We Need a Rock and Soul Revue

The week between Christmas and New Year's, Swedish TV broadcast the R&R Hall of Fame Concert from Madison Square Garden.

The bad news was it took until the end of the year to see it. The good news was that I did see it, blissfully without commercial interruption. It's a nice little perk that the dirty socialist taxes pay for over here. Yes, Martha, there is a tax on your TV set. However, we're not paying $100 a month for cable, so it's really just semantics, isn't it?

Anyway, back to the show. I came upon the telecast a bit late, and missed everything prior to Bono introducing Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith doing "Because the Night."

But the segment that brought the smile to my face was the E-Street Band segment. As has been the case for nearly three decades, no one closes a Springsteen show, and the HOF show was no different.

Watching Springsteen lead the E-Street Band while introducing such soul shouters like Sam Moore, Darlene Love, Creedence legend, John Fogerty, and then the meeting across the river with Long Island's Billy Joel, it seemed so natural for him. The core of the band has cut its professional teeth doing covers of R&B and Rock songs up and down the Jersey Shore, and for the 15 or 20 minutes of their segment, they turned The Garden into a beach dive where the band's main purpose is keeping the house dancing to keep the drinks flowing.

Watching Steve Van Zandt handle another Steve's rifts behind Sam Moore's songs showed that, back in the day, wanting to be the Beatles might have got the groove started. However, knowing Booker T & The MG's paid the bills.

Springsteen is on hiatus after nearly a two year long tour. The E-Street Band is at it's zenith as a band, and this writer is convinced that they can handle any music idiom that guitars, keyboards and drums can be utilized.

In the past, Springsteen has left the group and gone to try other sounds, most recently his Americana jaunt with the Sessions Band. I have always hoped that Bruce would re-visit his British Blues era, but the HOF show has changed my mind.

With the band he has, along with his fame and charisma, he should now revive a live musical experience that had reached it's peak in the early 60's but has only popped its head up a few times in the last generation. I think that Springsteen is the only performer that could attract the talent to make it work.

Bruce Springsteen should go out on the road with the "The Bruce Springsteen Rock and Soul Revue featuring the E-Street Band."

Tighter and more structured than the Rolling Thunder Revue, not as tight as the James Brown Show (which is not possible, anyway), this show would be augmented by a revolving cast of performers as it barnstormed across the land. Think about it. Every major city in the US has a line up of legendary musicians and artists. I don't have to list the possibilities that cities like New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia or New Orleans could generate. Just stop and think of any possible line up, if you could keep it to one. They could play for a week at a time, instead of one off shows. All being backed up by the E-Street Band in skinny ties, white shirts and luminescent shark skin suits. It would be historic. It would be educational. It would boost careers and cement legends. Above all, it would be a hoot.

It is now time for the "The Bruce Springsteen Rock and Soul Revue featuring the E-Street Band."