Tom Dunne: Brilliant new documentary takes us behind the scenes on Bruce Springsteen tour
Bruce Springsteen at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork, part of a tour covered in The Road Diary film. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
As part of the publicity for the Disney+ documentary film, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, that drops on Friday, Oct 25, a small apple from the tree of happiness fell my way.
“Tom” said an email, “would you be able to talk to Jon about this?” “Jon?” I asked, “as in Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen’s manager? That Jon?” “Yes,” they said “that Jon.”
“Yes” I confirmed, “For Jon Landau I seem to have time free every day for the rest of my life.”
Landau is the man who, in 1974, reviewed a Bruce gig that took place in Harvard Square Theatre in Boston. It was Bruce and Bonnie Raitt that night, playing two sets, at 7pm and 10pm. Admission was $4.
Landau’s review in The Real Paper, a Boston alternative weekly, is now the stuff of legend. In it he wrote the immortal line “I saw the future of Rock and Roll and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” For many, that was the moment the Springsteen legend began.
Springsteen subsequently hired Landau; he co-produced 1975’s Born to Run. Their paths have been inseparable ever since. But you should read his entire 1974 review. It is a paean to the life affirming power of music that will still make you want to form a band.
The Road Diary documentary, offers an in depth, fly on the wall look at the preparation, rehearsal and gigs of the most recent world tour. There are interviews with Bruce, the band – Little Stevie is a superstar – and fans. The live footage in spine tingling, the emotional heft undiminished.
Notable in it all is how much Bruce is genuinely The Boss of all he surveys. He writes every note, picks the songs, puts them in order. When he is about every person on stage and off is watching his every move, anticipating his every whim.
But, straight off, there are things that mark this tour out from the others. Firstly, it their first time playing live together, due to covid, in six years, an aeon for The E Street Band. Secondly, Bruce has been doing the Broadway shows, the first time he has been exposed to the concept of performing the same set, night after night.
Thirdly, there is his 2020 album A Letter to You. That is a hugely significant album. It is in part inspired by the death in July 2018 of George Theiss. Theiss had been the guitarist and singer in Bruce’s first ever band, the Castiles.
George’s death left Bruce as ‘Last Man Standing’ in that band. That significance, the passage of time, the gradual dissolution of our youthful invincibility are recurring themes. They are some of Bruce’s best songs. In rehearsal you see him pick four from the album.
Their significance and the reason for their precise placement in the set does not reveal itself until this film’s wonderfully powerful denouement. It comes as a surprise even to Landau and ignites in him that same fervour, that same passion, that Bruce ignited in him first in 1974.
I won’t give the game away. As a Bruce fan you must experience it for yourself, and Springsteen’s subsequent words on why he still does this and will continue to do this. It is life affirming.
Landau speaks of Springsteen with an undiminished mix of love, respect, admiration and pride. He saw a young man on stage that night with an awesome talent. He sees today a friend who has never abused that talent and has strived not only to maximise it, but to bring people with him.
Personally, I was a bit emotional that night in Croke Park. “This is our church,” someone with me said, and they were right. I thought back to my mother, when I was about 14, telling me, “You’ll have to grow out of those records someday.” I never did, thank God.
And when Bruce sang “I learned more in a three-minute pop song that I ever did in school”, I knew what he meant. It’s not that we didn’t also become adults. We did, but there is still something in music that re-unites you with your youthful passions the way nothing else can. Don’t miss it!
