Last night the Boss and the E-Street Band got back on the stage in Tampa and paid tribute to their friend and band member - Danny Federici.
Federici's sound, most notably on the organ, playing in tandem with Roy Bittan's brilliance on the piano helped set the mood and texture to many of the bands more prominent songs.
The coda at the end of "Racing in the Street" is one of the finest in rock and roll history IMO, along with Derek and the Dominoes "Leyla", Lynard Skynard's "Free Bird" and Prince's "Purple Rain". I could listen to each of them every day of the week and they would never get old.
"Backstreets" might be the ultimate break-up song for guys. You can feel the angst and emotional pain building throughout the song. Bittan's piano and Federici's organ licks provide depth and background to Bruce's angry, emotionally pain-filled, wailing lyrics.
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If you don't believe me....
or you're saying to yourself...
oh man Slav, I never heard of this song....
because of the length it didn't get much radio airplay...
how good of a song could this be?....
let's try a little experiment....
when you're reading this by yourself, nobody around to influence your behavior.....
listen to this version of Backstreets and follow along reading the lyrics as the band plays in the background.....
THIS IS A GREAT SPRINGSTEEN FAN SITE BY THE WAY:http://ginagiambone.com/page261.html
it really doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman.....
I would submit that if you get through the entire song without feeling anything.... no emotion whatsoever....
Then you simply have no heart, no soul, no feelings, no emotion...
YOU MAY BE A ROBOT....
Or perhaps a sociopath....
I hope not....but get yourself checked out, just to be sure.....
The rest of you are OK.
Maybe it's a gender thing, you know, the girls have the pint of Hagen-Daz ice cream when you've ripped their heart out one too many times, to signal the end of the relationship. Maybe the guys have to have a song like this to let 'em know that when you see your relationhip in this song, IT'S OVER.
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I did notice that both songs were on the play list for the Tampa show and rightfully so. Along with "Born to Run", "Thunder Road", "Badlands", "Jungleland" and "Promised Land", these are two of my all-time favorite E-Street Band songs.
The whole band plays such a huge role in all these great hits. Which is why the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame made a huge mistake by inducting Bruce without the E-Street Band. Some silly, arcane rule about the band having to be 25 years old, so the band is not eligible for induction until 2010, or some other such nonsense. Now they will not go in as a team as they should.
These people who are in the positions of gate-keepers of these various Hall of Fame's must be so proud of themselves. Between baseball, football and now rock and roll, they all seem like they fancy themselves as St. Peter-like figures, more determined to keep people out, then allowing legitimate inductees to get in.
There isn't a rock and roll band on earth, now or in the past, that is more worthy of induction, that has provided more joy, to more people, for a longer period of time and produced more great music than the E-Street Band. AND THAT'S A FACT.
And it's Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band. He should have never been separated by the R&R HOF. As much as I love Bruce, he's not the same without his boys. Quite frankly, I rarely, if ever play his solo stuff and most of the stuff he does solo is significantly enhanced when played with the band. AND THAT'S A FACT.
RIP Danny, you will be missed.
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RACING IN THE STREET
BACKSTREETS:
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FROM THE BLOG SHOTINTHEDARK - FEDERICI CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
http://www.shotinthedark.info/wp/?p=2450
It’s no accident that the Springsteen moments that I remember the most are, most often, the ones most keenly-accented by Federici’s raw, understated, yet always dead-on playing:
* The figure in the chorus of “Incident on 57th Street” (The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle); it’s only three notes repeated eight times, dissolving into a high, fat wash of chords keening above the raw longing of Bruce’s vocals; “Puerto Rican Jane - oh won’t you tell me…”, but without it, it’d be just another lovelorn guy baying at the moon; Federici’s part adds and accents the tension, the hope, the passion.
* “Jungleland” (from Born to Run); The huge swell as Bruce roars “From the churches to the jails, tonight all is silence in the world…” signals that this song is going downtown to rumble.
* “Sandy”, from E Street Shuffle, featuring Danny on an unforgettable accordion part
* The Farfisa part that propels the choruses of Born in the USA’s ”Glory Days” (and is virtually a sample of the even cooler part on “I’m a Rocker” (The River).
* “Backstreets” (from Born to Run); Federici does two things that stand out in this song - one of my favorites, and easily the best “breakup” song of all time. From the bridge (”Endless juke joints and Valentino drag…”) to the end, of course, Federici’s B3 howls with all the anger and longing that this angry, longing song deserves; the organ is the atmosphere. But it’s at the beginning - the long intro Federici shared with pianist Roy Bittan - that is the most ingenious. The organ part starts low, mournful and sad, with broad chords behind Bittan’s eighth-note riffing. But then, when the band comes in, Federici swells up into a higher register, playing a nervous, jittery pentatonic counterpoint behind the rest of the band. It’s so subtle you have to listen hard for it - and you usually sense it rather than hear it. But it adds the angst-y undercurrent to the intro; while the rest of the band broadly thumps away, the organ twitches and twists in the background like all the unanswered questions behind any lousy breakup.
