The rumors that have been circulating for a while are reportedly going to be confirmed this week. Supposedly, Bruce and the E Street Band are hitting the road later this year following the release of a new studio album. October has been the rumored date for an appearance at Xcel Energy Center. (From October 11 through October 31, the Minnesota Wild and the Gophers are using the facility a total of four times and there are two other concerts).
Once again, this is supposedly the last E Street Band tour ever. Just in case, I’m not only going for tickets for the Xcel, I’ll probably go after two or three other shows this tour (and/or the supposed world tour next year).
In what may be excellent timing, AmericanHeritage.com posted a piece considering this week in 1975 was “the week that made Bruce Springsteen.” I think that’s probably hard to argue from a popularity standpoint and I was surprised to discover that the WNEW show mentioned in that piece is not amongst my Springsteen bootlegs (so I have a mission this week). While I consider The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, released two years earlier, to be a notch above Born to Run that 1975 version of the E Street Band was hot and tight. Any doubt of that is erased by the November 1975 performance at Hammersmith Odeon that is a DVD in the three-disc 30th anniversary Born to Run release. I know that concert gets a lot of play on my iPod and I may have to add the WNEW show — once I locate it.
So I bought a .44 magnum it was solid steel cast
And in the blessed name of Elvis well I just let it blast
‘Til my TV lay in pieces there at my feet
And they busted me for disturbin’ the almighty peace
Judge said “What you got in your defense son?”
“Fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on”
“57 Channels”, Bruce Springsteen, Human Touch
After nearly a whole evening of Lawrence Welk, SD Pub TV
put on a guy I hadn’t seen before about midnight. It was
pretty rambunctious music from Dublin with the session
band.
Turns out it was Bruce S. First time I had heard his music.
Sure went the full range that night. Kept me awake past my
bedtime.
Anyway…back to seclusion. Incidentally, the comment
window allows text writing over one of the right columns,
so there are probably a mess of extra returns.
Actually, the Dublin material is different than his work with the E Street Band. It is part of Bruce’s exploration of what I term “roots” music. I am a far bigger fan of his solo and E Street work, something due not to the ability of Bruce and the Seeger Sessions band but that I am not a big fan of that kind of “folk” music.
That said, a fellow Springsteen friend told me earlier this month that he considers Live in Dublin to be Bruce’s best album ever.