TOMORROW, THERE'LL BE SUNSHINE
All aboard this train, as Springsteen returns to the Inaugural stage
Just over four years ago, on January 12, 2017, Bruce Springsteen performed a private show at the White House, a farewell concert for President Obama and Vice President Biden. For his final goodbye in the East Room, Bruce closed that 15-song performance with one of his most stirring compositions, "Land of Hope and Dreams."

Last night, Springsteen played the song again — offered as a solemn "prayer" to welcome the newly inaugurated Joe Biden as our 46th President, and Kamala Harris, the nation's first woman Vice President. After the four years that passed between these two performances, it's hard to think of a moment when this couplet rang more true:

Dreams will not be thwarted
Faith will be rewarded

As the cold open for Celebrating America, "Land of Hope and Dreams" kicked off a 90-minute prime time special serving as a capstone to the day's official Inaugural events. In another instance of coming full circle, Springsteen performed live on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, just as he had 12 years ago for the Obama/Biden Inauguration in 2009.

A marked difference underscored our changed circumstance: this time, Springsteen appeared alone at the Memorial — no choir, no fellow music legends, not even an audience. But his old friend Tom Hanks was there, socially distanced and waiting in the wings to host the special. Despite the pandemic, Hanks and Springsteen both travelled to Washington DC to broadcast live on location (most of the night's appearances originated from other cities, many pre-taped).

"Good evening, America!" Springsteen greeted viewers across the nation (and around the world) in a coat and scarf, a familiar, battered Takamine acoustic around his neck. "I'm proud to be here in cold Washington DC tonight, and I want to offer this small prayer for our country."

The lack of a crowd shifted focus to just the performer and the still majesty of his surroundings, lights illuminating the empty Washington mall and its monuments. Laid just as bare as his venue, the message of "Land of Hope and Dreams" was most prominent over Springsteen's spare acoustic accompaniment. Echoing lightly in the space, many lyrics resonated in a completely new way as he sang such lines — written more than 20 years ago — as "Tomorrow there'll be sunshine / And all this darkness past." 

"Land of Hope and Dreams," its title an apt description of "the country we carry in our hearts," has proven itself perhaps the sturdiest Springsteen song of the Reunion era. The first new composition he performed with the reunited E Street Band in 1999 became a statement of purpose for that tour, yet "Land of Hope and Dreams" went on to live many lives. It's been an encore staple for hundreds of E Street Band shows, and Bruce reworked the song for solo acoustic performances on the Devils & Dust tour and for the Sessions Band in 2006. It became such an integral part of the canon that, after years of availability only as a live recording (on 2001's Live in New York City), "Land of Hope and Dreams" was finally recorded and released in a studio version on 2012's Wrecking Ball.

As with last night's Celebrating America performance, Springsteen often reaches for the song on special occasions — for Jon Stewart's final Moment of Zen (on The Daily Show), for charity (at benefit concerts such as Flood Aid, Stand Up for Heroes, and The Concert for Sandy Relief), and for the sake of the Obama/Biden reelection campaign, at multiple rallies in 2012.

The aforementioned 2017 White House concert was a unique, one-off set, but it led directly to the Tony Award-winning, 236-show residency Springsteen on Broadway. Each night, the acoustic "Land of Hope and Dreams" held a place of honor at the end of the set, coming out of "Dancing in the Dark" with a summational benediction before the "Born to Run" finale.

In his Born to Run memoir, Springsteen described his intent behind "Land of Hope and Dreams" when he brought it to E Street Band tour rehearsals in 1999: "I wanted something new to start this new stage of the band's life with. 'Land of Hope' summed up a lot of what I wanted our band to be about and renewed our pledge to our audience, to point the way forward and, once again, become a living presence in our listeners' lives."

As bells of freedom ring a little more loudly this week, America embarks on its own journey of renewal. May the song serve this rededication just as well.
- By the Editors - January 21, 2021

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Backstreets Magazine (@backstreetsmag)

- January 20, 2021

At 10 a.m. EST: #FromMyHomeToYours (Vol. 17) returns: in "Lawyers, Guns and Money: An Inaugural Special," @springsteen reflects on "the times we’re living in," spinning songs by Leonard Cohen, Jay-Z, Link Wray, Run The Jewels, Warren Zevon, and more. @SiriusXM #enjoyeverysandwich

— Backstreets Magazine (@backstreetsmag) January 20, 2021

PHIL SPECTOR, 1939-2021
To know him was to love him, hate him, fear him, and pity him.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Phil Spector, who died of COVID-19 complications on Saturday, was a deeply troubled, violent, and dictatorial man who spent his final years serving a prison sentence for the murder of Lana Clarkson. He was also a musician, songwriter, and producer who played a major role in creating much of rock 'n' roll's most beautiful, visionary, revolutionary, and romantic music. And, of course, his body of work had a huge influence on the formation of Bruce Springsteen's musical identity, especially during the recording of Born to Run in 1974-75.

