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August 18, 2023 EDITOR'S NOTE: Our friend Jay Lustig, founder/editor/publisher of the great NJArts.net website, has just completed the Herculean effort of compiling, updating, and indexing the bulk of the website's many interesting and insightful Springsteen-related posts since its founding in 2014. Even better, Jay plans to continue maintaining and updating the index with future Bruce-related content. Letters To You is happy and honored to serve as an officially linked partner for Jay's project. Below you can read Jay's introduction, and then link directly to the index itself. As we look forward with hope that the promise that "50,000 people will once again scream their heads off somewhere in New Jersey" soon will be fulfilled, this index makes for perfect summertime reading, listening, viewing, and dreaming. Enjoy! NJArts.net was founded in 2014 and, since then, we have published a lot of Bruce Springsteen-related posts. Some have been news-oriented, others have been reviews. And then some have been neither — collections or videos, or deep dives into individual songs, or other things that we thought Springsteen fans would be interested in. And the fans have been interested in them, for the most part. Some of these posts have been among the most seen in the website’s history. It seemed like it would be a good idea to have links to all these posts in one place, so that people who may have missed some could be made aware of them, and check them out. So here it is — an index of NJArts.net’s Springsteen projects and essays — sorted into categories and listed by their original headlines. Future features and essays will be added as well. Note: Obviously, this is not a complete list of Springsteen-related NJArts.net articles; news posts, reviews and interviews are not included. This is simultaneously being posted, by the way, on the new Springsteen-related website, letterstoyou.net. We hope you all enjoy this and, if you have any ideas for other Springsteen-related features, let us know... Click here to visit NJArts.net’s Bruce Springsteen features and essays (an index.)

August 14, 2023 Even before he was in the E Street Band, Nils Lofgren was a road warrior. Recruited at age nineteen by Neil Young for his band Crazy Horse, Lofgren had made the leap from prodigy to hometown hero and carved a niche for himself as one of America’s top guitarists and sidemen by his mid-twenties. And over the years, he became quite a presence in the DC area he called home. Denizens of the club scene grew accustomed to seeing him out and about at local clubs, sitting in with a famous friend, with a band or at a solo gig, on local radio or promoting one of his records at an in-store appearance. He's remained in demand throughout his long career, having also been recruited by Ringo Starr for his All-Starr Band as well as rejoining Young for various iterations of his support bands. And he's been in the E Street Band for nearly forty years now, though he still seems like “the New Guy.” (After all, he was really the first E Streeter who did not have some sort of connection to the Jersey Shore music scene.) But he’s long since found his place in the band, met the proverbial Jersey Girl at the Stone Pony, and departed the DC area for the West Coast. With these major life changes, the constants for Lofgren over five-and-a-half decades as a professional musician have always been music and the road. Lofgren's not as prolific as he used to be, however, which is why the recent release of Mountains was a welcome event for longtime fans. The result of a three-year COVID hiatus which, like it had for so many touring musicians, left him a bit at loose ends, the record finds him steeped in the blues and backed by many of the folks who’ve toured and recorded with him for decades, including drummer Andy Newmark and bassist/producer Kevin McCormick, as well as some high-profile guests like Ringo Starr and Neil Young. According to comments he made for a recent Rolling Stone interview, this was a cathartic record for him – not only because it gave him something to do, but because it helped him deal with events and issues that had been troubling him, including the political and social upheaval of the last few years, his own rehab and recovery, and the death of his longtime hero, Charlie Watts. But the record doesn’t deviate much from earlier work; it’s folky and introspective, laced with blues guitar licks and understated vocals. The record starts off with “Ain’t the Truth Enough” and “Only Ticket Out.” Bitter and confrontational, both songs investigate self-destructive behavior and the isolation that often follows. They’re first-person narratives about coming to terms with political and social upheaval as well as personal challenges; filled with ugly details and harsh words, they’re both mid-tempo, minor chord-driven – in other words, vintage Lofgren. Next up is Lofgren’s cover of Springsteen’s “Back in Your Arms.” In that same Rolling Stone interview, Nils tells Andy Greene that once, during band rehearsal, Bruce had commented that “someone should cover this.” Apparently, Lofgren had always meant to record a cover version, but could never get around to it. During the Mountains sessions - when he finally had the time - he realized he needed a choir, so he called in the Howard (University) Gospel Choir and put E Street vocalist Cindy Mizelle to work as well. It’s a lush arrangement that takes full advantage both of Mizelle and the choir, but Lofgren’s heartfelt earnestness on this deeply personal song doesn’t quite match the emotional intensity of the original. “Won’t Cry No More” is a straight-ahead electric blues two-step that Lofgren has dedicated to the late Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts. “… [W]hen Charlie passed, it was really a shock. I got really angry, but also sad,” he told Greene. Processing grief, but also anger and frustration about climate change, war and violence, the song moves from personal to universal. “Even though I’ve lost a lot of friends and family, that one really threw me for a loop," he continued. “I