Search Results

October 19, 2024 On October 19, 1974, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performed a sold-out, two-hours-plus show at Union College's Memorial Chapel in Schenectady, NY, as the headlining act for the college's homecoming weekend. “It was just an unbelievable performance,” recalls Union College Class of 1975 graduate Chris Fink, who also was the chair of the college's social committee, which booked the concert. “The whole energy of the show. He just blew us away. People filed out of the chapel almost quietly, as if they knew they had experienced something they had never seen before. It was like, wow, I think I just saw something special.” In celebration of the concert's fiftieth anniversary today, Union College's website has just posted a great extensive history of the concert and its lasting impact on many of its attendees, enhanced with photos and memorabilia from the night in question. It also explores some of the behind-the-scenes drama that preceded the show, such as the social committee's debate over whether to book Springsteen or Billy Joel, and the intense pre-show soundcheck that strained the chapel's power supply and (slightly) damaged its ceiling. Click here to read "Spirit in the Night: 50 years ago, Springsteen delivers an unforgettable performance at Union." -Special thanks to Phillip J. Wajda, Director of Media and Public Relations @ Union College

October 16, 2024 [UPDATE - Full video of Springsteen's and Bryan's conversation has been shared by Rolling Stone via its YouTube channel. Scroll below to view the embedded video.] The 2024 edition of Rolling Stone 's "Musicians on Musicians" series launches with Bruce Springsteen and Zach Bryan engaged in a lengthy conversation recorded last April at Springsteen's home-studio (in the midst of the recording session for their "Sandpaper" duet,) and moderated by Rolling Stone writer Brian Hiatt. A transcript of the conversation, accompanied by Danny Clinch's photography, is available wherever you can find a copy of Rolling Stone 's latest issue, which features a Clinch portrait of Bryan and Springsteen on its cover. Subscribers also can read the transcript - or watch video of the conversation - and view Clinch's photos online by clicking here . Springsteen and Bryan chat extensively about songwriting, stardom, genre-pigeonholing, and... yes, even some politics. Though their comments date from last April, they haven't lost a bit of relevance. "There is so much pessimism and division in the U.S. right now," says moderator Hiatt. "I’m wondering, as two great American songwriters, if there is any degree of optimism from the two of you about the chances of us overcoming all of that." "Big question," replies Springsteen. "I don’t know. My take on it is it’s bad, but it’s going to get better. I will sit here and I will predict again, Donald Trump will not be the next president of the United States. Of course, I went all across Europe saying that the last time, and I was wrong. It’s hard to read because sometimes I think, 'Gee, I led my life a certain way. It rolled out a certain way, and maybe that has something to do with why I remain hopeful.' And I just think that generationally, I still feel hopeful. I think we’re going to get past the degree of division that’s in the country right now, and move on to something else—" "Gratitude, maybe?," asks Bryant. "I have absolutely nothing brilliant to say about this, so I’m bailing," responds Springsteen. "So, I’m 28," says Bryant, a veteran of the U.S. Navy. "I don’t have that much experience. I’m neither one way or the other. I served my country for eight, nine years. I think America ebbs and flows, and it always has. Always will. I’m tired of everyone arguing. It’s about time people were just thankful to be American. ’Cause personally, I’m so grateful I get to wake up in a country that’s free. It’s really special to be in a country where there’s so many different people and so many different parties and so many people that have an opportunity to come together and be kind to each other and respect each other’s backgrounds. There’s people that have died defending our rights. Men and women have died for these things, and we just are, like, pissed about what?...Being free enough to say everything we feel? It’s weird. It’s strange. It blows my mind all the time. And I’m just thankful." Springsteen expresses his agreement and adds, "That’s as political as we’re gonna get!" Click here for complete Rolling - Stone -subscribers-only online access to Zach Bryan Meets Bruce Springsteen: ‘I Never Thought I’d Be Sitting Here With You’ - Two great American songwriters get together in New Jersey and go deep on the perils of stardom, classic country, the importance of moms, and the troubled state of the union by Brian Hiatt, with photographs by Danny Clinch. UPDATE - Rolling Stone 's YouTube channel has posted the complete video of Springsteen's and Bryan's April 2024 conversation. Here it is:

