Tag: Sam and Dave
Where stars are born and legends are made
by admin on Sep.29, 2009, under General
Went to the Apollo in Harlem last friday night. My first time. I arrived out of the subway to a big crowd and a big buzz. Street vendors outside were still selling their Micheal Jackson memorabilia, I was in NYC when James Brown passed and I remember seeing the crowds flock here then on the TV.
Inside before the show I had some time to kill… went to check out the gallery, the apollo hall of fame, pictures of Sarah Vaughan, Ben E King, Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Jackson 5, Billie Holiday, Glady’s Knight & the Pips- they all got their start here. Read about the “Amateur Night” they had in the 30’s and 40’s where Ella Fitzgerald made her Apollo debut in 1934, read a story about a man named ‘The Executioner’ who’d come onstage with a big broom and sweep the act offstage if the crowd didn’t like the em… can you imagine?!
I was as excited to be here, as I was about the nights main event. The taping of Spectacle: Elvis Costello with Bruce Springsteen.
I had the best seats in the house five rows from the front. The Apollo’s neat. Tiny place with a big imposing stage much smaller than the empire in Shepherds Bush.
As we waited for the show to begin Suicide’s ‘Dream Baby Dream’ came on. Love that record.
The director told us how to behave for the taping ect then on came our host Elvis and show began. He did a couple of Bruce Tunes with his band the Imposters. They worked up a song where Elvis did this rap about ‘The Boss’ before welcoming on the man himself. The whole place got to its feet. Bruce frenzy.
The show went on for four hours bit intense! Lot’s of serious talk about song writing. You can tell Elvis is a real Bruce fan, and you could tell half the audience were music fans loving it and the other half were fame fans thinking about that table they’d booked for dinner.
Highlights were the two of them doing a Sam and Dave number, bit brave at the Apollo. Handy the executioner wasn’t in town, he might have had to get out his broom..
Elvis questioned Bruce right the way through his whole career, One part got real close to home for me.. Bruce spoke about the years 25 to 28 about not being able to put out a record in these years and that it caused him a lot of pain and hurt at the time, he said these years are a massive chunk of your whole life.
It got me in the gut. Like a rope that tightens inside
The only ones in Rock n Roll are the desperate ones you gotta be a desperate guy. I really wanna get this record out next year, otherwise this thing inside’s gonna eat me up Baby…
At the end the boss put on a show with the band, it was a relief. Bruce is outrageous at close range in a small place like the Apollo. I thought this is what we should have been doing all night…
