Talking of
Bruce, after I saw him for the first time in January of 1974, I went back to
New York and wrote this for the following week’s Melody Maker, reproduced
below more or less word for word. I wasn’t the first to ‘introduce’ MM readers to Bruce as Michael Watts had
written a long piece about him the previous year but I guess I still needed to
lay out the basic facts. Bearing in mind what Springsteen has accomplished in
the 40 years since I wrote this, it has a rather quaint and slightly naïve ring
to it now. At least I recognised he had a big future.
He
stands there looking like a cross between Elvis Presley and a reject from Sha
Na Na with faint Dylanesque overtones and a battered Fender Telecaster hung low
enough for him to qualify for a place in The Ventures.
His hair is short and curly and there's a wispy beard that
never seems to grow any longer. On his nose rests a pair of square shades which
stay in place all the time during the show and which make him look more like
Dylan of 1965 than Dylan of 1974 looks today.
He wears jeans and a red vest and maybe a denim jacket, all
of which helps to make him look a trifle like James Dean, only smaller and more
vulnerable.
And he clicks his finger now and then like Presley's
supposed to do and like Tom Jones does. He shakes his Fender back and forth and
twists his hips around, looking as if he means business. He conducts the band
with his fretboard, sometimes grinning and sometimes looking perplexed 'cos he
ain't quite sure what's happening next.
And then he'll surprise you by discarding the guitar and
playing a tender love song at the piano. He dismisses the group, who will
return later with a change of instruments and take up a stance at the front
with the regular bassist playing a tuba and the keyboard man strapped behind an
accordion. The tuba makes such a strange deep noise that you don't know whether
to laugh or cry.
After all that seriousness he'll start rocking again, the
big black cat on the saxophone coming on as a bass vocalist and singing an old
rock and roll number.
If you're lucky he'll finish his set with a rendering of
'Twist And Shout' complete with the ascending build up between verses that
sounds just like John Lennon was standing beside him crouched over a
Rickenbacker and yelling his loudest to drown out the screams.
Sometimes he runs on the spot then dashes about the stage,
guitar in hand, like a cat waiting to pounce. Other times he'll just stand
there and sing with emotion instead of a funk.
He's as hot as hell in America right now, but he's having
problems because the big bands don't want him as the supporting act in case of
any embarrassment over who's the star of the show; and the word hasn't spread
around enough yet for him to sell out on his own name except in certain areas.
He also needs a good producer
who can do justice to the songs he writes and the music that his band is
capable of playing.
He's put out two albums for CBS. The first was brilliant and
the second was just good. Neither has sold particularly well although both have
had rave reviews in the US music papers.
I'm talking about Bruce Springsteen and, as he's never been
to Europe, you could be excused for not knowing who he is. In Europe certain
reviewers suggested that he was the next Bob Dylan on the release of his first
album, and he's never quite got over this rather unfortunate categorisation.
There is a physical resemblance and they both write songs,
but then Dylan's facial appearance could blend into any crowd and lots of young
men write songs these days.
The only other similarity is that they're both pretty good
at their craft.
Springsteen comes from New
Jersey, the State immediately south of New York, where he has been a musician
of sorts since his teens.
He's 24 now and finally doing what he wants to do most –
lead his own band. Although he recorded an album three years ago for Bill
Graham's Fillmore label (it was never released, but bootleg versions are
circulating around California), his recent Columbia output is the sum total of
his recording career.
He played in a couple of
bands before the current outfit – Steel Mill which lasted two years and which
travelled around America getting gigs whenever they could, and Dr. Zoom and the
Sonic Boom, a sort of happy-go-lucky bunch of dudes who played around New
Jersey, changing the line-up for almost every gig and adding musicians at a
frantic rate.
At one stage there were as many as 14 musicians in the Sonic
Boom, but the regular number was nine.
Out of this came Bruce, who arrived at CBS's offices with a
guitar and an appointment to see John Hammond, the A&R man who actually
signed Dylan way back in 1961. Springsteen played a few of his songs in
Hammond's office and he was duly signed as a solo artist under the assumption
that he would immediately become CBS's new ‘Bob Dylan’.
But Bruce had never been a solo artist so he used his
advance from CBS to put a band together. Previously he'd never been able to
afford to run a band, but now he was in a position to get together the best
musicians he knew from New Jersey.
This he did, and today they're one of the tightest little
backing outfits on the road in the USA, rivalling Van Morrison's various backup
bands for sheer funk and outright competence.
Star sideman is Clarence Clemons, a huge black cat who plays
the saxophone and sings in a rich deep voice. He also wears a bright white
suit, printed shirt and white fedora hat on stage – making a strange contrast
with small, curly haired Bruce in his faded denims. Clarence's reed work is a
gas; not complex but tight and unhurried, flowing when required and rasping at
the right moments. He looks great, too, thanks to nature rather than a make-up
kit.
There's Garry Tallent on bass, a skinny long haired guy, who
also sings and plays the tuba; Vini Lopez on drums; and a couple of keyboard
men: Danny Federici, who contributes a swirling organ and occasional accordion,
and David Sancious, who gets a chance to shine with his almost classical piano
introduction to Springsteen's very beautiful song, ‘New York City Serenade’.
The band has been with him since he started out with
Columbia although David Sancious quit after the first album to go down south to
form his own band. He didn't manage it and arrived back with Springsteen in
time to appear on the second album. He was welcomed back with open arms.
Springsteen's first album Greetings From Asbury
Park, N.J. was greeted with wild enthusiasm and showcased Bruce as a
singer/songwriter with little attention paid to his backing band. The
second The Wild, The Innocent and the E. Street Shuffle, was more
of a band album with chunks of solos and ample opportunity for all to shine.
Springsteen himself insists that it's a band rather than a
showcase for himself. He just regards himself as the lead singer/guitar/writer
in the group.
And on stage this facet is
more pronounced. Although he's the leader, it's more of a situation like Jagger
and the Stones: each gets a crack of the whip and the one for-all-all-for-one
idea is enhanced when Bruce introduces his band at regular intervals.
I saw them twice last weekend, both in Virginia, which is
the East Coast and fairly hot territory for Springsteen.The first night's show
at Richmond was a sell-out, although the crowd seemed less responsive to Bruce's
quieter material and anxious to get out of their seats and dance at the
slightest provocation.
Perhaps it was because Bruce sensed this that he included a
version of 'Let The Four Winds Blow', the old rocker, which featured Clarence's
remarkable bass skat singing.
At Norfolk, a naval base 100 miles away, the show wasn't a
sell-out but the audience response was more respectful. It was the better of
the two shows and they included a wild version of 'Walking The Dog', which
began as a red hot instrumental taken at furious pace. He also played ‘Pretty
Flamingo’ with a trademark monologue as an intro.
But the bulk of the sets are taken up with Springsteen's own
material taken from the two albums which vary greatly in texture from the soft,
contemplative 'New York City Serenade', the almost comical 'Wild Billy's Circus
Story' to the shuffling rock numbers from the first album which, behind the
driving rhythm, also contain sets of brilliant lyrics.
Bruce doesn't talk much. He's a quiet guy who neither smokes
nor drinks. He spends most of his time on the road, but has yet to play outside
the USA and Canada. He's hoping for a chance to get to England this year.
If he makes it, go see him.
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