Tag: Nils Lofgren

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: “Purple Rain”

E Street Band Prince

In tribute to Prince, on Saturday night Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band opened with “Purple Rain.” The band entered the stage covered in purple light and then lit into the classic Prince song.

As regular readers know, we are big Springsteen fans. But I have to admit that Springsteen’s version of “Purple Rain” was much better than I expected. And Nils Lofgren’s guitar solo did the Purple One justice. Check out the performance at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on April 23, 2016.

At least for now, Springsteen is offering the audio of the performance of “Purple Rain” as a free download on his website.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    It’s “Rock & Roll Time” When Jerry Lee Lewis Releases New Music

    Jerry Lee Lewis Rock Roll

    Jerry Lee Lewis is releasing a new album on October 28, Rock & Roll Time. Like his other recent albums of duets, Last Man Standing (2006) and Mean Old Man (2010), the new album features help from some famous names like Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson, Shelby Lynne, and Nils Lofgren.

    The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that the album will have eleven tracks, with roughly half originals and half covers (like “Folsom Prison Blues” and Bob Dylan’s “Stepchild”). Check out the title track, “Rock & Roll Time,” below.

    Rock & Roll Time is not all we will be hearing from Jerry Lee Lewis. On September 23, Saguaro Road Records is releasing The Knox Phillips Sessions, a previously unreleased 1970s album from Lewis that was produced by Knox Phillips (the son of the legendary producer Sam Phillips). Additionally, a new Jerry Lee Lewis authorized biography Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story hits bookstores October 28. For the book, Lewis sat for interviews with author Rick Bragg.

    It looks like there’s going to be a lot of Jerry Lee Lewis this Fall. The more Killer the better.

    What is your favorite Jerry Lee Lewis song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    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.

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    You Can Get Killed Just for Living in Your American Skin

    Last Friday, Bruce Springsteen dug his song “American Skin (41 Shots)” from Live In New York City (2000) out of the vault in Tampa, Florida. Without any comment from Springsteen, the reason for the song eventually became clear to the crowd. Although it was written about New York police shooting the unarmed Amadou Diallo in February 1999, the refrain about getting killed just for living in your “American Skin” resonated in Florida, where this February the 17-year-old unarmed Trayvon Martin was killed.

    While everyone is still sorting out what happened in the incident, both liberal and conservative commentators have been doing a lot of yelling. While one may debate whether Springsteen’s decision to bring back “41 Shots” helps with the debate or just adds more confusion to the developing story, when Nils Lofgren’s electric guitar kicks in after the 3-minute mark, there is no question. Even more than the refrain, the building tension and screaming guitars say that despite all of the rhetoric on both sides, it’s a damn tragedy.

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    Bruce Springsteen on Jimmy Fallon: Wrecking Ball

    Springsteen Jimmy Fallon Nils Lofgren
    Nils Lofgren Directs the Horns

    Bruce Springsteen’s new album, Wrecking Ball will be released on March 6, and this week Late Night with Jimmy Fallon features a Springsteen theme, with artists covering Springsteen songs as well as the man and his band appearing last night and again on Friday. Last night, Springsteen performed the first single, “We Take Care of Our Own” as well as the title track, which is below.

    The song “Wrecking Ball” may be familiar to Springsteen fans because in 2009 Springsteen debuted the song at the Meadowlands, i.e., Giants Stadium, during his final shows at the stadium before it succombed to the wrecking ball. The song maintains references to the stadium being demolished (“where the blood is spilled, the arena’s filled, and Giants played”), but it holds up on the album because the song connects the stadium’s wrecking ball to more universal themes of aging, hard times, and standing up to both.

    [2020 Update: Unfortunately, the Jimmy Fallon video is no longer available so below is Springsteen performing “Wrecking Ball” at Giants Stadium.]

    While the lyrics on the album are touched by our recent economic troubles, the music of several of the songs are influenced by Springsteen’s uplifting work with the Seeger Sessions Band. This recession-era CD is the first E Street band album without Clarence Clemons, so it seems appropriate that the album is tinged with sorrow while steeped in joyful horns helping us through the rough times.

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