Tag Archives: VH1 Storytellers

Music Monday: August 25, 2025

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Hi, everyone. Welcome to this week’s edition of Music Monday.

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

“The screen door slams
Mary’s dress waves
Like a vision she dances
Across the porch as the radio plays”
-Bruce Springsteen, “Thunder Road”, 1975.

Those lines opened the most important record of my life. And today that masterpiece of an album celebrates its 50th anniversary.

The iconic photo on the cover of the album was taken by Eric Meola.

Bruce Springsteen was 25 when it was released. During his performance on VH-1’s “Storytellers” in 2005, he said the album was “his big invitation to his audience, to himself, to anybody that was interested to a long earthly journey. Hopefully in the company of someone you love, people you love and in search of a home you can feel a part of.”  

So glad I went along for the ride. It was like taking the road less traveled and realizing it was the best one after all.  

I still remember the day I went to buy it. When I heard him on the radio, for some reason I did not wonder what Springsteen looked like. I did not think about that on my way to the record store, either. I’m not sure why. But one look at him on the cover of BTR-the long hair, the beard, the leather jacket, that smile…..sa-woon. But even with that physical swagger, it was his words that reached a place inside me so deep I did not think anything or anyone could touch.

The album’s back cover featured The Big Man (and his sax), Clarence Clemons. (Credit: Eric Meola).

As I have written before, “BTR is my heart. Springsteen’s masterpiece changed the trajectory of my life. I loved music before I heard this record, without question. But I became consumed by it because of BTR.

The musicianship, the poetry, the pageantry of his storytelling, the characters and his cautionary tales about life, loss, betrayal & the inevitable roads life will sometimes take us down all led to a phenomenal place I now know as home. This record brought light to the darkest place I knew, hope to replace despair, joy to remove unimaginable sadness and peace for a shattered heart. There are no words adequate enough to thank someone for all of that. Not to mention how great it was to find another person who loved the magic of the night just as much as I did.”

I will love Bruce forever.  He is home to me.  And that started with Born To Run. 

Thank you, Bruce.  

(Credit: Eric Meola.)

Bruce Springsteen: “Thunder Road” (1975, written by Bruce Springsteen).

Bruce Springsteen: “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” (1975, written by Bruce Springsteen).

Bruce Springsteen: “Backstreets” (1975, written by Bruce Springsteen).

Bruce Springsteen: “Born To Run” (1975, written by Bruce Springsteen).

Bruce Springsteen: “Jungleland” (1975, written by Bruce Springsteen).

Stay safe & well.

Music Monday: April 28, 2025

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Hi, everyone. Welcome to this week’s edition of Music Monday.

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Bread released their second album, On the Waters, in July 1970. The lead single came out three months earlier and became the #1 song in the U.S. for one week on August 22, 1970. The band had six Top Ten hits but this was their only top selling record. It was one of my mother’s favorite songs and she played the 45 so much it actually warped. And I still know every word by heart. A hundred years later, as soon as I hear the opening chords, I am transported back to that time so fast I lose my breath. On the series “Mad Men”, Don Draper likened “nostalgia” to a time machine, taking us to a place where we wish to go again. This song makes me long for a home I no longer have. And I ache for it.

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Welsh musician Pete Ham was best known as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter, guitarist & pianist for the band Badfinger. Their first hit, “Come & Get It”, was written & produced by Paul McCartney as the group was the first band signed to The Beatles’ Apple Records label in 1968.

Other hits followed including “No Matter What” and “Baby Blue” along with “Without You” which was covered by Harry Nilsson in 1971 and became a #1 hit for four consecutive weeks in early 1972. Ham co-wrote that song and was one of an array of guitarists who contributed to George Harrison’s solo album, All Things Must Pass, a year earlier. You would think that a musician’s story that started with an affiliation with The Beatles would have a reasonably happy ending. But that was not the case.

A string of fraudulent business deals by an unscrupulous manager who embezzled the band’s money left Ham distraught and he died by suicide 50 years ago on April 24, 1975, three days before his 28th birthday. I prefer not to acknowledge the date of an artists’ death, but Badfinger’s story is one-if not the saddest (a second member of the band, Tom Evans, also died by suicide in 1983)-in musical history. And their incredible contributions to music-and the price they paid-should be remembered.

