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Home , Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici, David Fricke, Garry Tallent, Jimmy Webb, Nils Lofgren

38 • , February 5, 2009 With his third great album this decade, tackles love, loyalty – and the ultimate deadline Bringing It All Back Home By David Fricke Photographs By Albert Watson

Rolling Stone, February 5, 2009 • 3 9 SPRINGSTEEN he sound is classic amateur ist. His first two albums, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Inno- 1966 – chaotic, jangling guitars, im- cent & the E Street Shuffle, were both re- leased in 1973. patient drumming and crude raging- “At that time, you signed old-fashioned hormone vocal harmonies – and Bruce contracts where you were supposed to make an album every six months,” Spring- Springsteen knows every note by heart. steen says. “But after that, I said, ‘Nah.’ Hypnotized by joy in front of a small ta- Without going into the whole story” – he grins – “obviously there was the perfec- bletop stereo cranked to top volume, he tionism, the self-consciousness and the pursuit of very specific ideas, while you’re dances on the balls of his feet, vigorously strums an imag- forming who you are, what you want to Tinary guitar with his right fist and howls along during the write about.” Drummer remembers chorus – “Baby I-I-I-I!” – in a deeper wild-bear version of Springsteen leading endless E Street re- his old plaintive teenage tenor. • Springsteen, 59, is happi- hearsals for 1978’s Darkness on of Town and the 1980 double album, The ly singing and playing air guitar with himself – to “Baby I,” River. “Then, generally, everything we re- hearsed would not get recorded – we would a single he made at 16, when he was a guitarist and sing- start rehearsing again in the studio,” Wein- in a garage band, the Castiles. • Earlier that berg recalls, relaxing on a floppy sofa in a small dressing room at his other job, the afternoon, Springsteen is sitting in the wood-paneled liv- Rockefeller Center studios of NBC’s Late ing room of Thrill Hill, a 19th-century farmhouse in cen- Night With Conan O’Brien, where he has been the show’s bandleader since 1993. tral New Jersey that he has converted into a studio. He talks “A lot of the tracks on those records were recorded rehearsals. ‘Streets of Fire’ [on about some of the Sixties echoes – including the Walker Darkness] – it wouldn’t even be legitimate Brothers, , on guably the best of the three in its classic- to call it a demo. None of us had any idea “Heroes and Villains” and ’ Fifth pop songwriting and intimate lyric force. where it was going.” Dimension – ringing throughout his new They made most of it on days off from their “It was not exciting – it was the opposite album with the , Working on 2007-08 shows – played of exciting,” guitarist says a Dream. That gets him reminiscing about keyboards on some tracks before his death of those sessions with a guttural chuckle. the Castiles, his first serious band. Sudden- at 58 last April 17th from melanoma – with One of Springsteen’s oldest friends (Wein- ly, Springsteen bolts upright in his chair. “I Springsteen and producer Brendan O’Brien berg calls him Springsteen’s “consigliere”), have to dig it out before you go,” he says ex- enriching the E Street Band’s natural stam- Van Zandt co-produced those two albums citedly. “I found the actual two-track tape pede in “My Lucky Day,” “What Love Can and 1984’s Born in the U.S.A. with Spring- of our record. I had it put on a CD. It’s back Do” and the opening eight-minute horse steen and the singer’s manager, Jon Lan- at the house. I’ll bring it over.” opera, “,” with an abundance dau. “I’m not that disciplined,” Van Zandt And he does, rushing home – Spring- of strings, guitars, choral vocals and sax- admits. “If it’s 10 percent less good if we steen, his wife and E Street singer Patti ophonist ’ leonine blow- did it in a day instead of a month, I’m cool Scialfa and their three teenage children live in an 18th-century house just down the road – and back. Springsteen doesn’t even bother taking off his bulky winter coat. He “I’ll put ‘the rising,’ strides into the glassed-in porch where he demos new songs and made his 2005 solo ‘Magic’ and the new album against album, Devils & Dust, hits “play” and flies back to May 18th, 1966, when the Castiles any other three records we’ve made, recorded “Baby I” and the flip side, “That’s What You Get,” at Mr. Music Inc., a studio in nearby Bricktown. in terms of depth and purpose.” “Well, what could have been a studio back then,” Springsteen cracks after he ing. The result is Springsteen’s most ornate with that. It’s still 110 percent better than plays both tracks. He and singer-guitar- album since 1975’s . what anybody else is doing. Bruce under- ist George Theiss wrote the songs, accord- He has already started the new year stood that. But he said, ‘We’re going for 100 ing to legend, while driving to the session. with a Golden Globe for his theme song percent all the time. We’re not compromis- cut them in an hour. “I talk to to The Wrestler and is assured an Acade- ing one iota.’ ” George once in a while,” Springsteen says. my Award nomination as well. After his “Yes, there was fear of failure,” Spring- “He got married very, very young. Had a January 18th performance in Washing- steen concedes, surrounded in the Thrill lovely family. Made music. I used to see ton, D.C., at “We Are One,” the free Barack Hill living room by vintage mounted pho- him at all the time. He had Obama inauguration concert, Springsteen tographs of what he calls “my saints,” in- a great voice.” will play a hotly anticipated halftime set cluding the elder , the young But the Castiles’ big moment passed that with the E Street Band at the and the folk-blues singers day in ’66 – their single was never released on February 1st – itself a kickoff for another Elizabeth Cotten and Mississippi John – while Springsteen, nearly 43 years later, E Street tour, in the spring in the U.S. and Hurt. “This is all repair work, in one way is at a new peak in his career. Working on a Europe. The last time Springsteen wrote, or another. The guys I was interested in – Dream is Springsteen’s third great album recorded and hit the road at this veloci- Dylan, Hank Williams, , Bob with the E Street Band in a decade and ar- ty was when he was a new Columbia art- Marley, John Lydon, Joe Strummer – all

