The Harvard Square Theatre,
Cambridge, Massachusets
Presents...
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
& THE E STREET BAND
9th May 1974
" Tonight there is someone I can write of the way I used to write, without reservations of any kind. Last Thursday, at the Harvard Square Theatre, I saw my rock and roll past flash before my eyes. I saw something else: I saw rock and roll future and it's name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time.
When his two hour set ended I could only think, can anyone really be this good, can anyone say this much to me, can rock and roll speak with this kind of power and glory ? And then I felt the sores on my thighs where I had been pounding my hands in time for the entire concert and knew that the answer was Yes.
Springsteen does it all. He is a rock and roll punk, a Latin street poet, a ballet dancer, an actor, a joker, bar band leader, hot rhythm guitar player, extraordinary singer, and a truly great rock and roll composer. He leads a band like he has been doing it forever. I racked my brains but I simply can't think of a white artist who does so many things so superbly. There is no one I would rather watch on a stage today.
Bruce Springsteen is a wonder to look at. Skinny, dressed like a reject from Sha Na Na, he parades in front of his all star rhythm band like a cross between Chuck Berry, early Bob Dylan and Marlon Brando. Every gesture, every syllable adds something to his ultimate goal to liberate our spirit while he liberates his by baring his soul through his music. Many try, few succeed, none more than he today.
It's five o'clock now. I write columns like this as fast as I can for fear I'll chicken out and I'm listening to Kitty's Back. I do feel old but the record and my memory of the concert has made me feel a little younger. I still feel the spirit and it still moves me.
