Time passed, and many colleagues and close friends who had accompanied Bruce Springsteen through their glories and setbacks regrettably left this world. Did they really leave, or were they still creating and touring with E Street?
E Street, an evergreen tree that has been rocking since the 70s, must have some secret of eternal youth. Rolling Stone reporters (I) will continue to interview Springsteen in this issue to see how he faced death and rocked with E Street for 50 years.
Past Reading:
What is The 71-year-old Springsteen, who released a new album, is a fairy?
Bruce Springsteen
Text: Busy sister
Editor: Zuo Chunchun
A piano with creative magic
Shortly before George Theth's death, a fan from Italy gave Springsteen an acoustic guitar at the door of Broadway. "I said to him, 'Oh my God, thank you so much.'" Springsteen recalled.
"I looked at the piano and it looked like it was a pretty good one, so I put it on the car." The guitar, made by an unknown manufacturer, remained in Springsteen's living room for months, and it wasn't until last April that Springsteen picked it up for the first time.
Without warning, "I took this piano and wrote all the songs on the album," he said in amazement, "and in less than ten days, I walked around the rooms of the house and wrote a song a day." I wrote one in the bedroom, one in the lounge, and another in the living room. ”
His first slow, elegy-like song, Last Man Standing, was the most autobiographical of all the songs Springsteen had ever written, starting with scenes from Castels' early years ("Firefighter's Ball," "Joint Performance Hall," "Blackskin Club"), followed by a future that feared loss ("I counted the days and counted the names of the people I lost").
Springsteen first wrote songs about how he felt in the band, and then wrote some pleasant "Ghost Collisions", in the blunt Ghost ("I turn up the volume, let the soul be my guide, and meet you on the other side of the world, brothers and sisters," he sings).
The album's first ballad, "One Minute You're Here" (written a few years ago, presumably shortly after Clarence's death) and the last song, "I'll See You in My Dreams," can be heard.
Did the deceased really leave?
"The deaths of Clarence and Danny affect me every day," Springsteen said, "and I still have a hard time believing, often asking myself: 'Can't I see Clarence?'" Sounds unlikely! I'm living with the deceased every day now. Whether it's my father, or Clarence or Danny, these people are like they're with you.
Their spirits, their energies, their echoes will continue to reverberate in this physical world... A very beautiful part of being alive is what the deceased left us. ”
He would indeed see his late friends in his dreams. Terry Magovern, his decades-old assistant and best friend, who died in 2007, is dreamed of several times a year by Springsteen. "I dream of Clarence from time to time."
He said, "I would dream of the house where I lived when I was a child, and I would dream of me walking in the hallway of the house. We will keep seeing these people in our dreams until we ourselves become dreams. ”
Bruce Springsteen, Terry Magovern
Clarence's nephew, Jake Clemons, later played saxophone in the band in place of his uncle; Charlie Giordano replaced Danny as the organist on E Street.
But the deceased still seem to be performing with the band. "It's a bit maddening," said Roy Bittan, who has been a keyboardist on E Street since 1974, "and when you perform on stage, you can feel like Clarence and Danny are there... We miss them deeply, but they were all around us. ”
A Demo is Solo
Shortly after Springsteen finished writing his new song, he had lunch with Beatan and gave him a new song to write. After listening to Beatan, he had only one suggestion: "I said to him: 'Brother, don't demo, let's use the old way, you play to us, we follow you and go up, and then record it.'" ’”
It's a sentimental suggestion that also had a profound impact on the album. Van Zant has also been talking to Hope Springsteen for many years.
"I know he's right," Springsteen said.
Keyboardist Roy Bittan
1981 was one of the most pivotal moments of his career. That's when he got people to buy a Taskam four-track cassette recording system, which later became part of his home recording studio and later exhibited at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
On his 1982 album Nebraska, his demos originally recorded for E Street became his solo album, the first shot of his musical career outside of E Street. The 1987 Tunnel of Love album was a fusion of his own home-based demo and studio recording.
Between 2000 and 2010, other bands released under the influence of Springsteen and E Street were common, such as Arcade Fire and the Killers, and later works were successful.
In recent years, however, Springsteen's solo albums have become increasingly influential, including those made by War on Drugs and albums by number one fan Jack Antonoff for Taylor Swift, Lorde and Lana Del Rey.
Arcade Fire
Springsteen was still recording his demo while recording The Rising with E Street. (The album was released 18 years ago, which is hard for Springsteen to imagine because he said, "This is my more recent album!") ”）
There are no demos on E Street
But just last year, he finally found a reason to stop recording demos. "When I record demos, I add all sorts of things to it and see what works."