October 16, 2024 Tickets remain available for the premiere screening of The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University 's filmed version of its 2024 American Music Honors ceremony. The ceremony took place last April in Monmouth University's Pollak Theatre. This year's honorees were Jackson Browne, Dion, John Mellencamp, and Mavis Staples. The honorees' inductions were presented by Jon Landau (inducting Browne,) Darlene Love (inducting Staples,) Bruce Springsteen (inducting Mellencamp,) and Stevie Van Zandt (inducting Dion.) The evening also featured musical performances from all of the honorees and inducting musicians, backed by Little Steven's Disciples of Soul serving as the house band. You can click here to read Letters To You editor/publisher Shawn Poole's firsthand account of this year's ceremony. Fittingly, the premiere screening of the filmed version also will take place in Monmouth University's Pollak Theatre (located in West Long Branch, NJ) on Friday, November 1, with doors opening at 7:30 p.m. ET. General-admission tickets are only $25 each, with all proceeds supporting The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University. Click here to purchase your tickets online.

October 15, 2024 The ABC News Studios/George Stephanopoulos Studios television special, featuring Stephanopoulos' exclusive new interview with Bruce Springsteen, will have its broadcast debut this Sunday, October 20 at 10:00 p.m. EDT, and begin streaming the next day on Hulu and Disney+. Click here to read the official ABC News announcement , and watch the official trailer below:

October 15, 2024 Bruce Springsteen was a surprise musical guest at Sunday night's 30th Anniversary fundraising gala for the USC Shoah Foundation , held in New York City. He delivered solo-acoustic versions of two of his songs: "The Ghost of Tom Joad" and "Dancing in the Dark." The USC Shoah Foundation was launched in 1994 to record audio-visual histories from survivors of the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah. More recently, the USC Shoah Foundation has established the Countering Antisemitism Laboratory to research, record, and address modern-day versions of antisemitism, including Hamas' deadly October 7, 2023 attacks. At one point during his mini-set, Springsteen joked a bit about occasionally having been incorrectly presumed to be Jewish himself. “I actually was Bruce Springstein for the first year or two of my career," he told his audience. "Everywhere I went — I pull up to the club. ‘Welcome Bruce Springstein.’ This happened as late as a month ago. I’m not joking.” (You can click below for some "living proof:") Bruce also wasn't joking when he talked about why he has long supported the USC Shoah Foundation's important and ongoing work. “The work of collecting the personal testimony and the voices of those who’ve witnessed history," he said, "has just something in common with the work that songwriters, filmmakers... all artists do to understand and to create our real and imagined worlds. We follow the ghosts of history. We listen for the voices of the past to take us into the future, and we lean into their stories and listen to them.” Click below for access to more coverage of this important event (including pro-shot photos and video) from our friend Chris Jordan at The Asbury Park Press :

October 13, 2024 Happy Birthday and many, many more to the E Street Band's ace organist, keyboardist, and accordionist Charlie Giordano . As we proved in last year's birthday salute , Charlie's done some very interesting and offbeat things in his long musical career, both before and after he began working with Bruce Springsteen, first in the (Seeger) Sessions Band and later with the E Street Band. Yet another example: In 2005, Charlie and his "Pizza Band" were part of a unique box-set from chef/producer Sharon O'Connor entitled PIZZA PARTY! It contained a set of traditional and new pizza recipe-cards, accompanied by a CD of Neapolitan-style music performed by Charlie Giordano's Pizza Band. After all, if you're gonna have a pizza party, nothing goes better with some good food than some good music, eh? The PIZZA PARTY! box-set remains available for purchase by clicking here. And in honor of Charlie's birthday today, here's an upbeat track from the box-set performed by Charlie Giordano's Pizza Band (with Charlie rockin' the squeezebox, of course.) Enjoy their toe-tapping version of the Neapolitan classic "Funiculì, Funiculà" along with whatever you might be eating today: Tanti auguri di buon compleanno, Charlie Giordano, e buon appetito! Salute!

