http://www.nj.com/springsteen/index.ssf/2009/09/bruce_springsteen_appears_with.html
Setliste:
Elvis Costello and the Impostors - Point Blank
Nils Lofgren and the Impostors - At the Movies (Nils Song)
Elvis Costello,Nils, with the Impostors - She's the One
Bruce with Nils and Roy on accordion - Wild Billy's Circus Song
Bruce(solo) - American Skin (41 Shots)
Bruce(solo) - The River(partial)
Bruce and Roy - Galveston Bay
Bruce,Elvis, Nils,Roy and the Impostors - I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down
Bruce and Elvis - Pretty Woman (partial)
Brue,Nils,and Elvis - Black Ladder (Patti Scialfa song-Elvis on lead)
Bruce,Elvis - Brilliant Disguise (Elvis on lead)
Bruce,Nils,Roy,Elvis and the Impostors - The Rising
Bruce,Nils,Roy,Elvis and the Impostors - Seeds
Bruce,Nils,Roy,Elvis and the Impostors - Radio Nowhere/Radio Radio
Bericht:
Show began at 8 p.m. with Elvis coming out, talking about the series of shows he's been doing and "they've been beyond my imagination. I'm having the time of my life doing these."
He then brought out the Imposters and they played "Point Blank."
It was very well done.
Nils Lofgren then came out. Elvis said he remembered when Nils opened for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in London.
They then performed Nils' song "Like Rain."
Nils said how he's been fortunate to be playing for 41 years in a row.
Elvis then brought Bruce out around 8:30 p.m.
He was wearing a black sport jacket, which he later took off.
Bruce sat down on a stool with Elvis and it was just the two of them,
Bruce held a guitar in his hands, I've seem him do this in past inteviews lately, he seems much more comfortable holding a guitar while doing an interview.
What followed, may have been the best interview I've ever seen Bruce do.
Maybe because it was a fellow musician or just the questions were better, but Bruce really opened up about his early bands, Asbury Park and a lot of other things.
Some highlights:
Bruce said that No music industry types came to the Jersey Shore to find bands. "It was in its own wilderness in the late 1960s early 1970s. Asbury Park was like a low rent Fort Lauderdale."
"Bars, cars, girls were the things I wrote about."
He told Elvis he had only been to New York City one time before he was 15 and that's when his mother took him to see the circus.
The bars at the Jersey Shore catered to top 40 bands in that era and you could get beaten up for being in a band.
Elvis talked about the Stone Pony, how he had played there "the night before I nearly ended my career" when he appeared on Saturday Night Live in 1977. And how his bass player was named Bruce and when he introduced him "as the future of rock and roll bass players" people booed him at the Stone Pony.
Bruce talked about how he's lived locally (Jersey Shore) for most of his life, and pre Internet it was pretty easy. He could go out to a bar and make a fool of himself, He was out of the tabloids and could have a normal life.
He said he felt some of his heroes have lost their own history. He didn't want to do that, but also "being paranoid and having stardom" were good things.
Elvis talked about when Bruce first played London in 1975 and all the hype "about the future of rock and roll"
"I kind of like the way it sounded," said Bruce. "But I might be in a shit-load of trouble also."
He talked about playing in Asbury Park in the early 1970s and that they weren't a top-40 cover band. Bruce said he and Steve Van Zandt went to all the bars in Asbury Park ("we went from one end of the town to the other') trying to find a place where they could play. They finally found The Student Prince which was run by a guy from Freehold.
They would charge $1 at the door and keep it. The first week they had 20 people, the next week 30 people and it started to grow.
Bruce talked about his voice, saying the first band he was in wouldn't let him sing at all. But then he realized he had to make it with his voice and his guitar.
Elvis mentioned some other singer, songwriters - John Prine, Loudon Wainwright and Bruce added Elliott Murphy who had some success in the 1970s.
The conversation then came around to the circus and Bruce said how he had seen the Clyde-Beatty Cole Circus in Freehold (near the racetrack) when he was a child.
"At the circus there were things you were interested in and you saw some things that you weren't supposed to see.
Talked about his mother paid 50 cents so he could see a giant in the circus sideshow. "he had this huge hand and you could take the ring off his finger and put it back on.
"I was both thrilled and frightened by the sideshow."
Roy Bittan and Nils came onstage to join Bruce in a great "Wild Billy's Circus Story."
Bruce said there was a "sexual awareness" to the circus also.
The topic came back to Asbury Park and Bruce said how the town is in the middle of a resurgence. "It's been fabulous down there on Friday and Satruday nights recently."
He said he was in Asbury Park recently with a friend (Sept. 5) and they decided they were going to stop and have a beer at every place from one end of the boardwalk to the other. Also talked about Madam Marie's fortune-telling stand still being open and that her daughter does the readings now.
