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August 3, 2024 Jay Weinberg , currently drumming with Suicidal Tendencies , regularly posts on his official YouTube channel videos which are part of his "Live Drum Cam" series: professionally recorded videos of select performances that highlight the aural and visual perspectives of Jay powerfully pounding away behind the drum-kit. The latest entry, posted yesterday, is taken from the June 22, 2024 Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band concert in Barcelona, Spain, during which Jay temporarily took over his father Max's drums to perform "Radio Nowhere" with Bruce and the band. We've embedded the video above, so you can watch it right here if you wish. It's a great, rockin' segment of the show (including HORNS! ) that's professionally filmed and recorded from start to finish, and it's all capped off with some sweet, moving hugs and kisses for Jay from proud papa Max and "Uncle Bruce." Here's more on the video from Jay himself, as shared in the video's description section on his YouTube channel, along with complete production credits for the video: “Perhaps stating the obvious, I’ve seen ‪ @brucespringsteen‬  and the mighty E Street Band more than I have any other artist over the last 25 years…it’s got to be in the multiple hundreds of shows by now. And I can say with complete confidence — the dates I’ve seen of their current tour have been amongst my absolute favorite times seeing them. Every night is pure mastery in storytelling and rock and roll power; an emotional journey of music that’s inspiring and moving in every way. My wife and I have tried to catch as much of this tour as possible. A joy for me, personally, to finally share with her this huge part of my family’s and my history — especially to watch my Dad turn into a complete drumming weapon night after night. 🔥🥁🔥 It was a complete surprise to receive an invitation from The Boss himself to sit in for a song during the last show of their summer tour that we’d be able to see — in Barcelona, right before linking up with ‪ @suicidaltendencies ‬  for our summer tour. Out of all the songs I learned and played on tour with Bruce throughout 2009 — many of which drew from genres I had never really approached in my four years of drumming experience — ‘Radio Nowhere’ felt the most like a natural extension of the music I had gravitated towards as a teenager. To this day, this song holds a very special place in my heart. It was a thrill to revisit playing on E Street, 15 years later. I’m eternally grateful to Bruce, to my Dad, to everyone on and off this stage…a true family. For sharing this moment, and for the lifetime of memories. This is one I’ll never forget. Hope you enjoy it!” Video recorded by: Rob DeMartin, Pam Springsteen, and Chris Hilson Audio recorded by: John Cooper (& audio captured by GoPro HERO 12) Thumbnail photos: Rob DeMartin Special thank you to Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Dad, Jon Landau, George Travis, Rob DeMartin, Pam Springsteen, John Cooper, Matt Payne, Troy Milner, Kevin Buell, Chris Hilson, Mona Okada, and Sony. - ‪ @MixWaveOfficial ‬ : Jay Weinberg Virtual Instrument: https://www.mixwave.net/jayweinberg - Jay Weinberg Signature ‪ @SJCCustomDrums ‬ : https://www.sjcdrums.com/pages/jay-we ... - Jay Weinberg Signature ‪ @VaterPercussionUSA‬  908 Drumstick: https://www.vater.com/908 - Jay Weinberg Official Website: https://www.jayweinbergofficial.com - Jay Weinberg Official Webstore: https://www.jayweinbergofficial.com/shop

July 29, 2024 Happy Birthday, Patti Scialfa! Summer 2024 not only marks another birthday for her, but also the 40th anniversary of Patti joining the E Street Band, with her first official gig occurring exactly forty years and one month ago on June 29, 1984, the opening night of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour in St. Paul, Minnesota . To celebrate "Red"'s special day and extra-special anniversary this year, we're traveling even further back in time to 1976, to explore Patti's work at her first professional recording sessions, a set of sessions in which she also first happened to intersect with E Street. The 1980s was, of course, when Patti began performing and recording with rock-and-soul royalty, first with Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes at the beginning of the decade, and then later with David Johansen, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Buster Poindexter (David Johansen's alter ego,) The