Any Bruce Springsteen fans here?

[elshiva]

Just recently became a fan.

[CBHagman]

1. I've spent eight hours of my life at Springsteen concerts.

Not difficult to do, because the concerts were four hours long, with no opening act! He and his band were and are amazing.

[SteppingRazor]

2. The night before last...

my fiancee was out with a friend who was visiting from out of state. I sat at home, slowly but surely going through a bottle of Knob Creek. I flipped through the channels on the TV, bored and half-drunk, when I came upon what looked like an old home movie. Some punk kid in a leather jacket and a wool cap was singing "Thunder Road," a capella, onstage with all the lights turned down.

Hot damn, he sounds like Bruce, I thought. The lights slowly came up, and there was the Boss. At his first international show, in London, 1975. Even with a few hundred channels, it's still a rare occasion that you happen upon something that good. Almost moved me to tears. If I was the type to weep openly, I'm sure I'd've done that.


The screen door slams, Mary's dress sways
Like a vision she dances across the porch. As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again, I just can't face myself alone again
Don't run back inside, darling you know just what I'm here for
So you're scared and you're thinking
That maybe we ain't that young anymore
Show a little faith, there's magic in the night
You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright
Oh and that's alright with me
You can hide `neath your covers and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a saviour to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero, that's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busting open
This two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back, Heaven's waiting on down the tracks

Oh-oh come take my hand
We're riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh-oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road,
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run
Oh Thunder Road, sit tight take hold, Thunder Road

Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk
And my car's out back if you're ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door's open but the ride it ain't free
And I know you're lonely and there's words that I ain't spoken
But tonight we'll be free, all the promises'll be broken
There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
you hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone
On the wind, so Mary climb in
It's a town full of losers and I'm pulling out of here to win.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

4. Clearly we had the same thought.

Excellent song.

:thumbsup:

[abq e streeter]

5. Hammersmith Odeon

1975... I bought the 2 DVD set as a birthday present to myself a year ago . Also includes "The Making of Born To Run" and also newly remastered CD of BTR....Saw Bruce for the 1st time (Chicago) a month or two before that show. Seen him 6 times over the years; wish it was 60 times. I'm sure y'all noticed my DU "handle": ...e streeter. Along with picture of Marley; they both stand (and stood) for the same belief in humanity, along with another musical hero, Joe Strummer. Thunder Road is bittersweet for me: my all-time favorite Bruce song(just barely beating out Kitty's Back). The last time I performed Thunder Road was at the funeral of one of my best friends. We'd gone to Phoenix to see Bruce and band in 2003; 1,000 miles round trip from Albq. ... never thought twice whether it'd be worth it; of course it was... Hard to say what the highlight was, maybe Bobby Jean...anyway, Tom perished in a dirt bike crash the next year, and his wife asked me to sing Thunder Road at the funeral ( Tom and I had been in a couple of different bands together in the preceding years). It was in a Catholic church, so I purposely slurred the words " waste your summer praying for a savior..." as well as "Town full of losers"---not the place or time to possibly insult any religious people there, but had an image of Tom watching over me, with a nice cold brewski in his hand and laughing at me sneaking those lyrics by in a church.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

3. Springsteen is awesome.

Oh oh oh oh, Thunder Road....

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[JerseygirlCT]

6. Oh yes.

But I've been a fan for more than 30 years.

That makes me really old, doesn't it, lol?

Welcome to the club!

[JerseygirlCT]

7. If anyone has Sirius, they are right now playing 24/7

Springsteen.

Channel 10

At the moment, it's the 1978 concert from the Capital Theater in Passaic, NJ. My first Springsteen concert, and damn! was it good!

[abq e streeter]

8. Passaic '78

Unbelievable...I have a bootleg (vinyl of course--3 record set) of that entire show! And you were there. Amazing. Saw him twice that fall in Chicago; the first of the two is the best concert I've ever seen; they were ON even by Bruce and the E Street Band standards ( have seen 6 Bruce concerts; first in '75, most recent in Phoenix on The Rising tour---if they get within 500 miles of Albuquerque, i.e. Phoenix or Denver on this new tour, I'm there)...I have only been to Jersey once, in '86. Stayed with my aunt in Passaic; I remember she lived across the street from a hospital. I still have a picture of myself standing in front of the Capitol theater, that I had my cousin's husband take, specifically because of having that bootleg. Later that day he took me on a tour of Clifton and Garfield; showed me Felix Cavaliere's mother's house (the Rascals; another all time fave group). Apparently Alex knew those guys back in high school... Did you see Bruce on the today show this morning? Definitely gotta get the new album (oops, are they still called albums?) . I made a pilgrimage to Asbury Park on that trip, Stone Pony was sold out for the show that night though( I think John Eddie, but not really sure). Went to the arcade and boardwalk, still have the greetings from Asbury Park t-shirt I bought there.

[JerseygirlCT]

9. I grew up not too far from Asbury Park.

So I suppose the Bruce stuff was just in the water. But I was only a casual fan before that concert. (I think being a Bruce fan was so much the style then that I rebelled a bit, you know?).

Oh boy, did that turn me into a convert! I had to get back from school in PA to get there, which meant lots of trains, but it was so worth it!

I can't believe you've got the concert -- and on vinyl! How cool is that?

Being from where I am, I've got all these fun "brushes with greatness" connections, though none have resulted in MY actually meeting Bruce. And I didn't manage to get tix for the kick-off tour up here in CT. But it's sounding -- to me, anyway -- less like "this is potentially the last tour together" than it did the last time, you know? Leaves me hopeful for next time.

All this Bruce stuff has got me missing home, and the beach. I guess Asbury is still struggling, despite constant rumors of its imminent resurgence, thanks in large part to an influx of gay guys from NYC buying up vacation property. I'm sort of torn -- if it does get all regenerated, will it lose that special something, which really came down to seediness?

Ah well, sorry to blather, but it's been fun talking Bruce with you!