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May 28, 2024 "Born in the U.S.A. changed my life and gave me my largest audience. It forced me to question the way I presented my music and made me think harder about what I was doing." -Bruce Springsteen, Songs He's just over three pages in, still in preface territory, but in There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” and the End of the Heartland, which becomes officially available to all readers today, music-writer Steven Hyden quickly makes it plain just exactly why the upcoming fortieth anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. album, in the same year in which Springsteen will celebrate a landmark 75th birthday, remains such a big, important deal. "Although the question of 'best' Springsteen LP," writes Hyden, "is forever open to subjective judgment, there is no question about which one is most significant. This is true on a macro level— [Born in the U.S.A.] is a landmark in American pop culture, an all-time bestseller that placed Bruce Springsteen at an elevated position more analogous to a national monument than a pop star. It influenced how music sounded in the era, but more than that, it informed the national political discourse as well as the idea that monocultural phenomena can unite different and wide-ranging constituencies. Ultimately, it ensured that the most respected singer-songwriter of the eighties would be the world’s definitive arena rocker well into the next century." For my money, besides of course blasting the album itself and singing along this coming June 4, I can't think of a better way to mark this important anniversary than reading, re-reading, and discussing Hyden's excellent book. (But hey, if vinyl-based re-packaging is your thing, then you do you. No judgment here... seriously; I just strongly encourage you to order a copy of this book in addition to ordering that razzle-dazzle repackage, too.) One big reason that Hyden's book appeals so strongly to me is its relatively fresh and contemporary perspectives on the best-selling Springsteen album and its enduring significance. It probably helps greatly in that regard that Hyden is a decade younger than I am. In 1984, I first experienced Born in the U.S.A. and everything that surrounded it as a seventeen-year-old somewhat "newbie" Springsteen fan. (I really got into his music beginning 'round 1980, but didn't see my first show 'til '84.) Meanwhile, Hyden was first encountering this album - and its creator - as a six-year-old child, initially via the cassette-tape version in his father's car. Age aside, however, Hyden's since grown up to be just one damned smart music-writer, drawing important musical, cultural, and socio-political connections between Born in the U.S.A., what preceded it and what followed it in U.S.-culture-based popular music. Hyden not only looks back as far as Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams; he looks as far forward to, in his words, "the pop and hip-hop behemoths that supplanted rock stars in the twenty-first century." And he sees those connections not just from the perspective of a Springsteen fan following the various twists and turns of Bruce's fifty-plus years of recording and performing in the ever-shifting universe of popular music, but also now of that same fan/critic as an adult citizen and parent still very much concerned about the state of a nation - and planet - where the whole world's still out there, just tryin' to score. Nevertheless, it's certainly a very different world than the one that Born in the U.S.A. entered four decades ago. In some important ways, it's better of course, but in far too many other important ways, it's gotten much worse. "Born In The U.S.A.," Hyden continues in his preface, "now feels like an anachronism. Though if that’s true, why does the album still sound so vital? There are songs on Born in the U.S.A. that are prescient statements about the path America took beyond the eighties and into the twenty-first century. But the overall package evokes longing for an era where we could at least all bond over the greatness of Bruce Springsteen." That last sentence echoes - deliberately, I'm sure, since Hyden references and explores it directly later in the book - Lester Bangs' famous "we will never agree on anything as we agreed on Elvis" line. And then in his concluding paragraph, he previews the destination that anyone who digs as deeply as Hyden does in exploring this album's socio-political impact must eventually reach: "This is an album that managed to capture the center of American life. But the center did not hold. Perhaps it never did." Lester Bangs isn't the only other music-writer whom Hyden cites in his work. For example, he's wise enough to explore some of Ellen Willis' insightful writing about Creedence Clearwater Revival, which prophetically described exactly what Springsteen sought to achieve with Born in the U.S.A.: "Being a best-selling rock band was not enough. A serious rock star not only aspired to entertain the public but to alter its consciousness and so in some sense affect history." Unfortunately, Hyden - like Warren Zanes before him in last year's Deliver Me From