“I just loved it” Bruce Springsteen on one of his favourite E Street Band songs
Any massive artist is only as good as the people they have behind them. Even though Tom Petty and Neil Young have earned their titles among the greatest artists in the business, the help of both the Heartbreakers and Crazy Horse, respectively, is the reason why we’re all still talking about them in such hallowed terms. Bruce Springsteen always knew the power that he had with the E Street Band, but he thought that it wasn’t until one song that the group truly solidified and delivered some of their greatest playing.
Springsteen was never shy to flaunt the group at all, either. Looking through any of the gigs that he has played over the years, he’s really playing the band as much as he is playing his Fender Telecaster, pouring every ounce of sweat he can from his body to make sure that they leave their best work onstage whenever they get finished playing.
Even when the band aren’t there on records like Nebraska, there’s still a very noticeable absence. ‘The Boss’ could still be every bit as commanding with a guitar in his hand and a microphone, but when it doesn’t have the soaring sound of the saxophone or the pounding drums, it’s like seeing Clark Kent without his glasses on. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but it’s not what the main audience is here for, either.
If anything, Springsteen’s stories become that much more dramatic when there’s a crowd of people behind him. The story of Wendy and the narrator leaving their town to find something on ‘Born to Run’ wouldn’t sound half as good, and even on later albums like The Rising, the tales of people who were left in ruin after 9/11 don’t feel that cathartic without them there to anchor it.
But when listening to the album High Hopes, Springsteen had covered many pieces of their discography that he seemed to pass by. Alongside covering deep cuts from Suicide like ‘Dream Baby Dream’, ‘Frankie Fell in Love’ is the kind of tune that Springsteen could write in his sleep, complete with a classic rock guitar lick and the entire band getting to work off each other as they did in the 1970s.
Though ‘The Boss’ considered cutting it for the album Magic, he held onto it so it could be given a proper home on High Hopes, telling Rolling Stone, “I have demos of most of these records that I make on my own, and once in a while you don’t beat one. That was one of those. I just loved it lyrically, and I thought that it’s a great thing for Steve [Van Zandt] and myself. It’s just a great little Faces-type rock song. I always had it sitting around as one of my favourite straight-up E Street Band rock songs.”
Even though sitting around for a few years should have relegated the tune to demo prison, one of the best parts about the tune is that it doesn’t sound too overproduced. Many artists of Springsteen’s calibre get bogged down trying to sound absolutely perfect on record, but when listening to the tune out of context, it feels like watching them live in the room as they blast away on their guitars.
Beyond being a great song, ‘Frankie Fell In Love’ also proves what Van Zandt has said about ‘Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band’ is the true legend of the group rather than the man himself. It takes a small army to turn anyone into a superstar, but in Springsteen’s case, he took his entire army with him to the top.
