HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRUCE

The Rangers had a homecoming
In Harlem late last night
And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine
Over the Jersey state line
Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge
Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain
The Rat pulls into town, rolls up his pants
Together they take a stab at romance
And disappear down Flamingo Lane

Bruce was born on this day in 1949. His father Douglas was a bus driver of Dutch and Irish ancestry, and his mother Adele Ann Zerilli was an Italian American legal secretary. His grandfather was born in Vico Equense, a village near Naples. Bruce was raised a Roman Catholic in Freehold, NJ, and his songs tell of village life--in this case, the village life of hustlers and petty crooks, of the hungry and the hunted who face off in the streets. He paints a picture of the night scene like a rock and roll Rembrandt, capturing the very moment the gang meets up beneath that giant Exxon sign.

Bruce is an opera singer, but he sings about the "opera out on the Turnpike, and the ballet being fought out in the alley." His song begins with the midnight gang assembling for a rumble, and ends with two hearts beating in the tender night. Between those two points, visionaries dance with backstreet girls, lovers struggle in dark corners, shots echo down a hallway, and no one watches as an ambulance pulls away.

Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz
Between what's flesh and what's fantasy
And the poets down here don't write nothing at all
They just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of a knife, they reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand
But they wind up wounded, not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland

SPRINGSTEEN AT THE SUPER BOWL

"I want you to step back from the guacamole dip," Bruce howled. "I want you to put the chicken fingers down and turn your television all the way up. And what I want to know is, is there anybody alive out there?"


So began an electrifying halftime performance by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The Boss played the Super Bowl for just twelve minutes, but there were no complaints. And no ballads. Just a rocking good time smack dab in the middle of a great Super Bowl.

Did you see the game? What about James Harrison’s 100-yard interception return? What about Arizona wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald? What about the calls? Do you think Kurt Warner’s fumble at the end of the game deserved another look? All I can say is, no nachos today.

BOYS AND GIRLS IN AMERICA

"Stuck Between Stations," live on Letterman

Straight out of Brooklyn, The Hold Steady is a bumblebee that--aerodynamically speaking--should not be able to fly. Combining classic guitar rock and indie angst, one could cite the Replacements and Grifters as influences, but one could just as easily cite your favorite bar band, and that skinny prankster on the Asbury Park boardwalk, ol' what's-his-name, with whom they share a love for guitar anthems and good storytelling. Lead singer Craig Finn looks like an actuary on a drinking binge, but he delivers the goods--heartbreaking stories about teenagers getting wasted, joyriding, fumbling in and out of love, acting cool, and hanging out in bars with nothing but memories and bands like The Hold Steady.


"Your Little Hoodrat Friend"

INAUGURATION DAY!

President Obama and first lady Michele Obama, Inauguration Day, 1/20/2009

Over two million people crowded the National Mall this morning to watch Obama get sworn in as our 44th president. A new era begins...finally. He gave a rousing inaugural address, and called for unity and responsibility.

"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals," he said at one point, a jab at the last man to hold the job. "We've chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over discord." There were tough times ahead, but "we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work."

(Watch the complete speech above, or read the full text which is linked below.)


President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama leave the presidential limousine to walk in the inaugural parade.


Raw video: Obama parades to the White House.

"The sun's rising glow illuminated a mass of humanity gathering on the Mall this morning, a singing, celebrating and at times solemn sea of people wrapped in layers head to toe and determined to claim a piece of history by witnessing the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation's 44th president." -Washington Post, 1/20/09

Read the full text of Obama's speech here.

MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

The best way to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King is to enjoy the spirit of jubilation over the Obama victory. King gave his life for equality, peace, and justice--and was assassinated by a white racist. We still have white racists and probably always will--just as we will always have cruelty and stupidity--but we can't wait for them to catch up because there is work to do. They must be livid. After all, they barely got over the abolition of slavery. In the name of King and all the civil rights workers we celebrate Obama's victory--an American victory.

Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen sing out at the Lincoln Memorial during a concert for Obama's inauguration. Pete, folksinger, political activist, and rabble-rouser, was hounded by the U.S. government for years for his politics and blacklisted during the Red Scare. Here, he makes a triumphant return with the Jersey Devil. They sing a song written by Pete's old running buddy, Woody Guthrie. I'm sure you know it, but maybe not this version. Here they sing it the way Woody wrote it, with all the "radical" lyrics they kept out of your school songbook.

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

Seeger and Springsteen at the Lincoln Monument:


What it took to get here. Bull Connor's police dogs attack protesters in Selma. Their crime? Asking for the right to vote. All the people jabbering about "exporting Democracy" sure as hell should have supported these brave souls--but of course conservatives blocked the civil rights movement every step of the way. It's history; look it up.

U2 perform "In The Name of Love" at the Lincoln Memorial. They wrote the song about Dr. King.


On this hard-won holiday, remember what it took to get here. Martin Luther King, Jr. is arrested by Alabama police for civil disobedience. The civil rights movement wasn't a tea party. People risked their necks. Give it up for MLK and the Movement for having the guts and determination and vision to rock the boat.

