Since May 1976, I have written in journals. When I have nothing particularly resonant to say about my own inner turmoil, philosophic ramblings, sexual peccadillos or whining on about the state of the world around me...I have always fallen back on reporting the cultural time consumption that takes up in inordinate portion of my daily goings on.
In the 40+ years since my first concerts seeing Children's Symphony presentations on Sundays at the Pasadena Civic or The Hot Jazz Society's monthly Dixieland romps in an old meeting hall on the edge of the L.A. "River" across from Griffith Park, I have been sold heavily on the magic of live music. As Neil Young so aptly put it, "Live music is better bumper stickers should be issued."
Growing up a few orange groves and canyons length away from Hollywood also contributed greatly to my family's addiction to movie going. From the time I was a small there were weekly trips to the drive-in theaters that dotted the landscape, or the local Temple theater for the Saturday matinees. Once in a while we'd drive the 12 miles into Hollywood and see something in one of the magnificent old movie palaces like Grauman's Chinese, the Egyptian, The Pantages or later the Cinerama Dome. My dad loved Westerns and War movies, as if he didn't get enough shoot-'em-up as an L.A. County Sheriff in his day gig, my mom adored musicals and comedies. My brother and I loved them all.
At SDSU, I played in my first gigging band and began booking concerts on campus as part of the well-funded Cultural Arts Board, kindling for my future life in and around music.
So it's not surprising that my first jobs out of college were working in local video rental places (which were all the rage) or managing a couple of Sam Goody record stores in Mall's on the East Coast where we marveled at the new CD format and sold the first home computers and video games (yes Commodore and Pong and Atari).
So these are really just extensions of all of those journal entries talking about the great new movies I was seeing and LPs/CDs I was listening to.
Though iPODS/iPADs, apps, smart phones and downloads now make music and movies accessible in your own pocket, there is still nothing like sitting in front of a stack of speakers with a room full of people swaying to music created before your eyes. Nor is there anything that works quite so well for me to escape the real world and all of it's pressures just outside than two hours in a dark theater, absorbing the stories flickering across that wide screen as they pull you into their world.
But a really good taco runs a close third...
Showing posts with label Bruce Springsteen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bruce Springsteen. Show all posts
-- THIS VERSION OF THIS POST WHICH ORIGINALLY APPEARED HERE 12/13/12 NOW HAS UPDATED QUALITY AND/OR ADDED FULL VERSIONS OF MANY OF THE PREVIOUSLY POSTED VIDEOS AND HAS ALSO ADDED MANY FULL SONGS NOT PREVIOUSLY POSTED (this update posted 12/16/12)
The 121212 CONCERT for victims of Sandy was held last night with an amazing line-up of BIG NAME bands. If was broadcast for free across the web, in theaters across the country, on hundreds of TV and radio stations worldwide.
At top: Roger Waters performing "Comfortably Numb" with guest Eddie Vedder (full song, xlnt quality).
Full length versions HD versions of songs are now popping up available. Apologies for all of these lesser quality clips and partial versions but I thought I should get something up for those who missed it and who might be prompted to contribute. I will post updates here as they pop up on YouTube. If any of you have complete set or song links please forward them.
If you've got three hours here is a link to the part one of the complete broadcast or pick and choose some choice moments below. I'll post part two soon.
In the meantime, here are some clips to wet your whistle. Looks like quite an amazing night...performances by the Rolling Stones, Kanye West, Michael Stipe, Roger Waters with Eddie Vedder...Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Chris Martin, Eric Clapton, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, Billy Crystal and many more...
"Born To Run" rocking for Jersey with The Boss and Jon Bon Jovi...(full song, good quality)
Paul McCartney and Nirvana reunion playing a new jam in the "Helter Skelter" mode called "Cut Me Some Slack" (full song, upgraded quality):
A retired Michael Stipe was asked by his buddy Chris Martin from Coldplay to chow up and sing one of R.E.M.'s biggest hits, "Losing My Religion"
Adam Sandler performs "Sandy, Screw Ya" with Paul Shaeffer to the tune of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (full song):
Here's most of Billy Joel's version of "Movin' Out" (partial, marginal quality) and "River of Dreams"
The Who play "Pinball Wizard" (full song, updated quality):
The Rolling Stones "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (only the last half is here):
Eric Clapton performing first an acoustic "Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out" and then a fierce electric "Got to Get better In A Little While" (both full songs in xlnt quality). Check out the post here for Eric's version of "Crossroads" from this concert as well.
Bon Jovi with The Boss guesting on "Who Says You Can't Go Home" (marginal quality):
also above Bon Jovi "Living On A Prayer"
Alicia Keys leads the finale "Empire State of Mind": (marginal sound quality):
and I'm just sayin' she needs to play Lena Horne in a biopic...
