July 30, 2002, Bruce Springsteen releases his album, “The Rising.” On the morning of the release, he does a live performance on the Today Show from the Convention Center in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I was lucky enough to be there. In fact, I have to say a thanks to my buddy JP who hooked me up at the record company to get me in there. And Bruce performed a few songs from the album as well as performing a little bit of acoustic for the crowd that was in the Convention Center. He kind of did that off camera. And one of the things about this album is a lot of people hail it as a masterpiece. This is in many ways Bruce’s response to the September 11th tragedy. You can see that in certain songs. Of course, the title track, which really lays out some of the events of September 11th itself. There’s also songs like “You’re Missing” and “Lonesome Day”, “My City of Ruins”, which Bruce actually ended up performing on the telethon immediately following the September 11th tragedy. But as much as it surrounds that date, Somebody once more accurately described this album as being more about September 12th and the aftermath and where we go next. And Bruce, in fact, said that when he really decided he had to write about this subject was seeing a fan somewhere after that on the street and them yelling to him, “Where are you? Because we need you now.”
We also have to acknowledge a rock birthday today, not just a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, but a Blues icon as well, Buddy Guy.