Nowhere - also asserts that, upon the release of Nebraska in 1982, rock-critics like Greil Marcus and Dave Marsh erroneously overemphasized the contemporary political aspects of the Springsteen album that directly preceded and remains deeply connected to Born in the U.S.A. The songs on Nebraska, writes Hyden, instead "unfold either as distant memories or as imagined vignettes from another time." Hyden, Zanes, and even Springsteen himself seem to be in accordance on this idea, forgetting or ignoring that in 1982 there was nothing imagined or distant about what happened in "Atlantic City," to name the most obvious example, which also was Nebraska's only version of a U.S. single (actually more like an early version of a "featured track" via its MTV video) and one of the few Nebraska songs consistently performed live on the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. The same could be said about "Johnny 99," which is the Nebraska song that Bruce chose to perform onstage during the same tour's stop in Pittsburgh on September 21, 1984, in direct response to Ronald Reagan having invoked Springsteen's name during a New Jersey re-election campaign stop a few days earlier. ("I kinda got to wondering what his favorite album of mine must've been," said Bruce before performing the song. "I don't think it was the Nebraska album; I don't think he's been listening to this one.") And even Nebraska's songs with distant-memory aspects like "Mansion On The Hill" and "Used Cars" have their last verses set in the present day, with a clear sense that nothing's gotten or getting any better for the song's protagonist or his community. On the other hand, Hyden does an absolutely stellar job of debunking some enduring myths surrounding both Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A. In the book's longest chapter, he skillfully deflates the pretensions and presumptions of those whom he calls the "people who think Nebraska is the best,” including Bruce Springsteen himself, and brilliantly refutes Springsteen's revisionist description of Born in the U.S.A. as merely a "grab bag" album. And yes, all of those Electric Nebraska proselytizers get schooled summarily and succinctly; hallelujah! (In that same chapter, Hyden's extensive research also reminds us of a cinematic influence on Nebraska that not only Warren Zanes missed, but so did we here at Letters To You: 1981's True Confessions, starring DeNiro and Duvall.) Obviously I don't agree with all of Hyden's theories and arguments, given what's written two paragraphs above. I also still fail to understand why Hyden, or anyone else, would use a word like "exuberance" in describing the music made by Springsteen and the E Street Band on Born in the U.S.A.'s title track, which always has sounded appropriately blistering and angry to me, even if I probably didn't get quite all of its lyrics clearly on the first listen or two, lo those many years ago. And at times, Hyden writes about the origins of Nebraska in a way that I feel doesn't make it clear enough just how unintentional an album it was, in spite of its greatness. (This is why it's especially absurd for any other musicians to talk about purposefully making an album like Springsteen made Nebraska, since Springsteen didn't intentionally "make" Nebraska at all. It's the very definition of a happy accident.) In addition, I think he underestimates the enduring importance, purpose, and greatness of Live 1975-85 and its beautifully powerful Bob Clearmountain mix, which incidentally has virtually no "piped-in crowd noise," as Hyden alleges. But disagreements like this (and yes, I have a few more of 'em up my sleeve) are actually part of everything that makes Hyden's book so great. It fits that same wonderful description that Bruce Springsteen provided for popular music itself in his 2012 SXSW keynote address: "a joyous argument-starter... a subject for long, booze-filled nights of debate with [a companion or companions as knowledgeable as somebody like] Steve Van Zandt." Fittingly, the book has a very moving - if not downright heartbreaking - ending, set at Springsteen's March 5, 2023 concert in St. Paul, Minnesota, the city where the Born in the U.S.A. tour began way back in '84. Hyden takes us both inside and outside the venue of that 2023 concert, reflecting on just how far the rock-and-roll dreams that created Born in the U.S.A. - and the dreams that it in turn has inspired - remain so distanced from our present-day reality, even more so than they were four decades ago, of course. As the album itself does, Hyden ends by simply describing as best as he can what currently is, leaving at best just a glimmer of hope as to whether and to what extent Bruce Springsteen and his audience still can do anything about it. In other words, take a good look around...but also remember that you still can't start a fire without a spark. Again, I highly recommend Steven Hyden's There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” and the End of the Heartland as essential reading for anyone interested in Springsteen's enduring, all-time-best-selling album and everything that's accompanied it through the years. Click here to purchase your copy.

