The answer -- yes, I was. I saw three of the shows in fact (three and a half, if you count the early one broadcast live on WNEW-FM, which I made sure to listen to/tape at home before I went out to see the 11:30 follow-up).
What can I tell you -- I was a hardcore fan.
Here's one of my favorite performances from the aforemetioned radio show. BTW, I seem to recall there was later a very fancy shmancy two-LP bootleg of it that I went on to play countless times in several different apartments of mine. 😎
I should add that -- believe it or not -- I was bitterly disappointed by the first of the shows I attended, and for possibly the stupidest reason imaginable. To wit, that some of the guys in the E-Street Band -- particularly Miami Steve Van Zant (who I had never seen playing with the group before) -- hit the stage wearing white ice cream pimp suits, rather than the usual casual street attire. I don't know why, but it struck me as some kind of ghastly betrayal at the time. I kid you not.
Hey, by the second show I had gotten over it. 😎😎
Steve - Didn't you at one point (possibly inspired by the E Street guys) actually own a three-piece white suit? I think in I saw you wearing one in a pic that was in SR; it was a photo taken at one of the Stereo Review Record Of The Year parties. Might have been the shot when you were talking to Betsy Volck from Arista.
ReplyDeleteNever had a white suit.
ReplyDeleteThe one you're talking about was a pale grey YSL. And I wouldn't ever have worn it onstage. 😎
BTW -- your memory is astounding. You remembered the name of the publicist? Wow!!!
Well, to tell the truth, I thought Betsy was kind of hot :-)
ReplyDeleteShe was a terrific gal -- I liked her a lot. She was the girlfriend of rock critic Paul Nelson for the longest time.
DeleteInteresting. I did not know that. But I fear I've sent this blog off on an obscure tangent, so let's get back to... THE BOSS.
ReplyDeleteNo, tell us more about these Ballroom Betsies disguised as "vinyl grooves" for the wandering stylus.
ReplyDeleteI don't have much to add beyond 1) I was at the Sunday night early show thanks to Simels (and it was incredible, (2) I don't remember the white 3 piece suits, (3) As I've said many times before I'd take Bruce's first 8 years over the last 45 as good as much of it has been.
ReplyDeleteCaptain Al
Captain, reviewing those 8 years -
ReplyDelete1973 Greetings from Asbury Park
1973 Wild Innocent E Street Shuffle
1975 Born To Run
1978 Darkness on the Edge of Town
1980 The River
Culminating that 8th year he eeleased
Culminating with Born In The USA 1984 -
ReplyDelete"Born in the USA" is 11 years into his recording career and is the beginning of a drop off in quality as slight as the drop off may be.
ReplyDeleteCaptain Al
For your listening enjoyment, alternate earlier version of "Born to Run", back-up singers, strings, and weird outro. https://youtu.be/DGrPpQwQ7lc?si=cfo4PtsLvD2XaF40
ReplyDeleteI became a lapsed Springsteen fan the first time I saw him in a stadium show. If memory serves, circa 1980 at Giants Stadium(?). And I actually had 8th row center seats. And I still found it disappointing. Never regained my enthusiasm in all the years since.
ReplyDeleteSorry, make that an arena show, not stadium. And I'm not sure where it was. And I think it was on "The River" tour.
DeleteLucky you, Steve, regarding the Bottom Line shows. By the time he hit the Roxy he had dropped "Then She Kissed Me" from the set. But he kept "When You Walk In the Room" and added "Pretty Flamingo." Hollywood was four nights and six shows. We got tickets to all. They went on sale about a week before the first show and sold out in two hours,
ReplyDeleteThe night before we bought tickets for Bruce’s 1975 stand at the Roxy, we saw Nils Lofgren with the reformed Beau Brummels at the Troubadour. Our overall plan was to see the Lofgren show, hang out, buy Bruce tickets in the morning, and, deliver some coke to an attorney in Century City that afternoon.
We met a couple of down-to-earth guys at the Nils show. They were from Modesto and knew the guitar player from Three Dog Night. We got to talking between bands. I had a lot in common with them since I had a cousin who lived out that way. My cousin and I were tight. We often met each other in Fresno for rock shows, beginning with the Stones in 1965, which was a near riot. I knew all the cruising streets and make-out spots in Modesto. When I mentioned my cousin’s name, one of the guys knew and admired her. She was the hit of the local plunge. And she left a trail of blue balls in her wake. Small World. These guys thought we were cool. One of them said that we were nicest people they “met since coming down south to Smog City.” We told them we were gonna hang out in Hollywood overnight because we wanted to get Bruce tickets at the Roxy box office. They went on sale at nine in the morning and were sure to sell out fast. If that wasn’t dropping enough of a hint, Sandy said, “Why don’t we get a hotel room to pass the time.”
They already had a suite at the, then, slowly decaying Roosevelt. Muy bueno. Sandy and I gave each other that look which telegraphed that we were about to glide ourselves into the rhythmic pulsing of the musica universalis. About to awaken the kundalini and set it on fire. Fuck them stupid.
After we paired off and merged ourselves into transcendence ................
We hit the ticket line about six in the morning after a Denny's breakfast. Lou Cohan was there to get tickets and hawk his Bruce bootleg "The Jersey Devi." It was the first Bruce bootleg I ever saw. We knew some of the people. There was a guy there that we saw at every Kinks concert who had the nickname "Sir Frankie Crisp." It was a festive atmosphere and we were able to get four tickets for each of the six shows.
Then off to Century City, which is a whole other story ..................
VR
P.S.
ReplyDeleteCheckout the Butt's 1988-07-03 Stockholm show. "Boom Boom," specifically.
VR
Here's the link -
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8gwKx6VKhA