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Bruce the Wallflower

A few days ago I posted a "You Tube" video where Eddie Vedder and Bruce Springsteen combined on "Better Man" at a Bruce concert. Watching that video, I thought Eddie did pretty well for himself. He looked like he was having fun and letting Bruce do his thing, knowing that he'd still have a career after this was over.

Today I was reading an article and one of the entries talks about this Bruce video.

Here's the entry:

My favorite YouTube clip is the Boss' greatest TV performance: his surprise duet with the Wallflowers at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards. Keep in mind, the VMAs had grown tiresome by the mid-'90s and Bruce had sort of slipped into irrelevancy with passable acoustic albums like "Tom Joad." The situation was ripe for "sad former rock star shows up and creeps everyone out" potential (which did happen a few years later with Axl Rose.) But Bruce comes out looking leaner and meaner than he had in years, complete with bad-ass goatee and leather jacket, and snatches "One Headlight" right out of Jakob Dylan's feeble hands. He nails a great guitar solo, makes tons of great Bruce faces and even turns in the classic sharing-vocals at-the-same-mic-stand move. You're literally watching Bruce rediscover his ability to rock as the song goes on. It's like Elvis' 1968 comeback special. Watching this live with my college buddies at the time, I predicted a Bruce creative surge, which actually happened in the late-'90s, peaking with his reunion with The E Street Band and what is still the only artistically valid musical statement about 9/11: "The Rising."



So, it begs the question: what would be the sports equivalent? You'd need a superstar, returning after a notable absence, who makes a comeback and rediscovers his "love of the game," and in the process, mortally wounds or breaks the spirit of an up-and-coming star with a great pedigree, right?
--M. Drury, Hoboken, N.J.



SG: Wow, that question had everything -- lively material, a couple of funny jokes, a provocative question, even accompanying video evidence. Now THAT is how you get into the mailbag. And you're right, that's one of the best YouTube clips ever. I actually remember watching that live, seeing Bruce and saying, "I'm not getting my hopes up, but he looks pretty damned good," then watching in disbelief as he completely blew Dylan off the stage. It was like one of those pornos from the late-'70s when John Holmes is having a threesome with a girl and some random guy, and by the end of the scene, the other guy is hanging out with the crew and telling them, "Look, I'm not gonna compete with that."



Before we get to the answer, I wanted to point out a couple of things before you dive into the video:



1. The Wallflowers were flying pretty high at the time (looking back, you could even make the case that they were the most underrated mainstream band from the latter half of the '90s), and it's quite possible that Bruce completely derailed young Jakob, who already had enough of an uphill battle as Bob Dylan's son before another music legend hijacked his signature song as he was standing right there. I always thought the Wallflowers should have been bigger than they were. What would have happened if Bruce didn't agree to play the '97 VMAs? We may never know.



2. There's nothing funnier than Bruce creeping over to someone else's microphone, then overpowering the other guy as spit flies everywhere. (I'm convinced this is why Little Stevie initially left the E Street Band, he just couldn't take it anymore.) I always thought this would be a good SNL skit -- just Bruce walking around and randomly hijacking somebody else's microphone in various places (a street performer in a subway station, Michael Buffer doing "Let's get ready to rummmmble," a stewardess giving the pre-flight instructions, and so on).



3. "One Headlight" couldn't have been more in Bruce's wheelhouse. One of the best examples of a song that would have been twice as good if the band had just given it to the Boss from Day 1 and said, "Look, this could be a hit for us, but it's a potential Hall of Fame song for you, you have it."



Some other examples: "See a Little Light" by Bob Mould; "Taillights Fade" by Buffalo Tom (and just for the record, I absolutely love those guys, but that would have been a top-five Bruce song); "Way Down Now" by World Party; "Rain King" by Counting Crows; "Expresso Love" by Dire Straits; the theme to "Beautiful Girls"; "Turn the Page" by Bob Seger; and my personal favorites, "Santa Monica" and "You Make Me Feel Like A Whore" by Everclear. Bruce also would have done much better with "I Am Mine" than Pearl Jam did because Eddie Vedder mailed in that entire album during his "I don't want to be famous anymore" stage. But this should be Bruce's next album: "Songs I Should Have Sung."



