BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY (2001)
1) My Love Will Not Let You
Down; 2) Prove It All Night; 3) Two Hearts; 4) Atlantic City; 5) Mansion On The
Hill; 6) The River; 7) Youngstown; 8) Murder Incorporated; 9) Badlands; 10) Out
In The Street; 11) Born To Run; 12) 10th Avenue Freezeout; 13) Land Of Hope And
Dreams; 14) American Skin (41 Shots); 15) Lost In The Flood; 16) Born In The
USA; 17) Don't Look Back; 18) Jungleland; 19) Ramrod; 20) If I Should Fall
Behind.
While it is common (and reasonable) to state
that the last and, from a certain point, the most stable, predictable, and
self-assured stage of Bruce Springsteen's career began with The Rising, which was itself triggered
by the events of 9/11, in effect The Boss's transformation into the solidified
«elder statesman» of rock began earlier — the most solidifying event being his
1999 reunion, after more than a decade of wandering, with The E Street Band.
The «Reunion Tour» was a huge event, and culminated in a series of MSG shows,
some of which were professionally shot with all the benefits of modern
technology and broadcast on HBO. Since then, Bruce and the camera became almost
inseparable on all his subsequent tours, but in 2000, this was still relative
news, and thus Live In New York City
— the video and the accompanying 2-CD package — has quite a bit of historical
significance.
And not just on a purely technical level,
either. Most of the young people these days are only really familiar with this
21st century edition of Bruce Springsteen — one for which certain changes had
to be introduced, given some limitations imposed by the aging process. Although
for a 50-year old he was still in great physical shape (hey, those
body-building years couldn't just go to waste, could they?), his voice had
aged, and he could no longer sing and
strut with the same amount of energy and precision as he used to — not to
mention that, had he tried to, it might have looked just a bit silly now. So
this new look Springsteen is quite a bit less stage-crazy than he used to, and
everybody else in the band has put on a bit of weight as well (literally,
figuratively, or both), and the resulting sound is somewhat more «imposing»
than it is «invigorating».
Not that this is in any way tragic if you tend
to value The Boss for his «Soul» as much as you value him for his «Raw Power».
Of the former, there is a lot here — starting with the hugely extended,
atmosphere-above-all-else version of ʽThe Riverʼ and ending with the
exaggeratedly tearful ʽIf I Should Fall Behindʼ, where all standing members of
The E Street Band take their turn at the microphone, and Patti Scialfa's
hiccupy "wait for me...e...e...e...e" refrain garners as much
acknowledgement from the crowds as anything uttered by her husband. Of the
latter, there is expectedly somewhat less than there was in evidence on Live 1975-86: in particular, simplistic
rock'n'roll-de-luxe crowd pleasers from The
River, namely ʽTwo Heartsʼ, ʽOut In The Streetʼ, and ʽRamrodʼ, seem overloud,
lumpy, and perfunctory, but how could a legit Springsteen show do away with all
of these? It cannot, and you just gotta have 'em.
Bruce does everything in his power, though, so
as not to make it all seem like a
has-been parade of old glories. The hits are cleverly interspersed with
rarities and obscurities: the album even kicks off with an ancient outtake (ʽMy
Love Will Not Let You Downʼ) that surprisingly turns out to be a perfectly
anthemic, rabble-rousing little gem of an opener, and later on, you get ʽMurder
Incorporatedʼ, dating back to the days of Born
In The USA, on which it could have easily been the angriest, most fucked-up
song, had Bruce decided to make the album any more angry and fucked-up and
compromise its commercial success.
New material, premiered during the tour, is
also well in evidence — including ʽAmerican Skinʼ, a poignant topical tune
based on the shooting of Amadou Diallo; and ʽLand Of Hope And Dreamsʼ, a
gospel-rock inversion of the old ʽThis Trainʼ chestnut. And some of the old
songs continue to undergo renovations — the formerly acoustic ʽAtlantic Cityʼ
and ʽYoungstownʼ are given full band arrangements that work very well: the fanfare-piano
riff works brilliantly as a counterpoint to the "meet me tonight in
Atlantic City" chorus, and as for ʽYoungstownʼ, well, anything to relieve the tedium of a generic Ghost Of Tom Joad number is always welcome, and you just can't go
wrong with the fully unleashed fury of a complete E Street Band, even past its
prime.
The shows are also almost completely free of
story-telling this time (perhaps the stories were simply edited out, but they
didn't tell us anyway), which I personally find a blessing — especially since
the only track on the album that does have a long spoken interlude is rather
embarrassing: in the middle of the overall entertaining ʽ10th Avenue
Freezeoutʼ, Bruce takes a lengthy detour, impersonating a gospel preacher of the
(sexual) healing powers of rock'n'roll, which goes on for way too long before we eventually understand that this is just a
pretext for a really pompous introduction of each and every member of the E
Street Band. For a couple minutes out there, the thing is hilarious, but
eventually it just ruins an initially fine performance. (The good news is that
the other extended foam-at-the-mouth
prayer to the delirious god of rock'n'roll, inserted in the middle of ʽLight Of
Dayʼ, was left off the album and is only featured in the video version — maybe
because the audio ecstasy was already presented to us on MTV Plugged).
Other than this bit of misguided misdemeanor,
and a few other minor complaints (such as the attempt to transform ʽBorn In The
USAʼ into a steel guitar swamp blues tune — I understand the desire to get away
from its arena-anthem appeal, but not at the expense of losing the pop hook,
please!), anyway, aside from that, this is a pretty damn good live album for
someone reshaping his stage image for age purposes. This is certainly not how the «Bruce Springsteen Live»
brand will go down in history in the long run, but it's a fairly accurate
picture of it for the age of the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, social networks,
hipsters, hi-def audio/video, and glamorization, to the latter of which not
even Springsteen remains completely immune. No matter how healthy, sweaty, sincere,
and «real» it all seems, do not forget that essentially, the B.S. live show is
as much an integral part of the show-biz machine as, say, a Rolling Stones
show, or even a Britney Spears one, and I am fairly sure The Boss is more aware
of this than anyone.
Still, it's a fairly close approximation to
«real», and quite a few moments here cause real heart-throbbing — be it the
powerful intro to ʽProve It All Nightʼ, or the seconds when Clarence kicks in
with his frenetic sax solo on ʽBorn To Runʼ, or his extended soulful workout on
ʽJunglelandʼ, or the way The Boss gets it so perfectly right at the climactic
releases of each verse of ʽLost In The Floodʼ. Since the release of Live In New York City, the floodgates
have really opened, and lots and lots of newer shows are now available in
pristine audio and/or video quality — but this one is still a bit special,
since you can clearly feel the atmosphere of excitement about working with his
home band once again, and turning over a new page in his life; if just for this
reason alone, the album deserves a thumbs up. For a fuller appreciation of whatever
was going on, though, you'd really have to see the video — while Steven Van
Zandt's Baba Yaga stage image leaves something to be desired, Clemmons and
Weinberg cut even more dramatic figures as they get older, wiser, and grander,
and hey, priceless close-ups of thick drops of sweat on The Boss' guitar! The
man ain't making his money for nothing, that's for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment