Clips & Pix: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band/Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

Last night, I saw a tribute to Bruce Springsteen, so perhaps it’s not surprising The Boss is on my mind. One of my all-time favorite tunes from him and The E Street Band is Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out. The above extended version not only illustrates it’s a great song but also shows the compelling power Springsteen and his band deliver live. I think he truly plays in a league of his own!

The Springsteen song is from his breakthrough album Born To Run. The soulful tune is one of the reasons this is my favorite Springsteen record.  The footage, by the way, is from a film that captures the two final dates in New York City from the band’s 1999-2000 reunion tour, which had been their first in eleven years. What a triumphant performance!

The mighty E Street Band that night featured Roy Bittan (piano, backing vocals), Steven Van Zandt (guitar, backing vocals), Garry Tallent (bass, backing vocals), Max Weinberg (drums), Nils Lofgren (guitar, backing vocals), Danny Federici (organ, accordion), Patti Scialfa (acoustic guitar, backing vocals) and, of course, the big man Clarence Clemons (saxophones). Except for Federici and Clemons, who passed away in 2008 and 2011, respectively, all of these amazing musicians remain members of the band to this day. Boy, this footage wants me to see them again so badly!

Sources: Wikipedia, YouTube

12 thoughts on “Clips & Pix: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band/Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”

    1. Agree 100 percent! And I know I’ve said this many times before, there really is no other live artist like Springsteen. When I saw him last a couple of years ago at MetLife Stadium in N.J. during The River tour, at some point it almost appeared he was in a trance-like state.

      He just kept going and going, seemingly testing the endurance of his E Street Band. He stopped just short of 4 hours. I mean, seriously, which well known artist does that nowadays? He truly leaves it all on the stage.

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    1. Didn’t you say you were singing along yourself during your recent Squeeze show? 🙂

      I generally don’t mind it as much when the audience sings along. I feel it’s part of the live experience. Yes, it can get awkward when folks sing out of tune or, perhaps worse, clap out of rhythm.

      I think it is also fair to say there is a difference when you’re at a concert and experience everything in the moment and then watch footage of it thereafter. If you then hear certain folks singing, then yes, sometimes you wish they just would have stayed quiet.

      My rule is very simple. If you want to express yourself during a live concert, you have to sing as well as I do! 🙂

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      1. Yeah, but quietly to myself. And it doesn’t at all bug me when people sing along. But to clarify – when those people in the crowd starting with the “whoa-whoas” in “Freezeout,” for me it changes the whole nature of the song. I stopped listening after that. I’m not there to hear a crowd fuck the song up with stuff that’s not in the song. I’ll stick with the original. So it’s less people singing along – that happened a lot at Doobies/Santana and it didn’t bother me at all – but it’s more when they hijack the song that irritates me.

        It really bothers me though when the artist – full of himself and how great is song is – makes the audience sing. Squeeze has a million tunes and never once did that. We sang along, more or less, but we did not take the song away from the band. I’m not sure if I’m being clear about the difference between singing along and hijacking the song and adding shit but it’s the latter that I hate.

        I’m ok with someone singing out of tune especially since it’s usually me. But I have a pretty good sense of rhythm and yeah, I hate when some guy claps out of time. It’s always a guy ‘coz women typically love to dance and so have that feel. I watched a guy at a Jean-Luc Ponty concert raise his hands in the air and clap completely off-beat. Side note – I grocery shop and invariably hear some dude whistling tunelessly to a song on the speaker. I am then forced to shove his head in the freezer.

        Yes, there is a big difference in being there and listening later. Petty and Springsteen are both guilty of releasing their live shows unedited. I loved (and bought) the last Springsteen show I went to. I’m glad I did because there are some great moments. But could they not edit out the 10 minutes of Max Weinberg drumming while Bruce collected cards from the crowd for songs they want to hear? Edit the fucking thing. Does the Music Enthusiast have to think of EVERYthing? 🙂

        You should totally hear me fuck up “Rosalita,”

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      3. Alas! I was on a cruise and I did the karaoke thing. What did I pick? An Eagles song. So I choose to compete with Don Henley, one of the best rock singers ever. Next time – Lou Reed. 🙂

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    1. Ja gut, mit fast 20 Minuten ist die Sache natürlich schon recht gewaltig.:-) Trotzdem macht es immer wieder Spass, den Boss in Action zu sehen.

      Diese Live Version hat wirklich so ziemlich alles, was man in einem Springsteen Konzert erleben kann: Klasse Musik, eine “Springsteen Predigt” sowie das Vorstellen von jedem Mitglied der E Street Band.

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