October 7, 2024 EDITOR'S NOTE: We're very happy and honored to present this essay by sports-journalist and filmmaker Julian Garcia, reflecting upon his being a veteran Springsteen fan getting to witness the most recent concert by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band on the shoreline of Asbury Park, NJ with his daughter Abby: When I was growing up in New Jersey back in the 1980s, on the outskirts of the Meadowlands, my father and I used to sit on our living room couch on spring and summer nights and watch the Yankees play. I was a big fan of Don Mattingly back then, and had a hard time believing anyone could have been better in pinstripes than Donnie Baseball was in 1984, ‘85, ‘86 and ‘87, when he averaged 30 home-runs and 120 RBI. “You should have seen Mantle,” my father would say, “Now that  was a ballplayer." My father would go on to describe the tape-measure home runs that Mickey Mantle hit, helping to make the Yankees the  Yankees through much of the ‘50s and early ‘60s. I heard all about Mantle’s ability to glide across the outfield to make over-the-shoulder catches, and how he not only possessed legendary power, but also the speed and baseball savvy to lay down a bunt and sprint to first in what my father made me believe was less than two seconds flat.   “It’s a shame what happened to him,” my father said, explaining how Mantle’s struggles over his final four seasons cost him the chance to finish with a career batting average of .300 or better. “Held on too long,” he'd say. “His knees were shot. I wish you could have seen him when he was younger.”  I was fortunate enough to see Mattingly play in person many times during that magical four-year mid-’80s stretch, sitting in the backseat of my father’s car as we crossed the George Washington Bridge and took Jerome Avenue towards the Stadium. I also watched as Mattingly went from a certain first-ballot Hall of Famer to a player who had to settle for being elected into the New York-Penn League Hall of Fame, due to a back ailment that ultimately derailed his career. I thought about Mickey Mantle and Don Mattingly as I drove north on the Garden State Parkway late on the night of September 15th, my ears ringing and my feet and back stinging, after spending the previous twelve hours or so planted in the sand in Asbury Park. I had just watched Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band perform live for the fiftieth time or so in my life. For more than two hours of that three-hours, fourteen-minutes performance, I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with my daughter, Abby, who was working at the Sea.Hear.Now music festival for the fourth straight year, helping attendees with various issues encountered over the course of two days. On Night Two, her boss allowed her a break to watch the headline act, but wanted her back at her post about an hour before  The  Boss wrapped up. This was the second time Abby and I watched Bruce and the E Street Band perform live, but the first time in about eight years, and the first time since she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him after the American Music Honors ceremony at Monmouth University last spring, both smiling into her cell phone as she took a selfie with her father’s lifelong idol. Over the past two decades, one of the things Abby and I have bonded over most is music, and a wide variety of it. From the time I started driving her to and from school, Abby would take control of the aux cord in my car, turning me on to the music of Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus (and her alter ego, Hannah Montana,) Selena Gomez, and eventually Taylor Swift. Yeah, I admit it... I’m a sucker for the kind of pop music that makes tweenage girls scream. But I also found ways to slip in an occasional Bruce song or two, starting with obvious hits like "Dancing in the Dark" and "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" before introducing her to some of his deeper cuts. Eventually, she became a fan, though a bit later in life than I did. One can only imagine the thrill of watching my daughter become a student employee at The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University (my alma mater, no less,) or how crushed we both were when she missed the opportunity to meet him early in the spring semester of her junior year, when she was visiting her mother in the hospital on a day Bruce happened to drop in on her coworkers at the Archives. (They posted pictures to prove it.)   My own lifelong obsession with Springsteen's music started in 1982, when my brother pushed a Nebraska cassette tape into the stereo in our bedroom. Three years later, I saw Bruce live for the first time just weeks ahead of my 11th birthday. I remember almost nothing about that first show, other than where I sat - somewhere in the far right corner end zone, all the way across the field from where Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band were onstage. In the nearly forty years since that first show, I’ve seen Bruce perform live on Broadway and in the Stone Pony, back when I was in college. I’ve seen shows on every Bruce Springsteen tour over the past four decades except for the Tunnel of Love Express Tour, which fell in that awkward post- Born in the U.S.A. period when my mother had lost interest in him and I did not yet possess either the money to buy my own ticket or a car to get me anywhere close to where he was playing.   What I am about to write has been stated to just two people in the days since I last saw Bruce Springsteen live three weeks ago. At first, I was met with polite incredulousness. And then, when speaking to my brother - the person most responsible for lighting the spark that led to my forty-plus-years love affair with Bruce - I was flashed a look that suggested something along the lines of “You have to be fucking kidding me,” before he actually came right out and said something along the lines of “You have to be fucking kidding me.” I was not. So I’ll state it again... Thirty-nine years after seeing Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band for the very first time, I have never seen him and his bandmates put on a better show than the most recent show I attended. I could get into all the details of why I think that is true, but the performance speaks for itself and is officially available for download/streaming . Still, you had to see  it to believe it. I’ve listened to most of the show two or three times since seeing it, and hearing a clean mix of it only helped convince me that what I felt standing there, and while driving home that night, was right. Bruce and the Band have very often been just as good as they were on the beach that night, but they’ve never been better.   And that is exactly what I thought about as I drove home after the show. How is it possible that forty-two years after laying in bed at night, my big brother just feet away as we listened to the dark howls on Nebraska echo through our shared bedroom, I was able to stand shoulder to shoulder with my adult daughter, and watch Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band perform at the level they did? How is it possible that nearly forty years after seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for the very first time, I still have never felt the need to tell my daughter what Bruce and his band  used to be like? Over the years, as I introduced my daughter to more of Bruce’s music, I eagerly awaited the day I could finally show her what all the hype was about. I finally got the chance when she was 14, and it was a great show. Now, eight years later, just days after my 50th birthday, and Bruce’s 75th, I sit here listening to the same man I was listening to as a young boy, appreciating and marveling at the fact that because of what we witnessed together on the beach in Asbury Park, I will never have to say to my daughter what my father once said to me about Mickey Mantle: “You should have seen him when…” Julian Garcia is a lifelong resident of New Jersey, and has been a sports writer and editor at the New York Daily News since 1996. He also is the producer/director of the short documentary film It Will All Seem Funny , about the legendary 1978 "Rosalita" stage-crash that took place in Phoenix, Arizona.