Rolling Stones, and finally Keith Richards on his 1988 Talk Is Cheap solo album. But back in 1976, her first year of professional recording work, she was singing on records by major figures in another genre: jazz fusion. So let's set the scene... It's late summer '76 in New York City. Patti's at Atlantic Recording Studios to sing on a track for the debut album by her friend Narada Michael Walden. She first met Walden (who in later decades would collaborate closely with Clarence Clemons on several of his solo projects) in Miami, while she was a student at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, and he's invited her to provide backing vocals, along with legendary bassist Will Lee (another friend and fellow Frost School of Music alum) and saxophonist/singer Norma Jean Bell of Frank Zappa/P-Funk/Chic fame, on the track "Delightful." Among the other musicians working on the track is a keyboardist by the name of David Sancious, who's quickly become a rising star in the jazz fusion world after his departure from Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band two years earlier. Click below to listen to "Delightful" from Narada Michael Walden's album Garden of Love Light , with Narada Michael Walden on lead vocal, acoustic piano, and drums; Raymond Gomez on guitar; Will Lee on bass and vocals; David Sancious on Fender Rhodes piano and organ; Norma Jean Bell on saxophone and vocals; Sammy Figueroa on congas; and Patti Scialfa (then credited on the album as "Patty Scalfa") on vocals: Sancious was so impressed with Scialfa's singing that he invited her to join his jazz fusion band Tone. Patti sang multi-tracked vocals on the opening track of David Sancious and Tone's "lost" 1976 album Dance of the Age of Enlightenment , "Overture - Wake Up (To a Brand New Day of Love)" with Sancious also on vocals, acoustic piano, organ, synthesizer, and guitar; former E Street Band drummer Ernest "Boom" Carter on drums and percussion; and Gerald "Gerry" Carboy on bass. Recorded at Nederland, Colorado's famous Caribou Ranch Recording Studio, the album finally received an official full-scale release just last summer, with a remastering process using the original master tapes (at last played back at proper speed, unlike the oft-bootlegged '76 promo-only release) and supervised by Sancious himself. Click here to order a copy of Dance of the Age of Enlightenment , which is currently available only in the compact-disc (CD) format. As 1976 drew to a close, Patti Scialfa received another invitation for session-work from her friend Narada Michael Walden. This time around, Walden was producing an album by famous free jazz and world fusion trumpeter Don Cherry (also the stepfather and father, respectively, of musicians Neneh Cherry and Eagle-Eye Cherry,) entitled Hear & Now . Patti sang with Cheryl Alexander and Phoenix Volaitis on the recording of Walden's composition "Surrender Rose." Also featured on the track, recorded in New York at Electric Lady Studios, were some other friends of Patti: Clifford "Cliff" Carter (who later became James Taylor's keyboardist) and Stan Samole from her Frost School of Music days, and her Chelsea/NYC neighbor Steve Jordan, who became a key production collaborator on Patti's 23rd Street Lullaby and Play It As It Lays solo albums in the 2000s, and most recently played drums on tour with The Rolling Stones. Click below to listen to "Surrender Rose" from Don Cherry's album Hear & Now , with Don Cherry on trumpet; Stan Samole on guitar; Clifford "Cliff" Carter on organ; Narada Michael Walden on acoustic/electric pianos and tom-toms; Steve Jordan on drums; Neil Jason on bass; Raphael Cruz on percussion; Cheryl Alexander, Phoenix Volaitis, and Patti Scialfa (then credited on the album as "Patty Scialfa") on vocals; and Lois Colin on harp: Finally, we simply can't celebrate both Patti's birthday and the 40th anniversary of her joining the E Street Band without revisiting a major highlight from her first tour with the band: that version of "Cover Me" from the Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Live/1975-85 album, featuring Patti's very jazz-like interpolation of Martha Reeves & The Vandellas' classic "Nowhere to Run" as it begins: Happy Birthday, Ms. Patti Scialfa, and many, many more! And here's hoping that before this special birthday/anniversary year is over, we Scialfa fans finally will get to hear that fourth solo album, as promised onstage by your biggest fan last October: Bring it on, Birthday Girl!

