DVD Review: Bruce Springsteen - Bruce Springsteen and I

DVD Review: Bruce Springsteen - Bruce Springsteen and I

Eagle Entertainment

All Access Rating: B+

Bruce Springsteen - Bruce Springsteen and I 2013

The fans have spoken, or at least some of them have. In a documentary titled "Bruce Springsteen and I," now out on DVD, Blu-ray and digital formats after its theatrical release this summer, that explores the intense devotion of The Boss's fanatical following, people from all walks of life share unfiltered stories of life-changing encounters with the artist and attempt to put into words what his music has meant to them.

A charming, modest little film that's often funny, incredibly uplifting and sometimes a bit strange, "Bruce Springsteen and I" fails to shed new light on the man or his music. Then again, that doesn't seem to be what the moviemakers intended. Instead, it's a heartfelt, smartly articulated mash note to someone whose penetrating lyrics, affecting songcraft and ability to shape powerful stories has profoundly affected how his audience views themselves and those around them. 

So what if, when asked to paint a portrait of Springsteen in three words, an endless stream of respondents reply with the usual descriptors "passionate," "sincere," "honest"  and "one of us." They manage to sum up Springsteen's artistic vision pretty well. And they rightly tout the communal vibe of the Springsteen fan base as something unique, stemming from Springsteen's ability to connect deeply and spiritually with a fandom made up of just about every demographic under the sun. 

Interspersed with electrically charged unseen performance footage of a younger Bruce and band hitting all the right emotional notes in live versions of "Born in the USA," "Thunder Road," "Born to Run," "The River" and "I'm On Fire" and more rock 'n' roll evangelizing, these testimonials, some brief and some more detailed and eloquent, are patched together rather effectively in a sort of collection of video quotes that mostly praise not only his workingman's poetry, but also his humanity and generosity of spirit. 

But, it's not enough for them to just say it. It falls to the filmmakers to actually show it, and they do, capturing Springsteen's genuine warmth and willingness to leave the safety of the stage and meet fans on their level. There's a scene where a busker on a street corner unexpectedly gets his chance to play Springsteen classics with the man himself, as Springsteen jokes, while working out chords, that the street performer knows his songs better than he does. 

In another sequence, the man known as the "Philly Elvis," dressed up as The King in full rhinestone-studded regalia, talks of Springsteen inviting him onstage to sing "All Shook Up" and then forgetting the words. Without telling the rest of the band, he segued into "Blue Suede Shoes," and Springsteen's band doesn't skip a beat. As jovial as ever, Springsteen, laughing and smiling, exhorts the crowd to give it up for "the 'Philly Elvis,' everybody" after it's done.

Although his songs can bring a man in his car to tears and give a college-educated female truck driver a reason for doing her job day after day, some aren't so enamored. One man, the husband of a particularly fervent Springsteen lover, wishes he wouldn't play so long in concert and lists other complaints. He and his wife later come face to face with Springsteen in a collection of scenes showing Bruce visiting and laughing it up with some of the real stars of "Bruce Springsteen and I," the devotees who make their kids listen to Springsteen's lyrics or manage to dance onstage with Bruce like Courtney Cox did in the video for "Dancing in the Dark." 

Joyous, insightful and moving at times, this document of "Bruce Springsteen and I" comes with bonus material consisting of Springsteen's glorious 2012 Hyde Park performance, including "Because the Night," made famous by Patti Smith, and "Shackled & Drawn" and "We Are Alive." That's the one where he and Paul McCartney essentially told the authorities complaining about the noise to shove it and get in on the celebration, as they tear through Beatles' classics "Twist and Shout" and "I Saw Her Standing There" with unbridled enthusiasm.

If it wasn't for the odd, racy and somewhat disturbing slice of erotic fan fiction a very hot and bothered redhead reads in this piece, "Bruce Springsteen and I" would be an almost perfect tribute to The Boss. As it is, it will give you even more of a reason to love Bruce, forever a friend of the common man and an artist who understands the fans better than they understand themselves. http://www.eagle-rock.com/

- Peter Lindblad

Todd Rundgren's 'State' due out in April

Pop craftsman and producer extraordinaire plots U.S. tour

Todd Rundgren - State 2013

He’s a wizard. He’s a true star, and he’s hitting retirement age, but that doesn’t mean Todd Rundgren has tired of creating pop-rock magic. His new studio album, State, will hit the streets on April 9.

