We reported on Bruce Springsteen’s “huge surprise” for supporters this year as soon as the new year arrived. It’s all coming together now.
The Boss revealed his Renegades: Born In The USA podcast with Barack Obama months ago, and now a book based on those chats is out. Springsteen appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night to discuss and perform a song. They discussed the book as well as Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s impending concert film/album, The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts. Jackson Browne, Chaka Khan, Tom Petty, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, and others performed at the 1979 No Nukes benefit performance, which also featured Jackson Browne, Chaka Khan, Tom Petty, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, and others. The E Street Band performed two 90-minute shows, one on Springsteen’s 30th birthday and the other at Madison Square Garden, and footage from both is included in the film.
On the Colbert show, a clip from the film’s encore performance was shown, in which the gregarious Springsteen plays with the audience, who are begging for another song. “I’m not going to be able to keep going like this. I am thirty years old! My heart is beginning to fail me!” He laughed before telling them, “I don’t want you to beg,” and then beckoning them to do just that, before launching into the encore with “A Quarter To Three.“
But Colbert was engaged in more than just talking. After they finished speaking, Springsteen proceeded to the stage alone to perform an emotional rendition of his 1980 song “The River,” which was, well, breath-taking. “It’s a song I wrote when I was that young man,” says the singer. Weeks or months before that show,” he told Colbert. “It’s really the beginning of certain kind of my narrative writing ,which led to a record I wrote called Nebraska, another record I wrote called Ghost of Tom Joad and Devils & Dust.”
