That morning, a characteristic early August thunderstorm swept through Monmouth County, New Jersey, soaking Asbury Park, with raindrops lapping past Frihold, eventually leaving mud on Kirzneck's ground.
The Rolling Stones reporter (I) drove to Bruce Springsteen's home in New Jersey at noon to spend an afternoon chatting with him about his E Street band and his new album Letter to You.
Bruce Springsteen
Text: Busy sister
Editor: Zuo Chunchun
First meeting the real person Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen stood in the gravel driveway outside his home, squinting his eyes and looking up into the sky. It was afternoon, and the dark clouds above Springsteen's farm were finally beginning to recede, and sunlight was leaking through the gaps in the clouds.
"It seems that at least half a day today is not bad." He said gratefully. (After self-isolating at home for a long time, he began to pay more and more attention to the weather: "Otherwise, what else is there to care about?") ”）
His black hair was tucked with silver wire and cut short, and his still muscular body was wearing a thin undershirt similar to the one he wore on the album cover of Darkness on the Edge of Town, with a pattern around the low neckline and an inconspicuous hole on the other side.
He was wearing no socks, only a pair of sandals. The pants were of course jeans, light-colored and cut loosely. We've been living in the global pandemic for six months, and even Bruce Springsteen has been working from home for a long time.
Standing next to Bruce Springsteen is always a little flustered, and it feels like coming out of a head on President's Hill and standing next to you. This feeling is even stranger, especially after months of not speaking to anyone face-to-face.
I also grew up in the area, so we talked about local topics – like lamenting that the ice cream shop we both loved had been converted into a donut shop.
We sat face to face in two rattan chairs, maintaining a six-foot social distancing, with a white stone table in the middle of us. We sat overlooking the fields lined with green trees, the leaves of which swayed in the wind left behind by the morning thunderstorms. For someone who was born to run but was stuck at home, a thunderstorm is not the worst thing to do.
So how is Springsteen now?
"Just like everyone else," Springsteen said, leaning back in his chair, "as far as my personal plans are concerned, I think you should be concerned if we will continue to perform." ”
(He said it casually, but it was painful when he later clarified that he was more concerned about the "working musicians who worked every week with their teams") "Everyone is experiencing the uncertainty of the virus." But by and large, I'm okay. ”
Springsteen, who is outspoken about his depression, is also very honest when it comes to the fact that he still needs to take his medication. "I'm taking my medicine," he later said, "and I'm in a very good mood!" ”
What fairy band recorded an album in four days?
The Wildwood recording studio, which he and his wife, Patti Scialfa, co-owned, were just a few meters away from where we were sitting. On a snowy day last November, he gathered his members of the E Street band for five days to record an album. The band recorded the entire album in five days.
"We record a song every three hours." Steve Van Zandt (guitarist and mandolinist) said he compared the progress of the recording to the early Beatles, "It basically took us only four days to cut the album. We booked for five days, but on the fifth day we had nothing to do and had to listen to the album again. ”
Bruce Springsteen with wife Patti Scialfa
After recording the album, the band poured a glass of wine in the studio and toasted to the "sure to come" tour. Now, the tour is "far away", but the album "Letter to You" was still released on October 23. Springsteen felt there was no point in hiding the album first and releasing it later. "I write songs that I have to send." He said.
If it weren't for this once-in-a-century world disaster, Springsteen, who turned 71 on September 23, would be preparing for the tour with E Street. He said the tour was supposed to start in 2021.
Yet he said: "My radar tells me: 2022. And it's lucky to be able to tour in 2022... I would also feel lucky to have lost only one year of my touring career. Once you're over 70, the tour and time you can complete is limited, and it's even worse to lose another year or two. ”
"Especially because I think our band is capable of playing at a very top level, even higher than it is now. I feel very energetic now... But I can't perform now for outside reasons – that's something I haven't stopped since I was 16. ”
Bruce Springsteen with guitarist Steve Van Zandt
What about online live performances?
For a person who has been "diving" for nearly 70 years, online live broadcasting is always a little less flavorful. He and his wife, Cecifer, performed live in the studio for a new coronavirus charity show in New Jersey, and also with Dropkick Murphys in May, and was placed on the public screen in Boston Fenway Park.
But when he performs two songs with the same passion as before, and shuts down the live room with only himself left, he will feel strange and deadly. "I really like the people with my remote jam, and they jam are always fun. But after the performance with the band, there was no activity, and I had to sit alone in the room, and I was overwhelmed. I don't want the music career to be like this. ”
Dropkick Murphys
While it's unlikely to get E Street together now, as the band's name allows a lot of people to gather, the album "Letter to You" already sounds a lot like live, and when you listen to it, you even feel a little guilty because it is too much like live music, as if it is not following the quarantine rules. This makes the album more valuable and makes the reality of not having a live performance more difficult.
Original "Letter to You"
Letter to You is the first album by Springsteen and E Street to be recorded live in a studio after Born in the U.S.A., and is probably the most original album recorded by the band, barely overlapping.
