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April 16, 2025 While collectors and vinyl fetishists may continue scouring the globe for the limited number of LP versions that still might be up for grabs, fortunately on Record Store Day last Saturday The Killers (via their official YouTube channel) also made available for everyone - free of charge - all of Encore At The Garden 's professionally recorded/mixed audio AND all of its professionally filmed/edited images. Above you can hear and see the entire October 1, 2022 Madison Square Garden encore segment in which The Killers were joined by Bruce Springsteen and Jake Clemons on "Badlands" and "Born To Run," in between which Springsteen also performed with The Killers on "Dustland," their retitled/re-recorded-with-Springsteen version of "A Dustland Fairytale." Sixteen minutes and twenty-six seconds total running time, courtesy of director Giorgio Testi and his crew, with no need to flip over a disc at any point whatsoever.

official concert-tour photo by Rob DeMartin (Vancouver soundcheck, Nov. 22, 2024) - used w/ permission April 13, 2025 Happy birthday, and many, many more to the hardest-working drummer in show-business, the one and only Mighty Max Weinberg . At 74, Max continues to bring the big (and - whenever necessary - supple ) beat, night after night after night after night. And not just in the E Street Band, either. In addition to performing in Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's upcoming 2025 European tour , you also can catch Max performing with his Jukebox band at one of his upcoming Max Weinberg's Jukebox gigs: Monday, April 14 - City Winery Boston ( Click here to purchase tickets. ) Tuesday, April 15 - City Winery Philadelphia ( Click here to purchase tickets. ) Friday, April 18 - Cain Center for the Arts , Cornelius, NC ( Click here to purchase tickets. ) Thursday, May 15 - Band on the Wall , Manchester, England ( Click here to purchase tickets ; currently only the late show remains available.) Thursday, June 5 - The Cavern Club Live Lounge , Liverpool, England (currently sold out) Tuesday, July 1 - Magazzini Generali , Milan, Italy ( Click here to purchase tickets. ) Max's camp also recently informed us that we Weinberg fans can look forward to "lots more [Jukebox shows] in the summer and fall." Great news, for sure. Happy Birthday, Mighty One; long may you drum!

photo by Wilhelm Rosenthal - used with permission April 11, 2025 Standing onstage in Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater just over thirteen years ago, Bruce Springsteen told his audience, "If you played in a bar on the Central Jersey Shore in the sixties and seventies, you played soul music... Motown, Atlantic, Stax... These were the labels whose very names held a power and a mystery for us when we were young and gettin' goin'. And we knew that way off in some never-never land of rhythm-and-blues, there was a place called the Apollo. It was the home of the gods, and the true Temple of Soul... And all the men and women who worked on this stage were our teachers and our masters, and they schooled us, and we hope to deliver on just some small piece of their promise. We studied all our subjects... geography; we learned the exact location of Funky Broadway from Wilson Pickett... history; change is gonna come - Sam Cooke... math; 99 1/2 won't fuckin' do! - Wilson again... religion; Aretha Franklin... sex education; Marvin Gaye. We were imparted with the wisdom of Solomon... Burke. And of course, it was the poetry... the poetry... the poetry... of Smokey Robinson ." William "Smokey" Robinson will be among the five honorees later this month when The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University presents its third annual American Music Honors event in the University's Pollak Theatre. As the press release announcing this year's event stated, Smokey Robinson will be honored for his immense impact as an "artist, songwriter, producer... one of the architects of the famed ‘60s Motown Sound/the Sound of Young America with classics as 'The Tracks of My Tears,' 'Tears of a Clown,' and 'You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me.'” Oh, and incidentally, he also wrote and produced more than a few hits for other Motown acts, including both "My Guy" AND "My Girl." 'Nuff said. Appropriately, Robinson's honoree award will be presented by that noted disciple of soul music, Stevie Van Zandt. In 2020, on the occasion of Smokey Robinson's 80th birthday, Van Zandt wrote on his social-media, "My first memory is my Uncle Sal buying me 'Going To A Go-Go,' which remains one of my favorite records of all time and continues to inform my own writing. I would become a lifetime fan of both his songwriting and one of the great voices ever." Letters To You recently reached out to Smokey Robinson to ask if he might like to share a few thoughts with our readers on his American Music Honors recognition. As he so often does, Smokey exceeded expectations, responding by recording exclusively for us a brief personal message directed to Bruce Springsteen himself, and he included a well-deserved nod to Stevie Van Zandt, as well. Of course we're very honored and excited to "relay" this message on behalf of Smokey Robinson. Below, you can hear it as presented on our SoundCloud and YouTube platforms, and also read the transcribed version: "Hey, Bruce, it's Smokey, man. Thank you so much for giving me the American Music Honors for 2025. I really appreciate that, man. I'm a big fan of yours, and you're my brother; I love you, man. And I'm so happy that Steven's gonna give it to me, so I'm looking forward to it. Can't wait to see you guys." And finally, for more on the greatness of Smokey Robinson, check out the two videos embedded below. The first is an insightful and moving 2015 keynote lecture by retired music writer (and Springsteen biographer) par excellence Dave Marsh, delivered at Case Western Reserve University for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's Music Masters series honoring Robinson that year. The second is an excerpt from Robinson's 2010 SXSW Keynote, presented as an onstage conversation between Marsh and Robinson, during which Robinson's hilarious "Oobla" fable embodies the essential spirit behind The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music.

