Why No One Beats the Boss

Almost a decade ago, my dad and my two best friends stood in the bleachers at the Tacoma Dome, which -- considering the insanely long drop between our row and the one in front -- has got to be one of the least safe places in Tacoma.

We were there for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, on their first tour together in 10 years. The band came out, launched into "My Love Will Not Let You Down," and the four of us all promptly burst into tears like big idiots.

In other words, like my dad and my closest friends, I love the Boss. Love him. If that's not loud and clear, please consider this: I've had relationships fall apart over the Boss, and if I have to, I'll let it happen again. The Boss always wins, like the secret weapon in rock, paper, scissors.

Rock, paper, scissors… Boss. You lose.

Check out this live version of "Kitty's Back" (here's part two -- Yowee!!), from The Wild, the Innocent, & the E Street Shuffle. The 1973 album was his second full-length, and it's full of funky, mutant show tunes that are a million miles removed from the dry, reductive approach he took soon after. I'll always be in love with the E Street Band's commensurately funky, boardwalk hustler feel from this period, all dressed-up in wife-beaters, Hawaiian shirts, denim cut-offs, apple hats and high-waisted, tastefully flared velvet pants like Harvey Keitel's kiddie pimp in Taxi Driver. Like the music, there might be too many notes in that wardrobe. I still dress like that.

This is my favourite edition of the Boss and Co., and also my long-winded way of posting the song "Angels of Destruction" by Brooklyn's Marah, a straight-up, classy chassis rock 'n' roll tune from a group that set out to reignite the poet ruffian, gang mentality of the infant E Street Band. In the course of doing that, they made a fan out of Bruce, broke bread with the man in his home, and found themselves joining him in the studio for a track on their 2002 album, Float Away with the Friday Night Gods.

The irony here is that the most ambitious tracks on Marah's newest album (which came out in January 2008) -- the ones that aim for the burning, reckless, overstuffed early E Street Shuffle mojo -- are also the least successful, in my view. You can decide for yourself, though, since the whole glorious mess can be streamed here, you lucky people.

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