Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Springsteen has his own signature style that has not changed over the years. With his guitar resting behind him, cocked and ready to go, his awed silence, or the way he looks around the audience, the ‘Young Abraham Lincoln’ holding an ax over his shoulder becomes the iconic. It is a nearly feudal portrayal of American aristocracy. In the post, “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band,” we see Bruce Springsteen, in his first post-pandemic concerts after almost 2 years, performing with his iconic band which in just 6 days of rehearsals heads out on a worldwide tour across the U. S. and Europe ranging from 2023 to 2024.

All this is intercut with fuzzy scraps of footage of Bruce performing on stage sometime in the early 70s and late 80s. From this angle, it is apparent that the Bruce we know today is older and more dignified. Therefore, when we examine some of the past images, it is really hard to believe that he was that much of an active performer. He had a crazy flamboyant bob. It is stated in the movie that the reason why he first brought in his pal Steven Van Zandt to play guitar for him was because he – Bruce, wanted to free his hands from the guitar. This is what Bruce liked to do at the height of his glory days, dance.

That is not how Bruce dances anymore. But he’s still reasonably fit at 74, though a few rough edges seem to have been there thanks to age. Compared to his youth’s striking looks, there is a more firm and heavy-set appearance. He bears a close resemblance to Robert De Niro, but with a little bit of Ben Affleck in him; at times PoV from the side makes his face appear like a silver dollar tilted on its edge. But he is as fiercely alive as he ever was.

Having crossed over to their later years as a band, Bruce Springsteen and his East Street Band’s relevance to the present-day context. The band still performs well targeted and strong. The band is definitely not slower faded or worn out; all of E Street’s fans know they are eternal and let the age number float in the sky. But the frontman has felt the need to express himself through his song and this puts us in an interesting place: we have a Bruce who is eternal and yet acknowledges his age. There are times when it feels he is telling a tale about being in death’s waiting-room.

But only moments. What you hear in “Road Diary” is the life energy of Springsteen as an artist. Yes, he sings several new songs, however the fact that he has been singing the older ones for such a long time only elevates the songs multifaceted beauty even more. That`s right. When Bruce reveals which belt cut in the song ‘Prove It All Night’ guitar solo that he plays, the song was released in 1978.

Once there has been a lot of frenzy or the euphoric shout of ‘Bruuuuuce’, a lot of collective drooling such that the performance was more than three hours, and probably the audience shared the singular wavelength of the feeling that the only around-standout rock star with unstoppable energy and fame was Bruce Springsteen, more or less. His music could be described as the ball going down the middle of the plate.

Today, it’s much harder. When I witness the blistering fury of that guitar solo, while Bruce is screwing up his face with effort and aggression, it pleases & amuses me, but, as I feel so well, it is over – everything has a sound. But the solo seems to argue that so long as Springsteen is able to grab the guitar and make it sound that way, rock n roll lives. This kind of music does not allow for a leisurely turn of the head in quest of something an infrequent whiff.

“Road Diary” begins with Bruce reuniting the band and I must say: They make for quite the mutual admiration society (not that there is anything wrong with that). In initiating the reunion, they seem quite dramatic about getting back into shape and focus in the interim and mid season. Yes, it is true that they have not been in action for the past six years. The film’s director Thom Zimny (who co-directed with Bruce, the close-up 2019 documentary ‘Western Stars’) features interviews for each of them and in that narrative, when they say “don’t worry, we will catch up”

Indeed, all bands go through such idle periods. In those rock nostalgia tours, time has come where the band hasn’t played together for 30 years. Even from the ‘rough’ first rehearsals, like any other E Street Band practice, the performed sound is of a spangly well-oiled machine and they really know these songs. And Bruce, perhaps like ever, becomes rougher and yet, more refined at every step. He talks it over – 12 songs that he smiles at when mentioning so many potential narrators: the past, the present, youth, age – and all this in the level of detail of a book.

If a subject deserves a music doc, it is his or her subject. In the history of music documentaries, I have never come upon one that could be an exception to the general rule. However, ‘Road Diary’ has a lot of hype and a lot of things to understand. Bruce depicts the band members who do all get along, the extra members who are great (the jazz/funk horn section, the soul choir, the percussionist Anthony Almonte), and they all love him and Bruce together claims that it is a rather astonishing occurrence that they are all able to be doing this after fifty years.

Not for a second do I doubt this, but the 99-minute film didn’t need to keep telling us this over and over. In the first place, this one was not overly long but it surely was sufficient. One does not need to be a music expert to understand that someone such as Springsteen could get to the extent in such an industry because he is smart, talented and pure class. Unfortunately, music documentaries seem to have that positive spin element about them which turns them into infomercials. This is unfortunate because this is exactly what this film, or rather music documentary, desired to achieve.

But that can be overlooked. These people (including Springsteen’s wife of 33 years, Patty Scialfa, who in the movie announces her battle with multiple myeloma in its early stages) can now take a bow for their joint legacies and the love they share. They paid respect to their lost colleagues easily recognizable by the names of Danny Federici and the immense Clarence Clemons (his place was taken by his son Jake Clemons who sounds good but delivers only half the power of Clarence), and it was both moving and depressing. (On tour, Bruce dedicates the title song of the Commodores “Night Shift” to them. It becomes quite a highlight of the show.)

You also understand a lot about Bruce from such testimonies as this one of his younger years when he would make the band stretch out for several hours while he thoroughly checked the parameters of the pavilion. And it seems this determines already why the band did not have it easy at the beginning or why people lined up to hear Sam And Dave at a club in the early ’60s. Now more than ever you can hear how much soul is rooted in the E Street Band.

Finally, Bruce tells us that he won’t stop touring until “the wheels come off”. ‘Road Diary’ must leave the audience to hope that it will be much later that these fails will occur.

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