Then Elvis made a comment, I can't remember the exact words, how Bruce was able to do that these days, to just walk the Asbury Park boardwalk and Bruce's response was "I'm not sure that's the point."
He then said how Asbury Park is a great place right now with a lot of different cultures.
Elvis mentioned how Bruce came to see him play at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, N.J., one night in 1977.
The conversation then turned to Darkness on the Edge of Town and Bruce said "people didn't take to it right away. It was three years after Born To Run" and Bruce mentioned how Elvis was once quoted saying "the songs on Born To Run were too romantic."
Elvis said: "Ah, you've been waiting 30 years for this moment to say that to me."
Conversation went back to Freehold, Bruce said it was a real blue collar town. "These are the people I'm conecting to. I wanted to be about something."
He said that Born To Run only had one outake and other albums have tons of outakes.
"He said he was elated and embarrassed by his success" at ages 25-28 after Born to Run.
Also said everything he writes "is about identity, identity, identity."
"My music has been about who am I? Where do I belong?"
He and Elvis joked that rock and roll musicians have to be desperate at times. "You have to have something bothering you all the time," Bruce said.
He said on the River he "wanted to write songs that were exciting."
He talked about seeing The Ramones play in Asbury Park at the Fast Lane in 1979 and how they asked him to write a song for them. He wrote Hungry Heart but Jon Landau told him "We're not giving that one away."
Conversation came around to the song "41 Shots" and Bruce explained the background on it.
He said he "had lost some of his focus on how to write for the E Street Band" during the 10 years he wasn't with them. "I wasn't sure if I had songs for them" but that Land of Hope and Dreams "at the beginning of the tour" and "41 Shots" at the end of the tour were songs he wrote to do with the E Street Band.
He talked about performing "41 Shots" for the first time in Atlanta in June of 2000 and then the reaction it got in the New York newspapers. He remembers being called a "dirtbag" and a "floating bag."
He knew what a "dirtbag" was but he had to look up "floating fag" to try to figure out what that meant.
Bruce played a beautiful acoustic version of "41 Shots."
Nebraska was discussed and Bruce said how it came about by accident. He was watching some movies at the time, "True Confessions" was one of them which influenced the album.
He said there was even some discussion of releasing "Nebraska" and "Born In the U.S.A" at the same time so the fans could have an acoustic album and and a rock album.
Bruce then performed "Gavelston Bay" from the "Ghost of Tom Joad Album."
Elvis asked him about liking comedy and Bruce said "Steve and I are like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis."
Elvis asked "which one are you?" and Bruce said he wasn't sure
Next, Elvis talked about how much he enjoyed doing Roy Orbison's Black and White Night and that he still gets asked about it constantly because it's played on TV so much. Bruce talked about it a bit also.
They talked a little bit about the Apollo Theatre and Bruce said he had never been there before.
Conversation came around to Sam and Dave, Bruce said he saw them at the Satellite Lounge near Fort Dix, N.J. and also one night (1980) at the Fast Lane in Asbury Park and that night "there were only around 100 people in the place."
He said how Sam Moore was one of the best band leaders he's seen and both Bruce and Elvis discussed how they were so special and there may have been times when Sam and Dave weren't even talking to one another.
They then did a great "I can't Stand Up For Falling Down"
There was about a 10-minute intermission at 10:25 p.m and many thought the show was over before they told everyone it was just an intermission.
Bruce told a dirty joke which got some laughs from the crowd. It wasn't too bad.
The second half of the show began with Elvis talking about Patti Scialfa and how she talks to his ' wife (Diana Krall) a lot about children and things. Also how Bruce and Patti were able to get Elvis on a horse when he visited Bruce's farm one time.
They then did Patti's song "Black Ladder" - it was Bruce, Elvis and Nils.
Elvis asked Bruce about his children. He said how his youngest son is listening to a lot of classic rock and one night Bruce was watching a DVD of Bob Dylan at the Newport Jazz Festival and his youngest son was vvery much into watching it with him.
One night Bruce heard his youngest son listening to "Chimes of Freedom" and he asked him what he thought about it. "Just epic Dad! Just epic," he said.
Said his oldest son was into Rage Against the Machine and had introduced him (Bruce) to the Dropkick Murphys and Bad Religion (I think that was the other band).
Bruce said how Bob Dylan was the first to give him a true vision of the country.
Elvis then talked about and performed an acoustic "Brillilant Disguise" and Bruce clapped for him when it was over.
Bruce talked about playing at the Lincoln Memorial this past January and what a thrill it was for him to perform with Pete Seeger.
As they finished up the interview, Bruce said "Im tired of talking about me!"
And as they broke for a few minutes getting the band and TV ready, Bruce said "Quick before I think of another joke!"
They then finished with "The Rising," "Seeds" and the "Radio, Radio/Radio Nowhere" medley.
Show was over at 11:47 p.m. clocking in at more than 3:45.
Woody Guthrie
