Various Artists: A Musicares Tribute To Bruce Springsteen

The great, good and so-so pay tribute to The Boss.

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Filmed last February in Los Angeles with fellow New Jersey comedian Jon Stewart as Master Of Ceremonies, The Alabama Shakes opener Adam Raised A Cain sets an intense pitch, maintained by Patti Smith’s Because The Night.

A few miss the mark – Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill – but bullseyes include Tom Morello’s E Street Band duelling with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James on Tom Joad.

At the kill, before an evidently pleased and proud Springsteen blasts through a short set (complete with all-star cast Glory Days finale), the absolute highlight comes with Neil Young & Crazy Horse. A Canadian he may be but his supremely incandescent Born In The USA has to be seen and heard to be believed. “He made me sound like The Sex Pistols,” chuckles Bruce. Indeed – simply awesome.

Gavin Martin
Gavin Martin

Late NME, Daily Mirror and Classic Rock writer Gavin Martin started writing about music in 1977 when he published his hand-written fanzine Alternative Ulster in Belfast. He moved to London in 1980 to become the NME’s Media Editor and features writer, where he interviewed the Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer, Pete Townshend, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Ian Dury, Killing Joke, Neil Young, REM, Sting, Marvin Gaye, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, James Brown, Willie Nelson, Willie Dixon, Madonna and a host of others. He was also published in The Times, Guardian, Independent, Loaded, GQ and Uncut, he had pieces on Michael Jackson, Van Morrison and Frank Sinatra featured in The Faber Book Of Pop and Rock ’N’ Roll Is Here To Stay, and was the Daily Mirror’s regular music critic from 2001. He died in 2022.