rock music – Bullz-Eye Blog

Friday Video: ‘Incident of 57th Street’ live by Bruce Springsteen

Bullz-Eye Staff — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 12:30:21 +0000

If you talk to die-hard Bruce Springsteen fans, many of them will list “Incident on 57th Street” as one of their favorite Springsteen songs. The song leads off the second side of Bruce’s second album, “The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle” released in 1973, with “Rosalita” and “New York City Serenade.” The jazzy sound of these songs was dominated by the incredible piano playing of David Sancious who preceded Roy Bittan in the E Street Band.

The live version in the video above was released as a B-side in the mid-Eighties when Springsteen released his first live album, but I can’t find it anywhere on iTunes or in a legal digital format. It’s by far the best live version I’ve heard of this song and it features an excellent and mellow guitar solo by Bruce at the end that’s much better than the solo on the original recording.

This fan video was created by a Springsteen fan on YouTube who has posted a number of excellent Springsteen videos. He mashes up concert footage and other Springsteen footage to create visually interesting interpretations of the songs, and he translates the lyrics into Spanish subtitles.

Friday Video: Something by The Beatles

Bullz-Eye Staff — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:05:21 +0000

Long before the video revolution, The Beatles put out promotional videos and obviously made movies, so we have a ton of great footage of the band. Here’s the promo video for “Something” written by George Harrison featuring the band and all their gal pals. With the London Olympics starting today we had to give you something from an English band – right?

For more Beatles stuff from Bullz-Eye, check out The Beatles: Rock Band review, our discussions about The Beatles Reissues, and our Beatles Deep Cuts.

Happy Hour – Born to Run

Bullz-Eye Staff — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:00:18 +0000

Back in the 1970’s when AOR radio ruled the world of rock music, WMMS in Cleveland was one of the biggest and most influential radio stations in the country, led by DJ and program director Kid Leo. Every Friday afternoon at 5:00, the station kicked off the weekend by playing Bruce Springsteen‘s “Born to Run,” a tradition started by Kid Leo. Outside of New Jersey, Cleveland was a second home for The Boss and Kid Leo was his biggest fan. I remember discovering Springsteen’s music several days before The River hit the stores. Kid Leo got his hands on a copy and played the entire double album front-to-back five times throughout the day! I caught it in the afternoon, and then made sure to come back and listen after dinner for two more sessions. I was hooked.

As we thought about our new Happy Hour feature for Friday afternoons, adding a great song in the form of an embedded music video to the drink recipes, beer and cigar reviews and other Happy Hour features seemed like an obvious idea, and kicking it off with “Born to Run” with Bruce Springsteen made perfect sense.

So, enjoy the video, which was released back in 1985 to promote Springsteen’s live album. Bruce looks younger and Clarence looks like a character from one of those bad 80’s movies starring Andrew McCarthy. It’s probably the best live version of “Born to Run” I’ve heard, and the video (particularly the second half) captures the energy and fun of a typical Springsteen concert.