Celebrate Springsteen's Spectrum run with some Bruce facts

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Celebrate Springsteen's Spectrum run with some Bruce facts

POSTED: Wednesday, October 14, 2009, 3:17 PM

Filed Under: Music Show

Bruce Springsteen began his final run at the Spectrum stage last night, opening with "Seaside Bar Song," a 1973 rarity. Watch the vid from YouTube user nolanrose1 below (it's really shaky but the audio is good, so just pump up the volume and listen to the tune):

To commemorate Bruce's B-Day back in September, excellent time wasting blog Mental Floss wrote out an extensive list of 60 Springsteen factoids. My Springsteen crew and I read these aloud to each other while we tailgated at one of the Giants Stadium shows. So in honor of Bruce's Spectrum stand (including one tonight, and ones next Monday and Tuesday), here are the Philly related facts from their massively good list (be sure to #15, too, it's a doozy):

19. When Bruce tells us that 'they blew up the Chicken Man in Philly last night' in 'Atlantic City,' he's referring to Phil Testa, the underboss of the Philadelphia crime family under Angelo Bruno. Bruno was killed in 1980, and Testa, who got his nickname from his involvement in a poultry business, succeeded him as don of the family. His nine-month reign ended when conspirators in the family placed a nail bomb under his porch and detonated it when he walked out the front door.

24. In May 1977, Bruce and Steve Van Zandt went to an Elvis Presley concert in Philadelphia. A few days later Bruce wrote 'Fire,' and allegedly sent a demo of the song to Presley that summer, hoping he might cover it. Whether the tape got sent or not, Presley died that August and Bruce wound up giving 'Fire' to Robert Gordon. Gordon's version of the song was covered by the The Pointer Sisters who made it a hit in 1979.

25. The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia, where Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack and Frederick Douglass' diaries have been preserved, recently prepared some Springsteen-abilia'including dozens of notebooks containing everything from lyrics to tour information and a to-do list that lists 'extra garage door openers''for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum exhibit 'From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen.' Best item: an orange composition book with lines on the cover for the owner to fill in a name, address, and subject. The spaces read: 'Bossinheimer Jones / Cool Street / Your Mama.'

They also give big ups to the XPN's Springsteen tribute that we told you about way back when (And hey! at the bottom of the special thanks! Is that PW's/Bruce superfan Erica Palan? Hey, Erica!).

SPOILER ALERT: Check back later today when our new issue goes live for a review of Clarence Clemon's new memoir Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales and check back next week for an interview with the Minister of Soul himself. Jealous? You should be. But you, too, can get some Big Man face time when he signs copies of his book on Sun., Oct. 18 at 1:00 p.m. at Chester County Books & Music, 975 Paoli Pike Rd., West Chester, PA.

And just to get your Boss rocks off one more time, here's last night's hand printed set list:

brucespringsteen.net

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