"I wanted to make a record with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector," Springsteen would recall two decades later at the 1987 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. A quarter-century after that, in his 2012 SXSW Keynote address, Springsteen again identified the enduring beauty and influence of Spector's trademark "Wall of Sound" production, a style developed and embedded in so many classic, beloved 1960s hit records like "He's a Rebel," "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Be My Baby," "Then He Kissed Me," "A Fine, Fine Boy," "Baby, I Love You," "He's Sure the Boy I Love," "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," and "Black Pearl."

Spector created each of these sonic masterpieces not just by himself, but by leading intense in-studio collaborations with a large, immensely talented company of singers and groups (almost all of them female and of African-American, Native American, and/or Puerto Rican heritage) like The Crystals, Darlene Love, The Righteous Brothers, and The Ronettes, as well as his songwriting partners and the stellar, diverse collection of musicians, arrangers, and engineers who collectively became known as "The Wrecking Crew."

"Phil's entire body of work," said Springsteen at SXSW 2012, "could be described by the title of one of his lesser-known productions, 'He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss).' Phil's records felt like near-chaos, violence covered in sugar and candy, sung by the girls who were sending [Roy Orbison] running straight for the anti–depressants. If Roy was opera, Phil was symphonies, little three-minute orgasms, followed by oblivion. And Phil's greatest lesson was sound, sound… Sound is its own language. I mean, the first thing you would think of with Phil Spector is [vocally mimics the opening drumbeat of 'Be My Baby.'] That was all you needed."

The great rock critic Greil Marcus perfectly summed up the deep mid-seventies influence of Spector on Springsteen's sound. In his ecstatic 1975 Rolling Stone review of Born to Run, Marcus described the album as "a '57 Chevy running on melted-down Crystals records." In sequential order, the Born to Run tracks on which Spector's sonic influence can be heard at its strongest are "Night," "Backstreets," "Born to Run," "She's the One," and "Jungleland."

Furthermore, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's live version of "Then [S]he Kissed Me" — a song first released as a Spector-produced recording by The Crystals — was a major highlight of the tour that accompanied Born to Run's release, especially during their legendary August '75 stand at The Bottom Line. An officially released live version of "Then She Kissed Me" is available on Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band - Scottrade Center, St. Louis 8/23/08. And their official December '75 live recording of "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," which has long been a Yuletide staple, was based on The Crystals' version featured on Phil Spector's classic A Christmas Gift For You album.

In his Born to Run autobiography, Springsteen added this observation on the major inspiration that Spector provided to the creation of Born to Run's title track: "From Phil Spector came the ambition to make a world-shaking mighty noise. I wanted to craft a record that sounded like the last record on Earth, like the last record you might hear… the last one you'd ever NEED to hear. One glorious noise… then the apocalypse."

No less an authority than Darlene Love herself recently related to us, "I told [Stevie Van Zandt] a long time ago that Bruce and [the E Street Band] together sound so much like Phil Spector. Everything that you need is there. And I guess what a lot of people don't realize is that most of it is all rhythm: the drums and the bells and everything. Phil overdubbed all of that stuff, and it just got better and better." Click here for officially released audio of Darlene Love performing "A Fine, Fine Boy" with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band during the 2009 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts at Madison Square Garden, and here for an excellent audience-based recording of them performing "Da Doo Ron Ron" together during the same event.

In the wake of Springsteen's Born to Run breakthrough, he got invited to meet with Phil Spector and attend a 1975 recording session that Spector was producing for Dion's album Born to Be With You. Dave Marsh described the meeting in his Born to Run biography: "Spector was reserved about Springsteen, but only up to a point. When one of the producer's friends suggested that the meeting was like introducing the great Sixties pitcher Sandy Koufax to the new Dodger star Don Sutton, Spector corrected him, 'No, it's more like Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron.' Home-run kings."

Ronnie Spector, Bruce Springsteen, and the E Street Band on the picture sleeve for Spector's 1976 single "Say Goodbye to Hollywood." Steven Van Zandt produced her version of the song, which was written by Billy Joel and inspired by Phil Spector's classic "Wall of Sound" productions.

In the end, Phil Spector's odyssey also became the greatest example of a phrase frequently heard on E Street over the years: trust the art, not the artist. The best Spector records created a massive sonic space where so many beautiful, diverse voices and musical styles are united into a whole that is so much bigger than the sum of its parts, dominated by visions of love, respect, and a brighter future. But from the very beginning, that space has coexisted with much harsher realities. Even one of Spector's earliest songs, "To Know Him Is to Love Him," took its title from the epitaph on the tombstone for his father, who committed suicide by carbon-monoxide poisoning due to crushing family indebtedness when his only son was just eight years old.

