2022-11-22 Stone Hill Farm, Colts Neck, NJ

Scheduled: ??:?? Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info | Venue

Bruce spoke, in the morning, to USA Today Network New Jersey for a 25-minute phone interview with reporter Chris Jordan.

USA Today Interview

Chris Jordan
Bruce Springsteen (Guest)

Searching for soul music

Chris Jordan: I want to make a confession. For the past two years I’ve basically had two CDs in my car that I only listen to and both are Jerry Butler compilations.
Bruce Springsteen: Whoa, that’s very unusual. That’s very unusual.

Chris Jordan: Now you have a new album called “Only the Strong Survive” and boy I’m so happy that Mr. Butler is getting a little shine.
Bruce Springsteen: I wasn’t super familiar with Jerry Butler until I went searching for material for this record. (Manager) Jon Landau was the huge Jerry Butler fan and he suggested “Hey, Western Union Man” and I said I don’t know. I listened to it. It was kind of complicated and then I got into it really deeply. The record was finished and at first it was called “Soul Days” and then it was called “Nightshift,” that was going to be the title. Then I’m thinking about doing another one and the next one I do I’m going to call “Only the Strong Survive.” Jon said it’s a great title, we got to use that now. We got to cut that song when you come home, I was away somewhere. So I came back and spent the day, cut the song and through that I got introduced into more Jerry Butler stuff and I’ve cut more of his things since then.

Chris Jordan: Wow. Wow, his records, the Vee-Jay records, they satisfy me on so many different levels that it’s hard to explain. They’re so rich and pure from the pop of “Moon River to everything — it’s unbelievable. I was fascinated by your video introduction to the album you said that the music (on “Only the Strong Survive”) was special because it brought all kinds of people together when you played it. I was especially fascinated that a teenage dude from Freehold, even back in the ’60s, would realize that there was something special about this material.
Bruce Springsteen: In the ‘60s, there were so many teenage subcultures in the area. I don’t know what it’s like today, at the time the area was rich in teenage subcultures. You had at the Shore what we used to call rah-rahs, which were basically mods, which were basically collegiates, or whatever people called them. So you had that at the Shore for the most part. And the inlanders who were looked down upon by the kids at the Shore was Freehold, and the greaser contingent came out of Freehold. That was leather jackets and slicked back hair and the shark-skin suits and the pointy toed boots, that was south down Route 9 through Toms River. Then you had your young Black kids — Freehold was a highly integrated high school and so any music that sort of pushed everyone onto the dance floor was noticeable and of course that was Motown. Motown was the music that did that for everybody.

Chris Jordan: Why does this music do that? I think it’s because there are elemental truths expressed in this music. There’s love, lust, passion. There’s family, there’s the wisdom of mom, and that comes through on the record. The overall message I get from the songs is if you’re not true to the person you love and who loves you, you’re doomed.
Bruce Springsteen: Yeah.

Chris Jordan: You’re going to be brokenhearted and you’re going to be in seven rooms of gloom.
Bruce Springsteen: Motown was interesting because they had the pop element and when we went to recut those arrangements the size of them is daunting. You don’t notice quite as much on the record because of the records in those days sonically were relatively small, but we’ve really been able to beef up the sonic texture of these records. And when you get into them, there’s always strings, there’s always singers, there’s always horns. I just did the Jimmy Fallon show and to get that sound live we needed about 20 pieces. The challenge was to go back and sort of re-create those arrangements, but there was a pop element in Motown that drew everybody. There was a pop element, soul element and rock element in Motown that drew everybody. I’ve been basically a rock singer and so I wanted to push a little more in that direction, and there was someplace to go with that. There was an element that could absorb that kind of singing. The songs were so outstanding that that held up and sounded great.

Chris Jordan: Oh my God, the production and Ron (Aniello co-producer). Motown sonically sounded unique, the arrangements, the writing and the vocal performances were unique. But to me sonically the Motown records sounded like nothing else.
Bruce Springsteen: Yeah, they just had a sound, whether it was intentional or not. You watch the Motown special with Smokey (Robinson) and Berry Gordy, they said we were just trying to get the sound that we could with the little cheesy equipment we had. But they ended up with a great drum sound, tambourine layered over top of a snare. James Jamerson, the incredible bass playing, the bass sound. It was the total creation.

