After it was announced that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band would appear on NBC’s Saturday Night Live during the week of Christmas, it was a safe bet to predict that the band would be busting out its Christmas classic “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.” But who would have known that they would be joined onstage by Paul McCartney?
After performing “Meet Me in the City” and “The Ties That Bind” earlier in the evening to promote the new box-set release of The Ties That Bind: The River Collection, Springsteen and the E Street Band appeared at the end of the show for the goodbyes from the show’s hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Then, the whole cast danced while Springsteen sang “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” capturing the joy of what Christmas music should be, with a little help from Paul McCartney.
Although McCartney stays in the background on the singing, it is great to see two rock legends on stage together having fun. Check it out.
Jennifer Nettles, who rose to fame as lead singer of the country band Sugarland, has been touring as a solo artist following the release of her solo debut album That Girl (2014). Recently, while in Melbourne, Florida on her Playing With Fire Tour, Nettles covered Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire,” a song from his Born in the USA (1984) album.
Check out Nettles performing “I’m On Fire” live. Afterwards, she sang “You Can’t Go Home,” which she had recorded as a duet with Bon Jovi on the country version of the official release.
The long-awaited special edition of Bruce Springsteen’s 1980 classic double-album The River will hit stores on December 4. The Ties That Bind: The River Collection will include the original album, outtakes, a documentary, a never-before seen concert, and more. The project sets out to document an important era in Springsteen’s career with 52 tracks on four CDs and four hours of never-before-seen video on three DVDs.
In advance of the box set, Springsteen has released one of the songs, “Meet Me In The City.” Check it out.
One of the CDs in the set will be The River: Single Album, which is is the ten-track album that Springsteen recorded in 1979 but never released. At the time, Springsteen believed that the album lacked “unity and conceptual intensity,” so he took the band back into the recording studio. Seven of the tracks did end up on the official release of The River, some in alternate versions. But it will be cool to hear the album first conceptualized as the follow-up to Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978).
Will you purchase the new box set? Leave your two cents in the comments.
This week on September 22, Bruce Springsteen joined Jackson Browne to sing “Take It Easy” with Browne. On stage at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, the Boss looked both bemused and relaxed, perhaps because he was so close to his home. In other words, he was taking it easy too.
Browne wrote “Take It Easy” with Glenn Frey, who sang lead vocals when The Eagles made it a hit in 1972 and put it on their debut Eagles album that year. Browne also released his version of the song on For Everyman in 1973. The song remains associated with both The Eagles and Browne, but this week, Springsteen enjoyed bringing some Winslow, Arizona to New Jersey.
Springsteen may have looked extra happy onstage because the next day was his sixty-sixth birthday on September 23.
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast near New Orleans, Louisiana. The hurricane and its after effects devastated the city and surrounding areas along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
The following year, Bruce Springsteen visited New Orleans and performed his version of the song “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live.” He used the first verse from the original by Blind Alfred Reed. But then he added three new verses that focused on the situation in New Orleans.
Springsteen’s lyrics criticize the federal response to the emergency, invoking President George W. Bush‘s trip to the area: “He took a look around, gave a little pep talk, said ‘I’m with you’ then he took a little walk.” At his performance in New Orleans, he introduced the song with a reference to the “Bystander-in-Chief.”
Springsteen released his version of “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” on We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (American Land Edition) (2006). Below is the original version of the song by Blind Alfred Reed, who wrote “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” in response to the Great Depression: “When we pay our grocery bill,/ We just feel like making our will.”
Reed, who lived from 1880 to 1956, recorded his version in New York City on December 4, 1929, less than two months after the stock market crash. Check it out.
Ry Cooder also recorded a variation on Reed’s original version, releasing it on his self-titled album in 1970. Musically, one can hear how Cooder’s version apparently influenced Springsteen’s version.
Check out this video of Cooder’s 1987 performance of “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” at The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, California.
Unfortunately, it seems like we will always need songs like these. Fortunately, we have artists like Reed, Cooder, and Springsteen to keep challenging us.
Photo of Hurricane Katrina via NASA (Public Domain). Leave your two cents in the comments.
(2014). Recently, while in Melbourne, Florida on her Playing With Fire Tour, Nettles covered Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire,” a song from his Born in the USA (1984) album.
album that year. Browne also released his version of the song on 
in 1973. The song remains associated with both The Eagles and Browne, but this week, Springsteen enjoyed bringing some Winslow, Arizona to New Jersey.
On August 29, 2005, 
(2006). Below is the original version of the song by 