Forget what the cynics say: you’re never too old to rock ‘n’ roll. To wit: last night over 450 collective years of rock history crammed the stage on Saturday Night Live, as Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band played the show for the first time since 2015. (It would’ve been over 500 years, if regular bass player Gary Tallent hadn’t sat out as a COVID precaution.)
Bruce and the band played two songs off of the just released album Letter to You, the rousing epic “Ghosts” and the elegiac “I’ll See You in My Dreams.” “Ghosts” especially felt like vintage E Street, with multiple guitars ringing out together, a hushed piano breakdown, lyrics about guitars and lost friends, and a triumphant saxophone solo. It’s not like Springsteen fans have ever been the type to suffer through the new songs in order to hear the hits (the new songs have almost always been good with this guy), but I suspect fans will be especially excited to hear Letter to You’s songs live whenever the E Street Band is able to tour again.
If you missed it, or just want to see it again, here are both songs on YouTube. No, they didn’t slip in a bonus third song during the good nights, as they did during the Christmas episode of 2015. Bummer.
