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November 10, 2025 A lot has changed - some forever, and not for better - in the nearly two decades since Bruce Springsteen's 2007 album Magic and the 2007-2008 tour that followed it. But in 2025, when you're still stuck in radio nowhere and just want to hear a Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band musical performance with some strong, explicit, and sane politics behind it, while continuing your search for a world with some soul, it just doesn't get any better than Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA - October 26, 2007 , the latest release in the Nugs/Live Archive monthly "First Friday" series. After all, we're now living even more in the future-as-now that Springsteen sang of and spoke about in Oakland that evening. "This is a song called 'Livin' In The Future,'" he told his audience by way of introduction early in that show, "but it's about what's happening NOW! It's about about how along with all the things that we love about the place we live, America… along with all those things….over the past six years we´ve had to add to the American picture things like rendition and illegal wiretapping, the rolling back of our civil liberties, and no habeas corpus or right to defend yourself against charges in court. And either because of the color of your skin or your circumstances or your religion, you may think that these things don´t have a big effect on your life, but all of these things are an attack on our Constitution, which means they're an attack on our very selves and our sense of ourselves as Americans. This is a song about sleeping through things that shouldn´t have happened here... that happened here. So tonight we´re gonna do something about it! We´re gonna sing about it! We´re musicians; it´s a start. And the rest is up to us.” The show's not "all politics all the time," either, since it also includes this great full-E-Street-Band performance of "Tunnel of Love," a song rarely performed - with or without the E Street Band - since the 1988 Tunnel of Love Express Tour: But let's not fall into the trap of drawing up false and unnecessary distinctions, forcing great music to be defined strictly as either totally "personal" or totally "political." After all, in the 1987 Newsweek article reprinted in The Tunnel of Love Express Tour's program, Springsteen made it clear that there still is a strong thematic connection between a song like "Tunnel of Love" and other songs of his that are considered to be more overtly political, like "Born in the U.S.A." He told interviewer Bill Barol, "One of the things I wanted the [ Tunnel of Love ] record to be about is, we live in a society that wants us to buy illusion every day. That happens on a national scale, like Reagan telling us there are no hungry people here, just people who don't know where to go to get the food. There's that will to pretend that everything is OK. That I'm OK, and you're OK. That it's morning again in America. That happens on a personal level also. People are sold this every day: you're gonna live happily ever after. So when you do begin to feel conflict - the natural human conflict that comes with any human relationship - people have a tendency to repress it, make believe it's not there, or feel guilty and ashamed about it. I wanted the record to be against that. Against that illusion. You just can't live like that, and people shouldn't be asked to. It's a cheapening of your own real experience, things that you know inside. People deserve better. They deserve the truth. They deserve honesty. The best music, you can seek some shelter in it momentarily, but it's essentially there to provide you something to face the world with... The guy in ['Born in the U.S.A.',] he wants to destroy that myth. It's not helpful, it's not useful. It brings people down in guilt and shame if they feel they're not living up to it... And it led him, and a lot of other men and women, into hell. So he comes back from Vietnam and he wants to find something new in this country. That search, that stand, is what the guy is screaming about. He wants to find something new and useful. That goes for myths about America, and it goes for the myth about 'They lived happily ever after.' Myths don't bind us together. They keep us strangers from each other. Strangers from our communities, from our country, from our friends and our children and our wives. And ultimately from ourselves." From multiple decades burning down the road and into whatever next future we'll be livin' in, it has been and will continue to be a very long walk home. And the rest is up to us, indeed. Click here to order/stream Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA - October 26, 2007 .  And you no longer need a different link to read Columbia/Nugs archivist Erik Flannigan's essay on this recording, entitled "Certain Things Are Set In Stone." On the same page where you can order/stream Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA - October 26, 2007 ,  just click the "SHOW MORE" button where it reads, "Show Notes."

October 31, 2025 artwork by Stephen Winchell

October 27, 2025 "...you end up settling for la-la-la lights, camera, action... -Bruce Springsteen, "Be True" To start on a truly important and positive note, which of course we should do, some people who see screenwriter-director Scott Cooper’s Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere will learn a bit more about who Bruce Springsteen is, both as an artist and as a person, as well as why Nebraska is one of his greatest albums. They also will learn a bit about how Springsteen struggled with depression and, with the support of his friend and manager Jon Landau, took the courageous step (especially in the 1980s for a guy in his thirties with U.S. working-class roots) of seeking professional help for it. Any movie that might help to encourage others to address their mental-health needs in such a manner certainly can’t be all bad. Nevertheless, for the most part it's unbelievable - literally! - how fast and loose this film plays with the facts and history of Springsteen’s life and career. And ultimately its emotional and empowering impact is nowhere near that of something like Thom Zimny’s filming of Springsteen on Broadway , or Bruce's autobiography (on which the Broadway show was based, of course,) or either/both of Dave Marsh's biographies, or... (We certainly could go on.) It's one thing to get the minutiae wrong, like having Springsteen tell the fictionalized daughter of his fictionalized girlfriend that he prefers mustard on his hot dogs when in real life he hates it , or giving Springsteen’s sister Virginia the wrong hair-color in childhood-flashback scenes, or even having Springsteen claim to be thirty-two years old in a scene set about three years after the film’s opening scene, which was set in mid-September of 1981, when at least in real life he already was about to turn... thirty-two. One has to wonder, though, in the face of such easy catches that still got missed, exactly who got paid to research/fact-check Scott Cooper’s script, etc. and exactly how much money got wasted in doing so. But let’s put all of that aside anyway, and focus on the MUCH more important problems here... One implicit message of the film, whether