4. So what's the sports equivalent of Bruce blowing Dylan off the stage? I was leaning toward MJ and the Bulls sweeping the Magic in the '96 playoffs, with the post-baseball MJ as Bruce and Nick Anderson (already reeling after blowing those four freebies in the '95 Finals) as Jakob Dylan. But I like this example better: Jack Nicklaus roaring from behind to win the '86 Masters, with Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros (both of whom choked down the stretch) combining for the Dylan role. Remember, Norman was considered Nicklaus' heir apparent at the time, and everyone thought Seve was going to become the dominant golfer of that decade; they ended winning three more majors combined and that's it. Plus, the Nicklaus/Springsteen parallels are almost perfect, right down to their popularity, their respective résumés and the similar points of their careers at the time of the events. That seems like the logical choice to me.

Now, I like Bruce... but I also remember as a senior in high school in '97 loving the Wallflowers. And they did just kind of disappear off the face of the earth. Watch the video.... you can see Jakob Dylan's career flash before his eyes as Bruce starts to take over. He tries to stay in it, tries to make "One Headlight" just a little more exciting and memorable, but he can't quite pull if off. He can't bring it back.

Poor guy, the band had a shot, but Bruce (who I like) tore them down.

The Latest in Dave White

From Mary Reagan.









The guy with the red hair is Pat Lambe.

And the blonde is the lovely Laura Lippman.

On Display

I woke up this morning to find this picture in my email box.

That's right. Damn Near Dead is available at Murder by the Book in Houston, Texas!

Soon, it'll be available everywhere.

But if you're in Austin, Texas at the convention, be sure to check out the launch of the book. (There's a panel and everything.)

Rocky Balboa

I have to admit, I am kind of intrigued by the Rocky Balboa trailer.

Despite the fact that Rocky's opponent has probably the worst name in movies (Mason "the Line" Dixon), there's something about the idea of Rocky coming back one more time. The Michael Jordan/George Foreman idea... How much is too much?

I can only hope Stallone has some grasp of the script and allows Balboa to lose at the end.

Well Rocky lost in the first one, so that would be some nice symmetry, wouldn't it?

I like symmetry in stories... I like when things come full circle... but now I'm going on a tangent, so just know that I'm intrigued by the new Rocky preview.

Queer Eye for the Dave White (Straight) Guy

This post is for the ladies and this guy.


Okay, since I'm ever trying to improve my fashion choice, and my last clothes shopping spree was so popular, I went out again. This time my goal was... casual blazers.

First stop, the GAP, where my hetero shopping buddy works...(shopping buddy as in he's not color blind, can match, and works at the GAP)... to pick up a charcoal pinstripe blazer (link unavailable... marked down from 88.00 to 19.99)... and a shirt to match.

Then it was on to Old Navy where I chose this nifty blazer (with the help of this lovely lady)...

And finally, since I'd been getting such good deals, I thought it time to invest in a good blazer and picked broken in chino only in British Khaki.

Now I've shopped for XL, which I was told was good on me, though I think I'm in between... Some say the XL is good for me... and some say the Large. However, I'm concerned the large is going to tear in the back should I reach forward, so I went XL, even though it's a little loose in the shoulders.

And then I realized I was short on dark casual shoes so I picked these dandies (click on the black color to see).

So now I think I'm all set to be author-ish.

And So It Begins, Anew....

The work on Jackson Donne novel #2 (WHISPER TO THEIR SOULS) began this afternoon as I typed a good 500 words to start...

The fun, the whining, the creation and the stress start all over again...

But as a good friend of mine said, this way "lies sanity."