Whatever sadness and darkness eventually led Phil Spector to bully and cause so much harm to others during his lifetime, ultimately betraying the dreams his greatest songs and records inspired, still can't completely kill the power for those of us who still believe in them. So don't, don't, don't, don't let them slip away.
- January 18, 2021 - Shawn Poole reporting

JACK DALEY, DISCIPLE OF SOUL, ON HIS RIDE DOWN E STREET
"I just tried to do my best musically and not do anything that would put too much of a spotlight on me"
On December 12, bassist Jack Daley added a significant new entry to his professional resume as he subbed for Garry Tallent on Saturday Night Live with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. A highly experienced and well-respected musician, producer, mixer and studio owner, Daley has worked with various artists including Shawn Colvin, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Mick Jagger. He recorded and toured with Lenny Kravitz for 14 years and has been a member of Little Steven's new Disciples of Soul from day one.

Daley was brought in when Tallent could not make the SNL performance due to Covid-19 concerns and restrictions — the first known occasion Garry had missed a band performance in 50 years. Jack spoke to Backstreets about the experience of pinch-hitting for E Street's ace of bass. 

How long before the event did you get the call? I guess Steven recommended you.

Yes, Steven called me the Friday evening (December 4) a week prior to the show. He said, "I may need you to step in on this." I mentioned that I had a session; he let out a Silvio Dante-type groan, and I immediately agreed to make myself available!

Did you learn the songs with the band or by yourself?

Once it became official that I would be doing it, I learned the songs on my own on Monday and Tuesday (December 7-8) at my studio in Asbury Park. I was given everything I needed by Rob Lebret, Bruce's engineer, to be as accurate as possible.

Were you asked to reproduce Garry's parts or could you improvise a little? How does his style compare to yours?

I was not really given any exact instructions. But we are talking about stepping in for an original band member of one of the world's most iconic bands. We are also there to promote Bruce and the band's new record, so the idea of improvising or changing the parts in any way made no sense to me. My style and Garry's have common ground, and I have learned several of his parts during my tenure with the Disciples of Soul — which is why Steven called me in the first place.

How long did you rehearse and where?

We rehearsed for probably two to three hours at Bruce's studio. We just played the songs a couple of times, and Bruce made a few changes for live performance. Very straightforward. We also did run-throughs at SNL for sound and camera blocking.

Saturday Night Live, December 12, 2020

How well did you know the E Streeters beforehand?

Of course, I've spent four years in Steven's band, both live and in the studio. We have a great relationship.

I had met Max, Nils, Charlie and Jake in the past but never worked with them. Max came to a Disciples of Soul gig and seemed to really enjoy it. We played "Moon Tears" in Phoenix with Nils, which was fun. Jake came to see us when we played in his hometown. I met Garry in Nashville at one of Steven's DJ nights while on tour; he came to see the show the following night. I remember him saying it sounded like a record. Very sweet guy.

This was my first time meeting Roy — a musical genius. We had some great conversations about Yamaha pianos, because I am in the market for one for my studio. Loved hearing him play from that perspective. 

So it was mostly all Disciples of Soul affiliation. Also Bruce has sat in with us probably five times now.

Were any other songs rehearsed in addition to the two that you played?

There was some talk of "If I Was the Priest" being a possible song, but we never rehearsed it. I did, however, learn that one and "The Power of Prayer" just in case. Never good to be caught off guard. I also brushed up on two Christmas E Street classics, in an abundance of caution.

What was the testing and isolation regime like before and after the show?

I received six Covid tests: five prior, and one ten days after. SNL is doing a fantastic job keeping everyone safe, and Bruce's people did the same.

How much live TV had you done before? I know you'd been on SNL in the past.

I have done a tremendous amount of live TV. This was my third or fourth SNL. Probably 15 or more Letterman performances alone — Lenny would play that show with every new single. American Music Awards, VH1 Fashion Awards with Iggy Pop and James Brown, Conan with Josh Stone, Good Morning America with Five for Fighting, Arsenio Hall, Ellen Degeneres, Jay Leno. I've played Later With Jools Holland four times, starting back in 1992. Having said this, SNL is easily the most intense. It's New York, baby!

For the musicians out there, what kind of bass did you use and why?

I used my 1965 Candy Apple Red P-bass. I was told Garry used a P-bass on the record, so that was an easy choice. The first electric bass, and still the best. Leo Fender was a super genius!

How many people were watching it live in the studio?

The audience is reduced to the upper tier due to Covid. I would guess it was about 50 to 100 people.