40 • Rolling Stone, February 5, 2009 his hometown Springsteen in his backyard in Colts Neck, New Jersey 42 • Rolling Stone, February 5, 2009 Bruce’s Retreat  Springsteen’s “writing room” contains family photos, the desk on which he wrote many of his albums, gifts from fans, and a collection of hotel keys from tours. “My identity, what people are connecting with – those things are set pretty firmly,” says Springsteen. “At my age, those things aren’t supposed to inhibit you – they are supposed to free you.”

Rolling Stone, February 5, 2009 • 4 3 SPRINGSTEEN had something eating at them. Those are hen springsteen rogance that led to thousands of people the forces you’re playing with. And you’re was a young boy, his dying and the country having a complete in the studio trying to figure out, ‘How do mother, , sent financial nervous breakdown. If you do I live with myself?’ him off to sleep every not reckon with your own history, it eats “I’m not worried now about who I am,” night with a story – a you. And if you have that level of authority, he says. “My identity, what people are con- Wrhyme about the ranch hand Cowboy Bill. then it eats us.” necting with – those things are set pretty “She would say it to me before I went to Most of takes place firmly. I have an audience, of some kind. I bed,” Springsteen says. “It was like our far from newspaper headlines, in darkened also have a world of characters and ideas good night to each other.” He starts the bedrooms, under starlight. There is ecsta- I have addressed for a long time. By now, first verse from memory – “Of all the sy and pleading, promises made and bro- at my age, those things aren’t supposed hands on the Bar-H Ranch, the bravest ken, underneath the bright, clanging gui- to inhibit you. They are supposed to was brave Cowboy Bill” – but can’t re- tars and spiking harmonies in “This Life,” free you.” member the rest. “There were other good “Surprise, Surprise” and the erotic fantasy Springsteen goes quiet for a minute lines. I gotta find out what they are.” “Queen of the Supermarket.” A man and when asked if, even at 16, he had bigger Three weeks later, Springsteen sends a woman count their time together and dreams and a stronger will than the other them in a handwritten fax after his mom their time left in wrinkles and gray hairs guys in the Castiles. “We were kids, you recited them again to him over the phone: in “Kingdom of Days.” know,” he says. There is another pause. “He wore tight boots with heels so high, a Springsteen contends he is not the man, “A lot of it has to do with raw need, moti- 10-gallon hat that hid one eye and sheep- and that is not his marriage, in those songs vation. I was very isolated. That’s a com- skin chaps with flaps/He named his pony – not all the time: “Patti and I have been mon story with rock musicians. We all Golden Arrow, and every day with a clip together for 20 years. ‘Kingdom of Days’ feel like that. And it makes you mad.” He and a clop he rode into the highest moun- is something you write after having a long, smiles, then explodes with laughter. “I taintop.” Later in the tale, published in 1950 long life with somebody, where you see mean, really mad! But if you learn to orga- as “Brave Cowboy Bill” in a Little Golden how much you’ve built together. You also nize your desires and demands and shoot Book for children, the hero foils a gang of see its finiteness, the passing of the day’s them into something that is more than cattle thieves. “At some point, I told Patti light on your partner’s face.” The song “is about taking the fear and terror out of those things.” One line in there – “And I count my “the fire i feel in myself, blessings that you’re mine for always” – could also be interpreted as Springsteen’s it’s a very enjoyable thing. It carries thank-you to the E Street Band, one of rock’s greatest enduring road shows. It is an element of desperateness. It also a group that labored relentlessly for him in the Seventies and Eighties, then was forced to accept his decision in 1989 to be carries an element of thankfulness.” a full-time solo artist for the next decade. Clemons was in Japan, playing with Ringo just being about you, you start to commu- my mother would recite this stanza about Starr, when he got Springsteen’s call. “He nicate. I wanted to be a part of the world Cowboy Bill,” Springsteen says. “Patti said, says, ‘Big Man, it’s over,’ ” Clemons recalls. around me.” ‘Outlaw Pete – I think that’s Cowboy Bill.’ I “I thought he was talking about the Ringo Springsteen had a long-term advantage: thought, ‘Gee, maybe you’re right.’ ” tour, that I had to come back and go to the E Street Band, started in 1972, formal- The longest song Springsteen has re- work. He says, ‘No, no, it’s over. I’m gonna ly named in 1974, reunited in 1999 after a corded since “Drive All Night,” on The break the band up.’ 10-year split and now numbering eight, in- River, “Outlaw Pete” is the life story of a “Although I heard him say it, I knew it cluding bassist , an original bandit and killer written in campfire-bal- wouldn’t last,” Clemons swears. “Anything member with Clemons and Federici; pia- lad cadence and swamped in spaghetti- this great, that natural, cannot go away.” nist , who joined with Weinberg Western ambience – Springsteen’s return Springsteen acknowledges the Nineties in mid-’74; guitarist , first re- to the cinematic-parable scope of his mid- as “a period. I didn’t do a lot of work. cruited for the Born in the U.S.A. tour; and Seventies songs “” and “Inci- Some people would say I didn’t do my best violinist-singer , who first dent on 57th Street.” “Outlaw Pete” was work.” He split the E Street Band because played on The Rising. (Charlie Giordano also, at first, his deliberate turn away from “I lost sight. I didn’t know what to do next played keyboards after Federici’s illness the struggle through 9/11 grief on The Ris- with them.” But after the 1999-2000 re- forced him to leave the Magic tour in No- ing and his Bush-years outrage on Magic. union tour, he says, “the beautiful realiza- vember 2007.) “I thought, ‘I should write a little opera’ – tion was ‘This isn’t a phase. This is it.’ The “They are my greatest friendships, my something fantastic with a cartoon char- trick in keeping bands together,” he adds, deepest friendships – irreplaceable things,” acter, like ‘Rocky Raccoon,’ by the Beat- “is always the same: ‘Hey, asshole, the guy Springsteen says. “I’ll put The Rising, Magic les.” Springsteen cracks himself up quoting standing next to you is more important and the new one against any other three one of the opening lines: “At six months old, than you think he is.’ ” rec­ords we’ve made in a row, as far as sound, he’d done three months in jail.” But Springsteen cautions about read- depth and purpose, of what they’re saying The ending is not so cute. Pete tries to ing too much into his first-person voice in and conveying. It’s very satisfying to be able run from his crimes, vanishing into thin “Kingdom of Days” and other new songs: “I to do that at this point in the road.” air – maybe dead, maybe not. “I decided to will steal directly from life.” But that life is “It makes you proud to be his friend,” follow the character, see what happens to “things everyone goes through. I’m not in- Van Zandt declares with another rusty him,” Springsteen explains. What he found terested in the solipsistic approach to song- chuckle, “when so many others are, you was terribly familiar. “We all have to reck- writing. I don’t want to tell you all about know, cruisin’.” on with our own history, because history me. I want to tell you about you.” catches up with you. That’s what was not Weinberg got that lesson the day he audi- Senior writer David Fricke wrote the happening over the past eight years in the tioned for the E Street Band. His previous AC/DC cover story in RS 1065. United States – that not knowing, the ar- band had covered “4th of July, Asbury Park

