Boss Tracks

Back to Business

2010-01-20T06:12:00.000-08:00

Well sort off. I have launched a new blog.

I haven't been active much on Boss Tracks in the past year or so. While it was fun to do, it was also very time consuming. Boss Tracks had many rewards like interviewing Eddie Floyd and Southside Johnny, getting an actual mention on Springsteen's official web-site and having many appreciative readers.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find the time any more to this blog right. Every interview literally took days to weeks of work of getting it together, preparing and making them into something you could read. Even the regular posts took many hours of research and writing. Unfortunately, it soon proved to be impossible to keep up with my ambitions for this blog, especially since it was a one man operation.

I recently started from scratch, with a few friends, on a new blog, the Upper Shelves. This blog is a lot less ambitious, just a place to share some cool 45s we've found and like to play at parties. I think the average Springsteen fan is going to find a lot to enjoy over there. Most of the 45s are exactly the kind he likes to cover so much or at least the kinds Stevie likes to play on his radio show and the ones Southside Johnny like to collect.

I hope that everybody who enjoyed this blog will come over to check it out.

A big thank you to all my readers here,

I've had a blast,

Alex

Boss Tracks, Arthur Conley, Sweet Soul Music

2009-02-27T22:57:00.001-08:00

Arthur Conley arguably was one of Soul's most tender stars. Arthur's star shone short but bright, immortalizing himself with the smash Sweet Soul Music. The genre's anthem, one of those songs everybody knows and knows how to shake their hips to. Few might know Conley sang the damn record, but everybody knows how to participate in its joy. You'll find few, if any, folks who do not like that particular song. The song might have been a blessing to the buying public, one might wonder if it was such a blessing to Arthur. Sweet Soul Music defined the path his career was going to take. After hitting big once Arthur was surrounded by people who wanted to see him repeat that success. It locked a few doors Arthur might have taken and ultimately was one of the reasons why his career stalled.

Arthur started out as Otis Redding protégé, cutting sides for his Jotis label. But pupil or not, Conley was clearly the better singer. His voice was clearer and had a much better range than Otis'. Anybody who's heard "Let Nothing Separate Us" on the Sweet Soul Music album will adhere to that. Arthur was a mighty fine Deep Soul singer, able to instil a fragility in his testimonies, an honesty in his ache that was quite rare in the macho world of Soul. Arthur was one of those artists that gained an enormous respect amongst his peers. This was reflected in his inclusion in the Soul Clan, the only Soul super group the sixties ever knew. The Soul clan consisted of Solomon Burke, Wilson Picket, Ben E. King and Joe Tex. In sales Conley was a light weight compared to those, in talent he was their equal. But with his career being pushed in the direction Sweet Soul Music had taken, this talent never fully materialized.

Conley was never cut for the music business , a sensitive Soul who just wasn't up to the harsh realities and strain the record biz brought. On top of that Arthur was a homosexual man in the masculine world of Soul, something he hid from his peers. After Otis, his rock of Gibraltar, died, Conley soon left the business. First living in Brussels and London, he finally found the love of his life in Amsterdam in 1981, a Dutch carpet weaver, who had no idea who Arthur Conley was, and miraculously had never heard Sweet Soul Music.

But before Conley said farewell to live and recording music for good he had something of a hidden comeback on the wrong side of the track in Amsterdam. In 1979 Conley lived in Amsterdam under the name of Lee Roberts. Conley formed a band under that name but was uncovered by drummer Dick Baars who happened across one of the band rehearsals. All though Conley refused to admit it at the time, Baars was sure it was Conley as he had just bought a record of his that same day. Here was the man on the cover!! Baars convinced Conley to join his band the Sweaters on the fact that he claimed to have a real Hammond b-3 organ and horns!

Robert Lee & the Sweaters would ultimately perform four evenings in the ghetto of Amsterdam at a small cultural centre. The first night drew few people, without exception all from the former Dutch colony Suriname, where Conley had been a big star. The second night some returned with album sleeves to make sure. Although Robert Lee denied to be Conley the word spread like wild fire. By the final night the tiny cultural centre had people standing outside the door. Somebody in the audience was so smart to record this show, resulting in a live release under the name of Robert Lee in '88. Arthur Conley simply didn't want to be associated with the name that brought him fame.

Although the sound is raggedy, Arthur Conley and the Sweaters is one of Soul's greatest live albums. The atmosphere is reminiscent of Sam Cooke at the Harlem Square club. The backing band is far from tight but pure and raw Soul. Arthur's voice hovers somewhere between the raucous vocals of Otis and the near perfection of Sam Cooke. As the evening progresses and Arthur gets deep into the great Soul hits (none of his own) you can feel the excitement and the tension building. The crowd is almost visible hanging on his lips, knowing they are witness to a private comeback of one of Soul's legends. Arthur came back full force that night in the intimacy of a few hundred people. A few more performances would follow before the curtain fell for good. But thanks to that one recording his final moment of glory is kept for eternity. The Album is now finally available for the international market for the first time. Live in Amsterdam is an essential album in my book. Dick Baars released it through his own label with a minimum of distribution. So it might be hard to find. Luckily Baars now runs a small record store, remember those, in Amsterdam. Stop by if you’re ever in the neighbourhood.

Arthur Conley, Sweet Soul Music

Available on Sweet Soul Music

Read more on Arthur over at Red Kelly's excellent "B" Side

Springsteen performed the song regularly during the Tunnel of Love Express tour

Boss Tracks, Knock on Wood by Eddie Floyd (interview)

2009-02-19T01:33:00.000-08:00

Recently I was lucky enough to score an interview with the great Eddie Floyd. As a major Soul fan interviewing Eddie Floyd is a big deal. Though when mentioning mister Floyd to friends I got a shocking amount of raised eye brows from people in their thirties, Floyd was at the cradle of what we see today as classic Soul music. Though his star never has been as big as Sam Cooke, Ray Charles or Otis Redding, you can argue that his influence comes close to matching those legendary performers. Even today, Knock on Wood and Raise Your Hand are standards any bar band worth its salt should know by heart. Even though not everybody remembers him as sharply, Eddie wrote and first popularized those tunes, they are a big part of our collective musical memory through later versions by the Blues Brothers, David Bowie, Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen. So picking up the phone to talk to Eddie, I suddenly felt my palms go sweaty and my hands shaking. I was nervous, I was going to talk to a hero of mine.

Eddie Floyd’s story is particularly interesting to tell, not just because he wrote some of those big hits, but because he was there from the beginning. Even though his recent performance on BBC’s Jools Holland shows a vital man seemingly in the prime of his life, make no mistake, Eddie is 71 years old, he’s been around long enough to tell us a story or two.

Floyd’s story seems to revolve around music, he lives and breathes it. Over the course of the interview his answers on the business or political side of things would be short, to Eddie they seem to be secondary to the process of making music. When I’d ask mister Floyd about that process his voice seemed to warm up through the crackling phone line, the chuckles and his voice would break in enthusiasm. His taste for music was spoon fed. “My momma would take me out to see everybody that had a record out,” mister Floyd remembers, “Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, I saw them when I was just a little kid and I sung all that!” His early musical influences didn’t stop at Jazz, “there was Country and Western as well, I hadn’t heard of Muddy Waters at the time, but Hank Williams was a local I guess. Franky Lymon and the teenagers was the first group I saw that I knew I wanted to be in a group.” Eddie picks Hank Ballard and the Midnighters as one of the biggest influences on the Falcons at the time, “we loved Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, they were the rough and tough sounding group!” Eddie Floyd incidentally is one of the many artists who mentions the Midnighters as an influence, a list that goes all the way up to James Brown. “They did the Twist,” Eddie adds exited, “everybody is giving it to Chubby Checker, but the Hank Ballard was the Twist ya’ll!!”

By 1956, when Franky Lymon hit big with “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” Floyd had already formed his first incarnation of the Falcons. Eddie had moved from his native Montgomery Alabama to Detroit with his uncle Robert West. Ahead of his time the first Falcons were an integrated group, half the group, Bob Monardo and Tom Shelter, was white at the time. “The original Falcons only lasted long enough to take a photo,” Eddie laughs today, “no recording was ever made because Bob and Tom were drafted.” From there on the group would quickly take on the shape that would make the Falcons legendary later. Sir Mack Rice and Joe Stubbs (brother to recently deceased Levi Stubbs from Four Tops fame) were added to the group. With the hit single “You’re so Fine” shooting up the Billboard charts in 1959, landing a whopping #17 in the pop charts, the Falcons were flying. Joe Stubbs soon left for the Contours, who were signed with Motown, and was replaced by the exiting Wilson Picket. The sound of the Falcons had begun to shift Floyd recalls today, “we saw a shift from the Detroit sound to the Memphis sound,” something Floyd credits sir Mac Rice for.

With Picket on board, the Falcons would score their last big R&B hit, 1962’s “I Found a Love” with the Wicked Picket on the scorching and wailing lead vocals. Though the song saw little action on the pop charts, peaking at #75, today it is considered as one of those tracks that is the watershed between R&B and Soul. Picket’s ambitions however would prevent the group from cashing in on the success of the single, soon after “I Found a Love” hit, Wilson went solo. Today mister Floyd looks back on the Flacons as the place where he could hone his skills, “the Falcons paid off eventually when we all could go solo,” he explains. It wouldn’t take long for Eddie Floyd to test his skills. Soon after the Falcons fell apart, he struck up acquaintance with future Stax president All Bell, who was a DJ in Washington at the time. “At the time I met All, [Stax recording artist] Carla Thomas was going to university in Washington. Al and I got together and wrote a few songs for her.” Those songs were the deep soul classic “Stop! Look What You’re Doing To Me” and “Comfort Me.” Those compositions would give Floyd a foot in the door at Sax when All Bell was landed at Stax in a promotion position. “I more or less just came along,” he laughs at it today.

At first Floyd would be hired at Stax as a songwriter, coming in every month or so for some writing sessions. He fondly remembers those early Stax days, “everybody was having a ball, creating new songs daily.” Explaining further “most of those hit songs were accidents. We’d just go with the flow, we’d write a song but didn’t have tape recorders yet to put the idea down and go back to it.” As a result the recording process would often be a team effort, a more natural process. Stax studios at the time was equipped with a simple 4 track recorder, “we had to just pray it came together that particular instant.” The songs were often created on the spot, Floyd remembers, “everybody put a little bit in those songs, there was a great sense of togetherness.” Everybody would bring their own thing to the floor Floyd explains, “Steve Cropper would create all the Rhythm, he was great on playing those intros, when you hear his lick, you know what song it is. Booker T was great at absolutely everything” he recounts with still that sense of marvel in his voice.

Some of the biggest hits Floyd did for Stax were accidents, with a laugh Floyd entrusts how Knock on Wood is still a demo today. “When we’d go into the studio to record a demo, we’d play it together at that moment. No matter what the song was, it’s finished by the time you listen at it. Recording is much more technical today,” Floyd reflects. The songs signature lyrics came to Floyd when he was writing with Steve Cropper in the very Motel where Martin Luther King would be assassinated a few years down the line, a moment that would change Stax forever. Floyd and Cropper had hit writers block when a thunder storm hit, “It’s like thunder, lightings, the way you love me is frightening,” Floyd sings in the phone, still amused at how it all still clicked at that very moment. The song fleshed out further when “Al Jackson threw in that drum fill on the studio floor. It sounded funny at the time, we were enjoying what we were hearing, so it must have been right,” he laughs.

Springsteen’s signature encore song, Raise Your Hand, was written in much the same way during those sessions. In Floyd’s mind however, “We didn’t finish it, but when we came to London [for the Stax-Volt Tour] we heard both songs on the radio.” Mister Floyd is still thankful to Springsteen and others who helped his songs further along and collects all different versions today. “There’s so many artists that have done my songs. Eric Clapton is my favorite one [doing Knock on Wood],” adding with some amusement, “there was even one that was Disco, believe me, I wasn’t even thinking Disco!”

April 29th 1976 The E-Street Band featuring Eddie Floyd

MP3 File

During the Born to Run tour Springsteen introduced himself to Floyd when the tour hit Memphis. “Him and Southside Johnny were just regular guys I hadn’t met before and I basically hadn’t heard of him back then. When [Springsteen] called there were people in the studio who did realize who was calling, I just said,” chuckling “do you know him? One of the cats was actually a big fan and went down with me, I guess he’ll never forget that, he was still talking about it years later!” Floyd was pleasantly surprised by the Boss. “I play a lot of your songs Springsteen said. The ones were Knock on Wood and Raise Your Hand, plus two or three others I had never played before live.” Floyd still laughs at Springsteen’s reaction when he exclaimed, “You don’t do those songs!” Floyd had shrugged and admitted, “No, I just play the hits.” Later that night, Floyd joined the young upcoming star on stage to play a few of those.

The memories of Stax are fond and many, Floyd jumps through them throughout the interview. He still seems in awe about hitting Europe and being on the same stage as Sam and Dave or his good friend Otis Redding, “I was working with so many heavies, I mean being on the same stage, WOW!!” he exclaims, “We didn’t expect to be so big, we just went to play music,” he adds humbly. A few years after the Stax-Volt had hit Europe, Floyd was back in London when tragedy struck, Otis passed. Floyd had to hear the news from a reporter. The plane Floyd tried to take home to attend the funeral couldn’t take off because it mall functioned. Floyd´s homage to Redding was born out of that experience when he mumbled “get on up Big Bird” under his breath out of frustration.

Soon after that Martin Luther King passed as well, an event that changed the face of Black music. All Bell, who had introduced Floyd at Stax, would go on to transform the company, as vice-president, to a mixture between a record label and a socially conscious movement, working closely together with various civil rights movements and releasing increasingly assertive music. Though Floyd admits, “it was great to be part of the times, it changed overnight everywhere, it didn’t stop [with King’s passing], we had to move on,” Floyd’s interest isn’t really in politics. His main motivation is Soul music and how that brings people together. “Soul music gotta be in there somewhere, it’s the main ingredient, it is the people putting it all together,” he elaborates, “Everybody’s got to be on that same number.” That is what politics and brotherhood seems to be to Floyd, regardless of race, creed or colour, Soul music unifies.

In recent years, Floyd is enjoying a something of a renaissance in his career. The Soul sound he helped create is everywhere again in the sound of new and upcoming talents such as Amy Winehouse, Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed and Duffy. Floyd himself is still finding new avenues for his Soul sound, working with Latin legend Poncho Sanchez, amongst others. “Poncho told me he used to do Raise Your Hand as a kid in school. The funny thing is Steve [Cropper] originally had a little Spanish type feeling to the beginning of the song that you don’t here on the record no more, but it was on the original one, so we always felt that it had a Spanish flavour to it. So now Poncho comes up, many, many years later, playing it how we used to do it.” So Floyd decided to re-cut the song with Poncho with the help of his old buddies Steve Cropper and Booker T Jones. “We sung it live!” Floyd proudly relates, “all my songs have always been one or two cuts, not ten or fifteen!”

These days Floyd is a semi-regular with Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings live band, but he still cuts records on his own. His most recent, Eddie Loves You So, revisits that classic Stax sounds and found its release on the recently rejuvenated label. Floyd’s voice sounds surprisingly young and hungry for a man in his seventies. “A band from Boston put the backing tracks together,” Floyd relates, “They did a great job sounding just like those Stax records. That’s just my state of mind, my mind is still there in ’67.” The recording process was swiftly Floyd admits, “I sang them out, bang, bang, bang! They had me scheduled for two days, I was probably up there for two hours,” he laughs, “I wouldn’t know how to sing them any other way than I did. It just fell into place, kind of amazing really, at least the MGs would hear me sing them, but these guys didn’t, but they just kind of locked in and kept it together. I was able to sing everything and feel comfortable.” What helped the process of course was how producer Mike Dinallo went back through Floyd’s song book, spot lighting some rarities to re-record. “Since You’ve Been Gone was a song he didn’t think I’d remember.” Floyd elaborates, “It was one of the first songs I did with the Falcons, I hadn’t heard it since. Mike send me a tape, I heard it once and it just kind of locked in my head, they all came back.” Eddie Loves You So came out as a great album, a Soul legend going full cycle.

Since You've Been Gone

Find out more on the Falcons here
A big thanks to In the Basement Magazine for help on getting this together.

Boss Tracks; California Sun by the Rivieras

2009-02-13T00:59:00.000-08:00

In this blog I strive to go for the original recordings of a song. On this occasion I felt it was warranted to go with the second recorded version. It was the Rivieras proto-Garage version that made this Henry Glover song into a hit after all. Joe Jones' original take on the song had barely dented the charts. The Rivieras' version however made it all the way up till the number two spot on the Billboard charts in 1964. Held back only by those pesky Beatles, who had just started to take the nation by storm with their first American release "I Want to Hold Your Hand". The Rivieras recording session pre-dated that Beatles release. In that sense it the Rivieras' success proves that self-contained bands were already scurrying in their garages before America noticed those British mods. Contradicting popular believe that the Beatles were at the root of the tidal wave of self contained American R&R groups. Though they no doubt enforced that development in R&R, it seems to me that it was more a parallel movement than is acknowledged in popular culture today. The Rivieras would soon disappear in obscurity however. Their musical chops were far to raggedy to produce a successful follow-up, plus the draft soon got about half of the band. It was the Rivieras version however that would lead to the song's most famous incarnation by the Ramones over a decade later when the world became sick and tired of the pompous album rock the Beatles had help create. The Riviera's California Sun would prove to be the kick start of the Surf craze, not bad for a band from Indiana.

Still their fate was better than Joe Jones, who originally tried his hands on the song for Roulette. Label owner Morris Levy had convinced Henry Glover to come over to his label to set up the R&B department. While proficient in the Jazz market, Roulette still had to crack that far more lucrative market. That Joe Jones even came to record the song was something of an odd twist of events. Jones' run with the label had failed to produce any hits. Under the impression Roulette had forgotten about him, he cut You Talk To Much for the New Orleans based Ric label. The song had been written by Fats Domino's brother in law Reggie Hall, but rejected by the Fat Man because he felt the song had no potential. When New York radio stations started picking up Joe Jones' version on Ric, it appeared Fats' instincts had failed him. Roulette soon remember they had signed Jones and filed an injunction against Ric, re-releasing the song on Roulette, scoring a major national hit. So it was in pursuit of a follow-up that New Orleans based piano player Joe Jones came to record California Sun, half a continent away from the songs subject matter. As mentioned, without the hoped for success.

Henry Glover's career however had been much more successful. As it often goes with producers, their significance to the history of R&R tends to get obscured by the performing artists. Many of them who wouldn't have been as successful without their producers in the first place. Glover was one of the first black record-executives the industry had ever seen. A status he acquired on the basis of being able to write hits across the board. Springsteen fans may be familiar with Glover's Seven Nights to Rock, Henry wrote for hillbilly piano player Moon Mullican over at Syd Nathan's King studios in Cincinnati. Just as easily Glover produced hits for the immensely popular and influential Hank Ballard & the Midnighters (the band that started the original Twist craze). Similarly Glover was at the cradle of many careers. Glover produced James Brown's early hits, guided Little Willie John's career and convinced the Hawks to pursue a career of their own, away from Ronnie Hawkings shadow, a move that led to the Band, Bob Dylan's most famous backing group and another source of inspiration for the Boss, who covered their Rag Mama Rag during the Seeger Sessions tour. But that's a story for another day. Meanwhile enjoy a little sunshine on the edge of winter with the Rivieras.

The Rivieras

Available on Time Life Rock 'n' Roll Era Street Corner Serenade II

Joe Jones

You Heard It Here First! (Original Versions of Famous Songs) (highly recommended)

Sprinsgteen played a snippet California Sun in Light of Day during his infamous October 23rd 1999 Reunion tour show in L.A. and again on November 9th 2007 at a benifit show for Joe Torre's Safe at Home Foundation. See a video here thanks to Pam from BTX.

Boss Tracks; Many Rivers to Cross, Jimmy Cliff

2009-02-06T22:47:00.000-08:00

Rolling Stone placed Many Rivers to Cross on the 317 spot of their top 500 essential songs, calling it a "hymn about struggle and perseverance." As a song it works on many levels. It is a song about personal everyday struggle first. The lyrics search for that strength and wisdom to overcome the obstacles that everyday life brings us. Wether it is a lost love or a lost job, Many Rivers to Cross seems to be the perfect soundtrack to adversity. On another level, the song has often been perceived as a civil rights anthem. The lyrics to Many Rivers to Cross have a pro-active feel to it. The protagonist to the song is looking to find his land of milk and honey in his life time, he refuses to wait on the here after. The level on which it found most meaning to me recently, is found between the lines. It is the level of that last river to cross, that journey from life into eternal rest. It feels to me like a song that can give one the strength to deal with those final moments, or a song to comfort those left behind. That Many Rivers to Cross works on so many profound levels is probably the reason why it became such a timeless masterpiece. An impressive string of artists have tried their hands on it, ranging from Elvis Costello to Annie Lennox, from The Animals to the Soweto Gospel Choir, or Lenny Kravitz to the Blind Boys of Alabama. Each version stressing yet another level of the song. Springsteen performed the song regularly during the later legs of his Lucky Touch tour, staying close to the Gospel feel of the song. I feel his performance of the song is as powerful as anything he's done in his own catelog, in theme and feel close to the Promised Land. Songs simply do not get much better than this.

Jimmy Cliff, who wrote and originally performed the song was one of Reggae's first stars. Many Rivers to Cross first became a hit from his debut album, later once again on the sound track for the excellent The Harder They Come film. That movie, starring Cliff as a struggling singer and drugs dealer, was the Jamaican version of the Blaxploitation genre. A good argument can be made though that the film is better than any movie from America in that genre, save maybe for Shaft (he's a baaad mother....). Loosely based on the life of Ivanhoe 'Rhyging' Martin, considered Jamaica's original Rude Boy, the harder they come is a complex anti-esthablisment film. Though Cliff chooses a life outside the law in the film, often using brutal means to get what he is after, you tend to find symphaty for his dubious choices. The corruption of Jamaica and its highly stratified society simply make it seem like Cliff has little choice but to choose the life of a Rude Boy. In a sense, the movie is Jamaica's Johnny 99.

Jimmy Cliff's debut from 1969, Hard Road to Travel, still stands as one of Reggae's land marks. Produced by the immortal Leslie Kong, it featured a bold mix between protest songs, civil rights anthems and hymns. Though the album's second single, Vietnam, failed to chart, Bob Dylan called it the best protest song ever written at the time. On the strength of Hard Road, Chris Blackwell from Island records convinced Cliff to move to England and sign with his company. Unfortunately it would prove the descicion that would land his career in the shadow of Bob Marley. Sensing the latter's potential, Island focussed most of its energy on Marley, Cliff was poorly promoted as a result there off. What didn't help his career in the US was that, when the Harder They Come album was released around 1971, the movie wouldn't follow untill four years later. So Cliff remained something of a cult figure. Cliff's is however still out there on the road and held in high regard by his peers. In 1985 he was asked by van Zandt to feature on his Sun City, his 2002 album, Fantastic Plastic People, featured duets with Annie Lennox, Sting and Joe Strummer, coming back in 2004 with a reworked version of that album, Cliff added Wycleff Jean to the fold. Today, he remains one of those must see legends, if only because he wrote one of the most moving songs of all time.

Many Rivers to Cross, Jimmy Cliff

Many Rivers to Cross, Bruce Springsteen featuring Terrence Trent D'Arby

MP3 File

Buddy Holly; The Day Music Was Reborn

2009-02-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

February 3 1959 is also infamously known as the day that music died. That fatal day Buddy Holly flew to his death while on tour with the Winter Dance Party, a package that included Dion and the Bellmonts as well. It was the first time Buddy Holly had flown. With Holly, R&R also lost famous DJ the Big Bopper and Richie Valens in a bizar twist of events. Eventually it were Tommy Allsup and Waylon Jennings who were going to board that plane. Jennings gave up his spot to the Big Bopper when he came down with the flu, in exchange for a sleeping bag. Allsup accepted a bet from Richie Valens and lost his seat in a coin toss. Valens even joked how it was the first time he had ever won anything. Years down the line Don McLean would give that date the name it had since when he looked back in the lyrics of his 1971 monster hit, singing "I can't remembered if I cried, when I read about his widowed bride. But something touched me deep inside, the day that music died.

Don's lyric doesn't do a whole lot of credit to Buddy's legacy and the enduring appeal of R&R. True, with Elvis in the army, Jerry Lee and Chuck Berry entwined in sex scandals and Little Richard finding the Lord, R&R seemed to be hanging by a thread in 1959, but things were already bubbling. Holly had toured the UK during March 1958 and as legend goes had stirred the hearts and hips of a more than a few future key players. Future members of the Beatles and the Stones had seen Buddy Holly in concert, Eric Clapton would later acknowledge it was Holly, amongst others, who was the reason he took up the guitar. Robert Zimmerman, who had seen Holly at the January 31st 1959 show, would change his name in Bob Dylan soon after. Like most legends go, Buddy's rise to fame was almost the result of a few happy accidents. Presenting a demo of That'll Be the Day to manager Norman Petty, the Clovis born took it upon himself to sell the recording to Coral records as the finest deal. A star was born by taking a few lines from the Searchers, a John Wayne movie, and turning it into song. While Holly wasn't nearly as dangerous as Elvis, an argument can be made that it was him and his Crickets who became the blue print for future R&R bands. His Fender-Stratocaster sound was sharp and vicious (especially for those days), Holly wrote and sang his own songs and had a self contained band. Buddy's unique lo-fi sound made R&R accessible for a whole generation of teenagers aching to bust out their guitars themselves. I suspect that Buddy Holly caused more than a few teenage boys to lock themselves up in their garages, preparing R&R's second coming. February 3rd 1959 may have been the day that Buddy Holly died, but he had already helped to give birth to a new generation. As they say, R&R is dead, long live R&R! And God bless Buddy Holly.

Not Fade Away, Buddy Holly

Available on Buddy Holly Gold

I did two earlier posts for Boss Tracks on Buddy, Rave On and Oh Boy! I've restored the audio for both. Enjoy!

I Do Believe It's Superbowl Time

2009-02-01T21:25:00.000-08:00

Despite all the reservations fans had about selling out I thought we just witnessed the hard rocking, pants dropping, booty quacking, Viagra tacking, history making, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band in all their glory. Springsteen promised us the final 12 minutes of the show and we got it in spades. This is probably the finest form we've seen the E-Street Band on television since that MTV Awards in 2002. It may have been awfully short for a man who is accustomed to bring us three hour shows, but he packed everything an E-Street show should have in to it. Posing with the Big Man, jumping on the piano, knee slides, howling with Steve and where the hell did that gigantic choir pop up from. Reservation about the new material aside, I though Working on a Dream worked great in its slot. And those horns..... we GOTTA have those horns on tour. By the time Steve called quitting time this fan boy was shouting; "SAY IT AIN"T SO!!!," behind his laptop.