used that song to kind of help me get through it.” The wistful, melodic “I Remember Her Name” tells the story of the night he met his future wife Amy, exploring their instant connection and his attempts to get something started. But Amy disappears into the night, and the loneliness of showing up somewhere over and over hoping that certain person would be there eats at him; years go by until one night, she seeks him out at a gig in Arizona. “Nothin’s Easy (For Amy)” evokes the classic Neil Young sound and feel– simple arrangement, straightforward lyrics, understated vocals. And Young’s distinctive tenor, always so melancholy and forlorn, can be heard on backing vocals. It’s a tune that would not be out of place on the Album Rock stations of the late 1970s. The record closes with “Angel Blues,” a previously unfinished song that Lofgren resurrected because he felt that he needed to close things out with a peaceful vibe. “’…lean your weary halo on my wing and let the peace come,’ I just thought that was a great way to wrap up the journey of the record,” he told Andy Greene. This is a record about struggling to connect – with other people, with reality. On “Nothin’s Easy,” Lofgren sings of “people searching with no clue” who are trying making sense of things they can’t control, trying to do the best they can and not always succeeding. It’s also about recognizing and overcoming trauma, both personal and universal. Over his long career, Lofgren has covered some of these topics before, and has shown a knack for creating memorable riffs and hooks on rockers like “Back it Up” and “Across the Tracks.” Mountains is not that type of record, though, and it’s not meant to be. Created as much for personal therapy as for enjoyment, it’s a contemplative and melodic journey of a record by a 72-year-old acknowledging that his time on earth is growing short and that maybe it’s time to get things right -personally and politically - before it’s too late. “What did we do with it? / yeah where did it go?” he sings on “We Better Find It.” It’s a statement of regret as much as a statement of purpose. And so the journey continues.

August 9, 2023 Since 2015, as the creator and host of Set Lusting Bruce: A Bruce Springsteen Podcast, Jesse W. Jackson has talked with a LOT of Springsteen fans - both famous and not-so-famous. Now he's talked with us... and not for the last time, if he and we have anything to do it. The latest guest on Set Lusting Bruce... yours truly, Letters To You editor/publisher Shawn Poole. Thanks, Jesse, for being such a great host and conversationalist, as expected. So glad we finally got to do this, and already I'm looking forward to doing it again as soon as possible. Be sure to check out all of Jesse's other archived conversations, as well. He literally has thousands of hours of interesting and insightful conversations with fellow fans. And if you really dig what you hear, consider becoming one of Jesse's Patreon supporters.

July 26, 2023 While Bruce Springsteen's next full-length studio recording of his own has yet to be announced officially, let alone released any time soon, fans currently have a chance to hear Bruce singing on several new tracks by other artists. There's even a new recording of a Bruce Springsteen composition that has never been released previously by anyone else, not even Springsteen himself. Just last month John Mellencamp released Orpheus Descending, featuring Mellencamp's version of a Springsteen-penned song entitled "Perfect World." This is the first officially released recording of this moving ballad, and despite having contributed vocals and guitar to several tracks on Mellencamp's 2022 album Strictly A One-Eyed Jack, Bruce did not sing or play at all on Mellencamp's version of "Perfect World." A few weeks after Mellencamp released his latest effort, Lucinda Williams dropped Stories From A Rock N Roll Heart, featuring both Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa backing Williams on "New York Comeback" and "Rock N Roll Heart." (Click here to read Letters To You contributing writer Lisa Iannucci's deep dive into both Williams' career and her latest work.) And just last week The Gaslight Album released the title track from their forthcoming and long-awaited album History Books, due in its entirety on October 27, almost ten years after the band released its last album. Bruce Springsteen duets with The Gaslight Anthem's Brian Fallon on "History Books" after Springsteen suggested that Fallon write a song for them to sing together. “When Bruce Springsteen said I should write a duet for us," says Fallon in a media statement, "I think my head exploded. It will never get old to me that one of the greatest songwriters in the world, and one of my hero’s voices, will forever be captured in a song I wrote at a small wooden desk, in October, in New Jersey.” Below you can hear "History Books" and watch its official music-video:

July 26, 2023 EDITOR'S NOTE: As recently reported on BruceSpringsteen.net, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa contribute backing vocals to the latest album by Lucinda Williams, Rock N Roll Heart. Williams also just announced a special series of October shows in support of Rock N Roll Heart, combining her songs with storytelling. It's been dubbed "The Don't Tell Anybody The Secrets" Tour, a name derived from the title of her recently published memoir. "With the extraordinary year I’ve had," says Williams, "including the release of my memoir and latest album, I figured we needed to have a special tour to commemorate it. This will be an evening with me unlike you’ve ever had, no matter how many shows you’ve been to over the years. Im so excited to put this together and hope you are just as excited to experience it." The October tour's finale is slated for October 29 in the heart of "Bruce country" at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, NJ. Click here to purchase available tickets for all of Williams' upcoming concerts, and below you can read Letters To You contributing writer Lisa Iannucci's deep dive into both Williams' career and her latest