April 11, 2025 This month's "First Friday" archival Nugs live-recording release actually has ended up being a "Second Friday" release, due to last week's big Tracks II announcement . But that's especially appropriate, in a way, because Amway Arena, Orlando, FL, April 23, 2008 was the second concert that Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performed with a focus on their recently fallen comrade, the late, great "Phantom" Dan Federici, after Danny passed on April 17, 2008. (The first concert they performed after Danny's death was released in the archival Nugs live-recordings series as St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, FL, April 22, 2008 back in 2019.) As was the case with the first Federici-focused show in Tampa on the previous evening, the Orlando show opened with what Springsteen called "something in remembrance of Danny." It was a rare performance of "Blood Brothers," made even rarer by it being performed in the hard-rocking Greatest - Hits -sessions outtake version first released on the 1996 Blood Brothers CD-EP included with the VHS home-video release of Ernie Fritz's film Blood Brothers: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band . Other highlights of this great Magic Tour show included extra-intense versions of three Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ songs - "Spirit In The Night," "Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?," and "Lost In The Flood" - scattered throughout the set "for Dan," as Bruce said when introducing the first Greetings... song of the evening. Later, during the encores, The Byrds' Roger McGuinn joined Springsteen and the E Street Band for back-to-back performances of The Byrds' classic arrangements of "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)" and "Mr. Tambourine Man." Click here to order/stream Amway Arena, Orlando, FL, April 23, 2008 , and click here to read Columbia/Nugs archivist Erik Flannigan's essay on Amway Arena, Orlando, FL, April 23, 2008 , entitled "I Don’t Know How I Feel Tonight."

April 4, 2025 Whew, what a week! And it's not quite over yet, Springsteen fans... Although the initial teaser-announcement dropped on Tuesday, which was April Fools Day 2025, by yesterday morning it was crystal-clear that Bruce Springsteen wasn't foolin' around at all. As per the official press release , Tracks II: The Lost Albums will be released worldwide on Friday, June 27. The original Tracks box-set, released back in 1998, consisted mainly of outtakes from Springsteen's sessions for his first eleven albums. This second Tracks set, however, will contain seven full-length albums that haven't been released previously for various reasons - "...full records," says Bruce himself in the press release, "some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released... I’ve played this music to myself and often close friends for years now. I’m glad you’ll get a chance to finally hear them. I hope you enjoy them.” Tracks II: The Lost Albums  will be released in digital/streaming form (apparently at no extra cost to certain music-streaming-service subscribers) and in deluxe boxed sets consisting of seven CDs or nine vinyl LPs, accompanied by a 100-page cloth-bound, hardcover book featuring rare archival photos, liner notes on each lost album from essayist Erik Flannigan and a personal introduction on the project from Springsteen. There also will be an abridged twenty-tracks highlights collection, Lost And Found: Selections from The Lost Albums , released in one-CD/two-LPs formats on June 27. Click here for various pre-ordering options. Here's some more information on each of the seven albums (consisting, as per the press release, of eighty-two previously unreleased tracks and seventy-four previously unheard songs) in Tracks II: The Lost Albums : L.A. Garage Sessions '83 (1983) Tracks: 1. Follow That Dream 2. Don’t Back Down On Our Love 3. Little Girl Like You 4. Johnny Bye Bye 5. Sugarland 6. Seven Tears 7. Fugitive’s Dream 8. Black Mountain Ballad 9. Jim Deer 10. County Fair 11. My