The first time I heard about Bruce Springsteen, it was a complete accident. I was living in Germany at the time and a really big fan of Rick Springfield (don’t ask me why) and my aunt was coming from California to visit us. She wanted to bring me a present and I guess my mom told her about how I liked Rick Springfield but somehow the translation didn’t come across correctly – I can only blame it on the cross Atlantic telephone connection. Anyhow, she comes to visit and says “I brought you a present of someone I hear you REALLY like” and I open the travel tube she had with her and it was a life-size poster of Bruce Springfield! I’m thinking, who the heck is this old guy? now, before you judge me, you have to consider where I was living. We had one American television station, MTV was being taped on VHS for me in the US and sent monthly, and mostly what I listened to at the time was hip-hop and Euro-pop. Who was Bruce Springfield? So yeah, as you guessed it, I was like “uh… cool… thanks?”.
Fast forward xx-years and a friend of mine asked me to go to the Bruce Springsteen “Magic Tour” concert tonight. My first reaction wasn’t to jump for joy and say “oh heck yes!” However, being XX years older & working in the music industry for awhile, I now know who Bruce Springsteen is and, although still not really a fan, I can appreciate his music because of WHO he is… and I decided to go. So off to the LA Sports Arena we go and by the end of the night, I was actually really enjoying myself! SHOCKER! I guess since I didn’t have much expectations, I really had nothing to gauge disappointment.
Almost every song he sang I knew, just because I’d heard them over the years on the radio and seen the videos on MTV. I was standing up, dancing and singing to his songs and had a pretty good time. Not only was it cool seeing Bruce, but the Soprano’s also just recently ended and here’s Steven Van Zandt (aka silvio) there playing his rock-n-roll part and not his italian gangsta part. And Max Weinberg was drumming right in front of me instead of doing the music introduction on David Letterman… pretty cool!
So, yes I may sound lame for not being a huge Bruce fan over the years, but after seeing him live and being a part of this high-energetic show and seeing how generations of all ages were just rockin’ out to his music, well… now I have a much more appreciation for Bruce and the E-Street band. Thanks for asking me to go Steve!
