The stars aligned on November 5, 1986.
Well, three of them at least: Huey Lewis, Bob Geldof, and Bruce Springsteen all found themselves at Le Zenith in Paris that night.
Huey Lewis and the News were at the peak of their commercial success, and their red-hot Fore! Tour brought them to the arena. Bob Geldof was often in Paris, so his presence wasn’t much of a surprise.
Bruce was the true wild card. His mammoth, marathon Born in the U.S.A. Tour was now a full year in the rear-view mirror, and other than an acoustic set at Neil and Pegi Young’s Bridge School Benefit a few weeks earlier, he hadn’t performed in public anywhere since the previous winter. No one expected him to turn up at a Huey Lewis concert, let alone in Paris. He was in town because his wife was working there: Julianne was filming Sweet Lies, a forgettable film released during the 1987 holiday season.
Perhaps Bruce was looking for something to do night, or just a reason to get away for a bit. At any rate, he found himself at the arena with Lewis and Geldof, and the three rock stars decided to work up a cover of Robert Parker’s 1966 hit, “Barefootin’.”
“Barefootin'” was a smash hit that year, peaking at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and just one slot shy of the top of the R&B chart), and stayed on the chart for seventeen weeks. It notched #7 in Canada, too, and #24 in the U.K.
Lewis, Geldof, and Springsteen took that two-and-a-half-minute pop single and stretched it into a seven-minute jam, with each rocker taking a turn on lead vocals.
I know that audio recording is distant and muddy, but luckily their performance was captured on video, too, and aired on VH1.
Unsurprisingly, the media coverage focused on Bruce’s participation–he was, after all, only five days from releasing his mega-hyped Live 1975-85 box set, and media attention was already at a frenzy–so the video picks up when Bruce takes the mic.
Bruce left Paris a few days later, leaving Juli behind to finish her movie. He arrived home just in time for the box set release frenzy, although he made no promotional appearances to support it. His one public appearance during that entire period was that little-known, little-seen cameo appearance in Paris.
Barefootin’
First performed: November 5, 1986 (Paris, France)
Last performed: November 5, 1986 (Paris, France)