Hometown 12. One Love 13. Don’t Back Down 14. Richfield Whistle 15. The Klansman 16. Unsatisfied Heart 17. Shut Out The Light 18. Fugitive’s Dream (Ballad) Streets of Philadelphia Sessions (1993) Tracks: 1. Blind Spot 2. Maybe I Don’t Know You 3. Something In The Well 4. Waiting On The End Of The World 5. The Little Things 6. We Fell Down 7. One Beautiful Morning 8. Between Heaven and Earth 9. Secret Garden 10. The Farewell Party Somewhere North of Nashville (1995) Tracks: 1. Repo Man 2. Tiger Rose 3. Poor Side of Town 4. Delivery Man 5. Under A Big Sky 6. Detail Man (*Check out the Facebook video below, posted by John Stamos back in 2020. It's a complete performance of "Detail Man" performed in 1995 at John Fogerty's 50th-birthday party, featuring Fogerty on backing vocals and Stamos on drums performing with Fogerty's band:) 7. Silver Mountain 8. Janey Don’t You Lose Heart 9. You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone 10. Stand On It 11. Blue Highway 12. Somewhere North of Nashville Inyo (1996-1997) Tracks: 1. Inyo 2. Indian Town 3. Adelita 4. The Aztec Dance 5. The Lost Charro (*Below is a screenshot of since-deleted video of Springsteen recording "The Lost Charro" with Mariachi Real De Mexico . It was posted on Patti Scialfa's Instagram page back in 2014:) 6. Our Lady of Monroe 7. El Jardinero (Upon the Death of Ramona) 8. One False Move 9. Ciudad Juarez 10. When I Build My Beautiful House Faithless (2005-2006) Tracks: 1. The Desert (Instrumental) 2. Where You Goin’, Where You From 3. Faithless 4. All God’s Children 5. A Prayer By The River (Instrumental) 6. God Sent You 7. Goin’ To California 8. The Western Sea (Instrumental) 9. My Master’s Hand 10. Let Me Ride 11. My Master’s Hand (Theme) Twilight Hours (2010-2011) Tracks: 1. Sunday Love 2. Late in the Evening 3. Two of Us 4. Lonely Town 5. September Kisses 6. Twilight Hours 7. I’ll Stand By You 8. High Sierra 9. Sunliner 10. Another You 11. Dinner at Eight 12. Follow The Sun Perfect World (newly assembled from various tracks from the mid-1990s through 2018) Tracks: 1. I’m Not Sleeping 2. Idiot’s Delight 3. Another Thin Line 4. The Great Depression 5. Blind Man 6. Rain In The River (This is the first track from the collection to be released as an advance single. Click here to listen. ) 7. If I Could Only Be Your Lover 8. Cutting Knife 9. You Lifted Me Up 10. Perfect World Note: While many Springsteen fans already are familiar with the versions of "Idiot's Delight" and "Another Thin Line" recorded and officially released by Joe Grushecky, far fewer fans seem aware that a version of "Perfect World" was recorded by John Mellencamp and released on his 2023 album Orpheus Descending . Click here to listen. A special website for this project, LostAlbums.net , also was launched this week. At the top of the homepage, visitors are advised to "return to LostAlbums.net weekly for newly-released music and content." As we noted at the beginning of this report, it indeed has been quite a week filled with some very exciting and interesting news for fans of Bruce Springsteen's music. And the best possible way to close this report is, of course, with another newly released recording featuring Springsteen... While it's certainly understandable that there won't be a "First Friday" archival Nugs live-recording release this week due to the big announcement/first-single release, there is nevertheless another new record featuring Bruce Springsteen that has been released officially today. It's "Ten Years Gone" by The Waterboys featuring Bruce Springsteen, from their newly released album Life, Death and Dennis Hopper , available on Sun Records in the U.S. (the first official Sun Records release for both The Waterboys and Bruce.) "Ten Years Gone" is a searing, electric-guitar-laden meditation on Hopper's enduring influence, with Springsteen delivering a killer spoken-word part at the end. Listen for yourself below. To our ears, in its own way it's just as powerful and moving as the spoken-word part he provided for Lou Reed's "Street Hassle" back in '78.

