It Ain't No Sin to Be Glad You're Alive

Some thoughts after seeing Bruce Springsteen in Philly last night.

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So, I drove down to Philadelphia to see Bruce Springsteen show last night.

“Heloooo my people!” he said, taking the stage.

I got a little teary at the start and I’m really not even sure why but hearing him lead a snarling rock band through a song called "No Surrender" hit me in the gut, in a good way. Like most Americans, recent years have taken an emotional toll - and that's even though they've honestly been pretty great for me personally in a lot of ways. Both the lockdowns and the intensely visceral, hate-filled politics that have dominated our nation and led to maybe a quarter of people wanting a national divorce - something I find appalling and abhorrent - an be overwhelming. And Bruce is the antidote to a lot of that.

There we all were, gathered in mass communion with an arena of strangers who no doubt would disagree about a lot and we don’t give a good God damn about any of that, because we are bound by something larger. There we are singing together, bound together by this crazy preacher man. A 73-year-old defying expectations and aging, out there like a crazy mix of Bob Dylan and James Brown, Billy Graham and Franco Harris. A force of nature lifting us up and taking us on a journey.

Photo by Danny Clinch

It was also his first show back after three cancellations due to band illness. They have not released specifics, and there were no signs of that, though I’d say Bruce’s voice sounded a little scratchy, and I say that as someone just over COVID myself.

My own crappy little image.

I know some people have political issues with the guy. Whatever. I feel sorry for them – not because of their politics (maybe a little), but because of what they are missing out on. That redemptive nature.

The politics expressed in his music seem to me to be primarily personal - about the possibility of personal redemption through love, music, following your dreams, not bowing to expectations. He wasn’t talking about cars when he wrote that “all the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood.” (I don’t think he even had a driver’s license in 1975 when he recorded “Thunder Road.”) And the fact that if we all have a shot at that redemption, then society does, too. It’s not really an intellectual exercise, though; it’s a feeling.

Beyond any of that, this is a guy in firm control of his craft. He plays his 17-piece band and the crowd equally masterfully. Is there schtick and acting involved in what he's doing? Of course. This guy is a pro’s pro, and I think any musician or performer can appreciate it on that level regardless of your feelings about the songs. But for me, some of those songs played a central role in key parts of my life.

In terms of more specifics, I loved the setlist. Darkness on the Edge of Town and The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle are probably my favorite of his albums and he hit a lot of the high points of them, with “Kitty’s Back,” “E Street Shuffle,” “Rosalita,” “Badlands,” “Promised Land,” “Backstreets.” Plus “Trapped” and “Because the Night,” maybe the greatest song he wrote but never recorded.

Yes, there are issues with the cost of tickets, for sure, and I think it sucks that many longtime fans have not been able to go to these shows, but it seems to me to be primarily about simple supply and demand. And a larger societal issue than a Bruce issue. I paid my money, drove to Philly and back just a few days post-COVID recovery and worried about my energy level. The charge he gave me made the drive home a breeze.

Entire Setlist:

“No Surrender”
“Ghosts”
“Prove It All Night”
“Letter to You”
“The Promised Land”
“Candy’s Room”
“Kitty’s Back”
“Nightshift”
“The E Street Shuffle”
“Trapped”
“Johnny 99”
“Last Man Standing”
“Backstreets”
“Because the Night”
“She’s the One”
“Wrecking Ball”
“The Rising”
“Badlands”

Band bow - the rest could be considered an encore, though they did not leave the stage.
“Thunder Road”
“Born to Run”
“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”
“Glory Days”
“Dancing in the Dark”
“Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”

Encore
“I’ll See You in My Dreams” (SOLO)

Alan Paul’s fourth book, Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s, will be published July 25, 2023, by St. Martin’s Press. His last two books – Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan and  One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band  – debuted in the New York Times Non-Fiction Hardcover Bestsellers List. His first book was Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues and Becoming a Star in Beijing, about his experiences raising a family in Beijing and touring China with a popular original blues band. It was optioned for a movie by Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Productions.  He is also a guitarist and singer who fronts two bands, Big in China and Friends of the Brothers, the premier celebration of the Allman Brothers Band.

THE WHOLE SHOW IS HERE