  • Land of Hope & Dreams, This Train, and People Get Ready
  • Bruce Springsteen’s Fighting Prayer for the U.S.
  • Bruce and Patti at Home in the “Land of Hope and Dreams”
  • Shelter from the Storm
  • Watch New Digital Film Interview With Bruce Springsteen

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Hurricane Sandy Is Rising Behind Us

    Wild Innocent E Street Shuffle Amazon For our readers in the path of Hurricane Sandy, we wish you safety through the storm. Here in New York, they are shutting down the subways and making other preparations. Meanwhile, the residents have been out stocking up to prepare for the worst. It’s interesting to see the choices folks are making at the grocery stores in the face of possibly being holed up without power and refrigeration for some time. It seems the pessimists are grabbing up the water jugs, while the optimists are buying ice cream.

    As a Bruce Springsteen fan, I cannot think of the name “Sandy” without thinking of “Fourth of July (Sandy),” one of the great early E Street Band songs.

    Almost every line in the song is an arresting image in itself, whether the singer is telling us about the “tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag” or that “the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin’ fortunes better than they do.” Here and in the original, Springsteen sings to Sandy, “Love me tonight, and I promise I’ll love you forever.” But I have heard him change the words in other versions to an even more honest line, “Love me tonight, and I promise . . . I promise there won’t be any promises.”

    In Songs (1998), Springsteen explained that he wrote “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” in mid-1973 after moving in with a girlfriend in a garage apartment five minutes from Asbury Park in Bradley Beach, NJ. The 23-year-old wrote it as “a goodbye to my adopted hometown and the life I’d lived there before I recorded. Sandy was a composite of some of the girls I’d known along the Shore.” He later explained the themes he was trying to address, “I used the boardwalk and the closing down of the town as a metaphor for the end of a summer romance and the changes I was experiencing in my own life.”

    4th of July Asbury Park book Amazon When the band planned to record the song, Springsteen hired a church children’s choir to sing on the track. But the kids did not show up on the day of the recording, so Suki Lahav — the wife of Springsteen’s sound engineer — sang the backing track and they overdubbed her voice to make it sound like a choir. It’s her voice you hear on “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” on The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973).

    In the late 1980s, I took a road trip with a friend from Cleveland to New York, and along the way we stopped in Asbury Park. I was surprised to discover then that there actually was a fortune teller there named Madam Marie. She was closed that day, so I did not get my fortune told. But it made me realize how Springsteen was able to take things from real life and transform them into great poetry. Although Madam Marie is no longer in Asbury Park because she passed away in 2008, here is hoping that Asbury Park and other areas along the shore survive Hurricane Sandy.

    What is your favorite version of “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Hurricane Sandy Concert Ends With Springsteen’s Hope
  • Land of Hope & Dreams, This Train, and People Get Ready
  • Paradise by the C
  • Where Are You Now My Handsome Billy?
  • Who Was Bruce Springstone?
  • Shelter from the Storm

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Soul Engines Running Through a Night: “Jungleland” Lives On

    Jake Clemons Jungleland
    Last night in Gothenburg, Sweden, E Street Band history was made as Bruce Springsteen performed “Jungleland” for the first time on the new tour without the late Clarence Clemons. But the family name lives on as Clemons’s nephew — and new band member — Jake Clemons carried on the family tradition of evoking the pain and joy of the song. Below is his solo in “Jungleland,” which was the next-to-last song of the night (you may watch the entire song from a much further distance here):

    “Jungleland will forever be associated with the Big Man Clarence Clemons, but it would have been a disservice to him to abandon the great song after his passing. Although we already had seen Jake play the song with another band in another setting, Springsteen did the right thing by waiting a short time and then bringing the song back with Jake as an unexpected surprise. As you can see in the video, at the end of the big solo, the crowd shows its appreciation. It was a bittersweet moment, as everyone was happy for Jake but also sad to be reminded of Clarence’s absence.

    There is only one thing to do in the face of such sadness in life. Pause for a moment, and then get up to dance to the show closer “Twist and Shout.”

