Here’s four tunes – from obscure to almost legendary – for the July 4th holiday: The almost essential, completely incomplete list of Independence Day songs.
Play them loud at a party. All the right people will get it, and think you are the best host ever.
Bruce Springsteen
Video: New Springsteen Interview, Hyde Park Footage
Good new interview with Bruce Springsteen, as part of a 5-minute video for the Live at Hyde Park DVD that comes out next week. Bruce talks about Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem, playing a show in the daylight, and the importance of documenting the band.
This weekend on E Street Radio on Sirius/XM, Dave Marsh premiered an hour-long special, followed a broadcast of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s band’s entire Hyde Park concert. The program will be rebroadcast throughout the coming week.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15AxqXz6u9U]
Roots-Rock Album: Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes – "Pills and Ammo"
Fans of authentic East Coast/R&B/Jersey Shore rock and roll need to take a listen to the new album from Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Pills and Ammo is newly released (info at southsidejohnny.com) and the record has a decided (and welcome) rock and roll edge.
from his website:
“While still tinged with the exuberant rhythm and blues feel that is the Jukes’ trademark, and loaded with the driving sound of the legendary Jukes horn section, this new CD has a sharper, guitar-oriented, rock and roll feel to it. A harder edge for harder times.”
→ Hear “One More Night to Rock”
The Roots of Rock History / April 25-May 1
Cheap Trick doing the Beatles, Elvis Costello covering Nazareth, Springsteen climbs a wall, and U2 bombs.
April 25
Just days after completing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in 1967, The Beatles lay down tracks for “Magical Mystery Tour” at Abbey Road studios in London.
Cheap Trick version of a classic tune from “Abbey Road” – just because we can…:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUio17-eZKE]
April 26
ABC’s telecast of “U2: A Year in POP” in 1997 becomes the lowest-rated prime-time program in the history of major network television.
Here’s what part of that broadcast looked like, with Dennis Hopper doing narration:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0sZNsBGN8A]
April 27
Ray Stevens releases what would be his biggest hit, “The Streak”. The novelty tune would make it to the top of the US charts next month.
April 28
Blondie brings a touch of New Wave to the Hot 100 when “Heart Of Glass” reaches #1 in 1979.
April 29
Aretha Franklin releases “Respect” in 1969, her soon-to-be signature tune.
April 30
Elvis Presley records “Jailhouse Rock” in 1957. The song will go on to top the US Best Sellers list, the Hot 100, the R&B chart and even the Country and Western chart. It will also become the first single to enter the UK chart at #1.
In 1964,The Beatles receive $140,000 for the rights to having their pictures included in packages of bubble gum in the USA.
After playing Memphis during a southern tour in 1976, Bruce Springsteen climbs the fence at Graceland in an attempt to see Elvis Presley. Security guards stop him and he is escorted off the grounds.
Twiggs Lyndon, the road manager for the Allman Brothers Band, is arrested in 1970 for murder after he stabbed a club manager during an argument over a contract. At the ensuing trial, Lyndon’s lawyers will argue that he had been temporarily insane at the time of the incident and that touring with the Allman Brothers would drive anyone insane. Incredibly, Lyndon will be acquitted.
Then there’s the case of 51 year-old Darrell Sweet, drummer of Nazareth, best remembered for their 1976 hit “Love Hurts”. He suffered a fatal heart attack in 1999 before a show in New Albany, Ind., when he began feeling ill and within minutes went into cardiac arrest. He was rushed to the New Albany Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Elvis Costello and Emmylou Harris performing “Love Hurts”:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojsVB7idTLw]
May 1
In 1955, Leonard Chess signs Chuck Berry to a recording contract after he came highly recommended by Muddy Waters.
Pink Floyd’s, “Dark Side of the Moon” finally drops off the US albums chart in 1988, after a run of 725 weeks (almost 14 years).
VIDEO – Bruce Springsteen – Hope for Haiti – "We Shall Overcome"
One of the musical highlights of the night. Gorgeous version of the classsic song “We Shall Overcome”, with great solos in the middle from Charlie Giordano (E Street keyboardist who sits where Danny Federici used to) and Curt Ramm (trumpet player who toured with Bruce on the back end of 2009, adding another layer of excellence to the band). The song was part of the repertoire of the Seeger Sessions Band a few years ago for Bruce.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSoNzGWJrGs]
Santacular Christmas Countdown – #1 – Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen – “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town”
Though the version of this song you hear each Christmas was recorded in 1975 (at C.W. Post College), Bruce and the E Street Band have not strayed from that arrangement in a live setting in nearly 35 years – and for good reason. To paraphrase David Allen Coe, it’s the perfect rock and roll Christmas song. Roy Bittan’s piano notes that both open and close (with Jingle Bells”) the song are magical; Clarence as Santa with his “Ho ho ho’s” and “…you better be good for goodness sake” response are fun; and it has one of the great breakdowns and build ups – as really only Springsteen can execute – in recorded rock and roll: a repeated “Santa Claus is comin’ to town” refrain morphing into a band explosion and the Boss’ “whoa – oh -oh” shouted over the music to take the song to it’s conclusion.
As I write these words, it all sounds too clinical, as if a music critic needed to dissect the meaning and importance of the song, like a premature musical autopsy. It’s silly, really, to attempt much more than what we’ve done here. It is a great version because the music and words and crowd make it that way. One of the few live tunes to be a Christmas classic – maybe that is part of the magic. Springsteen has no contender for his crown of greatest live performer, and in 1975, this was one of the first chances for a national audience (and into the late 70’s , via live radio broadcasts) to hear what made the band great. The power and looseness of the live recording came through the grooves then, as it does now via YouTube.
It’s an arrangement of the song ripped from the version on Phil Spector’s LP, and the song certainly has an old soul. Yet what Bruce Springsteen did that night in 1975 at a small college on Long Island, and what we still hear today, was alive, joyous and full of east coast energy. It made the song timeless and created a moment in music, even among the great moments and music in his still-vibrant career, that will be his legacy more than anything else he’s done. In 100 years, Santa Claus will still be around and this song will still be played, through whatever way people to listen to music in 2109. It is a great song, and it sits atop the rest of the songs for no better reason than it makes me feel alive every time I hear it.
Here’s a bit of a rarity: a 1978 B&W version, recorded in New Jersey, and a taste of Bruce playing a smaller venue
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yErhglOXIxM]
