Bruce Springsteen turns 60 this September, and his Columbia Records debut, “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.,” came out more than 35 years ago.
And yet many claim that the Boss is now more relevant than ever.
When Springsteen and his E Street Band play the Super Bowl halftime show, even folks who ignore the game tune in and sing along. When he rails against Ticketmaster on his website, consumers listen deeply and e-mail their 10 closest friends — and then call their congressman. When the E Street Band tours, fans gather friends, toast the New Jersey band for keeping its ticket prices sane and make the trip to the Pepsi Center — which is where thousands of fans will be tonight to see the Boss.
Springsteen is one of those performers whose credibility has risen with the passing of time. Sure, people know his politics. But more importantly, people connect with his music. And the music is something Springsteen still takes very, very seriously — just ask Nils Lofgren, his longtime guitar maestro with the E Street Band.
“I’ll never forget the day we introduced Bruce to John Madden, who is a personal friend of ours,” Lofgren, also a respected solo artist, said via telephone. “It was during ‘The Rising’ tour in Chicago, which is where John lives, and my wife, Amy, had talked him into coming to the show.
“(John) went and had a visit with Bruce before the show, and when he came out, he said it reminded him of visiting with a great quarterback on the eve of a Super Bowl. John saying that reminded me of the extraordinary nature of the history of the band with Bruce. And really, every gig for us is like a Super Bowl in front of a hometown crowd.”
The metaphor works especially well for Springsteen and his crew in 2009. The artist made headlines earlier this year by finally agreeing to play the Super Bowl XLIII halftime show, and his 12-minute set was a fun-filled, non-politicking gift to the fans. The music skipped from “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” to “Born to Run,” “Working on a Dream” to “Glory Days” — in which he slyly changed a baseball reference to “He could throw a . . . Hail Mary pass.”
Springsteen had turned down the big game slot numerous times since the ’70s. He’d previously thought the truncated vehicle “a novelty,” he said at a pregame news conference. But then he realized what “a tremendous venue” it could be, and he never made any bones about the one-off being a way for him to push his latest CD, “Working on a Dream.”
“It was a great week with Bruce and the band and the crew,” Lofgren said. “It was like old home week. And to be involved with such a gigantic and insane event based around sports, which I love, was also great.”
Springsteen played back-to-back dates at the Super Bowl and President Barack Obama’s inauguration celebration at the Lincoln Memorial — proof of his important role in contemporary popular music. When times are tough, he’s there to entertain. When a nation undergoes change, he’s there to talk about it and cover a Pete Seeger song.
His watchdoglike behavior surrounding the Ticketmaster fiasco — which saw tickets to his shows immediately redirected to a Ticketmaster- owned site that scalped them at a higher cost — also says something about his role in the world around us. As newspapers are hurting and reporting staffs are shrinking, who will watch out for corporate malfeasance? As far as Ticketmaster is concerned, Springsteen is on the job. It fits his working-class image, and his fans love it.
Lofgren says it’s easy to respect the Boss. The guitarist known for his onstage back flips joined the E Street Band in 1984 as Steve Van Zandt’s replacement — just in time for the group’s goliath outing in support of “Born in the U.S.A.” (Both guitarists have played with the group since Springsteen reunited the E Street Band in 1999 after 10 years of inactivity.) But before joining up with these Jersey boys, Lofgren played with Neil Young and Crazy Horse off and on for a few years in the early to mid- ’70s.
Few other artists have had the opportunity to work with such varied songwriting talent. And Lofgren said that while he’s never been a close observer of either artist’s writing process, the two giants do share some personality traits.
“There are great similarities between the two, even though their voices are very different-sounding,” Lofgren said. “They’re both very passionate and prolific, and they’re looking for bandmates who have good instincts. They don’t want to have to talk about it too much. The purpose of having somebody in your band is being understood, and I’m honored to have played with both of them.”
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Rock. Pepsi Center, 1000 Chopper Circle. Today. 7:30 p.m. $39-$95. 303-830-8497 or