State is Rundgren’s 24^th solo album, and this danceable blend of rock, soul, R&B and electronica will be released on the Esoteric Antenna label via Cherry Red. In support of State, Rundgren, who celebrates his 65^th birthday in 2013, will embark on an 11-city U.S. tour in May.

In the late ‘60s, Rundgren fronted the psychedelic-pop outfit The Nazz, before leaving in 1969 to go solo and record his debut LP Runt. However, it was 1972’s Something/Anything? that established Rundgren as a sublime talent both as a songwriter and a studio artist, having played every instrument and singing every vocal part on the record, as well as serving as producer. He would go to make other landmark albums such as Todd, The Hermit of Mink Hollow and A Wizard A True Star.

Returning to the group format, Rundgren formed the progressive-rock visionaries Utopia in 1974, recording nine albums with the band. Expanding his horizons, Rundgren also made a name for himself as a producer, twiddling the knobs for classic records by the likes of Patti Smith, The New York Dolls, Cheap Trick, XTC, the Psychedelic Furs and Hall and Oates, although it was Meat Loaf’s mega-hit Bat Out of Hell that cemented his reputation as a studio wunderkind.

In addition, Rundgren composed all the music and lyrics for Joe Papp’s 1989 Off-Broadway production of Joe Orton’s “Up Against It” – the screenplay of which was commissioned by The Beatles for what was to be their third movie. He’s also scored such movies and TV shows as “Dumb and Dumber” and “Pee Wee’s Playhouse,” respectively.

It figures to be a busy year for Rundgren, who will hold his annual musical summer camp, known as Toddstock v6.5, June 17-22 near New Orleans.

Check out the track listing for State below:

1. Imagination

2. Serious

3. In My Mouth

4. Ping Me

5. Angry Bird

6. Smoke

7. Collide-A-Scope

8. Something From Nothing

9. Party Liquor

10. Sir Reality

In support of State, Rundgren’s U.S. tour will hit these hot spots:

May 5 – Woodstock, N.Y., Bearsville Theater

May 8 – Norfolk, Conn., Infinity Hall

May 10 – New York, N.Y., The Gramercy Theatre

May 11 – Philadelphia, Pa., Trocadero Theatre

May 12 – Huntington, N.Y., The Paramount

May 14 – Kent, Ohio, The Kent Stage

May 15 – Pittsburg, Pa., Rex Theater

May 16 – Columbus, Ohio, Lifestyle Communities Pavilion

May 18 – Cincinnati, Ohio, Bogart’s

May 19 – Chicago, Ill., Park West

May 20 – Minneapolis, Minn., Varsity Theater

DVD Review: Patti Smith – Live at Montreux 2005

DVD Review: Patti Smith – Live at Montreux 2005

Eagle Rock Entertainment

All Access Review: C+

Patti Smith - Live at Montreux 2005

Montreux, Switzerland is a long way away, both literally and figuratively, from CBGBs, circa 1975. The accommodations at the famed jazz festival hosted by this Swiss city couldn’t be better – a big, wide stage, space to fit a big crowd comfortably and muted, but colorful lighting. Presumably, even the bathrooms are nice, or at least the janitorial staff is likely to clean up any vomit in a timely manner – unlike the famed venues where punk came of age and its rats spat at anything resembling convention.

This is where Patti Smith found herself in 2005, fresh off having curated the Meltdown Festival in London and in a nostalgic mood, as she and her band acknowledged the passing of 30 years since the release of Horses, one of punk’s landmark records. And while we might long to see a younger, hungrier Smith in her more natural environment once again at dirty old, graffiti-splattered CBGBs, passionately expressing her haunting, disturbingly poetic visions of people caught in desperate, dangerous circumstances  and looking down the barrel of troubling existential crises as Lenny Kaye feeds her cleverly designed, well-manicured guitar shapes and frenzied, feedback-drenched squalls, those days are gone, never to be repeated. She’s moved on to bigger, if not always better, things, and CBGBs is now a clothing store.

It’s nice to see, however, that Smith, now well into her 60s and still wearing the familiar androgynous uniform of a white shirt and black tie, has retained some of the edginess and raw emotion that fueled her finest writings and most flammable performances, as evidenced by a sometimes mesmerizing and fiery performance captured in an all-too-brief concert film “Live at Montreux 2005.” With the exception of a rather tepid and paint-by-numbers reading of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” and a disjointed and sleepwalking journey through “Seven Ways of Going” punctuated by some truly pointless improvisations, Smith, Kaye, bassist/keyboardist Tony Shanahan, drummer Jay Dee Daugherty and guitarist Tom Verlaine – he of Television fame – are mostly sharp, nuanced and wonderfully intuitive in framing Smith’s arty imagery and stark sketches of street life. However, as respectful as they are of their surroundings,their performance seems somewhat bloodless.

Given a short and sweet treatment, “Because the Night” is, of course, supposed to be the driving, cathartic centerpiece of every Smith performance, although in some respects, it almost seems like Smith and company are eager to get it out of the way on this occasion. Less powerful than one would hope, “Because the Night” gives way to a more raucous, freewheeling version of “Not Fade Away/Momento Mori,” where the tension builds organically around the conversational and smartly constructed guitar interplay of Kaye and Verlaine and there’s some real muscle in Shanahan’s bass grooves.

The inspirational, jangly rock “People Have the Power” closes the show on a high note, as singer and band rediscover that precious, potent alchemy they lost somewhere midway through the set, but well before that, going all the way back to the show’s beginning, Smith and company had the audience in the palms of their hands. The sunny hooks and breezy swing of “Redondo Beach” – contrasting lyrics laced with tragedy – exuded warmth, while the bittersweet beauty of “Beneath the Southern Cross” seemed to leave everyone transfixed. “Free Money,” with its beguiling piano intro, had the same effect, before Smith and company shook them out of their stupor by racing to the song's affecting, frenzied conclusion, with a dancing Smith calling out, “Where are the dreamers?” over and over again in a state of wild abandonment. Noisier and more aggressive, “25^th Floor” might be even more chaotic and angry, and it joins “Free Money” as the explosive anthems that you wish were more prevalent in “Live at Montreux 2005." Still, there’s enough of Smith’s raw charisma and emotional intelligence here to overcome the occasional lulls. (www.eaglerockent.com)

-        –    Peter Lindblad

Punk Rock Revival at Backstage Auctions

Jaw dropping punk rarities hit the auction block.

1977 Punk girl Ebet Roberts -  CBGB's

With well over 100 Punk-Rock lots, Backstage Auctions is celebrating a ten-year spanning era of anti-establishment music (1975 - 1985) that ultimately evolved in a subculture of expressive youthful rebellion, a distinctive fashion and a variety of anti-authority ideologies.

The majority of the Punk collection comes from Europe, where it was part of a traveling exhibition for years. Aptly titled 'I Punk, You Punk, We Punk', the exhibition focused on the correlation between music, fashion, art and design, where musicians and fans were equally photogenic. "Absolutely stoked" as Backstage Auctions owner Jacques van Gool puts it, who lived in Europe through the birth of Punk and was fortunate to experience it firsthand.

1976 Ramones at CBGBs - Signed Photo

"Saving Punk mementos was the last thing on your mind in those days. It was all about the experience and we couldn't be bothered with preserving a shirt or a poster. Seeing this collection makes me realize how unique and historically significant those years were".




As can be expected, the Sex Pistols have their middle finger strongly wrapped around the punk torch with nearly 30 lots that include an impressive parade of concert and promotional posters, t-shirts, cards and, yes, the infamous 'God Save The Queen' flag (God Save The Queen - Sex Pistols).

Sex Pistols 1977 God Save The Queen Flag

The Clash 1970s fully signed photo

Also present are desirable collectibles by legendary artists and bands such as Blondie, Dead Boys, Ramones, Patti Smith, Buzzcocks, Iggy Pop and The Clash, many of whom have already been embraced by the Roll 'n Roll Hall of Fame.

Exceedingly rare Destroy shirt 

There are few genres where fashion makes an equally strong statement as the music itself and Punk arguably is at the forefront of it all. And within that, Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood created the epicenter of the 'classic' Punk look through stores such as 'Sex' and 'Seditionaries'. One of the most prolific images is that of Johnny Rotten wearing a 'Destroy' shirt, which also is in the auction.

Debbie Harry - Blondie 1970s
rare collection of photo negatives

With a broad assortment of autographed items, posters, shirts, records, pins & buttons, photos, slides and negatives, the auction has something for everyone. Or simply put - 'Let's All Punk!"






Backstage Auctions' - 2012 Rock 'n Pop Auction is open for bidding November 3 - 11th, but is available now for previewing the entire catalog. VIP All Access Registration is free and only takes a minute or two.

View Now: Punk Rock Memorabilia