Fortunately the Superbowl was on YouTube faster than I could return from the fridge with an ice cold beer so we can watch it over and over and over again.

Watch part 2 here.
From the NLF page, here's the press conference, so you can watch it again and judge for yourself if the Boss kept his word.
Visit Backstreets as more news and reviews will undoubtly trickle in, or to enjoy Killmo's excellent Superbowl Blog.
Find a great slide show of Reuters photos here.
On MSN.com there's an outstanding review for us to drool over.
Over at BTX evman was so cracious to post the audio for download.
MTV explains what's up with "I'm going to Disney Land!"
Find the silloutte for your desk top here.
The NY Times has posted a lengthy review for your enjoyment.
Photos from the Tampa Bay Tribune are also online.
A nice collection of reviews can also be found on the Freedom Eden blog.
Here's another topic of interest over at BTX for those who forgot to set the VCR.

Boss Tracks; Let The Four Winds Blow, Fats Domino

2009-02-01T11:26:00.000-08:00

Fats Domino is without a doubt one of the pillars of R&R. The amount of hits the Fat Man scored in his hey day is uncanny. For a while there it seemed that Fats had the Midas Touch. Yet, for some reason, Let the Four Winds Blow proved to be one of his last smash hits in 1961. By that time Domino had released 55 singles, most of which charted, 21 of which double. Domino’s first charting single, doing better on the jukebox charts they still had back in the day, was the rollicking Fat Man, defining his image for the rest of his career and selling over a million copies in the process. Released in 1949, it is regarded as the first R&R single by many. Not without good cause, the record predated Rocket ’88 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, sax-man for Ike Turner and his Rhythm Kings, by a full 2 years. The latter often gets the edge over Fats’ single since it was recorded by Sam Phillips of Sun studio fame and then covered by Bill Haley and his Comets. It may be knit picking, but I’d rather put my money on the Fat Man.

Domino was a New Orleans native. His style would define the sound of that city as much as it would define the sound of R&R. His piano style isn’t totally unique though. The rolling rhythms are highly indebted to New Orleans legend professor Longhair. The professor’s unique combination of Rumba, Calypso and Mambo, not only gave birth to R&R but would evolve into what we know today as Funk. Though the professor scored just that one minor hit with the delightful and ridiculous Bald Head, his approach to the piano is an influence still heard in New Orleans today. Fats Domino, Dr. John and Allen Toussaint would all pay tribute to the man and will gladly admit they owe their careers to the foundations the professor laid down. I suspect Roy Bittan enjoys himself a side of Longhair from time to time as well.

Another figure Fats Domino owes quite a bit of his success to is the late and legendary Earle Palmer, probably the greatest R&R drummer that has ever lived. Palmer provided Domino with that infectious back beat that made his single, including Fat Man and Let the Four Winds Blow so irresistible. Palmer played on such an impressive number of genre defining R&R singles that it is easy to argue that the whole genre might have had a whole different feel to it if Palmer had decided to focus solely on Jazz, in which he was trained. When Palmer passed on September 19th last year, Garage radio DJ Dave the Spazz managed to fill a full three hour radio show with material Earle Palmer played on. Almost every tune featured on that show was a classic. Go check it out for yourself, Eddie Cochran, Little Richard, Sam Cooke and Richie Valens are just a few of the impressive names you’ll find, Dave the Spazz makes radio that causes Little Steven to froth at the mouth.

Fats Domino’s success kept the Fat Man busy and on the road. Too busy in fact to spend much time on recording sessions. Enter another legendary New Orleans figure, Allen Toussaint. At a mere 17 years he was asked to step to the plate and play the Fat Man’s parts for him whenever he was out doing his dates. Full backing tracks, including Toussaint on piano, would be send out to Fats, where ever he was at the time, all he had to do was provide them with the vocals. That’s how the hits were made. Taking is schooling with him, Toussaint would himself become one of those legendary figures in the New Orleans R&B scene. Over the course of his career, Toussaint released a mere 5 albums in the seventies that hardly made a dent at the time, but before that had already established himself as a reliable hit maker, producing sides for a wide arrange of people. Notable titles produced by Toussaint include Benny Spellman’s Lipstick Traces on a Cigarette and Fortune Teller, Irma Thomas’ Ruler of my Heart, or Lee Dorsey’s Working in the Coalmine and Yes We Can. Does the latter sound familiar? I thought so. Inspired by Katrina Toussaint was recently rehabilitated by Elvis Costello when he recorded River in Reverse with the man and subsequently toured behind it with Toussaint.

Back to Fats, born Antoine in 1928, Domino’s ground breaking career almost didn’t happen. Domino earned his first chops playing the local nightclubs for pennies. He earned his actual living by working in a mattress factory. When a pile of bedsprings fell on Fats hands one day, the doctors told him he would never play again. It took Fats a mere two years to be back in the game, this time playing in the Hideaway Club as a regular. Dave Bartholomew, a local trumpet player with a record deal in the pocket, was impressed by the man already called Fats. So when Lew Chudd, owner of the Californian Imperial records asked Dave if he knew some talent he could sign, Dave hipped Lew to Fats by taking him to the club. Lew signed Fats on the spot, the rest they say is history. Throughout his stint with that Californian label Fats stayed loyal to his home of New Orleans as much as to the label. When Imperial records traded ownership however, Fats took the opportunity to switch employers and signed with ABC in the fall of 1962, the label that worked wonders for Ray Charles’ career. ABC however forced him to leave his native home and record in Nashville. Significantly the hits stopped coming soon after.

Fats Domino continued to be a New Orleans resident for the rest of his life. Domino felt so rooted in the city that he refused to evacuate when Katrina was approaching august 2005. His house stood in an area that was heavily flooded, many thought that Domino had perished in the storm, somebody even wrote R.I.P on the remains of his house. Like many Fats Domino lost everything he had in that hurricane. One of the few things president “bystander” Bush saw personally to was that Fats got an replacement for the medal Bill Clinton had given him a few years earlier. Domino managed to rebuilt his sober house soon enough and has since dedicated his time and efforts to the Tipitina Foundation, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to provide musical instruments to school and keep New Orleans’ rich musical history alive. The foundation fittingly lends its name from one of professor Longhair’s most well known songs. The Fat Man’s latest contribution are the proceeds of an album recorded by some of R&R greatest in his tribute. Springsteen was at one point rumoured to contribute, which unfortunately never materialized. The list of names that did is none the less impressive. How many albums feature the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Neil Young, Robert Plant, Randy Newman, Elton John and Tom Petty all paying their dues. If we should ever question the width of the Fat Man’s influence.

Fats Domino

Available on Greatest Hits: Walking To New Orleans

Bruce Springsteen, Cambridge, 01-07-1974

MP3 File

This Train; This Land is Your Land

2009-01-30T03:45:00.000-08:00

Usually I save this feature for songs written by Springsteen. Today we’re making an exception by looking at the history of this seminal piece of song writing. This Land is Your Land, in my mind, reflects America and its dream better than the official national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner. It certainly has more eye for the harsh reality of the American dream than the song Woody Guthrie wrote it in response to, Irvine Berlin’s God Bless America. While Berlin had originally written the song in 1918, while serving in the U.S. army, it didn’t get a proper recording until 1938 when Kate Smith sang it on her radio show. The song soon became a hit. Round the time God Bless America hit the juke-boxes across the country, Woody Guthrie was roaming it like a hobo. During his travels Guthrie was confronted with the poverty and social injustices that gnaw at the American Dream. The rot in that apple was at the time amplified by one of the fiercest economic crisis the nation had ever known. The gap between the haves and have-nots seemed impossible to bridge. Guthrie felt God Bless America was too overtly patriotic to reflect the painful realities he was confronted with on the road.

Guthrie’s first attempt at writing a response to Berlin’s saccharine anthem came to him on February 23rd, 1940. According to Joe Klein’s excellent biography on Woody Guthrie, A Life, the song was originally titled God Blessed America. Woody supposedly took the tune from the Carter Family’s Little Darlin’, Pal of Mine, which the Carters in turn swiped from an old Baptist hymn, Oh My Lovin’ Brother. So the basis of This Land is set in prayer. Seeing the form the song would take four years down the line, this seems strikingly apt. This Land is Your Land would become a song that reflects as much the harshness of the American dream as the yearning to make that dream more inclusive. Though the lyrics are very close to the shape they would eventually take, each verse closes with “God blessed America for me” instead of “This land was made for you and me.”

At the time Guthrie’s biting social critique still found warm grounds in America. Steinbeck had just published Grapes of Wrath two years prior and it was already made into a John Ford movie. Tied in with that movie Guthrie appeared on a benefit for the “John Steinbeck Committee for Agricultural Workers,” where he announced to be pleased to be pleased to be performing in a “Rapes of Graft” show. It was on this show where he was discovered by Alan Lomax. By the early forties, Lomax was hard on his way of becoming an institution himself. Spurred by his father John Lomax, Alan had made it his career to preserve the American folk song. Alan had travelled the Deep South with his father, recording prisoners and Gospel choirs with their 350-pound Presto machine, funded by the Library of Congress, of which archives the recordings would become a part. In his day to day business at the Library Alan was aided by the shy, skinny, acne covered, Harvard drop out Peter Seeger. In Woody, Alan saw a raw talent, untainted by the popular styles that had diluted folk music in Alan’s mind ever since Jimmy Rodgers broke through. Impressed by Woody’s performance at the benefit, Lomax convinced Guthrie to come to NY where he would record him. While in NY Guthrie struck up a friendship with Seeger, which would lead to the latter’s performing career. Guthrie and Seeger formed a socialist folk group called the Almanac singers of which they would be the core. Living in a Greenwhich village commune that stayed close to socialist ideals, while other musicians would drift in an out.

Woody Guthrie; This Land is Your Land

It wouldn’t be until April 16th, 1944 however that Guthrie would record the song that would prove to be his lasting legacy as part of what would become known as the Asch recordings. The recording session was ‘produced’ by Moe Asch of Folkway Records. The sessions recorded by Asch were mostly informal affairs. Moe would pay Woody twenty to twenty-five dollars and a steak dinner, Guthrie sang his songs in return. The results are rudimentary even for those days. The crackling nature of the recordings do not make them easy to digest, but for those willing to listen they’re a treasure chest of folk poetry and raw politically commentary with a satirical twist. Ironically Guthrie delivered his seminal works at a time where it would become increasingly hard for him and Seeger to perform in public. In the slipstream of World War II the cold war began, Guthrie’s vision of America would soon find itself in hostile grounds. The lines that Woody had written for This Land simply reeked too much of socialism for the likes of McCarthy and his committee for un-American activities.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Though This Land became widely popular in school and scouting, these lines were dropped in popular use under the pressure of times. The same pressure that would seriously side track Pete Seeger’s career. When Seeger was forced to appear the House Un-American Activitees Committee, designed to smoke out communist by paranoid pit-bull senator McCarthy, Seeger was enjoying the golden age of his career with the Weavers, an enormously popular folk group. As a result of McCarthy’s which hunt, the Weavers and Seeger were blacklisted and found it difficult to find work. Seeger himself was initially even sentenced to ten years of prison for contempt of court in 1961 because he defied the committee. Seeger had refused to plead the Fifth (which asserted that his testimony might be self incriminating) when he appeared before the committee in 1955. Instead he opted for the First Amendment: "I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this." As a result of the blacklisting Seeger had to make a living out of teaching children banjo and folk songs for the longest time. Something he himself found highly ironic, as teaching children would be the perfect channel to indoctrinate a future generation with communist sympathies should that have been his objective.

Allegedly encouraged by Jon Landau, Springsteen began his life long obsession with Guthrie in the early eighties when Landau set him down to watch Ford’s Grapes of Wrath. This Land is Your Land first appeared in the set list in New York on December 28th, 1980 after Springsteen had read Joe Klein’s book on Guthrie. Introducing the song we hear a Springsteen that is still budding when it comes to his political awareness, though the song and Guthrie’s life grabbed him, much of it still appears to be on an instinctive level. Fittingly, Springsteen’s performances of the song in the eighties would be the ‘censored’ lyrics, with the earlier mentioned sharp edges taken off. Springsteen’s version of the song here is still a tad slow and dragging, feeling more like a meditation, evoking a feeling of America rather than a commentary. Ironically, with the lyrics cropped, the song, in feeling, feels a bit too close to Irvine Berlin’s God Bless America for comfort. After being frequently appearing in the sets throughout the River and the Born in the USA tour, the song was dropped for a near 25 years, getting a mere a sole appearance in 1996 during the peak of Springsteen’s Guthrie obsession with the Ghost of Tom Joad tour. Guthrie’s political vision had, however, firmly edged itself in Springsteen’s take on America. Nebraska, for a large part, was built around the people who fell short of the American Dream and you could argue that Born in the USA is Springsteen’s own This Land. Like Woody’s song Born in the USA is at once an anthem celebrating America while venomously biting at its dark shadow.

As the decades progressed, Springsteen’s political awareness grew more pronounced. The instinctive feeling would gradually be replaced by a sharper political vision that would eventually result in blatant and oft criticized partisanship under the Bush administration of the passed eight years. To underscore this, This Land started to resurface during last falls Obama Rallies, including some the lines that originally gave the song its sharp edge. With a more staccato and biting phrasing Springsteen added the relief office verse, before allowing the audience to take over, pushing the song in the Yes We Can chant he started it with. With the economic crisis, finding millions of Americans out of a job and thousands living in tents, those lyrics suddenly seem eerily contemporary. The song’s dark shadow feels as real today as it did when it was first written. Yet in Springsteen’s hands the song becomes an resilient pro-active anthem of hope, as much as his own song the Rising. Though the latter arguably will never become as engraved in our collective conscious as Woody Guthrie’s folk masterpiece.

After President Obama’s election Springsteen helped rehabilitate the song even further with the help of Pete Seeger, on who’s insistence the songs most controversial lyric was added, at then still President-elect Obama’s inauguration concert. This performance also saw the “No Trespassing” sign lyric restored. No inauguration concert and no actual inauguration did ever breathe the sense of history in the making as much as Obama’s. The proceedings mobilized a staggering 2 million people wanting to be a part of it. Obama would be sworn into office not only after 8 years of devastating policies of the Bush administration, but also the day after Martin Luther King day, 40 years after he was shot outside his Memphis hotel. In all the fuss it is easy to miss that the event was also the rehabilitation of Pete Seeger who was blacklisted some 55 years earlier. Seeger, now 89, has found himself enjoying a full re-evaluation in recent years. Hot on the heels of Springsteen’s world tour and album, celebrating the music he had strived so hard to preserve, Seeger had been the subject of an impressive documentary that not only chronicled his life but was a testimony of the power of music as well. The inauguration concert seems like a crownpiece on this rehabilitation. Though perhaps only visible for the keen observer, to me at least, it added to the promise that America is able to rehabilitate itself and truly make this land a land for you and me.

The inauguration concert wasn't the first time the Boss and Pete colaborated. Appleseed records released two duets with both gentlemen in 2007, Hobo's Lullabye and Springsteen's own Tom Joad. The first featured on the Give Us Your Poor CD with the proceeds going to the homeless.

Sharon Jones; This Land is Your Land

This wouldn't be Boss Tracks if I wouldn't slap you in the face with a fine serving straight from one of those half forgotten 45 rpm records. One of my favorite recent versions of This Land is Your Land comes from Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. The Dap-Kings backed Amy Winehouse on her Back to Black album, but if you ask me Sharon Jones is the real deal. This serving is the flipside to her single What If We All Stopped Paying Taxes.

Right on Track, Working on a Dream

2009-01-28T04:14:00.000-08:00

An advance copy of Working on a Dream slipped into my mail box today. Exactly the excuse I needed to re-start this blog again. I realize I have been absent for a couple of months. A thing or two changed in my private life, things which are a happy distraction away from the Internet. Keeping up Boss Tracks in the way I did was time consuming, a luxury that only a single man can allow himself. I'll try to get things back on track, be it on a slowed down pace. Seems a waste to let all the work I had up till now go to waste.

Working on a Dream comes hot off the heels of the Magic tour. In advance press releases Springsteen had already explained that the album was born out of the excitement of that tour. Springsteen wanted to channel that excitement into the studio with tracks recorded in between dates and finished after the tour. Considering the schedule of the Magic tour and the events that followed, that notion alone makes the album a tour the force of sorts. Those who followed the tour closely will have noticed how that tour evolved from an angry burst of R&R exorcism of Bush's administration and the damage that did to America to a celebration of life and the following the tragic death of Dan Federici. Near the tail end of the tour that celebration was injected with a large dose of hope when Springsteen aligned himself closer to the Obama campaign. It is that energy that finds its way into his latest serving.

Working on a Dream is an album of mixed blessings. Like most fans I'm exited that there's new material the Boss is going to tour behind. But like a lot of those fans, I'm not sure what to make of this album. I've always been the type of fan who's admired his craftsmanship. In my mind Springsteen's lyrics were his forte. His economic cinematic portraits of America and his vivid sketches of human relationships were in my mind without peer. Influenced by Flannery O'Conner and other, Springsteen lyrics were short stories set to music with an uncanny eye for detail and the complexities of life. Springsteen's best lyrics, like Brilliant Disguise, Used Cars or You're Missing never compromised those complexities. This album, unfortunately, does. Though the album's lush production and graceful melodies breathe an hopeful, carefree and happy Springsteen dealing with his own mortality and the value of love and life, the lyrics never reach the level we've grown accustomed. The title track is a prime example of this. Never before was there a Springsteen song that breathed hope without reserve or fear like the first single of the album. Breezy and catchy the song sticks like bubble gum on your sneakers. While the song is nice enough to whistle along to when feeling down, it misses the double layers and complexities to make a real connection to our daily challenges.

More songs suffer from underdevelopment of the lyrics. The opening track Outlaw Pete has the sound of grandeur. In quick passing it seems a Jungleland with a Morricone twist. Yet the song's clumsy comedy and likewise metaphors keep it from epic status. Something similar happens with Queen of the Supermarket, a rather akward tale about a crush on a checkout girl. While the arrangement is exceptionally subtle and graceful for a Springsteen song, it fails to hit mark, it doesn't become another Sandy, while the music promises just that. In short, I haven't been this ambivalent towards a Springsteen album since Human Touch and Lucky Town. Working on a Dream seems a photo negative of those two offerings. Where those '92 albums offered us some of Springsteen's best songs on relationship packaged in a dismal and uninspired production, his last goes the other way around.

Because of its lush production however, Working on a Dream is much easier to digest. Set apart from his impressive catalog of lyrics, Working on a Dream works surprisingly well. On prize songs like What Love Can Do, Tomorrow Never Knows or the homage to Phantom Dan, The Last Carnival, Working on a Dream shines in pop delight. On the best moments this album becomes a forgotten relic from the sixties. Working on a Dream sounds like it drags the Byrds, Brian Wilson, the Stones, Leiber and Stoller up to E-Street. The band haven't sounded this good on a record since the River, which doesn't mean they are revisiting. Springsteen still manages to explore new forgotten corners of American music's past. Though the album doesn't have the backbone to really shelter you from winter's bitter cold, it is a nice and pleasant spring breeze that reminds you of the promise summer holds.

Rolling Stone gives the album a full five stars. Let's be honest, three or four would have been enough.

NPR offers an advance listen for those who haven't made their minds up yet.

The Boss himself talks extensively to the Observer about Working on a Dream here.

On a side note, you can find Van Zandt's comments on the Guitar Hero release here.

Voting For Change: Bruce's Politics in the 21st Century

2008-11-03T21:36:00.000-08:00

For two Presidential elections in a row, Bruce has come out with a prominent endorsement of a candidate, in both cases the Democratic Party. While anyone listening close enough to his music over the last several decades, along with scattered side comments at various shows documented on various bootlegs, would know that Bruce tends to come down on the Democratic Party's side of the aisle, his endorsement of Senator John Kerry marked the first time his allegiance was made explicit. In this Election season, Bruce has chosen to endorse the Democratic candidate for President once more, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

In a PSA type speech Bruce has been giving on the campaign trail in support of Obama, he states "I've spent most of my creative life measuring the distance between that American promise and American reality...I believe Senator Obama has taken the measure of that distance in his own life and in his work. I believe he understands, in his heart, the cost of that distance, in blood and suffering, in the lives of everyday Americans." These statements level the playing field between artist and politician, making their values, their desires, and their goals similar so as to be indistinguishable. Surely any pure-bred Bruce Tramp will not deny the unfailing nuance and intellect with which he casts his eye towards the American character as a whole. The journey through America in Bruce's eyes beginning with Born To Run's "runaway American dream" continuing throughout the Darkness and River records and especially incisive on the Nebraska album, a stark black and white portrait of the country seen through the eyes of those not quite so lucky as to receive the benefits of the era of Reaganomics. There is an undeniable through line of dissection and thought, and it is through, not a telling, but a showing of what the country is, was, can be, can't be, will be, should be.

In these recent years, Bruce has seen fit to make that which was implicit into something explicit. There has been a shift from allowing the music to show and demonstrate an idea to making that idea unmistakably clear through speaking it, preaching it, outright saying it free from metaphor or Flannery O'Connor-esque storytelling to shroud the point in drama and detail. The facts are these: Bruce Springsteen is a Democrat, Bruce Springsteen supports Democratic candidates for the Presidency, Bruce Springsteen believes his music and vision of America within his music reflects a Democratic ideology.

The first two facts no one may take issue with, as a man and his values are to be his own and his own alone. Personal freedom of voice, of expression, of opinion in this country are some of the best parts about America and Bruce's integrity is admirable. Certainly no one in their right minds would accuse him of being anything but a patriot. Where the train comes off the tracks is in the third fact, the idea that the vision of America being represented in Bruce's music is a Democratic one.

Fans and journalists alike, when praising the music, time and time again cite one the greater parts of the music is it's cinematic quality, the epic nature of the picture painted in the music. The canvas is as far and wide as this country is, and the trains carries all, saints and sinners, losers and winners, as started by one of his best songs about America, community, and redemption. The vision is larger than life...until now. It seems by aligning this music with a particular party, it goes against the very fundamental ideal of the music to begin with. The tent of Bruce fandom is a big one. When one partakes in the concert experience it is clear to see that it certainly takes all kinds. But the populist message of the music is significantly de-emphasized when Bruce sings and dedicates songs to people who are, at the end of the day, politicians running for office.

The concern isn't a conservative one or a liberal one but rather the non-partisan plea of a passionate fan to not see music larger than life, larger than one politician or one party, be co-opted for a specific purpose and message that from now on resonates in the ears in the political context. As if now going to a concert and hearing "The Promised Land" will fill the non-registered Democrats ears with thoughts of Bruce slying winking to Democrats and singing "And I believe in the promised land....but really I'm singing about how great President Obama's universal healthcare program is gonna be"

In short, there is now a divide, a gap between between Bruce and those fans that may not be so quick to invest their faith in a politican, Republican or Democrat. These fans aren't crazy. They aren't gonna burn their records in effigy while waving Nobama signs in the air. They probably aren't going to stop going to the concerts and paying $100+ to see the best show by the best artist and the best band they know. But for these fans, the gap between artist and audience has become wider as the associations become entrenched. “No Surrender” was John Kerry’s campaign song and “Working On A Dream” was Barack Obama’s song on Sunday. For the people who gladly voted for these candidates, no dissonance exists. But for the other kind of listener, the dreamer who still dreams of an America too big for parties and politicians, Republican or Democrat, it up to this listener to reclaim the vision for their own and know that the land of hope and dreams lies not in the words of Barack Obama or John McCain but in the heart and soul of every American citizen who would believe in it. While his words outside his songs may fail to completely capture it, it is this truth that is self-evident in the music and lyrics of Bruce Springsteen.

Boss Tracks, It's All Over Now, Bobby Womack and the Valentinos

2008-10-21T01:23:00.000-07:00

The last leg of the Magic tour suddenly saw Springsteen going back to his bar band roots. Classic covers were flying all over the place, including some new ones. "It's All Over Now" was one of those debuts with Soozie taking lead vocal. Springsteen arguably first heard this one in the version by the Stones. The Valentinos version, however, is the original take and the more interesting to look at. In many ways "It's All Over Now," written by the great Bobby Womack, reflects an important shift in popular music and culture. The song is right on the edge of a movement toward black independence, the shift from Gospel to Soul and the turning point of what would become known as the British Invasion.

The shift starts with the career of Womack's mentor, Sam Cooke. As a Pop and Soul singer Sam is often recognized as one of those key figures in the development of Soul music. Sam had started his career as a recording Gospel artist, but soon took the leap to secular music. As a Gospel artist singing with the Soul Stirrers, Sam had been extremely popular. The label Sam had been signed to, Art Rupe's Specialty, didn't think a transition to secular music could ever work. Rupe felt it would destroy Sam's career if he started singing, what his core audience perceived as, the devil's music. Specialty let Sam go of his contract. A decision he soon learned to regret as Sam started scoring monster hits for first Keen records and later RCA. Sam's Gospel like approach to his big hits is part of what later became Soul music. Together with Ray Charles, Cooke would lay the foundation.

Like Charles, Sam was fiercely independent. Even though Sam had big ambitions in the Pop circuit, dreaming of playing the Copa like Sinatra, he never abandoned his roots. Sam openly associated with 'radical' black figures like Mohamed Ali and Malcolm X. Both figures reflected strong independent black thought and business. Ali's refusal to serve in Vietnam made him a highly controversial figure at the time, Malcom's "by any means necessary," even more so. Sam's firm believe in black independence prompted him to firm his own record company, SAR records, which would eventually release the 45 we're looking at today. Though SAR never became as big and successful as Motown, initiatives like these did reflect a shift in the civil rights struggle. Increasingly prominent black figures and entrepreneurs were striving independence and equality. For Sam however SAR reflected something more, he wanted to put his roots back on the map. SAR started out in 1959 recording Gospel records, even putting new Soul Stirrers sides on wax. When Specialty had dropped them and their new lead, Johnny Taylor, Sam saw an opportunity.

One of the acts SAR would soon sign were the Womack Brothers, featuring the young Bobby. Sam had first met Bobby in 1951, when the Womack Brothers were opening for the Soul Stirrers. Bobby was eight years old at the time. Taken by them, Sam gave them money to buy uniforms so they wouldn't have to go out and steal them. Bobby and his brothers had started doing Gospel imitating their father's group the Voices of Love, hoping their mother would bake them a cake as she did for his father's group. Bobby later recollected his mother would say "you can have what ever's left. But these guys left nothing but the crumbs. Now we were from a very poor neighborhood (I mean cake was something special), and I said, Those guys don't sing that good and they eat everything! So that's how we started mocking them." So it was cake that led to the first Womack Brother's SAR session in 1961 for the Gospel and Pop classic "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray," on which Bobby first took lead.

