Tag: Eddie Vedder

Springsteen and Vedder Sing “Bobby Jean”

Vedder Springsteen
Smile Stevie!

Recently, while playing in Seattle’s Key Arena on The River Tour, Bruce Springsteen brought Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder onstage. Backed by the E Street Band, Springsteen and Vedder let loose on “Bobby Jean” from Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. (1984) album.

There are few songs that sound as joyous as “Bobby Jean,” as the singer recounts a long-lost love and the peace he has found with the separation. Vedder seems to be having a blast too as he dances around the stage. Check out the March 24, 2016 performance.

One person who does not look happy onstage is Steven Van Zandt. Look at his face. Is he jealous that someone else is taking his place on the song that Springsteen supposedly wrote for him when he left the band for a period in the 1980s? I suspect he is just concentrating on the music or thinking about his recent appearance on American Idol as a mentor and wondering how Jennifer Lopez could forget his name. Or maybe he is just taking an emotional break while Springsteen, Vedder, and saxophonist Jake Clemons bring the joy on this song.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Springsteen and Hansard “Drive All Night”

    Hansard Springsteen

    In the various E Street Band live versions of Bruce Springsteen singing “Drive All Night,” I have always felt that Springsteen cannot capture the loneliness and angst of the original recording on The River (1980). As the next-to-last song on side four of the two-album set, “Drive All Night” brings together all of the sadness of the album, reminding the listener (along with the underrated final song “Wreck on the Highway“) that the only hope of surviving the despair is with love, even if there is no guarantee that it will do anything more than make a moment better.

    The best place to listen to “Drive All Night” is to put the song on the stereo in a dark room while you think about everything you have ever lost. By contrast, a live full-band version cannot capture that feeling because a Springsteen concert is a celebration of community with a large crowd and the E Street Band backing up the singer. But when Glen Hansard sings his version of “Drive All Night” live, he comes close to the feeling of the original recording.

    Singer-songwriter (and sometimes movie actor) Glen Hansard has a voice made for evoking sadness and pain. There are great versions of Hansard covering “Drive All Night” by himself. As the title track for a 2013 EP, Hansard recorded his own version of “Drive All Night” with Eddie Vedder helping on vocals and E Street Band member Jake Clemons playing saxophone. Check it out.

    Springsteen must have recognized Hansard’s skill with the song, as he invited him to sing the song with him in July 2013 when Springsteen played in Kilkenny, Ireland. When Hansard begins singing, Springsteen has a look on his face like, “This guy gets this song.” Check it out.

    But my favorite Hansard version is where he sings alone with a guitar with a little help from Once co-star and former Swell Season bandmate, Marketa Irglova. The two have voices that blend perfectly, and the fact that the two are former lovers adds another layer of poignency to the performance. Check it out.

    What is your favorite version of “Drive All Night”? Leave your two cents in the comments.


  • Springsteen and Vedder Sing “Bobby Jean”
  • Bruce Springsteen: Always Roaming With a Hungry Heart
  • Glen Hansard the Busker
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    Eddie Vedder Joins Tom Petty for “The Waiting”

    eddie vedder and tom petty
    We looked back at another Tom Petty song recently, so let us revisit another old Petty classic with a new lead singer. In Amsterdam recently, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder joined Petty and the Heartbreakers on stage to sing “The Waiting.” Petty focuses on his guitar playing to let Vedder sing the 1981 song. Check it out.

    The performance is from 24 June 2012 at Music Hall.

    Who would you like to hear sing with Tom Petty? Leave your two cents in the comments.


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  • Springsteen and Hansard “Drive All Night”

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    Super Bowl Songs: I Am a Patriot

    It is time once again for Chimesfreedom to take a look at songs related to each Super Bowl team. With this year’s battle between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, we first consider the Patriots, using a song incorporating the New England mascot instead of going with Barry Manilow’s “Weekend in New England.”

    Back in the 1980s before there was the Internet where you can find a large amount of music and concert footage of your favorite artist, I was desperate for anything related to Bruce Springsteen for the long years between albums. In one of those periods, I discovered the music of Little Steven and “I Am a Patriot.”

    Little Steven, of course, is “Miami Steve” and Silvio Dante and Steven Van Zandt, a guitarist and singer in Springsteen’s E Street Band. While Springsteen’s songs gradually included more political allusions, Little Steven wore his social issues on his sleeve. “I Am a Patriot,” though, he reclaims the word “patriot” from the politicians and asserts its meaning as an advocate for freedom.

    And I ain’t no communist, and I ain’t no capitalist;
    And I ain’t no socialist;
    and I sure ain’t no imperialist;
    And I ain’t no Democrat;
    And I ain’t no Republican either;
    And I only know one party,
    And its name is freedom;
    I am a patriot.

    Little Steven recorded several very good albums on his own during the 1980s, including Men Without Women (1982), Voice of America (1984), Freedom No Compromise (1987) and Revolution (1989). He added one last album in the 1990s with Born Again Savage (1999), which was not as successful as his previous albums. “I Am a Patriot” is off of Voice of America, and the song has been covered by Jackson Browne and Eddie Vedder, among others. Browne also has performed the song with Little Steven.

    As for this weekend, at the end of the day on Sunday, New Englanders are hoping they can proudly assert the refrain of the song. Meanwhile, check out the Super Bowl song for the New York Giants.

    Are you a fan of Little Steven? What other songs are appropriate for the New England Patriots? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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  • Little Steven is Releasing “Soulfire”
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  • Springsteen and Vedder Sing “Bobby Jean”

    • Paradise Lost: West Memphis 3 Released

    Paradise Lost On Chimesfreedom, we have often noted the power of movies, and one example of that occurred today when Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley walked out of an Arkansas court today as free men. Known as “the West Memphis 3,” the three were convicted in 1994 of killing three young boys. One of the three victims was mutilated, making some suspect a Satanic ritual killing, which cast suspicion on Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley, partly because Echols practiced Wicca. When they were convicted in 1993, Echols was eighteen and the other two were under eighteen. The conviction was based in large part on an inconsistent confession that police obtained from the borderline mentally retarded Misskelley after twelve hours of interrogation.

    In 1996, directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky released the award-winning documentary Paradise Lost – The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills about the case. I remember seeing the film years ago and being intrigued by the disturbing case. The documentary raised serious questions about the guilt of the three youths convicted of the crime.

    In 2000, a sequel Paradise Lost 2: Revelations raised further questions about the evidence and focused on continuing efforts to prove Echols and the other two were innocent. Watching the movies, one begins to suspect another person featured in the films may have been involved in the murders. The movies helped gain support for the West Memphis 3 from a number of celebrities, including Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines (Dixie Chicks), who were at the court hearing in Arkansas this morning. A third movie on the case is scheduled for a January release.

    Today, following the discovery that DNA evidence did not connect the three to the crime, prosecutors allowed the three to plead guilty and maintain their innocence. Through the plea deal, the three were released for their time already served in prison.

    Are they innocent? It is difficult to tell with a plea deal like this, and there is some evidence against them while there are also serious questions about much of the evidence. Either way, though, they have each spent seventeen years in prison, with Echols having spent part of that time on death row when he initially was sentenced to death. In light of today’s news, it is quite fortunate that he was not executed. Hopefully, some justice was done in the case. But paradise cannot be regained, as their time in prison cannot be returned, and the lives of the murdered boys cannot be brought back.

    The release of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley is due largely to the work of their attorneys and supporters, but it is fair to wonder whether or not they would have gained this attention and received the quality of legal representation they did without the notoriety that came from the films. Movies can make us happy, they can make us cry, they can comfort us, they can make us angry, they can inform us, and maybe they can correct injustices.

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