The gymnastic past of Nils Lofgren and how Bruce Springsteen put an end to it
Ever since the birth of rock and roll, artists have been getting up to all sorts of hijinks on stage in order to inject a bit of individuality, theatre and conversation-starting showboating into their performances, whether that’s Jimi Hendrix playing guitar with his teeth or James Brown doing the splits.
There are some artists who you can’t exactly imagine indulging in such overblown antics, wishing to put more emphasis on the music rather than the spectacle. For example, Bob Dylan wouldn’t be caught dead doing knee-slides, and it’s pretty hard to imagine someone like Joni Mitchell smashing her guitar in a fit of rage at the end of her set, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that witnessing either of them performing live is any less entertaining.
However, while the promise of such stunts can be tantalising for audience members, there’s still a definite gulf between mildly showy exhibitions that are clearly done with a sense of cockiness and bravado, and wanting to showcase daring feats of acrobatic talent as a result of a pre-existing passion for gymnastics.
Bruce Springsteen has always tended to edge closer to the Dylan end of the scale of showiness, preferring to make his music the focal point, although he’s not immune to putting incredible amounts of energy into his performances. Despite this, when long-standing E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt took a temporary break from the band in 1984, ‘The Boss’ opted to bring in a guitarist with a truly show-stopping talent.
While known for being an extraordinary guitar player, Nils Lofgren’s abilities don’t just stop at being able to pull off virtuosic solos. During his childhood, he was also a competitive gymnast, entering regional competitions and winning multiple trophies for his flips, rolls and tumbles. In fact, he even alluded to the fact that he was just as passionate about acrobatics as he was music through the title of his 1985 solo album, Flip.
Lofgren had been incorporating somersaults and backflips into his live performances for many years as a solo artist, and while on tour in the 1970s, he frequently used to have a curious prop on stage with him, a trampoline, and made it a feature of his live shows to perform backflips on stage while still playing guitar.
Given his incredible ability to contort his body while still strangling a tune out of his instrument, and the fact that he’d made himself known for these feats of athleticism, he chose to incorporate it into the shows on the Born In The USA tour that he embarked on with the E Street Band, and would do one of his trademark backflips off a trampoline while Springsteen introduced all of the members during the mid-section of ‘Rosalita’.
However, Springsteen had to gently let his bandmate down around 65 shows into the tour, telling Lofgren that his chance to show off his flexibility was going to be axed. According to Lofgren’s accounts, he said that Springsteen took him to one side to break the news that the flips would have to take a back seat. “I remember one late night after a gig on a plane flight somewhere in the US, Bruce told me he was probably going to pull ‘Rosy’ from the set for a while and asked me if I’d miss doing the flip bit.”
It was tough for him to take, but he took the rejection in good spirits. “Thinking about it, I realised it would be a relief not to have that crazy stunt in the back of my mind during the show,” he added.
Concluding, “It’s a good bit that really shouldn’t be done early in any show when you’re fresh, strong, and in most cases, dry! No, you gotta do it late in the night, or in the case of my shows, as a finale, when you’re dripping sweat, exhausted and crazed, preferably delirious from a great night of performing music in front of a fired up crowd, equilibrium a bit hazy.”