intended or not, seems to be that before and after he recorded the material that became Nebraska , Bruce Springsteen was “just” a very good rock star making very good rock-star music, but nothing anywhere near the dark, “serious,” and “important” music that is contained on  Nebraska . In other words, the hipster- Nebraska mindset goes cinematic, 2025 style. Ugh. It’s as if before Nebraska he never wrote, recorded, released, and performed equally great, dark, and important material like “Meeting Across The River,” “Adam Raised A Cain,” “Factory,” "Racing in the Street," “Independence Day,” “The River,” “Stolen Car,” “Point Blank,” “Wreck On The Highway,” etc. Or that after it, he didn’t write, record, release, and perform material like “My Hometown,” “Seeds,” “Spare Parts,” “One Step Up,” "Streets of Philadelphia," “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” “My City of Ruins,” “Death To My Hometown,” “Jack of All Trades,” “This Depression,” etc. And while we’re at it, let’s pretty much gloss over the fact that the rock arrangement of “Born in the U.S.A.” - which we see being created onscreen via a somewhat anachronistic reenactment, and first got heard as the title track of his Nebraska follow-up - wasn’t just the “hit-record” version, but it was and remains the best version artistically speaking, directly because of all of those musical fireworks, screaming, and howling. Hands down - and all doltish, sometimes deliberate lyrical distortions and misinterpretations aside - to this day that first-released (and hit) version's arrangement best captures all of the violence, bitterness, and pain at the core of the Vietnam veterans' experiences, and it often got even more intense in concert, as the searing version later captured on Live 1975-85 shows. This film, by the way, never addresses even incidentally Springsteen’s strong connections to Vietnam vets, which of course deeply inspired "Born in the U.S.A.," and barely acknowledges the important role of the E Street Band - especially Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg - in giving that great rock arrangement of the song all of its power. In fact, nobody playing any of the E Street Band’s members has a single significant line of dialogue in this film, not even in Johnny Cannizzaro’s portrayal of Stevie Van Zandt, who in real life was very likely to have been the first person in Springsteen’s circle to suggest releasing the solo cassette demo-recordings that became Nebraska as Springsteen’s next album. The other major myth of this film that needs to be busted is that Jon Landau had an uphill struggle with Columbia Records in getting Nebraska to be released in the form and fashion that Bruce Springsteen wanted. Not even Warren Zanes’ Deliver Me From Nowhere book, which was the main source for Cooper’s screenplay and is filled with plenty of silly Nebraska -related myths/inaccuracies of its own, contains this whopper. Zanes’ book makes it crystal-clear that Columbia was very supportive of Nebraska from the beginning, with a quote from Landau himself: “Then Al [Teller, whom Zanes’ book identifies as second-in-command at Columbia, just under the label’s equally supportive then-President, Walter Yetnikoff,] comes in. I hadn’t worked with Al. But I leave Al to listen to [ Nebraska .] This guy is going to do operations for me. He says, ‘Jon, I’m gonna tell you two things. One, I don’t understand this record. I don’t even fully understand why an artist would make this record.’ Then he says, ‘Number two, I promise you we’re going to do a beautiful job on it. We’re going to handle this record exactly the way you want. We’re not going to try to make something of it that it’s not.’” Yet in the film’s scenes with Landau interacting with Teller, the makeup/wardrobe crew might as well have provided Teller with an extra-long moustache to twirl, and/or a dunce cap. (By the way, for more on how much strong support Nebraska had at Columbia, click here to check out last Friday's article by Paul Rappaport , if you haven't done so already.) While it’s unfortunate that David Krumholz got saddled with playing such a one-dimensional version of Al Teller, there still is some very good acting to be found throughout Deliver Me From Nowhere . Making a film about such internalized struggles as depression and anxiety requires a sophisticated lead actor to translate them to the audience authentically, and Jeremy Allen White infuses much of what he brings to his Emmy Award–winning role of Carmy in The Bear : a coiled tension beneath his hangdog eyes and a hunched body heavy with insecurity. On the surface, his handsome features and natural swagger allow him to slip easily into Springsteen’s heeled Western boots and black leather jacket. His sweaty, contorted expressions, confident stance, and gravelly vocals come quite close to Springsteen incarnate, but White’s far more at ease in the quiet scenes of emotional crises. During the concert scenes, his guitar strumming is not always up to par (a difficult task for White, who had never played guitar before.) Jeremy Strong commands as Jon Landau, the Clark to Springsteen’s Lewis and his ride-or-die manager. Although Landau tends to stay out of the spotlight, anyone who’s heard him speak or seen him move will recognize how completely Strong inhabits him. He walks with purpose and speaks with a calm directness that acts as a supportive beam. In just the subtlest of smiles, Strong conveys a paternal warmth that hugs the frame. It’s destabilizing when his eyes darken with worry and his soft expressions furrow as concern for Bruce’s mental state grows. Jeremy Strong’s performance is so intuitive that you don’t even need the (probably at least somewhat contrived) scenes with Landau’s wife (Grace Gummer,) which feel as if Cooper is bending down to talk to the audience like little kids, spelling out exactly why Bruce feels the way he does. Scott Cooper also simplifies the creation of Nebraska for the audience, especially those unfamiliar with Bruce’s oeuvre, by alternating between each song and its source of inspiration, putting the artistic process in an all-too-neat bow. (And while Zanes' book already underemphasized the political aspects of Nebraska to a fault, Cooper's film adaptation goes one worse by not exploring at all any political elements of any of Bruce's music.) It is in these song-crafting scenes, however, that Jon Title’s bold sound design flourishes. The bleak sounds of Bruce’s influences overwhelm the soundscape, making you feel as morose as he does. The fire in a scene from Terence Malick’s film Badlands crackles violently while Bruce watches it. When Bruce does research on Malick’s film at the local library, the gears of the microfilm machine click and whirl loudly, punctuated by a heavy thwack when Bruce lands on the words “Nebraska” and “Starkweather,” captured in extreme close-up. Robert Mitchum’s evil laughter and the children’s anguished cries from The Night of the Hunter reverberate through the movie palace. “Frankie Teardrop” by Suicide screeches over the record player, a ten-minute opus in which lead singer Alan Vega monotonously recounts killing his wife and children, eventually devolving into a shattering, primordial scream. While Springsteen writes his songs, he retreats into childhood flashbacks that