July 2, 2024
Best wishes for a Happy 75th Birthday and many more Happy Birthdays ahead to Rock...Rock...Rockaway Beach's Piano-Pounder, the illegitimate child of Jerry Lee Lewis and Liberace, the Secretary of Intelligence, and the Dean of the University of Musical Perversity...Professor Roy Bittan, of course.
Roy will be spending part of his special day onstage tonight with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band in Belgium and, without a doubt, will deliver another masterful performance on the keys. As we celebrate Roy@75, it's important to remember just how integral a role he's played in so many of Bruce Springsteen's most enduring songs and recordings. Whether it's the complex virtuosity of his parts on songs like "Backstreets" and, say, any live version of "Ramrod," or his intelligent and totally appropriate uses of simplicity when called for, such as in "Born in the U.S.A." (with his repetitive Copland-esque "open fifths" tinged with a slight Asian motif,) and "My Hometown," Roy is among the greatest musicians in all of rock and roll. Many thanks from all of us fans, Professor, for all of those perfectly played notes. Keep 'em comin', please!