Chris Jordan: The opus of “Only the Strong Survive” to me is “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.” I can’t believe that song and I have this image of you, Ron (Aniello co-producer) and Rob (Lebret co-mixer) sitting the studio and one of you guys must have said to each other you can’t have too much chime on this song. Rock the chime, sir! It’s unbelievable that performance, Bruce.
Bruce Springsteen: Thank you. That song is one of the ultimate soul classics. On the record I wanted to do a few classics, but I also wanted to do a variety of things people will come to the record and never have heard so their ears will be just fresh to it and that’s what I did. One of the big classics we chose was “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” because it’s such a great song and I wanted to take a shot at singing it. And I got a great performance out of it. It’s just such a beautiful song that when it comes up at the end of the record it summarizes that soul experience.

Chris Jordan: It’s in full bloom — it’s unbelievable. There’s some rarities (on the album). For me, “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” works perfectly. The Walker Brothers and Jerry Butler both had a hit with “Make It Easy on Yourself,” so for me that’s the tie-in here and that’s a great performance of that song.
Bruce Springsteen: It’s a great rock ballad and I’ve always loved it. Wanted to pull out that big voice I used on “Born to Run” and it’s a big rock crooning voice, ala Roy Orbison, ala Scott Walker. Let me see what it sounds like if I sing it I that voice. It’s one of my favorite things on the record.

Chris Jordan: “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do),” when you dropped that song, Scott from the Philly Soul Syndicate (disc jockeys) sent me a note saying it’s unbelievable that Bruce Springsteen is doing this song. He gave me the background on that and it’s a fascinating story.
Bruce Springsteen: Here’s a guy, extremely talented. Ended up on the backline of Motown, writing and producing, but he had this one record that he put out that became this huge rarity. The single itself is worth an enormous amount of money and it’s one of the most popular songs in the Northern Soul scene in England. I heard it and said that’s a classic and nobody knows it, and no one knows this tune and I’m going to take this thing, you know? (laughs)

Chris Jordan: “Turn Back the Hands of Time.” I love that song and that’s prompted me to look into Carolina beach music. That’s a fascinating subsect of music. That’s a beautiful song that I love, and I have that on a dusty compilation and it’s a whole ’nother lesson for listeners.
Bruce Springsteen: I like a lot of beach music and that was one of the places I went looking for material was in beach music compilations, the Northern Soul compilations and stuff that’s a little off-beat. That’s where I got my arrangement of “Don’t Play That Song.” There’s a crazy beach version of it and I’m forgetting the artist’s name at the time, but it was like a little wedding version of it with a drum machine and it had that shuffling rhythm. I said, “Wow, that’s a great rhythm to sing that song in. I have to find out who we’re copying there” (laughs). But it was a beautiful little beach version of it and so we cut that, “Turn Back the Hands of Time” and “When She Was My Girl,” which is also popular in the beach music scene.

Chris Jordan: “Any Other Way,” William Bell … Are you familiar with the version by a woman named Jackie Shane?
Bruce Springsteen: I’ve heard her name mentioned with that song. I don’t know if I’ve heard her version. I know a lot of people are familiar with her version of it. It’s supposed to be great.

Chris Jordan: Jackie Shane, it’s my understanding that she’s a trailblazer. She was born a man and Jackie was a trans performer …
Bruce Springsteen: I didn’t know that…

Chris Jordan: … She was up through the ‘60s and based in … Toronto. I think her story is especially significant after the Colorado incident here.
Bruce Springsteen: I want to check her version out.

Chris Jordan: Jackie Shane’s really good. It’s subdued, really good like that.
Bruce Springsteen: I was copying the William Bell version, basically.

