Springsteen: Simply The Boss

Published on Saturday 11 July 2009 14:50

FIONA McBain was only five when Bruce Springsteen last brought the E Street Band to Scotland. On the eve of his return she argues why it has been worth the wait

NINETEEN eighty-one. President Reagan was shot that year. The London Marathon was run for the first time. Bucks Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest. Bob Marley died. Mark Chapman was given life for the murder of John Lennon. Prince Charles married Lady Diana.

The world has changed a lot in 28 years. When Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played two nights at the Edinburgh Playhouse in May 1981 I was five years old and listening to Abba and John Denver tapes in my parents' car – my chances of being carted off to a Springsteen gig were pretty slim. In adulthood though, I've seen him play plenty of other places: Belfast, Crystal Palace and Old Trafford included, and most recently, at Hyde Park last month.

Chatting to other fans on these special nights, there is one question I've asked and been asked many times. "Have you seen Bruce before?"

"Yes, this is my seventh time," I said at Hyde Park. "You?"

"Yeah, this'll be my 83rd time now," said the 50-something stood next to me.

"Oh. Right. Where else are you going on the tour then?"

"Rome, Bilbao and New Jersey".

That's the thing, you see. Once is never enough with Springsteen. One fan recently likened it to following a sports team – home or away; you want to be there. Well, as far as the legendary E Street Band goes, there hasn't been a home game for Scottish fans since those Playhouse gigs, but on Tuesday night the wait is over as The Boss and his band of brothers bring their righteous and mighty power to our national stadium.

Born and raised in Freehold, New Jersey, the son of a bus driver and a secretary, Springsteen was inspired by American folk legends such as Woody Guthrie and picked up his first guitar aged 13. From the early days in bands such as The Castiles, Earth, Steel Mill, and then the E Street Band in various guises, Springsteen played relentlessly around the Jersey Shore club scene, including the now much-celebrated Stone Pony Club.

Following an audition for John Hammond, who had signed Bob Dylan to Columbia Records, Springsteen released his first album Greetings From Asbury Park in January 1973, then The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle later in the same year.

By 1974 the E Street Band as we now know it had taken shape and the 1975 album Born To Run went top 10 on its release. Newsweek and Time ran simultaneous cover stories on Springsteen that year, but it was not until 1977 that he captured his first number one single, Blinded By The Light, and it was not Springsteen's version but Manfred Mann's that hit the top of the charts.

Back in 1981, the New Jersey outfit had been together for the guts of a decade and their gigs buzzed with energetic teens. The Born To Run, Darkness On The Edge Of Town and The River albums spawned anthems to blast from car stereos, but also provided a soundtrack to the quandary of a youth wrestling with dreams and desires.

When Born In The USA hit shelves in 1984, the Springsteen phenomenon left planet Earth. Sell-out stadium tours cemented a love for a working-class hero with a sense of humour, and songs like Glory Days and Dancing In The Dark were the perfect showcase for a group now into their 30s and ready to party.

The party lasted a long time, but an inevitable maturity saw the band go their separate ways. Springsteen married his first wife, actress Julianne Phillips, in 1985, but this ended in divorce just three years later when Springsteen fell for backing singer Patti Scialfa. The pair married in 1991 and have two sons, Evan and Sam, and a daughter, Jessica.

Springsteen entered a more contemplative phase with releases such as Tunnel Of Love, then the simultaneous release of Human Touch and Lucky Town, records that continue to split opinion among fans and critics even now.

With The Rising in 2002 came the resurgence. The band came together once again, and amid a climate unlike any felt since perhaps the Vietnam War, they released their first studio recording for 18 years to critical acclaim. Post 9/11, Springsteen developed a political voice far louder than even during the Amnesty International tour of 1988 where he had performed alongside the likes of Sting, Tracey Chapman and Youssou N'Dour.

His endorsement of John Kerry during the 2004 US election campaign may have burned bridges with hardcore Republicans who still believed Born In The USA was a patriotic song, but the rest of the world gained fresh appreciation for a man with the power of his convictions and the ability to express them so poetically.

The 2007 release Magic came to reflect the worry, guilt and anger of a political situation spiralling out of control and will forever stand as a marker of that time. Conversely, the latest album, Working On A Dream, plays like a huge sigh of relief following Barack Obama's presidential victory.

Is this why Springsteen is still promising Wendy "Someday girl, I don't know when, we're gonna get to that place where we really wanna be, and we'll walk in the sun" with such passion onstage? Those words are 34 years old but could have been written yesterday. With three teenage children, maybe it's easy for him to recall that feeling of expectation mixed with uncertainness that every youngster feels about life.

Perhaps that's why more and more young faces are once again popping up in the front rows of his gigs; the struggle to realise your place in the world forever relevant. Those eternal themes of identity, longing and the desire for redemption never go away.

Springsteen can articulate sentiments that most of us are only just conscious of. He can convince us we are not alone and replace our invisibility with a common sense of worth. For that, he is songwriting royalty. His songs can at times be poignant, sometimes dark and are usually all too pertinent, and the live experience never disappoints.

Springsteen will turn 60 in September but he'll cover miles on that stage in just one night. Saxophonist Clarence "Big Man" Clemons is 67 and bedding in a double knee replacement in addition to the new hips he received in 1995 – but it matters not a jot.

"Miami" Steve Van Zandt, "Professor" Roy Bittan, Nils Lofgren, Gary Talent and Max Weinberg are at the top of their game. Springsteen himself says the E Street Band is at least as good live now as they were in the 1980s.

These guys have been blood brothers since they were teenagers, though now tragically one member short since the loss of organist Danny Federici to melanoma last year. Perhaps because of this, the rest of the band seem to be tighter than ever – all it takes is one shout from The Boss and in perfect sync they belt out choices from his 40-year back catalogue.

In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have physically conquered the world. It is a year that has given them their third No 1 album in this decade alone, winning another Golden Globe for Springsteen's The Wrestler theme tune for Darren Aranofsky's film along the way.

It has taken him to the White House lawn to play for Barack Obama at the presidential inauguration, and then to the Super Bowl where he rocked 400 million viewers worldwide. On Tuesday he comes to Scotland fresh from a Glastonbury debut so triumphant that Michael Eavis willingly paid a 3,000 fine for an extra nine minutes.

Hampden is about to witness a show of epic proportions – expect more than two and a half hours and roughly 25 songs from the 1970s right up to the brand new material from Working On A Dream. In 1981 Hampden Park was a 100,000-capacity dust bowl, with terraces pulsating on cup-final days. Like the rest of the world, the national stadium has changed considerably in 28 years, but on Tuesday night we'll hear Hampden roar.

Still need convincing? During an audience question and answer for the music channel VH1 in 2005, one desperate fan asked the star how he should convince his sceptical wife of his devotion to Springsteen's music. Bruce replied by saying that he wouldn't bother. "Talking about music is like talking about sex," he said. "It's best when demonstrated".

&#149 Springsteen plays Hampden, Glasgow, Tuesday www.brucespringsteen.net

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