This is a special to The River City News from locally-based author Rick Robinson.
In the early seventiess, one of my best friends at Ludlow High School returned from a family trip to the New Jersey shore with a new album entitled Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. She had gone to a club called The Stone Pony, heard Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and bought the album.
Blinded by the Light, For You, and Spirit in the Night were unlike any music I had ever heard before. Growin’ Up became my teenage anthem. With a piano being pounded like a percussion instrument, a smooth sax in the background and guttural guitar licks leading the way, I had heard the future of Rock and Roll – and it was good.
Two years later, when the E-Street Band rolled into Cincinnati for the first time, the album Born to Run was on top of the charts and Bruce Springsteen was on the cover of Newsweek and Time the same week. In 1975, The Boss put on a high-energy three hour show that has been forever etched in my mind.
Greetings from Asbury Park N.J. turned forty this year. Growin’ Up has grown up.
I fell off the wagon as a true Springsteen fan somewhere after Nebraska and became a casual fan. So I went to Louisville Saturday night and sat in the rafters of the Yum Center awaiting The Boss with a mixture of emotions – searching for a bit of my long lost youth and hoping Springsteen’s music didn’t seem as old as I had felt lately.
As explosive as The Boss had been on stage in 1975, last night he was all that – and more.
Part performer – part psychiatrist – part storyteller – part evangelical preacher: Bruce Springsteen owned everyone at the sold out concert from start to finish. It was a loud tent revival where The Boss toyed with our emotions for over three hours like the blessed Savior of rock and roll.
Surprisingly, Springsteen didn’t rely on old favorites to whip the crowd into a frenzy. He didn’t play anything from Born to Run until an hour and a half into the show when he played She’s the One. He skipped playing Thunder Road entirely. The remarkable part of the show was that Bruce went about owning the room with songs that left “Boss Backsliders” like me spending Sunday morning ordering songs off iTunes to catch up.
Springsteen’s deeply soulful rendition of My City of Ruin played on several themes – from the devastation Hurricane Sandy recently caused to the Jersey Shore to the tragic loss of the Big Man, Clarence Clemons and original E Street Band organist Danny Federici. Bruce followed up Ruin with a raucous version of Spirit in the Night featuring Nick Clemons, Clarence’s nephew, on sax. Bruce calls Nick “CJ” for “Clarence Junior.” After watching Nick Clemons perform, I can assure you he’s earned the lofty title.
In the middle of the show, Springsteen began collecting posters from the audience and playing the tunes requested thereon. The Boss sang the final verse of Growin’ Up after hoisting the young man who had requested it onstage to sing along. A group of girls in pink cowboy hats that had requested Darlington County came up and danced with Bruce and Miami Steve Van Zant as the tune finished.
On stage Bruce was joined by his old crew including Miami Steve, Max Weinberg and Neils Lofgren (who kicked ass on Because the Night). Mrs. Boss, Patti Scialfa, was in Lexington visiting their daughter. New members, including some soulful backup singers that added to the spiritual feel of the concert.
The concert ended as all Springsteen concerts do – house lights up with the crowd singing along to Born to Run, Rosalita and Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out captured the spirit of the entire concert. With Bruce standing atop the piano stage left, Stevie whipped the crowd to a fevered pitch by getting everyone to sing the intro melody over and over again. The song kicked off and by the time Nick Clemons added his uncle’s words “And kid you better get the picture” Bruce was standing on a separate runway in the middle of the arena floor. He warned the audience, “Okay here’s the important part” before he sang “When the change was made up town and the Big Man joined the band.” Suddenly the music stopped and on the large monitors they played a two minute montage of Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici.
The music of Bruce Springsteen has done more than simply standing the test of time. I went to Louisville looking for a part of my youth and discovered something much more important – old dudes in their sixties can still rock.
PHOTO: Bruce Springsteen/Bill Ebbesen