work: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the world of rock n roll troubadours, the legendary Lucinda Williams casts a long shadow. Considered one of the greatest songwriters of her generation by critics and fellow musicians, she began her music career making records that received their kudos but little notice by the buying public. That began to change when DC-area country artist Mary Chapin Carpenter had a hit with Williams’ “Passionate Kisses” in 1992. But it wasn’t until the release of the classic Car Wheels On A Gravel Road in 1998 that she received the widespread recognition she so richly deserved. Eclectic in style, the album concerns itself with childhood memories of her family’s peripatetic existence, with the hardscrabble musicians Williams met on the road, and with relationships gone astray. Car Wheels... –  over three years in the making due to the collapse of the American Recordings label, to studio scuffles with co-producer Steve Earle, and to the impossibly high standards Williams sets for herself – had been stopped, started, scrapped and reborn several times before its release. (A 1997 New York Times Magazine profile offers a glimpse into her painstaking creative process.) But it was worth the wait; the finished product, which features vocals by Earle, Emmylou Harris and Jim Lauderdale, guitar work by luminaries like Charlie Sexton, Buddy Miller, and Ray Kennedy, and production support and keyboards from E Streeter Roy Bittan, is now considered not just a landmark in her career, but an alt-country masterpiece. The success of Car Wheels..., which afforded Williams the opportunity to tour with a top-notch band that included Miller and Lauderdale on guitar, was just the beginning of a storied career that has continued to this day. Over the years, she’s been called “difficult” - a pejorative that rarely applies to her male peers - and has had tumultuous relationships with a who’s who of “bad boy” rock’n’rollers from Ryan Adams to Paul Westerberg. Like Adams, she’s walked offstage mid-set; like Dylan, Springsteen and so many others, she’s spent countless hours in recording studios laboring over minute details. But in the male-dominated world of rock’n’roll, as Joe Jackson famously wrote, “it’s different for girls.” She’s been pretty successful at pushing back on that over the years, but it hasn’t been easy. Certainly Williams was never in the business of being anybody’s role model, but even with the success of Car Wheels..., it took some time for the next generation of artists to cite her as an influence. Career-wise, Lucinda is in constant motion. She’s been releasing records and touring pretty much nonstop for decades now, but the pandemic of 2020-21 forced her off the road, where, like many creative folks, she had the time to work on side projects and develop new material. During that time, she released a series of six homemade works - the Lu’s Jukebox series - most of them tributes to some of her favorite rock and rollers, as well as a holiday release. Available as downloads as well as vinyl and CD collectibles, these releases were mostly covers, but there were some originals like “Stolen Moments" thrown into the mix, too. She also worked on a memoir, the recently released Don’t Tell Anybody The Secrets I Told You, which, aside from dishing about those “bad boy” dalliances, reveals more about the chaotic childhood and ongoing mental health and self-esteem issues with which Williams has struggled over the years. Through it all, she’s still a woman apart, someone who marches to her own drummer, but has ceased caring about fitting in or belonging. Why fit in when you can stand out? “‘I’m just stubborn, it works for me,” she recently told Yahoo Entertainment’s Lily Moayeri. Stories From A Rock N Roll Heart finds her in a ruminative mood. It’s a backward-looking record laden with nostalgia and regret, filled with lonely barflies longing for a past to which they can never return. Haunted by loss and by relationships that went bad, mentally and physically isolated, this is Williams in search of lost time - sitting in a bar, nursing a beer and playing the same songs over and over on the jukebox, seeking solace in the familiar. The album starts off with the upbeat “Let’s Get the Band Back Together,” a song in the vein of the Beach Boys’ “Do it Again.” It’s a celebration of the camaraderie of being in a band, of shared focus and shared stages and tour buses, of a rose-tinted reunion. Unfortunately, the happiness and renewed focus (and often lucrative compensation) always seem short-lived when the band gets back together, as inevitably, the forces that drove them apart surface once again. So what happens when you’re trying to resurrect those bygone days? What follows is the aural trip down the memory lane of a musician who’s spent too many hours on the road, seen the inside of one too many bars from L.A. to Gotham. The production by Williams, spouse Tom Overby, and her old friend Ray Kennedy, is more crisp than some of her previous work, which leaned hard into the murky, sloppy blues of the Delta in which she grew up. It’s up-front and confrontational, just like Lucinda. The next track, “New York Comeback” (co-written with another longtime friend and collaborator, Jesse Malin,) is a somewhat wry play on the trope of self-reinvention in the Big Apple. Malin also co-wrote “Let’s Get the Band Back Together,” and both songs are also reflective of his many years on the road and late nights in bars. But it’s not just the late nights nursing “another green bottle” (“Last Call for the Truth.”) There are also the desperate alcoholic afternoons described in “Hum’s Liquor” (based on the tragic final years of The Replacements' Bob Stinson, with backing vocals provided by his half-brother and fellow Replacement Tommy Stinson) and the lonely melancholy of “Stolen Moments,” which she says is about “feelings that come unexpectedly.” (It’s dedicated to her late friend Tom Petty.) “This is Not My Town” -  another song about isolation and the damage it does to people – also concerns itself with lack of trust and the havoc it wreaks both on personal relationships and