Letter To You: A celebration of all that is great on E Street

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 In 2021 it will be 40 years since I first saw Bruce Springsteen play live.

“He’ll change your life” my music teacher told me when I said I had a ticket to his 1981 gig at the Playhouse Theatre in Edinburgh.

The River was my induction into E Street.


Letter To You is its perfect bookend.


Two albums, four decades apart, both infused with the same mesmerising vigour and spirit which are the hallmark of his epic concerts.


It’s ironic that an album built for stage and stadium can only be played on repeat in our homes, but it gives us something special in dark times - hope.


Letter To You may well tick every box in Springsteen’s armoury (sure it's got trains, journeys and a girl called Janey) , but it is still something quite magnificent. Raw, reflective, personal and powerful, and all of it wrapped in those unmistakable ties that bind E Street.


Recorded live in a matter of days, it has that same ‘live’ feel that the movie of Western Stars captured so beautifully and delivered to the big screen.


As with Western Stars, the album reveals more with every listen; the layers peeling back to hit you with a lyric, a hook, or a story which simply chime.


The opening solo track ‘One Minute You’re Gone; is simply beautiful before the band storms into the title track. 

And we’re off …


Last Man Standing is as personal as Springsteen gets as he reflects on being the only surviving member of his high school band, The Castiles.


The past also gives us three songs written when he was in his 20s, and recorded now as he nudges into his 70s, and the rousing, defiant Ghosts which sees him recall the lifelong friendship and musical adventures with Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons.


And while a sense of loss runs through this album, it is also a defiant affirmation of life.


“We’ll meet and live and laugh again” Springsteen promises as he fades out the album with the poignant I’ll See You In My Dreams.


The Letter To You tour -wherever and whenever it may take place - will surely be one to savour for everyone has grown up and viewed E Street as their second home...


Western Stars: My Lockdown soundtrack:

https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/5396243469288047736/5371197042076305145


15 Springsteen songs to get you through lockdown:
https://viewfromfife.blogspot.com/2020/04/15-springsteen-songs-to-get-you-through.html

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