The Only Choice for Half-Time Show

As we ride the high from the Inauguration I was pleased to see that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band had been selected as the Half-Time Show performer for the Super Bowl. No so-called "amazing" collaborations were on the schedule. They brought an authentic American stadium rock show to an All-American evening.

We watched it live at 1:00am this morning. That and the amazing Steelers touchdown was worth how tired I feel today. --J

Jackson Browne Sues John McCain, Entire Rep Nat'l Committee

Liberal political activist Jackson Browne has filed a lawsuit against Senator John McCain and the whole Republican National Committee alleging that McCain's group used Browne's hit "Running On Empty" in a political ad without his permission.
The suit alleges that a license was never obtained and that it infringes upon the artist's right to publicity in the state of California. He's seeking permanent injunction of any Jackson Browne song AND damages (of course). I wonder how we're quantifying damages in dollar signs in this case.

Remember when Born In The USA was used by Reagan's camp? I ran across this on wikipedia and thought it was interesting and kind of funny...

Born in the U.S.A. album was selling very well, its songs were all over the radio, and the associated tour was drawing considerable press. Springsteen shows at the Capital Centre outside of Washington, D.C. thus attracted even more media attention, in particular from CBS Evening News correspondent Bernard Goldberg, who saw Springsteen as a modern-day Horatio Alger story. Yet more notably, the widely-read conservative columnist George Will, after attending a show, published on September 13, 1984 a piece entitled "A Yankee Doodle Springsteen" in which he praised Springsteen as an exemplar of classic American values. He wrote: "I have not got a clue about Springsteen's politics, if any, but flags get waved at his concerts while he sings songs about hard times. He is no whiner, and the recitation of closed factories and other problems always seems punctuated by a grand, cheerful affirmation: 'Born in the U.S.A.!'"[3] The 1984 presidential campaign was in full stride at the time, and Will had connections to President Ronald Reagan's re-election organization. Will thought that Springsteen might endorse Reagan, and got the notion pushed up to high-level Reagan advisor Michael Deaver's office. Those staffers made inquiries to Springsteen's management which were politely rebuffed.

Nevertheless, on September 19, 1984, at a campaign stop in Hammonton, New Jersey, Reagan added the following to his usual stump speech:

"America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about."

The campaign press immediately expressed skepticism that Reagan knew anything about Springsteen, and asked what his favorite Springsteen song was; "Born to Run" was the tardy response from staffers. Johnny Carson then joked on The Tonight Show, "If you believe that, I've got a couple of tickets to the Mondale-Ferraro inaugural ball I'd like to sell you."

During a September 22 concert in Pittsburgh, Springsteen responded negatively by introducing his song "Johnny 99", a song about an unemployed auto worker who turns to murder, "The President was mentioning my name the other day, and I kinda got to wondering what his favorite album musta been. I don't think it was the Nebraska album. I don't think he's been listening to this one."

A few days after that, presidential challenger Walter Mondale said, "Bruce Springsteen may have been born to run but he wasn't born yesterday," and then claimed to have been endorsed by Springsteen. Springsteen manager Jon Landau denied any such endorsement, and the Mondale campaign issued a correction.

-K

Sound Opinions on Conan

I am a huge fan of Sound Opinions. Since moving to England, listening to the weekly podcast is my Saturday morning ritual. I don’t always like what they have to say, but I love the format, which usually covers a variety of music and also gives time to opposing opinions when they play caller’s sometimes nasty feedback.

They were recently on Conan and it was a very good interview, Conan was awesome! My favorite quote from Conan during the interview was, “You’re just trying to start trouble and see where it goes…I have a brother like that”. The story about Bono calling Greg Kot was great. Other moments in the interview:

The Doors, three heterosexual guys talking about not understanding The Doors does not surprise me at all. They wouldn’t get the sex appeal of Jim.

In my opinion, there was a very obvious topic not discussed, Bruce Springsteen. DeRogatis usually takes every opportunity available to him to trash Springsteen. Just listen to his review of Magic. I wonder if he just thought it was in good taste to avoid the topic in front of Max Weinberg or if he was asked not to mention it. –J

P.S. The interview with GirlTalk on their latest podcast was very interesting.

When You're Exactly Where You Want To Be

The other day J told me about the photograph exhibit called Bruce Springsteen: The Boss Revealed. She mentioned that there was one photo in which Bruce was jumping up onstage and the audience's faces were captured; that there was one woman in particular who looked like she was having the time of her life. Let me guess which one she meant! -K

Starting my Day with Elvis, Ending it with Bruce

I had an appointment today to get my National Insurance Number, which from what I can tell is the UK’s equivalent to a Social Security Number so I cabbed it over to another town. For some reason, the driver and I talked about Elvis for the entire ride. I don’t even know how it began but this man talked so lovingly about his idol. When I told him that I had visited Graceland he had a lot of questions.

I then spent the day walking all over London and ended the day at the British Library listening to a lecture called Race, Religion and Rock ‘n’ Roll: How Bruce Springsteen Saved My Life. I bought the book after the lecture and began reading it on the way home. I felt a bit like a voyeur sitting in an audience listening to people talk about America and Bruce Springsteen. In my opinion, Bruce is one of those musicians that is very much linked with America and New Jersey. Who would think that he could speak to a young boy growing up in the UK? It was a beautiful thing. The person leading the discussion asked Sarfraz Manzoor, the author, why Bruce, why not Dylan or some other artist and I can’t quote the author directly but I wish I could because his response eloquently explained that intangible connection between the artist and fans. He said something like we all put out a frequency and we are drawn to other things of that same frequency. It really is as simple and complicated as that.

I had a friend Kate, who passed away a few years ago that was from New Jersey. I remember her telling me once that she was at a bar on a remote island and the bar had a jukebox. She walked up to put some money in and she noticed above the jukebox that iconic picture of Bruce strumming a guitar in front of an American Flag background. She thought to herself I can travel a world away and I’m standing in front of a picture of a kid who grew up two towns over from me. --J