Sam was impressed by the young Bobby's voice, he felt he sang with authority. Cooke decided to re-cut the Gospel with the Womack Brothers as the Valentinos, re-writing the lyrics the #8 R&B smash "Looking for a Love" was born. Bobby would later recount his ambivalence toward the whole endeavor, feeling like he just made a mockery of God, telling Peter Gulranick, "He knew we were tripping because it was God's song, but he was laughing, cause he had been through it all before." Bobby remembers Sam fondly as a mentor, as the man who taught him everything he needed to know about singing, especially stressing diction, and writing, telling him "people will buy the news if it is sung with a melody." Sam's coaching eventually would lead Womack to write "It's All Over Now." Released in the spring of 1964, the record caught on fast, but the times were changing fast.

"I's All Over Now" was picked up by the Rolling Stones, who cut it in Chicago's Chess studios. By July 1964 they had their version out on the market, taking the winds out of Bobby's sails. Bobby was furious, feeling nobody could sing his song the way he did. He didn't feel the Stones' version was all that good. But Sam saw it differently. "This will be history" he'd tell Bobby, "This group will take the industry, They ain't like the Beatles, they are ghetto kids, they will make it loose for everybody." Sam strongly felt that singers like the Stones and Dylan were changing the way people were listening to music, "these writers start singing their own material. They might not sound as good, but people believe them more," he'd tell Bobby.

Sam wanted to be part of that future. When Dylan came out with his "Blowin' in the Wind" he felt the Jewish bard had written a song that should have been written by a black man. Dylan inspired Sam to write his immortal civil rights anthem "Change is Gonna Come." Unfortunately, we can only speculate on how Sam's career would have developed further as he was shot in 1964, even before the song saw release as a single. To large controversy in the Black community, Bobby would soon marry Sam's wife, even turning up in Sam's clothes on Cooke's funeral. This momentarily stalled his career. It wouldn't be until 1968 before Womack would hit big again with the Soul stomper "What is This." From there on Womack's career would take many twists and turns, but he's always prove to be a Soul survivor. By the mid eighties, Womack's Poets Trilogy was a testimony of his Gospel Soul roots in a time when many artists had shifted to a bland middle of the road formula. Bobby also featured on the Rolling Stones' "Dirty Work" around that time, one of those Stones albums best forgotten.

"It's All Over Now" by Bobby Womack & the Valentinos

Available onThe SAR Records Story

It's All Over Now, Springsteen, Milwaukee 2008

MP3 File

Sources and further reading:
Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke
by Peter Gulranick
Sam Cooke's Sar Records Story, liner notes by Peter Gulranick
Midnight Mover
by Bobby Womack

Boot Tracker: 12/31/75 – Last Tango In Philly

2008-10-19T02:56:00.000-07:00

With his first entry we're welcoming Kevin on board. I appreciate Kevin's kind words at the start of his review, but a little hunger is all it takes to start the madness that sucked me into the details of R&R history. I hope Kevin and his writing will be a regular around this place in cyberspace.

I asked Alex if I could contribute to this blog and he kindly obliged to let me help out. I lack the depth of understanding Alex has where music history and all of its wonders are concerned but I'm young, and I'm hungry, and I've got a lot to say. I could compare it to that time when Bruce was busting at the seams of his skin to tell it all to us, let us know everything rumbling around in that head of his, and give us a show worth the price and then some. The Last Tango In Philly, it should be said, is probably the best sounding boot of its time, surpassing even the legendary Main Point and Bottom Line FM broadcasts in terms of audio quality. The recently unsurfaced Uber Release from a 24-track source yields incredible fidelity and, as Ev2's liner notes state, you will feel as if the E Street Band is in your living room. Unfortunately, the catch is that the boot is only 9 songs long, cut in half from an 18 song show, but what remains represents a beautiful Technicolor portrait of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band at the end of innocence.

December 31st, 1975, finds Bruce not only on New Year's Eve but also on the Eve of his own entrance into adulthood. The Born to Run tour was a sounding bell to announce the arrival of Bruce and the band, but comparatively, it has a laid-back feel in some ways. It finds Bruce with a loose sense of focus, loose in the right ways. Even concerts as early as '76 have a sense of drive and mission, less soul rave-up with the shaggy haired Jersey kid and his band and more of a rock and roll statement of purpose, no doubt attributable for the most part to the lawsuit drama with former manager Mike Appel.

It also stands as a stark contrast to the one officially released concert from '75, the first Hammersmith show, showcasing a Bruce far more comfortable in his own skin and supernova stardom. He gently pokes around at it, intoning before Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street? that "Seasons come, seasons go, you get your picture on the cover of TIME and Newsweek but the bus never stops.""Night" blazes out of the gate and firmly roots titself as a Grade A opener, being used frequently as song number #1 for the setlists of the next two years. "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" gets slowed down to a wonderfully lackadaisical pace, evoking nostalgia and the Bruce's ever developing sense of storytelling. The phrasing here wouldn't be repeated on the song until the infamous Christic shows, side stepping actually singing the words "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" until the last moment possible. On songs like "Bus Stop" and "Saint", The E Street Band rips through the tempo, straddling the genre spectrum in something that might be aptly called soul-punk-rock-and-roll. Bruce covers "It's My Life" by The Animals to blistering effect, starting off with a typical "daddy issues" yarn, a thread that would continue an arc within his music through songs like "Adam Raised A Cain" "Independence Day" and "Long Time Comin'". Despite the creepy-hilarious stalker story Bruce tells about him and Stevie chasing a girl, "Pretty Flamingo" is impossibly sweet, in no small part due to Phantom Dan's singular touch with the organ. It's interesting to note that the arrangement here is essentially a mirror image of the '75 arrangement of "The E Street Shuffle", complete with the pause in the middle for a rambling story about nothing/everything.

Any serious collector should do themselves the good favor of getting this immediately. Not even the legendary Main Point show from '75 can compete in terms of sound quality. For those looking for essential versions of cover standards like "Pretty Flamingo", "It's My Life", and "Mountain of Love", it's a must. And if you listen close enough, you can hear Bruce leaving the boy behind and gearing up to meet the man.

"Tenth Avenue Freeze Out"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Sound: 5 out of 5
Show: 4.5 out of 5
Artwork: 4.5 out of 5

Down the Tracks, Tell Tale Signs, Bob Dylan

2008-10-11T00:51:00.000-07:00

John Leland once called Dylan a trickster in his book Hip: The History. He saw Dylan as one of those enigmatic people who we are unable to capture, unable to get a real grasp of. A sense of understanding of Dylan, according to Leland, bestows us with a sense of hipness, even though in silence we must shamefully admit to ourselves that the man totally eludes us. Ironically Dylan's trickster image that made him an icon of hip, wasn't something that Zimnmerman seemed to be striving for at the time. Zimmerman has always appeared to be uncomfortable with the iconic status of Dylan, or at least for a large part of his career. I think Robert Zimmerman might have felt he wasn't all that hot, or at least no better than the Woody Guthries or the Blind Willie McTells who inspired him. So Zimmerman spend his career trying to escape Bob Dylan. Not so much a chameleon, who adapts to his surroundings to gain invisibility, Dylan developed to be a lizard, trying to slither out of his status by alienating his fans. He went electric, he went Country, got religion, but to no avail. Ironically every time Dylan tried to slither his way out, it added to his enigmatic status. Dylan radiated an arrogance that only added to his hipness. By the eighties Zimmerman was sick of being Dylan and threatened to become sick of music all together.

Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8, chronicles Zimmerman regaining a sense of himself and shows how Zimmerman grew truly comfortable with being Dylan for maybe the first time in his career. These days Dylan could rest comfortable on his past achievements, but that doesn't seem to be in his character. With the audience that once was hip, now settled and mundane, Dylan could spend the fall of his year blowing in the wind. To an extent he's doing just that. The post eighties Dylan sounds relaxed, at ease with who he his. His voice has grown both harsher and calmer. The wheezing has gone, replaced by a soulfulness that the early Dylan lacked. The current Dylan appears to allow you to get closer, or at least radiates a stronger sense of intimacy. This is a Dylan that allowed Scorsese to make a documentary on him, wrote volume one of his Chronicles and appears on the radio. But who thinks that we are slowly starting to get to know Dylan might be missing the point of what Dylan has been doing in this second phase of his career.

What Theme Time Radio Hour and Tell Tale Signs make clear is that this Dylan isn't as much opening up himself, but is opening his passion. Dylan is spending his career opening up a door to music that is threatened to be forgotten. Dylan is taking us along the houses of the great Blues and Folk legends that gave him his career. As Larry 'Ratso' Sloman writes in the liner notes, Dylan is creating his own archaic music. This Dylan realizes that he has finally lost his hip status, that the status of hip belongs to the rappers and the DJs. Yet it is also a Dylan that uses his iconic status to bear open the soul he thinks music is threatening to lose. As such Tell Tale Signs is a fascinating study of a man, not trying to escape, but pursuing something himself, trying to capture the magic that inspired him, trying to unravel what makes music tick. Though many of the tracks eventually found their way to earlier albums, in one form or another, Tell Tale Signs is still a great compilation to own in itself. Not just because most of the arrangements here are strikingly different from what they wound up to be, but because Tell Tale Signs tells a story in itself.

Listen to Tell Tale Signs on NPR

Tell Tale Signs will also be available in an deluxe three disc edition.

Boss Tracks, My Girl Sloopy, The Vibrations

2008-10-10T06:22:00.000-07:00

At 33 years of age, most of the songs I review here were already ripe with age before I was even an idea in my parents mind. Hell my parents probably hadn't even met when this gem hit the market. The up-side of missing out on all this great music when it was first released, is that I can be taken completely by surprise by a song that is common knowledge for the sixties generation. A few weeks back, me and my buddy were spinning records at a club. Seemingly out of the blue, my buddy threw on this infectious record with a sturdy dragging beat and a chorus that immediately stuck in my head for days. The McCoys version of "My Girl Sloopy," retitled "Hang on Sloopy" after the chorus, proved to be a killer and instant floor filler. All around me people were waving their hands in the air, singing "Hang on Sloopy, Sloopy hang on." Most people in their twenties and thirties who, like me, had no business with this record what so ever.

Digging into the elusive past almost made me feel like I had been living under a rock. It turns out that Garage Gods, the Kingsmen already had their version, it just wasn't on any of the LPs I own. The Five Yardbirds appeared to have a version as well, but I'm not much of a Yardbirds fan, so Sloopy managed to elude me. I scored the McCoys' version on E-bay immediately after that evening spinning records. Turns out that the McCoys were just a mask the Stangeloves briefly wore to get the record out while their smash hit "I Want Candy" was still in the charts. The Strangeloves were touring with the Dave Clark Five at the time, who had expressed the desire to put Sloopy to wax for themselves. The Strangeloves, who wanted to do the song for themselves, realized that the Dave Clark Five would probably outsell them, so they rush released their version as the McCoys, with Rick Zehringers from Rick and the Raiders on lead vocal. After "Hang on Sloopy" hit, the Raiders changed their name into the McCoys officially. The rousing little Rock and Roller the McCoys made it into would eventually become an institute as the official Rock song for the state of Ohio and Ohio University.

The story doesn't stop there. Because the song was renamed after the chorus by most artists who covered the song, I totally missed the original version by the Vibrations, released in 1964. "My Girl Sloopy" was written by the great Bert Russel, who got the quirky name Sloopy from jazz musician Dorothy Sloop Heflick, born and raised in Ohio, she recorded the forgotten classic Dixie and Sloopy in New Orleans, where she made name for herself as a piano player. I don't think Russel had ever expected the song to become an anthem, but the deceiving simplicity of the song along with the theme it addresses makes "My Girl Sloopy" more than just a little infectious ditty. In just two lines Russel made "My Girl Sloopy" a song about social stratification. "My girl Sloopy lives in a very bad part of town, and everybody tries to put my Sloopy down," the song opens, with of course love eventually triumphing over adversity as Sloopy's lover begs her to hold on. Something the authors of House Concurrent Resolution no. 16 recognized which made "Hang on Sloopy" Ohio's official rock song, making Ohio the only state in the US to have one. Not bad for a little R&R boozer.

The working class lament that is buried under that infectious beat makes "My Girl Sloopy" the perfect cover for Springsteen to do. Oddly enough he only did the song twice. Once in 1984 together with singer John Eddie, who is ironically best 'known' for his album "Who the Hell is John Eddie," in the mid eighties when they shared the stage for one of Eddie's shows. The second time Springsteen included a snippet in Light of Day when the Reunion tour touched down in the great state of Ohio. If you ask me though, "Hang on Sloopy" should be his next single and close his set at this year's Super Bowl.

"My Girl Sloopy"

Boot Tracker, Oktober 9th 1980, Cobo Hall, Detroit

2008-10-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

Today we've got a special anniversary conversion show submitted by John Urban, who aptly goes under the guise of Converted at Cobo on the forums. I think John captures the exitement of cherry poppin' time quite nicely!

October 9th, 1980 was the night I caught, or rather was caught by my first Bruce Springsteen concert, and though twenty eight years have passed, I still remember that night and its affect on what I would expect from Rock and Roll ever since. That year, I was the sixteen year old neighbor of a very dedicated Bruce fan, and he had loaned me his collection of Bruce's studio albums hoping to hear something other than KISS blaring out of my bedroom window. We used to sit in his basement with those albums; song after song would play and he'd give me the 'oh, and during this song, Bruce would….' so I was familiar with the music, I'd heard legendary tales of his performances and I'd had a taste of the live experience when I taped the Agora 78 rebroadcast on local station, WABX a year prior. I wanted to complete the circle though; I wanted to see him live.

As my junior year in high school began, tickets went on sale for the River Tour. I was in a real bind though; my circle of friends didn't like Bruce's music, I didn't have a driver's license yet to get me there if I had a ticket, and while my neighbor promised me a ticket if one was left, they were eaten up right away, and now with less than a week until the show, I'd given up hope on going. I went to the first dance of the school year, and found my usual place in the corner by the bleachers. Another friend that I'd only just met the summer before found me there and bragged that he had tickets to the concert. Before I could congratulate him in as deep a sarcastic tone as I could muster, he followed with, 'and Mark has an extra ticket if you're interested in going.' I could have passed out.

The day of the show was a beautiful Indian Summer day, and my friend picked me up in his Chevy convertible. With Born To Run blaring from his tape deck, we drove off to meet up with the rest of his friends and then headed down to Cobo Arena. (Many sources credit the name of the venue as Cobo Hall, but that is actually the adjoining convention center.) We passed the time buying our tour shirts and some Pepsi's, chanted 'BROOOOCE' along with the anxious sell-out crowd of 12,000 as each pre-show song faded out, and checked out the instruments on stage; Clarence's saxophone gleamed under the houselights, Roy's grand piano sat there like the long black Cadillac Bruce would be singing about later that night during Cadillac Ranch, and at the center of the stage, like a holy relic on an alter, Bruce's Telecaster.

True to form, the published start time came and went, and the crowd grew even more impatient until at last the pre-show music shut off mid song and simultaneously the houselights went dark. A thunderous roar rose from the audience as flashlights guided band members to their places, and then after a moment, Max's drum roll marked the beginning of Born To Run. They followed with Prove It All Night and then the account of the band's history in Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out before finally slowing down for Darkness on the Edge of Town and Independence Day. A song that had appeared during the Darkness tour, Independence Day was now an upcoming release on The River which was still another five days from the record stores. Bruce played brave that night; twelve of the twenty eight songs came from that album, yet it seemed the audience was still very much into the new music despite the unfamiliarity, not using those songs for bathroom or beer runs.

This show confirmed what until that night had seemed like tales of legend I'd heard from my neighbor: Bruce went into the crowd to dance during Sherry Darlin', he climbed onto the speakers to lean out over the audience during Crush On You, he bantered with Clarence during Fire and dueled with him prior to their 'Bring It Up' shout during Rosalita, and ignoring Roy's finger shaking wave off, Bruce jumped up onto that grand piano for big air on one of his song ending leaps.

The length of the show matched expectations as well. It seemed that Bruce would never leave, extending the Detroit Medley to include what turned out to be the first ever I Hear A Train. As 1980's only Quarter to Three followed, Bruce finally began begging the audience to let him go; late night Kojak re-runs were on, and Bruce never missed an episode. Assured it was an episode he'd already seen, Bruce broke back into the conclusion of that song and sadly, the end of the concert. As Bruce left, my friends and I sat back down in our seats exhausted and soaked with sweat, hoping for but not getting one of those mid tear-down surprise encores we'd heard about. But how it was that we seemed just as physically drained as Bruce looked reveals the connection Bruce has a talent for creating with his audience; he gives and the audience gives right back. Music isn't just played for the ears, it's owned, molded into something visual, then repeated over the course of three and a half hours with sheer determination.

I arrived home about 12:30 am on that school night; aware of the length of his shows from that Agora broadcast, I'd luckily renegotiated my curfew with my parents ahead of time. I went to bed that night cemented as a fan, that Agora tape playing into my ringing ears, feeling lucky that I'd gotten that ticket, and replaying all that I had seen and heard. I fell asleep knowing that I would be preaching to my friends the next day, as much like the prophet that my neighbor had been to me. Bruce claims that he picks out one particular audience member and uses him or her as his inspiration for his shows. I doubt that he could see me in my upper deck, second from the back row seat, but I can let him claim another successful Brucifixion.

"Born to Run"

MP3 File
The original recording of this show was not in the best shape when I received it. Drop outs due to tape flips have been patched, and the playback speed (which ran fast) has been corrected in the files submitted.

Full Show:

Disc 1, Disc 2, Disc 3.
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Boot Tracker, Oktober 5th 2008, Columbus Ohio

2008-10-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

"I've spent most of my creative life measuring the distance between that American promise and American reality." -Bruce Springsteen

The above quote sums up Springsteen music pretty well. For years I've been trying to explain my fascination for that man to my friends, who more than once looked at me and my borderline obsession quite bemused. I can assure you, I've never been able to capture him in one simple sentence. Unfortunately I'm much to verbose for that. Springsteen's association with Barack Obama makes perfect sense when you set it off against his work and that one sentence. If I were to over simplify Barack Obama, he'd become an image of hope. It has been argued that Obama has been more image than content. In a sense that is true. Senator Barack Obama's strong charisma radiates a hope that America hasn't seen as strong since the mythic Kennedy was president. In a sense his image is as grand (and maybe overblown) as Springsteen's "Promised Land." Obama's image touches something that's bigger than himself, in the same way Springsteen's songs touch that big vision. Barack Obama radiates the vitality and youth that is the American dream. A dream that quite a few of us Europeans are smitten with as well. With its sense that every man is created equal and should have an equal chance to achieve his or her goals, how can you not be?

Yet, as the quote betrays, between dream and reality there's a gap. A gap that these days seems to be widening rapidly. With the stock market crashing, Iraq an continued bloody mess and New Orleans still struggling to get back on its feet, many of us are scared. Truth tell, I'm scared, afraid that I'll learn more about the era the Joads came from than I bargained for. America's brand of capitalism seems to have stretched itself beyond its capacity and once more there seems to be an awful lot of truth in these words, "if America sneezes, the world catches a cold." America has been sneezing big time as of late. So while a lot of Europeans look at the American dream with a sense wonder, we look at the American reality with a sense of fear or apprehension. Often this is mistaken as a form of anti-Americanism in more conservative circles, but it simply isn't. The world has almost as much invested in the American dream as America itself.

The question is if Barack Obama can help restore that American dream. Strip away the image, a man remains, as vulnerable and prone to mistake as we all are. More importantly, as limited in capacity as we all are. Not one man can change society, it takes a nation to do so. Springsteen may claim that "One thousand George Bushes and one thousand Dick Cheneys will never be able to tear that house down," but the current administration did it an awful lot of damage. Not just damage to the economy and its standing in the world, but to the spirit of America. Right now America needs a president that can built bridges, or rather that can inspire people to built bridges. I believe Barack Obama is that man. He has proved as much in Chicago with his community work, he has proved as much by building a grass roots movement that proved bigger and more powerful than the top brass in the Democratic Party. In the "Audacity of Hope" Barack Obama shows himself as a man of character, a man who is able to approach people with respect and leave room for other points of view. More importantly Obama demonstrates in his book sufficient concrete ideas on how to improve people's lives, he understands what the common American needs to achieve a base sense of quality in their lives and how to get it to them.

In the light of the current economic crisis, both his image and his practicality are important. Economy, for a large part, is based on trust. When consumers and investors start to get cold feet, start to loose faith, the economy shutters to a halt. Practical measures are needed and in recent days Obama proved he was able to recognize the severity of the economic crisis, recognize the measures that needed to be taken and inspire people to make difficult choices. If that isn't the measure of leadership, I don't know what is. So in short, I fully support Springsteen's endorsement of Obama. While all three rally shows were sober and not really all that special, none of these versions will ever become a definitive version, these performances do radiate that electrifying sense of promise and resilience that makes the man so inspiring in the first place. The context is what gives these rally shows their edge. In a few years from now they'll probably won't sound like anything special, but right now I find it enormously exiting to hear Springsteen chant "Yes We Can" along with a crowd that is bigger than the crowd of the average Magic show.

"Mr Spaceman"

MP3 File
A short, but very cool samply. Bruce got introduced by John Glenn in Ohio. Glenn is one of those few people who really seen it all. So if he takes pleasure out of introducing our man, that means something right?

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Read the review from the Columbus Dispatch here

Boss Tracks; Gino Washington, Gino is a Coward.

2008-10-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

"Gino is a Coward" is the song Springsteen based his 1988 Tunnel of Love Express tour show piece on, "I'm a Coward." It's one of those songs that prove that R&R lyrics do not have to be all that elaborate or sophisticated to really make a connection. "Gino is a Coward" is of the most simple poetry, yet it perfectly captures an emotion a lot of us are only all to familiar with. Within those rambling guitars and gusto vocals Gino Washington bares his Soul, he confesses a fear most of us like to leave unspoken, that we're simply affraid of love. We might just feel more fear for love than that grizzly bear Gino likes to wrestle. Love does have that power to paralyze us, to make you feel like your heart is bleeding on the floor. Love is a roller coaster ride of emotions, where it is not all that certain that the cart will stay on the tracks. Now, be honest, who isn't just a little scared of that! It is not without irony that the B-side is the haunting "Puppet on a String."

Gino Washington is one of those more rough and raggedy talents that got eclipsed by Motown's sun. With Detroit buddy's Nathaniel Mayer and Nolan Strong, he never gained the fame of a Marvin Gaye, but did become one of those cult figures that gained a quaint following amongst Garage bands and R&B fans who were drawn to the more unpolished side of the equation. Gino's dad had been a failed Blues singer, so Gino was aware of the disappointments the trade could bring. Yet when he saw Jackie Wilson perform, Gino knew what he wanted, he wanted to be on stage. After winning the talent contest on local television's Milky's Party Time four times in a row, Gino got his break with the fledging Correc-Tone label. "I'm a Coward" was the first single he ever cut, what a way to introduce yourself. Very few copies on this label were ever printed and very rare indeed today. The Ric-Tic version presented here is a re-recording of that very song, without the horn arrangement that is so prominently there in Springsteen's version. In the liner notes for the excellent compilation Gino explains what happened. "With the first time I cut the song, with the horns, it bombed! The arrangement was all wrong, so I went in with Jeff and the Atlantics and tried my arrangement". Correc-Tone than put the single out on their subsidiary Sonbert, when the song broke in Detroit Ric-Tic picked it up nationally.

By the time "Gino is a Coward" started to hit, there was only one thing keeping Gino from the top, those pesky Beatles. As influential as the Beatles may have been, they did change the market. Just when white teen-agers started to discover R&B and allowing people like Gino Washington and Gary 'US' Bonds some cross-over success, the Beatles gave those very white teens a clean cut, easier to identify with, alternative. Though in Gino's case it might also have had something to do with his way of doing business. As Jeff remembers in those same liner notes, the shows were getting bigger and bigger after "Gino is a Coward" hit. Gino got the chance to open up for quite a few big names, the Four Seasons, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones. The problem was Gino was always late. He'd walk in the very last minute, dressed to kill looking ready to do business. The promoter got fed up with them and when Gino showed up late for the Beach Boys gig, he yelled; "That's it you're not doing the Beatles." If the reaction he evoked during the live shows is any indication, Gino could have been bound for much greater things. Not everybody gets an audience hollering his name, "Gino! Gino! Gino!," during a Rolling Stones concert! If you want to know what Gino is all about, keep an eye on him. He's still out there on the road somewhere, like at last edition of the Ponderosa Stomp! What ever you do though, don't ever mistake him for that fraud Geno Washinton!

"Gino is a Coward"

Available on Out of This World

Down the Tracks; Southside Johnny, Hearts of Stone beneath a Grapefruit Moon

2008-09-28T01:35:00.001-07:00

Some 30 years ago, when Springsteen released his seminal Darkness on the Edge of Town, John Lyon, better known as Southside Johnny did the same with his Hearts of Stone. Though the album didn’t sell all that well at the time years later Rolling Stone magazine would vote it as one of the best albums recorded at that period of time and it has since achieved some kind of cult status. Those in the know recognize Hearts of Stone as one of the best Rock and Soul albums of the late seventies. I sought out Southside Johnny to talk to him about that unrecognized master piece and was thrilled to find the man is as much a fan-boy like his audience. Throughout the interview Southside remained charmingly humble about his achievements and his talent, coming across as a man who is simply thrilled that he’s still able to perform in the shadows of his heroes on stage.

Southside Johnny first started to make his mark at the Upstage, a club down the Jersey Shore. Which according to Southside was more or less a musicians bar, “after all the clubs had closed, we used to just come there and jam into the night,” he recalls some 40 years down the road. Because of its loose atmosphere the Upstage was a draw for musicians from all over the garden state. Southside lived not to far from the club so he would walk up there nightly. Pretty soon he was the constant factor on stage, “because I knew how to sing all those songs,” he explains today. Southside Johnny had been spoon fed Jazz and R&B by his parents. “There wasn’t any Monteverdi or anything like that in our house,” he remembers “they would come home from work and open a beer, have a great time listening to Big Joe Turner or Ray Charles.” His love for R&B made him a perfect match first for Garry Tallent, Springsteen’s future base player, and later for Miami Steve, whom he met at the Upstage club. Southside knew Tallent and Vini Lopez, the first drummer from the E-Street Band, through school, but Miami lived in a whole different area. So if it hadn’t been for the draw the Upstage had, Lyon and Van Zandt might never have met. With a similar sensibility to music his friendship with Miami would later prove key to Southside’s early career as van Zandt became his producer and manager.

