An album release 20 yrs ago today changed my life
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20 yrs ago today, Bruce Springsteen's The Rising was released. Little did I know that it would be directly responsible on changing my whole life trajectory. A little backstory is probably dictated here.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan and have been for a long time. I went to see him whenever I could and I honestly can't think of a time that I walked out of a show disappointed. Sure, some shows were better than others but on a grading scale, I've never seen a show that got less than a solid B. Because of my parents banning me from going on Spring '77 Grateful Dead tour, the next year I criss-crossed the US following the original Springsteen Darkness On The Edge of Town tour in 1978. When I finished that tour, I walked away from Springsteen concerts for a good amount of time. I, literally, knew in my heart that those shows would never be topped and, to this day IMHO, they haven't. My next Springsteen concert was in July of 1992 and only because my business partner won me tickets to the show on a radio giveaway. He couldn't go because he had already won so he gave my name. That show was fine but I had no compulsion to see him again.
Then The Rising was released. Talk about a perfect album for the moment in time. His reflections upon the aftermath of 9/11 hit a lot of peoples emotions and helped many start on the road to deeper healing. While I don't think I needed deep emotional healing, that album did soothe some of the pain I, and many others, was feeling. As I listened to that album over and over, I was taken by how many great songs were contained and how Mr. Springsteen had really branched out in songwriting and style. I started to get that old feeling again. When I heard that the tour for that album was going to include Steven Van Zandt back in the band. I knew what I needed to do and was sitting at my computer when tickets went on sale for the stadium portion of the tour at Giants Stadium. Knowing all to well that getting a Springsteen ticket was never easy, I figured I would grab something in the upper deck and call it a day. Well God Damn...the first tickets I pulled were a pair of GA Pit tickets. It was as if the concert gods graced me like a long lost child.
Soon after that I joined the BTX (Backstreets Ticket Exchange) message board and connected with many people with the same bug as I had and in short order I ended up going to another show, then another. Somehow they were all in the pit. Since many people on that board had never experienced Springsteen up close like that, I decided to attempt to facilitate the loss of their "Pit Virginity." To that end I wrote a post titled: "I want to be deflowered in front of 60 thousand screaming Springsteen fans." Basically I had people write on why they deserved to get some pit tickets that were in short supply. These people weren't getting free tickets, they would pay face for them but depended on others with extras to facilitate that. Some post were pleas from long time fans who never got good tickets, some were outright hilarious. On of the funniest post recounted that he was trained for standing upright for many hours, in all sorts of heat, rain and other misery courtesy of his time in a Viet Cong POW camp! I put it to the community to pick the winners and they voted for their favorites. To this day, I have friends who remind me that I helped them see Bruce for the first time up close.
The community grew, more and more people got into the spirit of helping other fans and the whole thing exploded that by the time the tour was over, over 100 fans got a chance to be deflowered in the US and Europe. Other social events happened, I met a few romantic partners along the way and even did some computer database consults for Backstreets Magazine/Backstreets.com. A couple of years later I was telling the owner of Backstreets that I had gotten a new DSLR camera and could he get a photo pass for an upcoming benefit concert for charity that Springsteen often made an unannounced showing at. He showed up that night, I took a few photos and they were very well received. A couple of weeks later I decided to close my computer biz and take concert photos for a living. It was a leap of faith and has been well rewarded.
All because of an album released 20 years ago today.
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Rasputin O'Leary
So you like'a da boss eh
So you like'a da boss eh
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: skifurthur
lil bit
lil bit
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: GDTRFB
That's a good back-story that
That's a good back-story that definitely helps fill on some detail regarding your orientation to The Boss, etc. Congrats & Thanks.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: donster
Adam,
Adam,
My wife and I decided to see a Bruce show just for shits and giggles. Born and Raised in Jersey, it just seemed a box that I needed to check off.
Giants Stadium show. We were on our way home from a camping trip. In the lot, we were parked near a crew that had food galore, but no one in the crew had brought a grill to cook it on. We had the propane camping stove underneath tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, etc and truly saved the day for those Bruce Heads.
The show was really tight, with peeps having religious experiences all around us. It was a great day and we talk about it from time to time. We had fun.
Even though, not a huge fan, I bought one of your framed photos from the wall at Rock Da Pasta in New Paltz years later. Mr. Springsteen had thrown a bunch of water in the air and you caught the drops sprinkling in the air around him like fireflies in flight. One of the best concert photos I have ever seen.