April 1, 2025 These days, with principal photography now completed for the first-ever Springsteen biopic (presumably hitting theaters before this year ends,) Bruce Springsteen himself must be feeling pretty supercalifragilisticexpialidocious about the film-industry once more. That good feeling wasn’t always the case, however, especially during a particularly lengthy behind-the-scenes attempt at film-music-licensing that was... ahem, not among his most successful endeavors. As many Springsteen fans know already, a quarter-century ago, even after his artistic and commercial success with the first song he ever wrote specifically for a film soundtrack, “Streets of Philadelphia,” Bruce's song “I’ll Stand By You” was rejected for inclusion in the soundtrack of the first Harry Potter film . Eventually, almost two decades later, he finally would get to re-record the song for inclusion in the Blinded By The Light soundtrack, but in many of those years between Harry Potter and Blinded By The Light lies a tale of Springsteen's legendary career that very few fans have ever heard before... “At some point I'd like to get ['I'll Stand By You'] into a children's movie of some sort, because it was a pretty lovely song," Springsteen said back in an October 2016 BBC interview. Yet according to Ed Catmull, retired president of both Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, Bruce’s 2016 comments to the BBC about “I’ll Stand By You” understated extremely just how strong his desire had been for the song to end up in a kids’ flick. In an exclusive, recently conducted Letters To You interview, Catmull - now serving as an advisor to the Emmy-winning interactive animation team at Baobab Studios - revealed publicly for the first time ever that a year or so after the Harry Potter pitch didn’t get greenlighted, Bruce began setting his sights on Pixar/Disney. “Every night for years, I’d pray that I’d never hear another pitch for that friggin’ song. Now I know why they really call Bruce ‘The Boss.’ Man, can that guy get pushy ! The first time the phone rang was back in late 2002, just as we were beginning to wrap Finding Nemo . Bruce very excitedly told us that he had re-written his song for our film as ‘I’ll Swim By You.’ We said, ever so politely and respectfully, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ Springsteen in Steel Mill, sporting his Mickey Mouse shirt at The Upstage back in the early 1970s. Who knew that decades later, he'd be building a rather "pushy" rep at Disney/Pixar? “Then a coupla years later, Bruce hears that we’re working on Cars . Not only does he want to re-pitch ‘I’ll Stand By You,’ but now he’s offering to sing it as an actual animated car-character in the film...some character he apparently made up himself called, uh... ‘Pardner Sonny,’ an old street-racing buddy of Lightning McQueen. He even brought in a few concept drawings by some artist he hired on spec. Anyway, here’s hopin’ that Bruce didn’t pay this artist very much, if anything. I mean you just can’t put fuelie heads on a big block-engine like a 396. Doesn’t everybody know that?! “Bruce also knew that Randy Newman was scoring Cars for us, and that we often work with Randy. I remember Bruce saying, ‘Listen, Ed...Randy and I are tight. You ever hear ‘My Life Is Good’ ?’ “Finally there was the infamous WALL-E pitch in early 2008. That time he tried pitching us a rewritten ‘I’ll Stand By You’ as a love theme for WALL-E and EVE. It actually gave me a new personal definition of hell: being in a pitch-meeting with Bruce Springsteen, having to watch and hear him sing ‘I’ll Stand By You’ in his ‘WALL-E voice,’ and having to stifle every single giggle and guffaw bubbling up inside of me.” Years later, none of that laughter needs to be stifled anymore, especially with all of those awkwardly unsuccessful movie-soundtrack pitches long gone in Springsteen's rear-view mirror, and a much-improved relationship with Disney these days, while his latest documentary streams on Disney+/Hulu . As Ed Catmull told us, "We truly can look back on this and it all seems funny... now , that is." -“Pardner Sonny” concept art by Stephen Winchell -Special thanks to Carrie Potter Devening for permission to use the image of Bruce Springsteen in his Mickey Mouse shirt. Check out Carrie's awesome book For Music's Sake: Asbury Park's Upstage Club and Green Mermaid Café - The Untold Stories . Click here to purchase the softcover edition. Click here to purchase the e-book edition.

March 31, 2025 May, 2005 photo by Don Norkus Click here to read the archived Waterbury Record article "On my way out … Joe DePugh’s story" by former editor/publisher Maria Archangelo.