44 • Rolling Stone, February 5, 2009 5 6

4 7

3 2 8 Working on a Dream  (1) Springsteen and Van Zandt in 1976. (2) With high school band 1 the Castiles (Springsteen is at bottom left) in 1965. (3) A 1973 E Street Band gig. (4) With late bandmate Federici, 2007. (5) With Scialfa, 1987. (6) The band played audience requests on the Magic tour. (7) In England, June 2008. (8) With the Obama family at a November campaign rally in Cleveland.

(Sandy),” from Springsteen’s second album. and worked in the civil rights era, and you his own bands. The organist did not play “I asked him, ‘Who’s Sandy?’ ” Weinberg completely understood – it’s real. It’s not on Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. but says. “I thought it was a letter. He said, ‘Who just something I dreamed up. It can exist. was back with Springsteen by late 1972, do you think it is?’ Ever since I got that an- “I don’t have any delusions about what- in the earliest, not-yet-named E Street swer, I never ask what the lyrics mean.” ever power rock musicians have – I tend to Band with Clemons and Tallent. “This record is a little different,” Spring- believe it’s relatively little,” Springsteen de- “Those were real frontier days, some of steen says of Working on a Dream. “Its text clares flatly. But, he quickly adds, “though the most reckless times,” Springsteen says is not on top, as in The Rising or Magic, it may be little, it is important in its partic- fondly. “And Danny was one of the most where you can immediately connect to the ularness. The first time I recognized the reckless members of the band. In lieu of events of the day.” In fact, Springsteen did country I lived in, the truest version I ever any other authority figure, I was trying to not appreciate the real politics in the new heard, was when I put on Bob Dylan’s High- manage everything.” Springsteen smiles. album’s title song until the night of Novem- way 61 Revisited. I went, ‘That’s it. That’s “Danny didn’t like to be managed. ber 4th as he watched the election cover- what it feels like.’ “All of those things become part of your age on television. He wrote “Working on “All you want,” he insists, “is for your relationship,” he continues. “Those are the a Dream” over the summer, a couple of voice to be part of the record, at a partic- people you make your miracle with. And the months after he publicly endorsed Barack ular time and place. You try to be on the love that comes out of it is greater than your Obama for the presidency, but the lyrics right side of history. And maybe some other animosities, greater than time. It’s strange, are strictly nonpartisan, like a Pete Seeger kid will hear that and go, ‘Oh, yeah, that the way the dead remain among us.” work song sweetened with the mid-Sixties sounds like the place I live.’ ” The E Street old-timers have plenty of . Federici stories, and they love telling them. “That was just the simple idea of effort anny federici first “He was one of the wildest individuals I – the ongoing daily effort to build some- played with Springsteen 40 ever met, a real crazy guy,” says Clemons, thing,” Springsteen explains, “and that you years ago. Actually, it was who roomed with Federici in the early days. can’t give up. I write my songs. I go around Federici – a classical-trained Clemons describes crashing one night with the world to sing ’em, about a particular accordionist from Fleming- Federici and Springsteen in an attic at the place that I have imagined, that I have Dton, New Jersey – who hired Springsteen Boston home of the mother of one of their hopes is real. I don’t see that often. A lot of when they initially worked together, in ex-managers. “Bruce and I were talking, on what I see is the opposite – less economic 1969 in the hippie- Child, later our beds. Suddenly, Danny sat up in his bed, justice, democracy eroded. renamed Steel Mill. “This skinny guy wide awake, said, ‘Semicomasomadoma,’ “Then, suddenly, election night,” he says with long hair and a ratty T-shirt was an and went back to sleep. Bruce and I looked with genuine wonder. “Suddenly the place incredible guitar player and singer,” Fed- at each other and went, ‘What the hell was you’ve been singing about all these years – erici once said, “so we asked him to join.” that?’ ” When Clemons visited Federici it shows its face. You looked in the crowds, Federici stayed with Springsteen after the shortly before his death, “I said, ‘Danny, tell

tom hill/wireimage, 1; courtesy of smith, billy 2; jeff albertson/corbis, 3; kevin mazur/wireimage,filmmagic, 6; harry 4; scott/redferns/retna, debra l. rothenberg/retna, amy 7; sancetta/ap 5; joey images, foley/ 8 you saw people crying, people who lived latter started running things and forming me, before you go, what was [Cont. on 78]