Springsteen said, "And then all of a sudden I'm going to lock myself into a choreography." Then the band had to find a way to apply this arrangement, so all of a sudden there was no taste of E Street. Now I'll deliberately not record demos. ”
The decision made Van Zante incredibly happy. He began to call for improvisation at a young age, and then he could assist with the completion of the album with his powerful choreography skills.
For Van Zant, Brendan O'Brian's superbly crafted E Street albums Rise, Magic, and Working on a Dream are a bit like Springsteen's transformation, as if he were slowly stripping himself of his solo role.
"We're finally in a band again," Van Zant said, "and Springsteen finally trusted us again and saw us as members of the band again." ”
"It didn't take 37 years." I reminded him. Van Zant laughed: "He's a bit retarded. Let's call it think twice. ”
The original intention of a band
"Letter to You" is also full of the iconic flamboyance that Springsteen has tried to avoid when recording for decades: the carillon, the lyrical piano prelude, the full organ chords, Jack's summoning and perfect reproduction of Clarence's technique.
While recording, Springsteen said he wanted to play more "E Street" than tan. "I think it's funny," Bitan said, "because he used to say to us, 'Don't be that E Street!'" ’”
"I want to replicate the previous timbre with my current material," Springsteen says, "and I think my fans would want two things — comfort and surprise." ”
Since 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town, he's already ditched some of the Things born to Run. Your first few albums were all about making music,"
He said, "After an album goes viral, you go into a self-protection mode. From that album onwards, I wouldn't have let the band use that original style. I don't want to do the same thing all the time. ”
But at this stage, he will not be so anxious. "Self-awareness is not so strong." "And it's also become less rigid," he said. Instead, you think, 'How can you be more creative?' How can we bring more fun to fans? What will we enjoy doing? It's as if one by one you've overturned the rules you've made for yourself. ”
Change your mood and listen to your previous work
In that spirit, he and the band re-edited the songs he had written between 1972 and 1973, all of which were included on the album Songs to Orphans, Janey Needs a Shooter, and If I Was the Priest, which no one expected to be so successful.
Last year, Springsteen overheard the songs from his 1998 album Tracks and went to his archive to find the album, which had no special meaning, just to hear how the band would perform the songs now.
He said: "With the voice of an adult now, to sing the mood of my youth... It's crazy and funny, because some of the lyrics of the songs are really silly. ”
Creation is politically predictable
Although the album's release date is similar to election day, "Letter to You" is definitely not an anti-Trump album. "If the whole album was hurting Trump, 'Letter to You' would be the boring album in the world." Springsteen frowned as he spoke, his face unhappy.
Although he wrote about the events of 9/11 in Rise and President George W. Bush's failure in Magic, these two albums were exceptions.
His most prescient album was 1995's The Ghost of Tom Joad, which focused on poverty, exploitation and the plight of Mexican immigrants, all of which were issues of the Trump presidency, but were also the glory days of Clinton.
The most direct Trump-era song in the entire "Letter to You" is the predictable "Rainmaker," in which a liar spreads false hopes to drought-stricken farmers. Springsteen acknowledged the song's connection to Trump, but the song was written before Trump moved into the White House.
The House of a Thousand Pianos
The entire album reflects only one lyric of the moment, alluding to a "criminal clown" who "took the throne", included in "House of a Thousand Guitars", and than Tan's piano in this song is more colorful.
The song paints a fascinating image of rock paradise on earth: "the music never stops", the people unite, and the "land of hope and dream" is close at hand. The song was quite important to Springsteen, so he held up the studio's laptop and listened to it again before we discussed it.
He came back and sat down, played the song on the computer's speakers, closed his eyes, and nodded his head as Weinberg drummed.
"This song is about the complete spiritual world I want to build for myself." He said, "I want to dedicate this spiritual world to fans and share the process with the band. Like the gospel "I'm Working on a Building," our music is the 'house' we've built together over the years. ”
"This also applies to the spiritual world of the whole country. This is probably my favorite song in my own creation, depicting something I've been fighting for for the past 50 years. ”
The song was about churches and prisons, and I asked him if he was echoing his "Jungleland" from "Born to Run." He laughed: "I've known the lyrics since I recorded the album, but I can't remember where I heard them." You've reminded me! ”
To be continued
References：
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/bruce-springsteen-interview-new-album-touring-e-street-band-1059109/
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