Peter William Ham: April 27, 1947 – April 24, 1975.

Top: Badfinger circa 1969 (L-R): Pete Ham, Joey Molland, Mike Gibbins and Tom Evans. Bottom: George Harrison (L) and Ham (R) in the studio in 1971. (Images found online.  Original sources unknown.)

Twenty years ago my favorite episode of VH1’s “Storytellers” aired. Bruce Springsteen took center stage in the installment which was broadcast on April 23, 2005. It coincided with the release of his 13th studio album, Devils & Dust, three days later. He debuted the title track and “Jesus Was An Only Son” during the show. He closed his set with the first track off his 1975 masterpiece, Born To Run, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this August.

And forty years ago, Springsteen was one part of the all-star group who formed USA For Africa to record “We Are The World”, a philanthropic single which was a #1 hit for four weeks in the spring of 1985. An album by the same name was released on April 1, 1985 which has a live track by Springsteen. Last year Netflix released the documentary, “The Greatest Night in Pop” which provides a behind the scenes look in the studio during the recording of the charity song.

Bruce Springsteen at the piano during VH1’s Storytellers in April 2005. (Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Bread: “Make It With You” (1970, written by David Gates).

Badfinger “Day After Day” (1971, written by Pete Ham. Produced by George Harrison and Todd Rundgren).

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: “Trapped” (1985, recorded live at Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey on August 6, 1984, written by Jimmy Cliff).

Bruce Springsteen: “Thunder Road” (live performance on VH1 Storytellers, broadcast date April 23, 2005).

Stay safe & well.

Let’s Take A Moment Day 162

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Hi everyone.  Hope you are all well and continue to stay that way during this global health crisis we are facing.  But in addition to protecting your physical wellness, what are you doing to stay mentally healthy today?

Bruce quote

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

I know we are in a serious situation, but I need a break from the gloom, doom and bullying by way of hoarding. Music has always been my refuge and watching those beautiful Italians singing to each other from their balconies reaffirmed my belief that music is the answer. So until the old normal returns, I am going to share a song I listen to that helps me escape the current state of things, if only for a few minutes each day.  And if this helps anyone else, even better.

I have not yet finished celebrating the recording anniversary of the “Layla” album (see Day 159) only to find an even bigger milestone upon me.  Forty-five years ago today-August 25, 1975-another album that changed my life was released.  Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run” is my heart.  It claimed it when I was 12 years old and has never let go.  He was 25 when it came out, and a year younger when he wrote lines like “You’re scared and you’re  thinking we ain’t that young anymore”. from “Thunder Road”.  He explained why in 2005 on VH1’a “Storytellers”:  “These songs were written in 1974, which is only two years after the end of the Vietnam War and nobody was that young anymore”.

On the same show he said this album was “his big invitation to his audience, to himself, to anybody that was interested to a long earthly journey. Hopefully in the company of someone you love, people you love and in search of a home you can feel a part of.”  So glad I went along for the ride. It was like taking the road less traveled and realizing it was the best one after all.  I will love Bruce forever.  He is home to me.

In an interview on BBC Television in 2016, Springsteen said he spent six months writing this album & six months recording it and as it went on it developed into this very big piece of music.  That is putting it mildly.  Today’s song is one of two on the album that does not feature a sax solo by The Big Man.  As much as I love to hear his signature sound, his absence is barely noticeable in this exquisite symphony.  This song is another one of Springsteen’s cinematic masterpieces that is like a six hour mini-series disguised as a six minute song.  It features colorful characters, dark imagery & tells the story of betrayed friendships in an absolutely heartbreaking way.  Every part of the song is a work of art, but if one instrument stands out, it is Roy Bittan’s piano.  His playing is astonishing.  As The Bossman has been for me virtually all of my life.  Swoon.

“Blame it on the lies that killed us, blame it on the truth that ran us down
You can blame it all on me Terry, it don’t matter to me now
When the breakdown hit at midnight there was nothing left to say
But I hated him and I hated you when you went away“.

BTR 1

One of the pictures taken by Eric Meola during the “Born To Run” photo session in 1975.  (Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Bruce Springsteen:  “Backstreets” (1975, written by Bruce Springsteen).

I do not own the rights to anything.  I am just sharing what I love and how I am coping with you.

Stay well.