Rolling Stone, February 5, 2009 • 4 5 bruce springsteen its effects – on a good day, it’s a able to come out and see the E – we call ’em high-hat barks,” sweetener. It makes every el- Street Band.” Weinberg explains, “that psst, [Cont. from 45] that ‘Semico- ement of the day come to life “It’s a hell of a problem to psst sound. Bruce said, ‘I like masomadoma’ thing?’ ” Clem- a little more than it normal- have in this economy,” Wein- those.’ So I threw them in a lot.” ons laughs. “He didn’t tell me. ly would. Because you realize berg says cheerfully, then tells But there was no instruction It remains a mystery.” it’s finite – everything around a story that illustrates how well from Springsteen in the studio Federici was “like Dennis you, the band, the family. In his two bosses get along: About when Weinberg hit that titan- the Menace, a kid with no re- a not very long period of time, 10 years ago, a well-known ac- ic roll at the end of “Born in the spect for authority, going to someone else will be living in tress on an NBC sitcom (Wein- U.S.A.” “That was completely do what he wants, no matter this house, driving these roads. berg doesn’t reveal her name) visceral. That’s what I try to do what,” says Van Zandt, who Somebody may go, ‘Hey, Bruce requested a sabbatical from the – hook up with whatever Bruce played in Steel Mill. “Bruce Springsteen used to live there.’ series to make a movie. NBC is feeling and give him what he came out of his hotel room And in a little bit longer than said no. Her agent pointed out wants, the way I do it.” once, and Danny was there, that, they ain’t gonna be say- that Weinberg was allowed As a band boss, Springsteen dismantling the elevator lights ing that anymore. They’re just to go off for six months at a is a lot like , accord- to stick on his organ. Anoth- going to be driving by. time to play with Springsteen. ing to Lofgren, who has per- er time, in a bar, we saw him “That’s the way the cards “The NBC lawyer thought for formed and recorded with dismantle the speakers in a is played. But in the meanwhile a second, then said, ‘The next Young periodically since the jukebox – he was stealing them . . .” Springsteen raises his voice time Bruce Springsteen asks early Seventies. “They are very for his organ.” But Van Zandt to the preacher-fever pitch with your client to play drums with hands-off in terms of what you says Federici was “an extraor- which he promises rock & roll him, she can do that.’ ” Wein- do, as long as it feels right,” dinarily instinctive musician. salvation each night onstage. berg grins, noting that in the Lofgren says. “Neil likes to get He couldn’t have told you the “Oh, there is fun to be had and NBC legal department, “it loose, more reckless. But in chords in ‘Born to Run.’ And work to do. The band, in truth, is known as the Weinberg- general, the theme is, get lost he never hit the wrong note. is at its very best. I don’t believe Springsteen Rule.” in the music. Stay lost in it until Always did the job.” Van Zandt there has been any other time in you come up for air at the end of laughs. “He got into trouble on our career when we have played an zandt takes the show. But prepare enough his own time.” better than we did on the sec- credit for coining so your instincts are true to the “Danny was a very curious ond half of that last tour. If you V Springsteen’s famous bandleader’s vision.” guy – incredibly scientific, ex- came to see us with your sign nickname. “In our neighbor- For Springsteen, that now tremely clued into technolo- with your favorite song on it, hood, I was the Boss,” says includes an urgency – do more gy and astronomy,” Weinberg something we hadn’t played in Van Zandt, who played with faster – which, he admits, is says. He too laughs, noting that 30 years, that night we might Springsteen in many pre-E very different from the te- Federici was also “very hon- play it. The band was on fire. Street bands and nacious perfectionism of his est. Danny didn’t want me to Just the acknowledgment shared an apartment with him youth: “Patti said it – ‘You are join the band. He told me years of that finiteness made every- for a time. “But when I started in a manic state, running like later, ‘I voted against you.’ ” body double down on their calling him the Boss, people crazy from, let me think, death Weakened by his illness and commitment.” paid attention.” From the start, itself?’ ” Springsteen howls with treatments, Federici made The physical cost of three- Van Zandt says, Springsteen glee. “It’s a funny thing to say. his final appearance with the hour shows and year-long tours “had his eye on history. He was But I’ve got a deadline! And E Street Band last year, on over four decades is high. “We like, ‘This ship is sailing. Are that fire I feel in myself and March 20th in , were a MASH unit, with heat- you on board or not?’ ” the band – it’s a very enjoyable playing five songs, including ing pads, ice packs, exercise Springsteen is not the same thing. It carries an element of his signature organ feature, equipment and masseuses – bandleader he was in clubs like desperateness. It also carries an “Kitty’s Back.” On April 22nd, all we needed to physically do the Student Prince in Asbury element of thankfulness. five nights after Federici died, it,” Lofgren says of the 2008 Park or even after he graduated “We are perched at a place Springsteen opened his show shows, only part-kidding. The to stadiums in the mid-Eighties. where we want to continue on in Tampa, Florida, with a film guitarist, 57, recently had both “He’s become more masterful, if – with excellence,” Springsteen tribute to his old friend and a of his hips replaced. Clemons, anything,” Bittan claims. “Let’s says proudly. “That’s our goal. version of “” with- at 67 the oldest E Street mem- not forget he is singing, playing All the rest of the stuff – we’re out organ – and a spotlight ber, has had three hip replace- guitar, jumping around, work- gonna figure it out.” shining where Federici should ments (one hip was done twice) ing the audience, playing to the A few minutes later, he gets have been. “That was Bruce’s and underwent knee-replace- video cameras, conducting the up and races home to get that way of saying, ‘OK, everyone is ment surgery on both legs band. That is a lot of balls in the Castiles tape. wondering about our loss,’ ” says last year. air at one time – and to look nat-