Charlie and Jake sat out one song each. Was that due to virus-related studio rules?

That is possible. I know that they have a limit of people allowed on stage due to Covid. But I also think it worked out as the proper instrumentation for these songs.

L-R: Marc Ribler, Steven Van Zandt, and Jack Daley on November 14, 2017, when the Disciples of Soul played the Cavern Club in Liverpool - photo by Mike Saunders

How would you compare playing with the E Street Band to playing with the Disciples of Soul?

That is a tricky comparison! I think with the Disciples of Soul, with the exception of Eddie (Manion) and Stan (Harrison), we all came in as new members. Marc (Ribler) had some history with Steven as Darlene Love's musical director, but it was limited. You can't really compare that type of vibe to walking into a room of iconic band members that have invested the better part of five decades establishing themselves. Musically, we have much common ground. And both bands have Steven, which is huge.

How did the performance go from a personal point of view? And were Bruce and the band happy with it? It looked like everyone was having fun.

I think everyone was very pleased with it. With live TV, you want to be able to call safe when you're done. Did I play what I wanted and did everything go as planned? Yes. Did I mess up at all? No. I just tried to do my best musically and not do anything that would put too much of a spotlight on me. Later on, you watch and see if you looked good, if they caught your worst stupid face! 

I was pleased, and I thought that Bruce addressed the fans in a way prior to the performance that was helpful for people to know why I was there instead of Garry — and to not hate on me too much! Steven told me after the fact, "You did great, just like I knew you would." What more could a boy from Troy, NY, ask for?

I think people really connected with the emotion of the performances. Something very much needed in a year with so much loss and suffering.

I'm sure you count SNL as a career highlight, albeit a short one. If you got the call, would you do it again?

Playing on SNL with Bruce and E Street will be hard to top. And yes, if I got the call, I would be there, no question. It was a huge honor to be asked. Steven could have called anyone, but without hesitation, he called me. The significance of that is not lost on me. And I don't want to hear that "Silvio groan"! Having said all this, let's hope Garry will be doing it for another 50 years. Long live Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band!
- January 17, 2021 - interview by Mike Saunders

SPRINGSTEEN TO PERFORM FOR INAUGURAL SPECIAL
As the New York Times reports, Bruce Springsteen has been added to the list of performers to celebrate the January 20 Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in a prime-time special that night. We don't anticipate a Lincoln Memorial appearence with full choir, but then these are different times.

Celebrating America will air on Wednesday, January 20, at 8:30pm ET. Tom Hanks will host, with additional performances by Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake, Jon Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, John Legend, and more "to celebrate the beginning of a new national journey toward an America united. The program will showcase the American people’s resilience, heroism, and unified commitment to coming together as a nation to heal and rebuild."

Springsteen and the other artists will "will perform from iconic locations across the country"; Biden and Harris will also make remarks.

The 90-minute program will be carried on multiple networks including ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, PBS, and MSNBC, and streamed live on YouTube and Facebook as well. Visit bideninaugural.com for further details.
- January 15, 2021

WE PLAYED LETTER TO YOU LIVE BEFORE BRUCE!
A Backstreets Q&A with Italian tribute band Blood Brothers
Were 2020 a normal year, we might now be in the middle of a Letter to You tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, singing our hearts out to the new songs for the first time on stage, the ultimate gift to fans who've dreamt for 40 years of hearing "Janey Needs a Shooter" played live.
 
Last year wasn't that generous, but never underestimate Springsteen fans — especially if they can sing and play. Not being able to hear the originators, many people on November 3 tuned in to a Facebook live stream to listen to the Italian tribute band Blood Brothers, who performed the entire Letter to You album — start to finish — in a club without an audience. The result sounded great, earning praise from E Street founding member Garry Tallent and Letter to You producer Ron Aniello.
 
In a perfect iteration of the E Street Band's eight-person line-up from the Born in the U.S.A. era, on stage were Francesco Zerbino (voice and guitar), Dario Orlandini (bass), Luca Pasquadibisceglie (drums), Filippo Ghezzi (sax), Manuele Vanzi (piano), Lorenzo del Ghianda (organ and accordion), Lorenzo Marianelli (guitar) and Elisa Arkanz (vocals).
 
To find out more about this adventure, we interviewed the band's singer and guitarist, Francesco "Zerbo" Zerbino.

Where and when were Blood Brothers born? How many concerts have you played so far?
 
Blood Brothers formed in 2013 in Livorno, Tuscany, where all of us in the band live. In 2012, the [E Street Band] concert in Florence under a flooding rain convinced me to try to recreate that magic on stage. So I put together a group of very good professionals ranging in age from 21 to 45, and since then we've played 178 shows!
 
