Fidelity and Passion

In case you missed it, Bruce Springsteen spent an hour with Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. It was the only late night outing for Springsteen as he promotes the The Promise: Darkness on the Edge of Town (the re-issue of the 1978 album, with all kinds of musical and personal extras).

I still have goosebumps remembering the musical highlight of the evening, when Springsteen, Roy Bittan and Steven Van Zant, along with The Legendary Roots Crew (hands down the band of late night television) did a version of Because The Night. Watching it was part out-of-body experience, part spiritual revival. It was, quite simply, fidelity and passion personified. Fallon reported Wednesday night that there is a permanent dent in the floor of the set.

I am, admittedly, a late convert to the church of Springsteen. While I am certainly familiar (!) with the Born in the USA album, it was actually Tunnel of Love that truly started the conversion, which was completed with The Rising. While timing may have played some part (released in 2002 after 9/11), its spare, plaintive appeal struck a deep internal chord.

Here’s the link to the YouTube clip of the performance that absolutely brought all who witnessed it to their knees. It is one thing for a young Springsteen to write "... they can't hurt you now." It's quite another to see him perform it with such authenticity three decades later.

Oh. My.