March 27, 2025 photo by Bill Hanrahan for Music Planet Radio Archive - www.musicplanetradio.com - used w/ permission Well, despite the old joke, he didn't "practice, practice, practice" to get to Carnegie Hall last night, since he wasn't part of the public-rehearsal event held the night before at City Winery NYC . But then again, Bruce Springsteen IS already rather familiar with how to play the Patti Smith song that he performed and sang lead on at yesterday's People Have The Power: A Celebration of Patti Smith tribute event, benefiting "music programs for kids" as per the show's poster (see below,) since he famously shares a co-writing credit for it with Smith and has been performing his own version of it since 1978. Springsteen wasn't even officially announced as part of the bill until earlier this week. Nevertheless, he came prepared to take the stage for the evening's penultimate slot before Patti Smith herself appeared to bring it all back home. Backed by the event's house band - The Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea; the most recent Rolling Stones touring drummer (as well as longtime friend/musical collaborator of Patti Scialfa,) Steve Jordan; Bob Dylan's former guitarist Charlie Sexton; Patti Smith Band guitarist Tony Shanahan; and legendary Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench - Springsteen introduced his performance of "Because The Night" (of course) as follows: “We love ya, Patti. Patti gave me this big hit, right here, I’m about to sing... If I had sung this song, it would not have been a hit. It needed her voice, and her incredible lyrics, so Patti, I have to thank you, so dearly, for our one big hit together. Thank you, darlin'. Play it, Benmont...” Tench then played the beautiful piano intro to the song, before Bruce and the entire band dove into its searing rock arrangement. photo by Bill Hanrahan for Music Planet Radio Archive - www.musicplanetradio.com  - used w/ permission Fittingly, Springsteen performed Smith's version of the song, featuring the lyrics she wrote for it. Although Bruce has performed the song live with the E Street Band many times over the years since 1978, he rarely performs this version of the song. Instead, he usually performs "Because The Night" using an alternate set of lyrics that he wrote for his own live performances of the song. (For his 2010 release The Promise , Springsteen also recorded with the E Street Band an in-studio version of "Because The Night" using Smith's lyrics.) photo by Bill Hanrahan for Music Planet Radio Archive - www.musicplanetradio.com  - used w/ permission At last night's event, Springsteen also joined all of the evening's other performers - including Julia Banks, Paul Banks, Courtney Barnett, Matt Berninger, Body/Head (Kim Gordon and Bill Nace,) Johnny Depp, Glen Hansard, Ben Harper, Susanna Hoffs, Jim Jarmusch, Scarlett Johansson, Lenny Kaye, Kronos Quartet, Andy LeMaster, Jesse Malin, Alison Mosshart, the Music Will Academy of Lower Manhattan Public Middle School, Karen O., Angel Olsen, Sean Penn, Maggie Rogers, Michael Shannon, Jesse Paris Smith, Michael Stipe, and Sharon Van Etten - in backing Patti Smith and the house band for a show-closing version of "People Have The Power," the inspiring anthem that Smith wrote with her late husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith of the MC5. Click here to read more about "People Have The Power" and other Smith/MC5/E Street intersections over the years.

artwork by Stephen Winchell April 1, 2024 Greetings from San Francisco, CA. It's Easter Monday, and jaws are still dropped 'round these parts, since last night actual jaw breakers , chocolate-peanut-butter eggs, Peeps, and jellybeans were thrown from the stage to audience-members at Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's second show of a two-gig stand in the city's Chase Center. But by far the biggest Easter Sunday treat for fans was the MUCH "wider song selection" that Springsteen's been hinting at recently, in a major holiday-themed setlist shakeup. TEN , count 'em TEN tour debuts, with six of them being songs that Bruce Springsteen had never performed previously onstage anywhere, with or without the E Street Band, in a tour-record-setting thirty-two-songs-total set. The Easter Sunday fun - and the first-time-ever performances - started right out of the Golden Gate, with Bruce and the Band arriving onstage in bunny-ears to deliver a rocking, rollicking performance of the Gene Autry classic "Here Comes Peter Cottontail," adapted using the arrangement from Bay-area children's-music band The Hipwaders , who also got to meet Springsteen and his band during yesterday's soundcheck. Immediately afterwards, Springsteen threw off the rabbit-ears and quickly counted off "One! Two! Three! Four!" to have Max Weinberg launch into the deep, heart-pounding Bo-Diddley-like beats that introduced the first-ever Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performance of The Strangeloves' classic "I Want Candy." Quite an Easter-themed opening double-shot of super-sweet covers, for sure. What came next, of course, also was led by a Max Weinberg intro, though this time on cymbals: "Candy's Room," last played on this tour in Foxborough, Massachusetts' Gillette Stadium on August 26, 2023. Then came an ever-so-brief moment for the crowd, on its feet and loudly cheering but also still rather eggshell-shocked, to catch its collective breath. "Good evening, San Francisco!," Bruce exulted, "And Happy Easter to all who celebrate! It is indeed Easter Sunday 2024, and the mighty E Street Band and I have some extra-special things planned for tonight. Now it's no secret that I've always had a bit of a love-hate