When the Working on a Dream Tour stopped in Greensboro, Bruce honored a sign request from a young boy who, I suspect, had a little bit of prompting from his parents.
The boy was holding a sign for “Seventh Son,” written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Willie Mabel in 1955 in an R&B arrangement.
It was Johnny Rivers’ rocking cover of it a decade later that propelled the song into the charts, however–it spent most of the summer of 1965 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it peaked at #7.
As classic rock songs go, “Seventh Son” is a bit on the obscure side, and Bruce was clearly skeptical about where the boy had heard the song.
But he was also tickled, and never one to back away from a challenge, Bruce gamely rallied the E Street Band for their first and only cover of “Seventh Son.”
I was fortunate enough to be at that show, in the presence of the best American crowd I’ve ever seen.
Seventh Son
First performed: May 2, 2009 (Greensboro, NC)
Last performed: May 2, 2009 (Greensboro, NC)
© August 4, 2020
Heard this on the radio the other day, and thought, wow, this would be a great song for Bruce to cover! Thanks!
Put “Seven Nights to Rock” to rest and include this instead in future E Street Band shows.