on public institutions. In the standout single “Rock N Roll Heart” we hear how music reaches down into people’s lives and saves them, which should sound familiar to most Springsteen fans. In her memoir, Williams relates the story of hanging out with Bruce after a show in L.A. Tom Overby, (her date for the evening and future husband) is meeting Springsteen for the first time, and he tells him that Bruce’s music had reached down to him in a similar fashion. And as if to complete the circle (and go completely “meta”), it’s none other than Bruce and wife Patti on backing vocals. (They also provide vocal support on "New York Comeback.") In a sense, we’re all historians of our own lives, examining the events of the past in order to make sense of the present. And after the pandemic, we all seem to be dealing with trauma on some level; we’re all doing our best to get through the day, each in our own way. (This is a process that those who’ve worked with psychotherapists may recognize.) Stories From A Rock N Roll Heart, despite its upbeat title, is in many ways concerned with the process of healing, with finding things to hang onto, with self-preservation. “I’m hung up on the past/And life is movin’ on too fast,” Williams sings in “Never Gonna Fade Away.” Her best work always seems to be rooted in bygone days, and this is no exception. Stories... is another strong outing from a seasoned pro who’s still contending with life’s ups and downs (especially as she continues recovering from a stroke she suffered in 2020,) but who always seems to come up swinging. “I’m never gonna fade away,” she sings as the album closes out, and you believe her. This is Lucinda Williams at 70: battle-hardened and scarred, and, as always, a survivor with a rock n roll heart.

July 26, 2023 It ain't no secret - especially around these parts - that as a songwriter, Bruce Springsteen often has served to reveal and explore many important truths, plumbing the depths of individual and shared memories and experiences. But apparently if you ever get the guy to speak publicly about the first vinyl record that he bought, the truth of that particular matter suddenly becomes a bit more elusive. Not that I believe that Bruce ever actually has lied whenever he's been asked about it, mind you. It's just that he seems to have not quite recalled all of the details correctly. It certainly would be understandable if that is indeed the case, given that now more than 65 years have passed since he bought his first record. The first time I encountered Springsteen discussing his first-purchased record was back in the late nineties. It was in an interview with Patrick Humphries that was first published in the February 1999 issue (issue # 234) of the long-running London-based magazine Record Collector. (Copies of that back-issue are no longer available through Record Collector's website. Most of Humphries' interview later got republished in Chris Phillips' and Louis P. Masur's excellent anthology Talk About A Dream: The Essential Interviews Of Bruce Springsteen, though the first-purchased-record question and Springsteen's answer, which ran as a sidebar in Record Collector, were not included in the republished version.) "The first record I actually bought," Springsteen told Humphries, "was by a guy named Dusty Rhodes. It was an EP, four tracks, and he did a cover version of 'Jailhouse Rock,' and a few other things - covers of hits of the day. And that was the first record - outside of your Peter Pan records when you were a kid. It was an EP, and cheaper than getting the original record. It was a pretty good record, but I don't know what happened to Dusty Rhodes." In 2011, Bruce again publicly discussed the first record he bought, this time telling Stevie Van Zandt about it in a special two-part edition of Stevie's weekly Underground Garage syndicated terrestrial-radio show dubbed "The Bruce and Stevie Show, Parts 1 and 2," which remains essential listening. "The first record I bought was Dusty Rhodes," he told Stevie early on in Part 1, "who was... Remember in those days they would make EPs of four top singles... and you would go out and you'd buy them for, like, 59 cents instead of 99 cents, and you'd get four songs instead of two... And so I think one of the first records I bought was an EP of somebody covering four Elvis songs." Stevie, who either forgot or never knew about the popularity of such cover-version EPs, just laughed and replied, "That's really weird." But Bruce definitely was right about the proliferation and popularity of knockoff versions of the popular records of the day issued by "cheapo labels." (Until a few years ago, there used to be a wonderful Yahoo! "cheapo_labels" group with an online focus on the records issued by such lesser-light labels, though unfortunately it since has folded along with the rest of Yahoo! Groups.) They appealed especially to kids like young Bruce Springsteen, whose family didn't have much money to spend on relative luxuries like records. These cheapo-label recordings could be found easily in the records/music departments of discount stores like Woolworth's, Murphy's, and McCrory's, which were the Targets and Walmarts of their day. (Incidentally, one of these now-extinct stores later got name-checked in this line from "Rosalita"'s lyrics: "Little Gun's downtown in front of Woolworth's...") Several famous musicians, including Elton John, Dolly Parton, and Lou Reed, recorded singles, EPs, and/or albums for such "dime store labels" in the years before they achieved stardom. Like all of the musicians who worked on records like these, the overwhelming majority of whom never achieved any kind of popularity or stardom, usually they were credited under pseudonyms if they were credited at all on these "budget" recordings. What Bruce seems to have misremembered slightly, however, is the credited name(s) on the first record he bought. More than a few musicians have performed under the name "Dusty Rhodes" over the years. Probably the two most famous are the late steel-guitarist who worked with country-music legend Buck Owens and the late fiddle-player who recorded for Sun