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Astronauts on a 1999 voyage of space shuttle ‘Discovery’ were played ‘Redezvous’ as a wake-up call, before docking with the Hubble telescope. The Boss had a planet named after him that same year.
(Source: fuckyeahnj)
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band - Badlands
“Talk about a dream/ Try to make it real/ You wake up in the night/ With a fear so real spend your life waiting/ For a moment that just don’t come/ Well don’t waste your time waiting…”
(Source: fuckyeahnj)
Fire by Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band
“You say you dont love me, girl you cant hide your desire, `cause when we kiss, ooh fire…”
(Source: fuckyeahnj)
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band - Born to Run
(Source: fuckyeahnj)
Rosalita by Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band
September 19, 1978: Capitol Theater, Passaic, NJ
(Source: fuckyeahnj)
Bruce Springsteen’s solo piano performance of “Thunder Road” on VH1 Storytellers.
There are a few reasons I decided to initiate Across The Porch with “Thunder Road.” For one, Across The Porch finds its namesake in this song’s opening lines:
The screen door slams, Mary’s dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays“Thunder Road” will always remind me of this time of year. Yet, even though Spring is winding down into the slow burn of Summer, this song doesn’t fit that rhythm. “Thunder Road” is what happens when that slow burn flares up, when chemicals combust, when the rocket lifts off. Perhaps some of you Seniors know what I’m talking about. Are starting to feel the cold shadow of graduation looming overhead? This one’s for you… especially all you Jersey kids.
It’s no exaggeration to say that you’d be hard-pressed to find someone from Jersey who doesn’t idolize Springsteen. He is The Boss, our patron saint. That being said, not everyone from Jersey is born a Disciple of E Street. For many, including myself, it takes a little while to have this epiphany - the music and the moment have to be right. Personally, I had to start living a little before Springsteen really made sense to me. And so, as I teetered on the brink of adulthood, sometime during the year leading up to my high school graduation, the engine finally turned. “Thunder Road” was the key in the ignition. I probably heard the song 100 times before that time in my life, but I didn’t understand it until then.
I’ve become a full-fledged fan of The Boss since then and I’ve noticed that plenty of other people had similar experiences discovering Springsteen’s music. Jon Stewart told a similar story a couple years ago when Bruce received his Kennedy Center Honors.
“I didn’t understand his music for a long time, until I began to yearn, until I began to question the things I was making and doing in my own life…”
Brian Fallon, lead singer of The Gaslight Anthem and another New Jersey native, had a similar story:
Everyone has their own story. “Thunder Road” isn’t the song that does it for everyone, but it was for me. One of the reasons I enjoy this particular rendition is because of Bruce’s description of the song at the end of the performance:
“What’s it about? It’s really an invitation. The opening of Born To Run was my big invitation. That big album, when it used to fold out, with me and Clarence smiling on it - that was the invitation card, ya know? We invite you to… something… we’re not sure what yet. So, ya know, the music was sort of, was important. The music, the beginning, sounds like an invitation.”
It took a little while, but I finally got around to accepting that invitation… thirty years after it was first issued. To different people it’s an invitation to different things; but perhaps most importantly, to it was an re-invitation to Bruce’s music. Brian Fallon said it best - “the first three records will change your life!”
Another reason I chose this performance is because I don’t think people realize what a skilled songwriter and versatile musician Springsteen is. Did you know he played the piano? Probably not. If you’re a casual fan - if you’re not paying attention - it’s very easy to peg him as merely some charismatic and energetic front man who’s only there for his voice and swagger; but that would be a criminal underestimation.
Another great thing about this performance is that it’s stripped-down. Without the E Street Band reeling away behind the Bruce’s vocals, you can focus on the lyrics and the story. I’m not going to get into some deep explication of the lyrics, but if you’ve never paid any attention to them, do yourself a favor and read them. Sidebar: for my money, along with “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys, “Thunder Road” has one of the all-time best opening lines.
As I dig deeper and deeper into Springsteen’s catalog, I find new favorite songs all the time; but I’ll forever be indebted to “Thunder Road.” If you never paid attention to Springsteen before, here’s an invitation. I suggest you accept it.
Find more Bruce Springsteen at Certain Songs.
NOTE: I drafted this post a couple days ago, but news just broke today that Clarence Clemons, The Big Man, has suffered a stroke. Please keep him and his friends/family in your thoughts and prayers. [via]
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band - “Atlantic City”
(Source: fuckyeahnj)