* “Jackson Cage” (The River) - Federici is the propulsion behind this, one of Bruce’s rawest sprints, almost challenging Weinberg to keep up.
And of course, the entire album Darkness on the Edge of Town. Dave Marsh once wrote that Born to Run belonged the Clarence Clemons and Roy Bittan - but Darkness belonged to Federici (and the low end of Weinberg’s drum kit, the toms and bass). Marsh was right, as he usually was (when not writing about politics, anyway); Federici has almost too many great moments to catalog; the burst of howling joy in “Badlands” (especially the roaring swell in the second verse - “Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king…”), the fatigue-ridden last-call motif on “Factory”, the indigo atmospherics in the title cut…
…and, perhaps best of all, “Racing In The Street”, which constantly dukes it out with “Darkness…” for the title of my favorite Bruce song. The song is the flip side of “Born To Run” - it’s about growing up and realizing after you’ve driven your suicide machine through the mansions of glory, that party’s got a morning after - the rest of your life.
And the final coda, after the last chorus - “tonight my baby and me are gonna ride to the sea, and wash these sins off our hands…” - is entirely driven by Federici; slow and mournful at the beginning, and then brightening like the sun rising in the east over The Shore, as another day begins as things pick up tempo and life starts up again.
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FROM TAMPABAY.COM
http://www.tampabay.com/features/music/article468627.ece
Review| Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Springsteen plays set full of feeling and fury
By Sean Daly, Times Pop Music Critic
Published Tuesday, April 22, 2008 11:49 PM
"This night is a special one," said the somber voice of the Boss. "So we'd like to start with something for Danny."
With that, a video tribute unspooled onscreen as a recorded version of acoustic homage Blood Brothers played. With a spotlight illuminating Danny's longtime workplace, the band then launched into a crescendoing, cathartic Backstreets, with its notable refrain of "You swore we'd live forever."
"This one's for Dan," Springsteen said at the start of the encore, as the band roots-rocked an acoustic cover of gospel hymn I'll Fly Away ("Some bright morning when this life is over, I'll fly away.")
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AND FROM THE HOMELAND - www.nj.com
http://www.nj.com/springsteen/
An emotional night in Tampa
Posted by Stan Goldstein April 22, 2008 11:14PM
Categories: Concerts
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band return to the stage on Tuesday night for the first time since the passing of keyboardist Danny Federici last Thursday.
The show in Tampa, Fla., was an emotional one for sure.
Internet reports say the show began with a video tribute to Danny and "Blood Brothers" was playing in the background.
Setlist:
1. Backstreets (Band on stage without organist Charlie Giordano)
2. Radio Nowhere (Charlie joins the band)
3. Lonesome Day
4. No Surrender
5. Gypsy Biker
6. Sandy (4th of July) (full band)
(Roy Bittan played the accordion and at the end Bruce kissed Roy. Internet reports say Bruce was cryring).
7. Growing Up
8. Atlantic City
9. Because The Night
10. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
11. She's The One
12. Livin' In The Future
13. The Promised Land
14. Waiting On A Sunny Day
15. Brilliant Disguise
16. Racin' In The Streets
17. The Rising
18. Last To Die
19. Long Walk Home
20. Badlands
21. Out In The Street
Encores:
22. I'll Fly Away ~ For Danny (Garry on stand up bass, Max on tambourine, Roy on accordion)
"I'll Fly Away," written by Albert E. Brumley in 1929, is a hymn most associated with American Baptists and the Church of Christ. It is an optimistic song about an earthly death that leads to everlasting life in glory with Christ.
23. Rosalita
24. Born To Run
25. Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
26. American Land
Patti Scialfa joined the band tonight, her first show since Nov. 19, 2007 in Boston.
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I'LL FLY AWAY
http://ginagiambone.com/page387.html
I'll Fly Away ~ For Danny
Tampa ~ April 22, 2008
(photo taken in Boston ~ Nov 19, 2007)
Some bright morning when this life is over
I'll fly away
To that home on God's celestial shore
I'll fly away
I'll fly away oh glory
I'll fly away (in the morning)
When I die hallelujah by and by
I'll fly away
When the shadows of this life have gone
I'll fly away
Like a bird from these prison walls I'll fly
I'll fly away
Oh how glad and happy when we meet
I'll fly away
No more cold iron shackles on my feet
I'll fly away
Just a few more weary days and then
I'll fly away
To a land where joys will never end
I'll fly away
~ Albert Edward’s Brumley ~
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MORE ABOUT THIS SONG FROM www.bosstracks.blogspot.com
http://bosstracks.blogspot.com/2008/04/boss-tracks-ill-fly-away-albert-edward.html
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