Glad that you are able to feed your passion and share it with the world. Rock on, Adam!
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
Great story. Thanks for
Great story. Thanks for sharing it. Bruce has that power to inspire, and it stays in our soul. He is the real deal, and loves to please the fans.
I got to see him on his first tour west - in '74, I think. Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix. GREAT venue. Friend went to get Zappa tix at the venue and the clerk said "Springsteen tickets just went on sale." "What?" "Where would I sit if I bought 'em now?" "Front row." Bingo. Only had two albums out at the time.
We had been turned on to Bruce early on by the great William Edward Compton (Compton Terrace), program director at KDKB radio in Phoenix/Mesa. It was an amazing successful "alternative" station before it got sold and went commercial. He died a few years later while trying to put something new together. Bruce came down to the station once with tapes of "Born To Run" during the Jon Appel legal shit that held up that release. (?) I have "The Fever" recorded off the radio on an 8 track from that period, unreleased at the time.
One of my life's regrets - I was driving a little Datsun pickup around for a welding supply company delivering 5 foot tall oxygen bottles, acetylene, etc..... As I passed the station that day, Bruce and The Big Man were walking in the parking lot. I will forever regret not slamming on the brakes and skidding to a stop (scaring the shit out of them) and turning into the lot to bow to the man. At that phase in his career, he would've laughed and appreciated the gesture. But that night's show was amazing, life altering you might say, and I got to see David Sancious run down the ivories on "NYC Serenade" right in front of me.
I've traveled to see him in Denver with 9 of my radio pals in September of '85 for Born in The USA on Bruce's birthday due to a rain/sleet out the day before, and went to Phoenix in December of 2012, and have seen him here in Salt Lake when he didn't sell out Memorial Day Monday at the basketball arena (it's a camping crowd, Bruce).
So I share you affection and respect for a great artist who speaks what he believes and inspires many of us. He's an important artist this country needs. Thanks for the thread and a chance to celebrate Bruce.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: skifurthur
Adam,
I am forever cursed as being known as Adam Saddler courtesy of Adam Sandler. It's Anthony, but you can call me Tony. ;-)
I remember when you originally posted that you had purchased that photo. Thank you again for your purchase and thank you for giving it such high praise. That one is very special to me for many reasons. The first is that it was a photo that became my first magazine cover back in those olden days of print. It also special because how it came about. When Springsteen performs Working On The Highway the band does an extended vamp before starting the song proper. While the band vamps, Bruce takes the time to hydrate. He hydrates often during a show as he basically does a 3 + hour gym work out and sweats accordingly. With this song, he takes a mouthful of electrolyte water into his mouth, tilts his head back and when the vamp stops he spews the contents of his mouth upwards with as much force as possible. When that show happened, in 2007, I was operating with the terms of my photo pass. I would shoot the first 3 songs from a platform next to the soundboard and when I was done I would be escorted by a crew member to the production office where I would deposit my equipment and then get the proper credentials to watch the rest of the show from the pit. Normally the photographers are escorted out of the venue and they need to lose their camera equipment at their car and then, if they have a ticket, go thru the normal entry for the audience. Anyway, I had wanted to take the shot you see below but Working On The Highway never is performed in the first 3 songs. In my mind, just in case the song made an early arrival, I had the shot all planned out.
That night, I did my normal depositing my equipment in the production office and decided to catch a smoke before I went back to the concert floor. Very often when I did that I would find one of Bruce's assistant tour managers who is also my buddy grabbing a smoke as well. I saw him and while we smoked he all of a sudden asked me why was I out there? He then told me that my publication's request that I be able to shoot the whole concert from the soundboard had been approved and I should be inside taking advantage of that. It also seems that nobody had shared that information with my editor or me before then. I finished my smoke, marched back to production, grabbed my gear and went back to my platform. As I entered the floor, the band started the vamp to Working On The Highway. As calmly as possible (not very calmly but the best I could do with my chance happening any moment now) I got on the platformed, opened my bag, took out my camera/lens combo, checked my settings to make sure they were the ones I had figured out in my mind, brought the camera to my eye and waited for the spew. A few moments later (that seemed like forever) he did his thing and I did my thing. My thing is below.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: donster
Great F-ing photo, even if
Great F-ing photo, even if your name ain't Adam ;-}
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
I agree, great photo, who
I agree, great photo, whoever you are.
Thanks for sharing your work with us over the years, not Adam.