are filmed in stark black and white, evoking not only The Night of the Hunter but also some of the key sounds of the Nebraska record itself - desolate, spectral, and melancholic. As young Bruce, Matthew Anthony Pellicano Jr. embodies the “outcast misfit weirdo sissy boy” that in his autobiography the rock star described his younger self as being. Pellicano Jr. holds himself with a delicate fragility, tiptoeing around the minefield that is his overbearing father, taking him in with the haunted intensity of his wide, dark-as-coal eyes. At one point, Pellicano Jr. even replicates the rapid blinking that Bruce was afflicted with as a child. Stephen Graham, who recently won an Emmy Award as a more caring father figure in Adolescence , plays Bruce’s father Douglas very effectively. He moves through the narrow hallways of his Hollywood-version-of-rundown home like a rhinoceros—all bulky and stilted—almost oblivious to everything around him, preferring silence and nursing a beer alone at the dining room table. Graham’s pensive measuredness prevents him from descending into a villainous stereotype. Unfortunately, since Cooper chooses to streamline his narrative into a father-son story, Gaby Hoffmann is wasted as Springsteen’s mother Adele, exuding a comforting light but having little to say or do in the few scenes in which she appears. This is particularly disheartening, considering how important she was in Bruce's life, from childhood on. "She got me what I needed," Springsteen said in his speech accepting his 1999 induction into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, "and she protected me and provided for me on a thousand other days and nights... [S]he gave me a sense of work as something that was joyous and that filled you with pride and self-regard, and that committed you to your world." Adele Springsteen should have been a much more significant character in this film, and it's heartbreaking that she isn't. Neither of the female leads is particularly well-drawn, as evident in the scenes with Bruce Springsteen’s onscreen-only girlfriend Faye (Odessa Young,) a fictionalized patchwork of several former relationships (and, strangely enough, drawn mostly from a relationship that Springsteen had begun and ended even before he ever met his pre-Landau manager Mike Appel, signed with Columbia Records, etc.) In the real-life time-period depicted in the film, Springsteen actually had been dating a Hollywood actress, but apparently this fact didn’t fit the film’s homegrown aesthetic. Young's performance lends Faye a taut friction between wounded toughness, but she cannot elevate the character - a Jersey girl, single mom, and waitress at a diner - from being just a pastiche of the working-class women who populate Springsteen’s songs. Her role is reduced to expository speeches about Bruce’s tendency to run away. Faye’s scenes also allow Scott Cooper to draw on the Americana iconography of Bruce Springsteen’s work and its Jersey Shore specificity: neon-lit diners, a weathered boardwalk, the clang of pinball machines, twinkling carousel lights, and sweeping aerial shots of classic cars cruising down the long, open road. Ultimately, the film suffers from the double-bind of being too narratively thin for diehards and too abstract for casual fans. Since it depicts a very somber, quiet period in Springsteen’s life, it often resorts to characters explaining Bruce’s feelings more than it shows them, attempting to appeal to those unfamiliar with his autobiography or Broadway show to fill in the details. (Even the song chosen for the closing credits - a live Reunion Tour version of "Atlantic City," mashing up Springsteen & the E Street Band's live performance with more of Jeremy Allen White's vocals - feels much more geared towards trying to appeal to folks most likely to know only the Nebraska track that's gotten the most airplay and appeared on greatest-hits-style compilations, etc., as opposed to ending with a track that actually makes more sense within the context of the issues explored in the film.) Yet those of us who know the book, the show, and other sources are aware that there is so much more from Bruce's personal and family history that could have been mined. Bruce’s candor about the debilitating effects of depression - and the hope of transcending it - remains one of his greatest achievements. And the film’s most important message remains empowering: No one should feel ashamed of seeking therapy, not even men... not even a handsome devil of a rock star whose life truly was saved by it. It’s just too bad that this message gets delivered in such an unnecessarily clunky and inaccurate way.

photo by Mark Krajnak  for The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music  - used with permission October 27, 2025 Happy 76th Birthday, and best wishes for many more happy birthdays ahead, to the rock-steady Foundation of the E Street Nation, the E Street Band bassist who's now played more gigs backing Bruce Springsteen than any other musician, alive or dead... Mr. Garry W. Tallent. Pictured above is Garry doing his thing at his latest gig backing Bruce, just last month at The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music 's Born to Run  50th Anniversary Symposium at Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre. During that symposium, after Garry got good-naturedly teased a bit for being a man of few words, Mr. Jon Landau himself also wanted it known that Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band never have had to do another take in the studio due to a problem with their bass parts. So Happy Birthday, "Funky!" Long may you run in your strong, silent, steady way, helping to hold down that rhythm section with problem-free bass, night after night after night after night (and day, too!)

October 24, 2025 Well, they've certainly been a long time comin', but now they're here. Today, of course, marks the official release date for both the Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere film and the Nebraska '82: Expanded Edition box-set. This Nebraska -centered weekend got a bit of a jump-start last night, as well, with many theaters offering fans a chance to catch an early screening of Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere , including IMAX screenings in selected locations . In time, we at Letters To You will be diving more deeply into analyzing and evaluating both of these major releases, but for now all of that can wait a bit longer. After all, we're sure that most - if not all - of our readers already have arranged or will be arranging their own individual musical/multiplex experiences with this abundance of Springsteen-related material, at least over the next few days, anyway. In the meantime, today we've got another great, perfectly timed, and relevant contribution from Columbia Records promotion vet Paul "Rap" Rappaport, this time on how he went to bat for Nebraska to get its fair shot on 1980s rock-radio . (Incidentally, Paul's fascinating account offers a much more nuanced - and accurate - portrayal of the Springsteen/Landau experience at Columbia Records than the new film does, but again, more on that later...) So scrub off the dirt, dear readers, and dig into this movie- and music-filled weekend. We'll see you a bit further down the road...