June 4, 2024 I just re-listened to Born in the U.S.A., released forty years ago today back in 1984. Yeah, that year, the one we all grew up worrying about since all of us had read George Orwell’s alarming novel, 1984. Afraid that the omnipresent Big Brother would make an appearance, and our lives would never be the same again. But Bruce Springsteen’s best-selling, chart-topping 1984 album was different…Or was it? During my recent listen, my head was filled with vivid images of broken down cars and endless highways, dead end jobs and burned out romances, deserted streets and hard luck towns. Aching hearts... unrequited love…lust and hopelessness. Many of us share happier Born in the U.S.A. reveries and memories, as well. But recently as I listened again, and I mean really listened, I recognized that Born in the U.S.A.—the entire album, and not just its oft-misinterpreted title track—really could be about old soldiers like me, guys in our thirties in the 1980s, trying to navigate America after we’d spent the best years of our youth at war, both in Vietnam and back home in a divided America. And, crazily, all of what’s in Born in the U.S.A. hits me harder now, as I turn 77 in 2024. Not just because of that brutal, divisive, unwinnable war that I and others of my generation were sent to fight, but because America has become the gloomy, dystopian place Springsteen portrays in much of Born in the U.S.A. His is a world of lost love, hard work, and the staggered pursuit of happiness. Even the humor—and there is humor in Born in the U.S.A.—reminds me of the gallows humor we used as a coping mechanism in Vietnam when you had to find something to laugh about in the absurdity of that ugly war. That's why the Country Joe & The Fish song, “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin'-to-Die Rag,” was so popular with us GIs. “Ain’t no time to wonder why/Whoopee, we’re all gonna die…” Glory days indeed… I kept trying to tell myself I was wrong, that I was overreacting, much as I had when I came home from Vietnam and was so angry at my country. That helped to explain why, like so many of the narrators in the Born in the U.S.A. songs, I would get in my car and try to drive away the pain and the hurt. Go searching for something that would give me a reason to live. And, for many of us Vietnam vets, we found that hope and sustenance in a woman. Someone who didn’t judge or question but listened. Held us tight and got us through the night. Nowhere is that accentuated better than in “Cover Me:” “I’ve seen enough, I don’t want to see any more; cover me…” Our wives/lovers did that for us. Covered us with their love. Protected us. Brought us back home. And they did that each and every day… Lord knows we needed it. After all, we were born in the U.S.A. It was our hometown, our playground, in the 1950s and 1960s. We sat on our World War II daddies' laps and felt their surge of relief, hope, and optimism. We did what we were told and pledged allegiance to the flag. And when Uncle Sam told us we had to follow in our fathers' footsteps and go and stop Communism in Southeast Asia, three million of us did. Little did we know that we were “goin’ down,” that being a soldier in Vietnam and a Vietnam veteran bought you a ticket on that “downbound train.” That we were all on fire, needed a spark. We were guns for hire, alright, but was the joke on us? Where was the U.S.A. when we needed it? Now I don’t quite know if I dreamed all of that, or if I actually felt that way when I first heard Born in the U.S.A. in 1984. Or even if I finally realized it all when I just recently played the album again. And again... And again... “There’s a war outside still raging..." Was that then, 1984, or is it now? Don’t we all still want to "sleep beneath peaceful skies?” “Time slips away and leaves you with nothing…” I know this better now in my late seventies than I did forty years ago in my late thirties. And just as I did back then, I still often feel like turning out the light, bolting the door, and going out there no more. But then I look around, at today, and I say, no, not yet. Forty years on, we still need to listen, to heed the warnings of both Springsteen and Orwell. To speak out and stand up. In 1984, Orwell warned us about Newspeak, how it would control our minds, believing that war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength. And Bruce reminds us that we’d not only lost our innocence but we also lost the American dream. That part of being born in the U.S.A. is a struggle against brutality and injustice. That’s why we have to keep on fighting, no matter how many times we hit the ground. So I join arms with Bruce, with my Vietnam brothers and sisters, reminding the U.S.A. that I’m still a soldier in the winter’s night, and I still have a vow to defend. No retreat, baby; no surrender. ---------- Vietnam veteran Doug Bradley is the author of Who’ll Stop the Rain: Respect, Remembrance, and Reconciliation in Post-Vietnam America, co-author with Craig Werner of We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War, which was named best music book of 2015 by Rolling Stone magazine, and author of DEROS Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle, now also available as an audiobook. His music-based memoir, The Tracks of My Years, will be released by Legacy Book Press in the spring of 2025.