When did you begin loving Bruce's music? And how many concerts of his have you seen so far?
 
I discovered Bruce's music when I was 16 or 17, in the '90s. I remember riding a bicycle to the sea with a book of his lyrics under my arm. I saw him live six times: the first was in 2003 in Florence with an acoustic "Born in the U.S.A." and "Kitty's Back," although the best concert for me was at the Circus Maximus in Rome in 2016. That sunset over the Roman ruins was wonderful.
 
Have you played entire Bruce albums live in the past? I've seen that you even played "New York City Serenade" with strings.

Yes, we did Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run in full. As for the rest, we've got about 150 songs in our repertoire, and we try to follow Bruce's example in surfing an energy wave that goes up and down; if they let us, we can gladly play for three and a half hours, alternating sad and happy moments according to that energy wave.
 

What do you think of Letter to You?
 
Each Bruce album for me is a new story from a friend you meet in the pub, who tells you what he did recently. And if you've been listening to him for a lifetime, it's basically like you know him as a friend. The album is great, and I loved the film. It actually really shocked me: it is one of the most powerful messages Bruce has given us so far.
 
And how did the idea of playing it live come about?

As a band, we've been standing still since March. We live thanks to the love of the audience that follows us, so realizing we wouldn't be able to play this past year was tough. I had been doing some live streams by myself on our Facebook page that were very well received, and I thought the band needed it, too. It was a challenge for us to play an album so soon after its release, to study it even with the fear of not being able to accomplish it, but it was a great challenge and a way to keep us active and get back to work.
 
Your show was on November 3; the album was released on October 23. How did you learn the songs so quickly and play them so perfectly? Aside from watching the Letter to You movie, you didn't even have a live video to steal some tricks. Even the E Street Band might have taken longer to fully learn the songs!

Maybe, but I wouldn't be so sure! I'm usually a kind of a freak about this: I study Bruce's hands to discover his "secret chords," open tunings and stuff. This time we couldn't, but I have total faith in my bandmates: each studied their own part. We are professionals, and so we were able to play it by ear.

When did you meet to rehearse?
 
I had had the idea before the release of the record. As soon as it came out, we started listening; I think we played it a couple of times in its entirety and then on November 3. After advertising it on our social networks, we met to play it live at the Villa del Colle venue, near Livorno.
 

Which song on the album did you like the most playing? And which one gave you more trouble?
 
My favorite is "Ghosts," a truly wonderful song, both musically and lyrically. There I see Bruce talking to himself as a young man and asking him to give him that energy that sometimes can be lost with age. The most difficult, on the contrary, was "Rainmaker." It's a strange piece, musically, but we made it in the end!
 
How thrilling was it to get Garry Tallent's compliments?
 
It was really cool, we were super pleased. Even though we have done so many things over the years, with full theaters, etc., we never had such attention. Ron Aniello as well saw the live broadcast and commented, calling it excellent. I'd like to think that it reached Bruce, too!
 
It must be very gratifying to know that you've played this album on stage before Bruce Springsteen. You must have made him jealous... I think it's a world first!
 
I liked the idea of beating him! Joking aside, I could have never expected this response, with over 30,000 views on YouTube and compliments from all over the world. The idea of an Italian band playing a record of his after only ten days was a good one.
 
In December you played live once again with another Facebook streaming event, "A Springsteen Carol for Onconauti." What can you tell me about that?

Well, in 2018 we played in a sold-out theater during a play about Bruce's life called No Surrender in Bologna, organized by a woman who was battling cancer, Anna Guidi. She unfortunately passed away a few months later. But it was great for us to help make her dream come true. She was helped by a group that supports cancer patients. They are beautiful people, and we decided to support their cause in 2019 with a fundraiser, and then again last month with the Facebook show — we did "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," some tunes from Letter to You, once again from the same venue with no audience. Anyone who wants can follow us on the Blood Brothers Facebook page and donate via Paypal (paypal.me/zerbomusica) — we hope to see more viewers from all over the world!

I hope you'll get to be back on stage soon with a full audience... and Bruce too!

Thanks! And… Bruce takes precedence!

- January 14, 2021 - Guglielmo Latini reporting - special thanks to Jonathan Pont - photographs by Luca Chiandoni

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Backstreets Magazine (@backstreetsmag)

- January 11, 2021

INTENSITIES IN A TWIN CITY
Changes are made on Night Two in St. Paul, 2012
The year 2020 had more downs than ups, but Bruce Springsteen's Archive Series might have had its best one yet, finishing with the unexpected (but much welcomed) release of Madison Square Garden, November 7, 2009 over the holidays. Today, the series' seventh year starts with a seventh selection from the Wrecking Ball World Tour: St. Paul, November 12th, 2012.