The Asbury Jukes, as Southside’s band is called, didn’t form over night however. Southside recalls today that most of the time, whenever somebody scored a gig at the Jersey shore club scene, bands were just formed then and there for the occasion. Lyon was the logical choice to do the vocals, again because of his encyclopedic knowledge of the R&B classics. “It was all less formal than having a band just trying to make it, we were all just musicians learning,” Lyon explains “Nobody was really ambitious, we just wanted to make music and do things.” Things changed when Little Steven started to work in construction, “he was working on the New Jersey turnpike, working a jackhammer, he had been working the guitar for years and years, except there was no money and he had to do something.” Steven had no place to stay, so he was staying at Lyon’s, “one day he walked in, he was covered in asphalt,” Southside remembers “I looked at him and said, Stevie you can’t do this.” Realizing that day jobs wasn’t what was going to make them happy Steven and Johnny started to get serious about music again.

Right around that time Springsteen finally got his big break with Born to Run. Southside got offered a record contract in the slipstream of that success. Something he still is baffled by today. Lyon remembers he was convinced that “they are never going to give us a record contract, they must be crazy! But they did!” Adding with a laugh, “up to this day I don’t know why!!” Steven and Southside went into the studio before all the formalities were taken care of, convinced the record company would change their minds. “We kind of sneaked into this recording studio, the Record Plant, and we didn’t have any money,” he confides today. Jimi Iovine, who had engineered Springsteen’s Born to Run, aided and abetted. “There really was a lot of pressure on us to go out there and make this happen right away,” Lyon explains “Once Born to Run hit, Bruce was swimming in a sea of sharks, he really needed somebody close who he could rely on and relate to, and that was Steven.” So it was also a matter of the Jukes signature guitar player being swooped up in the circus that Springsteen’s career would soon become.

By lucky coincidence Ronnie Spector made a cameo on that very first album. “Jimmy Iovine was engineering that first album, sneaking us into the studio” Southside elaborates, “He had just come of from working with John Lennon on that roots album. Phil Spector produced that, and Jimmy met Ronnie Spector.” While in the studio working with Johnny, Jimmy got a call from Ronnie. Jimmy seized the opportunity and asked Ronnie if she would be interested in recording a duet with Southside. Much to the latter’s excitement, she accepted, “for us she was just a Goddess from our youth!” That fan mentality, the sheer love of the music translated well unto the album and, for that time, it sold very respectable, some 250.000 copies, “so the record company looked at us with some favor” Southside laughs. Yet ’75 proved to be a watershed in the music business, just before the mega million sales started to dominate the market. Southside’s debut was released at the same time as Boston’s first album, “they broke right out of the box office!” Lyon recalls. “We did some shows with them,” he elaborates, “and we were the better band. But they sold 12 million copies, so now the record company is looking at us……”

With the company aiming to repeat Boston’s success, Southside Johnny’s relationship with them would soon sour. Always convinced the record company wouldn’t allow him to do another album, by the time Lyon started working with Steven on Hearts of Stone, this fear was rapidly starting to become reality. To top it off the recording sessions for Hearts of Stone didn’t exactly go as smooth as planned, “we already recorded eight songs, but then decided that they just weren’t what we wanted. It didn’t sound right, it didn’t feel right, so we decided we had to start all over again. The record company by this time was fed up.” Complicating matters was the fact that Miami and Southside had already ran over budget even before they started working on the new batch of songs. “The record company was very, very unhappy with us. They didn’t like the music, they didn’t understand the music, they didn’t really like us. A regime change had happened, people we didn’t know, people who had no history with us. So I told Steven, it’s over”

Hearts of Stone was recorded Southside’s and Steven’s back against the wall, literally on their way out. It was possible that this was their last shot at ever making an album together. “We were under such pressure to make this record that it came out as an intense emotional experience” Lyon reflects on it now “it was one of those moments where you realize that making music is more important than anything else in your life, it made me dig deeper inside myself”. The difference between Hearts of Stone and its predecessor is indeed striking. Where This Time it's For Real was still laden with stylistic exercises (complete with a Leiber and Stoller pastiche featuring the Coasters), strings and sugar sweet blue eyed soul, Hearts of Stone became a whole different ball of wax. In little under 35 minutes all the anxiety and frustration from dealing with the record company, combined with the sheer love of the music, just comes poring out. Hearts of Stone is at the same time jubilant as it is uneasy, brimming with mixed emotions. Steven’s stiletto like guitar slashes though the Motown Soul with raging love. Lyon delivers a vocal performance of a man who is trying to cling on to the love of his life as she’s walking out of the door. In what sounds like a clash between the Four Tops and the King’s Men, Miami and Lyon delivered an album that is a text book case of how a Rock album should sound, a feverish exorcism, a raging celebration. But without the support of the record company, the album sank like a rock.

Despite all that was going on, Southside Johnny remembers that working with Steven on the album, the latter being notorious for his headstrong views on how music should sound and be recorded, was easy. “Because we had faced the adversity of the record company, it gave us the inner strength to say; we know what we’re doing, so we’re going to go out and do it and come hell or high water we’re going to go do it the way we know it should be done,” he reflects on it now, “and of course Steven and I had the same view point on how recording should be done, that it should be a visceral experience, that it should be honest music. So that part was pretty easy, except it was late nights and I’d come of the road, the tour bus would drop me off at the studio and I would sleep on the studio couch.” Despite Hearts of Stone turning out to be one of the best Soul albums recorded after ’75, Lyon doesn’t feel he trumped his heroes, “we paid the best tribute we could” he humbly says today.

When Hearts of Stones was released, Lyon was swimming against the current with his music. “It was actually a time when music had become a little bloated,” he explains “and I think we were part of the reaction against that.” Southside explains that “all the records that I love are moments caught in time, they are not as produced and structured.” From that perspective Lyon was able to relate to the punk movement as well, even though his brand of music (and the Asbury Park scene) was quite a bit more sophisticated. Lyon acknowledges they had different roots, “but we certainly understood each other. Steven and I used to go and see the Ramones in CBGB’s and they were great! Holy shit! The punk scene to me was kind of a breath of fresh air too, for some reason we managed to get along with them. I think there’s a real bond between people who are not part of the system and don’t want to be part of that system.”

With Hearts of Stone sinking, the Jukes were threatened with a life in the bar scene again. Southside Johnny admits that he resented it at the time, “I felt we were better than that.” Lyon was determined not to give up and continued to keep touring while his career hang on a thread. “We just kept going and that’s 30 years ago” he laughs at it now. Lyon elaborating on how he “just want to have a chance to be me and be honest about what I feel,” might just be the key to why he continued to struggle with record companies. Lyon is not the type of artist to compromise his music in favor of current trends. He is first and foremost a fan of music like his audience. Lyon is capable of recounting is first James Brown concert in the early sixties in a fashion that makes it sound like he just stepped out of the venue, still brimming with excitement. Record executives concerned with sales figures, big sales figures, have a hard time following that train of thought. “Most of the people in the business have nothing to do with music,” Southside claims, “and that’s an immediate alienation for most of us.”

It is the same fan boy like admiration that seeps through on his latest project, Grapefruit Moon, a big band take on the songs of Tom Waits. On the surface Waits’ music might seem like a big leap from the R&B records by the Drifters Lyon loves to collect, but as Southside explains, “I think there a real connection between that, there’s a little Howlin’ Wolf in Tom, there’s certainly a lot of cool Jazz like Charles Brown. There’s a real R&B background in Tom, you can really feel it,” adding with a laugh, “he sounds like he’s down on the street, where he belongs.” The big band project first came into fruition when Johnny met Tom after an Amsterdam show Waits just gave. Lyon sprang his idea on Tom and Waits immediately warmed up to it, “so I said ok, if he can understand it, than I’m alright.” Lyon admits that covering Waits was a challenge, “it had been done but it had not done very well. Not to be cool or anything, but I knew if we did it the way I wanted to do it, it would be different” Eventually Lyon got up the courage to ask Tom if he wanted to sing on the album, Tom agreed. “It was a great moment, I was standing in this funky little hippie studio in California, and it was one of these little moments in your life where you just say I’m grateful to have this opportunity.” Southside Johnny’s drive to approach music open and honest, maybe surprisingly, makes Grapefruit Moon an artistic success. The album is as much about the love of music as the music of Tom Waits.

Lyon’s career has been rough and bumpy, and as he admits not without regrets. "I’ve regretted it many times. I hate to be blunt about it, but its true. You know, pulling up four o’ clock in the morning at a gass station where they have a little lunch counter and you know you’re gonna eat a chili cheese dog at four in the morning and be sick, and you’ve got a gig to do that night and the next night, with ten hours of driving in between and you just think, What the fuck am I doing.” Still he is quick to add, “once you get on stage, it all clears up, you understand what you do.” With charming humbleness Southside admits that his aspirations were modest, “I just wanted a chance to tour, a chance to see the world, it may not see like much to most people, but that’s what I wanted.” The audiences all over the world still respond with a fervor to the Jukes on stage. Southside explains “mostly what I wanted to do is have fun. I know that seems like a small ambition but I never wanted to be a R&R hero. I wanted people to come to the shows and have a good time, just enjoy themselves.” Southside in that sense is R&R’s foremost anti-hero. Standing on stage in a plain jeans shirt and small sun glasses, he looks like he just stepped out of an auto parts shop or the construction site Little Steven escaped all those years ago. As such Southside Johnny is easier to connect to than most of R&R’s super stars, maybe even easier to connect to than Springsteen, in whose slip steam he got his first break. “I didn’t think my fans had to worship to any throne or anything like that,” Lyon says about it himself, “I wanted it to be like the music I used to see, where you would go and see the Drifters and just enjoy yourself, I never wanted anything more than that.” Going by that standard you might just say that Lyon’s career has been a great success, a success in honesty and love of music.

"Gotta Find a Better Way Home"

From Hearts of Stone

Grapefruit Moon is available on line through the Southside Johnny store and Amazon

Down the Tracks; Tom Morello, The Fabled City

2008-09-28T00:34:00.000-07:00

We're back on line! While being out of the loop I've made myself useful and prepared two articles that might be of interest to you. The review of Tom Morello's new album is one of them, but I've got a big surprise for you tomorrow!

“The Fabled City” is Tom Morello’s second solo outing as the Nightwatchman. Though Morello admittedly performed a lot of these songs “amidst the tear gas attacks at the G8 protest,” there is, again, little common ground between this solo album and his work with Rage Against the Machine. Though in both projects Morello presents himself as a socially and politically engaged artist, the methods are strikingly different. Morello has called the Nightwatchman as his antidote against arena rock. In tone and approach of the complex social issues Morello likes to address it is exactly that, the opposite of Rage Against the Machine vicious guitar riffs and raging vocals. Morello’s album is more reminiscent of a Rubin produced Johnny Cash album, his voice strikes a resemblance to Iggy Pop, sans the irony, the content closer to a Steve Earle record. On the surface there’s little what links the two projects.

Morello’s inspiration for the Nightwatchman came from a rather unexpected corner for most Rage Against the Machine fans, I can imagine. Explaining the project today Tom claims that “the clear model for me was seeing Bruce Springsteen on his Ghost of Tom Joad tour. I was stunned at how powerful and heavy a concert could be without any Marshall amps in the room.” For Morello fans who view Springsteen through Reagan’s patriotic shades this link might be somewhat of a shocker. But fans who paid attention to Rage Against the Machine’s cover of the “Ghost of Tom Joad” and managed to look beyond the synthesizer layered sound of the “Born in the USA” album, might have found quite a bit of common ground between the two artists. From Springsteen Tom went back and explored the extensive catalogs of Dylan and Woody Guthrie, from where the Nightwatchman started to take shape. Though the two artists shared the stage for a fiercely rocking version of the “Ghost of Tom Joad”, their approach to songwriting bares little resemblance to each other’s work.

Where Springsteen constructs his songs as miniature novel or films, Morello’s songs are decidedly more abstract. Using quite a bit of biblical imagery, Tom paints a rather apocalyptic picture of American society. Though the protagonists Springsteen likes to use, you know, the working class and disenfranchised, Morello chooses to take snap shots of them rather than chronicle the events that mark their lives. Morello’s songs are more like the murals from Diego Riviera, images of working class heroes and victims of capitalism’s shadow populate his songs. Though explicit criticism of the current Bush administration drifts in and out of the songs, the songs keep a certain abstract quality. Where the songwriting at Rage Against the Machine was littered with the same catchy, though strikingly more vicious and rebellious, one-liners politicians like to use, Morello’s albums leave more room for your own reflections.

Question is of course which approach is more the more successful. Graduated from Harvard university with honors as a Political Science master, Morello has always been more of a political activist than he was a rock star, even though his current appearance in the Guitar Hero video came might have you suspect otherwise. Like Woody Guthrie, Morello is a songwriter with a mission. Though lacking the depth Morello’s Nightwatchman has, Rage Against the Machines hard rocking one-liners might just be more effective in getting the attention of a large audience. On the other hand, Rage Against the Machine’s albums have never been as thought provoking as “the Fabled City.” One-liners can be rather off putting in their uncompromising insistence. Morello’s acoustic albums may never reach such a large audience as Rage Against the Machine has, but for who is willing to listen, there is quite a bit more room for developing your own opinion on the issues Tom addresses.

In all, while the record breathes a sense of resilience and rebellion, its atmosphere is dark and dreary. Another vital point where Morello differs from Springsteen, who’s records are always balanced with songs that breathe an enormous amount of hope (though less so in his acoustic albums). Morello’s more skeptical outlook on the elections is no surprise after listening to “the Fabled City”. Where Springsteen is an open supporter of Barack Obama, Morello’s opinion of the man is steeped in criticism. While he concedes that an Obama presidency would be a major step forward symbolically, he also adds :”I firmly believe that it’s the system that’s the problem, rather than one party or the other. When a candidate steps forward who will end poverty and end the war and save the environment and be unbending to capital, we’ll see. Racism is as American as apple pie and baseball. A black president would definitely be a step in the right direction for civilizing the nation. But at the same time there’s Obama’s vow to continue a war in Afghanistan and saber-rattling in Iran. Whatever the voice is in his soul that whispers the good things, there are political demands. That’s why I’m a guitar player and a singer. I answer to no one”

"Whatever it Takes"

Morello will tour behind “the Fabled City” this fall.

Happy Bossday Everybody!!

2008-09-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

The internet connection at home is still down. Its been more than a week now. But I couldn't let this day pass without a birthday wish for our man. So I'm borrowing a few more minutes of my Boss' time here and hope to be back soon! Meanwhile, if I'm able to give frantic 3 hour shows at the age of 59, I'll count my blessings. Though I suspect that even at 33 years of age, I wouldn't be able to do it today. 59 sounds old, but it sure as hell didn't look old over the past year. I've got a sneaking feeling that our man will be defying age for quite a few years yet! Have a good one!

The Legend of sir Lattimore Brown

2008-09-15T00:49:00.000-07:00

Hi folks, my internet connection at home is on the frits. Till I get it back up I'm not able to create any new posts, so I hope to find out what's wrong with it soon! In the mean while, here's a post I did at Twangville earlier this week. A quick copy and paste in the boss', my boss, time. As far as I know there's no connection between Lattimore and Springsteen, save for the fact that the Boss enjoys his Soul music. But I felt this story was well worth sharing.

It's Such A Sad, Sad World

Who you might say? That's what I thought when I first saw this name pop up over at the "B" Side, Red Kelly's excellent blog. These days the net is swarming with Internet publications, blogging is so easily accessible that anybody with a half functioning computer can work it out. People like me who just like to write, but people like Red as well, who actually can write! For the past few years Red has been calling himself the Soul Detective, digging up all kinds of half forgotten Soul platters while digging deep into the fabric of what made them tick. But it wasn't until Red started his Lattimore Brown chronicle last June that he really earned his self-given moniker. It is impressive enough that Red knows who Lattimore is. Though a stellar Soul shouter, sir Lattimore never had much of a career in the spot lights. It is even more impressive though that Red found Lattimore when he was thought dead since the eighties. Each of Red's entries is dressed up with a mind blowing music download that makes you wonder how it is possible that he was even forgotten or passed by.

The whole story started with a nurse, treating a delirious patient, after the patient had been stabbed with a rusty screwdriver. The patient claimed he was a singer. Going beyond her duty, she googled Lattimore and word eventually got to Red. It turned out that Lattimore had been living in Biloxi all these years. Though New Orleans got all the publicity, it was Biloxi that got the direct hits from Katrina. The town was devastated by the storm, Lattimore lost damn near all he had in it. Red decided to look him up and caught up with sir Lattimore after losing track of him a couple of times. In a series of lengthy posts Red chronicled his times with Lattimore. The story that enfolded is without a doubt one of the most impressive I've ever read in the blog sphere. Through Lattimore's story Red traveled an alternate route through the history of Soul music. Lattimore may not have made much of a name himself, it appears he was lurking behind the scene at quite a few key moments. From Isaac Hayes, to Wilson Pickett, they all pass by. Slowly his story gives you a deeper understanding of how music works and the significance it has in the lives of people who create it and the lives of people who are captured by it. In almost a Hollywood like script we bare witness to Lattimore getting back on his feet while the musical landscape of America passes by.

That is, until Gustav hit. For the second time Lattimore lost all his earthly belongings. When Red finally caught up with him this 77 year old soul surviver was unsure where he would sleep that night, with only the clothes on his back to comfort him. Red opened up a fund to help Lattimore get back on his feet. I like to take this opportunity to ask you to support Lattimore anyway you can. If you want to know why, just take a few and read all about the Legend of Sir Lattimore Brown

THE LEGEND OF SIR LATTIMORE BROWN

Boot Tracker, On The Tracks: November 24th 2002, Tampa

2008-09-12T01:05:00.000-07:00

Another guest story by a fellow Tramp, Brian Frederick. Brian picked the story of his first show and is planning to do a series of them on the forums. His cherry busters happens to be captured on a stellar sound board recording. Without a doubt one of the finest bootlegs of the Rising tour. One of those tapes that trumps the official live in Barcelona release, even though the audience is a bit too distant for my taste. The set however is a killer!

So much has and will be said of my adoration of the Rock and Roll legend that is Bruce Springsteen. In fact, that is what I am going to be doing here today. I am beginning a writing series….NAY, a writing odyssey chronically my brief glimpses of rock perfection. I am going to tell the amazing, zany, sometimes outrageous stories behind each time I have seen the Boss in concert. As I sit here today I have had the honor of doing just that Eleven (11) times in the last five (5) years. I realized today that each single concert has some epic adventure leading to, happening during, or taking place after. The year 2002 was an interesting year in my life. By the time half the year was gone I was once again facing a major crossroads in my life. I was living in Minnesota at the time and I had been there about 4 years. Soon after I moved there is when I discovered my admiration for Bruce and he really made a big impact on my life. It was my new "thing" that I loved to get immersed in. You see I was never a Bruce fan growing up in New Jersey. Sounds odd I know but it wasn't until I "busted out" of there that I grew to appreciate my home state and Bruce kind of represented that for me. Anyway things had gotten pretty rough in MN and one of my escapes was the fact that Bruce had a new cd coming out, 'The Rising.' It was his first new album in almost ten years and obviously his first new disc since I had become a fan. When the first single was released I would leave the radio and use a cassette to try and catch it and record it. The first time I did hear it I drove around aimlessly through the back roads of MN waiting for it to come on the car radio. The DJ kept saying it was coming right up but didn't play it for almost an hour. When he finally did I pulled over to take it in. I was not only like a kid at Christmas; I was like a kid at Christmas who had been blind his whole life then woke up Christmas morning to not only his presents but his sight as well. Ok, that might be a bit much, but I was excited. With a new record out Bruce and the E St band were due to go on tour. I was hell bent to catch him live. Only trouble was, life had blown up in my face and I knew I needed to make big changes. It was time to evacuate MN. But where to go? Back to NJ with my grandmother? Down to Tampa to live with my folks? Where would I see the Boss (yes, obviously priorities were firmly in order)? I chose to move to Florida but planned on hitting Jersey along my route to meet said grandmother. When I left the Midwest I missed Bruce there by only a week. When I made it to Jersey I missed him by only day. Feeling beaten I thought maybe life and got the joke over on me and I wouldn't add a Bruce show to my life's story. Then the fall dates came out. Bruce would play the Ice Palace in Tampa in November, mere months after I arrived. My plan started to take shape.

Flash forward to August and I was a resident in Tampa Bay. I kept eyeing the November date when my idol would arrive. I thought I would kill two birds with one stone. Not only would I see the show, screw it, I would get a job in the arena as well! And I did just that, working the next month as security. I figured I would get to see the show for free, get paid, and hell maybe meet the man as well. Well that idea went to heck quickly. I worked security for the arena but had a steady string of luck getting stuck outside telling folks where and where not to smoke. I missed quite a few good shows and feared the worst once the Jersey Boy came to my new home. Needless to say my stint working at the Ice Palace ended shortly thereafter. I obviously was not going to let a silly thing like work keep my dreams from coming true.

The days started to fade away and my first dance was about to take place. Somewhere on the net I came across a nice pair of women from the great state of California who were coming to town for the show. They just happened to have an extra ticket and I found my in. I met them at some swanky Tampa hotel and was so nervous I wouldn't find them or something would go wrong. This was before I was introduced to the world of cell phones. Well things worked perfectly and I got my ticket and headed off to the arena to prepare. I was there way before show time which allowed me ample time to purchase my first Springsteen shirt. It was kind of pricey and I think it exhausted all of my funds, which left me without toll money for my return. I didn't really seem to care. They let us in and I wasted no time finding my seat. I sat and just looked in awe at the stage. This was really gonna happen. I had been waiting almost 4 years for this night. I wanted to change into my new shirt but was not about to leave my seat, god forbid I miss a single thing! I ended up just putting it on over my existing ensemble which was fine because they didn't call the place the "Ice Palace" for no reason.

"Good evening Tampa!" was all he said and off we went, 15,000 of my closest new friends and I with one of the greatest stage performers of all time. I don't have a problem telling you that when he took the stage I had tears in my eyes. I had such a blast cheering, dancing (!) and singing along. I laugh now because I had just purchased 'Born to Run' that day and wasn't familiar with all of it yet. So when he broke into 'Night' and 'She's The One' it was like hearing new songs, where today they are staples of a Bruce show and I know them like my birth date.

The show was marvelous and went by like a speeding train. When it goes by you look in the windows and make out bits and pieces of things. But once it’s gone you fondly look back as if you caught every color, every detail. The highlights were definitely towards the end of the set most notable Bruce playing 'Incident on 57th St' alone on piano. It was haunting and beautiful. At the time I knew it was amazing but it turns out it is kind of a rarity so I was very, very lucky. To this day it is my favorite performance of any of his songs that I have seen. The women I sat with went bat shit crazy when he did it. Now I do too when I listen to it on my Ipod. As the show was wrapping up it didn't seem like Bruce wanted to leave us anymore than we wanted him to. After the encores he took the stage to cover 'Twist and Shout' just to make sure he sent us all home in a frenzy. And like that it was over. The very first step in a long, beautiful journey I have taken with my musical idol. I suppose I couldn't even imagine the places I would end up and what I would experience. But I do now and I am gonna share it! My second go round would still be very amazing, but pretty much NOTHING like the experience I had the first time. My crazy Boss adventures were just getting started.

Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 5- out of 5
Show: 5- out of 5
Artwork: Various available through the link section.

Boss Tracks, Boom Boom, John Lee Hooker

2008-09-11T07:46:00.000-07:00

Though Springsteen probably first got acquainted with this gem through the Animals, I decided to pick John Lee Hooker's original over Eric Burdon's straight forward cover of the song. We'll get to the Animals some other time. Like so many of those 45s a great piece of music history is attached to this one on various levels. The most obvious level is because of Hooker's own pivotal role in the redevelopment of Blues. His characteristic droning, one chord, Blues, redesigned the genre "Boogie Chillun" was released on Modern in 1948. With that single Hooker created a riff that would be recycled over and over again in R&R, most recently of course by Springsteen in his revamping of "Reason to Believe," some 60 years down the line. "Boogie Chillun" would become a million seller. Remarkable for a 45 that featured little more than John Lee's stomping feet and staccato guitar and vocals. Hooker's music worked on a very primary level which I imagine was quite a bit of the appeal when he was 'discovered' by the beat generation in the mid sixties. With one chord, Hooker's approach was basic enough ,and had more raw appeal to struggling and starting guitar players.

By the time John Lee Hooker was introduced to a broader audience and gained wider international appeal, he was one of Vee-Jay's biggest selling artists. Vee-Jay is most well known these days amongst Beatles collectors for those very hard to find first US Beatles 45s they released. Vee-Jay saw the potential in marketing a black sound brought by skinny white boys with funny hair-dos before anybody else in the US. Maybe the fact that Vee-Jay was a black owned R&B label, well before Motown came around, had something to do with that. Nobody had to explain the appeal of R&B to Vivian Carter Bracken. At the start of the fifties Vivian had been a popular local DJ who also owned her own record store. Even before starting in the record business, miss Bracken was a black feminist avant la lettre. Getting an own enterprise together in the segregated fifties of Gary Indiana makes her accomplishment even more inspiring. Vee-Jay was of to a flying start when the Brackens produced a huge R&B hit for The Spaniels with "Baby Its You." Soon after that the label decided to move their base of operations to Chicago, right across the street from Chess records, where they would play an almost as determining role in the development of R&R as the Chess brothers. Carrying both an excellent Gospel as an R&B roster, many of the great R&B artists kick started their career at Vee-Jay. Next to John Lee Hooker, amongst the artists who found their first success at Vee-Jay were Jerry Butler, The Impressions, The Swan Silvertones, the Staple Singers and the Blind Boys of Alabama.

It was at Vee-Jay that John Lee Hooker started fleshing out his style. Hooker started performing with a band and started to develop a more distinct electrified sound. Boom Boom even featured a horn section, which the Animals left out of their version, but Springsteen kept when he started playing the song regularly during the Tunnel of Love Express tour of '88, though adding a few more, with the Miami Horn section. By the time Springsteen covered "Boom Boom", it's original artists was all but forgotten until apparently out of nothing he scored a monster hit with Carlos Santana on guitar with '89's "The Healer". After that John Lee Hooker turned out to be one of the few Blues artists to sustain a comfortable level of success until his passing in 2001. The last years of his live Hooker lived in San Francisco, where he opened the Boom Boom Room, in '97. Today this club is still open, keeping the Blues legacy alive on stage.

John Lee Hooker
Available on The Very Best of John Lee Hooker

Bruce Springsteen

MP3 File

Boot Tracker, On The Tracks; May 9th 1974, Cambridge (E. St. Records)

2008-09-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

With the Magic tour behind us, I decided to try and revamp the Boot Tracker a little by combining it with the On The Tracks feature for fan stories. One of the reasons I like to browse the message boards are the stories that find their way there from time to time. Those first shows people have seen and the impression it left, lucky encounters with the man himself or just plain fan boy craziness. Like this first contribution by Brian Hawkins, first posted on BTX. Brian picks an especially historic show, the one where Springsteen met Landau. The best thing is, that May 9th 1974 show was captured and still available on a very nice tape that carries over the show that made Landau fall in love with R&R again quite nicely.

