bruce on music

[Ken Gargett]

this is part of the speech bruce gave on being the musicare musician of the year a while back. i’ve cut some of it but i thought this was terrific.

he’d just had a heap of the world’s greats playing his music and then after this he did ‘we take care of our own’ and a few more then ‘thunder road’, ‘born to run’ and ‘glory days’.

brilliant.

worth getting the dvd.

best

kbg

The people whose music have inspired us and soothe their broken hearts, angered us, whose music we’ve got married to, divorced to, music that’s been with us on our blackest days, stood by us in war and in peace, made us laugh, made us be strong, helped us not be stupid and formed us and loved us.

Music, do you believe in magic? There is no faith required, none whatsoever, because it’s all like this evening, right? Here in front of you.

I’ve seen it, I’ve been a part of the miracle of music. I’ve seen people tired and depressed and weary and worn out, soul off. And I’ve seen them revived, rise from their seats and dance.

The Taliban will never win, not now or not ever, not here, not in Timbuktu by banning the music and dancing, don’t tell them. The minute you do that, you label yourself a tyrant and your cruel days are numbered. The minute Timbuktu was liberated, what did people do? They played music, and they danced.

I was so happy to read that in the paper. I was happy for them, and happy for us “Vive la France!” You can’t triumph without music because music is life; music is the birds singing, the wheat rustling in the fields, strumming of the wind through the leaves of that tree that was in the backyard of your childhood home. The earth and the stars rolling through the heavens at night, before man or a woman heard their name, they heard music. They heard the wind rushing past their eardrums, the grasses humming with insects, the birds knocking and rocking in the trees.

Thank you MusiCares for taking care of musicians, because we are bad with our money, we spend it too freely, and on too many stupid things. We drink it away, we do drugs, we love too many and the wrong people, we are the wrong people.

Once in a while we get it right, and then we sing about it, and we sing about it and we are musicians. Take me for instance, I am here tonight under totally false pretenses, because whatever philanthropy I’ve ever done, it usually just involves me playing the guitar, making a few bucks and bringing some attention to the folks that are really doing the work, shouldn’t count really much. I mean, I was going to be playing the guitar anyway.

You know, and I am actually, I’m here tonight because last year, Mr. Landau, my manager called me up and said, “Boss, what do you think about opening the Grammys this year with your new song, and we had a new record, and I thought it was one of the berst records that I ever made, and so I wanted to promote it, right?

(on patti smith)

And see you gave me one of my greatest, and I play this song almost every night, so it’s your song and thank you for being here along with all of the other musicians, that’s the humbling thing. I mean, it’s wonderful to see people come up and sing your music, the young musicians. Musicians like the great musicians that are gathered here tonight, there is a group of people who are always in search, born searchers, born to get lost, born to get lost.

Because that’s 98% of it and then suddenly, suddenly you’re home. All people who are always in search of the power to sustain, the best of ourselves and to seek out the best in you, our fans and our audience. We want to be great. Like Neil (Young) says in his book, “Be great or be gone,” we want to be great, we want to be important in your life, that was all that mattered to me. I didn’t care if I was going to be a, I don’t know if it’s going to make it rich or be famous or but I wanted to be great more than anything else, and I wanted to be important in your life.

Because you keep us in search of the force that reignites our gifts, our ability to make you want to move, to dance, to love, to make love, to be angry, to act. When we play, we want the hair to stand up on your arms; we want you to feel the glory. And we want you to be glad of being alive. And really at the end of the day, that’s all there is to it. My fellow musicians, young and old tonight, thanks for taking care of me and taking care of my songs this evening. I’ll never forget it and I owe each and every one of you; one.

[jerryg05495]

Thanks for sharing. I just got back from the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Music is an incredible medium, makes us feel so alive.

Hope everyone is well.

[IPORTER]

Thanks for sharing Ken!

Seen the Boss now 3 times, once in Dublin, Ireland and twice in Barcelona, Spain. Wouldn't be as big a fan as yourself but hats off, this guy gives it his all for 3-4 hours on stage non-stop. At his age, the guy seems unstoppable. Really involves the crowd and there definitely is a sense of well being after leaving one of his concerts..

Missus on the other hand would trade me in to be 5 mins in the presence of Mr. Springsteen! She goes all over Europe following his shows!

Incredible live performance!! Keep it up Brucey!

[OZCUBAN]

Thanks for sharing Ken its been a while since we had a bruce thread

[El Presidente]

I was over at kens for a vid review yesterday.

I was thrilled to find out that we would not be listening to a Bruce CD/DVD

Instead I was treated to a DVD of other musicians singing Bruce songs.....

The nightmare never stops

[MIKA27]

its been a while since we had a bruce thread

...there's a reason for that!

[MostlyHarmless]

I've always loved his music. A few years back, i took the Chance to go to a Concert when he was in Vienna. It was incredible. 3+ hours and the first Time he played Jersey Girl outside of the USA. Unforgettable Evening. Also the Big Man was still around.

(sorry for the shaky Photo, but my cellphone wasn't really great back then )

[KoreanCowboy]

Today is the 30 year anniversary of the release of Born in the USA!!