The 133-date tour behind Bruce's 2012 LP splits roughly into halves: one honoring Clarence Clemons' passing and the revival of the E Street Band, and another featuring setlists opened up to anything and everything. Previous Archive releases from that era exemplified an in-between phase, where aspects blended for an experimental and captivating series of performances: the July 28 marathon from Gothenburg, and the "birthday show" from the Meadowlands.

This month's Archive Series installment moves deeper into autumn. Featuring a diehard's dream of a setlist, the second of two nights in St. Paul has been one of the tour's more sought-after recordings. Night one featured a tremendous version of "Savin' Up" (as recorded by Clarence and the Red Bank Rockers), but for the follow-up, like that second night from Gothenburg, Bruce went the extra mile and then some for St. Paul, MN, November 12, 2012. In a wave of song changes, two tour debuts stand out: a rarely played River album gem, and a thrilling first-ever arrangement of a song many never imagined they would hear the E Street Band play.

With Wrecking Ball staples pushed down the card for the evening, "My Love Will Not Let You Down" had been pencilled in to kick off proceedings, but Bruce calls an instant audible, and "I'm a Rocker" takes its place to start. The message for the night is clear, with a tilt toward the unpredictability of rock 'n' roll. In a show featuring 15 changes from November 11, you'd have been hard-pressed to find anyone inside the Xcel Center who could have predicted the songs to come.

The retained "Hungry Heart" follows, leading to a delicacy of a four-pack: "No Surrender," "Night," "Loose Ends," and "Something in the Night." It's only bettered by the tour debut of "Stolen Car" — the song's first turn since Madison Square Garden in November 2009. Then, "Stolen Car" may have been overlooked by the immensity of the first-ever full River album performance, but not here. The Xcel Center adds a beautiful ambiance to Bruce's despondent vocal, drifting from strong to broken, as Little Steven and Nils Lofgren add ghostly harmonies in the background.

After the riveting seven-song start, the tour's staples provide a sense of respite. "My City of Ruins" regularly featured Bruce singing a snippet of Sam Cooke's "Sad Mood" to express his sorrows about who was and wasn't in the house, and considering the performances of "Savin' Up," "Jungleland," and "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out," the shows in St. Paul were particularly inspired by Clarence's spirit.

This night calls on the power of that striking declaration of "the change was made uptown." Singing the line once is emphatic enough (especially when it would bring "Tenth" to a halt and lead into Clarence's tribute video); to hear Bruce sing it twice over three hours tells us everything we need to know about the significance of that moment, and the importance of this lyric. A similar tribute happens in "My City of Ruins," then the uncommon combo of "The E Street Shuffle" and "Pay Me My Money Down" makes for an outright party and full band exhibition.

For Veteran's Day, Bruce introduces something special: "Devils & Dust," played with the full band for the first time ever. It's the set's only deep dive into the theme of politics, and given the power of this performance, it's the only one needed. Last August's London 2006 release showed how instrumentation can add to the song; here, the E Street Band doesn't disappoint. The stunning horns and harmonies are still there, but the stand-out aspects of this are undoubtedly Bruce's two phenomenal guitar solos.

With tour debuts and new arrangements anchoring the first half, the second is stocked with moments of its own. Fiery, spirited takes of "Youngstown" (featuring a hearty audience reaction for Northern Minnesota's "Mesabi iron range"), "Murder Incorporated," and "She's the One" follow, with the spotlight moment for Nils Lofgren and an awesome Bruce-Little Steven duel, before Cindy Mizelle and a young audience member shine in "Shackled and Drawn" and "Waitin' on a Sunny Day."

The home stretch sees a rousing eight-song finale, the first to feature in this exact combination on a 2012/13 tour release. The pick of the bunch is "Jungleland," its sixth nod since its tour debut in Sweden. One goal of the Series is to track Bruce Springsteen's evolution as a live performer, but to hear Jake Clemons' growth as a member of the band and his delivery of his uncle's solo might well be my favorite thing about these particular tour releases.
 
"Jungleland" is a final song of sombreness, as the last four are full of celebration. "Dancing in the Dark" and the veteran brought onstage to dance give us another chapter in Bruce's ever-evolving "feud with the selfie," before a thoroughly enjoyable version of "American Land" brings the two nights in the Xcel Energy Center and the treasures that came with them to a rocking end.

Equally fun shows in Omaha, Kansas City and Denver rounded out the second North American leg of the tour, but this night in St. Paul ranks as a Wrecking Ball World Tour favorite. Thanks to the Archive Series, we can appreciate why it stayed with everyone who attended. Both a party and a meditation on the harshness of life, in equal parts, the strength we hear in this set is in how songs of celebration and passion are followed by songs of solace. That makes November 12, 2012 one of the more pure Wrecking Ball World Tour releases yet.

