#424 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - The Rising (2002)
MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:
Released on July 30th, 2002 and produced by Brendan O’Brien, this is the twelfth studio album by Bruce Springsteen, his first in seven years, and his first with the E Street Band in eighteen years.
The story is that shortly after 9/11 Bruce was walking and a stranger in a car pulled up and rolled down their window to tell him, “We need you now.”
So he set to writing songs influenced by the terrorist attack, often from the point of view of the victims, and added some previously written songs that stirred up similar feelings of loss, perseverance, pain, hope, resilience, and life-affirmation.
Then he assembled the E Street Band that hadn’t all played together on a Springsteen album since 1984’s mega-hit “Born in the U.S.A.”
The E Street Band are Danny Federici on organs, Roy Bittan on keyboards, Gary Tallent on bass, Nils Lofgren and Little Steven Van Zandt on guitars, Max Weinberg on drums, Bruce’s wife Patti Scialfa on vocals, and of course the big man, Clarence Clemons on saxophone.
It was critically and commercially acclaimed and seen as Springsteen’s triumphant return.
And although it only reached number 34 on the Billboard chart it won 2003’s Grammy for Best Rock Album of the year and the title song won Best Rock Song and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.
It would be four years before Bruce would release another album with the E Street Band, 2007’s “Magic” but sadly organist Danny Federici died of cancer the next year.
Although the E Street Band played with Bruce at the 2009 Super Bowl halftime show and toured that year, 2009 would see the last performance of the E Street Band with saxophonist Clarence Clemons who died of complications from a stroke in 2011.
The E Street Band were all given an honorary induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 under the Award for Musical Excellence category and various members continue to record and perform with Springsteen.
Although the E Street Band haven’t played live with Bruce since 2017 in 2019 Bruce had said that 2020 was supposed to see a new record and tour with the E Street Band but with everything going on now who knows?