38 years, 53 shows.
That’s how many years and how many times Bruce Springsteen and Joe Grushecky have performed together.
It’s easy to understand why they enjoy working together so much: their songwriting sensibilities are pretty similar. From dark noir like “Broken Wheel” to political statements like “That’s What Makes Us Great” to arena anthems like “Pumping Iron” and “Rebel Music,” there’s a Grushecky analogue for just about every type of song in Bruce’s catalog, and vice versa.
And then there are the songs that are just plain fun, and no Grushecky song brings the smiles like “Talking to the King,” the lead-off track from Joe’s 1992 album End of the Century.
With its immediately infectious riff and sweet, fantastical lyrics, “Talking to the King” is exactly the kind of dream you’d expect an almost-made-it-big rocker to have in the dark of night.
Joe’s protagonist is a lifelong aspiring rocker, too. Waking from a dream (he thinks), he creeps downstairs in the middle of the night to find the spirit of Elvis Presley in full regalia in his living room.
Of course, they jam.
But the silly set-up is just that: a set-up for a surprisingly sweet second half. Elvis warns Joe to be careful what he wishes for–success doesn’t necessarily bring happiness, and it almost certainly brings its own problems.
You better be careful or you’ll lose everything
It ain’t no fun being a king
You make me mad when you start to complain
You should be glad nobody who knows your name
You got two lovely kids and a wife at home
And I died alone on my throne
Sometimes I think I sold my soul
To become the king of rock and roll
At its big heart, “Talking to the King” is a song of acceptance and appreciation of a good life, with only a good-natured nod to what might have been.
“Talking to the King” is a terrific song, and it’s obvious why it became a mainstay of Joe’s sets. It’s also easy to see why it would appeal to Bruce, which is probably why he and Joe have played it together an astonishing 28 times in the last 25 years. (There are a lot of Springsteen originals that Bruce hasn’t performed anywhere near that often.)
We’ll leave aside the irony of Joe performing a “Thank goodness I didn’t make it big and end up like Elvis” song with a man who made it big but ended up just fine, because Bruce is the very definition of an edge case.
Instead, let’s just enjoy these longtime friends playing “Talking to the King” in one of their earliest performances together, back on the October Assault mini-tour for American Babylon in 1995.
Following their handful of performances on the American Babylon Tour, Bruce and Joe could be counted on to play “Talking to the King” pretty much any time they played together–and they played together often.
You’d need to be in one of their stomping grounds to catch them, though: every one of their 22 performances in the past 22 years has been either on the Jersey Shore or Joe’s native Pittsburgh. Here’s Bruce, Joe, and the Houserockers performing “Talking to the King” at Light of Day 2011 in Asbury Park, and you can see how much Bruce enjoys playing Joe’s song.
There’s no reason to expect Bruce and Joe will ever stop performing together, and no reason to expect that “Talking to the King” won’t always be part of their sets.
It was even one of the very last songs Bruce performed live before the great pandemic of 2020.
I’ll leave you with Bruce and Joe performing “Talking to the King” at Light of Day 20, Bruce’s last public performance to date.
Talking to the King
First performed: October 17, 1995 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: January 18, 2020 (Asbury Park, NJ)
