The Hot Press Bumper Christmas & New Year Special is packed full of Bruce-ly goodness!
Not content with having The Boss and the late, extremely great Clarence Clemons on the cover, Pat Carty has selected the E Street Band’s take on ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town’ as one of the Top 20 Greatest Christmas Songs Ever.
"Springsteen and the E Street Band could do a live arrangement of an accountancy report and it would still rock, so no surprise that this is a charmer," he notes.
It’s over then to Stuart Clark for a look – SPOILER ALERT! – at the Springsteen On Broadway film, which made its Netflix bow at the weekend.
Here’s a flavour of what Stuart has to say:
Determined that the TV experience should mirror the theatrical one as closely as possible, Bruce insisted on there being just half-a-dozen cameras dotted around the stage and no, repeat no, fancy special effects added afterwards. We’re pleased to report that Netflix did what they were told.
The show starts with the admission that his whole musical career has been a con job.
“I’ve never held an honest job in my entire life,” Bruce ‘fesses as he strums the chords to ‘Growin’ Up’, from Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. “I’ve never done any hard labour. I’ve never worked nine to five. I’ve never worked five days a week until right now. I don’t like it! I’ve never seen the inside of a factory, and yet it’s all I’ve ever written about. Standing before you is a man who has become wildly and absurdly successful writing about something of which he has had... absolutely no personal experience! I made it all up, that’s how good I am!”
“I’m sure you’re wondering how this miracle came to pass...”
A hundred and fifty-three riotously entertaining minutes later you’re wondering no more! The Boss’ language throughout is rich, expressive and often tinged with nostalgic awe.
Thusly, Elvis’ 1956 TV debut on The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show, which seemed to scandalise anyone over 18, is “a sweating wet orgasm of fun. The bliss of a freer existence exploded into unsuspecting homes; the world had fucking changed in an instant. The revolution had been televised.”
When the pre-teen Bruce is taken to rent, not buy, his first guitar, the cheap acoustic in question was “the key, it was the sword and the stone, the staff of righteousness.”
We also talk to RTÉ Prime Time presenter David McCullagh, a diehard Bruce fan who made the pilgrimage to the Walter Kerr Theater to see the show.
“There was a real sense of intimacy that you obviously don’t get in the RDS or Croke Park,” he enthuses. “It wasn’t at all like a normal concert or even an acoustic show. It was the storytelling and how those stories interact with the dozen or so songs he played.”