Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
In a world of uncertainties, Bruce Springsteen has become as dependable as pumpkin spice in autumn. Since 2002’s September 11th-referent The Rising, his releases have come steadily, every two or three years, often with a film to accompany them where Bruce explains the songs, plays them and offers his New Jersey folk musings on life, love, art and faith. It’s comforting, even for a casual Springsteen fan like myself. I might not care much whether or not he has a new album out, but I’m glad he’s there for us. The regularity is reassuring, like knowing the sun will rise in the morning and the world isn’t going to end.
Like 2019’s Western Stars, the new Apple TV + documentary Bruce Springsteen’s Letter To You is the cinematic sibling to his latest album and shares its name. Whereas the former featured live performances and narrative film segments, the new offering is a straightforward chronicle about the creation of the new record and it’s inspirations. Both album and film ruminate on the loss of loved ones and celebrate the lifelong friendships forged from playing music together. Springsteen pays homage to his teenage garage band The Castiles and his illustrious backing group of nearly 50 years, the E Street Band.
“The E Street Band is a finely tuned instrument of great flexibility and power,” Bruce says as they assemble in a recording studio on his property in Central New Jersey. “Congregate,” he instructs them, to come together like Voltron and execute his songs with passion and finesse. Springsteen seems an affable if stern bandleader. The musicians laugh at his jokes and he pushes them to free the final version of the song from the building block of his words and chords, like sculptors pulling a statue out of the stone. At one point he complains that his guitar is too loud, which, considering that’s something that guitarists almost never say, speaks to his moral strength of character. He must be a good guy to work for.
Springsteen seems to have a lot on his mind. He looks serious, and despite being in tip top physical shape, for the first time I can recall, he looks old. He references the recent death of friend George Theiss, who dated his sister and played with him in The Castiles. This makes Springsteen “the last living member of the mighty Castiles.” He says the album is a thank you to the musicians he’s played with over the years and an acknowledgement of “the debt I still owed my Freehold brothers in arms.”
The members of the E Street Band seem as old and grey as their boss with the exception of 40 year old saxophonist Jake Clemons. He is the nephew of Clarence Clemons, Springsteen’s on-stage foil up until his death in 2011, whose absence hovers over the proceedings. Tribute is also paid to longtime organist and multi-instrumentalist Danny Federici, who died in 2008. The group also includes guitarist Miami Steve Van Zandt, of Sopranos fame, drummer Max Weinberg of Late Night with Conan O’Brien fame, and Springsteen’s wife, Patti Scialfa. “I’m in the middle of a 45 year conversation with these men and women I’m surrounded by,” Springsteen says and it’s striking how much his backing musicians have become ingrained in popular culture.
In a nod to his past, Springsteen records several songs he wrote at the dawn of his career that never made it on album. “A lot of words,” he says of them. So many, in fact, Bob Dylan once warned him “I was going to use up the entire English language” if he wasn’t careful. The songs themselves are actually very Dylanesque and lack the originality of the Jersey turnpike anthems on which his career rests. The new songs, however, hit all the familiar musical notes, while trading in working class vignettes for reflections of past glories and the ravages of age. “Death is not the end,” Springsteen sings in “I’ll See You in My Dreams.” Longtime manager Jon Landau cries while listening to the playback. It’s a powerful moment.
Like any group of friends who’ve known each other forever, not to mention those that made their bones playing loud rock n’ roll, Springsteen and the E Street Band cap a good day of recording with drinks. They trade tales of epic concerts past and talk about the tour ahead, one which we now know never came to be. “There’s only so much time left,” Bruce says, “so how you conduct yourself and do your work matters.” At the conclusion of recording The Boss pours a round of shots and says, “Well, what can I say, we’re taking this thing ‘til we’re all in the box.” Hopefully, that’s not for a long time to come.
Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.
