Sorry not to post yesterday. The day was incredibly busy and the night brought a fun treat — a Bruce Springsteen concert. By time I got home it was well past midnight and time for some sleep.
During the concert I tried to think of some way to make a post about the Springsteen concert book-related, but I couldn’t think of anything. It was just plain fun and just plain old rock n’ roll.
My friend Cathy is a huge Bruce Springsteen fan and has been for years. Way back in 1993, when I was still listening to 80s New Wave music years after that decade had ended, she tried to repair my cultural deficiencies by taking me to my first Bruce Springsteen concert. Though I still love 80s New Wave Music, I also came to love Bruce Springsteen’s music. As I’ve quoted Walt Whitman before: “I am large. I contain multitudes.” His concerts are amazing. He usually plays about three hours with no break and no opening act. Springsteen and his band play so well together and have such fantastic onstage energy, that one can’t help but leave the 80s New Wave music behind for the evening. 😉 After this initiation into the Springsteen sound, Cathy and I decided to try to see “The Boss” and his E Street Band perform every time they visited the Bay Area. I don’t know that we’ve been to their concerts every time they’ve visited this area, but last night was either the 7th or 8th time we have seen them in concert. We’ve lost count.
Last night, Bruce and the band performed 26 songs over a three hour period. They played about three songs off of their new album, “Working on a Dream” and then played many of their old songs, which are my (and most people’s favorites). “Born to Run”, “Thunder Road”, “Out in the Street”, “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” and “Dancing in the Dark” all brought the huge crowd at the San Jose Arena to their feet.
My personal favorite is the song “Badlands”. Whenever I listen to this song, I feel like I can do anything (including finish my Dante catalogue) and rise above any obstacles in my path. It’s inspiring.
For the uninitiated out there, here are the lyrics to “Badlands”:
Lights out tonight, trouble in the heartland.
Got a head-on collision, smashin’ in my guts man.
I’m caught in a crossfire that I don’t understand.
But there’s one thing I know for sure, girl:
I don’t give a damn for the same old played out scenes
I don’t give a damn for just the in-betweens.
Honey, I want the heart, I want the soul, I want control right now.
You better listen to me baby:
Talk about a dream; try to make it real.
You wake up in the night with a fear so real.
You spend your life waiting for a moment that just don’t come.
Well don’t waste your time waiting
Badlands you gotta live it every day
Let the broken hearts stand
As the price you’ve gotta pay
Well keep pushin’ till its understood
And these badlands start treating us good
Workin in the field till you get your back burned
Workin `neath the wheels till you get your facts learned.
Baby, I got my facts learned real good right now.
You better get it straight, darling:
Poor men wanna be rich, rich men wanna be kings,
And a king ain’t satisfied till he rules everything.
I wanna go out tonight, I wanna find out what I got.
Now I believe in the love that you gave me.
I believe in the faith that could save me.
I believe and I hope and I pray that some day it
Will raise me above these
Badlands…
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive.
I wanna find one face that ain’t looking through me
I wanna find one place, I wanna spit in the face of these
Badlands…
Here’s a video (but not from the concert I attended) of Bruce and his band singing “Badlands”. Be sure and turn up the volume on your computer. You’ll be ready to conquer the world after listening to it:
Oh, that reminds me . . . I just figured out a way to make this book related, sort of. Bruce Springsteen’s right hand man and guitarist Steven Van Zandt also played the character Silvio Dante on the television series, The Sopranos. 😉
You gotta live it every day!
Book Hunter's Holiday 
Hi Chris,
Actually, there is a fairly significant literary connection involving Bruce – the author Walker Percy was a fan of his, and wrote him a letter which, unfortunately, Bruce did not respond to. After Percy’s death, Bruce became a big fan of his writing (as I am). Bruce is actually quite well-read. I thought this interview with Bruce about Percy was very interesting, and hope you and your readers do too: http://www.doubletakemagazine.org/mag/html/backissues/12/steen/index.html
Ha … how did you ever remember Sil’s last name? And then you could also stretch the book connection to the forthcoming autobiography by Clarence “Big Man” Clemons, the sax player. I am hoping it details the mid-concert chicken ritual. Great concert. I see they substituted “Rosalita” for “Thunder Road” in the encore last night in Arizona. And they deleted “Good Eye,” which was a good move for sure.
Jill, Thank you for the link to the Percy interview. I found that extremely interesting.
Thanks for your comments, Jill and Cathy. Cathy, I can’t wait to read Clarence Clemons’s book. I love Thunder Road, but I like Rosalita, too. And I am glad they took out Good Eye. It just doesn’t translate well from album to live stage performance. What a fun concert!