Chris Jordan: “I Forgot to Be Your Lover” is a great, great song that history has kind of forgotten, and it’s great to have it here now. Another Jersey artist, Jaheim Hoagland, out of New Brunswick in the last 20 years — he had an R&B hit with it and he called it “Put That Woman First.” It’s such a beautiful song and it’s such a great message, too.
Bruce Springsteen: It’s a very modern song and a modern message. It’s a gorgeous R&B ballad. I’ve loved that song for a long time. I’ve had that song sitting in my collection for 15 years going, “That should be covered.”

Chris Jordan: And that great simple guitar riff on that, it’s perfect in so many ways. Your voice is so good (on “Only the Strong Survive”). There’s falsettos, vibratos on here, extended notes. It seems this is part of a revival for you that’s been going on since “Western Stars,” the Broadway show. It’s an awakening — it’s unbelievable.
Bruce Springsteen: Yeah, it’s great discovering parts of yourself that you may have let slide over the years a little bit and also going deeper into your talents as you get older. I found that as you get older you accrue a certain sort of richness in your abilities and it’s fun to explore that. The idea of, I’m just going to sing (on “Only the Strong Survive”), that allowed me to take all the energy I usually spend on everything else and just focus it on different types of vocal approaches toward some of these songs. That was really a lot of freedom I gave myself to do that and it was just a tremendous sort of a way to approach this particular record.

Chris Jordan: Why do you think your voice is so strong and good. You’ve been singing for 50, 60 years. What’s the secret?
Bruce Springsteen: Clean living (laughs). Well, it’s a joke but there’s some truth to it in the sense I never did a lot of drugs, never drank to extreme, I never stayed up after shows and talked all night long, or partied all night long. I never over-sang, or blew my voice out night after night. People usually blew their voice out after the show, yelling, talking, partying, drinking, you know? So without sounding like a monk because I’ve had plenty of fun on my own, I believe that has had something to do with it. And also genes, luck of your genes. I come from a musical people, the people of southern Italy. If you’ve ever been to Naples or down south in Italy, everybody can sing, everybody’s musical…

Chris Jordan: Are you going to be doing any of these songs on the upcoming E Street tour?
Bruce Springsteen: We’ll play a few probably.

Chris Jordan: Wow, I’d love to hear that. Did I see you’re bringing the horn and the choir out?
Bruce Springsteen: Yeah, that’s so we’ll be able to cover these songs if we wanted to.

Chris Jordan: Bruce, I wanted to ask you about the reaction of the fans to the arena tour. I wanted to ask, any thoughts on how this whole episode might affect your legacy? The way people have expressed themselves, it’s to me quite an eye opener.
Bruce Springsteen: Well, you know, I can’t worry about it too much. You have to make your decisions and then you have to own them, and basically I just talked to Rolling Stone about it this a little bit, our approach to ticketing over the years, although ticketing has gotten extremely complicated, I say to my guys let’s see what everybody else is doing and let’s charge a little less. I’ve done that for 49 years. So this tour, we said hey, the guys are in their 70s, I’m 73, do what everybody else is doing who are my peers. They basically went out and there were a variety of things being done and that’s what they did. Most of my tickets are totally affordable. There is a very high range. Let’s say this: I can set the price of my tickets — I can’t set their value, and so there are tickets that get valued at that amount of money and go for that amount of money all of time and that money gets sucked up by your ticket brokers. I said hey, let’s have the money go to the guys who are sweating up on stage for three hours. If that’s controversial for you, I don’t know what to say. If that’s your legacy in one way or another, that’s the way the ball rolls.

Chris Jordan: It’s such a deep issue and there’s antitrust talk now with Sen. (Richard) Blumenthal and even Biden saying something about Ticketmaster now, it’s unbelievable. The concert industry has been like this for decades.
Bruce Springsteen: Yeah, I’ve wrestled with ticketing going back to 1980 … It’s a constant issue, that’s all there is to it.

Chris Jordan: There doesn’t seem to be a happy resolution until you guys are standing on that stage.
Bruce Springsteen: I’ll be happy when that moment comes.

^{Compiled by : Chris Jordan via App..}