Got up to Boston a day early for the Foxboro Magic show, so I could see some of the city and soak up some history. And while I did indeed savor the Paul Revere house, the Old North Church, and Samuel Adams’ burial site, it turned out that Boston is also a cradle of Bruce history… and an adventure awaited! Pondering all things Bruce that morning, I suddenly realized that my Cambridge hotel was very close to the sacred ground of Harvard Square...particularly the Harvard Square Theater...the very spot where Rock and Roll saw its future in Bruce Springsteen so eloquently captured by Jon Landau. I set out on my pilgrimage and with a few quick stops on the T train, I rose from the subway. Feeling like something magical was about to happen, my eyes recognized the Church Street sign and I knew I was approaching hallowed ground: not only the site of the blistering life-altering 5/9/74 show, but the very pavement where a young wiry Bruce Springsteen and a doughy, be speckled Jon Landau had their first fateful meeting.

Landau has often said in interviews that he saw Bruce reading “a favorable review” of the Wild and the Innocent album that he had written that was strategically posted on the window of the theater. They chatted and Landau has recalled Bruce saying how much he enjoyed the review. However, Bruce has since said that he thought it was only “pretty good." Like any new relationship, we can see that with those comments, one was enamored and one was more cautious. Thus begins 30-year dance of awkward miscommunication and compromises between Bruce and Landau that would some day culminate in Secret Garden being released both with and without strings. We all know the rest of the story...the bond, the friendship, the love, etc. that developed from those two crossed wires crackling over the course of 30+ years.

As I stood on the sidewalk, my head was dizzy with 1974 images and figures (converse sneakers, floppy hats, bell-bottoms, tube tops, etc.). Needless to say, I was taking it all in as I walked up to the box office window. I literally felt as if I was back in time as my steps took me down the sidewalk to what appeared to be formerly stage doors. We viewed the top of the theater in a sky that was so blue and speculated that one end must have been the stage area given its distinct elevation. We walked to that end of the theater and witnessed another set of apparent stage doors and a ramp that led down into another set, imaging this area could have been where the trucks parked, groupies milled, and hundreds of fans anxiously anticipated the bounty of a searing Springsteen show that could not possibly include Bobby Jean. It was almost like we felt those kindred spirits of that show with us as we gazed upon this site...This sacred site. How could this get better?

Then I saw it. Treasure!!! Piled high by the same stage door where Bruce tuned his guitar, Mike Appel greedily counted up proceeds, and Clarence cleaned his spit valve all those years ago, there they were: dozens of old vintage upholstered theatre seats! The very seats where the nubile Harvard co-eds of 1974 writhed with pleasure to the strains of Kitty’s Back. Seats stained with Tab spilled in exhilaration as Bruce kicked into Rosalita. Seats pockmarked with long-discarded plugs of Juicy Fruit that may or may not have been nervously chewed by Landau (DNA tests pending) as he planned his overthrow of Appel. Seats that still held within them the energy and power of those epic concerts from another time. I had to have two of them (see below pictures). I’m contemplating what I should do with them now? Build an encased shrine with special lighting in my house or just leave them in the garage.

I Sold My Heart To The Junk Man

MP3 File

Download the full show here.
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 3+ out of 5
Show: 4 out of 5
Artwork: 2 out of 5

This Train; Reason to Believe

2008-09-06T00:54:00.000-07:00

In Milwaukee the Magic tour came to an end. To pass the time till the next tour on this blog I will continue to bring you, on a regular basis, a look at the songs Springsteen covered and some bootlegs of note. I will also try to dig in the past of Springsteen's own songs a little more. Starting with some of the pillars in the Magic stets. Today I'm taking a closer look at Reason to Believe.

Reason to Believe, or rather the Nebraska album was a turning point in Springsteen’s career. It would turn out to be the first album Springsteen would release without much else than him and his guitar and proved to be a shift in songwriting, both thematically and structurally. Though the process had started with the River, or maybe even with the song Factory, on Nebraska Springsteen stripped away all the excess in his songs. Gone was the Dylanesque verbosity of his earlier albums, these songs went straight to the core. “I was interested in writing kind of smaller than I had been, writing with just detail,” Springsteen would later admit in a ’84 interview. With this smaller, more cinematic writing, the content started to shift. Where it had been possible to tap into a bashful optimism on earlier albums, Nebraska’s songs were bleak, uneasy affairs. Nobody spat in the face of these Badlands successfully, there seemed very little believe in the Promised Land.

Though Springsteen had been stripping away all through out the River sessions, Nebraska’s bare bone approach was strikingly different from that album. The River had been filled with stylistic exercises. On the River Springsteen set out to create some of his own Pop and Garage classics, to replace the once he was covering in his live sets. The River was an ode to R&R with a Boss twist. Nebraska was a reflection on America and Springsteen’s personal life. Though some of these reflections were molded into R&R, quite a few songs barely hint at R&R’s exorcism that provides the necessary escapism for the scenes of Nebraska. Intended as demos the material, at the time, didn’t allow for the songs to escape the Badlands. Though E-Street Band arrangements were attempted at the time, everybody involved agreed that the band was squeezing the life out of them. Ironically enough one of the few songs that made it as an E-Street arrangement, Born in the USA, today is living proof of that. The original demo, when it was released on tracks, proved to be a much more powerful (and less ambiguous) version than the one that drove the Boss to mega-stardom.

Reason to Believe was the perfect coda to an album filled with images of the people who the American Dream passed by. Helped by Landau, Springsteen had begun his journey into his life long Woody Guthrie/Jon Steinbeck obsession around the River tour. This, I suspect, allowed him to gain a deeper understanding of his own, and his father’s working class background, which ultimately found their voice in Nebraska. Though the album is often viewed as commentary on Reaganism, I doubt this was the case. Springsteen had yet to become outspoken on politics. In fact, when Reagan used Born in the USA for his second term campaign two years later, Springsteen hardly commented. It is however not without irony that the album saw light of day in the era of silicone optimism. During the Reagan era America’s disenfranchised simply seemed to stop existing, left to fend for themselves. It was indeed a valid question if these people still had reason to believe.

As a song Reason to Believe if the flip side or maybe even the negative to Promised Land. Where the latter affirmed believe, the second did a little more than question it. Though the song could be misinterpreted as a lament for people who believe against all odds, it is in fact probably Springsteen’s most cynic song. The protagonists in the song have no reason to believe, no reason to expect that the American dream will come knocking on their door. Like the Joads in Grapes of Wrath, they belong to an America that is up against an anonymous machine over which they have no control but that does determine the course of their lives. Like Steinbeck, Springsteen captured the forces in society, that sometimes have a tremendous impact on our personal life, in art. With Nebraska Springsteen made mechanisms tangible, with a few strokes on the guitar, that scholars and journalists need volumes for to put in perspective.

Reason to Believe has never become the staple Atlantic City has been over the years in the set list. One of the reasons for that is probably that the song proved harder to whip in an electrified shape than other songs on Nebraska. Thematically however, the song trumps Atlantic City as an representative piece for the ongoing narrative in Springsteen’s music. Throughout the years Reason to Believe stayed close to its album arrangement in the various live settings. A little harmonica and guitar was added during the Born in the USA tour, but not much else. All the way up to the Ghost of Tom Joad tour it retained its bare bone structure. Even though during the Tom Joad tour the arrangement started to shift slightly. During the Tom Joad tour the soft strumming gained in viciousness with Springsteen adding the first hints of the hard rocking ‘Boogie Chillun’ version it would become during the Magic tour. 1996 may have had a Democratic president in the White House, but with Clinton’s continuation of economic policies first implemented by Reagan and the further scaling down of social security measures, the characters on Nebraska were slipping further from main stream America. Clinton’s focus was on a strong economy where people created their own chances, whether those chances were within your reach or not. The louder strumming, the bigger voice, it seemed a necessity for those forgotten voices to be heard.

Ann Arbor, September 26th 1996

MP3 File

The song transformed further during the D&D tour when it adopted the controversial bullet mic arrangement. Not everybody was as charmed by the howling and growling. Over Springsteen’s stomping and the muffled effect of the mic, the words seemed to get drowned out. They were only there for those who wanted to make an effort to hear them. In my mind a perfect analogy to the Republican reign in the White house, that seemed even more indifferent to the people that live within the Nebraska album than before. Poverty in the inner cities of America was hardening and small towns were crumbling under the influences of globalization. Yet it seemed as difficult to hear the people hit by those trends as it was to make out the words of that bullet mic version. Still travel the back roads of America and you’ll find abandoned farms, trailers and towns as a testimony of those voiceless.

Bologna 2005

MP3 File

The Magic tour suddenly brought those voices out to the front again in a raving R&R exorcism. Viciously strumming on his Vox Mark Teardrop Van Zandt combined with the opening howls of Springsteen through the bullet mic gave the song as much an edge of desperation as it did in celebration. The road house riffing based on John Lee Hookers Boogie Chillun (or ZZ Top’s La Grange version thereof) suddenly transformed the bitter and cynic lament into the perfect vehicle to exorcise the venom of 25 years in neglect. Embedded in that highly political edge the first few legs had, Reason to Believe stood out as the center of the set. Those first legs showed a Springsteen that seemed angrier than he had ever been over that neglect while at the same time more determined to get the voices heard society tends to forget. In 1990, during a benefit performance for the Christic institute, a public interest law firm, Springsteen had introduced the song by advising his audience “this song is about the price, that blind faith and refusing to give up your illusions extracts from you.” Words he didn’t repeat during the Magic tour, but certainly applied to the re-election of president Bush. Words that needed to be heard loud and clear with the end of that second term in sight. Those first legs of the Magic tour were about Springsteen imploring us to give people Reason to Believe again.

Cleveland 2007

MP3 File

The Nebraska photos are available through Snap.

Boss Tracks; Goin' Back, the Byrds

2008-09-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

Jim McGuinn, better known as Roger was one of the big guest stars during this tour. But I'll wager that when he stepped on stage in Orlando more than a few eyebrows were raised. As Roger once confided to Tom Petty, when he was helping him produce one of his solo albums "Back from Rio," McGuinn regretted not naming his band Roger McGuinn & the Byrds. After the Byrds folded, McGuinn kind of slipped into obscurity after being the creative force behind the band for years. McGuinn was the only consistent member of the group and it was his trade mark Rickenbacker 12 string and songwriting that made the Byrds the west coast legends they are today. According to McGuinn's own blog, it is through Tom Petty that he first met Springsteen. On this blog McGuinn's guest appearence is discussed at length. Both gentlemen appear to be big admirers of each other. You have to wonder though if McGuinn had any notion of who Springsteen was when he covered the Byrds' take on Goffin and King's "Goin' Back" in 1975.

Springsteen first performed the song taking a bow to Carol King when she was visiting his show in the LA Roxy on October 16th 1975. The song remained in the set for the remainder of his stand there. Though the band clearly took the Byrds' approach to the song, Goffin and King had originally written it for Dusty Springfield. With Springsteen's love for sixties Pop one can wonder which version he preferred. As Brill Building producers King and her songwriting partner (and husband) Gerry Goffin, were responsible for peening many of the pop songs from the sixties Springsteen later covered. Most recently “Save the Last Dance for Me” made the set list. Goffin and King also collaborated closely with Phil Spector at one point, writing "He Hit Me (and it felt like a kiss) for the Crystals.

The single I found this gem on appears to be somewhat of a rarity. Best I could find out was that this EP was released to promote a book on the Byrds written by Bud Scoppa released in 1971. From what I could piece together, Bud's book was written for the teen market back in the day when the band graced the walls of many teenage bed room. It has long since been out of print.

The Byrds

Available on The Essential Byrds

Bruce Springsteen at the Roxy '75

MP3 File

Nils Lofgren also did a version of Going' Back in his day. Check out a transcript of a recent radio interview with Nils on Kweevak.

Down the Tracks; 4th of Asbury Park by Daniel Wollf and A Change is Gonna Come by Graig Werner

2008-09-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

The summer is almost over, but there are two book I would like to bring under your attention before it ends. Let’s be honest, nothing keeps the winter at bay quite as well as a lazy and rainy Sunday afternoon in bed with a good book and a live recording from the summer tour. In the past few weeks I’ve been reading Daniel Wolff’s 4th of July, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land back to back with A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America by Graig Werner. The fist book deals with the history of the Jersey shore’s most famous town, the second relates the history of R&R’s relation to the civil rights movement. Both books feature some insightful chapters on Springsteen while managing to place him in a broader context.

Wolff’s book traces the development of Asbury park from its conception. It is not without irony to find out that the town full of losers Springsteen so desperately tried to leave behind was originally viewed as the promised land by its founder James Bradly. Asbury Park, in his mind, would be a safe haven for America’s religious values while financing itself as a wholesome vacation resort. A venture Wolff shows was bound to fail. Bradley established Asbury park and its boardwalk single handily, trying to keep a firm hand in the town’s direction by keeping it in private ownership. By his death Bradley had to admit that the venture was a failure, the boardwalk had only lost money. Still it remained the town’s main hope of survival through the past 150 years of its existence.

The book also sheds some light on why a multi ethnical act like the E-Street band, especially in its early conception when Sancious and Lopez were still active, never attracted an audience that mirrored their composition. Wolff paints a picture of a highly segregated beach resort with racial relations marred by lynching and deprivation. As Sancious recalls he and Clarence were an exception to the rule, blacks simply weren’t part of the scene where Springsteen rose to fame. So while Springsteen was building his core fan base, his audience was highly skewed to Caucasian to begin with.

Further light on this subject is shed by Werner’s book, “A Change is Gonna Come.” In a fascinating portrait on the relation between (“black”) music and the civil rights movement, from Gospel to Hip Hop, Springsteen is one of the few Caucasian artists that is featured at length, as one of the few outspoken artists in the eighties. Werner quotes black activist LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) in describing Springsteen as a “blues shouter” who gave a voice to the voiceless. Going from there Werner also explores Spingsteen’s lily white audience, or rather the lack of colour in that audience. Aside from mentioning that around the eighties the racial divide had become too big again to bridge all that easily, Werner mentions that Springsteen was marketed to a white public, African-Americans simply weren't a factor in the marketing plans. Rock music was viewed as a white art form for a white public.

Werner also points towards the, at first glance, blatant patriotism of BITUSA was not something African-Americans growing up in the harsh racial realities of that time (and I suspect today) could easily relate to. The black record buying public found their experiences much better voiced in the stark and vicious Hip Hop beats and blatant raps. The music Springsteen drew from, like Memphis Soul and early R&R, had already been left behind by the African American public as being music of an era of broken promises. Also interesting is that Werner sees Nebraska's content most closely linked to Public Enemy's Rightstarter (Message to a Black Man) in its open criticism of Reaganism. Werner compliments Springsteen as one of the few performers to raise his voice in a time where music strove to be as a-political as possible.

Both books are essential reading for those who want to place Springsteen in a broader context. While the standard works of Dave Marsh strive to do just that, these two works, especially Werner’s, manage to clarify just where to place Springsteen in the ongoing dialog between music and broader society, complete with the often uneasy race relations. While Obama’s nomination radiates an optimism on that terrain that is unprecedented, these two works show that there is still much work to be done.

Read more on 4th of July, Asbury Park (a history of the promised land) here
Read more on Change is Gonna Come here

Sites of Note

2008-08-31T08:53:00.000-07:00

With the kudos I got from the official Springsteen site traffic on my blog is hitting an all time high. I must say I'm very humbled by all of this. Like I mentioned this site is a labor of love, so this is possibly the biggest compliment I could get. But I'm not alone in my fan boy madness. There are quite a few sites out there that are worth mentioning. Though you can find them all in the links section, I like to point out a few favorites of mine. Sort of the top five in fan based websites in my book.

Gina's Live Collection
A great site where you can listen to quite a few of the shows reviewed here and a bit more.

Blogness on the Edge of Town
A great news site with a twist. Also offers fun stuff like the cover of the week. You'll be bound to find takes on Springsteen's music there that are sometimes mind boggling but always fun to listen to.

BruceBase
The number one set list database on the web. If you've never visited this site before, you're missing out! Don't let the vintage lay out fool you, there's a wealth in information on this site you won't find elsewhere.

Jungleland
Without this fan based I couldn't run Boss Tracks. This is my main source, together with the BTX mp3 index, for bootlegs.

Springsteen Lyrics
An awesome database of every imaginable Springsteen lyric out there. This site has the lyrics of stuff that has never been released! Always with some nice background info on the songs.

Boot Tracker, August 16th 2008, Charleston

2008-08-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

Helping me catch up with the bootlegs from the Magic tour I missed Charleston is reviewed today by guest writer Nightfishing from BTX. The same Nightfishing that brought you that excellent compilation of the earlier legs of the tour.Check it out here if you haven't already.

"Lost In The Flood" might be a good title for the Charleston boot. Amid the epic nature of the last few shows of the tour, the chatter over Charleston came and went pretty rapidly, but, make no mistake about it, August 16th was a fine example of what this final leg of the tour was all about and jb's recording is excellent. There is a bit more crowd on this tape than on the fine bakerstuff recordings of recent, but the clarity is great and the balance is a notch above the boots we received for Missouri et al. I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about the performance; anyone who has the pleasure of seeing any of these "Reunion Part Deux" shows knows that the band is at the top of it's game and Bruce is having an absolute blast as the tour winds down.

Double Shot is a perfect opener for a late summer show and coupled with Radio Nowhere and Out In The Street, the show takes off as well as any show on this leg. Two Hearts gives Stevie a chance to sing and you can decide for yourself if that is a plus or a minus! (I love the vox, Steve.)Spirit In The Night gives Bruce a chance to catch his breath before the sign brigade begins. Spirit has been a bit rote, to my ears, over the past few weeks, but this one has some real bite to it. Light Of Day, Growin' Up and Janey win the lottery and while they are not the best three pack we have seen, they get the job done. Growin' Up pales a bit in comparison to Nashville due to the lack of the G-D guitar story, but with every play of this classic being the potentially last time to see it, who's going to argue.

No Surrender kicks things back up (and has gotten new life in the middle of the set vs. it's opening block spot during much of the tour). Atlantic City seems out of place in this type of show (as did Devils & Dust a few nights later). Because The Night is owned by Nils, as usual but (as been the case a number of times) there isn't anyplace to go to follow it. She's The One into Livin' In The Future is possibly my least favorite coupling from this leg of the tour. I would have loved to see Gypsy Biker or Devil's Arcade get back into the set instead of LITF, but it's Bruce's world, we just live here. Mary's Place does it's job, as usual. The crowd gets frenzied while Bruce gets one last chance to catch his breath for the 5, err 4 pack. Charleston gets a little Hungry Heart before The Rising and at this point I have trouble writing anything about the 4 pack. If it's your first show of the tour you're gonna love it. 'nuff said.

Streets Of Fire is a nice surprise to open the encore and Jungleland, Born To Run and Rosie are perfect. Thank god (and that sign in Rochester) for bringing Rosie back to her rightful home in the encores. DITD has absolutely rocked this entire tour, but if you don't get it by now, there's no saving you! A post American Land Twist & Shout caps off a great night of classic E Street. With the embarrassment of riches we have received the past month, it's hard for a boot to stand out, but I think Charleston will be in heavy rotation, for me at least, for quite sometime.

"Double Shot (of my baby's love)

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here, part 1 and part 2
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 3- out of 5
Show: 4,5 out of 5
Artwork: none

Get the review from the Courier here

Boot Tracker, August 19th 2008, Hershey (Bakerstuff)

2008-08-27T02:09:00.000-07:00

The second Bakerstuff tape to surface today is almost equally as impressive as the St. Louis tape. Next to that stellar show this recording testifies how consistent the quality is the band delivers night after night. Listening to them back to back, it is funny how different things suddenly stand out. High lights of this tape aren't necessarily the rarities and covers, even though Hershey got a few choice selections, the tracks that grab me most on this recording were the "Reason to Believe" and "Prove it All Night" double shot and the joyous audience participation during "Waiting on a Sunny Day." For some reason those tracks transported me to the show most. That is not to say there isn't a whole lot next to that to enjoy on this recording. The biggest surprise here is without a doubt "Part Man, Part Monkey." Though the song is a far cry from the best he's ever written, on this particular night it the song where Springsteen's voice shines through most as it is extremely well sung.

Hershey was a bit Little Steven's show. Springsteen allowed him to drag the audience down to his underground Garage by letting him pick a few request. Silvio van Zandt went for "Boom Boom" Animals style followed by a rousing version of "Darlington County." Though the second wasn't as surprising, it isn't less exiting because of it. Same goes for tour staples "No Surrender" or "Because the Night," there's a reason there staples after all. As final blow out for this Hershey night Joe Grushecky was invited on stage. As special guest Joe is almost a staple in itself. Instead of going for "Code of Silence" however, Joe tore into "Gloria" with the Boss in a competition whose voice has the most gravel and guts. Few rockers are as rowdy as Gloria and I can imagine this rendition left Hershey in a frenzy once more, especially since it followed an already high energy encore that started with rockabilly monster "Seven Nights to Rock" and allowed Rosie to come out to play. Bakerstuff captures captured all of this on a very nice recording that is fairly even. It seems like Bakerstuff is bringing the power night after night to our stereos for the final nights of the tour. In the notes he announced his version of Kansas City. So with the rumored Crystal Cats coming in September as well, I suspect that the Magic will continue through our stereos and iPods for just a little while longer.

"Part Man, Part Monkey"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 3+ out of 5
Show: 4,5 out 5
Artwork: none

A review from the show by the Patriot News.
The picture in this post are by David Bernstein and Backstreet Bev

Boot Tracker, August 23rd 2008, St Louis (Bakerstuff)

2008-08-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

St. Louis is without a doubt contender for best show of the tour. It is both representative for the Magic tour's earlier and the later legs. Where quite a few shows of the last two legs were awfully short on Magic material, St Louis featured six songs from that album embedded in the structure of the later legs, filled with rarities from his own catalog and some price covers. Counting the "Not Fade Away" intro to "She's the One," the show held a whopping six nuggets from R&R's rich past. Albeit that the intro was more of a tease, a reminder of the '78 intros to the song, than a full blown recreation of it. With a near perfect "Then She Kissed Me" as the opener and "Little Queenie" rousing up the encores it are the covers that give this show its edge. Though Springsteen seems to have taken great pain to give every fan what he or she wants by including choice cuts like "For You" and "Drive all Night," cemented by later leg staples as "Mary's Place."

I have great difficulty of making sense of these add on dates. The great thing about them is that he managed to keep an element of surprise for the last three legs of the tour. Ever since Anaheim, which seems like an eternity ago, Springsteen has been throwing curve balls all over the place. The Magic tour started out as very much set in stone with quite immobile sets for the Boss, but morphed into one of the diverse tours he ever did. These last few shows especially the Jack seems to be out of the box. In a way Springsteen has been looking back, showing how versatile his catalog has been. This could be interpreted as a farewell tour filled with one last time moments. If so the E- Street Band is going out with a bang. Should Springsteen decide to let the band bid its final farewell it would be totally understandable in the light of events that marred the Magic project. After loosing Terry Magovern July last year, Springsteen and the Band lost one of their founding members with Danny Federici in April this year. Even though Charles Giordano is doing an excellent job filling in, Danny's passing must have been confronting in the sense that it made tangible the finite aspect of the band. The E-Street Band have always been a mythical yet very real band of brothers, so Danny's passing was a tremendous blow to the band.

Yet the way the band has adapted to that loss by playing with a youthfulness that is so astounding that it almost seems unreal from time to time, this current leg doesn't feel like it could be the end. Where a band like the Stones come off like geriatric rock, held afloat by pompous shows, relying on nostalgia only, the Magic tour has given us an E-Street Band that was at the same time fresh and relevant by supporting a new album and reinterpreting old material while giving us our bitter sweet tours down memory lane. If the band is stepping out after this tour, it is leaving us with a sense of great possibility of the future, making them possibly the first band that has been around for as long as they have to do so. Springsteen warned us at the start of the tour that the band was as good, or better, as it ever was. A show like St. Louis serves to prove his point. Bakerstuff capture the Band's triumph nicely on tape. A bit muddy and bass heavy and, though not nearly the best bootleg of the tour, a highly enjoyable listen.

"Mountain of Love"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 3+ out of 5
Show: 5+ out of 5
Artwork: none

Read the review from the St. Louis Dispatch here

Boot Tracker, August 24th 2008, Kansas City (Travitz)

2008-08-25T21:19:00.000-07:00

The Kansas City bootleg was made available at neck break speed again. Hardly giving me time to catch my breath from California. I'm still trying to figure up a way to catch up with the shows I miss, which will probably be reviewed in one big swoop. In the mean time I'm just jumping back on the train at its current station. Being Kansas City, from this time on known as city of the squealing Farfisa. The funny thing with Charles is how he keeps surprising me. Because of his affiliation with the Seeeger Sessions band I had him pegged for a keyboard player who's more versatile in all the different folk styles. In Kansas City he proved to be able to give Peter Zaremba, Garage Farfisa God from the Fleshtones, a run for his money. In the two weeks I have been away, the E-Street Band has been working its way back to where they once started, to being the most overqualified bar band in the world. Covers and rockers from the Garage have been flying through the set and that Farfisa seems right at home in the current phase of the tour.

Like a garage show, the current E-Street shows have a delightful messy appeal. Though the structure of the show is still carried by "Spirit in the Night" and "Mary's Place" as its pillars, it is a far cry from the tight Rock attacks that the tour started out with. The first legs of the tour proved that the E-Street Band is still the tightest band in the business. I guess with that reputation solidly in place, they feel confident enough to show the world they can still be the most surprising act in the field of Rock. What other band of their status would pull out three surprise covers in one set with some assorted rarities from their own catalog thrown in. The covers and request may compromise the theme and tightness of the Magic tour somewhat, especially with some of the covers being quite messy affairs (Just listen to Max tear into "Boys" on this one), I don't think there is another band out there, touring for this long that is quite as thrilling and exiting as the E-Street Band because of it.

This Travitz tape is unfortunately as messy as some of the songs in the set. Like a Garage record, it is highly enjoyable when played loud! But overall, the tape is a bit dark and muddy. Though I think with some remastering it could sound a lot better. Since the show was littered with rarities like the never before played "Ricky Wants a Man of Her Own" and the rarely featured Bobby Womack and the Valentinos (or more likely Rolling Stones) cover "It's All Over Now" with Soozie on vocal, I don't think there will be a lot of fans out there complaining about this tape.

