Bruce Who?

To those who stopped by and read my first post, “To AJ” thank you!! It still is here, you just scroll down to previous post. Please remember though if you continue to stop by and read, that this is nothing more than my very own little journal and not the Carnegie course on how to make friends and influence people. Thanks for stopping by!

Tonight I will see Bruce (If you have to ask the title question to ascertain the last name, perhaps this isn’t an entry you will want to read) again for the ? time.   Boy I wish I knew how many. Write things down now kids, let that be a lesson to you.     I do know the last time I saw him was 2008. It stays with me as my friend Kim and I took our sons AJ (15) and Marco (10) to their very first Bruce concert. And for Marco his very first concert ever!!

The River Tour today reminds me not so much of the Bruce concerts I saw in the past but of those that I missed. I am not a fan of the “The River,” not sure I even ever listened to it through but once. Yes I know “Independence Day ” is on it, most likely an accident. To this week’s repeated attempts by friend Sandi and Jacki’s husband to get me to listen to it I asked, “Why bother I am going to hear the whole thing Thursday night”.   But as Sandi pointed out- she by listening to it beforehand will be able to sing along. Obviously she has never heard me sing. Trust me no one in that arena will want me singing along to anything.

The reason I guess I missed so many Bruce concerts and that I am not much of a River fan is twofold. First the River came out in 1980. I did not become a Bruce fan until 1984. Same year I became a disco fan. Nowadays Bruce AND Bob fans are common but not in Queens or the Bronx in 1975. It was Bruce OR Bob. He was considered a musical heretic. Nothing but a flash in the pan and Dylan wanna be to be discounted as having a colossal nerve to be pretender to this sacred throne. Or at least that is how the sentiment went with musical purists boyfriend/friends at the time plus a large number of the mainstream musical media as well. Triple alliterations are my favorite. There is historical reference to back this up in both of Dave Marsh’s books on Bruce, “Glory Days” (which I have but am too lazy to look it up now) and am reasonably sure in his first Bruce book “Born to Run…” which I cannot look up, not because of laziness but because it is no longer on my bookshelf. I suspect perhaps my friend and former roommate Andy made off with this tome as well. The only difference between a library and me is that at least the library gets its books back eventually.   In 1980 when The River was released and “Hungry Heart” was released as the single, I was not a fan. Back then of course they played it ad nauseum on the few FM stations we had to listen to music on. No getting away from it like you can nowadays with ITUNES and IPHONES and PODS and PANDORA and the satellites. Way too much selection if you ask me. OK off topic. Anyway so while I think it’s a great song now, I wasn’t real thrilled about hearing “Hungry Heart” over and over and over again on the radio in 1980.

I never saw a Bruce concert in New York at all. I had to go 3000 miles to see someone who was across the river and the GW Bridge. But then again us New York kids never went to Jersey unless your parents dragged you to relatives or your father made you wash knives at 6am on a Saturday morning. Don’t ask.

My first time seeing Bruce was 1992 at the LA Sports Arena and so I am thrilled to be going back there tonight with some of the very same friends who introduced me to it all those years ago. It was and still is the most astounding concert I had ever seen and that includes the Who’s last tour with Keith Moon. I liked many of Bruce’s other concerts through the years other than Tunnel of Love/The album that begins with an M that I can never remember. But that’s OK cause I didn’t like anything from his fancy Philips phase (alliteration trifecta) including the Bonanza outfit on the Tunnel album cover. Tom Joad? Well just ok. I just don’t care for “quiet E Streetless Bruce” as much and besides if I want quiet, I’ll go see Leonard instead.   So tonight as long as I get “ Thunder Road” and a couple from “Darkness…” my favorite Bruce album, I’m good!