June 3, 2024 Seattle-based Gillian Gaar is one of the premier rock journalists of the rock’n’roll era. She’s been doing the work for forty years, publishing countless articles for periodicals like Rolling Stone, Mojo, and No Depression, and nearly twenty books, beginning with She's A Rebel: The History of Women in Rock and Roll in 1992. She's written liner notes for the likes of Judy Collins and Laurie Anderson. She also was a senior editor for the seminal Seattle music journal The Rocket, published by Backstreets magazine founder Charles R. Cross. Her most recent book, Bruce Springsteen @75, was published by Motorbooks in April, in advance of Springsteen's landmark birthday this coming September. Motorbooks is a division of Quarto, a British publisher that specializes in large format “coffee table” style books, and was, as the name implies, originally focused on content dealing with cars and motorcycles. Bruce Springsteen @ 75 is part of a recent initiative launched in part by executive editor Dennis Pernu, who began a music-book program at the imprint in 2021 with Fender 75 Years. The program is designed to provide a retrospective view of artists who, in addition to their longevity, have both cross-generational and international appeal, charting the highs and lows of their careers by highlighting significant events in sequential order. So, while these books might not always satisfy hardcore fans, they should not be dismissed out of hand. Bruce Springsteen @ 75  is the work of a writer who is most definitely not a lifelong fan, but the perspective of a “Bruce outsider” is valuable. They see things that longtime fans don’t notice, question things that are taken for granted, and can bring under-examined topics to the forefront, like Bruce’s From My Home to Yours radio shows on SiriusXM, or his friendship with former President Barack Obama and the podcast and book that resulted. Gaar knows how to conduct research, and it shows. There are tidbits scattered throughout the book that even the most dedicated fans may not be familiar with (details from former manager Mike Appel’s memoir, for example), from a variety of sources not often seen in a “coffee table” book, like dozens of magazine articles from the U.S. and abroad. And while she cites Dave Marsh’s groundbreaking work, there is not the overreliance on his pair of in-depth biographies from which previous publications have suffered. Gaar had written an earlier book on Bruce for another Quarto imprint, Voyageur Press, with the somewhat unwieldy title Boss: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band—The Illustrated History. This helped her in securing the opportunity to do the @ 75 book, which she was interested in writing because she already had done so much work on Bruce’s career and had read his Born to Run memoir, which she found revelatory. "...His memoir," Gaar told me during our recent conversation about both her newest Springsteen book and her work in general, "which I was really impressed with - I think anyone who’s interested in rock music in the ‘70s and ‘80s would probably enjoy it even if they are not necessarily a Bruce fan. I was impressed with how... What really comes across is how thoughtfully he thinks about his work and his craft, and you don’t often hear rock musicians talking about creating things that way. I mean, you might expect it from someone like David Bowie, who obviously had this keen artistic sensibility, but you wouldn’t necessarily think of it from a rock and roller like Bruce, and yet you do get that. It showed how carefully he considered things, and chose what he was going to do next. ‘Well I’ve done this kind of music for long enough, I want to get into some other areas.’ And just how - you almost want to say [he was] just consumed by it. Because really when you think about it, he was one of the few people I’ve written about in depth - maybe the only one - who never really had a day job [laughs]. You know, throughout his whole life. You know, even Kurt Cobain worked as a janitor and he would get tired and just walk off his jobs and maybe get fired at times, but he has [had] them, you know. And I don’t think Bruce really had any other kind of job but music." There are not any photos in Bruce Springsteen @ 75 that one could call rare, which is rather frustrating since that’s a big selling point for large format books. This is not Gaar’s fault, however. The task of locating, selecting and licensing photos was farmed out to a design company, which she says was “a relief” since “it’s hard tracking down images.” And while the book is remarkably error-free, there are definitely some notable factual omissions. You won’t find coverage of career highlights like his memorable appearance at JazzFest in 2006, or of his support for the Jersey Shore music scene and dozens of guest appearances at seminal venues like The Fast Lane, The Stone Pony, and Big Man’s West. And there is no discussion of rehearsal shows and holiday shows at Convention Hall, or of his decades-long commitment to the Light of Day benefit series, either. There are some offbeat inclusions in the book, as well. For example, a 2016 appearance on Desert Island Discs (a British radio show that’s been aired since 1942) in which Bruce chooses eight recordings he’d take with him to a desert island. “Well, it was just something people might not necessarily know about, and I've always been an Anglophile,” she explained. However, it’s clear that Gaar has done some thinking about musicians and their careers, and about the music business in general, and is interested in how Bruce fits into that world. She’s concerned with how artists with lengthy careers maintain fan interest and how their artistic choices affect their relationship with them over time. Bruce has definitely made choices that have challenged and confounded some fans: touring with different band lineups, solo shows, and more recently, the Broadway gig. "The show on Broadway - that was that kind of residency," said Gaar during her recent conversation with me. "I think also, he just liked the different setting. He liked to present the songs in a different way that was just him [by himself,] as opposed to when he goes out on the road with the band. I would think as long as his health is pretty good, he will probably continue to make those kinds of live performances because of what you get from doing a live show with a band like that. The interaction with the audience, but the band as well, which is different from a solo show; [as a performer] you get more out of it. So I don't know if he’ll ever completely leave that, but it’ll be interesting to see what he does with records, because he no longer has to put out any new records, but he's obviously a thinking individual who cares about a lot of things and probably has things he'd like to say to a larger audience, so I think that’s the impetus for continuing to write songs. But it must be kind of a relief that you don't have to worry about its chart position or something." When it comes down to it, this is not an essential book for fans by any means. But you’re not buying this book for detailed analysis. It’s a “coffee table” book, an overview, a collection of thumbnail sketches. And it’s the work of a veteran, dedicated writer who takes her work seriously, and a great place to begin if you’re just starting to dip into Bruce’s career. Bearing all of that in mind, take a look; you won’t be disappointed. ---------- You can click here to purchase a copy of Bruce Springsteen @75. You also can click here and here to learn more about Gillian Gaar via her social-media platforms.