"It's All over Now"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Show: 4,5 out of 5
Recording: 3- out of 5
Artwork: none

Read the Kansas City Star review here

Boss Tracks, Have Love Will Travel, Richard Berry

2008-08-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

Richard Berry made his fortune with his sole hit record "Louie, Louie". Not the most sophisticated piece of music ever written but somehow it became R&R's anthem, maybe because of its simplicity. I don't think a song was ever covered as much as that three chord monster. Almost to this day playing "Louie, Louie" stands for the exam an aspiring Rock and Roller needs to pass. My favorite Berry song though is "Have Love Will Travel" performed by him and his pharaohs. Though it never became as big as "Louie, Louie" the song is another testimony that R&R doesn't always need to be complicated to be effective. R&R doesn't always need to be intelligent, nor does it need to have that many layers. Part of the beauty of R&R is that just about anybody can tap into it.

The great paradox of "Have Love Will Travel" is that despite its seemingly inane content its a delightful piece of musical sophistication. It opens with the bass of the song, a voice simply going "Bow Pop Pop Bow" through out the song, over a dragging shuffle beat. Nothing complex here. But if it hadn't been so perfectly timed it would never have been a song that would have gained such an lasting attraction. Though not nearly as much "Louie, Louie", this gem had the knack of surfacing from time to time over the years. Mostly performed by artists with a strong sense of R&R history or looking for material that matches their limited three chord capacities. "Have Love Will Travel" tends to be recorded by R&R buffs who know that Berry was the uncredited lead singer of "Riot in Cell Block #9" from the Robins or who know that the song was likely inspired by the Western series "Have Gun Will Travel". Those who know he started out in Doo Wop group the Flairs. Still these are artists and bands of a wide variety from the Sonics to Bruce Springsteen, from Tom Petty ( who reworked the song) to the Black Keys and not forgetting Jim Belushi and Dan Aykroyd of course who briefly gave the song a second life in their Blues Brothers project. The artists who reworked "Have Love Will Travel" were sometimes overly familiar, other times wildly obscure themselves, does anybody remember the Olympic Sideburns or failed Turkmenistan glam-rockers Crazyhead?

Even though compilations with obscure Berry material will from time to time appear on the market, "Louie, Louie" and "Have Love Will Travel" will always be his only songs that matter. Both have become such a part of the R&R conscious that Berry himself is nearly inconsequential. Although he wrote the songs, he doesn't own them. They are songs that nobody really owns. These two Richard Berry classics are testimonies of R&R's democratic powers. Write a R&R song and you risk it being taken away from you, risk it becoming bigger than you, adopted as anthems or soundtracks to a life. R&R has a universal appeal. "Have Love Will Travel" even crossed the mighty oceans and ended up in Moscow (for now) in the hand of the delirious Cave Stompers. Not bad for something that lasts three minutes and takes as many chords. "Have Love Will Travel" was a staple during the Tunnel of Love Express tour. This fan boy wouldn't mind seeing this gem pop up in Milwaukee for what appears to be the final night of the tour.

Richard Berry

Available on Birth of Soul, Vol. 3

Bruce Springsteen

MP3 File

Back in Town

2008-08-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

After two weeks of going some 2000 miles down those Californian highways I'm back! I've been out of touch with what's been going on for the past two weeks, but it seems like Springsteen and the band have really been tearing it up. Rare covers have been flying all over the set lists, so I hope to catch up on my diet of bootlegs soon. To my pleasant surprise somebody in the Springsteen organization decided to link my site up to the official site for coverage of some of these rare gems. Many thanks to whoever is responsible for that. I'm not affiliated to the Springsteen organization in anyway, Boss Tracks is purely a fan going mad on the covers and bootlegs. So to find myself on the official web site is a major kick for this fan boy!

California was 45 heaven! I found myself flipping through boxes and stacks at the Amoeba record stores, plus many more little ones, that litter the great state of California for hours in a time, uncovering many gems I never thought I'd find at such bargain prices. Of course I'll be scrambling to review some of them in the next few weeks.

Going Cali!

2008-08-09T06:32:00.000-07:00

The Castiles post will be the last one for a while, I'm going for a well deserved vacation under that warm Californian sun! I'll be back around the time the Magic tour wraps up. With the pace the bootlegs have been coming out, I'll probably fall hopelessly behind in reviewing them. In the mean time I have put the "Born to Run" studio album on top of the pile for the road trip. I figure I'll hear that album plenty of times Between San Fransisco and L.A., especially since I'm detouring through the Sequoia forest and Joshua Tree park.

Till I'm back I'll leave you with an appropriate tune that Springsteen didn't exactly cover, but he did play a snippet of during Light of Day on October 23rd 1999 in Los Angeles, "California Sun".

Written by Henry Glover and Morris Levy, first performed by Joe Jones, popularized by the Rivieras and covered by just about everybody from the Ramones to the Chris Isaak, I could fill a stack of CDs with just this song for the road trip. I haven't found a vinyl version yet, but I'll leave you with the Richardo Ray Orchestra version from Vampi Soul's excellent In Search Of Cool compilation.

"California Sun"

A Boot Tracker and This Train Double Shot; The Castiles

2008-08-09T00:45:00.000-07:00

"Marion and Tex Vinyard... They opened up their home to a bunch of rock and roll misfits and let us make a lot of noise and practice all night long." - Bruce, at his 1999 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech

Tex Vinyard is the man responsible for kick starting Springsteen's career or at least got Bruce in the recording studio for the first time. At the time Bruce met Vinyard, Tex was a factory worker on strike who had just kind of stumbled into managing the Castiles. Tex alledgedly lived next door to George Theiss, lead singer and guitar player of the Castiles, named after a brand of soap Theiss used for his hair. Tex went over to ask them to turn the noise down, but wound up becoming their manager. The first thing Tex did was whip the band into shape and started firing members who failed to show up for practice, opening up a few spots in the band. George told Tex that there was this kid playing guitar at his school and promised Tex to ask if he was interested. That kid was Bruce Springsteen. As it turns out Theiss wasn't all that interested in the skinny little guitar slinger, but had an eye for his sister, Ginny. Theiss was so smitten with her that he forgot to tell Bruce the Castiles needed a guitar player.

By the time Springsteen finally joined the Castiles he was a 15 year old kid, obsessed with R&R in a way his peers were obsessed with cars and girls. As the story goes a copy of the "Introducing the Beatles" had made it into the Springsteen household which caused Springsteen to bully his mum into buying him an $18 guitar at the pawnshop for Christmas. By the time the Beatles appeared at the Ed Sullivan show, the little skinny kid was already strumming along. Bruce tried his hands at the R&R group thing shortly after that for the first time with the Rogues, this group was short lived however. So when Theiss failed to ask Bruce, the zit infested kid took matters in his own hand and knocked on George's door offering his services. By that time Tex had already 'hired' the 25 year old Frank Marziotti who had an important edge over Springsteen, he owned an amp, a hot commodity for a starting band. So Tex turned Springsteen down, telling him to come back when he had mastered five new tunes. Bruce was back the next day and baffled Vinyard by playing lead on five songs he had heard on the radio and mastered over night. Springsteen blew Tex and the Castiles away. Frank was asked to pick up the bass and Springsteen got the lead guitar spot. An intimidated George Theiss had to specifically ask Tex if he was still the lead singer in the band, afraid he might be sacked.

Soon Tex had the kids booked for their first gig at the West Haven Swim Club. Tex had whipped the band into shape by allowing them to practice in his living room. The Vinyard home became sort of a refuge for the young Springsteen, "[a] place where I could sit down and play, play the guitar and get away from the house" he recounted some thirteen years later during his first Madison Square Garden gigs. Through hard practice the band was more than ready for the Jersey shore club circuit, where R&R bands like the Castiles were quickly becoming an important means to fight of the boredom. There was one last glitch however, Frank's amp broke down. Tex, already deeply into depth because of the continuing strikes, came to the band rescue by hocking an amp at $11 a month. The band found themselves playing their first gig, all three guitars plugged into a a beautiful new Danelectro 310 complete with reverb. The gig made the band their first $35 dollars. Part of the set were the popular tunes of the day like Glen Miller's "In the Mood," first betraying the jazzy approach Springsteen would take to R&R on his first two albums.

Aside from doing the popular covers of the day, the Band soon started to write their own material. A Rock & Soul type number called "Sidewalk" got so popular in fact that the local teenagers were petitioning for a recording of the song. Oddly enough when the band stepped into the studio for the very first time, the song didn't make the grain. Around the time the band penned "Sidewalk" the Mad-Lads had a hit with "Sidewalk Surf." I have often wondered if part of the reason why they elected not to record the song was because of the Mad-Lads' success with a similar (named) tune. I have no way of knowing if it was. no recordings of "Sidewalk" have ever surfaced. The songs the Castiles did record at Mr Music studios on May 18th 1966, "That's What You Get" and "Baby I," betray little of what was to come. Both tunes are R&R throw aways George and Bruce allegedly wrote in the car on their way to the studio. "That's What You Get" sounds like the boys' take on the Byrds, who were then one of the hottest bands around. "Baby I" was an odd mix between the Beatles and surf guitars. The songs were recorded in an hour for a mere $50, but were never released. The only sources that survived are an unknown number of acetates. Allegedly there was no master tape, the songs were cut directly to disc, hence the weak sound.

There is very little known about the recording sessions. But the line up had already changed that that time. The original drummer of the Castiles, Bart Haynes , had already been replaced by Vinny Maniello, when the first was drafted for service in Vietnam. Bart would not make it back, he died there October 22nd 1967. His death in the service is often viewed as a key moment in Springsteen's life and would later become an important factor for his open support Bobby Muller's organization the Vietnam Veterans of America. The bass player who had brought in the Castiles first amp was replaced by Curt Fluhr. It does seem however that the Castiles had yet to add an organ to the line up in May 1966.

Doc Holiday, who was an engineer at Mr. Music at the time, later said he never expected much to come of the band or its members. However he does remember Springsteen fondly, saying he was one hell of a guitar player. It was the guitar playing, not the song writing, that hinted at bigger things to come. Doc recently recounted a scene on the Backstreets forum that possibly later became the basis for "Jungleland." The experiences Bruce soaked himself into in those very early days found their way to his first three albums and would prove instrumental in his later career. To stand out on that Jersey shore you better had to be good or they'd cut you up, Doc remembers.

I do remember that Eugene Gulash a guitar player for Joey Page and the Page Boys out of Brick town was always trying to out do Billy Ryan and then all of a sudden came this 16 year old kid out of nowhere that played guitar, named Bruce Springsteen, that blew Eugene's doors off, I can remember sitting in one of the halls or back of one of the clubs one night and Eugene was there and said to me & Norman "I'm gonna cut this kid up" meaning he was going to out play him and him & Bruce were just sitting there with guitars in their hands face to face and I remember Eugene saying to Bruce how about a little Hendrix, then Eugene played the riff from "Purple Haze" and Bruce played the solo and torn him a new asshole, then Eugene said how about a little Wes Mongomery and then Eugene played a little octave jazz run and Bruce came right back and once again torn him up, from that day on Eugene forgot all about Ryan and focused on Bruce, (Bruce , remember that night?) I'll tell you that kid (Bruce) was one hell of a guitar player back then, and of course Eugene never did cut him.

Doc stressed that above is a true story. Tapes of an early Castiles performance from September 16th 1967 seem to back up Doc Holiday's story. The set from that September 1967 show is mostly built up out of the popular rock songs of the day, your average cover band it seems. The Springsteen original in the set, written with new band member and organ player Bobby Alfano, "Mr. Jones," is nothing spectacular again, but his guitar playing is on fire. There is a considerable shift in sound from the '66 studio session however, the Beatles and popular R&B tunes started to get replaced by the power rock sound of Hendrix and Cream that were very much in vogue at the time. Springsteen was reaching into new territory. So even though according to Alfonso in an NPR interview the band was making good money at the time, the band fell apart because Springsteen was ready to move on. Alfonso moved on with him, playing organ in the short lived Earth. With Earth the emphasis would increasingly shift to original material. If the Castiles had been Springsteen's high school, Earth and later Child and Steel Mill would prove to be his university of R&R.

"That's What You Get"

MP3 File

"Baby I"

MP3 File

Download the '66 studio sessions and the '67 show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

With many thanks to Doc Holiday and Earthslayer.
Sources: "Two Hearts" by Dave Marsh and Castiles.net

Boot Tracker, July 3rd 2008, Southside Johnny Live at the Stone Pony

2008-08-08T02:18:00.000-07:00

Southside Johnny has remained rock's best kept secret through out his career, operating on a level quite a few fans would have liked to have seen Springsteen operates. This year marked the 30th anniversary of Southside's greatest album, "Hearts of Stone." A birthday that was celebrated in much the same fashion as Springsteen celebrated the 30th anniversary of "Darkness on the Edge of Town" at the Count Basie theater. Though Rollingstone Magazine at one point elected the Miami Steve produced "Hearts of Stone" album as one of the seventies top 100 records, it never brought John Lyon the fame it should have. Together with Little Steven's "Man Without Women" it stands as one of the best blue-eyed Rock 'n Soul albums of all time. As Lyon commented during the show "Forever" winded up on Steve's album but was written for his. "Hearts of Stone" with most of its songs written by van Zandt, is as much vintage Miami as it is classic Southside Johnny. Though "Hearts of Stone" cemented Southside Johnny's reputation amongst hard core Jersey shore fans at the time, the album didn't sell well enough for Epic's tastes. Though I'm not sure how many copies Lyon actually sold of his album, I suspect that Southside Johnny got lost in the shuffle of the changing industry. By the seventies, local markets were no longer something major labels were interested investing in, Disco and mega sales were starting to dominate the scene, any artist failing to go gold was in danger of getting dropped.

Though "Hearts of Stone" has found a re-release on Legacy records, I doubt there will be a luscious 30th anniversary re-packaging from the people who own the masters to this fine album. So the Stone Pony performance with its broadcast on Sirius radio is probably going to be the only tangible mark of this fine album. But judging from this recording, Lyon gave one hell of a party. Though cynics may claim he swiped the idea from Springsteen's birthday batch for the "Darkness" album, this party was something else. Though it would be unfair to compare the shows, but from what I'm hearing Southside gave his audience a decidedly bigger cake. By playing a full show after the album 'recital' it sounds like Lyon wanted to stress that his brand of Rock and Soul has more than survived disinterest from the record labels. The taper of this show, Kathleen was kind enough to give me her impressions of the show;

The show at the Stone Pony was everything a Jukes fan could ask for. The weather cooperated - it was sunny and beautiful. There was an excellent opening act from Bob Burger. He was the perfect intro for the Jukes. He put on a good show. I knew he would break a string the way he was strumming.

Then came the main event and what felt like a marathon (officially 3 hours and 8 minutes according to the website). I knew that it would be special with the 30th anniversary of Hearts of Stone being played, but I didn't expect a beautiful acoustic section afterwards - and then a full concert after that. What a way to start the summer!

I personally was looking forward to the entire Hearts of Stone album being played after seeing the 30th anniversary advertised on the Jukes website. I was planning to go to the show anyway but that made it extra special. I am old enough to remember when that album came out and hearing it live and in person was a real treat. I didn't know if Bobby would be there but I hoped he would. Ralph is a great guitarist in his own right but, when Bobby hooked up to that amp,it made the show. He played like he had something to prove or he was just glad to be back home. His riffs were awesome.

Bobby is buried in the Bon Jovi band - he has an excellent voice but he doesn't sing as well as Jon - and his guitar skills are superb but his style is very different than Richie's. It's a no win situation for him - though I assume he's being paid well. His acoustic guitar work was superb during the acoustic set and his voice and Southside's blend together perfectly. He really shines with the Jukes where he simply can't with Bon Jovi.

Everything that these guys tried wasn't perfect. Ghost in This Town (with Bob Burger) is a George Jones song. About a minute and a half into it they figured out that they had started in the wrong key. John mentioned that they had only played it a few times - and he didn't want to hear any shit about it. It didn't work too well but it was really the only one that had major problems.

I personally loved the acoustic set - I wasn't expecting it and it was a real treat. Bobby's guitar and their two voices made a great interlude between the two main parts of the set. I assumed that the show was ended after the first encore - but no. John came back out and said something to the effect of having a great band when they wanted to come out and play some more - and they even made suggestions of stuff that had been missed. I have seen many Southside Johnny shows over the years - this one was extra special for many reasons and I'm very glad I didn't miss this historic concert.

Thanks to Kathleen's registration of the show we get to be part of the party. Now this recording will obviously not be of the same quality of the Sirius broadcast, but it is highly enjoyable none the less. The tape is extremely pleasant to listen to, especially considering it was taped outside, even though it is a bit rough and raggedy in some places. Kind of like a Southside Johnny show.

"Trapped Again"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 4- out of 5
Show: 5+ out of 5
Artwork: none

The show also saw a performance of Tom Waits' "Gin Soaked Boy" as an appetizer for Lyon's new album of Tom Waits covers. You can find Southside Johnny's new album, "Grapefruit Moon" through the Jukes store. Pick it up, you won't regret it.

August 2nd 2008, Gilette Stadiumd, Foxboro MA (Bakerstuff)

2008-08-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

This new Bakerstuff tape is exactly the reason why I embarked on this crazy quest of reviewing every single tape on the Magic tour. Not only is this a fantastic show, it is a great tape. The first keeper since Paris and Amsterdam. Though it is not quite on that level, it isn't bad by all means. Excellent instrument separation, with most of what's happening on stage coming through quite clear, though a bit on the dark side. But for a stadium tape, this one absolutely doesn't disappoint. You can hear Clarence's honking in the back ground and his percussion better than on most tapes, which is nice since sometimes I tend to forget he brings much more to the fold than a killer saxophone solo here and there. Clarence adds these little colors to Springsteen songs, that help transcend them to that next level.

One of the things about this Foxboro tape that is so nice to hear is the high quality level Springsteen manages to keep this tour, even outside his key markets. Foxboro isn't New Jersey, there isn't that challenge of going legendary on our ass. Even though the Foxboro show was a whopping 30 minutes shorter than the New Jersey shows, the band does deliver the goods and then some. I've heard it said, by myself included, that this stadium leg lacks the cohesion the first Magic legs had. By cutting down the set with three songs, some of that cohesion returns. Though the Magic songs are still sparse, "Spirit in the Night" and "Mary's Place" have found there respective spots in the set as markers. Though shorter and more cohesive, Foxboro got plenty of that surprise element that marked the previous few shows. Most notably with "Little Latin Lupe Lu," a thoroughly prepared request, with the lyrics printed on the back. With the weather in Foxboro temporarily forgetting this is the summer season, "Who'll Stop the Rain" might not have been such a big surprise, but "Does This Bus Stop at 42nd Street" most certainly was. Judging from the "Youngstown" that followed it, that bus is nowhere near close to running out of gas. But for all my rambling, Pete over at "Blogness on the Edge of Town" puts it into words much better than I possibly can.

"Little Latin Lupe Lu"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 4- out of 5
Show: 5- out of 5
Artwork: none

Get the Berkshire Eagle review here
See more of Nanci's pictures here

Boot Tracker, July 31st 2008, Giants Stadium NJ (NYC Taper)

2008-08-02T13:20:00.000-07:00

When I was reviewing the Bossman's tape of this show the New York City taper's version was rumored. Going on his excellent reputation and his past Magic recordings, I was looking forward to this show quite a bit. Unfortunately it is not the upgrade I had hoped for. Though there is little echo and the sound of the band is pretty much in sync , the tape has a fairly distant and dark feel. This taper has taken the effort to master his recording, so I doubt that the quality of this tape can be improved much by raising the audio levels. This version is the best one yet, but not all that much. Overall it is one of those tapes that benefits from cranking up the sound on your stereo. Another bonus is the relative absence of intrusive audience noise. The NYC taper seems to have placed himself strategically. Listening to this tape, there seem to have been less beer runs during "Pretty Flamingo" than there actually were. Though you hear quite a bit of chatter going on, it stays more in the background than on the Bossman tape I reviewed earlier. Still all those improvements are only slight ones.

What remains stunning to me however is the performance. Especially earlier mentioned "Pretty Flamingo," this song seems to have been thrown in to the set totally unrehearsed. If it wasn't for a cue here and there, there would way of knowing. Though this version can't compete with the classic '75 version, it is pretty cool to listen to the band pull it off so nicely. Though I realize taking those request is part show, some of them always turn out to have been on the set list anyway, the way he handles it is something I enjoy hearing every time as well. Just when the band thinks they have to play "Incident on 57th Street" for a few bald fans, the Boss stops and turns to notice another sign and shoots "Blinded By The Light" at the boys. I think it was the Star Ledger who pointed out in one of their reviews that doing a stadium show is usually something artists do with quite the amount of rigor. The Rolling Stones or U2 play tightly constructed set lists to bring the evening to a good end. Springsteen takes a complete opposite approach. While this sometimes seems like its bound to end in a train wreck, at a Springsteen show this is part of the thrill. It is exiting to see what he pulls from his hat next, there's suspense in watching him pull it of, thrilling to hear him add little things to set list war horses. Only an artist performing at the top of his game could pull it off. And that's exactly what the Giants Stadium got three nights in a row.

"Pretty Flamingo"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 3+ out of 5
Show: 5- out of 5
Artwork: none

Read the Rollingstone review here
Visit the Star Ledger for more videos.

Down The Tracks; The Glitter and Doom tour, Tom Waits (Stream on NPR)

2008-08-02T06:02:00.000-07:00

Last week I was lucky enough to catch Tom Waits in Paris. One of the last truly hard tickets out there. Front row seats for the Grand Rex went for a whopping 140 Euros a pop. But because of a cunning ticket selling scheme, where tickets were printed with your name and entrance in the theater was only possible with valid ID that matched the name printed on the ticket, the black market was close to no factor in the sales this time around. The Grand Rex proved to be the perfect venue to see Waits. The big stage complete with curtains, lusciously decorated balconies and palm trees, the Grand Rex breathes the days of old. Getting comfortable in one of those big leather theater chairs you feel like you just walked into a relic of the twenties. The Grand Rex could have easily have been a scene in one of Tom Waits songs, which often sound like they would be better at ease in the roaring twenties than this globalized new millennium.

Watching a Tom Waits show on this tour is like stepping into a depression era circus or carnival. With Waits as the ring master you half expect guest spots for the bearded lady or the human snake. Dressed in a costume tailors stopped manufacturing about a century ago, sporting a bowler on his head Tom Waits aims to transport you from here to a dustier, more mysterious time. A time where fortune tellers were about as reliable as mad scientists, a time where a quack was just as likely to heal your paralyzed legs as the revivalist preacher. Tom Waits shows and songs are objet trouvés whipped into something deranged through his seemingly constant delirium, a left over from his whiskey years. Waits outlook on the world is delightfully unique, which makes his work somewhat hard to access, but once your able to look at you're surroundings through his eyes, he sticks to you like a rash.

After waiting in a over heated Grand Rex in tropical Paris, the dust sprang up when Waits started stomping his feet to a deranged rhythm. His gravel voice would gurgle and spit out the songs that would soothe and fascinate for the next two and a half hours. Waits doesn't sing his songs, he acts them out. Waits doesn't do shows he does theater. The band is there to support the theater and the songs sound like a crackling 78rpm record. Where his last studio album "Real Gone" leaned heavy into a guitar sound, on stage, this time around, Waits opened up the sound. While that meant that some songs didn't quite carried the punch you'd expect, it did make room for surprising arrangements of old fan favorites and the obscurities that litter his catalog. Show stopper "Make it Rain" was padded out with organ and sax, "Lie to Me" went back into the Western barrooms. Surprisingly the traveling circus that is a Tom Waits show made quite a few stops that his albums rarely make. Most notably on "Black Market Baby" with a brand new Reggae rhythm, but through out the show there were whiffs of Cuban son, pinches of Trinidad Calypso on "Hoist That Rag" and table spoons of Argentina Tango. Making the performance an especially tasty and spicy stew.

Somehow in Tom Waits hands all these weird ingredients, strange melodies and exotic hooks become the most natural singalongs. Throughout the evening Waits had the audience eating out of his hands, had them enchanted in his ringmaster command, being able to even direct his own applause without it seeming arrogant or jaded. For many the high light of the show was the moment Waits sat down behind the piano himself, accompanied by only a string bass. If anything Tom Waits has always been a beat poet born two decades too late. Behind the keys he seems to pull weird tales right out of his sleeve that could've come straight out of an old pulp magazine. In the context of the evening his yarns make perfect sense, it isn't until you walk out that you realize that it probably isn't possible to have bullfrogs living in your stomach.

Tickets sales isn't the only the only thing where the Boss could take a cue from the ringmaster. The recent Atlanta show is now available on NPR for streaming and in pod cast download. Recapturing the Magic this way kind of makes collecting bootlegs seem obsolete. Why dig through stacks of mediocre recordings if you can enjoy a show in all its sonic glory.

Boss Tracks, Jacob's Ladder, Doris Troy

2008-08-02T01:38:00.000-07:00

"Jacob's Ladder" is the first song from the Seeger Sessions I'm picking up for this blog. Because of the folk nature of those songs, it allows me quite a bit of liberty as to which version to review. Most songs of the Seeger Sessions have been performed and recorded by multiple artists, not even considering the number of schools and churches they have been sung at. "Jacob's Ladder" is as good as any song to start. Aside from a song Jacob's Ladder is many things. Inspired by the original Bible tale from Genesis in which Jacob had a vision of a ladder reaching to heaven, the Jacob's ladder became one of the oldest toys found in King Tut's tomb, possibly dating back as far as 1352 BC. It also is probably one of the coolest electric science projects you can build at home. For travelers in the USA, the Jacob's Ladder is amongst the countries most beautiful trails located in Massachusetts. But above all Jacob's Ladder is a song.

As a Gospel Jacob's Ladder originated somewhere in the mid 19th century. Though the song was not exclusive to the Black Baptists churches, it did speak to the imagination of the African-Americans most. The song was song regularly on civil rights rallies, communicating to both the protesters and America that the Black segment of America would achieve its goal of equality, step by step, rung by rung. As such, the song's most famous interpretation is possibly by the Black tenor Paul Robeson. As a public figure Robeson was highly controversial in his alleged support of the communist party at the height of the McCarthy era, something he never denied nor affirmed, but also one of the first big African-American performers who put his career on the line in support of the civil rights movement. At the time Robeson chose to do so, speaking out could still cause an artist his or her career. So it is probably not without significance that Robeson became the first Black entertainer to play Shakespeare's Othello in the UK, while no American theater company would hirer Robeson for the job.