Clarence Clemons was never the best saxophone player in the world. He didn’t reinvent the instrument like Charlie Parker or John Coltrane. He wasn’t a groove machine like Jr. Walker or Maceo Parker, or a master of tone and soulful funkiness like Pee Wee Ellis or King Curtis. What he was was The Big Man. The perfect foil for Bruce Springsteen’s tales of the Jersey Shore. The Boss’s blend of West Side Story drama and Morricone scope, in tales from the dark, downtrodden streets of fire from where Springsteen came. Bruce needed a foil and Clemons, who died yesterday at the age of 69 after suffering stroke on June 14th, was perfectly cast.
A looming presence onstage in his early white suits and fedoras, his sleeveless silk shirts, maracas and strutting saxophone, here was the gunslinger commanding the attention of not only the crowd but of The Boss as well. While Miami Steve Van Zandt played Keith Richards to Bruce’s Mick, Clarence was a whole other beast altogether. Spinning in time with the dynamo Springsteen their instrument cords miraculously rarely tripping them up. He was the catalyst, the emotive kicker for Springsteen's flights of rock n roll redemption. Taking his cues from the great sax solos behind The Drifters slice-of-life tales and the early rock radio tunes of their youth, The Boss and The Big Man could be seen in your mind’s eye taking on all comers on the boardwalk late at night. In the early years Bruce would do long introductions to songs which took you back to dark nights of menace and desperation when out of the darkness came The Big Man amidst bolts of lightning and chaos and all was settled. Everyone took a step back and just knew the real deal had just arrived. The legend of their meeting told over the years in varying versions by Springsteen as introductions to “The E Street Shuffle” and other tunes, is told below by Clemons.
The first song we did was an early version of "Spirit In The Night". Bruce and I looked at each other and didn't say anything, we just knew. We knew we were the missing links in each other's lives. He was what I'd been searching for. In one way he was just a scrawny little kid. But he was a visionary. He wanted to follow his dream. So from then on I was part of history.
Over the years Clemons recorded eight solo albums under various monikers beginning with 1983’s RESCUE. He even had a hit single in 1985 which featured Jackson Browne called “You’re A Friend of Mine”. That same year his sax solo was featured on the Aretha Franklin hit, “Freeway of Love”. He has done numerous sessions and/or tours with artists as diverse as Todd Rundgren, Ronnie Spector, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, Joe Cocker, Twisted Sister, Ringo Starr & his All-Starr Band, The Four Tops. Roy Orbison and Lady Gaga among many others. He’s even performed with the Jerry Garcia Band and The Grateful Dead.
Clemons was also an actor on film not just onstage with The Boss. He appeared in five feature films beginning in 1997 with New York, New York and including Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Fatal Instinct and Blues Brothers 2000. He also acted in 15 episodes of major television shows.
When Springsteen disbanded The E Street Band in the 1989 for ten years (though in 1995 they reunited briefly to record four new songs for the Greatest Hits album), it was Clemons who was most missed by many of the fans on the subsequent tours without the E Street Band. His visual presence as much as the place his dramatic solos played in Springsteen’s music was hard to replace.
Finally, in 1999, Springsteen brought the band back together for highly anticipated Reunion tour, live album and sessions and tour for THE RISING. In 2005, Devils & Dust had a smattering of band members joining the proceedings and the follow year found Bruce with a very different kind of sound and band for the Pete Seeger Sessions CD and tour.
By 2007, the band had reconnected for Bruce’s album The Magic. Half way through the subsequent tour, organist Danny Federici was diagnosed with melanoma and only returned for one final appearance one month before he died. Federici passed on April 17, 2008.
With Clemons death, bassist Garry W. Tallent is the longest running E Street Band musician and only remaining original member. As difficult as it was to accept the band without Clemons during the E Street Band’s ten year hiatus, it will be incredibly hard to see the band without him. He had slowed down in recent years with physical problems (two knee replacements among them) that kept his stage movements to a minimum and found him sitting for much of the set where he wasn’t soloing.
I’ll never forget the first time I heard Clemons play live. It was November 1, 1976 in Robertson Gym at UC Santa Barbara. Bruce opened with a piano backed opening of “Thunder Road” followed by an incendiary “Tenth-Avenue Freeze-out”, Clarence and Miami Steve strutting by his side. And we believed that "wne the change was made uptown and The Big Man joined the band / from the coastline to the city all the little pretties raised their hands," because even that night, early on, hands were thrust in the air towards that growling sax sound. We were in the third row of this general admission show and after that solo the girl next to me sat down on her chair and began to cry, “This is the best thing I’ve ever heard in my life” she repeated over and over again. The show ran nearly three hours and I knew that this moment would reinvent how I thought of live music and life in general. To this day, I yearn for another show as life affirming and riveting as those three hours.
