Which is fortunate since I can also ignore other native sons like Bon Jovi, The Smithereens and the films of the fat ball cap wearing auteur known as Kevin Smith.
But no matter if they call him the Boss or not, New Jersey's current top musical export doesn't have immunity from arch Australian right winger Rupert Murdoch's notorious Page Six potshots. This week the NY Post published an unsubstantiated rumor that Bruce Springsteen had "secretly" left his wife and taken up with a 9/11 widow.
Immediately dozens of other news organizations worldwide ran the same story, fueling the speculation & promoting a myth that sounds so improbable, yet simultaneously so dumbly patriotic & passionate that it must be true if were talkin' bout Bruce.
Meanwhile, ignored in all the hype & hyperbole was that just on Friday Springsteen was seen happily shopping for antiques with wife Patti Scialfa in Red Bank New Jersey. They apparently sang an impromptu performance aided by an old guitar & mandolin spotted in a shop, and bought $3,000 worth of other goodies. Fans snatched up the instruments. On Tuesday, Bruce was spotted attending the 75th Anniversary of the opening of New Jersey's Manasquan Inlet ( sans any widow).
I found it interesting that the story surfaced in Murdoch's paper, where Bruce's recent tribute to Pete Seeger, a legendary American folk singer was less than warmly received. Bruce has been out performing Seeger material all summer, and these tunes hardly sing the praises of trusting multinational corporations & the barons of free maket capitalism to provide for all our needs.
Pete Seeger was blacklisted at the height of McCarthyism, and faced the House Unamerican Activities Committee for his communist leanings. The former running partner of Woody Guthrie, was kept off the airwaves, including his own televison show, and lost his scraped by for a decade playing coffeehouses and college campus gatherings. Finally towards the end of the sixties, he could resurface in our popular culture, and is now in his 80's, still an environmental activist and notable musical elder living in his beloved Hudson River Valley. ( Read a full post I did earlier this year on Seeger here - Seeger And Ye Shall Find)
Yer guess is as good as mine if Bruce has really ditched his wife kids... do you trust everything ya read in the NY Post?
I have noted a lot of longtime fans on internet message boards condemning him for his supposed lack of family values already. One said "Once a cheater, always a cheater" in reference to his previous first marriage collapsing over a secret relationship with then background singer Scialfa.
Another said the BOSS backwards is SSOB ( Same Son of Bitch) as he was 15 years back when he cheated on his first wife...
one even was apparently so distressed she was giving up on love herself...
"God..Patti, I feel for ya. I loved that he married her. I just imagined her pining over him all those years and finally he realized he loved her as much she loved him.. now.. damn. I give up on love."
Since I'm kinda shy of good rare Bruce tracks to complement this item, I hadta dig even deeper in the crates...
Here is a Springsteen cover by Trevor Horn's gay disco sensations of 1984, Frankie Goes To Hollywood...
Oddly enough it's pretty straightforward rock number, and I believe was recorded live in Newcastle... I found it as a live b-side on a 12" single released during the hype of the Welcome To The Pleasuredome era.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Born To Run - live
It blows my frickin' mind, that almost simultaneously, a studio version of this long forgotten Frankie cover song was posted at Some Velvet Blog this morning... go figger
just for that I better throw up some other audio junk into this "series of tubes" to away from any copy cat allegations that could ruin my interweb street cred...
keeping with a live theme...
How about that live version London Calling done as a tribute to the late Joe Strummer from he Grammy's a few years back when Bruce & Elvis Costello got together with Dave Grohl and some folks?
Springsteen, Costello, Grohl - etc - London Calling
and while we are at it, here's that live James @ 16 Medley from Soul Asylum circa 87, featuring late Clash fan Karl Mueller on Prince's the Cross...
Soul Asylum - James At 16 Medley
1 comment:
It says a lot that you don't have Springsteen, but you do have, not only Frankie Goes to Hollywood, but rare b side Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
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