The version I picked up however may be closer to Springsteen's roots than Robeson's version. Though I'm not sure if the Boss is familiar with it. Doris Troy's version comes from her forgotten self titled album on the Apple label. Doris is still best known for her sole hit "Just One Look" from 1963. Though Doris Troy was an extremely talented singer, she never significantly broke the charts afterwards. Troy did however gain somewhat of a cult popularity in Brittain's Northern Soul scene, so she decided to move there in 1969. Her live shows back then featured one Reginald Dwight on piano. Who in turn would reach world fame once he adopted both funky glasses, outfits and the name Elton John. In London Troy also struck up an acquaintance with George Harrison when she was invited to sit in on a Billy Preston session George was producing. Harrison wanted to know if Doris was free to record and as it turned out, she wasn't tied to a record contract at the time. With the Beatles on the verge of splitting up Harrison was branching out, producing for himself and other artists. The sessions for the Doris Troy album became are star studded affair. Ringo Starr, Peter Frampton, Eric Clapton, Stephen Stills and Leon Russell all contributed to the record on which Doris takes a fair share of the song writing credits. Unfortunately though the record, released in 1970, got lost in the shuffle somehow. Though the results are fine indeed, it didn't quite fit between the fiercer, more funkier Soul sounds that were becoming in vogue in the States, nor did it appeal to the well defined tastes of the British Northern Soul scene. In the end all the album did was cement Doris' reputation of overqualified one hit wonder.

Jacob's Ladder - Doris Troy

Available on Doris Troy

Boot Tracker, July 31st 2008, Giants Stadium NJ (Bossman)

2008-08-01T03:56:00.000-07:00

The final Giant Stadium show sounds like the best of the three night stand so far and also is the best bootleg I've heard of the three nights. Though I must admit, with all the versions coming out, I haven't been able to listen to all of them. For the first two nights I put my money on the Travitz tapes, but after hearing positive things on the first two Bossman recordings I figured I'd give him a try. I'm glad I did. This Bossman tape is decidedly clearer than the Travitz tapes of the first two nights, although marred by the same heavy bass. So I'm tempted to see if the other two Bossman tapes compare to this one in quality. That isn't to say that all is good however. There is some slight echo on this tape and the sound isn't as balanced as I'd hoped. Worse is the amount of audience chatter. The beer runs and inane social chatter completely ruin Springsteen's tour premier of "Pretty Flamingo" including a nice rap on his relationship with Patti and the Big Man's coming marriage. Probably the reason why the preacher shtick replaced the raps all together in the new millennium. You have to wonder how much of it came across in the stadium as well.

This third night came across as the most loosely constructed set list yet. Compared to the first two legs, this does tape the pace out of the show some, which was often at neck break speed in 2007. But when tightness and high speed R&R is replaced with a full hour extra show and rarities galore, I don't think many of us will complain about the relative loss in pace. Especially not when there are plenty of stadium wreckers like "Cadillac Ranch" to whip the show right back on track. And just listen to Charlie rip into his organ on "Light of Day," of high energy there's no lack. The loss of pace is relative anyway. At the age of 58 Springsteen still delivers R&R shows with an energy level that will make many 20 year olds go green with envy, even when the night is loosely constructed. The loose set lists of late also add an element of surprise that is arguably more thrilling than neck break speed shows. During the first two legs, the out line of the show was more or less set in stone. With the recent shows anything could happen, you never know what you'll get. Even during shows without debuts, you stumble from one surprise into another. This Giants Stadium show not only got two debuts with "Pretty Flamingo" and "Jersey Girl," choice rarities like "Blinded by the Light" remind you of why Springsteen used to be such a hard ticket to score.

"Blinded by the Light"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 3+ out of 5
Show: 5- out of 5
Artwork: none

Read the review from Rolling Stone magazine here

Boot Tracker, July 28th 2008, Giants Stadium, NJ (Travitz)

2008-08-01T01:57:00.000-07:00

An early birthday party for Patti this second Giants Stadium night. And I must admit, I am one of those fans who really likes having her up there on stage. There's a certain dynamic between her and Springsteen that is exhilarating. Sparks fly... maybe not as sizzling and intensely as during the Tunnel of Love Express tour, but there certainly still is a certain dynamic between them. It carries a certain erotic quality that comes across especially well in the "Tunnel of Love" songs, but doesn't stop at that quality. When the missus joins the Boss on a song, like title track of that album, it always sounds to me like they are reaffirming their relationship and aren't scared to ask the difficult questions that come with the territory. It is a dynamic that would hard to act out when their hearts wouldn't be in it, which is exactly why it is so thrilling to watch or to listen to. Though Patti's voice doesn't work as well in every song, there are a select amount of songs that gain something. Especially "Out in the Street" and "No Surrender" always seem to gain quite a bit of depth with the female voice added.

Ironically, or maybe a blessing for the people out there that aren't as big a fans, Patti's voice is one of the things that doesn't come across very well on this second Travitz tape. Her voice gets buried in a rather bass heavy mix. Though the recording is enjoyable once again, quite a bit of subtlety gets lost. So while we can enjoy Stevie's soulful belting on "Two Hearts," Patti gets drowned a bit. On an aside, I have always been curious how that song would sound as a duet with miss Scialfa. Maybe the song would a get too mushy, while right now it still stands as song that underscores the nearly mythical brotherhood that is such an important part of the E-Street Band's appeal. How much that sense of companionship and family is a part of the band perhaps became clear when Max's son Jay Weinberg was allowed to step in for his old man on "Born to Run." Let me tell you, from the sounds of it, mighty Max produced some thunderous offspring. And is it just my imagination, or are those 'Boom ' Carter fills less of a struggle for Jay?

"Born to Run"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Go to the Star Ledger for videos and reviews

Recording: 3- out of 5
Show: 4+ out of 5
Artwork: none

Boot Tracker, July 27nd 2008, New Jersey (Travitz)

2008-07-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

Seemingly minutes after the first Giants' show ended a pro-shot video of "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and two recordings surfaced. Watching the video and this Travitz show do a very nice job of bringing the exitement in your living room. The world of bootlegging is making a decent start here, Travitz captured a very fine show nicely. The recording is somewhat heavy on bass, has a bit of echo hear and there and the guitars sometimes fail to develop that big sound we like, but overall this is a fun tape. There is a nice mix between the band and the audience allowing us to capture a little bit of the fun Bruce must have been having in his home state. With thirty songs and three hours plus, this seems to be one of those shows that just wouldn't stop, one of those moments where both audience and band appear insatiable. Travitz incidentally captured one of the finer recordings earlier on in the tour. His Philadelphia from October 6th 2007 is very much worth your while as well. It is interesting and thrilling to put the two together and see what the tour has morphed into.

The Magic tour started with some of the tightest and shortest shows he had ever given. Critics felt he shook it up too little. Maybe those critics had a point, maybe Springsteen has even been listening. Whatever the reason, the Magic tour started developing to its current shape in California earlier this year. More audibles were thrown in, more curve balls swept by us and the band. Looking at those shows in the second American leg now, it seems as if they were the final leg of the Magic tour. During the subsequent European leg a lot of the Magic material was cut from the set and the show piece that had marked the tour up till then disappeared. "Reason to Believe" was replaced by "Spirit in the Night" and "Mary's Place." Judging from this tape, it is the latter specifically that is reclaiming its rightful place as the show piece. This Travitz tape has it clocking in at over 14 minutes, complete with preacher shtick.

While this "Mary's Place" doesn't seem to be everybody's cup of tea, I love seeing little things added here and there. The shtick is what the stories were to his early career and possibly more effective in a Stadium surrounding because it calls for more audience participation. Somehow I don't see how the "Sad Eyes" interlude from the classic "Backstreets" versions could work at a Giants' stadium. This show also taught fans once again never to head for the parking lot during what used to be the show stopper. Just when you thought it was all over, Rosie came out to play. For those who missed it, here it is........

"Rosalita"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 3+ out of 5
Show: 4+ out of 5
Artwork: none

Boss Tracks, Do You Love Me (now that I can dance), The Contours

2008-07-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

The Contours are one of those Motown acts that almost never happened. Like so many careers in show business, it was simply a matter of being at the right place at the right time and knowing the right people. Though the Contours were the first act to be signed to Berry Gordy’s newly formed Gordy imprint late 1960, Gordy had send them away at first. The Contours were a rough and raggedy R&B group that simply didn’t fit into to Godry’s Hitsville USA vision for Motown. Contour Hubert Johnson proved to be the band’s backdoor. Johnson was Jackie Wilson’s cousin who agreed to groom the band and push them with Gorgy. Probably because Gordy had his first financial success in the music business with Jackie Wilson, writing quite a few of his legendary hits, he relented and signed the group. But just as Gordy expected, the group’s first few singles flopped.

Just as Gordy was about to drop the group when they lucked out again. Berry Gordy had written “Do You Love Me” and was certain it would be a sure fire hit. Initially he planned to cut it for the Temptations. Though the Temps were also struggling to find a hit, Gordy figured the group had a lot of potential. However when he couldn’t find the Temptations his excitement got the best of him. Gordy was itching to get his new song on wax. Bumping into the Contours at the Motown studios he decided not to wait and cut the single on them. Gordy’s gut feeling was right, “Do You Love Me” became the first million seller for the Gordy label.

Ironically it was their initial success with Gordy that proved to be the cause of the group’s gradual slide into obscurity. Motown had a specific hierarchy when it came to song writing. The author who had the last hit with the group would cut the next single on them as well. Since Gordy had hit big with the Contours, other songwriters like Smokey Robinson let the group to him. With Motown’s rapid expansion however, Gordy was too busy with the company to give the group much attention. Nor did it help that the group didn’t exactly fit into the company’s polished Pop vision on R&B music. The very Temptations the Contours snatched their hit from would soon cast their shadow over them. Question is though if the more polished Temps could have done "Do You Love Me" with quite the same fervor. Part of the songs success lays in Huey Davis' rocking guitar over the spoken intro and Billy Gordon raving vocals commanding the dance floor to work, work.

Though the Contours weren’t a one hit wonder, they charted eleven very decent R&B hits, most notably the Rock 'n Soul rouser "Shake Sherry," they might have slipped into obscurity if it hadn’t been for Springsteen using the song in the mid-eighties as part of a “Twist & Shout” medley (as shown in the video above). In the mid eighties, Springsteen was one of the few big R&R stars in the field still referring to the R&R hits of old, exposing them to an audience of millions. More significantly however, the song was included in the “Dirty Dancing” sound track. The subsequent re-release gave the Contours a hit once more and allowed the remaining members to tour like they never had before. Part of the Dirty Dancing tour that tapped into the craze of that movie, the Contours played across the globe for millions in total. Original member Sylvester Potts admitted years later in an interview; “because of that Dirty Dancing tour, we still have been working, pretty much solid, ever since. It's a blessing.”

"Do You Love Me (now that I can dance)," the Contours

Available on 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection

Boot Tracker, August 21st, 22nd, 23rd, Atlanta (Mjk5510)

2008-07-27T01:43:00.000-07:00

This recording popped up on the Dime a few days back. According to Bruce Base and the liner notes of this slightly re-mastered soundboard tape, it has been unclear for over thirty years which show this actually is. Springsteen did a three night stand in Atalanta hot on the heals of his Bottomline shows. Somewhere on that three night stand somebody was lucky enough to plug into the Soundboard and capture some of the magic. Both LP versions and CDs culled from that soundboard source have surfaced over the years, though none as complete as this one. The last CD release labeled the 21st missed "Kitty's Back," included on this release. However, a Godfather release labeled the 23rd has the exact same track listing as this tape. I must admit not owning that one, so I couldn't really tell you if its the same recording. The tracks here are re-mastered from a fourth generation tape that was labeled the 21st of August, but according to our benefactor here that doesn't solve the puzzle. Whatever the exact recording date is however, this is a mighty fine release for us fanatics.

Sound board tapes from this era are often a mixed blessing. Most of them aren't nearly as fine as the '78 radio shows in terms of sound quality. This recording is no different. I suspect that the tape has suffered from being shelved over the years and being of fourth generation doesn't really help. As such the tape sounds like a good audience tape, with a fair amount of hiss, with the audience all the way in the back. Although that allows you to enjoy the show without 'interference', to me it takes some of the exitement out. Compared to the recent Fanatic Records releases of the Bottomline audience tapes, there may be less warts, but I must admit that those are a more thrilling listen, simply because you get the audience response on that recording. Where this tape has an edge over those bootlegs however is the dialog. Springsteen's stories are actually audible this time around. So to sum it up this recording comes out as a well played record, with a few sound drops and cuts here and there. Nothing that will spoil your enjoyment, but it does make this tape one for the more hardcore collector.

Worth the admission alone on this tape is "Kitty's Back" again, with the Phantom doing taking a fine and oozing solo spot on the organ, followed by the Professor showing Van Morrison how his music should be played. Though the band was finding their own groove increasingly, those early Van the Man influences are still very apparent. The slow "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" wouldn't have felt out of place on one off Van's live albums. However, when Springsteen starts telling his grand tales, the difference in potential becomes apparent. Van never was prone to communicate with the audience the way Springsteen did and the grumpy old man (Van was an old man even in the seventies) could never have written a rock opera like "Born to Run" nor could Van ever make performing actually seem like fun the way Springsteen does here with "Twist and Shout". Springsteen left Atlanta at fever pitch after that one, not unlike he left Barcelona at in a frenzy more than thirty years down the line.

"Twist and Shout"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 3+ out of 5
Show: 4+ out of 5
Artwork: none

Down the Tracks; William Bell and Stax (interview)

2008-07-20T15:11:00.001-07:00

July 17th - Waiting for William Bell at an Amsterdam hotel, I was sipping on some coffee while all the classic Soul hits played in the background. The records from Stax and Motown, that once shook the world, struck me as the perfect background to interview the man who was a big part of the Soul genre’s birth. What at one point, as William would put it, was the Devil’s music, now was enough part of our collective musical memory to soothe us over a hotel breakfast. Sitting down for coffee with a man I consider to be a legend, I was truck with how accessible mister Bell was. Pushing 70 years of age, Bell looked like a man in his late forties. A youth he would radiate later that evening on stage in the Hague while delivering his classic hits such as “You Don’t Miss Your Water (till the well runs dry) and “Private Number.”

William Bell was born William Yarbourgh in Memphis Tennesee 1939. William started his singing career in the Baptist church at a very young age. “I was six or seven when I started singing in church,” William remembers. At the age of 14 William entered a talent contest at the Mid-South Fair, “I won first price and that brought me to the attention of Phineas Newborn who had a big 14 piece orchestra, kind of like a Count Basie type orchestra”. Looking back William really feels his stint with the orchestra, including top talent like Fathead Newman and Hank Crawford, was like going to the university that would prepare him for the rest of his career. “Some of the things I learned back then I can still apply today, how to read an audience, how to time your shows”. Phineas also taught him all William needed to know about chord progression and taught him the basics on the piano. The most important lessons William remember however was to “always leave your audience wanting more” with a laugh he adds, “when you see you’ve got them at a fever pitch…..exit!” A lesson William still applies today.

Coming from a working class background Williams parents weren’t very supportive at first. “Mom was in the choir” William explains “this was what they called Devil’s music” he adds with a chuckle, “they had much rather that I had gone the gospel route, but since old man Phineas’ sons were in his band and he had asked my mum about joining the orchestra, she reluctantly agreed as long as I was back in time on Sunday for church.” Added to his parents reluctance was the fact that both his parents worked hard to make ends meet, “so we weren’t super poor” Williams remembers. But that didn’t take away from the fact that his parents had hoped William would go off to college as the first in the family and become a doctor, “but at that time I had the music in my head.” Music and writing was important to William, “I was always a poet, even as a ten to twelve year old. That was like an escapism, I was always writing lyrics.” Over time the support of his parents grew so when he formed the Del-Rios, a doo-wop group, with some class mates, they were allowed to practice in the house.

The Del-Rios saw William shifting from Jazz to modern music. Like so many performers of his generation it was radio that had first introduced him to R&B. In William’s case it was WDIA that played a key role. As the first black radio station in the country it was through them he got acquainted with the sounds of Little Richard, the Clovers, Hank Ballard & the Midnighters and B.B. King. WdIA also organized teen talent contests, which Bell would use to further hone his performing skills. “They had B.B. King with a fifteen minute show where he would play and sing and then they had the teen talent singers where we would play three songs or so” he remembers. With the Del-Rios he would start to play his first matinees in Memphis and get his first recording experience when they cut “Alone on a Rainy Night” for Meteor records with Rufus Thomas’ band the Bear Cats backing them up. Bell fondly remembers Rufus, “I knew him both as a comedian and a DJ, he kind of was a surrogate father to all of us.” With Thomas being a jack of all trades William picked up a lot of how to become an all round performer.

William remembers Memphis as a melting pot where you’d hear all the different music styles coming through the radio and having Sun records right across town where Elvis Presley and Rufus Thomas had cut their first records. As he explains that melting pot was key in the Stax sound, which married Country and R&B. Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn came from a Rockabilly background, William remembers and explained how that sound mixed with Booker T’s church background, creating a sound that was as unique as it was revolutionary at the time. When William was growing up, Memphis was still segregated. William still clearly remembers the white only signs and the blatant racism, although he does admit he was more or less sheltered from the worst part of it. “It was weird, my neighborhood was like the dividing line between black and white” William explains. Right across the street of him lived a white family, Bell remembers that “early in the morning my mother would have coffee at the kitchen table and exchange recipes with the white lady across the street, so I grew up with more of an open mind. When I got with Stax, having the camaraderie with black and white, it was a mixture there, once we closed those doors, we locked the world outside.” The only tension William remembers amongst his fellow musicians was over how to play the chord changes. Inside they only argued about the important stuff, “it didn’t matter if you were black or white, it was all in terms of what you could bring to the table in terms of your musical abilities.” Stax was the first integrated company in the country Bell remembers, “it was like a family, we opened a lot of avenues by being mixed.”

How much of a family Stax actually was becomes tangible when William reminisces on Estelle Axton, the sister of Jim Stewart. Jim was the St of Stax, she was the Ax. “She was like a mother to us, she was nutritious, she kept us on the straight and narrow a lot of times, because we would be teenagers back than, it didn’t matter to her if you were black or white, if you’d do something wrong, she’d be all over us” he remembers with a warm smile. Estelle also ran the record shop, Satellite Records, that was an instrumental part of the Stax operation. As a small independent operation, Stax didn’t have the financial buffer to take too many risks on their records. So before a record was pressed Estelle would play the record in the record store and see of it commanded a response from the kids who were visiting. If they started to dance, Estelle would know they had another hit.

William claims today he was the first male singer to be signed to Stax, encouraged by Chips Moman, an influential Memphis based guitar player and record producer. William was reluctant at first. His memories of recording for Meteor had left him with a bitter taste in his mouth for the recording industry since he never got paid for that. Bell wasn’t sure he wanted a career as a signed singer for himself. He rather went out on the road with Phinaes which provided him a stable income at the time. However, during a long stand in New York, William started to get homesick and penned “You Don’t Miss Your Water (till the well runs dry)” to give expression to those emotions. Back in Memphis Bell first recorded with the Del-Rios again for Stax, soon however the army stepped in and drafted about half of the group, “So I wound up being a solo” Bell laughs remembering. He cut his song and building regionally it would become his first hit for the company. The simply philosophy that made the song stand out would later become Bell’s trade mark. “As a kid I was always surrounded by grown-ups” Bell explains “So I got a lot of that home spun wisdom from my grandparents and my parents and everything”. These wisdoms would later find their way into other signature songs such as “Everybody Loves a Winner” or “I Forgot to be Your Lover,” making them easy to connect to.

Ironically Bell was drafted himself soon after he had his first hit. When he came back out of the army, Stax had signed Otis Redding who became their first bona fide super star. Almost by default William is compared to Otis these days, even though their vocal styles are strikingly different. “His background was Gospel too, his father was a minister” Bell says explaining the similarities between them. “But of course he was more of an up-tempo singer, wham! wham! ” Bell relates, “and I was more of a hopeless romantic” he says laughing. Explaining further Bell relates that their respective regions were key in how their vocal styles formed. Being from Macon Georgia, Otis was more influenced by Little Richard according to Bell. While William himself was more influenced by Bobby Bland and B.B. King, “Coming from Memphis I got a little bit of everything” he adds, again stressing the melting pot Memphis was.

Despite their differences William and Otis hit it off and started touring together for about a year and a half in 1966. Touring in cramped cars, becoming road buddies was almost a necessity, “we used to flip coins to see who had to sit in the middle portion” Bell laughs. The touring schedule was frantic, “I think in one year we did almost 300 one-nighters.” Bell remembers a specific incident where they came from a show in Washington and had little time to catch the plane after that. Unfortunately the car stalled about a mile away from the airport. Otis and William had to jump the fence and run across the runway to be able to catch the plane, which as about to embark. Luckily the purser, while they were already taking away the ladder from the plane, was a fan who recognized the duo and stalled the plane so they could catch it. “We were lucky we weren’t ran over by a plane” Bell laughs, “these days you probably couldn’t do that without being shot,” he adds.

William cut a couple of albums for Stax. The first one, “The Soul of a Bell,” he produced with his youth buddy Book T, whom he knew from church and high school, at the Stax studios. “Bound to Happen” was produced by All Bell, the company’s president at the time, at Muscle Shoals. Explaining the differences between the two William relates that “Booker was more musical inclined, All was more of a feel person, he approached it almost from a religious point of view, Booker wanted it all to be structured musical correctly. He was such a great musician, really a multi-instrumentalist long before it was fashionable.” He admits that writing with Booker T came easy to him, they could almost read each other’s minds. William explains how he would often come into the studio with just the skeleton of a song, “but then he came in and would take it to another level.” Though sometimes, Bell added, “it was the music that almost dictated the subject matter”.

Though producing records with Booker T at Stax, William wasn’t signed to them as such. That gave Bell the liberty to form his own record label in Atlanta, Peachtree, in 1969. Where talent just kind of floated into Stax through the record shop, in Atlanta however William had to hunt down his own talent. Bell worked together with his then manager Henry Wynn on this, who as a promoter did all the big black acts those days according to William. Wynn also had a few acts signed without any material out. So what Bell would cut those artists to wax, backed by his own road band, Johnny Jones and the King Casuals. As an independent it proved difficult to get their material plugged at radio stations, so Wynn would make sure to make courtesy stops at the local stations whenever the Peachtree acts, like Mitty Collier, would come to town, building a name for them regionally when this was still possible. But the times were changing. By the time Stax went bankrupt in 1975 the market left less room for little labels that could. The big companies had tightened their grip on the market, big FM radio stations with their formats were slowly pushing out the smaller regional stations and Disco started dominating popular tastes.

Ironically William Bell closed the era of what is now considered the golden age of Soul with a bang. After Stax went down William was signed to Mercury. Again his affiliation with this new label came with reluctance from Bell’s part. “After Stax filed bankruptcy I was so disillusioned, because as kids growing up we never thought that Stax would end” he muses today. This time after being motivated and chased down by Peachtree’s distributor Charles Fach, also vice-president of Mercury, Bell reluctantly gave in and agreed to cut four songs for Mercury to be used as 45rpm releases. “At that point I didn’t actually have any songs” Bell admitted with a laugh. By the time he had the songs written, amongst which “Trying to Love Two” which would become Bell’s first number one hit in 1976, the Rhythm section he had wanted to use was no longer available. Bell called upon New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint who set him up with a backing band, possibly Chocolate Milk, but William isn’t exactly sure. After “Trying to Love Two” hit Bell expanded the sessions into an album, aptly titled “Coming Back For More.”

"(C)2008 Jelmer de Haas"
Even though the first Mercury album hit big, Bell, like so many of his peers, got lost in the flood of the changing times. Because of a change in executives at Mercury interest in Bell waned within the company and Bell himself had difficulty to adapt to Disco. William can laugh about it today, “Disco was a 120 beats a minute and it was killing us.” Bell explains, “of course the producers became the stars then.” It wasn’t long before Saturday Night Fever hit after that and the DJ became King William reflects on it now, “even though a lot of artists are still around they never came back.” Reflecting on what the music business became Bell relates “it’s too much a melting pot these days, I like some of the modern stuff, but to me individuality is what makes and artist. All of the great artists, whether its B.B King, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix or Clapton, they all had a distinct sound you’d easily recognize.” Bell feels music is missing just that individuality these days. “A lot of it is lost in the generic music of today because they use the same instrumentation, the same chord structure, it just comes across as fast-food music.” Bell suspects a lot of the appreciation for the craft got lost when the small clubs started to close down, “artist don’t have a place to go and hone their craft” he clarifies, “you have to be able to look your audience in the eye-balls.”

Despite the musical and cultural musical changes, William Bell keeps producing music for his own production company Wilbe. It’s the love of it that keeps him going, “it keeps me young.” Something he would prove in spades on stage later that night. Showing to all the Amy Winehouses and Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reeds out there how the game is really played.

Live photos courtesy of Jelmer de Haas
A big thank you to In The Basement Magazine for the help on this article.

Boot Tracker; July 19th 2008, Barcelona (fortylicks)

2008-07-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

Barcelona taped by fortylicks is one of those tapes that's a paradox. The recording isn't all that hot, but its an exiting tape to listen to. The expectations for Barcelona were high. Springsteen's Spanish shows are considered amongst his best, added to that fact is the last stand factor. The two nights of Barcelona are the last shows Springsteen will do this side of the pond and he's notorious for making them count. Aided by the heat that allegedly made steam rise from the stadium floor before the show had even started, Barcelona was promising to be a hot show. Temperatures rose to such levels that some took Springsteen's old command, "I want you to take all your clothes of now!!!!," quite literally. Eyewitness reports noted there were Catelonian men dancing in their Adam's suits. It stayed with dancing however, no cunnylingus was reported. The exitement of the Barcelona shows spilled over all the way across the pond, in what might be the first E-Street Band show some attended through conference call. Thanks to Skype and cellphones, a lucky few were able to listen in live.

Was all that exitement warranted? Judging from this recording it was. The band was on fire this night, before a near 100.000 attending the show at Camp Nou, Europe largest soccer stadium. The set list didn't have any premiers, or all that much rarities, Bruce might be saving those for tonight, but that did nothing to damper the spirits. While this recording is distant and marred with more than a few of sound warps, not to mention lack of instrument separation or depth, it does bring the exitement of Camp Nou into your living room. Play this show in your car and it is guaranteed to get you a speeding ticket! Listen to "Hungry Heart" heart on your iPod in the train and you'll be bound to get a few amused stares when you can't help singing along. I dare you to listen to "Mary's Place" and resisting the temptation of imitating that knee slide Springsteen does.......it's futile!!!! And I dare say "Summertime Blues" has never sounded this smoking! Who cares this tape isn't perfect, this is Fun with a capital F. Did I mention there's a near ten minute "Twist and Shout" on here to give your neighbors nightmares? Take the taper's advise, play this one LOUD!!!