July 26, 2024 Today officially marks our website's one-year anniversary, and it's been a very good year indeed. As of this writing, Letters To You has published a total of 176 articles, and we have had more than 26,000 unique visitors. More than 16,000 were from North America and more than 7,000 were from Europe, but we also have had significant numbers of visitors from other regions of the world, including our visitors from Aotearoa New Zealand, Argentina, Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, the Cayman Islands, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Peru, the Republic of the Philippines , Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, and Viet Nam. Of course we are thrilled and honored by this overwhelming response from Springsteen fans around the globe, and we thank each and every one of our loyal readers and visitors who made this first year such a successful one for Letters To You. We also hope that many, if not all, of our visitors will continue checking in with us on a regular basis, as we continue working to deliver to our fellow fans some of the best reporting and reflections on the work of Bruce Springsteen and his various collaborators...past, present, and future. As always, to help us accomplish our goals consistently, we appreciate whatever financial support our readers can give to us. We remain committed to providing access to all Letters To You content to everyone online, with no paywalls or tiered-access provisions in place. It does cost us some money, however, for us to make that happen regularly, especially since we also believe in paying our contributors (writers, photographers, etc.) as fairly as we can for their work. Therefore we rely greatly on any "tips" that readers can send us, as well as any appropriate advertising revenue that we can generate. So if you feel inspired to give us a one-year "birthday gift" at this time, please click here to "tip" us, and thank you very much for your suppor t.   We even have a small but appropriate special incentive for almost everyone who "tips" us between now and the end of this month, with thanks again to our friends at Rolling Stone Germany ... As we reported three months ago , their May 2024 issue celebrating Born in the U.S.A. 's fortieth anniversary came packaged with a world-exclusive 7" vinyl picture-sleeve reissue of the album's first single, which also was Bruce Springsteen's all-time-best-selling single: "Dancing In The Dark" b/w the album-outtake "Pink Cadillac." This 2024 vinyl reissue is available only with the May 2024 issue of Rolling Stone Germany . You can click here to order a copy. Or...  you could win one from us!  Since Rolling Stone Germany has once again been kind enough to provide us with a total of four additional copies of this special issue, we're going to again raffle off randomly a copy to each of four new, separate, and lucky winners, as we did last April. (Once you've won one of the copies, or if you already won one from us last April, you're automatically out of the running to win one of these four remaining copies.) And we've again made it super-easy to enter this special raffle. You automatically will be entered one time for each dollar you place in our "tip jar" between now and 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. Donate $10 and get 10 chances to win, donate $25 and get 25 chances to win, etc. Again, please click here to "tip" us, and thanks again for all of your support. After the raffle-entry period closes next Wednesday, four lucky winners will be randomly selected from the pool of all eligible raffle entrants. Each lucky winner will receive one copy of Rolling Stone Germany 's May 2024 issue with the world-exclusive 7" vinyl picture-sleeve reissue of "Dancing In The Dark" b/w the album-outtake "Pink Cadillac," as pictured above. Should any eligible entrant's name happen to be selected randomly more than once, another and different name will be selected randomly in their stead, in order to ensure that there will be a total of four separate winners, each of them winning one copy of the raffle prize. Good luck to all entrants, and thanks again to our friends at Rolling Stone Germany ! It's so cool and appropriate to be able to give away to some of our supportive readers another four copies of this special issue celebrating four decades of Born in the U.S.A. 's existence, during the same summer in which we're celebrating the first anniversary of our own website having been "born in the U.S.A.," as well.

