It is a tribute to the NYT obit desk that Joe is recognized, because certainly all things Springsteen are recognized. Michael S. Rosenwald's informative obit tells me at least, why Springsteen seemed to call a fastball—which would have fit into his song, two syllables—a speedball. Bruce stunk at baseball and probably didn't care what anything was called. No broadcast announcer from the booth has ever called a pitcher's pitch a "speedball." I never understood until now why "fastball" wasn't used in the lyric.
The great thing about an online obit edition is that imbedded in the obit is a link to a video of Springsteen and the E Street Band playing "Glory Days." Everyone looks so young.
The above photo is from 2005, and I would have thought it would have been older. Saddie—as in sad— was Joe's nickname for Bruce because Bruce was an indifferent Little League player whose inability to catch a routine fly ball in right field cost the team the game. The ball actually hit Bruce in the head. He could have been nicknamed Charlie Brown.
My wife remembers Bruce as a teenager playing in the cellar of Gordon (Tex) Vineyard's house in the 60s in Freehold, New Jersey. She spent half her summers in Freehold staying at Aunt Helen's place on Jerseyville Avenue, hard by the Nescafé plant.
Aunt Helen and Uncle Bill had four kids. They were contemporaries of Bruce's and followed his growing up in Freehold. Tex was Bruce's first manager who got him dates in all the bars he knew of, and he knew plenty of them. Tex was a bit a garrulous guy who worked at the local hospital. His wife was Marion, and they had no children.
I remember Tex at Aunt Helen's when my wife and I visited in the '70s. I never met Bruce, but his Aunt was a hairdresser at Bamberger's department store where cousin Eileen worked. Everyone in Freehold knew of Bruce. They all said he was the nicest, most genuine type of guy.
After Tex died Bruce bought a house for Marion to live in. Bruce had remained devoted to Tex for getting him started and chose to go to his funeral rather than Roy Orbison's, who passed away at the same time. Bruce provided for those he cared about. Tex was actually born in Oklahoma, and figures in one of Bruce's songs.
Marion was a childhood classmate of Uncle Bill, and when he was widowed and needing medical care, she provided what was really hospice care in her home. My wife and I visited Uncle Bill there and in the finished cellar were several gold/platinum records Bruce had given Marion. I'm not sure Marion is still alive.
I've never been to a Springsteen concert. I'm not sure I could stand up that long, because surely no one remains in their seat. Perhaps oddly, my wife never liked Springsteen. She didn't like him as a teenager, and doesn't like him now. She says, "he yells."
No matter. I think next to Billy Joel he's a total talent, and it turns out my own contemporary. When my father was in the final stages of cancer at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx in 1987, some patients were treated to music on the veranda that was of their era, WW II songs like "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree." I thought to myself they'll be playing Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen if I wind up in the same place.
Bruce never did a Christmas album. Perhaps thankfully. However, one of my favorite Springsteen songs is "Santa Claus in Coming to Town." "Hey band" followed by questions about their awareness of Christmas and their behavior will always have me turning up the volume, much to the annoyance of my family because I'll do it even if it isn't Christmastime. It's about being with his buddies, to whom he will always be steadfastly loyal to.
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