Rolling Stone - September
25, 1975 A Rock Star Is
Born
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Bottom
Line
DAVE MARSHNot since Elton
John's initial Troubadour appearances has
an artist leapt so visibly and rapidly from cult
fanaticism to mass
acceptance as at Bruce Springsteen's ten Bottom Line
shows.
Hundreds of fans lined the Village streets outside the
450-seat
club each night, hoping for a shot at 50 standing-room
seats.
It was a time to hail from New Jersey with pride.
Springsteen is everything that has been claimed for him -- a magical guitarist, singer, writer, rock & roll rejuvenator -- but the E Street Band has nearly been lost in the shuffle. Which is ridiculous because this group may very well be the great American rock & roll band.Like Springsteen, the E Street Band could cite a plethora of influences: Spector, Orbison, the Who, Van Morrisson, Dylan and the Hawks, Booker T. & the M.G.s, any number of more obscure R&B and Sixties rock acts. The interpreted material describes the scope: "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," "Out of Limits," "When You Walk in the Room," the Crystals' "Then He Kissed Me." "Kitty's Back" is the best blues-based instrumental since the Butterfield Blues Band of East-West days.
The songs invariably build from a whisper to a scream, not only because Springsteen's composing focuses so often on dynamics, but also vocally and emotionally. When Springsteen slips into one of his sly tales of life in the Jersey bar bands all of them matured in, drummer Mighty Max Weinberg and bassist Garry Tallent key their comping to his every expression and gesture; it sounds natural but it's about as spontaneous as Pearl Harbor. Saxman Clarence Clemons and guitarist Miami Steve Van Zandt are perfect foils for these stories, the ominous cool of Clemons playing off the strange, hipster frenzy of Van Zandt while Springsteen races back and forth like an unleashed puppy. They look tough and live up to their looks.
The recent addition of Miami Steve is the difference. Previously, when Springsteen had dropped his guitar to simply sing, the band was left with its focus on the keyboards. No great help since pianist Roy Bittan is inclined to overembellish everything and organist Danny Federici is too reticent to lead. Van Zandt plays perfect Steve Cropper soul licks and great rock leads; his slide playing on "The E Street Shuffle" had changed that song from an ordinary soul number to the focus of the show.
None of this is to obscure Springsteen's importance. Like only the greatest rock singers and writers and musicians, he has created a world of his own. Like Dylan and the Who's Peter Townshend, he has a galaxy of fully formed characters to work with. But while he is comparable to all of the greats, that may only be because he is the living culmination of twenty years of rock & roll tradition. His show is thematically organized but it's hard to pin down the theme: "American Quadrophenia," perhaps. But Springsteen doesn't write rock opera; he lives it. And, as all those teenage tramps in skin-tight pants out there know, it's the only way to live.