Also read: Erik Flannigan's latest nugs.net blog entry, "Looking for a Moment When the World Seems Right"

- January 8, 2021 - Kieran Lane reporting - photographs by Tony Nelson (11/12/12)

Telling fortunes better than they do: @Springsteen saw it coming four years ahead of time (interview filmed October 2016). Not that anyone needed a crystal ball. https://t.co/8b7CVWIim1

— Backstreets Magazine (@backstreetsmag) January 7, 2021

BETTER DAYS
Cleo Kennedy's GoFundMe campaign reaches its goal
Some good news, from gospel music historian Bob Marovich, organizer of the GoFundMe campaign for Cleo Kennedy (on which we originally reported below):

The campaign to help Cleo Kennedy reached its $5,000 goal! Thank you to everyone who made it possible. This will enable Cleo to replace the things she lost in the fire and start the new year with a new set of appliances and furniture and other household items. You rock!

The GoFundMe page also will remain active for the time being, just in case anyone else who hasn't donated yet still wishes to do so. Any and all additional donations of any size will continue to help Cleo with rebuilding/recovery, and all are greatly appreciated. Cleo wants to thank everyone again from the bottom of her heart for supporting her during her time of need, and she wishes a very Happy New Year to all.
- January 7, 2021 - Shawn Poole reporting

A DOUBLE SHOT OF HOPE AND DREAMS FOR 2021
New Year greetings from Springsteen and Southside on E Street Radio;
Bruce talks future touring plans and "secret" projects
Bruce Springsteen and Southside Johnny called in special Happy New Year messages to E Street Radio's Open All Night New Year's Eve celebration, a live call-in request show hosted "house-party-style" by Jim Rotolo, broadcasting remotely from his home.

Southside was up first, checking in on-air from his Ocean Grove, NJ home shortly after 10:30 pm ET. "I'm doing great," said Southside, normally found performing live on stage (and live on E Street Radio) every December 31, "except I'm itching to play, and tonight's gonna be tough. This is the first New Year's I haven't played in 50 years — except for the one year I said 'Im gonna take this year off,' and that was the year Stevie Van Zandt married Maureen in New York City, and I had to go into the city anyway." He also added with typical Southside humor that he didn't get paid that New Year's Eve, either. "But if you're a musician, New Year's is the big payday. It really is a fun night, and you usually make more money, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be this year."

Rotolo then asked Southside about how he and the Asbury Jukes coped with their limited performing options in 2020, once the pandemic safety restrictions curtailed traditional live gatherings. Southside shared how fortunate they were to be able to perform some drive-in concerts midway through the year. "We were very grateful for that opportunity. It's weird playing to automobiles, but my fans are great. They put big pictures of themselves in the windshields, and they [were allowed to] get out of the cars and dance a little bit. They honked their horns and flashed their lights, and we were just so grateful to play. I mean, it had been months — and it's been months — since we played. You can't do it now with the cold weather, but if we're not out of all of this shutdown stuff by spring, I would imagine we're going to be doing more of those, and people really do seem to like them."

Southside also addressed the difficulties that he and his songwriting collaborators have faced in trying to remain creative during the ongoing pandemic crisis. "We've been trying to write, but there's a lack of inspiration when these things happen. You become kind of numb. I've tried to write as much as I can, but mostly I'm reading. I read book after book after book, trying not to go crazy. It's tough. In the words of Steven Van Zandt, 'better days are coming; it can't get no worse.'

"But I'm hopeful, I'm positive, I'm sure next year we're gonna be touring, and when that happens, I will be a very happy guy. Happy New Year to everybody!"

Springsteen's conversation with Rotolo was the final segment before the E Street Radio DJ (dressed to the nines for the occasion) would give a live on-air countdown of the final seconds of the year. Most of their 13-minute talk was focused on how Bruce managed to stay connected to his audience during 2020, beginning with the 16 episodes of his ongoing series From My Home to Yours.

"When March hit," said Bruce, "I think everybody was sitting around wondering, 'What can I do?' And I said, 'Well, how can I stay in contact with my audience?' So the idea of the radio show came up, [along with] the circumstances where there was something specific to address.

"The summer of 2020 was as tumultuous a summer as I can remember since around 1968. There was a lot going on: you had the pandemic, you had the Black Lives Matter movement, you had the resistance against President Trump. There was a lot in the air, as much as I can remember since I was a young man. So there were a lot of things to push back on and to address, and I said, 'Well, the radio's a good spot for me to go right now and try to do this with the music that I've loved.'