thing goin' on with my Catholic upbringing, so tonight's show still will reflect some of that, but most of all we're here to celebrate with everyone the arrival of spring, renewal, the ultimate value of love and life over death, and of course... CANDY! Are you ready, band?" The candy theme then continued with the premiere live performance of "Candy's Boy," the cowbell-heavy alternate version of "Candy's Room" that wasn't released officially until 2010's box-set The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story . After that came what some fans online already have started referring to as "the Jesus six-pack," starting off with two back-to-back world-premiere Easter-themed covers of material by artists who already have strong historical connections to key Springsteen songs and performances of the past: a cover of Tom Waits' "Chocolate Jesus" (providing the perfect segue from the topic of candy to the topic of Christ) followed by a cover of Patti Smith Group's "Easter." Then came a great expanded E Street Band version of the Civil-War-era spiritual "O Mary Don't You Weep," sticking closely to the hybrid-gospel arrangement of Springsteen's Seeger Sessions recording. The last time Bruce performed this song onstage with the E Street Band was almost a decade ago, at the 2014 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Between Soozie Tyrell's klezmer-tinged fiddling parts, and the references to not just Jesus, but also Moses, Pharaoh, and Noah, you could feel that Springsteen was purposefully opening up this special night not just to those celebrating Easter, but also to everyone who'll be observing Passover later this month. The second half of "the Jesus six-pack" consisted of three of Springsteen's own songs that reference the Prince of Peace, starting with Letter To You 's deep-cut "If I Was The Priest," which apparently some in the crowd thought was an especially big deal. (Meh; to each... The song was last performed on this tour in Tulsa, OK on February 21, 2023.) Then came "Jesus Was An Only Son," another tour premiere and a song never before performed with the E Street Band, and finally "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City," with Bruce and Stevie Van Zandt again providing those Jesus-vs.-the-Devil-guitar-duel-through-the-steam-of-the-street fireworks, last performed almost a year ago in Brooklyn, NY on April 3, 2023. Things then reverted somewhat to "business as usual" as the setlist dialed back a bit to some of what have become the more standard songs and structures of this tour. "No Surrender" was followed by "Ghosts," Prove It All Night," and "Letter To You," but Springsteen still wasn't quite done with shaking up the setlist for this special evening. The next song up was "Worlds Apart," last performed more than two decades ago on August 28, 2003 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, which has since met the wrecking ball, of course. "Worlds Apart" expanded the spiritual scope of this special show even further to include a non-Judeo-Christian perspective, and addressed powerfully that "ultimate value of love and life over death" of which he spoke earlier in the evening. "Let love give what it gives" indeed. "Worlds Apart" was followed appropriately by "The Promised Land," which was followed by "Nightshift." Then it was really candy time. "Sugar, Sugar," the bubblegum-pop classic that first was a hit for pseudo-group The Archies, is a song that Springsteen himself actually has performed onstage a few times over the years, though for extremely small audiences, at some of those Stone Pony benefit shows for his children's schools back in the early 2000s. But last night's performance, not surprisingly based on legendary soul singer Wilson Pickett's recording of the song , was Bruce's first-ever performance of the song with the E Street Band, enhanced greatly by the E Street Choir and E Street Horns. It was sweet soul music all the way...literally, as everyone onstage was provided with a basket full of chocolate rabbits, candy eggs, jellybeans, marshmallow Peeps, and the like. All of the singers onstage, and any other musician with a free hand at the moment, proceeded to toss various items from their baskets into the crowd while Bruce and Curtis King, Jr. topped off the performance by trading off back-and-forth "Pour a little sugar on me!" lines, Sam-and-Dave style. "Last Man Standing," "Backstreets," etc. followed, with Springsteen again sticking to the basic plan he recently stated on E Street Radio, about the second half of his show's setlist being "built so solid that a lot of it will stay." It turned out to be a very smooth blend, since the special Easter-themed song-choices for last night fit nicely within the show's regular overarching themes of finding healing, resilience, and renewal in the face of aging and mortality. Nevertheless, Bruce had one more setlist surprise up his sleeve during last night's upbeat encores sequence. It wasn't another overtly Easter-themed one, either, but something just as special - if not more so - for the city by the bay. "Hey, Steve!," Bruce shouted as "Dancing In The Dark" ended and the band held those closing notes, "We can't leave here tonight without tippin' our bunny ears to one of San Francisco's greatest bands of all time, right? One! Two! Three! Four!" And for the first time ever onstage, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band delivered their own version of Sly and the Family Stone's immortal "Dance To The Music." Quite simply, fellow Springsteen fans, you haven't lived until you've heard Garry Tallent bellow out in the deepest voice he can muster, "I'm gonna add some bottom, so that the dancers just won't