July 24, 2024 Today the full track listing was announced for Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin , the various-artists tribute album that will be released on September 20 to raise additional funds for Malin's continuing recovery efforts after suffering a rare spinal stroke last year. The announcement was accompanied by the official release of the album's second single, Billie Joe Armstrong's version of "Black Haired Girl." You can click here to order/stream "Black Haired Girl" and pre-order the album. The album's first single, Bleachers' version of "Prisoners of Paradise," the lyrics of which provided the inspiration for Silver Patron Saints ' title, was released last month. You can click here to order/stream "Prisoners of Paradise" and pre-order the album. Among the yet-to-be-released tracks announced today is Bruce Springsteen's version of "She Don't Love Me Now." Since detailed production/personnel details have yet to be shared publicly, we don't yet know whether Springsteen's version is a full-band version, as Malin's original version was, or if it is something closer to a solo, possibly acoustic version. Also among today's announced and yet-to-be-released tracks: a version of "Turn Up The Mains" featuring Stevie Van Zandt in collaboration with Joey C., the late, great soon-to-be-offically-inducted-Rock-and-Roll-Hall-of-Famer Wayne Kramer , Tom Morello, Alison Mosshart, and Mike Watt. Here is the complete track list for Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin : Bleachers - "Prisoners of Paradise" Counting Crows - "Oh Sheena" Bruce Springsteen - "She Don't Love Me Now" Billie Joe Armstrong - "Black Haired Girl" Dinosaur Jr. - "Brooklyn" Frank Turner - "About You" Alison Mosshart, Wayne Kramer, Tom Morello, Steven Van Zandt, Mike Watt, & Joey C. - "Turn Up The Mains" Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello - "Room 13" The Wallflowers - "Don't Let Them Take You Down (Beautiful Day)" Spoon - "The Way We Used To Roll" Rocky O'Riordan - "Shane" Butch Walker - "In The Modern World" Susanna Hoffs - "High Lonesome" Graham Parker - "Greener Pastures" Alejandro Escovedo - "Meet Me At The End Of The World" The Hold Steady - "Death Star" Tommy Stinson and Ruby Stinson - "Riding On The Subway" The Walker Roaders - "St. Mark's Sunset" Ian Hunter - "Dead On" Danny Clinch featuring Daniel Donato's Cosmic Country - "Almost Grown" Aaron Lee Tasjan - "Shining Down" Low Cut Connie - "When You're Young" Willie Nile - "All The Way From Moscow" Rancid - "No Way Out" Gogol Bordello - "You Know It's Dark When Atheists Start To Pray" Agnostic Front - "God Is Dead" Murphy's Law - "Frankie" In a statement issued on his Facebook page today , Jesse Malin wrote, "This is one record that I’ll never ever forget. I’m incredibly grateful for everyone who made it happen, especially the artists that took the time to create their own versions of my songs, as well as Diane Gentile, Dave Bason and Glassnote Records for putting it all together. The fact that this record goes from Agnostic Front to Bruce Springsteen, from Rancid to Lucinda Williams, from Counting Crows to Murphy's Law and everything else in between makes me smile in the biggest way. Songs from Heart Attack - my first teenage band, D Generation, and my solo records, all in one place and done so creatively, is the greatest benefit and gift. Hearing these versions really got me through some of the toughest days. I know this record was made to help me financially during a hard time, but the emotional and spiritual boost is beyond anything that I’ve ever felt." Click here to pre-order your copy of Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin . All proceeds will benefit Jesse Malin's Sweet Relief Fund .

