My Favorite Bruce Moments That I Wasn’t There For!
by David Dye, XPN Producer/Host of the World Cafe
Many of you know that I was a big Springsteen supporter from the first time I saw him at the Main Point and have many fabulous memories of those shows and the early days: Dancing with his girlfriend to “Thundercrack”, being pulled backstage at a College show in New Jersey, having the audience give the E Street Band a standing ovation at the Erlton Bowl as they walked through the crowd to the dressing rooms.
It’s hard to believe that there was a time when you had to proselytize about Bruce.
Then there were the moments I missed!
Like the time he apparently made up a song about me at the Main Point, “David Dye…he’s a nice guy…” or someone told me. Was anybody at that show??
Or the time when I was leaving MMR and the band had an ice cream cake backstage at the Trenton War memorial which melted as I couldn’t make it.
But the best moment I missed was in August of 1978 when I was newly back in town and Bruce was playing the Spectrum. Again I didn’t make the show and he gave me this shoutout which is documented on a very good boot and at the “Storyteller” Website where every Bruce on stage utterance is recorded:
19.08.78 Philadelphia, PA, intro to ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’:
”Zipper keeps coming down, I’ll be right back …..(long pause)….now, don’t throw those things, alright, you’re gonna hit somebody in the head, I got hit on the head with one of those one night….I don’t know what you got there…..this is me…..and …..who’s this other guy ?….my uncle Ernie, alright…..you guys with the binoculars …..when….. when we first came to Philly (cheers)…..there was….there was a guy by the name of David Dye …..who was working for WMMR at the time…..and was just a great, you know, great supporter of us, now he is not here tonight…..but uh, I wanna do this song for him…..’cause I know he’s back in town , (?) he’s back in the radio again here in town, isn’t he ?….and uh…..I haven’t seen him in a while but this is for David Dye so somebody tell him we did this for him, alright ?….”
Wish I was there…
The Boss’ 10th AVENUE FREEZEOUT has to be ONE OF THE MOMENTS.. . .
July 19th, 2007 at 1:10 pmChristmas 1975–
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:24 pmSpringsteen touring behind Born To Run. 4 straight nights at The Tower. A very tough ticket to get. My girlfriend gave me a ticket for Christmas.
That was my first time seeing Bruce and The E Street Band. I have seen Bruce 60+ times and enjoyed every show, but the December 28, 975 still ranks as my favorite performance of all time and has changed my life to the better in so many ways.
That Christmas present still ranks as my greatest Christmas gift of all time.
Oh yes, the Tower 1975 Bruce Springsteen concert. I only scored a ticket because a friend of my cousin was dating Matt Damsker, rock writer for the Evening Bulletin (RIP). What an amazing show… after that it was arenas and fame and all that.
August 12th, 2007 at 7:19 pmAlso fondly remember the Main Point from the early 70’s but I can’t claim to have been there when Bruce performed….