Lofgren. “ ‘Well, let me show Another complication comes ural doing it.” Rolling Stone (ISSN 0035-791x) is published biweekly except for the first issue in July and at you how bad it is.’ ” on June 1st, when Conan Based on the way E Street year’s end, when two issues are combined and In the living room at Thrill O’Brien and the Max Weinberg members describe his method published as double issues, by Wenner Media LLC, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, Hill, as the late-afternoon win- 7 take over The Tonight Show, of command, Springsteen is the NY 10104-0298. The entire contents of Roll- ing Stone are copyright © 2009 by Rolling ter sunlight fades outside the which is produced in Los An- least verbal no-nonsense band- Stone LLC, and may not be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without windows, Springsteen quotes geles. Springsteen shrugs when leader in rock. “He doesn’t sit written permission. All rights are reserved. Canadian Goods and Service Tax Registration from the last verse of “The Last asked if he is worried about down and say what he expects,” No. R125041855. International Publications Carnival,” his tribute to Fed- booking E Street gigs around Clemons says. “He knows, as a Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 450553. The subscription price is $25.94 for one year. erici at the end of Working on Weinberg’s new cross-country musician, what he’s gonna get The Canadian subscription price is $38.00 for one year, including GST, payable in advance. a Dream: “We’ll be riding the commute and shooting sched- from everybody. Then we live Canadian Postmaster: Send address changes and returns to P.O. Box 63, Malton CFC, Mis- train without you tonight/The ule. “ is this – it’s all up to his expectations.” sissauga, Ontario L4T 3B5. The foreign sub- scription price is $65.00 for one year, payable train that keeps on movin’.” gonna work out, one way or an- The most explicit direction in advance. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Can- “That’s just life, and it all other,” Springsteen says. “If Weinberg ever got was right ada Poste publication agreement #40683192. goes on without you,” he says. people wanna come out and when he joined the E Street Postmaster: Send address changes to Rolling Stone Customer Service, P.O. Box 8243, Red “The acknowledgment of time, see the E Street Band, they’ll be Band. “Drummers have a thing Oak, IA 51591-1243.

78 • Rolling Stone, February 5, 2009