"It's the only album where the entire band was recorded at the same time," Springsteen said, "including all the vocal parts, which were recorded at the same time." (Except for a few of Springsteen's Gretsch guitar lead notes.) ）
"This recording is very much like in the past," said drummer Max Weinberg, "it's all about the energy of music, and with the expertise of each of our members over the past 70 years of hard work, a few of them are almost 70 years old."
This album also happens to be the most classic and ostentatious album of E Street Band since "The River", and it is a rebirth of the band in its later years.
Drummer Max Weinberg
Castels
In the early years, Springsteen's first true band was a patchwork of young people in central New Jersey called Castiles.
One of the members made the band a success, and his tenor was smooth and fluid, and he was the backbone of the band, george Theiss. It was George who originally asked Springsteen to join his band and play guitar.
George once said in an interview with the Rolling Stones, "We are the five freaks of Monmouth County." Although Van Zante, who was in Middletown at the time, and his band The Shadows disagreed.
Castiles
George and Springsteen used to be very good, often going to school together in high school, but over time, the boat of their friendship overturned, especially when Springsteen began to have more singing parts. George's widow Diana said: "The two of them were competing for the same position, and George felt that his position was under threat. ”
Castells disbanded in 1968. Eventually, one of the band's lead singers became Bruce Springsteen. George married Diana at the age of 20, got a job as a carpenter, and sang in a New Jersey Shore bar in his spare time.
At that time, Springsteen wrote his sister, George's ex-girlfriend, and the current brother-in-law's relationship into "River". Diana always didn't understand why Springsteen kept thinking of George.
From left to right: Frank Marziotti, Bruce Springsteen, George Theiss, Paul Popkin and Vinnie Manniello
Awkward and sincere brotherhood
For George, watching his former band's good brothers achieve unimaginable feats in music time and time again, his heart is not very happy. Once George took Diana to a party at Springsteen and Cecifer's house, and there was a band at the party, and Tess declined an invitation with the live band Jam.
"He couldn't put himself in the position of 'almost successful.'" Diana recalled, "I don't mean to say that our lives were a complete failure! Of course not. Springsteen understood George's mood, adding: "I always felt like Bruce saw himself in George. ”
"It's just that the path chosen is different." Springsteen said, "I can't figure anything else out of that. He and the old friend had never been in contact, but a few years ago they had become close again.
From left to right: Marion Vinyard, George Theiss, Bruce Springsteen, 2002
In July 2018, Springsteen learned that George had advanced lung cancer, and he immediately chartered a plane to North Carolina to come to him before george died. Someone told Diana that on the plane Springsteen didn't say a word and kept musing.
Springsteen performed on Broadway five nights a week, always telling his past with George over and over again. Springsteen realized that he was the only remaining member of Castels' band, and the idea of the song made him sit quietly for a long time.
"When you have this idea, it is impossible not to think of your own death. Most of the band died young for various reasons, leaving me and George in the end. ”
How many musicians is there in a Springsteen?
Before 2019, Springsteen had never written a song that he thought E Street could play. "In the last six or seven years, I've written a lot of songs of all kinds."
He was particularly prolific for a period after 2010, completing the 2012 "Wrecking Ball" (the album's lyrics are fiery populism, which is experimental for Springsteen), last year's postponed "Western Stars" and a third album that has not yet been released (not to say much).
He won't say much about other songs he's written in the last decade, but he wrote a famous 500-page autobiography, Springsteen on Broadway, which won a Tony Award.
In addition, he released a cover album "High Hopes" in 2014 and an old song album written between 2000 and 2010.
"You're like in a mine," he said, "and you have to dig in different directions to create something different." Sometimes one direction is exhausted and you have to go in a different direction. A passage can be dug in a few years or weeks and then dry up... And you also have to draw inspiration from the events that happen. ”
Creative inspiration brought by death
For Springsteen, nothing was more dramatic than the loss of his best friend, E Street saxophonist Clarence Clemons, especially after the death of organist Danny Federici in 2008.
Although he had not yet thought of himself from these deaths, you can still clearly realize that E Street did not have any works for a while after that.
Organist Danny Federici
It wasn't until the death of George Theth, a friend he had known for a long time, that he woke up from a dream. "We were very close during the most intense periods of our lives." Springsteen said, "In his band, I learned almost all of the musical skills I would need in the future. ”
Another band at Springsteen's time, Steel Mill, was actually more famous, writing many originals and was very popular with hippies.
But Castells played works that went deep into the daily lives of fans, covering Sam and Dave, the Beatles, Bo Diddley and Jimi Hendrix — the things that would make the young people offstage get restless.
The venues include beach clubs, church basements, ice rinks, etc., and Springsteen most wanted to return to these places after signing a recording contract in 1972.
Steel Mill's Farewell Performance at The Upstage in Asbury Park, New Jersey, 1971
"I have a deep affection for Castels," Springsteen says, "and it's a great local band that gives local audiences the basic musical services they need." This positioning is actually similar to the positioning I gave E Street , the world's largest bar band. ”
To be continued
References：
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/bruce-springsteen-interview-new-album-touring-e-street-band-1059109/
Rock 'n' Roll Paradise recommends searching for Bruce Springsteen