GROWING UP

Okay, it's my birthday, so here are a couple songs about growing up. The first is from that old honey-baked ham William Shattner. I knew him in childhood as Captain Kirk. Here he sings a song that's schmaltzy to begin with, and makes it even schmaltzier. The Captain really pours on the cheese in his sentimental version of "It Was a Very Good Year." He's probably been smoking that Romulan ganja.

The second clip is the Garden State's own Bruce Springsteen performing a song called "Growin' Up." Here you have it all: love, hate, joy, confusion, loss of innocence, delusions of grandeur, self-loathing, despair, and utter ecstasy. In other words, growing up. Here the boss plays it quietly, without the bombast and glockenspiels, and I like it that way.

TWO CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Here are two very different Christmas songs--in fact, they probably couldn't be more different. The first is a traditional English Christmas carol, The Holly and the Ivy. This old Yuletide carol is lightly Christianized paganism--holly and ivy being familiar Druidic ceremonial plants, though they have been used as Christmas decoration since at least the fifteenth century. This carol has been sung by choirs since the end of the medieval era, and it sounds like it. The beautiful harmonies of "The Holly and the Ivy" never fail to put me in the holiday spirits. How about you? Let's raise a flagon of mead to these sonorous lads.

The holly and the ivy when they are both full grown

Of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown

Oh, the rising of the sun and the running of the deer

The playing of the merry organ, sweet singing in the choir

Bruce Springsteen goes in and out of style but he and the E Streeters are always guaranteed to raise a smile. Here, Bruce and the band (and about seventy-five best friends) rock a tune from the Phil Spector Christmas Album originally recorded by the great Darlene Love, "Christmas! (Baby Please Come Home)," one of the very best Christmas tunes anywhere. Here, the sacred and the profane don't just mingle, they make out under the mistletoe. About halfway through the song, the wheels come off and the whole thing veers toward the snowy ditch but the Boss grabs the wheel and saves everyone from disaster.

HALLOWEEN WITH THE JERSEY DEVIL

Here's a Halloween treat from Bruce Springsteen--some murderous swampy blues about a New Jersey legend to scare your socks off.

4th OF JULY, ASBURY PARK

"Madam" Marie Costello, the fortune teller made famous in this song by Bruce Springsteen, just died at the age of 94. The psychic reader began telling fortunes on the Asbury Park Boardwalk in New Jersey in the 1930s.

In "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," Springsteen describes summertime on the Jersey shore, and tells us "the cops finally busted Madam Marie for telling fortunes better than they do."

In an interview in the Asbury Park Press, less than two months ago, Madam Marie remembered:

"Some kid named Springsteen used to come around a lot in those days. He'd sit on the railing across the boardwalk and play his guitar. He was 17.(( One time he came over and said 'All I've got is 50 cents,' she remembers. 'I told him, 'You don't have to give me your 50 cents.'( As the story goes, she told him he would be famous one day. She probably said that to all the boys, Springsteen once conceded. Still, he would immortalize her in song. He would make her the most famous fortuneteller ever to peer into a crystal ball. 'He always comes by to say hello,' she says now. 'He knows where he came from.'"

This performance is from March, 2008, and features the great Danny Federici on accordion. Federici also passed away this year.

Without these two, the boardwalk will never be the same.

SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN

I got an email from Springsteen today wishing us all a Merry Christmas. He's really a decent guy, no superstar BS. Back in the Stone Pony days, back before the stadium shows when Bruce still had skinny arms, these guys were a tough bar band that could play anything. Back then, no holiday season was complete without a Christmas carol from the E Street Band.

SPRINGSTEEN CALLS BUSH OUT

In case you missed Bruce Springsteen's appearance on the Today Show, you'll want to watch this clip. The E Street Band is in fine form, and Springsteen gives a great little introduction before kicking into a spirited "Living in the Future."

"Woke up Election Day, skies gunpowder and shades of gray..."

In related news, demonstrators marched on Washington DC, protesting the war and the Bush/Cheney regime. Maybe you'll hear about that on the news, maybe not.
President Bush, predictably, requested more of our money today -- 196 billion dollars, in fact-- to continue his senseless, tragic war. Someday we'll be living in the future...if we can only make it through the present. Keep your fingers crossed.

LITTLE STEVEN'S UNDERGROUND GARAGE

Steven Van Zandt is an actor, a guitar player, and a fantastic rock and roll deejay. His underground garage show makes the rest of rock radio seem canned, corporate, and dull as dishwater. He plays "back-to-basics guitar, bass, and drums, with a little attitude, and a direct connection to the sixties, before the machines took over."

What a mug on this guy. If he looks familiar, you may know him as Little Steven, or Miami Steve, playing guitar in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Or you may know him as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos, Tony's well-coiffed consigliere.

Born Steven Lento in 1950, he grew up in an Italian American home in New Jersey, and started playing guitar as a teenager in the bar scene on the Jersey Shore. Van Zandt (he took his stepfather's name) was a founding member of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and played in several early Springsteen bands, though he didn't officially join the E Streeters until the mid-1970s. Check out "Hammersmith Odeon 1975" on DVD to see Steven in all his pimped-out glory. Hear him on the new Springsteen album, "Magic." But whatever you do, check out the radio show.

Little Steven's Underground Garage:
http://www.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com/homepage.html