Bruce Springsteen Releases “Songs of Summer”

Not that I would ever need an excuse to write about one of my all-time favorite artists like Bruce Springsteen, but typically, I do so around an occasion like a new album or a concert I visited. In this case, it’s a new compilation of live material released from Springsteen’s archives that’s available on various music platforms for streaming or downloading, such as Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music. The Live Series: Songs of Summer turned out to be the perfect background music while carrying out a house chore earlier today.

Organized chronologically, the collection spans from Born to Run recorded at The Roxy in West Hollywood, Calif. in October 1975 to Jungleland captured at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. on August 30, 2016. The last gig has a special meaning. It was the third of a three-show run at that venue during Springsteen’s River Tour. I was there and remember it pretty well. Let’s get to some of that sweet music.

An extended eleven-and-a-half-minute version of Rosalita (Come Out Tonight), during which Springsteen introduces the E Street Band Band, is a nice way to kick things off. These guys are killing it, especially Clarence Clemons who launches into some great saxophone work at around 6:30 minutes into the tune. It all was captured at Capitol Theatre in Passaic, N.J. in August 1978. Originally, the tune appeared on Springsteen’s sophomore album The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle from November 1973.

Here’s Out In The Street from The River, Springsteen’s fifth studio album released in October 1980. This live version is from September 1985 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Next up: A beautiful version of Waitin’ On A Sunny Day, which features a bit of Steven Van Zandt on vocals. This is from a gig in Helsinki, Finland from June 2003. Springsteen first recorded the tune for The Rising, his post 9/11 album released in July 2002.

Girls In Their Summer Clothes is a track from The Boss’s 15th studio album Magic, which came out in September 2007. This version was captured at TD Banknorth Garden in Boston in November of the same year.

Let’s do one more. I just couldn’t help it to end with the aforementioned performance of Jungleland at MetLife Stadium. It’s just a beautiful version and frankly a great memory. Jake Clemons, the nephew of Clarence Clemons, does an amazing job playing the part of The Big Man. Check out his extended solo starting at 4:30 minutes, making his uncle proud. Jungleland is the closer of my favorite Springsteen album Born to Run, which came out in August 1975.

Here’s the complete tracklist of the collection:

• • Born To Run [Live at The Roxy, West Hollywood, CA – 10/18/75]
  • Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) [Live at Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ – 08/19/78]
  • The Fever [Live at Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA – 12/15/78]
  • 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) [Live at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY – 12/31/80]
  • Thunder Road [Live at Wembley Arena, London, UK – 06/05/81]
  • Spirit Of The Night [Live at Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ – 08/20/84]
  • Out In The Street [Live at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA – 09/27/85]
  • Blinded By The Light [Live at Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, NJ – 11/24/96]
  • Waitin’ On A Sunny Day [Live at Olympiastadion, Helsinki, Finland – 06/16/03]
  • Racing In The Street [Live at Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, MI – 08/03/05]
  • Girls In Their Summer Clothes [Live at TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA – 11/19/07]
  • Seaside Bar Song [Live at Farm Bureau Live, Virginia Beach, VA – 04/12/14]
  • It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City [Live at Croke Park Stadium, Dublin, IE – 05/29/16]
  • Frankie [Live at CASA Arena Horsens, Horsens, Denmark – 07/20/16]
  • Jungleland [Live at MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ – 08/30/16]

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube

The Boss Rocks MetLife

Yesterday (Aug 30) finally was the night I had been waiting for all summer long: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band were playing MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ – the third performance of their three-show run at the venue as part of 2016 River Tour.

From the first song, New York City Serenade, to the final tune, Jersey Girl, The Boss gave it his all, delivering four hours and one minute of non-stop rock & roll – I did not stop the time but actually read that on Springsteen’s official web site. The duration of the concert meant Bruce broke his own record from the previous week in the same venue yet another time!

In many regards, it was as if time would have stopped since 1988/1989 when I saw Bruce for the first time in Frankfurt, Germany in a comparable size stadium. He had not lost any of his intensity in almost 30 years, and you could be forgiven for not noticing he is now well into his 60s! The Boss also clearly seemed to be energized to play in front of a home crowd that knew all of his songs by heart.

The setlist included 34 songs and drew heavily from Bruce’s first two albums from 1973 and Born in the U.S.A., the 1984 album that became his most commercially successful record and one of the best-selling albums ever with more than 30 million copies sold.

Songs from Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. included Blinded By The Light, Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street, It’s Hard to be a Saint in the City and what I thought was one of the highlights of the show – a particularly spirited version of Spirit in the Night. From The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle Bruce played the strong show opener, New York City Serenade, as well as 4th of July Asbury Park (Sandy), Kitty’s Back, Incident of 57th Street and Rosalita, which remains a big crowd-pleaser.

I’m Going Down, Darlington County, Working on the Highway, Downbound Train, I’m on Fire and Glory Days were songs from the Born in the U.S.A. album, as was Dancing in the Dark – another highlight of the show. During the performance of the song, Bruce invited various people from the audience on stage to, well, dance with him! I thought it was telling that Bruce did not play the title song of the album. I once read he had gotten tired of the song and how many people completely misunderstood or ignored the lyrics.

There were only two songs from The River album, Hungry Heart and Out in the Street, which I felt was remarkable for a tour billed The River Tour. That being said, I had read that Bruce had started to deviate from the original tour concept to play all or most of the album’s songs. Still, I wish he at least would have performed the title song, which remains one of my favorite Springsteen tunes.

Other songs that stood out to me were Born to Run and Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out. During the latter, historic footage was shown on the large stage video screens of the amazing Clarence Clemons, The E Street Band’s former saxophonist who sadly passed in June 2011.

Just as he did back in 1988/89, Springsteen also played terrific cover versions of various great songs, which most notably included Twist & Shout, Shout and Summertime Blues.

This blog post wouldn’t be complete without acknowledging the amazing E Street Band. Steven Van Zandt (guitar, background vocals), Nils Lofgren (guitar, background vocals), Patti Scialfa (acoustic guitar, background vocals), Max Weinberg (drums), Garry Tallent (bass, background vocals) and Roy Bittan (keyboards) all did an outstanding job to back up the Boss.

Among the additional musicians, Jake Clemons, the nephew of Clarence Clemons, must be mentioned. He literally had big shoes to fill playing Clarence’s saxophone parts and did so beautifully. I’m sure his uncle would have been proud of him!

The Springsteen concert was my last (commercial) summer concert. It was a great way to end my series of summer shows this year. Just like the previous Springsteen concert in Germany in the late 80s, I have no doubt this show will stay in my memory.

Note: The video clips were added to the post on April 11, 2020. All of the footage is from Springsteen’s three-show run at MetLife in August 2016, mostly from the August 30 gig I attended.

Sources: Wikipedia; Setlist.fm; YouTube