Le Interviste del Boss

Live in New York City
By Jeff Schwager
Wall of Sound, April 2001

Live in New York City

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's reunion tour - which began in Barcelona in April 1999 and ended in New York City in July 2000 - was cause for celebration among Springsteen's fans, but it also led to much nitpicking. Why didn't Bruce play more new songs? (He actually debuted a handful of new numbers in the tour's final few weeks.) Why didn't he play more songs from the career-spanning outtakes set Tracks? Why didn't he play more rarely heard oldies like "Lost in the Flood" and "Incident on 57th Street"? And why didn't he make the finally released "The Promise" (which made its first-ever official appearance on the post-Tracks sampler 18 Tracks) - a song beloved by cognoscenti since its live debut in 1976, which he has played (albeit rarely) solo on the piano, making it all the more special - a cornerstone of his set?
Oh, well - when you're seeing rock and roll's equivalent to the Greatest Show on Earth, you take what you get and muster the appropriate gratitude, knowing that this might be your last chance. Such is also the appropriate reaction to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Live in New York City, the two-CD live album-cum-HBO special that is making its belated debut this week. Reflecting the anything-goes nature of the tour's multinight finale at Madison Square Garden, the set list is actually something most fans who missed the New York shows would've loved to witness in person: "Lost in the Flood" is here; so are the Tracks standouts "My Love Will Not Let You Down" and "Don't Look Back"; and so are two powerful new songs, "American Skin" and "Land of Hope and Dreams," which were highlights of the tour. The quibbles are minor: the inevitable exclusion of "The Promise" in favor of, say, "Ramrod"; the less predictable omission of four more new songs that Springsteen debuted during the last weeks of the tour; and the tacked-on feeling of the six "bonus" tracks (i.e., songs not part of the HBO special) that appear at the end of the second disc out of any sequence Springsteen would've really played them in (the transition from "Don't Look Back" into "Jungleland," in particular, stands out like a sore thumb).
All of which really counts for very little when you put the discs into your CD player - especially if said player is in your car, which has always been the best environment to listen to Springsteen's records. Unlike the then-career-spanning three-CD set Live 1975-1985, which was notorious for its sanitizing overdubs, Live in New York City for the most part captures the feel of a live Springsteen show. From the album-opening, propulsive, big noise of "My Love Will Not Let You Down," fuelled by Max Weinberg's explosive drumming, to the album-closing intimacy of "If I Should Fall Behind," in which Clarence, Steve, Patti, and Nils each share the mic with Springsteen, this is the live album that rock's greatest live band deserves. Thanks to the magic of Napster, the album's two new songs have already worked their way into Springsteen's pantheon. "American Skin" - which Rolling Stone named one of 2000's top singles, despite the fact that it hadn't yet been released - is subtitled "41 Shots," and it reaches a chilling emotional crescendo with a mother's terrified plea to her son to take care in a post-Amadou Diallo world: "On these streets, Charles, you've got to understand the rules/ If an officer stops you, promise me you'll always be polite/ And that you'll never, ever run away/ And promise Mama you'll keep your hands in sight."
As for "Land of Hope and Dreams," which recalls the Curtis Mayfield classic "People Get Ready," as well as the traditional "This Train Is Bound for Glory," Springsteen dedicated it throughout the tour to the rebirth of the E Street Band. Fittingly, it's as inspirational as anything he's ever written, and it features one of his most beautiful couplets: "This train - dreams will not be thwarted/ This train - faith will be rewarded." Whatever their minor complaints about either the tour or this memento, Springsteen's fans will echo those sentiments. More than a decade after sending his E Street bandmates their separate ways, over the last two years the Boss has rewarded their faith, and ours, too.


by Jeff Schwager

Wall of Sound, April 2001

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