Garry W. Tallent

The Foundation of The E Street Nation, The Tennessee Terror, Mr. Garry W. Tallent, celebrates a birthday today.

One of the best shows I’ve ever attended was the November 8, 2009 concert at Madison Square Garden at which Springsteen and the band played The River album start to finish. I actually attended the show as something of an afterthought: When Springsteen, Inc. announced in early November that they’d be playing The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle and The River on consecutive nights that weekend, I immediately knew I’d have to make the last-minute pilgrimage to see WIESS. Some people may have enough discipline to pass up a guaranteed Incident and Serenade, but I am not one of them.

So, I figured since I was going up for the Saturday show, it would be a mistake not to stick around for The River the next night. Both shows were incredible; WIESS featured a full horn section and an orchestra, and was every bit as wonderful as I’d hoped (and Elvis Costello joined the band for Higher and Higher during the encoring, fulfilling my longtime-but-farfetched desire to see Bruce and Elvis share a stage.)

But overall, The River may have been a better show. The double-album’s first half has never been my favorite collection of Springsteen songs. The Ties That Bind, Jackson Cage, Two Hearts, Out In The Street -- plenty of people love these songs, but I’ve always thought of them as fairly generic Springsteen tracks.* That night, however, they came alive for me in a way they never have before.**

But the second disc of the album -- or, if you prefer, sides 3 and 4 -- contain some truly gorgeous songs, like Drive All Night and Stolen Car and Fade Away and Point Blank. Songs on which the E Street Band becomes a little smaller (though no less grand) and intimate. As it happened, my seat directly to the right of the stage, looking over Roy Bittan’s shoulder from about 15 rows back, afforded a fantastic view of Roy, Bruce, Max and Garry, the subset of the band that is, to me, most essential for these songs. And every one of them exceeded my sky-high expectations. The sequence from The River through Wreck on the Highway lasted about an hour, and I can’t reasonably expect to see an hour that perfect ever again.

Anyway, when I think of that show, one of the first things I think of is the perfect view I had of Garry Tallent, standing in the background, playing bass like he invented it. Here’s his favorite song, Point Blank, from one of the best concerts I’ll ever see: 

 

* To be clear: “generic Springsteen” in my book is still better than almost anything else by almost anyone else.)

** Some of that was due to Patti Scialfa, making a rare 2009 appearance with the band, and more energetic and engaged and essential than I’ve ever seen her. I’ve never been among the Patti detractors who are glad when she isn’t at a show, though I do agree that I could do without her vocal contributions on some -- some, not all -- songs. But The River that night would not have been the same without her.

Comments

[KevinNYC]

Both Bruce and Elvis were part of the house band for Roy Orbison's Black and White night. Now on blu-ray!

http://www.amazon.com/Roy-Orbison-Black-White-Blu-ray/dp/B0017XFP4U/ref=ed_oe_blu

I got to see Garry Tallent join guitar madman Link Wray in a small club in NY once. Very cool night.