Two years later I traveled to he East Coast for the first time with the woman who would become my wife and companion for the next 25 years. She’d seen Bruce at the Main Point in 1975 and watched his career blossom as Philadelphia embraced The Boss long before the rest of the country knew who was in charge. We drove down to Cape May Point, New Jersey to meet her parents the morning after I arrived in Philadelphia. While we were there she asked, “What do you want to see while you are back here?” My answer was immediate: “Asbury Park.”
We drove up the Garden Start Parkway and when we hit the boardwalk there were still remnants of all of the places I'd heard Bruce and the E Street Band immortalize on those first three albums. I rode on The Tilt-A-Whirl, played pinball in the Casino, took my picture in front of Madame Marie’s and the Stone Pony. I even kissed her underneath the boardwalk. And I pictured Clarence Clemons walking through the storm to join the band and change rock n roll forever. On the way home, we heard on the radio that Keith Moon, legendary drummer for The Who had died, another mythic figure of rock n roll royalty.
Yesterday we lost another rock n roll icon, “the Master of the Universe, The King of the World, The Big Man, The Biggest Man You Ever Seen…Clarence Clemons.”
What follows are some songs featuring Clarence Clemons on sax including the tune that documents his becoming an E Streeter, “Tenth-Avenue Freezeout”, his most famous showpiece “Jungleland” and one of the most transcendent rock tunes of the era, “Born To Run.”
Clarence on playing with Bruce, spirituality etc.
“The River” with Clarence intro and very different arrangement from the original.
Clarence on being in the E Street Band and more
Bruce is a total goofball – now this has got to be one of the most over-the-top intro of The Big Man ever!
rare live “Kitty’s Back” from 1974 (audio only but great quality and killer version)
Clarence discusses his “Jungleland” solo
For comparison: first is an early version from 1975 at the Main Point – audio only but wow!
With some early lyric differences….interesting but without Clarence’s defining solo, the drama of the song is just not there…
Now listen to this one…Here is a later version of Clarence’s "Jungleland" solo which has settled into it’s more famous iconic spot as the emotional lynchpin of this bigger than life tune…
Interview with Alan Thicke in 1983 and he plays “Woman’s Got The Power” with his Red Bank Rockers.
CC’s big hit with Jackson Browne. The dated 80s drum sound and production was the first big production hit for the great fusion drummer Michael Narada Walden (Mahavishnu Orchestra)…boy, was this a bad and cheesy video. A the early days of MTV…
I had an opportunity to get to know "Maurice" (Pat Ieraci), a wonderful man whose name and image you may have seen on the back covers and in credits of the Jefferson Airplane's Volunteers and Jefferson Starship's Dragonfly albums as well as numerous other great recordings by Harry Nilsson, Steve Miller etc. He was a insider at RCA, liaison between bands and the label, eventually being part The Airplane families many projects as production coordinator and general troubleshooter. Pat is also a huge collector of music with a garage full of old 45s and an extensive knowledge of the history of rock music. I asked him once about what he thought was the greatest recording of all-time. Not the greatest song per se, but the ultimate record. He said immediately, "The one record I can think on which I wouldn't change a thing is the song, 'Born To Run'. It has everything a rock record should have." ... I agree. There are tons of incendiary live versions of this song but I included the classic studio cut here because I agree with Pat...great overall sound, ferocious production, amazing vocals and relentless propulsion and the timelss sax solo is perfect. There is no doubt that the band is communicating their leader's vision and that they and Bruce believe what he is singing and are desperate for you to believe it too.
Bruce Springsteen pleaded the case for Obama for President at a free rally in Philadelphia on Saturday. Steph Brown and I went down after a lengthy SEPTA hassle getting there but made it in time for Bruce who came on about 30 minutes before his scheduled time. There were approximately 50,000 people there for a rally designed to help register voters in the swing state of Philadelphia.
Bruce played a stirring, emotionally riveting 40+ minute solo acoustic set as City Hall loomed behind him with an American flag billowing in the wind from atop a downtown skyscraper on this beautiful day in the town where this nation was formed.
Each song chosen contained an appropriate line or message of hope and the crowd cheered and sang along at each appropriate phrase.
After former mayor Ed Rendell and Gov. Bob Casey spoke, Bruce came out as rumors of a surprise Obama visit swirled in the wind and said, "I'm not Barack Obama, but I'll do my best," he said. "It's good to be back in my home away from home." Not only the city where the United States got it's official launch, it is also the town that broke Springsteen, who before local DJ Ed Sciokey took up his case and The Boss hit town with some legendary early, long, incendiary shows was known only along the Jersey Shore.
