I will be honest and say that Clarence was far more lucid and articulate than I was led to believe his current condition left him in. His eyesight was fine, his hearing a little wobbly – which is of course to be expected. He was funny, he was engaged, he was happy to be there. I have to tell you, given the prevailing rumors out there, I was expecting him to be more frail.

Clarence is appearing at these events with his co-author, Don Reo. While I appreciate that Mr. Reo is a celebrity in his own right and a friend of Clarence’s, frankly, I don’t care. I do appreciate that he (mostly) got out of the way and let Clarence talk. I will leave it at that, except to say that we do not need yet another person representing the position that every E Street Band show is the BEST SHOW EVER PERFORMED. It is possible to love every minute of being at a show and still be objective. History would be better served by the latter. They then took questions from the audience.

The Big Man was gracious and gave answers that were not always the PC version. Good questions were, “What sign would you bring?” (Consensus seemed to be “Paradise by the C”) and his favorite song (again, “Paradise”). Which album was his favorite to perform? Born To Run. (This is where Don Reo noted that he didn’t think the BITUSA songs ‘worked in the middle of the show’”. Funny, they seemed to work just fine in the middle of the show in 1985.) A good question about his specific musical influences. I will spare you the stupid questions. My companion asked – when we were getting our books signed – how he felt about having Curt Ramm around. Clarence said that he didn’t like it, that he “wasn’t one of the family yet”. (Although earlier the smile on his face when talking about “Higher and Higher” from Philly seemed to be the opposite emotion.)

My question: One of my favorite parts of the Rising tour was the instrumental break during “City of Ruins,” when Bruce and Clarence would do that little soul shuffle. And you probably noticed, every night, when they did it, they were having a conversation. It wasn’t just ‘Hey, dude, what up,” it was a pretty involved conversation that went the length of the break. I always wondered what they talked about during the break. My sister also did, and her theory was that it was just, “Hey, what you doing after the show? What are you having for dinner?” – which Clarence claimed was exactly what they were talking about. (I told him that was what we thought they were doing, so he wasn’t shattering any illusions.)

Instead of reviewing the event, I will offer you hints and tips as to how to get the most out of it:
1) Think of a question before you get there, and have another in your back pocket in case someone asks a similar question.
2) Put your hand up as soon as they ask if there are any questions. Get your question in quickly, get over any nervousness you have, the sooner you ask it, the better chance you have at being called upon. Once one or two questions are asked, people that don’t really have questions decide they do and raise their hand, and then they start asking stupid questions, which will start to try Clarence’s patience.
3) Do not ask about specific shows unless they happened recently. Do not go and ask about your favorite show from 1978 – he will tell you that there have been so many and he doesn’t remember it. Do not go expecting to have an E Street Band member validate your personal opinion that Show X was the most transcendent version of X song, ever.
4) Speak loudly and clearly and make your question brief and to the point. See note above about his hearing.
5) If you don’t have a question but just want to proclaim your love for the E Street Band, save that for the signing, you will get at least a few moments to convey that information. Do not, however, take up valuable public time to make sure we know you are the biggest and best fan in the world and have seen hundreds of shows over 30 years. You are boring.
6) If your child cannot sit quietly, DO NOT BRING YOUR CHILD. It is unfair to everyone else to have a fussy, loud toddler squirming during the questioning.
7) Do not ask questions about what happens after the tour, when the next album is coming out, when the next tour is, what Bruce is doing – even if he knew that Bruce asked them all to keep their calendars open for the next 9 months, HE CAN’T TELL YOU. Don’t waste the question.

As for the book — I have seen some good reviews of this book on the internet, but they make me feel like I got a different book than they did. On the other hand, there *are* good stories and good information in there, I just would have like to have seen a higher tone taken with the actual writing in the book. It is worth a read if you are a Springsteen fan, and at a minimum, the photos worth thumbing through at your local bookstore on a rainy day. I would suggest you peruse the book’s contents before making a decision as to whether a purchase at full list price is warranted. But it goes without saying, if you have an opportunity to spend an hour in the same room with the Big Man, you should go.