July 24, 2024 This week, while Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band wrap up the European leg of their 2024 tour with two London shows beginning tomorrow night, Thom Zimny, Springsteen's longtime film/video collaborator and archivist, also will be launching a mini-"tour" of his own in the same city. Zimny will be talkin' Springsteen and screening footage in London this coming Friday night, as well as in Asbury Park next month and in Toronto in September, where he (along with Springsteen, reportedly) will be premiering Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band on the big screen. Here are the details on all three upcoming Springsteen-themed evenings with Zimny: This Friday night's event at London's Prince Charles Cinema is entitled Springsteen On Screen: An Evening With Thom Zimny , and not surprisingly it is sold out. As promised on the Cinema's website, lucky ticket-holders will get to sit in on a "conversation with the man who directed Springsteen On Broadway , Western Stars and Letter to You , who pieced together the countless hours of archival footage to bring us Wings For Wheels , The Promise and The Ties that Bind , and who has had a large hand in shaping how we see Bruce Springsteen on our screens...But that’s not all; alongside our discussion exploring the long history Zimny and Springseen share, we’ll also be screening full live-performances of specific tracks from The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts , Live in Hyde Park , Springsteen on Broadway and more!!!" Next month, in Asbury Park, Zimny will host and moderate the TeachRock benefit event Stories From The Road . Click here to read Letters To You's previous, detailed report on this upcoming event. Zimny will screen what the event's official announcement is calling "never-before-seen footage of the E Street Band" and discussing stories from the road with TeachRock founder Stevie Van Zandt and his fellow E Street Band members Roy Bittan, Garry Tallent, and Max Weinberg. A few tickets still remain as of this writing, but only if you and/or your group/organization can afford to purchase one of the remaining $10,000 or $25,000 sponsor packages. And it's just been announced that in September, Zimny will present the world premiere of his latest film, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band , at The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF.) Click here to read Letters To You's previous report on this film, which is scheduled to begin streaming on Disney+/Hulu this October. A report in The Toronto Star claims that Springsteen also will be in attendance for the TIFF world-premiere of Road Diary . Further details regarding specific dates, showtimes, and tickets-availability won't be available to the general public before August 13, when the Festival's full schedule will be announced and presumably made available online at the official TIFF website .

July 4, 2024 Here in the U.S., if nothing else this Independence Day week has made one thing crystal-clear to even the most starry-eyed-and-laughing dreamers among us: No, this is by no means the land where "justice for all" exists. Monday's Supreme Court decision has gotten much attention, of course, and rightfully so, but on the very next day after the Court's decision was announced, the U.S. Parole Commission announced that it once again denied parole to Leonard Peltier , the Native American activist who has been imprisoned for almost fifty years on charges related to the deaths of two F.B.I. agents in a 1975 shootout at Pine Ridge Reservation. Peltier's conviction and imprisonment has been deemed unjust by numerous legal experts and human-rights organizations around the globe for decades. Peltier is also now 79 years old and in poor health. In 1989, Stevie Van Zandt - a.k.a. Little Steven - released his song "Leonard Peltier," distilling the basic facts and history surrounding Peltier's conviction, accompanied by a music-video for the song: Van Zandt was scheduled to speak at Peltier's June 10 Parole Commission hearing, but the Commission ultimately cut the number of witnesses permitted to speak on behalf of Peltier. On July 1, however, Van Zandt contributed an op-ed piece to CNN. It's focused mainly on responding to F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray's statement at the June 10 hearing urging the Parole Commission to deny parole to Peltier, and it's entitled, "I deeply respect the FBI. It’s in that spirit that I say they’re getting this very wrong." Click here to read Stevie Van Zandt's full CNN op-ed piece. Van Zandt also told The New York Times that the F.B.I.'s handling of Peltier's case was “really, really disturbing, and I think hurts the credibility of the F.B.I. to even try and defend it.” Stevie added that denying parole to Leonard Peltier would be “the final terrible chapter in one of the worst, most terrible chapters of American history.” After the Parole Commission announced its denial, Stevie Van Zandt posted the following statement on his social-media: Leonard Peltier's attorneys also issued a statement after the Parole Commission's announcement. It concluded as follows: "Leonard is a prisoner of war. Echoing Frederick Douglass this 4th of July holiday, [we] reflect on his enduring words, 'what have...those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?' We who believe in freedom cannot rest. We will not give up the fight for Leonard - and neither should you."

