On the subject of weather ...

[uwe]

The "highly cultured" Kraut loved Brooklyn when he lived there for four months in 1988 in the Park Slope area (an apartment in a Brownstone in a largely Hispanic neighborhood, no air conditioning, but high ceilings and much more spacious than anything you could have gotten in Manhattan - I forgot the exact street!). I much preferred it to Manhattan where I had lived for two or three weeks before moving voluntarily to Brooklyn (my firm was paying the apartment). So the Prospect Park is no stranger - I was there often. Eating clam chowder on Ocean Ave and the daily view of the Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower Complex when taking the subway to or from Manhattan to our office at 9 West 57 St (that Solow Building with the elegatly sloped facade)



are etched in my memory - also the Bensonhurst killing of that black youth in 1989 when I had another stint in NYC (I've only learned now that the Mafia incited it). And the Central Park Five/Exonerated Five incident - the City had a really racially charged atmosphere back then. (That Netflix series When They See Us about it was great.)

What happened to that music store on Kings Highway in that nice Hasidic/Chassidic neighborhood? That tempted me with a gorgeous checker binding black Ric back then (with a not very well set up neck), but a Kubicki Factor (the long scale version) from 48th Street in Manhattan won out in the end. I still have it! It became my mainstay bass for a decade or so.

[BTL]

I hate to tell you Mark, but you wouldn't have looked right as a member of the E-Street Band either!

I'm catholic, not just Catholic - I can listen to the New York Dolls one minute and Springsteen the next. They both had iconic moments.

Springsteen has become a commodity, yes, BUT there was also a time when he was unafraid to start his first gig on UK soil at the prestigious Hammersmith Odeon LIKE THIS, defying the expectation of the audience that he would treat them to a Born To Run-wall of sound. That was brave. And musical. Boiling a song down to its core.

Thank you for posting this...my college roommate was a loyal Springteen fan, so I know most of his early catalog by osmosis. I regret never having seen him live.

[uwe]

That was a cracker of a brave stripped down arrangement for the intro song on your first gig in London. Kudos to him, he did have balls. London audiences were notorious for being cool in reception and jaded, especially with US acts - this could have gone wrong badly.