A Bridge And Tunnel Summit!
Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame 25th Anniversary Show at Madison Square Garden a few months ago. I TiVo’d this when HBO showed it a few weeks ago and I’m keeping it for a while.
I hate to correct The Boss, but Manhattan is not “neutral territory.” If there’s one thing Long Island can always hold over New Jersey, it’s the fact that we can legitimately call ourselves “New Yorkers.” Until, of course, the Long Island secession plan comes to fruition.
As cool as it is to see them together, you can’t help but feel bad about how Billy’s personal problems have affected his performing. In the 70s and 80s, when Billy was almost Bruce’s equal in concert, they would have set the place on fire. But here, Billy’s playing is great, but he looks and sounds old and uncomfortable, even on New York State Of Mind, which he’s probably played between 50-75 times in the Garden. On the other hand, Bruce shows no signs of having been on the road for most of the past five years.
“I cannot tell you where Bruce Springsteen falls in the pantheon of the American songbook. I can not illuminate the context of his work or his roots in the folk and oral history traditions of our great nation. But I am from New Jersey”
“My theory is that Bob Dylan and James Brown had a baby. And times being what they were it would be hard for a same sex, interrracial couple, so they abandoned the child somewhere between Exit 8a and 9 on the New Jersey Turnpike”
“When you listen to Bruce’s music, you aren’t a loser, you are a character in an epic poem about losers.”
Jon Stewart when introducing Bruce at the Kennedy Center honors.
Thanks. I forgot to blog that last week.