photo by Mark Seliger - used with permission October 24, 2025 Editor's note: As promised, here's more great stuff from Columbia Records' former Senior Vice-President of Rock Promotion Paul "Rap" Rappaport, author of the excellent new book Gliders Over Hollywood: Airships, Airplay and the Art of Rock Promotion , which includes many Springsteen-related gems in its contents, not surprisingly. With both   Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska '82: Expanded Edition box-set and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere   officially arriving today, Paul has been kind enough to share with us his personal feelings about Nebraska , as well as a great memory of how he went to bat and played hardball to help Springsteen's offbeat album get its fair share of rock-radio airplay. (Incidentally, everything that "Rap" has written for us this week is distinct additional Springsteen-related content that is not included in Gliders Over Hollywood .) Yet again, Paul Rappaport reveals himself to be not only a master promoter, but also a true believer when it comes to the artistry of Bruce Springsteen, and once more we're honored to publish his writing here. Take it away, Paul... For me, the Nebraska album contains some of Bruce’s best songs, and the rawness of the recordings rings their truth. I suppose that releasing the versions that “didn’t work” for Bruce initially is worthwhile for fans who want to hear the process of creation. I have a tape of “Born To Run” with orchestral strings that were added to see if they enhanced the recording. It’s awful, but it’s interesting to hear, because it gives a glimpse into Bruce’s creative process, working every angle in search of what was best for the song. But I remember once having a conversation with Leonard Cohen about a "Greatest Hits" or "Essential" package that Columbia was releasing. They had talked him into adding an a previously unreleased track. Leonard was none too happy about it. “Paul,” he began frustratingly, “if I thought this track was good enough, I would have included it on one of my albums. But it’s not up to my standard, so I never released it. Now, they are calling it a 'bonus' track!” I’m a music guy, so I understand the curiosity of such things, and I also own my fair share of bootleg recordings. I also know that many Bruce fans have been dying to hear this mystery album for years. I guess it makes sense to release it finally, especially on this date, as it ties so much into the movie that also officially hits theaters today. But for me, sometimes mystery is best. Which brings me to Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere . I am very skeptical of any biopic that is made while an artist is still alive—seems very weird to me. We still have Jon and Bruce and many of the people this film depicts in our lives. We have books, articles, and interviews, so we get a good sense of who these people are and know the parts they played in Bruce’s life and career. To be fair, after seeing Bruce’s heartfelt response to the film and the way his family is portrayed, I think this is good for him and probably good for history. I want the film to be good; I want it to be great . It should be very interesting, as supposedly it is not hagiography. Just the opposite, it seems, because it chronicles a very down part of Bruce’s life, and hopefully will let folks know that even superstars have human hurdles they must clear to live healthy, fulfilled lives. So far I've seen only the trailer, so I don’t really know yet. I just don’t want it to be too "Hollywood." Like everyone else, I’m looking forward to seeing the film. But let’s talk about the original Nebraska . This is one of the most moving albums in rock history. Some would argue that statement, but that’s my belief. When I first listened to Nebraska , I was chilled to the bone. I could feel these characters come to life as real people. I could see them right in front of me like movies playing in my head. Sometimes you don’t need a big band or a big sound to make a statement. Bob Dylan’s world-changing “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’” are just guitar and harmonica. B.B. King can say in one single note what it takes other players twenty notes to say. So, there’s a lot to be said for being frugal when it’s called for. In 1982, I was two years into having been promoted to serve as the new head of album rock promotion for Columbia Records, based in New York. I was having a blast, swinging a big bat, and accomplishing a lot for artists like Bruce, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Journey, Loverboy, Men At Work, and many more. I was really feeling my oats and establishing myself as a major player in the world of rock promotion. At the time, I had two major goals in front of me. One was to get Nebraska played in a meaningful way at mainstream rock radio, and the other was to convince album rock programmers who had been shy to play Billy Joel that Billy was a rocker, even though his big hits had been sing-song ballads. Billy Joel is a very cool guy, so I thought I’d take Billy out to dinner on separate nights with the three biggest rock radio consultants. If they met him, I knew they’d fall in love with the guy, who indeed, is a complete rocker, and also refreshingly down-to-earth. Billy said, “I have a better idea. Bring them to my house in Lloyd Neck (Long Island) and I’ll make dinner for them.” Very cool, indeed. He went on to say, “I’ll-a make-a the pasta.” I found this hysterical, yet very cute, because Billy is Jewish, but liked to pretend he was Italian, seeing as how most of the musicians he worked with were of that family. At any rate, enter my lightbulb idea for my other plan to get rock-radio onboard for Nebraska . The ride to Billy’s from New York City was at least an hour. What better place to play Nebraska individually for each of these three big-time radio consultants than in a quiet, dark limousine, completely private with no distractions? It would be a powerful presentation. I could accomplish both my goals in three successive evenings. One consultant was in charge of sixty rock radio stations, one in charge of thirty, and the other in charge of twenty. Even though the stations they consulted had individual program and music directors, they were highly influenced by what the consultants told them to play and what not to play. Radio folks are always worried that a new sound might cause their listeners to tune out and switch stations. After hearing the entire album, I got the same exact type of response from each of them. “Rap (my nickname,) uh…” stammering, “you know this is a very different sound, and we’re going to have to be very careful about how much we play this on our airwaves.” I was incensed. After hearing Nebraska , that’s all you can tell me?! As I write in my book , I view promotion as an art form, and I have a specific, organic, and creative style of how I turn people on to new music, and accomplish my goals. But every once in a while, I've had to get heavy, and this was the very first time in my career where I had to change my approach. I had to make these guys an offer they couldn’t refuse. Each time I heard that same "very different sound... very careful" kind of comment, I replied in the same exact way. “Are you kidding me?! After what Bruce Springsteen has accomplished with Born to Run , Darkness... , The River , selling millions of albums, having a huge hit single with 'Hungry Heart,' doing four encores a night, and being a core heavy-rotation superstar on your airwaves, you don’t have enough respect to give him the benefit of the doubt?! To have his back on this?!” I was getting madder by the second. “No, no, no, no, no, no. This is Bruce Springsteen; we’re gonna start it off in heavy rotation (minimum four times a day.) And after three or more weeks, then we’ll let the people decide, by requests, how much more they want to hear. And if you don’t do that…you can lose my phone number. Bruce Springsteen has earned the right to this kind of support.” “Rap, Rap, Rap…” Each was shocked. “This isn’t like you.” They knew losing my phone number meant losing Bob Dylan’s phone number, Pink Floyd’s phone number, Aerosmith’s, etc., etc. No more promotions, no more free tickets for their listeners, no more backstage meet and greets. Each one asked the exact same thing: “Are you gonna hold me up?!” “Not for just anyone, but for Bruce Springsteen I will.” They saw the seriousness in my face. Each one knew it was quite unlike me to pull a power play like this. But all three realized how important it was to me, and for Bruce. And each one acquiesced. Nebraska was heard quite clearly on 150 rock radio stations across the country. We sold over one million records. ----- Click here to purchase a copy of Paul Rappaport's excellent book Gliders Over Hollywood: Airships, Airplay and the Art of Rock Promotion . image courtesy of Paul Rappaport - used with permission

October 23, 2025 Last Saturday night, after becoming the initial recipient of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures' Legacy Award , presented to him by Martin Scorsese for being "an artist whose body of work has inspired generations of storytellers and deeply influenced our culture," Bruce Springsteen performed solo-acoustic versions of three of his songs: "Streets of Philadelphia," "Atlantic City," and "Land of Hope and Dreams." As of yesterday, pro-shot videos of all three performances have now been released on Springsteen's official YouTube channel , as well. (Each of those videos is also embedded below for your easy access.) And just before he performed the final song of his beautiful solo-acoustic mini-set, Springsteen said the following: “Of course, as we all know, outside of this lovely world of dreams and entertainment we’re all so fortunate to work in and to be a part of, all hell is breakin’ loose in our beloved United States... For 250 years, around the world, despite our many faults, the United States has stood as the beacon of liberty, democracy, hope, and freedom. Now, I’ve spent fifty years traveling as kind of a musical ambassador for America, and I have witnessed the love and admiration that folks around the world have had for the America of our highest ideals. And despite how terribly damaged America has been recently, that country and those ideals remain worth fighting for. So this is a small prayer for all those folks out in the streets today, and for our country... No kings. This is ‘Land of Hope and Dreams.’ ” After singing the song, Springsteen added, "May freedom ring." Bravo, Bruce, for continuing to be a storyteller who also is a truth -teller. And by the way, folks, our exclusive charity-fundraiser "Spirit of '76" t-shirt, with great artwork by Frank Caruso and 100% of all sales-profits going to one of Bruce's longtime favorite charities, The Kristen Ann Carr Fund , also features some similarly-themed Springsteen words, quoted from earlier this year: "Tonight we ask all who believe in democracy ...to rise with us, raise your voices ...and let freedom ring!" We continue taking pre-orders now, in order to ensure on-time delivery for holiday gift-giving, so if you haven't pre-ordered yours yet, click here to do so NOW! Among the shirt's numerous other attributes, you certainly couldn't find more appropriate attire for the many more "No Kings" events that, unfortunately, are likely to lie ahead for us in the not-too-distant future. ---------- Okay, sing it... and say it... again, please, Bruce. No kings... (from the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures' Fifth Annual Gala - October 18, 2025:)

photo by John Cavanaugh  for The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music  - used w/ permission October 21, 2025 Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere ain't gonna be the only big Bruce-connected cinematic event on the big screen this fall... The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University has announced its premiere screening of the professionally filmed version of its 2025 American Music Honors event. Last April's event honored Joe Ely, John Fogerty, Emmylou Harris, Tom Morello, and Smokey Robinson. The premiere screening will be held on Thursday November 13 at 7:30 pm inside the University's intimate Pollak Theatre, where the sold-out awards event was held earlier this year on April 26. Tickets for the premiere screening (which are only $20 each, plus fees,) will go on sale today , Tuesday October 21, at 1:00 pm ET. Click here to order your tickets , and click here for further information from the Archives' events pages . Letters To You's editor/publisher Shawn Poole was there last April, and afterwards wrote that " the most overtly political American Music Honors event yet" was "a sorely needed shot of hope and sanity on a stage filled with beloved artists and great music. It couldn't have come at a better time." Just under six months later, seeing the professionally filmed version of The American Music Honors 2025 - inside the same venue where it all took place - is very likely to have the same kind of impact on an audience. (Click here to read Poole's full report from last April, accompanied by plenty of John Cavanaugh's great photos, to get a better sense of what the professionally filmed version will have to offer.) photo by John Cavanaugh  for The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music  - used w/ permission