    What do you think of the new “Jungleland”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • New E Street Band Sax Player: Eddie Manion?
  • Clarence Clemons: 1942-2011
  • Jake Clemons Plays “Jungleland”
  • Springsteen and Vedder Sing “Bobby Jean”
  • Bruce Springsteen: Always Roaming With a Hungry Heart
  • Who Was Bruce Springstone?

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Nils Lofgren Helped Write A Classic 1970s Rod Stewart Ballad

    Nils Lofgren added some lyrics to help Danny Whitten finish what became a classic love song, “I Don’t Want to Talk About It.”

    Rod Stewart I Don't Want To Talk About It Nils Lofgren is a great talent who has had a spectacular career, often as a band member in the shadows of other stars like Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. One piece of information I recently discovered is that he contributed to the classic ballad “I Don’t Want to Talk About It,” even though he is not in the song’s credits.

    The song is by Danny Whitten and was originally recorded by Crazy Horse. Whitten struggled with finishing the song and Lofgren liked the song and encouraged him to finish it. Eventually Lofgren took the initiative to write a few more lines to finish the song. Crazy Horse released the song in 1971, and then in 1975 Rod Stewart had a hit in both the U.S. and the U.K. with the song, which appeared on his album Atlantic Crossing.

    The song has a typical broken-heart theme, with the singer lamenting lost love. But “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” is one of the great heartbreak ballads of the twentieth century. The melody and the contradictions of the lyrics raise the song to another level, with the singer asking a lover to listen while at the same time saying he does not want to talk about it.

    I don’t want to talk about it, how you broke my heart.
    If I stay here just a little bit longer,
    If I stay here, won’t you listen to my heart, whoa, heart?
    I don’t want to talk about it, how you broke this old heart.

    Stewart rerecorded the song in 1989, and later he performed the song with Amy Belle. Other artists have covered the song too. The Indigo Girls did a nice cover for the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia (1993), and Everything But the Girl had a hit with the song in 1985 when they released it as a single in the UK.

    YouTube used to have a video of Lofgren talking about the song, but it has disappeared. But here is the audio of a live version of Lofgren playing the song with a short introduction.

    What do you think of “I Don’t Want to Talk About It”? Ballad classic? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: “Purple Rain”
  • It’s “Rock & Roll Time” When Jerry Lee Lewis Releases New Music
  • You Can Get Killed Just for Living in Your American Skin
  • Sexy and I Know It: Neil & Bruce Cover
  • Bruce Springsteen on Jimmy Fallon: Wrecking Ball
  • Whip My Hair: Neil Young & Bruce Springsteen Cover

    • (Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)

    Watch New Digital Film Interview With Bruce Springsteen

    This week, CNN premiered a short digital film of Bruce Springsteen discussing his life and his music, Wrecking Ball: A Conversation with Bruce Springsteen. He discusses how his upbringing affects his music and explains that his work has been about judging the distance between “American reality” and the “American dream.” He refers to current events like the recession and Occupy Wall Street, and he explains the critical and “often angry” patriotism that resides in his songs. He also revleals why he had to include the spiritual element of “Land of Hope and Dreams” on his latest album, Wrecking Ball, and he talks about his “elemental” relationship with the late Clarence Clemons (at around the 16:00 mark). Check out the film below:

    “You have to be constantly listening and interested in listening to what’s going on every day,” Springsteen explains near the end. “You have to remain interested in life.” I am glad that the man has kept up his interest for so long.

    What do you think of the new film? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Land of Hope & Dreams, This Train, and People Get Ready
  • Bruce Springsteen’s Fighting Prayer for the U.S.
  • Bruce and Patti at Home in the “Land of Hope and Dreams”
  • New Springsteen Video: “Dream Baby Dream”
  • Hurricane Sandy Concert Ends With Springsteen’s Hope
  • Springsteen’s “Whoop-Ass Session on the Recession” in Greensboro (Guest Post)

    • (Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)