The penultimate SNL episode for 2020 brought Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band together in Studio 8H for the first time, and their first public performance in four years. This SNL episode also featured Tonight Show musical director Questlove in a sketch on classic versus modern rap.
This week’s episode was hosted by NYC born and raised Timothée Chalamet, who gave a shout out to his mom, who was featured in the 90s sketch Massive Headwound Harry. Chalamet gave a musical interlude during his monologue, talking about his love for New York City, and was joined by Pete Davidson to talk about a Staten Island Christmas.
“Ghosts” was the first song of the night, a track off the recently released Letter To You. For Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s second song, a Christmas lit SNL stage framed an energetic performance of “I’ll See You in my Dreams.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYW-DIG-CV4
Rolling Stone reports E Street Band founding bassist Garry Tallent and violinist Soozie Tyrell had to skip the SNL performance due to COVID-19 protocols. Springsteen tweeted earlier in the week, “Garry and his family are fine as is Soozie, but we thank Jack Daley of the Disciples of Soul for sitting in.”
Despite having a career starting in the 1970s, Springsteen did not appear on Saturday Night Live until 1992, on an episode hosted by Tom Hanks.
Bruce Springsteen last appeared on Saturday Night Live on the 2015 Christmas episode, performing “Meet Me in the City” and “The Ties That Bind.” SNL returns next week with Kristen Wiig and musical guest Dua Lipa.
Ten days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, living legends and new artists came together for a primetime benefit concert, “America: A Tribute to Heroes.” The star-studded lineup included Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, U2, Billy Joel, Céline Dion, and Willie Nelson.
Executive produced by Tenth Planet Productions’ Joel Gallen, “A Tribute to Heroes” was simulcast across all major networks commercial-free. The September 21 concert won the 2002 Primetime Emmy Award for an Outstanding Variety Special, with many artists channeling the somber energy into the best performances of their careers. The telethon portion of “A Tribute to Heroes” raised over $150 million for 9/11 victims and their families, specifically police officers and firefighters. Years later, networks repeated the concert-telethon model for Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake.
The concert was filmed live in New York, Los Angeles, and London, with British and Canadian artists supporting their American peers. At each venue, the stage was decorated with hundreds of candles. Bruce Springsteen opened the show with the then-unreleased song “My City of Ruins,” playing guitar and harmonica. With the E Street Band, he introduced it as “a prayer for our fallen brothers and sisters.” The following year, the five-minute track closed out Springsteen’s 9/11-inspired album The Rising.
Stevie Wonder then performed “Love’s in Need of Love Today,” the opening track of Songs in the Key of Life, with gospel sextet Take 6.
U2 performed “Peace on Earth” and “Walk On” from London with Natalie Imbruglia and Dave Stewart. “Peace on Earth” was inspired by the 1998 Omagh car bombing, but took on new meaning after 9/11. For the performance, Bono changed the original lyrics from “I’m sick of hearing again and again that there’s gonna be peace on Earth” to “I’m sick of hearing again and again that there’s never gonna be peace on Earth.”
Billy Joel had the most hopeful performance of the night, singing and playing “New York State of Mind.” Rather than dwelling on tragedy, he expressed New Yorker pride and even smiled throughout his performance. Joel never officially released “New York State of Mind” as a single, but due to its popularity with fans it’s often mistaken as one.
In addition to the night’s abundance of established acts, then-new artists Alicia Keys and Enrique Iglesias took the stage. Keys performed a cover of “Someday We’ll All Be Free” by Donny Hathaway, beginning with a piano riff reminiscent of her future 2003 song “Diary.”
Enrique Iglesias had just broken out two years earlier in 1999 with “Bailamos,” but his signature hit would go on to become “Hero,” which he publicly performed for the first time that night. Radio DJs later mixed the song with audio from police, firefighters, and civilians, adding to the song’s popularity.
Iglesias wasn’t the only artist to sing a song called “Hero.” A few numbers later, Mariah Carey sang the just-as-famous song of the same name off her 1993 album Music Box. A New Yorker herself, Carey’s performance was more subdued than past renditions but characteristic of the night’s solemn energy.
The event also included some country artists. Faith Hill performed “There Will Come a Day” from her 2001 album Breathe with a backing gospel choir, and the Dixie Chicks (now The Chicks) performed the poignant “I Believe In Love.”
“America A Tribute to Heroes” ended on a patriotic note, with Céline Dion singing “God Bless America” and Willie Nelson leading the Los Angeles performers and speakers in a grand finale of “America the Beautiful.” Dion later released her cover as a single, and performed it again at the Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003. Céline Dion and Neil Young were the night’s only Canadian performers.
Other performers included Neil Young, Tom Petty, Sheryl Crow, Bon Jovi, Sting, Dave Matthews, and Paul Simon. Most major genres were well-represented: multiple pop, rock, country, folk, and soul artists were on the setlist, and despite their thematic similarities for the occasion, they were diverse in sound.
The success of “America: A Tribute to Heroes” prompted two more 9/11 tribute concerts a month later: the similarly diverse “Concert For New York City” in Madison Square Garden, and the pop-focused Michael Jackson-led “United We Stand.” In 2004, Rolling Stone named the 9/11 concerts “one of the 50 moments that changed rock,” and it’s easy to see why—despite the tragic circumstances that brought the artists together, many were on top of their game.
Music icon Bruce Springsteen is set to release Letter To You October 23 with his E Street Band. His 20th studio album is a harmonious fusion of all things Springsteen. At this level it’s hard to push the envelope further, instead Bruce steps back and opens up his heart.
The 12-track album is a micro-burst of Springsteen’s life in real-time, recorded in a mere five days at his home studio. “I love the emotional nature of Letter To You,” says Springsteen in the official press release. “And I love the sound of the E Street Band playing completely live in the studio, in a way we’ve never done before, and with no overdubs…it turned out to be one of the greatest recording experiences I’ve ever had.”
With that first snare-pickup we are catapulted in Bruce’s world, soaring effortless. The songwriting is flawless, opening mid-emotion. It paints distinct imagery only found deep in someones heart -“‘Neath a crown of mongrel trees, I pulled that bothersome thread.”
There is something to be said for the natural beauty and lack of refinement, to expose a new side of Springsteen. Likewise, the album features nine newly written songs and three unreleased tracks from the 1970’s – “Janey Needs a Shooter,” “If I Was the Priest,” and “Song for Orphans.”
Letter To You is Springsteen’s first time performing with the E Street Band since The River 2016 tour, which both Billboard and Pollstar both named as that year’s top global tour.
Tracklist: 1. One Minute You’re Here 2. Letter To You 3. Burnin’ Train 4. Janey Needs A Shooter 5. Last Man Standing 6. The Power Of Prayer 7. House Of A Thousand Guitars 8. Rainmaker 9. If I Was The Priest 10. Ghosts 11. Song For Orphans 12. I’ll See You In My Dreams