October 3, 2024 Click below to watch the full video-message, filmed at Roberto's Freehold Grill and posted today on Bruce Springsteen's official Facebook and Instagram pages (also fully and accurately transcribed below:) Hi, I’m Bruce Springsteen. Friends, fans, and the press have asked me who I’m supporting in this most important of elections. And with full knowledge that my opinion’s no more or less important than those of any of my fellow citizens, here’s my answer...   I’m supporting Kamala Harris for President and Tim Walz for Vice-President, and opposing Donald Trump and JD Vance. Here’s why...   We are shortly coming upon one of the most consequential elections in our nation’s history. Perhaps not since the Civil War has this great country felt as politically, spiritually, and emotionally divided as it does than at this moment. It doesn’t have to be this way. The common values, the shared stories that make us a great and united nation, are waiting to be rediscovered and retold once again. Now that will take time, hard work, intelligence, faith, and women and men with the national good guiding their hearts.   America’s the most powerful nation on Earth, not just because of her overwhelming military strength or economic power, but because of what she stands for, what she means, what she believes in: freedom, social justice, equal opportunity, the right to be and love who you want. These are the things that make America great.   Donald Trump is the most dangerous candidate for President in my lifetime. His disdain for the sanctity of our Constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law, and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of President ever again. He doesn’t understand the meaning of this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American.   On the other hand, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are committed to a vision of this country that respects and includes everyone , regardless of class, religion, race, your political point of view, or sexual identity. And they want to grow our economy in a way that benefits all, not just a few like me, on top.   That’s the vision of America I’ve been consistently writing about for 55 years. Now everybody sees things different, and I respect your choice as a fellow citizen, but like you, I’ve only got one vote. And it’s one of the most precious possessions that I have. That’s why, come November 5th, I’ll be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Thanks for listening.