May 26, 2024 As per the official announcement made earlier today: Again, here's hoping that you're feeling better as soon as possible, Bruce.

May 25, 2024 As per the official announcement, via Bruce Springsteen's Facebook page: Here's hoping that you're feeling better as soon as possible, Bruce!

May 23, 2024

May 22, 2024 Today Joe Ely, the great Texas-based singer-songwriter and longtime friend of Bruce Springsteen, officially announced the August 2 release of his next album, Driven To Drive. In conjunction with the announcement, Ely also released the first advance single from the album, "Odds of the Blues," featuring supporting vocals by Springsteen. "Driven to Drive is Ely’s first road album," reads the official announcement posted on Joe's website, "featuring a collection of songs inspired by his travels from different eras of his illustrious career which spans five decades. Along with the announcement, he has shared the official video for the album’s first single 'Odds of the Blues' (feat. Bruce Springsteen). The video was directed by Matthew Eskey and pulls from home video footage shot by Joe Ely, his wife Sharon and their families over the years." (You can watch it below:) While the video's anachronous mix of Super-8-film-style framing and effects with obviously videotaped vintage footage is at least a bit off-putting, who really cares when the music's this good? Ely and Springsteen blend together very well on this tasty slice of country-blues-rock. “I got the idea for the song from hanging out at an all night after hours joint on the edge of east Lubbock called TV's," says Ely in the official announcement. "[T]here was always a dice game in the back room, the pool table had a bad lean, and the jukebox mainly played old blues songs. I wrote the song later when I put my studio together in Austin. I asked Bruce recently if he would like to sing with me on this song and he said he’d love to. We’ve been long lost friends for a long time. One of my memories of us singing together was in Dublin, Ireland when we both got on stage with Jerry Lee Lewis and Shane MacGowan and sang ‘Great Balls of Fire.’” In anticipation of today's announcement/video-drop, last night Joe Ely's official Facebook page also posted this additional video memory from the autumn of 2001, featuring Ely and Springsteen delivering a great live version of "All Just To Get You," Ely's song that they recorded together for his 1995 album Letter to Laredo: Click here to purchase/stream "Odds of the Blues" and click here to pre-order Driven to Drive.

May 21, 2024 Filmmakers Thom Zimny (the award-winning director, editor, and archivist who is also Bruce Springsteen's longtime film/video collaborator and the director of the upcoming Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band,) and Frank Marshall (who's produced an astounding number of famous films directed by Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich and others, and launched his own impressive feature-length-documentary-directing career with 2020's The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart,) have co-directed The Beach Boys, streaming exclusively on Disney+ beginning this Friday, May 24, 2024... just in time for Memorial Day Weekend, the unofficial beginning of summer here in the U.S. (How appropriate!) The Beach Boys features never-before-seen footage and all-new interviews with The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, David Marks, and Bruce Johnston, interwoven with archival audio and images of the late Carl and Dennis Wilson. There's new interview footage of 1972-73 member Blondie Chaplin, as well, and archival audio of the late 1972-74 member Ricky Fataar. In addition, new interview footage of other famous musicians who've been greatly influenced by The Beach Boys is included, featuring segments with Lindsey Buckingham (who also did a bit of songwriting with Brian Wilson back in the eighties,) Janelle Monae, Ryan Tedder, and Don Was (who also has worked extensively with Brian Wilson on several of his solo projects over the years.) The Beach Boys was produced with the cooperation and support of all surviving band members and the estates of those who have passed. “I’m super happy with the way the documentary turned out," said Brian Wilson upon the completion of the film. "They did an amazing job. It really brought me back to those days with the boys, the fun and the music. And of course, those incredible harmonies.” The film was scored by Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, who previously scored Zimny's films Elvis Presley: The Searcher and The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash. "I love working with Mike," Zimny recently told us via email. "He always brings so many surprises to the film. He's an amazing composer, and I hope to do a lot more films with him." The Beach Boys also marks the first time that Frank Marshall and Thom Zimny have directed a film together. Marshall and Zimny previously worked together in a producer-director relationship on The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash. Recently the two filmmakers were kind enough to join Letters To You in recording a special podcast, during which they discussed with us their new film after letting us screen it in advance, as well as the enduring influence and importance of The Beach Boys. (Zimny even teased a bit his next upcoming project with Springsteen, shortly before the official Road Diary announcement was made on May 14.) You can listen to the podcast via our SoundCloud and YouTube platforms, using the embedded links below: Of course, The Beach Boys' music has greatly influenced the music of Bruce Springsteen, as well. And