So in 1991 John Prine arrives in LA to record "The Missing Years". The day he arrives in town, he runs into (an E Street Bandless) Springsteen at an Italian Restaurant. Springsteen (a huge fan) volunteers to play or do anything on the album. They record at (Heartbreaker) Howie Epstein's Laurel Canyon home and this song (co-written with Mellencamp) is the result...
Tasty (if unexpected) musical collaborations
- Thread starter cosmickid
- Start date
Jesse Malin is a NYC singer/songwriter with a largely East coast based following. He is also a frequent guest/performer for the LOD Charity show in Asbury Park which Bruce usually participates in if he isn't touring. They got to know each other, and Bruce was impressed enough to volunteer his services. In 2007 Jesse asked Bruce to sing backup on a song he had written about his mother who died of an overdose when he was young.
If anyone is familiar with the Harlan Coben hero Spencer Hill- this is Spencer's favorite song. The song is called Broken Radio,and Bruce's background vocals mesh extremely well with Jesse's tenor. I really like this video. It opens with a brief discourse from Giorgio Gomelsky on the power of "radio". He's speaking from vast experience. Giorgio owned the Crawdaddy Club in London in the '60s, has produced numerous acts over the years and at one time was a manager of both The Yardbirds and The Stones...
I'd say "tasty" is a pretty concise term to apply to this performance... Really enjoy this...
Another tasty morsel- From a chilly Sept night at Red Rocks in 1999 Jackson Browne doing Your Bright Baby Blues/ w Bonnie Raitt. I spy Bruce Hornsby on keyboards and as usual David Lindley on steel- probably others I'm missing. Likely a charity gig...
More sparkling work from Bonnie- joining CSN for a performance of Love Has No Pride from the 25th RRHOF Anniversary Celebration in 2009...
And while Bonnie has covered this Prine classic for years and sings lead here, the real revelation is the talent of Ruthie Foster...
From Austin in 2016 Angel From Montgomery
OK, this is a collaboration that I never knew existed, and never would have dreamed of in a million years. Must be some amalgamation of Ringo's All-Stars, and I just now discovered it for the first time...
So it starts with Joe Walsh playing the opening chords of Amazing Grace and segues into Rocky Mountain Way. He's joined by Ringo, Levon doing amazing harp work, Rick D on base and Nils Lofgren on 2nd guitar. And then the biggest surprise is when you see/hear The Big Man blowing his sax... Then throw in Billy Preston, Jim Keltner and Dr John for good measure... So many Legends sharing the stage...
So imagine two friends grow up in separate parts of Canada and meet each other in the mid-1960s Toronto club scene where they are both aspiring musicians. The guy plays in a "rock" band, and the girl is more of a folk singer-songwriter artist. The guy hangs out at a teen club where his band plays, and in '68 when he turns 20 yrs old he is shattered to learn that he's now viewed as too old to attend the "teen hangout" with his friends and bandmates...
So he writes a song about his lost youth and the pain of adulthood and plays it for his friend. She writes a song in response to console him and try to show him that life doesn't end at 21, that it's the beginning of a new chapter. Eventually, both friends embark on their respective musical odysseys and a couple of years later they find themselves reunited in LA, and both actually end up hanging out in Laurel Canyon. Not only that, but the girl is the romantic interest of 2/3 of a musical trio he is about to become a part of, and they've just released a debut album that includes 3 or 4 songs specifically about her. It is 1969...
All of them go on to widespread acclaim, and a year or so later she is performing at the Royal Albert Hall in London, along with another Love interest who is an emerging Superstar in his own right. As they perform together she introduces the song she wrote back in Canada and tells the story of her friend who was disconsolate at the thought of turning 20. I wonder how many people who were in the audience that night and heard her talk about her friend realized who she was talking about? The intro is amazing from a historical perspective and the harmonies on this version are stunning...
So this may have not been totally unexpected (they rehearsed it). But for those in the audience that night, and those of us in the theaters subsequently watching Scorsese's brilliant film adaption I'd say the collaboration on this song was unexpected. I'm not even sure the crowd in Winterland even saw Joni since she sang her harmonies off to the side and seemed to be partially hidden...
By 1976, our 2 friends who met as teenagers in Canada had come a long way from his despair at turning 20 and no longer being allowed on Sugar Mountain, and her attempt to console him with the reminder that life is a Circle Game. The genesis for this song likely came from that period as well...
Speaking of old friends... These guys knew each other for a long time, and although they were basically the same age, one was a lot more weathered and just seemed to be an old soul. Jackson wrote this song before he even met Gregg when they were both 18 or so. But in a lot of ways, it seems like he wrote the song FOR Gregg...
I hadn't listened to this for a while, and went back and played it just now. The song has been covered multiple times (Don Gibson's original dates back to the 50s) but this version by Rosanne and Bruce is special. Love Rosanne's voice and Bruce almost sounds like Roy Orbison. For some reason, I always think of Rosanne as in her 40s, so I was shocked to learn she is actually just a month or so younger than me...
OK I keep discovering new videos I've never seen before. Here's The Pretender and The excitable Boy together on one of my favorite WZ songs. It's from his self-titled debut album, which btw Jackson produced. Jackson basically introduced Warren to me,and the rest of the world as well. Some very rare pics in this montage- Mama Cass, John Belushi and a shot at around 2:04 with the cosmickid himself sitting on the couch flanked by both Warren and JB...
And for good measure, another classic performance Warren and JB on Old Grey Whistle Test from back in '76...
Johnny and Bruce have each covered each other multiple times. This is one of the lesser-known songs from The Rising that Johnny chose to cover
And this is a lesser-known JC song that Bruce performed in a tribute show following Johnny's death...