Records in the 1950s with his brothers Slim and Speck Rhodes. The fiddle-player (who coincidentally once performed onstage with the E Street Band's Garry Tallent at two 2001 Asbury Park benefit concerts saluting Sun Records) obviously had the stronger connection to Sun Records labelmate Elvis Presley (who actually performed early on with The Rhodes Family Band and was briefly considered for possible membership in the band,) but after extensive research I've never come across any recording of "Jailhouse Rock" in any format by any artist performing under the name "Dusty Rhodes." What I did eventually find, however, are some copies of what I believe is most likely to be the first record that Bruce Springsteen ever bought. It's a 1957 four-track "cheapo label" EP, originally priced at only 49 cents in its 45RPM version (pictured above,) which is even a bit cheaper than the 59-cents price that Bruce recalled when talking to Stevie about it back in 2011. The EP contains a version of "Jailhouse Rock" performed by a singer credited not as "Dusty Rhodes," but as "Dusty Glass." None of the remaining tracks feature Dusty Glass, nor are they knockoffs of any other "Elvis songs," despite what Bruce told Stevie just over a decade ago. They are, however, as Bruce told Patrick Humphries back in the late nineties, "other...covers of hits of the day:" specifically "Wake Up, Little Susie" (original hit version recorded by The Everly Brothers, covered here by "Andy Bennett and The Toppers,") "Silhouettes" (original hit version recorded by The Rays, covered here by "Pat Greene and The Toppers,") and "Melodie D'Amour" (original hit version recorded by The Ames Brothers, covered here by "Pat Greene and The Toppers," as well.) The EP was issued in a 45RPM format and a 78RPM format, both of which were still popular vinyl formats in 1957. Over the years I've managed to track down and purchase hard-to-find vinyl copies in each format, but fortunately now everyone can hear this record much more easily, thanks to the fine folks at the Internet Archive website. The site has posted digitized versions of the complete EP (using a 78RPM copy as its source) for your streaming, downloading, and listening pleasure. Click here to hear the A-side, and click here to hear the B-side. If this EP indeed represents young Bruce Springsteen's first purchased recording, the track lineup connects strongly with much of Springsteen's own career as a professional recording and performing musician/songwriter, in obvious and also some less obvious ways. The strongest connections, of course, can be found in "Jailhouse Rock" and "Wake Up, Little Susie," both classic and widely known servings of the musical stew called rock-n-roll that inspired much of the best music that Springsteen has made throughout his career. Those two songs also feature the same kind of vividly memorable characters with class- and age-based situations that came to populate so many of Springsteen's own songs. There's some clever humor to be found there, too. "Silhouettes" shared many of these same qualities, as well, though it was much more of a novelty than a true classic. Nevertheless it still offered up a doo-wop/pop hybrid that helped to set the stage for the truly groundbreaking singles later recorded by The Drifters, which had an enormous influence on the music of Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Van Zandt, and Southside Johnny. (Incidentally, The Rays' version of "Silhouettes" was co-produced by Bob Crewe, who also co-wrote the song. Crewe went on to produce many of the best records by The Four Seasons, a lot of which featured spectacular arrangements by Charles Calello, who also arranged the strings on Born To Run's closing track "Jungleland.") And even the most whitebread, non-rock-and-roll fifties pop hit here, "Melodie D'Amour," has an interesting if offbeat Springsteen connection... One of his greatest latter-day musical heroes, Pete Seeger (the only artist to date for whom Bruce Springsteen has recorded an entire album of his own "covers" in tribute,) recorded an instrumental version of "Melodie D'Amour" on his 1967 album Waist Deep In The Big Muddy and Other Love Songs, produced by the late, legendary John Hammond, who signed Springsteen (and Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan, and Aretha Franklin, etc.) to Columbia Records. One credit that does not appear on this EP is that of its producer, who was the late Dave Pell. Pell was a highly respected musician with strong ties to the big-band and California jazz circles of the forties and fifties. He also did a lot of production work for the Tops "cheapo label" (including what is now considered an exotica/lounge classic: Robert Drasnin's 1959 Voodoo! LP.) Fortunately, before Pell passed in 2017, I had gotten to ask him about the EP by "Dusty Glass," et al. Pell distinctly recalled his production work on the 1957 EP, and added that he was "thrilled" that it just might be the first record that Bruce Springsteen bought. "I used to produce every six weeks a note for note copy of all the upcoming hits," he continued. "These were the best-selling records we [at Tops] released. I had my local pros in L.A. do it. I cast the sessions with great singers who could mimic the records that would possibly be hits in six weeks. I made up fictitious names...very vanilla names that sounded real. I can't remember who I used [for the Dusty Glass et al. EP,] but I did this kind of recording every six weeks...a long time ago...fun..." So there you have it; mystery mostly solved, apparently. All that's missing, of course, is some kind of official confirmation. If and when that happens, I gladly will donate at least one of my copies of the 1957 Dusty Glass et al. EP to The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University. After all, as noted (and New-Jersey-born-and-bred) archaeologist Dr. Indiana Jones would've said, "that belongs in a museum." Special thanks to Robert Drasnin (RIP,) Terry Gordon, Skip Heller, Pasi Koskela, Dave Pell (RIP,) and Val Shively for their assistance over the years in the completion of this long-gestating article.