U2 does “She’s The One” Giants Stadium 9-23-09 from caryn rose on Vimeo.

Thanks to NJ Transit, i got home too late to write anything. More tonight.

My elementary school had two Jewish kids (me and my brother) and one African-American girl, who was adopted. Overwhelmingly, the music of choice in grades 1-5 was stuff like “Seasons In The Sun” and the DiFranco family or the Osmonds. I listened to it all, got the 45′s for birthdays, but hated it. I tuned into WLS across Lake Michigan, and would pull in bits of Motown coming in from the other side of the state. At that point it was just sheer feel, sheer instinct. What I loved. What I hated. What was interesting. What I couldn’t possibly understand.

But I loved the Jackson Five. I could watch them in cartoon form on Saturday mornings. I owned the singles, I did the moves as best I could (in the playground near the 5th grade classrooms, where there was a little corner out of sight). I tried to talk about it but didn’t have the words yet, not that anyone wanted to talk about the Jackson Five, exactly. All I knew as that the music made me want to dance. It made me feel happy.

It was a place to start.

When I did a list of my top 40 songs for my 40th birthday, “I Want You Back” was easily at the top of the list, without even thinking about it twice.

It would be so nice if this would be all that mattered, if the rest of it could be overlooked, and perhaps I am ungracious and unkind but I can’t sit here and innocently embrace all of Michael Jackson’s career or say that it was only the music that mattered. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth to try to do that. But I will remember how it was something else, something different, my first foray into liking something because I liked it and turning my back on what everyone else said they loved.

If you do not already have satellite radio, you can sign up for a free online trial (that runs for three days) that will let you listen to the show online:

http://www.sirius.com/estreetradio

The link for the free trial is at the top of the page.

The call in number listed on the site is 1-877-70-BRUCE. I imagine that will also be the number for the call in show, but listen and find out. Tell your friends, call us and ask why in God’s name Bruce has “Outlaw Pete” second in the set.

GRAM PARSONS.

IGGY POP.

THE MC5.

GET A MOTHERFUCKING CLUE, CLEVELAND

That’s from Paul’s first solo tour in 1993. (Ignore the moronic crowdsurfers, it’s worth it.)

I found this today not because I spend a lot of time crusing around YouTube, but because last night the latest issue of the Skyway landed in my inbox. I’ve been subscribed to the Skyway since the first day I got an email address back in 1994. I have moved email addresses a gazillion times since then but I always make sure to resubscribe so I don’t miss it.

The Skyway is kind of an anarchronism in these days of RSS and social networking; it’s a broadcast-only email newsletter, infrequent more than ever these days. In the old days, it would roll out once a month or so, full of stories people wanted to share about the ‘Mats, odd tidbits, tape requests (remember tapes?). Its frequency largely depended on what the list-keeper was up to at the time. (That’s a much longer story you’ll have to read through the issues yourself to get a handle on.) When he had enough material, Matt would roll everything up into a text-only email and send it off. It wasn’t a newsgroup; it wasn’t a mailing list; it was what it was and it’s probably lasted as long as it has because of the odd, yet completely comfortable format.

You should go read the latest issue. I’ll buy you a coffee if you think it wasn’t worth your time and didn’t make your day just a little bit better.

WFMU’s Beware of the Blog: Velvet Underground Acetate MP3s

(Be careful reading the comments; I’ve been on a live torrent kick lately, after banning any new show from entering this house over the last year or two, and I don’t need to know there’s a demo of Lou Reed singing his entire early 70′s repertoire in a friend’s apartment.)

“I have met the entire starting eight of the 1975-76 World Series Champion Cincinnati Reds. Pete Rose is a freak. The rest of them are sweethearts.”

This new criteria of evaluating men based on their baseball habits would have been useful in my past.