there's no better time than right now - with the official release of The Beach Boys upon us - to grab our swimsuits, head to the beach, and take a deep dive into that sweet intersection of Paradise Cove and Asbury Park: It all starts with The Beach Boys' songs, of course, and the various lyrical and musical influences that can be heard in the music that Bruce Springsteen - who certainly had many of those great Beach Boys records embedded into his adolescent musical mix - made on his own records years later. Here, then, are the key Beach Boys-influenced Springsteen tracks that stand out for us... In terms of lyrical influence and connection, there's absolutely nothing that can top The Beach Boys' classic "Don't Worry, Baby," in relation to Springsteen's "Racing in the Street." In fact, the lyrics of "Racing..." could be heard very much as a straight-up "sequel" to "Don't Worry, Baby," moving the story and characters in "Don't Worry, Baby" forward to its heartbreaking conclusion. Both songs are sung in the first-person voice of an auto-racer, with verses focusing on the unnamed woman with whom he's fallen in love. Whether Bruce actually meant them to be heard as the same characters or not, what's much more important is that in each song, the auto-racing takes on much deeper psychological, psychosexual, and metaphorical meanings. That deeper psychological - and often melancholy - lyrical aspect of Beach Boys ballads like "Don't Worry, Baby," "In My Room," and "The Warmth of the Sun" also can be found in the lyrics of Springsteen songs like "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," "Independence Day," "My Hometown," and "This Depression," to name a few prime examples. There's also the lingering possibility that the lyrics of The Beach Boys' single "Wendy" might have helped to inspire the name of the woman in "Born to Run." Yes, we are well aware of the "Peter-Pan-poster-on-Bruce's-bedroom-wall" theory, but in that same bedroom he also had "a 45 player right next to his bed so that he could just roll over and put a song on without having to get up." And maybe, just maybe, one of those 45s included The Beach Boys' "Wendy." Actual and potential lyrical connections are one thing, but it wasn't until much later in Bruce Springsteen's career - the 21st Century, actually - that The Beach Boys' musical influence became a strong one, though in the late 1980s and early 1990s you could hear some of it creep in on occasion. Case in point: "All That Heaven Will Allow" from 1987's Tunnel of Love, which sounds like it actually could've been a single by The Beach Boys. The live versions of "All That Heaven Will Allow" performed on the 1988 Tunnel of Love Express Tour expanded this connection, with Beach Boys-style backing vocal harmonies provided by the players in The Horns of Love. And on Springsteen's very next studio album, 1992's Human Touch, the title track's keyboard interludes and vocals, as well as the arrangement of "I Wish I Were Blind," owe a lot to Brian Wilson's groundbreaking work in the studio. More than fifteen years later, with another pair of back-to-back albums, Magic and Working On A Dream, Bruce totally let loose his inner Brian Wilson at last. Tracks like "Your Own Worst Enemy," "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," "This Life," and "Kingdom of Days" often sound very much like the best of Wilson's work, both with The Beach Boys and on his own. And on "This Life" especially, Max Weinberg channels his inner Hal Blaine, the late, great Wrecking Crew drummer who became a key Brian Wilson/Beach Boys collaborator in the studio, while Springsteen and a group of E Streeters deliver their best Beach Boys imitation on the track's closing harmonies. Speaking of Working On A Dream, in regards to its opening track, plenty of – ahem – musically under-informed folks (including Gene Simmons himself) have incorrectly claimed that part of the melody of Springsteen’s song “Outlaw Pete” was swiped from KISS’s 1979 disco hit “I Was Made For Lovin’ You.” Bruce, however, explained to Rolling Stone that he actually was “ripping off” The Beach Boys’ 1967 track “Heroes and Villains,” which of course means that KISS ripped off The Beach Boys, too. Springsteen's next all-new studio album after Working On A Dream, 2012's Wrecking Ball, also featured an opening track with a small but apparent nod to The Beach Boys. That synthesized siren sound at the beginning of "We Take Care Of Our Own" sounds very much like the theremin riff that opens The Beach Boys' "Wild Honey." Over the years, there also have been a few other notable Beach Boys/Bruce Springsteen intersections that occurred onstage, rather than in the studio. The 1973 and 1976 versions of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band occasionally added a bit of their take on a Beach Boys classic - either "Fun, Fun, Fun" or "Be True To Your School," depending on the night - to their performances of "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)." On June 1, 1985 at Bruce's first-ever concert in Ireland, which also was his first public performance as a married man, and featured what at that point was his largest concert audience ever, with an estimated 90,000 to 100,000 people in attendance, he performed a one-time-only full-length solo acoustic cover of The Beach Boys’ “When I Grow Up (To Be A Man).” And check out this excerpt from Springsteen’s speech inducting Jackson Browne into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Class of 2004: “The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, they gave us California as Paradise, and Jackson Browne gave us Paradise Lost. Now I always imagine, what if Brian Wilson, long after