October 20, 2025 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION: It was fifty years ago today that a different image of Bruce Springsteen, in the midst of his breakthrough Born to Run album and tour, appeared on each of the covers of both Time and Newsweek in the same week. The news-magazines, issues of which consistently got dated a week ahead of the date they first hit newsstands, were each dated October 27, 1975 for their respective Springsteen-cover-story issues. In 1975, getting simultaneous Time and Newsweek cover-stories was akin to going viral, and in at least some circles (though not all, as you'll soon read below,) it was considered quite the public-relations coup of its period. To this day, how exactly that happened remains a matter of debate and at least a bit of conjecture. If you ask Springsteen's former manager Mike Appel, he'll tell you he was behind it all (of course.) But it seems much more likely that multiple forces were at play, cosmically syncing up along the way as simultaneously as those cover-stories would appear at the end of the whole process. For example, in his Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story biography , Dave Marsh wrote, "One way or another, Jay Cocks of Time [who'd end up writing Time 's cover story] got wind of Newsweek ’s plans and convinced his editors that they should not be scooped." What Marsh didn't note in print was that it very well might have been Marsh himself who informed and encouraged Cocks - with whom Marsh was friends and shared great enthusiasm for Springsteen's music - regarding Newsweek 's plans. (Incidentally Cocks, who at the time was writing film reviews and other articles on the arts for Time , later would become an accomplished screenwriter. His most recently filmed screenplay was for the Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown .) Meanwhile, photographer Barbara Pyle, in her 2015 book Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band 1975 , wrote, "At what I thought was going to be a routine concert in Red Bank, New Jersey, I was suddenly surrounded by Newsweek editors who wanted to buy my pictures. I would never give those pictures to Newsweek because I was a Time 'stringer.' Monday morning, I went to see my editors and told them that Newsweek was doing a cover on Bruce. It was now or never. The Time illustrator used my photos. That's the true story of how Bruce got the covers of Time and Newsweek in the same week." (The Time cover's illustration of Springsteen, which is based on elements from at least two of Pyle's '75 in-concert photos of Bruce, was created by artist Kim Whitesides. Whitesides' illustration is now among the holdings of The Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery . The Newsweek cover's photo of Springsteen also was taken in concert in '75 by the late photographer Bernard Gotfryd during one of the two October 11, 1975 concerts at what was then Monmouth Arts Center and is now part of The Count Basie Center for the Arts. Gotfryd's cover photo is included in the Bernard Gotfryd photograph collection housed at the Library of Congress .) Enter Columbia Records' former Senior Vice-President of Rock Promotion Paul "Rap" Rappaport, author of the great new book Gliders Over Hollywood: Airships, Airplay and the Art of Rock Promotion , which includes many Springsteen-related gems in its contents, of course. Letters To You recently connected with Rappaport after his appearance at The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music's Born to Run 50th Anniversary Symposium , during which Paul attempted to share onstage something he knew about how the simultaneous cover-stories came to be, which turned out to be a rarely - if ever - heard tale to add to the mix. Unfortunately, Paul never got to share his story onstage that day, but we're pleased and honored to give him the opportunity to do so here today. Take it away, "Rap!" ---------- Paul Rappaport speaking at The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music's Born to Run 50th Anniversary Symposium on September 5, 2025 - photo by Mark Krajnak  for The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music  - used with permission First off, thank you for inviting me to be a part of Letters To You. I, like all of you, am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan and have been ever since Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ  crossed my desk at Columbia Records, in Los Angeles, January of 1973. I was then the local album-promotion manager for L.A. and surrounding areas. I was 25 years old and in my second year at the label, having been a former college rep at UCLA. I’d like to take a moment to set the scene, so you can fully understand everything that went along with the appearance of the two covers appearing simultaneously. In those days, Columbia released a lot of albums, and not all came with a marketing plan. So Greetings... landed on my desk unceremoniously with a small stack of other albums. Although the cover was fascinating, my initial thought was, “A rocker with the name Bruce Springsteen??? Wow, that’s a stretch.” Haha. But when I put the album on, I realized that whoever this Springsteen guy was, he had some important things to say. Shortly after, in February, I went to see Bruce’s L.A.-debut performance at the Troubadour. WOW!! I immediately sent an ecstatic teletypewriter message in the shape of Bruce’s Fender Esquire looking guitar to headquarters in New York. That opened some eyes. After seeing Bruce live, the label didn’t even have to pay me to talk up this new artist. I was off to the races, and the rest of the music industry couldn’t stop me from incessantly raving about Bruce Springsteen. Of course, this kind of reaction happened for Bruce at almost every show, but back then, without an Internet, only a few of us who caught a club gig here and there knew what was about to unfold. I share all of this with you because it’s important context to understand all that went on regarding Bruce’s simultaneous covers on Time and Newsweek . For those of you who weren’t around at that time or too young to be aware of the circumstances, you might think this was a great coup, a wonderful one-two punch that would solidify The Boss’s greatness and catapult him into stardom’s stratosphere. But just the opposite happened. Because Bruce’s early supporters, like myself, couldn’t stop talking about him, many radio programmers and industry media were feeling “overhyped.” Certainly no one could live up to the kind of euphoric charismatic performances that we were continually