"Summertime Blues"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 2+ out of 5
Show: 5 out of 5
Artwork none

Boss Tracks, 96 Tears,? & the Mysterians

2008-07-19T05:17:00.000-07:00

True to their name, the roots and career of ? & the Mysterians is shrouded in mystery. I rarely found so many conflicting sources on a 45 as I did on this one. Though ? & the Mysterians only scored one major hit with "96 Tears" they are often seen as the band that started the Garage Rock revolution as well as being the first Latin-American Rock band. Further digging into that lineage however makes matters confusing. Though ? claimed in a recent interview they were there well before the Beatles and the Stones, various sources confirm the first live appearances of the Mysterians somewhere around 1964. Though one source claims that the original base player of the group, Larry Borjas, came up with the band in 1962 when he saw a Japanese sci-fi flick by the name of the Mysterians. That would mean the band had existed for two years before the Beatles would break in the USA. This version of the story is confusing however, because other sources claim that the band started out as XYZ and ? at insistence of their lead singer who's actually legally is ?. Not spelled as Question Mark as some sources print it, but the actual glyph is his name, decades before theartistformallyknownastheartistformallyknownasPrincenowagainknownasPrince decide to change his name to a symbol.

Just as the origins of the band, ? true background remains shady. Some sources have it that his real name is Rudy Martinez, brother of drummer Robert Martinez. ? has always denied this. If we are to believe this man who is never caught without his sunglasses on, ? was born on Mars ten thousand years ago and lived among Dinosaurs. Whatever their true origins it was ? who penned the song, initially called "69 Tears," the title changed to "96 Tears" out of fear soixante neuf was to explicit to get them any airplay. According to ? the single was recorded for 50 dollars on a outdoor patio in 1966 and first printed in 750 copies for their managers Pa-Go-Go label. Before long the song became a radio hit and the group signed with Cameo Parkway records, home of Bobby Rydell. Allegedly they picked the label because its logo had ?'s favorite color in it, orange. With Cameo's distribution backing them up the song shot to the top spot of the charts in 1966. Adding to the mystery however, 1963 is the date printed on the label of the 45. The trademark organ riff that made the single so successful has had musicians debating since whether its a Farfisa or a Vox Continental. Recording sessions for the now legendary album "96 Tears" followed the success of the single, spawning another hit "I Need Somebody," which clocked in at #22. Unfortunately right after the group had recorded and released their second album "Action," Cameo-Parkway went belly up and professional vulture Allen Klein got a hold of the rights and master tapes. As a result, the classic single released in 1966 was scratched for release on the original Nuggets lp. For some reason Allen likes to sit on material he owns. Allen's label ABKCO didn't re-issue the original recordings until 2005.

While the original Mysterians fell apart more than once in the past few years ? always stuck around. In a recent interview he claimed that it has always been easy to find other Mysterians and keep touring. ? also claimed he will be performing "96 Tears" well into the year 10.000. I believe him, for a man born on Mars anything is possible.

? & the Mysterians

Available on The Best of ? & the Mysterians: Cameo Parkway 1966-1967

Bruce Springsteen 2003, featuring Garland Jeffreys

MP3 File

Read more on ? and the Mysterians here
Check out the official site of ? and the Mysterians

Boot Tracker, July 11th 2008, Helsinki (Ev2)

2008-07-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

Usually Ev2 releases are very good news. I've come across few Ev2 recordings that disappoint me. Quite a few of them I rank amongst the best Springsteen bootlegs out there. Unfortunately this Helsinki bootleg testifies that even Ev2 can have releases that do not quite live up to my expectations. To be fair, Ev2 set the bar high for himself and Helsinki is still a pretty decent tape and a very enjoyable listen, just with a few more glitches than I hoped. There's quite a bit of distance in the sound and the recording is marred by a strange swirl, with a few drops throughout the recording. Part of this is probably caused by the way it was recorded. As I understand it the taper, Drunkenmaster, used the internal microphones on his Zoom digital recorder. Those internals work well enough with acoustic shows, but electric shows like these simply need more refined recording equipment.

Still, this release does a very decent job of capturing a fun show. The electric debut of "Youngstown" would be worth the price of admission alone. But to top it off there's the romantic double punch of Sandy and "I'll Work For Your Love" and the R&R rave up pairing of "Summertime Blues" and "Sherry Darling". "Mary's Place" is re-claiming its spot as the show piece, slowly expanding with a bit of that preacher shtick, but still about eight minutes shorter as during the Rising tour. By including songs as varied as "Pointblank" and "Born in the USA," contrasting hidden gems with 'overplayed' stadium monsters, the subtle with the blatant, Springsteen manages to give a career overview few greatest hits CDs could do over the course of the evening. Helsinki will also go down in history as the show where Springsteen threw his oddest curve ball yet, near old saint Nick's home, Santa came to town in mid July. Breaking the record for earliest occurrence held by the September '78 appearance. Another triumph the '78 tour cannot take away from this magical 2008 tour.

"Santa Claus is Coming to Town"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 3+ out of 5
Show: 5 out of 5
Artwork: 4 out of 5

Boss Tracks, Follow That Dream, Elvis Presley

2008-07-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

"...it was like he came along and whispered some dream in everybody's ear, and somehow we all dreamed it." Bruce Springsteen

A perfect Springsteen quote for this Elvis find I would say. Not really a single but an EP, "Follow That Dream" is Elvis' soundtrack to the Hollywood flick by the same name released in 1962. Elvis had been home from the army for two years. The once R&R rebel had been transformed into an all American teddy bear, as harmless yet tasty as apple pie. Just how much the establishment had embraced him was illustrated by the welcome home bash Frank Sinatra threw him on television. Elvis went from R&R to a Pat Boonified brand of Pop faster than anybody would have thought possible. Serving in Germany had made a bona fide American hero out of him. Priscilla Beaulieu, whom Elvis met in Europe, arrived on American soil in 1962 and would soon make an honorable husband out of the nation's most desired bachelor. Maybe that's why the climax of "Follow That Dream" flick is Elvis singing the title song in an unbuttoned shirt, for all of America's teenage girls to gawk at.

Maybe its the cheesiness of the whole affair that makes the song stand out so much. "Follow That Dream" is arguably Elvis' strongest effort from the Hollywood era. Though sugar coated with a syrupy choir the song is propelled by a driving Rockabilly rhythm with some of the King's most convincing vocals of the times. Maybe because the song reflected the dream Elvis was pursuing when he ventured into the R&R business. Elvis hardly chased the aesthetics of R&R in his career, he rather used R&R as a vessel to get his slice of that American dream pie for himself. In my mind it is in this uninhibited hunger for success, including the glitter and glamor that came with it, that caused Elvis to become a caricature of the genre he propelled into orbit and that very American dream. Critics often feel that Elvis betrayed the dream of R&R, I wonder if it was his dream in the first place. I think the King just wanted to be part of that main stream America that was denied to his parents. The song is a stunning contrast with the fleeting Hollywood flick that only set out to cater the day dreams of little teenage girls and not much more.

It is no secret that Springsteen was a huge Elvis fan. Critics have often pegged Springsteen as the man who delivered Elvis' perceived promise, even though we would never agree on the Boss as much as the King. The cover of "Born to Run" can see him sporting an Elvis button on his crunchy leather jacket, perfectly in sync with this early myth building. On a side note, even the button has a mildly amusing story behind it that might indicate that the Boss once was part of 'the King's Court', a New York based fan club. Unfortunately the records of that fan club show no proof of that. But I wouldn't put it past the Boss to have been a fan boy, not quite dissimilar to us. Maybe that's why Springsteen couldn't resist the temptation of jumping Elvis' fence in '76 when he was playing Memphis.

Springsteen's admiration of Elvis led to him not only covering the song, but doing a re-write, trying to capture the spirit of the song while adapting it to his own voice. In Springsteen's hands the lyrics were significantly altered while the melody took the form of a prayer. Though the song debuted during the River tour, it wasn't recorded until 1983. Though the studio version was suggested by Jon Landau for the "Born in the USA" album, it didn't make the final cut. Together with "Protection," "Janey Don't You Loose Heart" and a ballad called "My Love" Bruce scratched those from Landau's proposed track list, proving to his own Colonel Tom Parker who's Boss perhaps. But it could simply be that Springsteen's camp wasn't looking forward to dealing with the legalities of including a song, changed as it may be, still had a strong lyrical resemblance to the version Elvis recorded. After the River tour where the song was played played 25 times, it would slowly fade from Springsteen's live sets. The next to last appearance of the song was by request of a fan during the '88 Basel Switzerland show, featured in the video above. After that the song disappeared in the vaults, being skipped once again for the "Tracks" boxed set. The song made one isolated reappearance during the Rising tour however, so who knows, with how the Magic tour is currently developing, we may get a taste of this gem yet.

"Follow That Dream"

Available on Elvis at the Movies

Bruce Springsteen, Mountainview 1986

MP3 File

Right On Track; Magic Tour Highlights

2008-07-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

After listening to countless bootlegs during this tour, an official release is like a breath of fresh air. No frustration whatsoever about instrument separation or intrusive audiences, no muddiness nor a band that sounds like its playing three soccer fields away. The "Magic Tour Highlights" simply sounds, well, magical. Though I had heard the videos of most of these tracks through YouTube or Springsteen's site, I was struck by how good they sound. The tracks have clearly been remixed allowing every subtle note to come to the surface. If you thought Tom Morello's solo on "The Ghost of Tom Joad" sounded amazing before, you're in for a surprise. Taking into account that this is an mp3 based download, that's no mean achievement. The tracks sound as full and rich as what you would expect from a CD. You may think you have all of this in a bootlegged version, but you really haven't.

"Magic Tour Highlights" is a charity release, with the net proceeds going to the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund. With such a noble cause it is hard to have any gripes. A charity download like this makes donating fun and then some. But I can't help having a few reservations on how this whole release was handled. First of course there's the title. Though these are without a doubt fine moments from the Magic tour, it is questionable if they were indeed the highlights. Charming as Alejandro Escovedo's guest appearance may have been, his vocals were a bit off from time to time, nice but no tour highlight. Besides, shouldn't this judgment call be made at the end of the tour, the best may be yet to come. But that gripe is absolutely nitpicking from yours truly. What did make me frown however was the difference between the European release and the American one. I would have loved to tell you how good the videos were, but for us Euros there are no videos to be bought, no digital booklet to be gotten. I'm a bit mystified by this distinction as I would have gladly parted with just a bit more of my hard earned cash to get all those goodies.

Gripes soon forgotten however. Danny's performance on "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" is absolutely stunning. A very nice testimony of why he was such an important element of what made the E-Street Band. And lets be honest, after downloading so many bootlegs, you must have a pretty strong argument not to shell out a few bucks for the Melanoma Fund this way.

The Magic Tour Highlights are available through Amazon and iTunes.

Read what Tom Morello has to say about his collaboration with the Boss.

Boot Tracker, June 25th 2008, Milan

2008-07-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

For a while I was afraid a proper recording of Milan wouldn't surface. An mp3 recording, not worth mentioning, rose its ugly head and a sub par audio rip from a video was what we got, but no proper audio recording. Since Milan was one of those shows that had rabid fans and casual fans foaming from the mouth alike, I found this to be highly disappointing. Luckily, good things still come to those who wait. Courtesy of Edomedo, there is now a very nice document of Milan indeed. Though this tape is far from the best sounding bootleg of this tour, I dare say it is one of the most exiting tapes to listen to. Edomedo warned in the description that there would be a few people clapping, what he meant to say was he captured the entire stadium in union with the band. The good people from Milan are very present indeed, yet hardly ever in an intrusive way. So what this recording manages is capturing the exitement of a Springsteen show in Milan, or getting as close as a tape can. Depending on your own tolerance for audience 'noise' (music to my ears on this one) you'll love this tape. Especially since the band comes through pretty darn good as well. Not spectacular, but good enough to make this a highly enjoyable recording.

Milan got treated on a spectacular show from the sounds of it. The opening "Summertime Blues" made me check again what year it was. After pinching I was certain we were still living in the future of '78. "Summertime Blues" isn't the only parallel with '78 by my accord. As I have addressed many times before, Springsteen's dedication to his trade is stunning. To these ears the band sounds as relevant and committed as they did thirty years down the road. Listen to that rousing "Spirit in the Night" and you'll be able to hear what I mean. Clarence's hips may not be able to carry Scooter into the crowds anymore, but the Boss still brings the house down with this one, effectively using his catwalk to get his physical with the audience in. While Springsteen's show has adapted to larger audiences over the years, it is uncanny how he manages to connect with these large buckets. Even when he's not performing in small clubs or arenas, E-Street Band shows habitually have an intimacy that you wouldn't suspect from his brand of delightfully bombastic R&R. Whether he's playing a moving ballad like "Racing in the Street," a no holds barred R&R rouser as "Darlington County" or a mini Rock opera like "Born to Run," in funny way that intimacy is always there. Springsteen often boasted he's in this trade to make a connection, this Milan recording proves he delivers the goods.

"Spirit In The Night"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 4- out of 5
Show: 5 out of 5
Artwork: none

Boot Tracker, June 22nd 2003, Gothenburg

2008-07-13T00:40:00.000-07:00

With the last Gothenburg show still fresh in mind, I figured I'd revisit one of my favorite bootlegs for a moment. This superbly sounding Crystal Cat Gothenburg Midsummer Night, in my mind might be a top ten recording of a Springsteen show. To me recordings like these are proof that Springsteen can still wow a crowd like he could in his hey-day. One of the things that struck me about the Rising tour is how well his new material worked with the classic songs. Listen to the opening "Promised Land" here, followed by "the Rising" and you'll see what I mean. The material of Magic always had more difficulty finding its groove within the set. The audiences didn't respond with quite the same enthusiasm to a "Living in the Future" as they did to a "Mary's Place". Maybe the the subtlety of the Magic material is debit to that, the Rising album featured quite a few more easily accessible 'show' tunes than Springsteen's latest release. I suspect that could be one of the reasons why Gothenburg in 2003 got a whopping eight tunes from the new album while in 2008 they got a mere four in the same stage of the tour.

What still remains though, is the city of Gothenburg consistently getting some of the better shows of the tour. You could say that its the Philly of Europe. The response to Springsteen over there seems beyond manic from time to time, a true fanatic's paradise. This often translates in sets filled with rare gems and inspired performances of set staples. On this particular midsummer night the Ullevi Stadium got treated on "Jackson Cage", "My Love Will Not Let You Down" and a chilling version of "Racing in the Street". Though in this instance it is not the rarities that make this recording a gem, it is the staple that make this recording tick. In a whopping nineteen minutes the Band delivers a "Mary's Place" that stands as the penultimate of the tour, a house party indeed. I still enjoy hearing the Boss working that huge stadium crowd every time I hear this version, I must admit that has yet to tire me. But I may be an exception in that. The absolute high light of this bootleg is "Ramrod". The song had been played to death during the Reunion and the Rising tour, yet on this night it found its definitive version in my mind. Roy Bittan delivers a rollicking boogie solo that trumps all other versions the Boss did in his career. Not to mention the crowd on "Hungry Heart" that makes you wish you could have been there.

These days it seems every fan has the moment pin pointed where Springsteen peaked in his career. '78 seems to be the time in his career where most fans agree upon, though the River tour has quite its following as well. Though I have tours that carry a special place in my collection, like the 1975 shows, I have never been able to determine for myself which tour is the penultimate Springsteen tour. That's because of recordings such as this, where it seems as if the Boss will never truly slow down. I find this Midsummer Gothenburg Night as satisfying as other legendary recordings as the '78 Winterland show or those legendary recordings from the 1984 Philly stand. While the jury is still out on the best recording from the Magic tour, in my mind this is the one to get from the Rising tour. Turn it up!

"Ramrod"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3, discs one and two, disc three
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 5 out of 5
Show: Off the charts
Artwork: 3,5 out of 5

Boot Tracker, November 19th 2005, Hollywood

2008-07-11T02:52:00.000-07:00

Whenever I feel like a break on the Magic tour these days, I like to go back to one of Springsteen's acoustic tours. Not working today, I allowed myself to wake up slowly with this fine recording from the Devils & Dust tour, Springsteen second full scale solo tour. Also know as the "Shut the fuck up tour". The tour found Springsteen looking back on his entire body of work, reflecting on his accomplishments. Maybe after the relative failure of the Vote For Change tour he felt the need to step back a little, reflect on his accomplishments and determine the direction his career should take. Though there was the political reference here and there through the tour, they were sparse. Devils & Dust was very different from the Ghost of Tom Joad tour in that fashion. The Boss may have been in a reflective mood, that didn't mean he stopped pushing the envelope as well. Through out the tour he tinkered with arrangements to well known songs, experimenting with new arrangements, instruments and microphones. Not everything he did turned out an unambiguous creative success, but it did affirm that Springsteen wasn't quite ready yet to lean into his past successes.

During this Hollywood show at the Hard Rock Café, the audience got treated on an alternative career overview. Very little hit songs featured in the set list, but throughout the evening his strength as a song writer quietly unfolded. The stunning version of "Drive All Night" is worth the price of admission alone, featuring Little Steven on guitar and the Big Man on sax. Especially Steven's guest spot is revealing of a sort. In the E-Street Band Steven operates in the shadow of the over qualified Nils Lofgren these days. His fine picking here demonstrates that van Zandt is quite the guitar player in his own right. Near the end the illustrious duo comes back on stage adding a little extra to a playful "Thundercrack". Other than on the Tom Joad tour, there isn't a whole lot of talking during the Devils & Dust shows. Springsteen tended to let the songs speak for themselves on this tour. And speak they did. Especially during that second American leg, the audiences got treated to rarities that had hardly seen the light of day during his career. "Santa Anna" and "I Wanna Marry You" are the most obvious selections on this recording. Depending if you're a fan of the infamous bullet mic, there's some treats on here for you as well. Both "Born in the USA" and a rousing slide blues version of "Johnny 99" get treated to a voice covered by static.

The sound on this recording is more than a little decent indeed. Because of the acoustic nature of the tour Devils and Dust got treated on many fine bootlegs. Though this one is a tad distant and a little lacking in warmth and depth when it comes to the instruments, I'd say it is one of the finer recordings of the tour. If I have any gripes with this recording it is the obnoxious talker close to the taper who after "Reno" questions "how can anybody applaud a song about a prostitute". In one stroke this man misses both the point of the song and fails to recognize that prostitutes are indeed fellow human being performing a profession that goes back further than Maria Magdalene. The prostitute that's part of the backdrop of the story "Reno" is trying to tell is another example of Springsteen allowing us a peek into the lives of the disenfranchised. A point the talker painfully misses. Talkers like that ticks me off more than a drunk calling out for "Rosalita". This is a minor glitch in the recording however and will hardly take away from the enjoyment of the show, which at times was a fanatic's wet dream.

"Johnny 99"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 4- out of 5
Show: 4,5 out of 5
Artwork: 3 out of 5

Boss Tracks, Double Shot (of my baby's love), The Swingin' Medallions

2008-07-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

I first became familiar with the Swingin’ Medallions when I bought the Rhino Nuggets boxed set, a continuation of the infamous ’75 double LP with liner notes by Lenny Kaye, guitar player for the Patti Smith group. The box was filled with one-hit wonders and obscure R&R trail blazers I had never heard off. Though I’ve owned the box for years now, I can still dive back into it and uncover a new find. It’s like a treasure chest which contents never looses it shine. One of the 45s that jumped out immediately like a big sparkling sapphire was “Double Shot (of my baby’s love)” by the Swingin’ Medallions. With its rousing slightly out of tune organ and swaggering harmonies it seemed like the perfect embodiment of the R&R party the band sang off. Like most bands featured on the box the details on their back ground were scant, but for years the Medallions remained an alluring mystery. A few weeks back I was lucky enough to stumble across the original 45, or so I thought, on Smash. Intrigued I looked to see if I could find out more. The Internet provided little except for an official website. The Medallions were still out there, living up the parties of the South! Though only featuring John McElrath of the original medallions. I decided to seek him out and he was kind enough to grant me an interview over the phone to clear up a thing or two on this ever appealing R&R smash.

The Medallions first formed in Greenwood South Carolina area, where they all met in college. With a thick and relaxed southern drawl John remembers today “None of us were rich, so we had to make a little money to support our schooling”. With that in mind the boys formed the Medallions, playing on the weekends, studying during the week. With eight members the band was pretty much self contained, “Believe it or not, “ John told me, “we had five horn players. I played key bass [on the organ] so we did away with the bass, we didn’t have a string base.” The R&R army of eight played all over area, taking the frat houses by storm. As John relates today, their main sources of inspiration were R&B acts like James Brown & the Famous Flames, Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. “As a matter of fact Double Shot didn’t even portray that,” John advises, “the recording didn’t have horns on it”.

Originally the single was a cheaply recorded affair the Medallions put out on their own label, For Sale, with only a thousand copies printed. John remembers that they intended to sell the 45 at shows, never expecting the recording would be a hit one day. But with the help of Dave Roddy of WFEN Radio, the 45 became a hit in the South in a matter of weeks. At that point Smash records stepped in and started courting the boys with a recording contract. With a sure hit all Smash had to do was print the copies of the master tape, or so they thought. Big as the record was down South, in the North it didn’t get any play on the radio because the band had the audacity to sing “Woke up this morning, my head hurt so bad, the worst hangover I ever had”. To make the single more radio friendly it had to be re-cut, dropping the hangover line. “You can imagine today they probably wouldn’t even have looked at that, “ John laughed at the other side of the line.

The record became a million seller after that. John responds amused when I suggest that at one point they were bigger than the Stones down South. Though he denies that level of popularity, he does have fond memories of touring the South from frat house to frat house. “Those were some of the best parties, ” he remembers, adding “we only toured nation wide in ’66, when Double Shot was big, after that it was back to school.” The band never got to cash in on the success of the single. Returning to school turned out to be a conscious decision on the part of the medallions. Their success had gotten them to play a gig for Frank Sinatra’s daughter Tina, on her wedding. After the show Frank showed interest in singing them on his Reprise records. The band declined, “You remember that was the Vietnam era,” John explains today, “Not going back to school would probably have split us up because of the draft”. One way of avoiding being drafted was to stay in college and keep your grades up. Who knows what might have happened if the times were different.

School or no school the Swinging Medallions still keep going today, even bringing all the original members back on stage for a reunion from time to time. The current live band still manages to thrill quite a few crowds with acrobatics by their horn section. Anybody who has paid attention to music these days can only conclude that the music on the Nugget box is alive and kicking though bands like the White Stripes. With modest pride John confesses today “I’m real pickle with the fact that the people still remember us.” They might even have had a hand in kick starting the career of a certain Bruce Springsteen. John remembers that Bruce saw their show in Pittsburgh when he was young. “He’s been real complimentary on the band through his career,” John relates “I guess [after he saw us] he figured if we could do it, anybody could do it”

Double Shot (of my baby's love), The Swingin' Medallions

Available on Anthologythrough Amazon or through ebay

Bruce Springsteen

MP3 File

Boot Tracker; July 7th 2008, Oslo

2008-07-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

I was really looking forward to the Oslo recording. During this show half the Born in the USA album was played, including a very rare appearance of "Cover Me". Though Born in the USA is far from a favorite amongst fanatic fans, those songs always make for quite the house party. I always wonder why it is that us fanatics have a kind of love and hate relation toward the album. Is it because the album that made our little secret a little bit too widely know. Or is it because Born in the USA was, in all honesty, a little too slick sometimes. The River still had quite a few epics that felt close enough to the epics on the Wild, the Innocent and the E-street Shuffle, to make that portion of the fan base that was attracted to that aspect of Springsteen feel right at home. Born in the USA and Nebraska were the last step in the process that started with Born to Run, where Springsteen started to get to the core of a song, stripping away all extras. By the time the Born in the USA tour started, the Boss had no need to include any R&R classics. He had written some effective three minute gems of his own.

Like I said Born in the USA ensures hard rocking shows. Cover Me., Glory Days, and No Surrender are very effective house wreckers, especially when they are paired with trail blazers as Cadillac Ranch. Unfortunately, we won't get to enjoy that party from this recording. This Oslo tape is easily amongst the worst tapes I've heard. Its a distant bucket of mud, with a few people clapping of beat to make matters worse. I'm sure the taper managed to bring back the evening with the help of this tape. But I seriously doubt that having witnessed the concert will do much to increase this tape's enjoyment. I'm sorry to say that this recording goes straight to the garbage bin on my desktop next. With my apologies to the taper. I understand he slept in a truck to get his efforts to us. I can imagine that the results were somewhat disappointing to himself as well after going through such an ordeal. The things us fanatics do to get to a show! Half a Born in the USA album or not, its worth it isn't it?

"Cover Me"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 1 out of 5
Show: 4 out of 5
Artwork: none

Boot Tracker, June 23rd 2008, Antwerp

2008-07-06T02:22:00.000-07:00

While we're all eagerly awaiting a proper Milan or Göteborg night 2 recording there's the pleasant Antwerp to hold us over. It took a while to trickle in, but now it has it turns out to be a nice tape to spend my Sunday morning with. With Bruce blasting out my speakers, promising the Antwerp crowd "Transformation! Liberation! Sexification!," I do not need coffee to wake up. I must admit that the sound on this recording isn't amongst the best of the tour. It's a moderate arena recording. But a moderate arena recording is always leaps better than a bad Stadium recording. There's less mud and echo in those indoor venues, which makes almost every single arena tape listen-able at least. This recording gives you a very good sense of that hot night in Antwerp, though it isn't a recording that will find its way to your media player or hi-fi system very often. The band sounds a bit thin and Springsteen's vocals seem to be stuck in a pit. But as I said, this tape is great fun for a Sunday morning, with nothing much to do. The decent sound and the killer set makes the download well worth your while.

This show was moved indoors to Antwerp's Sport's Arena because for some reason the planned stadium in Brussels wouldn't sell out by a long shot. Springsteen seemed determined to prove all those who stayed home wrong with a, relatively short, but high energy set. It seems as though the Boss realized he was playing for the fanatic crowd here, as one curve ball after another flew through the arena. "So Young and in Love" proves to be a very effective opener once more and "Thundercrack" holds its own quite nicely sandwiched between "Prove it all Night" and "Because the Night". If that wasn't enough, Antwerp was treated to another hauntingly beautiful "Point Blank" and an increasingly rare "Magic". "Fire" almost had as much fire and sizzling sexuality as the classic versions, something doesn't happen much these days. The evening's biggest surprise however came with "I'm a Rocker," a River tour staple that rarely raised its head since the eighties. While everybody is getting exited over yesterday evening's "Drive All Night," I must confess, this raucous gem is really what gets my blood pumping. Let's be serious, how many of you have actually driven all night just to buy some shoes? Drive all night to get to a Springsteen show maybe, but shoes?!?

"I'm a Rocker"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer but never use a mp3 based CD in a trade. The quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 3+ out of 5
Show: 4,5 out of 5
Artwork: none