“In the 1970s I went to a Grateful Dead show at a community college. I watched the crowd swaying and doing its trance-dance thing and I stood very outside of it. To me—sober, nonmystical, only half hippie, if that, me—they sounded like a not-very-talented bar band. I went home gently mystified. I don’t know if the Grateful Dead were great but I know they did something great. Years later, when I came to appreciate their subtle musicality, Jerry Garcia’s beautifully lyrical guitar playing and the folk purity of their voices, I understood that I’d missed it. They had a unique ability to build community and sometimes, it ain’t what you’re doing but what happens while you’re doing it that counts.” — Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run (2016)
Sometimes you need to step back from something to get the perspective required to understand it.
That was true for Bruce Springsteen, who admitted to not fully appreciating The Grateful Dead when he was first introduced to them. It was also true for the late Jerry Garcia; the Grateful Dead frontman had this to say about Bruce in a 1979 interview with the legendary Studs Terkel:
I’m not enough (or at all) of a Dead scholar to say whether Garcia ever warmed to Bruce, but by the time of Garcia’s death in August 1995, Bruce had certainly learned to appreciate The Grateful Dead.
Just one day after Garcia passed away from a heart attack at the young age of 53, the North Jersey-based, Dead-influenced band Solar Circus played a gig at the Metro Lounge in Long Branch. With raw emotions sweeping both the band and the crowd, the show essentially became a tribute to Garcia and the Dead.
Taking in the show from the bar was a certain famous local musician.
“We were lucky enough to find Bruce sitting in the back of the bar,” recalled Solar Circus vocalist and lead guitarist Mark Diomede, so he asked Bruce to join them. “He got this faraway look in his eye for a second, then he agreed to do a couple songs.”
In true Springsteen fashion, a couple of songs turned into five; in true Dead fashion, those five songs kept Bruce on stage for more than an hour. They played three covers together (“Mustang Sally,” “All Along the Watchtower,” and “Not Fade Away“), and they played two Solar Circus originals, including “Stems and Seeds” and a new song from their upcoming Daybreak album called “Better Things.”
Usually–in fact almost always–I include the original version of a song in these essays for comparison with the live performance. “Better Things” turned out to be too elusive, however, so I offer my apologies.
We do have the band’s live performance with Bruce that night, though–and even though Bruce is only audible on electric guitar (he can be forgiven for not knowing the Solar Circus originals at a show he wasn’t planning on performing at), it’s easy to pick him out.
And even if it wasn’t: you’d know Bruce was on stage just from the taper/bouncer chatter unfortunately captured in the foreground. A hat tip to the persistent taper who managed to come away with a pretty great recording regardless!
If you’re looking for more definitive evidence of Bruce’s on-stage contribution, check out this video clip from that performance. Only the last three-and-a-half minutes or so were captured, but there’s a pretty great “Mustang Sally” at the end of it (with Bruce’s vocals) as a bonus.
Bruce never played with Solar Circus again, but at least for that one August night, he joined local musicians and fans in paying tribute to an American music icon taken too soon.
Better Things
First performed: August 10, 1995 (Long Branch, NJ)
Last performed: August 10, 1995 (Long Branch, NJ)
