New for 2023: Audio for 1972; video for 2016
1972: Bruce makes a guest appearance with Odin at the Highlands Art and Music Fair in Highlands, New Jersey, playing a loose four-song mini-set (including a composed-on-the-spot “Water Station”) through two power outages. The band closes with a cover of Big Joe Williams’ “Baby, Please Don’t Go”… sort of. Whether an intentional mashup or because he simply doesn’t know the words, Bruce instead sings the lyrics for “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City,” making this the first known recording of these words in public. Take a listen to this pristine, historic, and until now uncirculating recording.
1973: A scheduled gig at Penn State University is cancelled to make room for studio work on The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle.
1975: A scheduled show in Dallas is cancelled.
1978: The Darkness Tour arrives at the University of Notre Dame, where Bruce plays “Double Shot (of My Baby’s Love)” and his first known performance of “Louie Louie.”
1985: Bruce and the E Street Band bring the Born in the U.S.A. Tour to Miami’s Orange Bowl Stadium for the first of two nights.
1992: “Human Touch” is nominated for Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards but loses to Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven.”
1999: Bruce and the reunited E Street Band play their second of two shows at The Palace of Auburn Hills, opening with a Motown special snippet of “Dancing in the Street” before launching into “Don’t Look Back.”
2005: Glory Days: A Bruce Springsteen Symposium kicks off at New Jersey’s Monmouth University, drawing scholars and fans to discuss the life and work of Springsteen. More than 150 papers are presented, and special guests and musical events celebrate the occasion.
2016: Night Two in Philadelphia on the “Autobiography Tour” can’t quite measure up to Night One in length or set list, but it raises the bar in intensity. Original E Streeter Vini Lopez makes a guest appearance early in the show on two songs from Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., and “From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)” and “Lucky Town” make rare appearances. The amazing two-night stand is capped off by a show-closing “Jersey Girl” complete with fireworks. But for my money, the highlight of the show is one of the best-ever versions of “Racing in the Street.” For more highlights from this show, see my Where the Band Was report.
The ‘72 audio was incredible thanks for sharing. Been a longtime fan since the early 70’s back in Long Branch!
“He was good!”–Incredible, new multi-cam footage from Philadelphia, 2016 of Bruce and the “college kid” playing a fun, impassioned version of “No Surrender”. Nice find.