he'd taken a bite of that orange that the serpent offered to him... what if he married that nice girl in ´Caroline, No´ - I always figured that she was pregnant anyway - and what if he moved into the valley and had two sons? One of them would have looked and sounded just like Jackson Browne. Cain, of course, would have been Jackson's brother-in-arms, Warren Zevon. We love you, Warren. But, Jackson... To me, Jackson was always the tempered voice of Abel, toiling in the vineyards, here to bear the earthly burdens, confronting the impossibility of love, here to do his father's work.” Bruce also has performed twice as a guest with Brian Wilson and His Band, both times in New Jersey: *May 12, 2007 - The Brian Wilson Benefit Concert for The Count Basie Theatre Foundation - Red Bank, NJ (guitar on "Barbara Ann" and harmony vocals on "Love and Mercy") Springsteen and Wilson also co-autographed a Challenger surfboard that sold for $7,500 at the pre-concert charity auction. *July 1, 2015 - The PNC Bank Arts Center - Homdel, NJ (harmony vocals on "Barbara Ann" and backing guitar on "Surfin' U.S.A.") And as far as any Beach Boys members ever performing any Springsteen material, that's happened twice in the recording studio. The 1991 version of The Beach Boys provided beautiful, wordless backing harmonies on the Mighty Max & Friends/Killer Joe version of Springsteen's instrumental "Summer On Signal Hill," and in 2003 Mike Love recorded his Beach Boys-styled version of "Hungry Heart" for the various-artists album A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen. But back to Bruce Springsteen paying tribute to The Beach Boys, rather than the other way around... In the studio, onstage, and even at the movies, Bruce Springsteen repeatedly has expressed his love for The Beach Boys and, especially, Brian Wilson:

May 18, 2024 The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music (BSACAM)'s monthly Conversations with our Curator series continues in May, with BSACAM Curator Melissa Ziobro in conversation online with author and scholar Kenneth Womack. Womack will discuss his latest book, Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans (also available in a UK edition.) Evans was The Beatles' road manager, personal assistant, and devoted friend for the entire course of their historical career, and into their post-breakup solo years. He was preparing to publish his memoirs before his tragic, violent death in 1976. Womack was granted full access to Evans' unpublished archives, and also conducted hundreds of new interviews, in order to write the first full-length biography of Evans. Womack also has continued working with Evans' family, with plans afoot to follow up the Living the Beatles Legend biography with full publication of Evans' diaries and manuscripts. This Conversations with our Curator event will take place this coming Thursday, May 23, beginning at 7pm ET. As is customary with the Conversations with our Curator series, Ziobro's online conversation with Womack will be followed by an audience Q&A session. Registration to attend this online event is free and open to the public. Click here to register. All past Conversations with our Curator events also are archived at BSACAM's YouTube channel. Click here to view the Archives' Conversations with our Curator  YouTube playlist.

May 14, 2024 As per this afternoon's official announcement , Hulu and Disney+ will stream exclusively Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band beginning in October of this year. The exact premiere date is yet to be announced. [UPDATE: On September 5, it was announced that the film will have its Hulu/Disney+ streaming premiere on October 25.] More details from today's official announcement: "Springsteen and The E Street Band offer the most in-depth look ever at the creation of their legendary live performances in the new documentary featuring unprecedented, behind-the-scenes access to their 2023-2024 world tour. " Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band opens a new door to Springsteen’s creative process for fans around the world, sharing fly-on-the-wall footage of band rehearsals and special moments backstage — as well as hearing from Springsteen himself. "These conversations follow Springsteen closely as he develops the story he wants to tell with this tour’s setlist — interspersed with rare archival clips of The E Street Band, underscoring themes of life, loss, mortality and community. In this way, it serves as an essential and never-before-seen chapter in an autobiographical series spanning Springsteen’s memoir Born to Run , Springsteen on Broadway , and the films Western Stars and Letter to You ." Not surprisingly, this new film - just like Springsteen on Broadway and Letter to You before it - is directed by Springsteen’s longtime film/video collaborator, Thom Zimny (who also co-directed Western Stars with Springsteen) and is produced by Zimny, Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen, Adrienne Gerard and Sean Stuart. Also from today's announcement: "The film begins with a one-of-a-kind look at the band’s preparation process, following them from their earliest rehearsals in Red Bank, New Jersey, to performances for tens-of-thousands across continents. All the while, fans get the chance to experience professionally shot footage from the 2023-2024 tour for the first time ever — in addition to hearing firsthand from band members about performing on stage with Springsteen and how they keep the magic of The E Street Band as potent as ever." We at Letters To You look forward to sharing more news about Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band  as it becomes available. Stay tuned...