July 7, 2024 EDITOR'S NOTE: On this date, back in 1988, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performed their first official Dublin, Ireland concert. (The 1985 Slane Castle show was their first official Ireland show, but it actually wasn't performed in Dublin proper, as many still believe incorrectly.) Since then, Dublin has become one of the best places on the planet to catch a Springsteen concert. It's even made the short list of cities in which an officially released Springsteen live album was recorded (2007's Bruce Springsteen with The Sessions Band - Live in Dublin , also released as a concert film in DVD/Blu-ray formats.) London-based journalist and Letters To You contributor Herpreet Grewal , who's attended several Springsteen/ESB Dublin concerts in the past, recently attended this year's Dublin show: the May 19 gig at Croke Park. Below she shares her experience, accompanied by some of René van Diemen 's beautiful photographs from the event: When Bruce plays Ireland, the atmosphere is like that of a long-lost son coming home. That’s exactly how Dublin felt in the days before his show there. As soon as I left the airport, I could see people in Springsteen t-shirts walking around on the outskirts of the city. On the bus into the city, one elderly Irish fan talked loudly on the phone to someone about arrangements for attending the concert. Bruce had already played gigs in Kilkenny and Cork. Dublin, like the previous two cities, had a bit of a carnival atmosphere in the name of Bruce. I don’t like to exaggerate, but it was certainly true in the city centre. When I left my hotel room for the gig and as I passed through corridors, I could hear occupants in random rooms on either side of me, playing his songs. There were also shop fronts decked out in Springsteen regalia and as I walked to the venue, a number of pubs and cars I passed by were blasting out his hits. Even days later, people on the street outside my window were drunkenly singing "Dancing in the Dark." He is much loved in Ireland, arguably more fiercely than other European countries. One older, rugged Irish man said, “I don’t queue for anyone, but I’ll queue for Brucie.” Friends coming out of the Kilkenny show had been stunned by that gig. Not only had he come out early with his flat cap and done a soundcheck with a few songs, but the show had clocked in at three hours and sixteen minutes! It was going to be hard to beat that. The Ireland shows attract many European and global fans. A lot were out in force and had been queuing for the main general admission pit, days before the gig, as usual. One friend who was queuing also had seen the May 5 concert in Cardiff, Wales and was telling me how he had bumped into Bruce there. He unwittingly found himself in the same hotel as Bruce, and as my friend entered the gym, he saw Springsteen right in front of him doing chest presses in his dungarees! He had the courage to go up to him and ask for a photo. Bruce replied, “I am the master of selfies,” and offered to take one. Others in the queue included Dutch fan Astrid, who said Ireland was a good place for a Springsteen show because “the security is so good,” which adds an element of safety to the whole experience. (As a seasoned Bruce-gig-goer, I can confirm that queues can get nasty and a bit adversarial, if neutral parties aren’t around keeping a bit of order.) Her husband Co added, “The hospitality is so great here [in Ireland,] so it makes us want to come back. It’s like a community in the queue, so it is not a strain at all.” Alissa, who had travelled from France, said, “Ireland has always been a great place to see Bruce; it’s his crowd. It’s different seeing him in an English-speaking country, because everyone knows the lyrics, compared to [a place like] Paris.” She also noted, “It’s very family-oriented compared to other countries. You see everyone from small kids going for the first time and older fans who have seen him a hundred times, and you hear their stories. It’s such a lovely time. You end up knowing people deeply if you queue, and even after a few days the connection is very strong, due to Bruce.” Sadly, before the show, thousands of fans had been left queuing fifteen minutes into the start of the show. As I had made my way in, I had seen the queues meandering out over the residential roads close to Croke Park, and they honestly made my eyes water. I wondered how they were going to get people in so quickly. Springsteen arrived surprisingly later than I expected. I know that because approximately forty minutes before showtime, fans in the general admission pit started screaming and a few outer layers of people ran to the side fence near the stage. It was Springsteen’s car arriving. Bruce walked onto the stage at 7.13pm with the cheeky, confident smile of one who knows he is loved and who loves them all back with just as much heart, and he enjoyed every minute of this welcome, with his telecaster dangling from his person. Then he launched into "Lonesome Day," followed by "Night," "No Surrender," "Two Hearts," "Ghosts," and "Darlington County." The tour debut of "Reason to