[Part 1 of 2] July 26, 2023 EDITOR'S NOTE: In a fortnight, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band will be onstage again back in the U.S.A. As this second North American leg of the 2023 Tour commences, several key expectations will begin to be fulfilled at long last. Chicago will get its first shows of this tour, and later in the year fans on the West Coast and in Canada will get a shot at their first shows of the tour. In September all of the shows originally scheduled for March 2023, but postponed due to COVID-19 issues, finally will take place. And of course, by the time that Labor Day Weekend 2023 is over, 50,000 people will once again have screamed their heads off somewhere in New Jersey...thrice! With almost all of the tour's summer/early-autumn dates taking place in larger outdoor venues like ballparks and stadiums, there's been some significant and expected improvement in ticket-availability and pricing issues. (But that's not to say that our friend Donna Gray at Bruce Funds isn't still in need of whatever kind of support and assistance that you can provide in her ongoing efforts to "feed souls with the gift of rock and roll," as Donna puts it. Each and every Springsteen fan is strongly encouraged to check out the Bruce Funds website regularly and do whatever you can to help Donna get as many folks in need to a show this year as possible, especially if you happen to find yourself with access to an extra ticket or two.) To coincide with the tour's imminent return to North America, Greg Drew of E Street Radio has come up with a timely double-shot of episodes of his Legendary E Street Band show. He's taking a deep dive into analyzing what Bruce and the Band have been up to on this tour from the moment they first hit the stage in Florida last February through the just-concluded European leg. It's the perfect prelude as we are now just around the corner to the next series of North American shows, and Greg has been kind enough to allow us to share here his script and setlist for each episode, in adapted form. Here's Part 1 of Greg's 2023 Tour deep-dive, with Part 2 due about a month from now. Enjoy: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi, I'm Greg Drew and welcome to another edition of Legendary E Street Band. Now, last month featured my retrospective on the Darkness on the Edge of Town album and tour. And earlier this year, I was lucky enough to do the "Bruce 50 moments in 50 years" special. So I figured, "Enough nostalgia." The boys (and girls) are gonna be back in town soon, so let's talk about Bruce and the band right now, as in the 2023 tour in all its glory. There's been a lot of talk - a lot of talk - about the setlist and its supposed lack of variety, and I think it's worth noting that in the first U.S. leg of the tour, the band played more than fifty different songs in the course of a couple of months, which is at least twenty more than most classic rock bands play in a couple of tours....or a couple of decades for some. But rather than complain about what isn't being played, I'd rather spend some time thinking about what is being played. So this show will focus on the "regulars:" songs that show up in most if not all shows. And I'll offer my opinion, and only my opinion, as to what Bruce is trying to get across to us in his latest "Letter to Us." Clearly Bruce has been influenced by the success and acclaim surrounding his Broadway show; how could he not be? In that show, and I believe in this tour, he has some very specific thoughts and ideas he wants to get across to us. In typical fashion, the king of "the sad song with happy music" will sometimes shift messages from song to song. Just look at the usual five songs that opened most shows on the first leg of the tour... "No Surrender" [Feb. 1, 2023 - Tampa, FL] - His way of reminding us that despite the many years since this song was released, he still intends to fight back against the ravages of time and aging and everyday life. Not a lot of AARP cover boys still promise such things. And musically, it features Nils doubling Bruce's famous guitar line in the intro and outro. "Ghosts" [Feb. 3, 2023 - Atlanta, GA] - Unlike "No Surrender," it's clearly written from an older person' s perspective and features six voices singing together with Steve on 12-string guitar, where he stayed for "Prove It All Night" [Feb. 16, 2023 - Austin, TX], which followed with all its usual greatness. The version I'm gonna play features the great Eddie Manion filling in on the sax solo and Bruce's great guitar solo to close. "Letter To You" [Feb. 7, 2023 - Hollywood, FL] was next, and that is unmistakably a message to us, the audience, followed by "The Promised Land" [Feb. 10, 2023 - Dallas, TX], one of his traditional songs of inspiration and hope - 73 years old and he still believes.Enough of my yappin' - turn up your radio and listen! Not a bad way to begin a rock and roll show, wouldn't you say? The next sequence that often follows is a couple of throwbacks to almost the beginning, at least to late 1973. A great couple of songs to feature the entire ensemble and a special treat for us..."veteran" fans. Here's "Kitty's Back" [Feb. 18, 2023 - Kansas City, MO] and "The E Street Shuffle" [Feb. 18, 2023 - Kansas City, MO]. The next section that I found particularly poignant and noteworthy was the trio of "Nightshift" [March 2, 2023 - Denver, CO], "Last Man Standing" [March 5, 2023 - St. Paul, MN], and "Backstreets" [March 7, 2023 - Milwaukee, WI]. Of all the soul songs from his newest album, which one does Bruce choose to play? The one that's a tribute to two of the all time great soul singers who died way too young. He follows that up with a song about being the lone survivor from his first band - done solo, no less - and then completes the package with one of my favorites: "Backstreets." Of course Max and Roy shine on it, as usual, but it was really the reimagined coda that made it so special and dramatic. Gone for now is the sad eyed girl who lied; the tag now is one more tribute to a departed companion, a loved one whom Bruce vows to carry in his heart. Personally, I've always thought the 1978 version of "Backstreets" was the best and most moving. Maybe because I'm also 45 years older now and have suffered my own share of losses, but I'm not so sure this isn't the best. Of course, what would an E Street Band show be without a trip down Greatest Hits boulevard on the way to Encorevile? I've chosen three songs: "Because the Night" [April 1, 2023 - New York, NY] with its wondrous closing solo from the great Nils Lofgren; "She's The One" [February 16, 2023 - Austin, TX] with the Mighty Max keeping that rock solid Bo Diddley beat and another fill-in solo from Eddie Manion; and "The Rising" [April 1, 2023 - New York, NY] because after all the allusions to people's passing in earlier songs, we all could use a little rebirth, and where better for a rising than Madison Square Garden? We've come to what were usually the final two songs of the show. Mr. Van Zandt might have said it best [in his March 2023 podcast conversation with Kyle Meredith:] "The audiences are reacting in a way I've never seen in America... It is more like a Broadway show." Why? Because "you're telling a story and every song has a purpose." And there's no better way to conclude the story, night after night, than with what is still "the important part," and then a benediction for himself, for us and all the souls departed we miss so much. Here's "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" [April 5, 2023 - Cleveland, OH] and "I'll See You In My Dreams" [April 14, 2023 - Newark, NJ], and I will see you next month on the next edition of Legendary E Street Band. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Legendary E Street Band's "The 2023 Tour - Part 1 (The Regulars)" edition will air three more times this week, exclusively on E Street Radio (SiriusXM channel 20) with its airplay scheduled as follows (all times ET): Wednesday, July 26 – 8am Thursday, July 27 - 6 pm Saturday, July 29 - 5pm SiriusXM subscribers also can listen on-demand/online via the SiriusXM app.

July 26, 2023 "We're taking this thing till we're all in the box... till the wheels come off." (still-image from the film Bruce Springsteen's Letter To You, © 2020 Letter To You LLC, available for viewing at Apple TV+ ) Dear Readers and Fellow Springsteen Fans, Welcome! It feels very good indeed to be writing this initial message to fans of the music and artistry of Bruce Springsteen, with or without the mighty E Street Band. And just in case anyone may need or want it, here's some of the history behind this new website having come to exist. As its editor/publisher, I guess I should begin with some of my own personal, historical connections to Bruce’s music, so here goes... My Springsteen fandom began in the early 1980s, just as I was entering my early teen years, and it quickly went "hardcore." Part of what made this development inevitable probably had something to do with growing up in Philadelphia, PA, an area of the U.S. that served as one of Bruce's earliest and most passionate fanbases. His music continually got a lot of airplay on our local rock radio stations, thanks to the groundbreaking and passionate support of folks like David Dye and Ed Sciaky. Almost a decade before I became a fan, they were among the first in the nation to understand how great the best of Springsteen's music could be. They already were sharing the music and their enthusiasm for it with their listeners, many of whom obviously agreed, well before relatively newer listeners like me began coming into their fold. But there was much, much more to the roots of my fandom than mere geography and timing. It also had a lot to do with growing up as the oldest son in a working-class, single-parent family headed by my late mother. She did the very best she could raising three boys through some extremely tough times after my alcoholic, abusive father "went out for a ride and... never went back," to quote Springsteen's first Top-Ten hit-single "Hungry Heart." A lot of what Bruce was writing, singing, and speaking about (onstage and in interviews, especially once I got to read it all so well synthesized into Dave Marsh's still-essential-and-excellent Springsteen biographies Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story and Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s ) connected strongly with me as I trudged through my own struggles to find some hope, meaning, and purpose during the difficult double-shots of my adolescence and young adulthood. In addition, Bruce's music served as a very important conduit for a younger listener like myself. I listened closely enough to his music - and heard/read enough of what he had to say about it - that I learned not just about the music of Bruce Springsteen, but also about the work of so many other great artists in rock-n-roll, soul, blues, country, punk, folk, etc. Springsteen