Folks, in case you haven’t read any previous articles, let me summarize what this is all about…4th of July, Asbury Park, super scribe/bon vivant/king of New York, Iman Lababedi threw down an article about Bruce Springsteen and the patriotic vision (roughly). So I just happened to answer him by briefly saying how much his music affected me as a kid and into adulthood. Well, an idea for an article was born. Here is the third installment (the first two are here and here) that chronicles The River years. Again, go no further if you have no interest in this, just remember your lack of interest may decide the future of starving animals and tiger extinction in Africa and the lower 48 states, so sleep well my friends…
I am now 19 years of age and I am in full Bruce mode. I even start wearing harness boots, tight black Levi’s and vintage gabardine rockabilly shirts with the sleeves rolled up and sunglasses as much as humanly possible. I have also been turned on to The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed in my history of rock and roll class. ( “Heroin” was another game changer that frightened and amazed me. I thought that everything cool was now coming out of the East coast. In fact, I would make the pilgrimage to Manhattan and Asbury Park (“Why do you want to go to Asbury Park??!!” my brother Ger exclaimed. “That’s like going to El Segundo”….(Ed’s note…not that there’s anything wrong with El Segundo) in my 21st year. I was a good-looking dude (about 145 pounds) and walked with the confidence of youth. This was a cool time in life. So since the “Darkness” release, I have seen Bruce in “No Nukes” on the big screen, about half a dozen times (was a draaaag sitting through some of that BS!), and had “The River” LP in my hot little hands. (It’s funny, in school, I would read like 25 pages for my history class and never absorb any info but when I read lyric sheets, I could memorize all the words in just a few perusals…now if only I could use my talent for good instead of evil). It’s only been two years since the latest release and lord have mercy, we get a double LP of Bruce! So let’s go back to 1980, in my bedroom and drop the needle onto the vinyl.
“The Ties That Bind” is a great opening song. A Byrds-y feel with some cool Dave Clark 5 drumming by Max…and Clarence is back!! This has a way different feel already than Darkness and looking at the back cover it seems like Bruce is looking to get hitched. Is the rock and roll life that lonely? Up next, we have the frat rock sounds of “Sherry Darling” a catchy tune, not one of my faves, maybe I will get to like it…but I do dig the “Double Shot of my Baby’s Love” influence! Then a song called “Jackson Cage”?? What the hell is a Jackson cage?? Hmmm..sort of wondering if this is one of those records that grow on you. .”Two Hearts” rocks…great Weinberg drumming and dig Miami, now Little Steven, back ups! Okay cool, we are back on track. Side One ends with “Independence Day”. Another song about getting the hell out of pops’ Dodge City. I like it, of course, I have already pre-heard this on some Bruce bootlegs, which were highly illegal. In fact, I used to go to the Capitol Records swap meets at midnight and would buy them from some dude selling them out of his trunk. Drugs were much easier to score than bootleg LP’s! Side Two opens with “Hungry Heart” a nice pop song with excellent back ups by my original hometown heroes of Westchester California, Flo and Eddie ex of The Turtles and The Crossfires. Dig this song. Pop music at it’s finest. Thi is a hit! Weinberg rips off Motown drumming on this one! Next, “Out in the Street”, saved again by Little Steven’s back-ups. Even at 19, I couldn’t believe Bruce ever working a job. Sort of disappoints me. Could this be a harbinger of things to come? Just remember, he is a writer and they are prone to misinformation. (Look at Jack Kerouac, he believed and rode that “King of the Beats” moniker until it drove him to drinking and an early death. The falsity of his ways proved too much and his believers couldn’t accept it was all fiction. Okay, off the high horse and back to being a 19 year old.) Might be a fun one live…could see this happening. Next song up is “Crush on You”. This is a rollicking ditty in the spirit of those frat rock songs of the 60’s. Not really being bowled over by this LP yet. “You Can Look but You Better Not Touch” is another rocker that Gary Tallent’s bass saves. It seems that Bruce can write songs like this all day. Now alot of artist’s would give their eyeteeth to write songs like this…but this is The Boss! This ain’t Johnny Cougar Mellencamp nor Bob Seger nor Bryan Adams! This is Bruce Springsteen! There is no filler in Springsteen records! (Maybe I am writing this with too much of a jaundiced eye toward the years that have passed. I am trying to stay in the head of a 19 year old kid that has yet to witness too many stumblings in the road…bear with me.) “Little Girl I Wanna Marry You” really throws me for a loop. Bruce itching to settle down?? Why??? Rock stars don’t settle down! They pillage cities and soil farmer’s daughters! This is one song that I will skip. I am not ready for Bruce to be happy and content. A miserable Bruce makes for a happy Edhuerta. “The River” closes out Side Two. I am hip to this one from all of the viewings of “No Nukes”. His version on film is a little different. I think they screw up a few parts but the intensity on his face during this song is unbelievable. It made me champ at the bit to see the live show of this man. Again, Little Steven has some great backup vocals. (A great song and one of my all-time favorites of his that I will never tire of hearing even 30 years later.) Not sure what to think of this LP yet. It didn’t hit me like BTR or Darkness did. Okay, will save all from going through each song on the rest of the LP. Only a few really shine ( “Point Blank”, “Cadillac Ranch”, “Stolen Car”, “Drive All Night”, “Wreck on the Highway”). Needless to say, I want as much Springsteen as the next guy but this was a lot to digest. Certainly he earned the right to exorcise some musical muscle but this isn’t a classic LP ala BTR and Darkness though it will do.
Skip to me seeing him live… My first introduction to actually being there was October 31 1980 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. My friend and I were dressed so Springsteen-ish that a gaggle of 18 year old girls thought that I was him! I had the same curly hair and the same slim build back then (Ha! What happened? About 100 pounds did!). But dig, the man opened with a coffin onstage and out pops Bruce doing “Haunted House” by Jumpin’ Gene Simmons! I could have wet myself right there. An incredible show folks, that cemented my faith in all things Bruce. It was like almost 4 hours! I saw him many, many time on that tour. We even drove all the way from Orange County to L.A. just to stand outside the Sports Arena to hear him play! Can you imagine doing that these days? (with all the traffic, parking hassles and crap???) This is the beauty of youth. You cannot or will not be denied when it comes to rock and roll. When we saw him in San Diego, we had seats in the first row right behind the stage and after the encore, Max threw his drumsticks to the crowd and I caught one of them…then Bruce threw his sweaty towel to us also…and I caught it! It was like catching Elvis’ scarf! I had Bruce’s freaking sweat towel! (still have it btw, along with Max’s stick). His DNA is on this towel. We can recreate him! Alas, cooler heads prevailed, but this was the fervor that Bruce generated when he came to town. I was not alone either. We were all still in a sort of small Bruce appreciation society…at least this is how he made us feel (even though he was playing sports arenas). There was something about his delivering the goods, night after night, that made us feel part of a musical family. The River was a decent album…could have been a GREAT single album. But those songs did come alive when one witnessed them in person. Bruce had a very big arsenal to choose from and this isn’t even counting the cool cover songs that he would throw in on a nightly basis. This was the height, in my mind, of Bruce mania. Unfortunately, I believe under the guidance of his management, that he was prodded to become even bigger, to play even bigger places, and you know how it is when a girlfriend does something or says something that just doesn’t ring true anymore? Well, this is where we stood…and this is when we lost him…and the adoring public, with their sheepish visions and tastes, awaited…
