Bruce Springsteen Live CD features my photo

May 13, 2015 • 1 Comment

In 1984, I graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. I packed up a backpack with more camera equipment and film than clothes and set off on a summer adventure, backpacking all thru Europe. I met some amazing people, some of whom are still in my life today. I gave my brother, Stu, specific instructions when I left: "Bruce Springsteen tickets for the Meadowlands and Philadelphia will be going on sale-you have to get me tickets for every night."

I called home from Rome and Stu said "I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?" I said "the good news." He replied, "Bruce is playing 10 nights at the Meadowlands but I got you tickets for one night n Philly." I told him..."I'm coming home."
I sped up my trip and made a quick detour to Scandinavia to see where my new friend, Morten Rank was from (I had met and traveled for 2 weeks with Morten before he headed to Greece.)

I arrived home in New Jersey and went to the Meadowlands and managed to get tickets for all 10 shows.

Bruce Springsteen went deep into my vaults and chose one of my never seen before photos I took of him when I was 22 years old for his latest live CD and digital download of the August 5, 1984 concert at the then Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, NJ. This photo doesn't even appear in my book, "Bruce Springsteen In Focus 1980-2012" which was published in 2013.

To purchase the CD, go to:

http://brucespringsteen.net/

http://live.brucespringsteen.net/live-music/0,12491/Bruce-Springsteen---The-E-Street-Band-mp3-flac-download-8-5-1984-Brendan-Byrne-Arena-East-Rutherford-NJ.html

Keywords: Bruce Springsteen, BruceSpringsteen.net, Meadlowlands

Comments

Cary Allen Wilson(non-registered)

Congrats! I already preordered it. I'm actually liking the no-frills packaging for these tour CDs - black and white photos but using the appropriate matching typesets for each tour.

Moderately interesting anecdote about photographing Bruce show: On the "Wrecking Ball" tour a couple of years ago, for the show at Nationals Ballpark in D.C., I was part of the lottery/wristband system to get into the pit for the best views at the front of the stage. They pick numbers, the ones on your wristband, to "reset" randomly the order to get into the show. The guy I was talking to in line had a number higher than me, and his was chosen to go first - which meant I had to wait and go all the way to the end of the line! As everyone walked past me, they all took pity on me as the realized what had happened to me. It all turned out ok, since, once we were in the pit, friends ushered me up to the far-right edge of the stage for a great spot for the show.

Well, while I watched the concert at that edge of the stage, I took several shots with my iPhone 5s. At one point in the night, I noticed a guy on the other side of the barrier getting shots.

A few days later, somewhere on the Internet, I read, maybe, a blog post that had almost the exact same shot I had taken, same composition, angle, etc., only it was from a just slightly closer vantage point. Turns out it was Pete Souza, the current White House photographer! He had been invited to the show to take photographs, and I could have leaned over and talked to him, if I had so disorder. Our photos were nearly identical, but his was ever so slightly better.

I saw Bruce and band in Greensboro, NC, on the BITUSA tour, by the way.

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