In November 1971, The Bruce Springsteen Band was in full swing.
Debuting only four months earlier, Bruce’s new five-man combo included Steve Van Zandt, Garry Tallent, David Sancious, and Vini Lopez, and if that seems to you like a prototypical E Street Band, I would not argue.
But if most of the E Street players were in place by that time, the E Street sound certainly wasn’t.
The Bruce Springsteen Band played a much funkier, bluesier set than the E Street Band would (although in early E Street shows, we can clearly hear a gradual transition), and on the night of November 13th, they were especially in the groove.
The scene was the Student Prince, home base for The Bruce Springsteen Band in the autumn of 1971. The band played over three dozen shows there between Labor Day and Christmas, but on this night they were joined by a guest player: Southside Johnny, no stranger to either the venue or the players, as they’d played together in various combinations for more than a year.
Amazingly, their performance that night was captured on both audio and video, and while the video has unfortunately long since been destroyed, the audio provides us a great opportunity to hear our pre-fame heroes firing on all improvisational cylinders.
In one of the set’s highlights, The Bruce Springsteen band kicks into a superbly cool rendition of Bruce’s original song, “The Band’s Just Boppin’ the Blues,” of which only two performances are known to exist on bootleg audio. (This one is by far the superior performance, thanks to the Southside’s guest appearance.)
Bruce obviously intended his title as a hat-tip to Carl Perkins, who had an almost-hit with “Boppin’ the Blues” fifteen years earlier (and had recently re-recorded it with New Jersey based NRBQ).
But apart from the title, “The Band’s Just Boppin’ the Blues” has little in common with Carl Perkins’ song.
Bruce’s lyrics are simple and straightforward, and a comparison with the only other surviving audio of “The Band’s Just Boppin’ the Blues” (a muddier-sounding performance from three months later) suggests that the piece was intended to be somewhat improvisational from the beginning, more of a band showcase (complete with in-song band intros) than a song with a message.
Well it’s another Saturday night and you’re sitting at the bar all alone
Well man you’re feeling kind of tired but you’re not tired enough to go home
Well sit back and let loose because the band’s just boppin’ the blues
Well it’s the same old singer, Ma, and I know that it’s the same old song
And the band keeps on playing, band keeps playing all night long
Well now I know it ain’t no use because the band’s just boppin’ the blues
Yeah I got Madman on the drums, and Mr. Dave right down to my left on the keys
And when the man plays his guitar, it hits the little girls bad between the knees
Oh, so just sit back and hang loose, the band’s just bopping the blues
Oh you might dig boogie-woogie tunes or maybe you like to rock and roll
But right now it’s all about the music, it saves me right down into my soul
Ah well just sit back and hang loose because the band’s just bopping the blues
And a showcase it was. The highlights of the performance are clearly the two instrumental breaks, the first one a spotlight for Southside Johnny’s impressive harp skills, the latter an extended jam centered around the amazing David Sancious.
Flash forward exactly a year later, and Bruce would be one month into touring for his upcoming debut album, with the band that would eventually become known as E Street fully in place. But in November 1971, the action was all at the Student Prince, where a pre-fame Bruce Springsteen and his eponymous band spent their weekend nights just boppin’ the blues.
The Band’s Just Boppin’ the Blues
First performed: November 13, 1971 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: February 4, 1972 (Richmond, VA)
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