shouting about, trying to get everyone on board. Most of the West Coast radio programmers I worked with were just plain tired of hearing about Bruce Springsteen. When Time  and Newsweek  hit the newsstands on the exact same day, the uninitiated were convinced this was just one more Columbia Records’ marketing scheme to super-hype Bruce into instant stardom. That kind of uber-coverage backfired. In my world, it was not uncommon to hear, “That’s it, I’ve had it. Don’t ever talk to me about Bruce Springsteen again.” I’m sure to the public at large, two covers at once woke up a lot of folks to Bruce. But those two covers made our jobs within the biz harder. We got through it, with a series of live radio broadcasts, and taking radio programmers, press, retail, and general tastemakers to see Bruce one at a time. But helping Bruce launch his career took waaaaaaay longer than any of us thought it would. Near as I can tell, no one actually planned it that way. It is my belief that the planets aligned to create a happy accident (except for the having-to-work-harder part.) I have now heard three stories about how these simultaneous covers came to be. I have no reason to doubt any of them, but I know something that no one else knows. And, yeah, I thought I’d get to spill the beans during our panel last month, but the conversation got steered away from me. During our panel, Mike Appel spoke about trying to convince both magazines to give Bruce a cover. Knowing Mike, I’m sure he pushed them hard. After our panel, I went back to the green room and met photographer Barbara Pyle, who commented that she knew the head of Time  and warned him that he could be scooped by Newsweek . I don’t doubt her veracity, either, but I also am convinced that what I’m about to share here had a big hand, as well, in what ultimately happened. Paul Rappaport sporting his vintage Born to Run promotional satin jacket (that still fits!) as Rich Russo (left) and Mike Appel (right) smile in the background, at The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music's Born to Run 50th Anniversary Symposium on September 5, 2025 - photo by Mark Krajnak  for The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music  - used with permission At the time, Columbia’s East Coast offices were really pushing for a Newsweek cover. I guess they felt it was the easier of the two to get. The head of East Coast publicity called the West Coast offices, looking for their main publicist, to tell him to work the Newsweek  West Coast offices so they’d be on the same page, pushing for the same thing, doubling the pressure. But that fellow was out to lunch, so they left a message with a young assistant and good friend of mine, Phillippa, a very cool and hip music gal from England. “Flip,” as we used to call her, was newly married, and she and her husband were big fans and readers of Time . When the West Coast publicist came back from lunch, Phillippa completely spaced out that Newsweek  was the play, because Time  loomed so large in her head. When her boss finally returned from lunch, she told him that New York had called to tell him to push Time for a cover! Flip confided this to me many years later, because at the time she didn’t want to get into trouble for giving her boss the wrong message, especially after all the ruckus two covers at once created. Before I went to the Born - to - Run -@-50 symposium at Monmouth University last month, I asked her if I could tell her story. Because so many years have now passed, she laughed and said, “Sure, why not?” Mike was certainly pushing both mags, and he did so much for Bruce that I’d never try to dilute any of it. But I also believe that this behind-the-scenes “assist” happening at just the right time helped to push Time over the edge for that same week. The planets aligned. Voi-freaking-la! Two covers, same day! ---------- Look for more from Paul Rappaport later this week, when he'll relate the tale of how in 1982 he got rock-radio to give NEBRASKA its due by "getting heavy" and staging a "holdup." Stay tuned...

October 11, 2025 Announcing Letters To You's first-ever exclusive, limited-edition, charity-fundraising t-shirt... CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER YOUR SHIRT(S) NOW! IMPORTANT NOTE: You do NOT have to use PayPal, Venmo, or GPay to pay for your order! When you get to our Checkout page, just complete and submit your Customer details and your Delivery details. You then will be given additional payment options, including credit-card and Apple Pay options. Sorry for the confusion; it's due to our website-provider's automated order-form options, which are beyond our control. Thanks for your patience/understanding, and for your support of this project! We are pleased and honored that artist  Frank Caruso , who collaborated with Bruce Springsteen on his Outlaw Pete  quasi-children's book, has allowed Letters To You to turn his "Spirit of '76" artwork, originally unveiled on our website for Bruce's 76th birthday , into an awesome high-quality Bayside unisex preshrunk-cotton t-shirt. Frank's beautiful artwork will be reproduced in full detail, using high-definition digital DTF printing, on shirts that are union-made in the U.S.A. All (100% of) profits from sales of these shirts will be donated to one of Bruce's longtime favorite charities, The Kristen Ann Carr Fund . For a limited time only, we are making the shirt available in two colors, "dark ash" gray (90% preshrunk cotton, 10% polyester) and navy blue (100% preshrunk cotton,) and adult sizes small through 4XL. Below are front-and-back images of the shirt in each available color, along with a sizing chart for easy reference: Each shirt costs only $40, with all shipping, etc. included. Pre-order NOW  to ensure delivery for the upcoming holiday gift-giving season. This is a limited-edition, super-cool Springsteen-themed shirt, supporting a great cause and destined to become especially appropriate for wearing through the coming year, when fans around the world will be celebrating the U.S.A.'s 250th birthday. Again, click here to place your pre-orders  NOW! (Images are for illustrative purposes; final shirt designs may differ, but only slightly.) IMPORTANT NOTE: You do NOT have to use PayPal, Venmo, or GPay to pay for your order! When you get to our Checkout page, just complete and submit your Customer details and your Delivery details. You then will be given additional payment options, including credit-card and Apple Pay options. Sorry for the confusion; it's due to our website-provider's automated order-form options, which are beyond our control. Thanks for your patience/understanding, and for your support of this project!