The Promised Land (all audio and video in this blog are from Philly Obama Rally)
THE PROMISED LAND (his tune not Chuck Berry's!) "The dogs on Main Street howl 'cause they understand If i could take one moment into my hands Mister, I ain't a boy, no I'm a man / and I believe in the promised land.... ...There's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down That ain't got the faith to stand its ground Blow away the dreams that tear you apart Blow away the dreams that break your heart Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted."
Audio of Tom Joad:
THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD Bruce sings, by way of John Steinbeck,
"Where there's a fight against the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me, Mom, I'll be there
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand Or a decent job or a helpin' hand Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free Look in their eyes, Mom, you'll see me."
Audio of Thunder Road:
THUNDER ROAD "SHOW A LITTLE FAITH!" (the crowd screams this line with him)
"With a chance to make it work somehow, hey, what else can we do now except roll down the windows and let the wind blow back your hair. Well, the night's bustin' open these two lanes will take us anywhere. We got one last chance to make it real to trade in these wings on some wheels climb in back, heaven's waitin' on down the tracks."
Audio of No Surrender and Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street:
NO SURRENDER "We made a promise we swore we'd always remember No retreat no surrender
Like soldiers in the winter's night with a vow to defend No retreat no surrender."
DOES THIS BUS STOP AT 82ND STREET? He hasn't played this one in ages but did it in Philly since he'd played it here so much before he was a star... great line: "The Daily News asks her for the dope / She said, 'Man, the dope's that there's still hope.'"
- he intro'd the next song with a little speech. He wanted to "say a little something" and asked for a rock to hold down the paper he'd read from, "Don't throw it," he laughed.
And man he should be a speech writer for Obama. Eloquent, poignant, pointed and poetic. The Boss...here's what he said. (pt. 1 begins with the end of BUS STOP and ends with 1st half of speech w/ crowd shots and the first minute of THE RISING. Pt. 2 video is most of the speech plus the entire version of THE RISING)
PT. 1:
PT. 2:
"Hello Philly, "I am glad to be here today for this voter registration drive and for Barack Obama, the next President of the United States.
"I've spent 35 years writing about America, its people, and the meaning of the American Promise. The Promise that was handed down to us, right here in this city from our founding fathers, with one instruction: Do your best to make these things real. Opportunity, equality, social and economic justice, a fair shake for all of our citizens, the American idea, as a positive influence, around the world for a more just and peaceful existence. These are the things that give our lives hope, shape, and meaning. They are the ties that bind us together and give us faith in our contract with one another.
"I've spent most of my creative life measuring the distance between that American promise and American reality. For many Americans, who are today losing their jobs, their homes, seeing their retirement funds disappear, who have no healthcare, or who have been abandoned in our inner cities. The distance between that promise and that reality has never been greater or more painful.
"I believe Senator Obama has taken the measure of that distance in his own life and in his work. I believe he understands, in his heart, the cost of that distance, in blood and suffering, in the lives of everyday Americans. I believe as president, he would work to restore that promise to so many of our fellow citizens who have justifiably lost faith in its meaning. After the disastrous administration of the past 8 years, we need someone to lead us in an American reclamation project. In my job, I travel the world, and occasionally play big stadiums, just like Senator Obama. I've continued to find, wherever I go, America remains a repository of people's hopes, possibilities, and desires, and that despite the terrible erosion to our standing around the world, accomplished by our recent administration, we remain, for many, a house of dreams. One thousand George Bushes and one thousand Dick Cheneys will never be able to tear that house down.
"They will, however, be leaving office, dropping the national tragedies of Katrina, Iraq, and our financial crisis in our laps. Our sacred house of dreams has been abused, looted, and left in a terrible state of disrepair. It needs care; it needs saving, it needs defending against those who would sell it down the river for power or a quick buck. It needs strong arms, hearts, and minds. It needs someone with Senator Obama's understanding, temperateness, deliberativeness, maturity, compassion, toughness, and faith, to help us rebuild our house once again. But most importantly, it needs us. You and me. To build that house with the generosity that is at the heart of the American spirit. A house that is truer and big enough to contain the hopes and dreams of all of our fellow citizens. That is where our future lies. We will rise or fall as a people by our ability to accomplish this task. Now I don't know about you, but I want that dream back, I want my America back, I want my country back. "So now is the time to stand with Barack Obama and Joe Biden, roll up our sleeves, and come on up for the rising."
THE RISING "Come on up for the rising Come on up, lay your hands in mine Come on up for the rising Come on up for the rising tonight."
Audio of This Land Is Your Land:
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND He sings Woody Guthrie's populist classic with the seldom sung verse with crowd chanting "Yes, We Can" in time to the song. Incredible.
Bruce Springsteen has been the every man's poet laureate of the rock n roll world for the past 35 years and has time and again taken a stand for what he believes in. This show was remarkably moving and to have been a part of it will forever be a memorable and proud moment in my life.
