Back in June, I saw my first ever Bruce Springsteen concert. He was touring with the Seeger Sessions Band in support of We Shall Overcome - an album that did not leave my CD player for at least two weeks after I bought it. I'd been wanting to see a Springsteen show pretty much since I'd known that bands played live, and the build-up of that anticipation probably would have led to disappointment if the show had been anything less than unbelieveable. The show was unbelieveable. I went into work the next day and in response to the numerous "How was it?" questions, I said, "That man is inhuman. Because no normal person could possibly be that talented."
It was an incredible experience. Never have I been to a show that was more just plain fun. It certainly had its serious and emotional moments with songs like Mrs. McGrath and Bring 'Em Home ("They had to write 'em then, we have to write 'em now"), which was great, but you could tell that for most of the night every member of the band was up there just having a great time, loving every minute of being on stage. There was something about watching a couple horn players literally sprint from the back of the stage to the front to take a solo that made me happy in a way nothing else ever has. I was expecting an amazing show, and I was not disappointed; it was as much fun as I've had in a long time. To be perfectly honest, though, I was a bit disappointed in the crowd. There we were, at a Bruce Springsteen concert, and everyone around me spent the entire night sitting down with their hands politely folded in their laps like they were watching a ballet. They were all so calm that I almost wondered if The Boss was an hallucination and I was the only one in the venue head-banging to Tchaikovski. (Even Bruce himself admonished them at one point - during "Jacob's Ladder" when most of the crowd (except for the people around me) were on their feet and dancing, he was in midsentence when he happened to glance up at my section of the balcony: "Everybody dancin', having a gre- Wait a minute! We still got people sittin' down! C'mon, get up!" I was one of the few that were already standing - no way was I sitting through this song, even if I was alone in standing up.)I guess it was a product of it being an older crowd - I was quite possibly the youngest one there except for the kids that had been brought along by their parents, and the bulk of the crowd was 40 - 50, with more than I expected pushing 60. But while I wasn't really expecting the crowd to look like they had all taken a wrong turn on the way to the ballet, I wasn't surprised that most of them were older than me; most kids my age don't go for that type of music. To quote Mark Knopfler, "They don't give a damn about any trumpet-playing band; it ain't what they call rock and roll." And while it’s my opinion that Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band was far more rock’n’roll than anything Tool has ever done, I don’t know too many 23-year-olds that would agree with me. Their reaction to it is "Eh. Some old guy singing some other old guy’s songs with a bunch of old guys in the backing band." Whereas my reaction to it is, "They don't write songs like that anymore... and that's a damn shame."I had a similar thought a few months ago when I was assisting my first session at the studio. The band we were recording was an old blues band that had been together for almost 30 years. One day during the session a local guy, whom we'll call Levon, came in to play drums on a couple of tracks. While Levon was there, the band decided they also wanted him to sing lead on a song, and started tossing around ideas for songs that might be suitable. During this discussion, the band's pianist picked up a guitar and played and sang an old country tune called I've Just Seen The Rock Of Ages. I had never heard it before, and I was completely blown away by it. Simple, haunting, beautiful. It was at that moment, listening to Glenn play that song, that I realized two things that made me a little sad. One, that there are probably thousands of incredible songs out there that I haven’t heard and may never hear simply because I don’t know they exist. And two, that they don’t write songs like they used to. That’s not to say there isn’t still good music being made and good songs being written. Lately I’ve been finding a lot of new music that I really love. But I can't imagine too much of the music being made today still being around a century or two from now.* I guess I should just be grateful (and I am) that I can get so much enjoyment out of songs two hundred years old like Mrs. McGrath, and songs not even one year old like I Dug Up A Diamond (Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris), and songs from everywhere in between.So Bruce, even when most of the crowd's sitting down, just remember that some of us are standing up. And those of us that are standing are more grateful than you can probably ever understand that you’ve brought your music – and Pete’s – into our lives.*I'm reminded of a conversation between Bono and Bob Dylan where Bono said of Dylan's catalog, "These songs will last forever!" Dylan replied, "Man, I think your songs will last forever too, it's just that nobody will be able to play them."