frequently and consistently talked about his musical influences, in addition to incorporating some downright awesome interpretations of others' songs into his live shows (many of which I first got to hear via "fan-based recordings," of course, several years before I began attending Springsteen concerts in person and several decades before the blessed arrival of live.brucespringsteen.net . ) One of the greatest gifts I got from Bruce's music was all of that other music. Springsteen's music also helped to introduce some crucial ideas and ways of thinking about politics, socio-economic issues, etc. Whenever I especially recall the arc of his albums from Darkness on the Edge of Town through Born in the U.S.A. , I can't help thinking about not only all of that great music and the now-legendary live performances of it, but also how formative and inspirational they were for me as I began to explore more deeply what it means to take on the adult responsibilities of citizenship, to stand up and join with others in advocating for what you believe deeply in your heart to be correct, fair, and just. All of that was yet another gift given to me by the music. And one of the best parts of that gift has been that as I've continued to age, grow, and face new adult challenges and possibilities, Springsteen has continued to be there as an artist, still producing work that continues to connect deeply with "...life right now!" Shortly after my fandom began, I became a loyal subscriber to Backstreets Magazine, the long-reigning premier magazine (and website) for Springsteen fans. It was a status I maintained as a Springsteen fan until the magazine and its website shut down operations this past February. By that point, when editor/publisher Chris Phillips announced the sad news , I also had logged almost two decades of writing and reporting for Backstreets and its website. Becoming a regular Backstreets contributor, as well as remaining a regular reader, gave me some of the best experiences of my life. I got to become part of a community of fellow fans, meet and interview some famous and fascinating folks, gain many deeper insights into the art that I love, and support some efforts and causes that are very close to my heart. I learned a lot , and had a helluva lot of fun doing it all, too. I remain deeply grateful to Chris Phillips for providing the gateway to all of those opportunities. In my life Chris became not just an editor who played an invaluable role in helping me to improve and expand my own writing and editing skills, but also someone whom I was, and of course still am, very glad to call a friend. Chris, I may not fully understand or agree with all of your reasons for closing up shop, but I still wish you nothing but the best in this post- Backstreets phase of your life and career, brother. Thanks again for everything. All of the above notwithstanding, there's one thing that’s still very important to me... and not just to me, I think (and hope.) As a Springsteen fan who believes that there remains a lot of interesting and inspiring stuff to read and write about this major artist's ongoing career, I feel that the end of Backstreets as we’ve known it has left myself and many other fans "stranded in the park," at least momentarily. We've been left in want of a new online home for not only our regular Springsteen-related news updates and analyses, but also for deeper, more thoughtful dives into the music's past, present, and future, as Bruce continues to build and sustain his multi-generational, international audience. A home for fan-driven writing that informs, challenges, and inspires, for sure, but is also - like the best of what Backstreets offered - non-academic and non-preachy, focusing instead on the passion, the accessibility, and even the appropriate doses of humor and self-deprecation that mark fandom at its best. So the Letters To You website is an attempt to help fill a very tall order indeed. To do it right will require operating in ways similar to what Bruce Springsteen has done whenever he's created his best work: drawing on the richness of past lessons and accomplishments (by both yourself and others) while simultaneously creating something that's new, different, unique... something that makes sense and feels right for this period. We’ll be featuring contributions from some of Bruce’s biggest fans who also happen to be excellent writers and photographers. Some of us used to contribute regularly to Backstreets and other publications; some of us will be newer voices. But what we all share in common is a continued passion for discussion, debate, criticism, and celebration of an artistic endeavor that appears far from over. We plan to ride this train “till the wheels come off,” good people! I hope you'll visit us often, and that you'll dig what you see whenever you do. Please feel free to let us know how we're doing by e-mailing me at editor@letterstoyou.net And if you really like what you see, please "tip" us whenever and whatever you can via PayPal , Cash App , and/or Venmo . The financial support that we receive from our readers, combined with revenue from appropriate advertising, will help us to continue fairly compensating all of our deserving writers and photographers without having to set up any paywalls, tiered access, etc. Again, welcome, and thanks for coming by, friends. Here's hoping we'll be seein’ ya again soon. Sincerely, Shawn Poole, Editor/Publisher letterstoyou.net aka letters2u.net