And some day this boy'll be gone

For me, the Springsteen live experience peaked sometime between '75 and '88. Not that subsequent tours have not been vital or memorable or simply great,. But that energy, that youthfulness, that "at any given moment you might see and hear something you may never happen again," was often harder to come by.

Of course, some of that fault lies with me, or my inflated expectations that I want every show to be '78 at the Capitol Theater in Passaic (I wasn't there but feel like I was due to the hundreds, no thousands, of listenings to the "Piece de Resistance" boot) or the July '81 Spectrum run of five shows in seven nights (I was there, for the whole stand).

A recent moment in Rome, though, takes me back. The rare 'New York City Serenade" with a local string section hits all the right notes. And then some.

Great sound and a staggeringly beautiful performance all around, made even greater by the surprise of it all.

Listen to your junk man; he's singing.