September 23, 2024 "...He knows exactly who he is, he knows exactly what he's done, and he is the maestro." -Jon Landau, in Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Happy 75th birthday, "Maestro" Bruce! And best wishes for many more happy, healthy birthdays to come, of course. Thanks for all of the great music and performances over the years, and here's to all that still lies ahead, as well. We'll be seein' ya!

September 22, 2024 It was fifty years ago today that Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band played an outdoor show in the great state of New Jersey, though unlike their most recent gig, it didn't take place on the sandy shoreline of Asbury Park, NJ. In fact, it was 45 miles north of "Little Eden," in Union, NJ, on the grounds of what was then known as Kean College, now Kean University . Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg were still "the new guys" back then, having officially joined the band just about a month earlier, with this Kean College show being only their fifth official public performances as E Street Band members. Oh, and also the Kean College show's ticket-prices differed substantially from those for last Sunday's Sea.Hear.Now gig; the Kean College tix were free ! Fortunately our friend and professional photographer James Shive was there, and he captured the moment in a beautiful series of black-and-white photos now spotlighted on a special 50th-anniversary page newly created for his website . "I was just starting my first year in college," writes Jim in his newly published recollection of the day. "[M]y graduation gown was lying in rags at my feet. My hopes were to become a photographer & I wanted to shoot Rock & Roll. So here I was, 18 years old and had an opportunity to capture that perfect shot. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon, a free concert on a small outdoor stage, It was my first Springsteen concert, but at that time the band was not very well known. "I stood in the small crowd, camera in hand; I felt a surge of excitement. The music pounded through my veins, and the energy of the band live on stage was infectious. I snapped some photos, and one photo would become an iconic image of a superstar that is still going strong today." For the 50th anniversary, Jim has made that photo - the one you see above at the top where Bruce is standing next to Clarence and sporting his rarely-seen-onstage "peacock shirt" - available for the first time ever as a specially-priced and framed poster-print . Jim also has many more of his photos from that day displayed on his newly launched 50th-anniversary page, along with some specially-set prices for certain images/prints, and even a link to decent audio of the September 22, 1974 Kean College concert. Click here to visit "The 1974 Anniversary" at The Shive Archive.

