My friend and editor and drinking buddy and LES party legend Richard Fantina died in 2010 and I am thinking about him today because Bruce Springsteen just released a completely excellent version of Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream” and Fantina toured Japan with Alan Vegan in the 1980s on keyboards. As Fantina told me at the time, “I wasn’t good enough for studio work but he liked me enough to tour with.”
Springsteen is a long term Suicide fan and like so may rock fans part of that is because Bruce got into them so early and part of that is because Bruce, despite the many many swipes I’ve taken at it, seems like a faithful guy, he remains true to those he loves.
But the rest of it is simpler, Bruce has been playing “Dream Baby Dream” in concert for years and you can hear why or at least what he is doing to the synth duos song off their aptly name The Second Album. Vega is a great singer and the obvious comparison is Presley, but Presley on heroin: it is like a crawl and drawl underworld, informed but not owing to Velvet Underground, maybe it’s like VU without John Cale’s Celtic weirdness.
A great song no doubt but Springsteen hears something else in it. The video, released a couple of weeks ago, is the sort of version of a song he would once sing for his son, his own “Living Proof”. It is like he took that other worldly heart and he beamed it from his family back to the people who followed him through the long Wrecking Ball tour. It starts with just this Churchlike organ, Martin Rev’s synth sounds like a stalled car in mid town: Suicide sputter, Suicide dream becomes life is a nightmare, Bruce dreams because his audience dreams with him.
People think I’m a Bruce hater, because I pulled him for the New Jersey farm deal, because I haven’t loved a single album he has recorded in the 21st Century and because I saw Wrecking Ball twice and wasn’t thrilled either time. Actually, I couldn’t be a bigger fan but that means I am going to set the bar way way way high for him.
On “Dream Baby Dream” Bruce leaps it by joining a sad song to a joyful expression. The song builds and builds and builds and when it comes to its full power it is a gorgeous benediction for his fans, yes. But also for the memory of y dear friend Richard Fantina. Available right now on Spotify.