"So that was just the natural gestation of the radio show. I just started off with music that asked the questions that I was puzzling about myself at that moment, and it's gone on. I've enjoyed it very much. It's been a very pleasurable experience. It's kept me busy, when I'm not doing the show, just sort of cataloging music that I might want to play, haven't heard, need to hear, want to hear, wanted to get into but never took the time. It reinvolved me with music itself, both current and past. So that's been an enjoyable side-benefit of the shows for me. It's really gotten me back into a lot of great music that's out there."

Turning to reflect on May's one-off benefit gig performing two songs remotely with Dropkick Murphys in an empty Fenway Park, Springsteen recalled with some hearty laughter: "One of the few things we were able to pull off. All I can say is that all of them were done with great difficulty. If you tried to do anything this year, it was really hard…. The concert with the Murphys, figuring that out — how I was gonna appear with them as they were playing — was a tricky thing to sort through. But I love that band, and it was a lot of fun doing it.

"Everything [in 2020] was different; it was as simple as that. Everything was different this year than it had ever been any year before, and so you just had to get used to it and you had to adapt. We were lucky that we [already had completed the recording and filming of Letter to You], so we had that under our belt and were able to finish [mixing and editing] it without too much difficulty. Some, but not too much difficulty, so we lucked out there in that we got that big batch of work done just before the pandemic hit.

"But even playing Saturday Night Live was quite challenging. It was a lot of [COVID-19] testing; everybody was incredibly careful, to play on that show under those conditions. It ended up being a wonderful thing. I said, 'We gave fans a record this year, we gave fans a film this year. The only thing we haven't done is let them see the band playing live anywhere.' And so when SNL came up, it was like, yeah, that's what we oughta do. They assured us they had precautions that had been working for them, where everyone would be safe. It would take a certain amount of dedication, but it was worth it in the end. We had a great night there, and fans got a chance to see the band play some of the new music live. [All of the pre-show concerns disappear] the minute you count the band in. Then you're just involved in the moment, and in the thrill and the fun of playing your new music. It's just always transcendent — and we got a chance to do it several times that day. You do the soundcheck, a dress-rehearsal show, and then the real show. But to hear the band gear up behind me and come on full-force, on a small stage like that, was very exciting.

"The interesting thing was that we were only allowed to have eight people on stage [at a time]. So we had to decide, 'Okay, on this song, you're gonna play, and you're gonna sit out, and then we'll switch for the next song. And Jake, you'll sit out, and Charlie will play the organ, because we really need the organ on this song. We really need the sax on this [next] one…' COVID precautions and COVID restrictions, and so we had to sort out how that was going to work."

Rotolo asked Springsteen about any plans he's been able to make for the new year ahead and beyond.

"According to the people that I know who should know," said Bruce, "they say it'll take until fall for a large percentage of the country and the world to get vaccinated, and that somewhat normal conditions — perhaps even conditions where you'll be allowed to perform again — should return somewhere in, let's say, a year from now. I mean, it could happen quicker, but I don't know if you're going to be seeing a lot of large-scale playing sooner than a year from now. So that kinda takes 2021 out of it, and people are going to be spending another year doing things in different ways and finding different things to do as best as they can… as far as what I know, and if things go according to what Dr. Fauci is projecting. As soon as we can, we'll be out there, and that might be somewhere in the new year of 2022. And I'm completely projecting, because no one really knows, but that's what I think, according to all of the information that's available at this moment, will be able to happen."

"I have some projects coming up this year that I won't tell," teased Springsteen amidst some Santa-like chuckles, "'cause it's gonna be a secret, and then a big surprise, but I do have things to keep me busy [in 2021] that I'll be doing that should give the fans something to bide their time with."

Finally, Bruce expressed a heartfelt wish to all listeners for a better, more hopeful 2021.

"I want to thank all of the fans," Springsteen said. "I want to thank all of the guys and the girls in my band. As hard as [2020] was for us, and we were the very lucky ones — the very lucky ones — I have to thank everybody for their commitment and just for the times we had together. And I've got to send my prayers and blessings out to all of those who lost loved ones and went through much, much harder times than anything that we saw. Patti and I, and all of the folks over here on E Street, send our blessings and prayers out to those who lost a family member or lost a friend, and we wish for a better year comin' up... Happy New Year to all."

Jim Rotolo's complete New Year's Eve conversations with Bruce Springsteen and Southside Johnny are available on-demand to all SiriusXM subscribers who can listen online and/or via the SiriusXM app. (Just type "Bruce Springsteen" in the search box, then scroll down and click on the "E Street Radio Interviews" folder under "Shows and Episodes.")
- January 3, 2021 - Shawn Poole reporting

This Just In: Happy New Year from the Live Archive series, which will be back in your ears soon with a January installment.

— Backstreets Magazine (@backstreetsmag) January 1, 2021

For older news, visit our News Archives