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Bruce Springsteen’s Super Bowl halftime show last night went a bit over its 12-minute limit, but I doubt few people minded as the band blasted through “10th Avenue Freeze-Out,” “Born To Run,” “Working On A Dream” (with choir accompaniment!) and “Glory Days.” Plus there was the amazing moment where the Boss took a knees-first slide across the stage and into the camera, giving people all over America highly defined acquaintanceship with his denim-clad crotch. (No word of some outraged non-Boss fan calling the FCC to complain about this bit of vaudeville yet, but give it time.) Clip after the jump.
Just in case these get deleted, too, here is a YouTube query string that will help you out.
A few other thoughts:
1) The banter between Bruce and Steve Van Zandt at the end made me want to hear the Boss’ superlative version of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town.”
2) If the Cardinals had held on, I bet you at least 15 enterprising copyeditors would have used a “Born To Run” allusion in their headlines about Larry Fitzgerald; instead, we got this.
3) The Internet is very curious about Bruce Springsteen’s age. He’s 59! Also, it’s the E Street Band, not the East Street Band, unless you’re talking about the wind section of another elementary school in my hometown for whatever reason.
4) Some old crank out there is probably going to complain about the crotch shot, right? Even though so many of the ads were much, much more offensive.
Bruce Springsteen – superbowl [Dailymotion]
As someone who has never seen Springsteen play live, does he normally have guys dressed in referee costumes come on stage?
@Audif Jackson Winters III: he didn’t when i saw him, but that could have been because it was at nassau coliseum in the islanders’ offseason and refs don’t want to go there unless they have to.
I’m thinking more people will be writing letters about his lean-back-and-hold-the-mic-stand-against-his-crotch move at the beginning of the set.
“I doubt few people minded”
Here’s one of them:
[new.music.yahoo.com]
I hate to be a Bruce classicist (and for Chrissake, “Glory Days” is now nearly a quarter-century old), but: I thought the first half of the set was better and tighter than the second. The band just sounded more together, and Bruce was a little more “on.”
Maybe the crotch slide jarred something loose…
My friend called “Born to Run” headlines for the James Harrison INT return at the end of the first half, but then the second half had to be all exciting.
The crotch collision was an accident so I can’t imagine the Guardians of the Children screaming for a FCC fine. Plus, male artists tend to get a free pass when it comes to suggestive acts (i.e. Prince’s demon cock guitar solo at the Super Bowl).
Conan’s drummer must be pretty good to get to play with Springsteen.
@Chris Molanphy:
“Working On A Dream” definitely does not have its road legs yet. (That said, I was actually digging the addition of the choir, especially as an alternative to the whistling from the album.)
I *know* it’s horribly overplayed, but I still have a soft spot for messy, silly “Glory Days”. It’s not a Great Work Of Art, but it’s a damn fine pop song.
Tremendously obvious point: “Tenth Avenue Freezeout” and “Born To Run” back to back, with a horn section=pure distilled win.
I’m truly amazed that they played four songs in the time allotted, even with some verse-trimming!
@Cam/ron:
Uh, I don’t know that Prince got a free pass, really:
[poplicks.com]
Hopefully people will realize that an accidental crotch slide isn’t exactly a come-on, but I’m not overly optimistic.
@Audif Jackson Winters III: That, like the banter about “Boss Time,” was staged specifically for this event, but it’s along the lines of some things he does on a regular basis. There’s a good post in defense of the “hokey” stuff here.
I don’t like Bruce or football or even life on earth very much, but did you see that thing Bruce Springsteen did with swinging his whole telecaster around and around? How in hell did he do that? He must have greased his strap and his shirt and practiced for hours, wearing a special helmet. That was insane. Not exactly good, but impressive in a crazy way.
Credit The Boss for finding a way to strike a balance between the safe/bland shows of late and the MTV Superbowl era. Bruce teabagging the camera made my 4 friends and I do a double take and say something on the lines of, “Did Bruce just…? Was that…? Badass.”
@Cam/ron: and Petty’s “penetrating” guitar.
@ragandboneshop: That’s been a pretty stock trick for guitarists at least back to the 60’s. You can find video of Hendrix doing it, and every single hotshot hair-metal guitarist of the 80’s did it about 15 times per video.
I tried it a few times when I was a teenager (also in the 80’s). It’s not hard to do, but it takes a lot of practice to not hurt yourself in the process.
@revmatty: Ah, thanks. I guess I’ve now outed myself as not very hair-metal-or-Hendrix savvy.
I can do this trick, though, where I go to take a drink of my coffee and my bass slips out of its strap and hits the floor, making a terrible noise. I do this surprisingly often.
@tigerpop: Well, I was sort of joking about the bit with the ref (I knew it was Super Bowl specific), but I honestly didn’t know that skits were a normal part of a Springsteen show. Just don’t tell me he stoops to prop comedy!
It bugs me that Max Weinberg can’t play the extremely badass drum fill in the middle of “Born To Run”. It’s one of my favorite drum fills of all time, and while he’s a great drummer, he has never done it in any of the performances of that song I’ve seen.
I got the reference to the old post-superbowl Disney commercials from the late 80’s, unlike some people.
[www.nytimes.com]
@BreakfastBourbon: Turns out Disney’s been doing the commercials pretty much every year, except 2005.
[en.wikipedia.org]
Makes the NYT mistake even worse.
Gotta hand it to Little Steven for establishing the bandanna look early to avoid those questions as you get older, unlike Brett Michaels, etc.
@Audif Jackson Winters III: Yeah, there’s a bit with a watermelon during “The River” that gets ‘em rolling in the aisles.
Once again I gotta ask. 5 guitar players? Really? I wonder if they were all plugged in. I wonder what the Boss would sound fronting a 5 piece. Probably awesome.
@Audif Jackson Winters III: I’m pretty sure Little Steven counts as a prop.