May 9, 2024 Fifty years ago tonight, Jon Landau saw his second Bruce Springsteen concert, just under a month after seeing his first (and first meeting Springsteen) at the long-gone Charlie’s Place in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On this second in-concert encounter, Landau watched Bruce and his band open for Bonnie Raitt at Cambridge's Harvard Square Theatre, also long gone. After that May 9, 1974 show, Landau went home and wrote “Growing Young With Rock and Roll,” his essay-as-concert-review for the long-defunct Boston-area alternative weekly newspaper The Real Paper that contained this now-famous (and, certainly 'round these parts, now-prophetic) sentence: “I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” Barry Schneier was the only professional photographer to have captured images from that historical evening. To celebrate the evening's fiftieth anniversary in high style, he's produced fifty "Gold Anniversary Edition" prints of "For You," one of his greatest images from May 9, 1974. It's a "very special limited edition," as Schneier's website notes, "to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the night Bruce Springsteen was hailed as 'Rock and Roll Future.' A 10” x 17” print in a custom 16” x 20” gallery matte. Each image is printed with real gold in the toning solution, giving it a higher than typical archival quality." Click here for details on how to purchase a "Gold Anniversary Edition" print of "For You." The "For You" image also serves as the cover-image of Bruce Springsteen: Rock and Roll Future, the beautiful 2019 photo-essays book that Barry Schneier produced in collaboration with Chris Phillips of Backstreets. If you don't own a copy of this book already, we strongly encourage you to click here to buy one (or more, for any loved ones who also would enjoy the book.) Finally, check out today's 50th-anniversary-video posted on Bruce Springsteen's official social-media sites, featuring many of Barry Schneier's photographs from May 9, 1974:

May 7, 2024 From our friend Bob Crane at Save Tillie: Since the demolition of Palace Amusements in Asbury Park twenty years ago, the one big lingering question has been this: Would we ever again see the surviving artifacts rescued from the walls of the historic amusements arcade – artifacts that include the backdrop for the famous early photo (above) of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band? As of last Saturday, there is a sliver of hope. On May 4, Preservation New Jersey, the state’s leading preservation organization, announced that it has added the Palace artifacts to its list of 10 Most Endangered Places for 2024. Endangered? Absolutely. Back in 2004, the State of New Jersey signed a deal that led to the demolition of "the Palace," a century-old arcade listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The deal was imperfect, but it contained an explicit promise. In exchange for lucrative waterfront development rights, developers pledged preservation and reuse of the artifacts. Twenty years on, the artifacts have never been brought back. Three large wall murals are in a wooden shed. Twenty-six decorative metal letters are said to be piled up in the notoriously neglected Convention Hall complex. A 75-year-old wooden door, drenched by Super Storm Sandy, is stashed in a beach front pavilion. Several artifacts have disappeared and have never been found. Three times over the years, the artifacts were inspected by a prominent conservationist, who most recently found evidence of serious deterioration. Why has this happened? Because the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection created a loophole in the deal, requiring preservation and reuse but leaving off a required end date. This has allowed developers to leave the artifacts in storage, facing demolition by neglect. In a May 4 statement, Save Tillie, the long-time Palace advocacy group, said that “when historically significant artifacts are destroyed through neglect or demolition, they are gone forever. Every loss chips away at the unique character of a community.” It is imperative, the group added, that “state officials undertake a long, hard, unbiased review of the deal, made in 2004, that has allowed the artifacts to be pushed to the brink of irretrievability.” The future of the artifacts remains uncertain, but with last Saturday’s announcement, a spotlight now shines on the endangered artifacts. Preservation New Jersey officials promised technical assistance and support for the fight to preserve the artifacts. Stay tuned... Letters To You continues our strong support of the longtime effort to preserve these important historical artifacts, and will continue informing our readers of what they, especially those who are citizens of New Jersey, can do to help. Again, as Bob wrote above, stay tuned...