Charlie Giordano in action at Cowboy Technical Services Recording Rig, in Green Point, Brooklyn, NYC - photo courtesy of Eric “Roscoe” Ambel - used with permission October 13, 2025 Happy 71st Birthday to E Street Band keyboardist Charlie Giordano. Coincidentally, if you flip those digits in "71" around to "17," you'll also get the number of years it's been since Charlie first joined the E Street Band, in the wake of Danny Federici's illness and untimely passing. Charlie has been such a great choice to fill such a difficult role because he's never tried to "play like Danny," but instead has consistently incorporated his own unique musical talent and skills into the E Street sound. Of course, Charlie's been performing with Bruce Springsteen for even longer than seventeen years, thanks to his previous stellar stint in The (Seeger) Sessions Band. And very soon we'll get to hear - and see - Charlie in action with Bruce yet again. It was only Charlie and guitarist Larry Campbell who performed with Springsteen in the special live 2025 full-album performance of Nebraska that was recorded and filmed at Red Bank, NJ's Count Basie Theatre last April for the forthcoming  Nebraska '82: Expanded Edition  box-set . (Incidentally, just in case you haven't heard already, the official release of that box-set has been pushed back a week to Friday, October 24 .) But Charlie also has pursued and continues pursuing many other musical paths besides E Street, and has played with and continues playing with many musicians other than Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. The latest case in point: Charlie's keyboard contributions to the just-released The King of Good Intentions , the debut album by poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter Jon Loomis . We recently connected with Loomis, who told us about his album and how thrilled he was to have Charlie Giordano play on it. "The record was produced by Eric 'Roscoe' Ambel," Loomis began, "at his studio, Cowboy Technical Services Recording Rig, in Green Point, Brooklyn, NYC. Roscoe was the original lead guitarist for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts; he also toured with Steve Earle for several years, and has fronted a bunch of bands including the cult-favorite The Del-Lords, and the equally awesome Yayhoos. He’s also produced scores, if not hundreds, of records over the years, for folks like the late, great Mojo Nixon, The Bottle Rockets, and so on. According to Roscoe, he met Charlie when The Del-Lords were touring with Pat Benatar in the '80s, and Charlie was playing keys for Pat. [Editor's note: We covered the Benatar period of Charlie's long and illustrious career in our 2023 birthday salute to the man, and had some fun doing it, too. Click here to read our archived salute. ] "Charlie and Roscoe have collaborated on a lot of projects together over the years. So that’s how Charlie ended up doing those incredible keyboard parts on three of the tunes on The King of Good Intentions ." Loomis also referred Letters To You directly to Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, who wanted to let our readers and us know the following: "I love Charlie. Love having him at the studio. I kind of reconnected with Charlie through the records that I did with Emily Duff. We usually take a picture of the two of us and send it to Nils Lofgren. I produced Nils’ Crooked Line album. And sometimes to [Pat Benatar's longtime musical/marital partner ] Neil Giraldo, too." The three The King of Good Intentions tracks on which Giordano appears are "Big Ol' Stupid Love," "Anna's Garden," and "Beautiful Wreck." You can click here to listen to and purchase those tracks or the entire album, which is a very impressive debut indeed. "When Roscoe told me that he’d lined up Charlie to play keys on a few of my tunes," adds Loomis, "I think my exact words were 'NO FUCKING WAY!!!' Seriously, I was beyond amazed. Charlie did his parts on the tracks separately at Cowboy Technical, so unfortunately we were never in the studio together, but my mind was blown just by his participation. Then my mind was completely blown a second, third and fourth time, when I got to hear what he’d done. All brilliant, of course, and all recognizably him, somehow. It was like a little taste of the E Street Band had magically made its way onto my record. I continue to be amazed even after listening to those tracks probably a thousand times now; his work is that good. So, huge thanks to Charlie for all the great music. I am, of course, a major fan of 'The Boss' and the E Street Band, which maybe goes without saying, and thanks especially for creating these brilliant keyboard tracks for The King of Good Intentions ! Also, thanks to Eric Ambel for bringing Charlie into the project, and for all the great work he did as producer. It’s been a great experience, and I continue to be blow away by how well it all turned out... Please wish Charlie a very happy birthday for me!" Glad to do so, Jon. On behalf of Jon Loomis , Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, and your many other fans around the globe (ourselves at Letters To You included, of course,) Happy Birthday, Charlie, and best wishes for many more Happy Birthdays to come!

UPDATE (October 11, 2025) - Hey, do you really dig Frank Caruso's awesomely beautiful image below? Now you can WEAR  it, and support one of Bruce Springsteen's longtime favorite charities while doing so. Click here to pre-order your "Spirit of '76" shirts NOW! September 23, 2025 Well, it's now just past midnight in the ET (Eastern Time, or is that "E Street Time?") Zone. So Happy 76th Birthday, Mr. Bruce Springsteen! To get ready to celebrate this special day here at Letters To You, we recently reached out to the great Frank Caruso , who collaborated with Springsteen on his Outlaw Pete quasi-children's book. Frank loved our basic idea of how we thought he could help us to salute Bruce @76, in the same year that the latest Springsteen tour with the E Street Band showed the world what true U.S. bravery, citizenship, and, yes, patriotism look like. Given how skilled and creative an artist Frank Caruso is, he took our basic suggestion and turned it into something even better than we'd imagined he would. So in honor of Bruce Springsteen turning 76 years old today, we're very happy and honored to unveil for the first time anywhere Frank Caruso's brilliantly Bruceified version of Archibald Willard's classic painting Spirit of '76 , aka Yankee Doodle : original artwork created by Frank Caruso and used with his permission How fitting, Bruce, that you should turn 76 in the same year that you and the E Street Band also embodied the freedom-loving patriotism behind that spirit of '76. Thank you for recently and consistently reminding us that this hard land of ours, despite everything that's been going down, remains "a great country with a great people," for summoning at each and every concert this year "the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ‘n’ roll in dangerous times," and for so strongly encouraging "all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism, and let freedom ring!" Thank you, in other words, for once again living up to the best of your work and helping to bring out the best in all of us, at a time when that's so desperately needed. Happy 76th birthday, Bruce, and best wishes for many, many more happy birthdays ahead. Long may you run! UPDATE (October 11, 2025) - Hey, do you really dig Frank Caruso's awesomely beautiful image above? Now you can WEAR it, and support one of Bruce Springsteen's longtime favorite charities while doing so. Click here to pre-order your "Spirit of '76" shirts NOW!