Ridin' on the power and livin' on the promise

Growing up and older sure has its moments of melancholy, as people, places and memories leave us behind. For these things, our memories must sustain us. But once in a while, we get some help with these memories.

Yesterday’s news of an upcoming Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town reissue news takes me back to a string of defining moments of my life.

I saw my first show of that tour in late May at the Spectrum in South Philadelphia, and although I had seen him several times before this, I immediately knew this was something on a whole other level.

The intensity, the passion, the sense of purpose. I still haven’t seen anything like it to this day. And while subsequent tours were almost always exceptional, they still weren’t ’78.

Case in point is a sneak preview that’s gives a sense of go-for-broke chops and style of E Street Band at its peak. This is a band in a zone; it's as if they were given seven minutes to live and one song to perform. Dave Marsh described this version of the song as something akin to “an unholy alliance between the Yardbirds and Bob Dylan.”

I'll go him one further: This. Is. Rock and Roll.
My only physical artifacts of this tour are some grainy VHS tapes and bootlegs (and, of course, some You Tube videos) -- until now, or least until Nov. 16, the release date of this new set. This package contains more than six hours of film and more than two hours of audio.

I know that Springsteen is a relic to some people. And his cool quotient is not high, especially to those under 40, or whose frame of reference for hipness is Bauhaus, Depeche Mode and The Smiths. And most Republicans will never forgive him for his Bush bashing.

Them things don't seem to matter much to me now.

I was there: The Spectrum, the Cap Centre, Madison Square Garden, the Boston Garden and a particularly memorable second-row balcony show at Pittsburgh’s Stanley Theater. If you weren’t there, you quite possibly never will understand, although this set may help.

I have a friend who once said (seriously) that James Bond played a major role in his persona and who he became as a person. I believe him.

For me, it was the album, the tour, the sincerity and earnestness, and the attitude of Darkness on the Edge of Town.

This is what captured my heart and soul.

And I’m thankful that on Nov. 16, I can be reminded of that power all over again.