hide," Charlie Giordano exclaim, "You might like to hear my organ; I said a-ride, Sally, ride!" and Ada Dyer soulfully command, "All of the squares go home!" And thanks to LiveBruceSpringsteen.net and Nugs.net , it won't be very long until you'll be able to do just that. We also soon will be honored to supplement this special Letters To You concert report with a great set of photos taken by Danny Clinch, Pam Springsteen, and Frank Stefanko, each of whom was in the house and shot last night's show exclusively for us. We're just waiting for all of their developed film to get back from Fotomat. Stand by... mashup of Frank Stefanko's and Kai Z. Feng's photography first posted at Patti Scialfa's Instagram page on Easter Sunday 2016 Setlist from San Francisco, CA 3-31-2024 (Easter Sunday 2024) (tour debuts highlighted in bold font ) 1. Here Comes Peter Cottontail ( Gene Autry cover , using Bay-area children's-music band The Hipwaders' arrangement )  (never played before) 2. I Want Candy ( The Strangeloves cover ) (never played before) 3. Candy's Room 4. Candy's Boy (never played before) 5. Chocolate Jesus ( Tom Waits cover )  (never played before) 6. Easter ( Patti Smith Group cover )  (never played before) 7. O Mary Don't You Weep 8. If I Was The Priest 9. Jesus Was An Only Son  (never played with the E Street Band before) 10. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City 11. No Surrender 12. Ghosts 13. Prove It All Night 14. Letter to You 14. Worlds Apart 15. The Promised Land 16. Nightshift 17. Sugar, Sugar (candy-distribution moment; The Archies cover , based on Wilson Pickett's version )  (never played with the E Street Band before) 18. Last Man Standing 19. Backstreets 20. Because The Night 21. She's The One 22. Wrecking Ball 23. The Rising 24. Badlands 25. Thunder Road 26. Born To Run 27. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) 28. Glory Days 29. Dancing in the Dark 30. Dance To The Music ( Sly and the Family Stone cover )  (never played before) 31. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out 32. I'll See You In My Dreams

February 9, 2025 No matter who wins tonight's Super Bowl, H.E.R. will be heard during the game's fourth quarter interpreting Bruce Springsteen's classic song "Born to Run" in a way that reinforces and expands upon what he used to say onstage before singing it in the mid-1980s: "Nobody wins unless everybody wins." The acclaimed California-born Filipino-African-American songwriter, musician, and singer has partnered with the beauty/personal-care brand Dove for an ad campaign designed to raise awareness of the impact that negative body talk can have on girls in sports, and Dove's support of the Body Confident Sport program , described in Dove's press release as "a first-of-its-kind and scientifically-proven set of coaching tools to build body confidence in 11-17-year-old girls and encourage them to stay in sports." Below you can watch two separate 30-second spots from the campaign: the one that will air tonight during the Super Bowl and another one that features even more of H.E.R.'s version of "Born to Run," which will be released officially in its full length tomorrow. (UPDATE: As of this writing, H.E.R.'s full-length version of "Born to Run" still has yet to be released, despite the Billboard article referenced below stating that it would be released on February 10, the day after Super Bowl LIX.) As an excellent Billboard feature on the ad campaign , which also features an exclusive interview with H.E.R. about the project, notes, "It’s a directive that feels especially poignant considering the popularity boom women’s sports have seen in recent years (thanks in no small part to powerhouses like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese), as well as the sociopolitical influx in online communities picking apart players’ appearances (the transphobic hate cisgender Algerian boxer Imane Khelif experienced during the 2024 Olympics comes to mind). And it’s definitely something that weighs on H.E.R.’s mind as a former athlete and role model to her 18-year-old and 3-year-old sisters, which is why she says she jumped at the chance to translate 'Born to Run' into a heartfelt tribute for young girls all over the world." For her part, H.E.R. tells Billboard , "The song itself is so iconic, I didn’t want to do a complete left turn in my recreation of it. It’s so uplifting and joyful, and 'born to run,' it’s the perfect lyric. It’s the perfect message, and kind of the perfect pace for a message like this. It was all about the image of this young girl — keeping that in mind was the most important thing. We started with drums to kind of keep the energy but still make it my own, and I played some guitars on it to keep that iconic lead. It was all about adding even more soul to it. That iconic line that’s usually just the guitar line, I turned into vocals. I like doing things like that — taking pieces from the instrumentation and turning them into vocals — and my vocals definitely make [the song] a little more feminine... I love Bruce. I grew up listening to a lot of Bruce with my dad. He’s iconic. I actually got to meet him two years ago and he was so sweet. I was like, 'I’m such a big fan, my name’s Gabi.' [H.E.R.'s real name is Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson. Her stage name is an acronym for Having Everything Revealed.] He was like, 'Oh my god, H.E.R., I’m such a big fan of you, I’ve mentioned you in interviews, you really rock out on stage.' And I’m like, 'Man, I get it from you!'” Click here to read Hannah Dailey's complete Billboard article "How H.E.R. Reimagined an Iconic Bruce Springsteen Hit to Remind Girls in Sports They’re ‘Born to Run’".

March 8, 2025 The recently resumed Springsteen/Nugs "First Friday" series continues with yesterday's release of Omaha, NE Nov 15, 2012 . As was the case last month, this month's official concert recording drops with no official press release or social-media announcements from Springsteen's own camp. (Last month's First Friday release didn't get any kind of acknowledgment from "Bruce, Inc." until the month was almost over, on February 25.) Very odd. Speaking of odd, the November 15, 2012 Wrecking Ball Tour show featured one of the tour's most unique setlists, during which Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band ended up performing six of the ten tracks from Nebraska throughout the evening. (A seventh Nebraska song, "My Father's House," was rehearsed during soundcheck but didn't make the cut for the show itself.) The night included a rare performance of the album's side-one closer, "State Trooper," in its last public performance to date: Presumably this was a specially designed setlist for the band's only 2012 gig in Nebraska at what was then known as the Centurylink Center (now known as CHI Health Center Omaha.) But just to keep the oddness going, the show didn't include a performance of Nebraska 's title track, which is the only song on the album that's actually set specifically in "The Cornhusker State." Another emotional highlight of the evening: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's first public performance of "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" without Clarence Clemons onstage with them. And as usual, Nugs utilizes the sonic expertise of mixers/masterers Jon Altschiller, Danielle Warman, et. al. to allow us lucky listeners to experience house-engineer John Cooper's complete professional recording of this show in the best possible sound quality. Click here to order/stream Omaha, NE Nov 15, 2012 . You also may want to consider Nugs' current streaming-subscription promotion, especially now that monthly First Friday releases have resumed and regular releases of shows from the 2025 Springsteen tour are on the horizon. For $14.99 before taxes, which is the price of purchasing a single mp3 in the monthly Springsteen/Nugs archival-releases series, you can get access to a month of streaming everything available in the Nugs audio archives, not just all of Springsteen's recordings but everything from all other artists associated with Nugs: The Grateful Dead, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Phish, The Rolling Stones, Santana, Umphrey's McGee, Jack White/The White Stripes, etc. Not bad for $14.99/mo (plus any applicable taxes.) Click here for details. And finally, you can click here to read Columbia/Nugs archivist Erik Flannigan's essay on Omaha, NE Nov 15, 2012 , entitled "All Aboard, Nebraska's Our Next Stop."

photo courtesy of BigShotte Management Group - used with permission February 27, 2025 Happy 45th Birthday, and many, many more Happy Birthdays ahead, to Jake Clemons ! In a unique, special visual treat for our readers, we're pleased that Jake's camp has allowed us to share the above backstage photo of Jake with The Killers' Brandon Flowers. It was taken on October 1, 2022 at Madison Square Garden NYC, when Jake and Bruce Springsteen joined The Killers onstage for their concert encores, with Jake on sax for "Badlands" and "Born To Run." As we reported previously , professional recordings from that evening will be released in April as part of Record Store Day 2025, in the form of a limited-edition (only 5000 copies in an "RSD First" pressing) 12-inch vinyl single, containing officially released versions of all three songs performed by The Killers with special guests Bruce Springsteen and Jake Clemons on that night. SIDE A: 1. "Badlands" (Live) 2. "Dustland" (Live) SIDE B: 3. "Born To Run" (Live) photo by Tara Keane - used with permission But that's not the only officially released recording featuring Jake Clemons coming our way in 2025. Stay tuned for more details as they become available... photo by Tara Keane - used with permission Jake also will be performing on April 28 as part of "The Jersey Takeover" at Trombone Shorty's Shorty Fest 2025 , and performing with The Jake Clemons Band on July 19 at the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival . Be sure to visit regularly Jake's official website, JakeClemons.com , for all of his latest official announcements and updates. Happy Birthday, "Jakey!" We're looking forward to catching you in action, with and without the E Street Band, throughout 2025.