Believe" caused excited yelps from the audience. The last time he played it was in 2016, and it’s a raw, blistering bluesy rendition that gives you goosebumps, as if you’re hearing the lyrics and the music for the first time. The other tour debut was "My Hometown," which was dedicated to “the Mayor of Freehold who is here tonight." "It’s a big night,” said Bruce in quite an excited tone. Never mind that Paul Rudd, Brad Pitt, or Bono also were in attendance; it was Freehold, NJ Mayor Kevin Kane whom Bruce chose to highlight. Rightly so, as there was a special announcement attached to this shoutout. Again, bringing the attention back to his special relationship with the country and in particular his family’s ancestral village of Rathangan in County Kildare. Bruce was announcing that it would be twinned with his hometown of Freehold, NJ, and the Mayor’s visit was part of a delegation to formalize the arrangement. The rest of the show was full of themes that have occupied him of late, including how to honour those who are no longer with us. He introduced "My City of Ruins," saying that when loved ones have passed away in life, we have to remember “It’s also what remains with us in our hearts and memories.” Halfway through the song he added, “If we’re here, they’re here with us tonight,” passing on his passion and conviction to us. He ended with a cover of The Pogues' "A Rainy Night in Soho" as a tribute to Shane MacGowan, who died last year. [Springsteen got to visit with the ailing MacGowan in Dublin while in town for the 2023 Springsteen/ESB concerts.] “For Shane. For Dublin. For Ireland. We love you,” said Bruce as he finished the simultaneously jaunty and poignant number. It was a heart-rousing show - as usual - and just shy of a full three hours, though some fans later told me they were disappointed that he didn’t veer off the setlist or stay for longer as he had in Kilkenny! But I was pleased. It never really matters if I am in the general admission pit or in a seat farther away from the stage; each song reaches me and touches me in the way it always has but also in a new way, in how it applies to my life now. Every show I see as he gets older, and as I get older, I always wonder, how does he do that? Because what he does is beyond time and age really. He’s a human defibrillator for the spirit, reminding us of how to live with the darkness of grief and the hope of a brighter future, and we all leave with our own version of that understanding. That is quite the service to give the world, and one it sorely needs right now. All photos by René van Diemen; used with permission. Connect with René on Facebook , Instagram , Twitter/X , and/or via email .

July 5, 2024

July 4, 2024 Zach Bryan's latest album, The Great American Bar Scene , was released today. It features the studio version of "Sandpaper," recorded with Bruce Springsteen. "Sandpaper" is one of two songs that Springsteen performed with Bryan at Bryan's March 27 Barclays Center concert in New York . ("Sandpaper" also is one of two songs on Bryan's new album with a Springsteen connection. In addition to Springsteen's contribution to "Sandpaper," The Great American Bar Scene 's title track name-checks Springsteen's "State Trooper.") Below you can listen to Zach Bryan's newly released recording of "Sandpaper," featuring Bruce Springsteen:

July 4, 2024 Lyrics by Jake Clemons: Who among you is willing to stand To fight for your rights when there's tyranny at hand? Who among you has a voice to be heard, To sing out with the choir or wild like the birds? [chorus] We are The People, We are The People, We, The People... Who among you enjoys being free, No matter your religion, orientation, or creed? And who among you is the last to confess If one of us ain't free, then we're all oppressed? We'll stand united, or we won't stand for long, One people for liberty, one people with justice for all.

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!

June 29, 2024 We're wrapping up this month of celebrating, revisiting, and rethinking Bruce Springsteen's all-time best-selling album, Born in the U.S.A. , which was released forty years ago this past June 4, with a special roundtable-discussion podcast, debuting on our SoundCloud and YouTube platforms today, June 29, on the fortieth anniversary of the launch of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour (and the completion of filming the music-video for the album's first single: "Dancing In The Dark.") Participating in this great discussion are: music-business veteran and radio personality Greg Drew, critic/author Steven Hyden (whose newly-published book is There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” and the End of the Heartland ,) and critic/author Joyce Millman , with our Editor/Publisher Shawn Poole serving as the discussion's moderating panelist. We dive deep into the album, the tour, and its enduring impact on Bruce Springsteen's artistry and career, as well as the larger world around it. If you're a fan of Springsteen and Born in the U.S.A. , you'll want to hear this. Click below to listen on our SoundCloud and/or YouTube platforms: