I’m fairly sure, though, that you didn’t request the song because of its profound message. No, at the age of ‘not quite two,’ it was just a song you liked, and especially a song you liked to sing.
The first band were doing their first ever gig. But all three were very experienced musicians and two of them were people I had known for years.
Every summer he drove across the country in a clapped-out vehicle to see us kids, but he always went back. Back to where he had a stool at the bar and a nickname he loved: the Professor.
I was still home reading Nina Simone.
This is Dylan and Hank at their finest; Old Testament moral code made poetic by the phrase, stones in my mouth.
The sweaty band tear up the New Jersey night, Clarence in all white and a sleeveless vest. The song lights a fire within.
It was a bit of an eye and ear opener. Not that I haven’t heard some of those Springsteen songs before, but I wasn’t really listening at the time.
What the world needs now is more of this. More sultry men steaming up your computer screen as you scratch out a living in this Covid-19 world.
The Springsteen Collection features 10 Stereo Stories: takes on classics such The River, State Trooper, Growin’ Up, Racing In The Street, and Drive All Night and – to show that we’re up with Springsteen’s latest music – Hitch Hikin’.
We used to walk back to his house from South Yarra Station with our vinyl school bags slung over our shoulders. When we got to the top of the hill on the Domain Road corner, we’d turn onto Punt Road and head down towards the Yarra. But we never went all the way down to the river.