September 16, 2024 "Wow! I feel fuckin' old tonight, in a good way. I never thought I'd live to see this sight, nowhere in my lifetime. The band... We were here on that little street corner [pointing towards The Stone Pony ] when nobody was here, and I didn't know when I'd see folks in this good town again. So I just want to take a moment and thank all of the people that have invested themselves in Asbury Park and brought the city back to life. On the East Side, on the West Side... I want to thank the LGBTQ+ community for all they've given to Asbury Park in the last twenty... twenty-five years. Danny Clinch, I want to thank you for this wonderful event . And most of all, I want to thank all of you for being here tonight and for supporting Asbury Park for all this time." -Bruce Springsteen, onstage with the E Street Band on the beach of Asbury Park, NJ, during their September 15, 2024 Sea.Hear.Now Festival performance As you probably know already, it was a very special weekend in the Garden State indeed, more specifically in "Little Eden." It featured a Saturday-night return to those legendary surprise drop-in visits at Jersey Shore bars/nightclubs, followed on Sunday afternoon by Festival sit-ins with Trey Anastasio and The Gaslight Anthem, all preceding the big event, of course: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, live on the Asbury Park, NJ beach/boardwalk, delivering a special, fully-customized, one-off, early-Jersey-Shore-days-focused setlist for one of the biggest beach-parties in the storied town's history. Appropriately, we're gonna let our Jersey-based pals Chris Jordan of The Asbury Park Press and Jay Lustig of NJArts.net supply all of the details, by linking here to their comprehensive coverage: Click here to read "Bruce Springsteen and E Street play magical three-hour show at Sea Hear Now: Review" by Chris Jordan of The Asbury Park Press . Click here to read "Bruce Springsteen makes surprise appearance at Stone Pony" by Jay Lustig of NJArts.net. Click here to read "Springsteen jams with Trey Anastasio Band at Sea.Hear.Now (WATCH VIDEO)" by Jay Lustig of NJArts.net. Click here to read "Bruce Springsteen joins The Gaslight Anthem at Sea.Hear.Now (WATCH VIDEO)" by Jay Lustig of NJArts.net. Click here to read "Bruce Springsteen’s Sea.Hear.Now homecoming (PHOTOS, VIDEOS, SETLIST)" by Jay Lustig of NJArts.net. And finally, also very well worth reading is John T. Ward's timely and lesser-known history of the Off Broad Street Coffeehouse in nearby Red Bank, NJ, one of Springsteen's earliest musical homes on the Jersey Shore. Click here to read "Growin' Up With Springsteen, Off Broad: The untold story of a Red Bank coffeehouse that helped shape Bruce Springsteen, and other teens, in 1968" by John T. Ward, editor/publisher of redbankgreen.com. -special thanks to Lisa Iannucci -thumbnail-photo for this report by Caroline Madden ; used with permission

September 9, 2024 EDITOR'S NOTE - Our friend Joe Amodei, Founder and President of Virgil Films (and co-producer of the 2019 documentary Clarence Clemons: Who Do I Think I Am? ,) attended last night's world-premiere screening of Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF.) We're pleased to share with our readers Joe's firsthand account of the event: I was one of the fortunate ones to be in attendance last night at Roy Thomson Hall here in Toronto to witness the world premiere of Thom Zimny’s new film, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band , which follows the band on their current tour throughout the world. I won’t go into detail on why I think this is one of Zimny’s best works to date, but I will say that the film gave me everything I wanted, and reaffirmed my love for anything E Street and my wish to see the band again and again. There are emotional moments throughout that will stay with you for a while. That’s what great films do. Roy Thomson Hall is where all the super-big films premiere here at TIFF. This is where the big ones come to play, so it’s meaningful to not just Bruce Springsteen but to Thom Zimny to have their film play here. And it looks fantastic on the big screen, which is kind of a shame, because the film will be premiering on Hulu/Disney+ in October and after a few more screenings here in Toronto , it's not currently scheduled to play in any other theaters. So seeing the film in a venue like this was an added treat, and something I wish more fans could experience. What was even more of a treat was that I got to watch this movie sitting five rows behind Bruce, Steven, Landau, and Zimny himself. Thank you, Thom!!! Being a film premiere in a film festival means there were not scores of Bruce fans lined up outside and screaming his name throughout the evening. Instead, this was an audience of film lovers, film executives, and film-festival-goers. A lot of them also were Springsteen fans, of course, but a lot were there mainly to see a good documentary, and they got their wish. Look out for this on Hulu/Disney+ on October 25th. You will love it. ---------- We have more Road Diary coverage planned for our Letters To You readers, as the film's Hulu/Disney+ streaming-premiere date draws closer next month. In the meantime... Click here to check out The Hollywood Reporter 's article on the film, featuring an exclusive clip from it. And click here to read People.com's report on Patti Scialfa's Road Diary revelation about the personal and professional challenges she's been facing in light of her 2018 cancer diagnosis. All of the above photos from last night's TIFF world-premiere screening of Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are by Joe Amodei, and are used with permission.