Springsteen Super Bowl Set List

UPDATE, February 1, 2009: Springsteen Super Bowl Reviews

Set list:

"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"

"Born to Run"

"Working on a Dream"

"Glory Days"

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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- In his first news conference in more than 20 years, The Boss was as cool as ever.

Wearing black jeans, a black crewneck sweater and black boots, Springsteen and his band charmed a standing-room-only crowd by joking about his lack of football knowledge, that the group is still together—and its members still alive—and the tremendous year he's having personally and professionally.

...Springsteen, for years, had turned down invitations to play the Super Bowl, unsure of the legitimacy of such a performance. After all, for many years the halftime show was made up of local and college marching bands and drill teams.

But Springsteen said the opportunity to promote the album, and the upgraded production team that has given the invitation a prestige factor, changed his mind.

"Initially, it was sort of a novelty and so it didn't quite feel right," he explained. "But it was just like, this is the year. ... Bands of our generation, you can sort of be seen on a stage like this or, like, not seen. There's not a lot of middle places. It is a tremendous venue."

Springsteen thought he was too good to play the Super Bowl? He used to be unsure of the legitimacy of such a performance?

Good grief.

Obviously, he got over that. I guess this time the opportunity to promote his new album was an offer he couldn't refuse.

Have you seen the ads popping up on the Internet?





It's weird that this would "feel right."

...The performance is expected to be a teaser for the upcoming tour, and scores of Las Vegas sports books are taking bets on the set list. Asked who ultimately decides what songs will be played, Springsteen staked his claim as leader of the band.

"I'm the Boss! The Boss decides what we play!" he yelled. "Nobody else decides. People suggest. Hint. Beg. Cajole. But I decide."

Pittsburgh receiver Hines Ward said he was looking forward to the performance, and even had a song request.

"I love Bruce. I hope he plays 'Born in the USA.' He has a great voice when he says, 'Boorrrn,' " Ward said. "He has a lot of swagger about himself. He's very confident. When he's up there performing, it's all about him."

Springsteen only offered one slight teaser, vowing to pack the bands' usual emotion and energy into their brief performance.

Springsteen definitely is approaching the 12 minute show as a commercial for his new album. It's self-promotion, not that there's anything wrong with that. It is what it is.

"I'm the Boss! The Boss decides what we play!"

Oh, no.

I hope "the Boss" wants to please his very diverse audience rather than himself. This isn't the venue for any political rambling.

Here's some information on set list bets.

Jeff Haney writes:

Those lists of odds published by offshore gambling emporiums asking bettors to wager on which song Bruce Springsteen will sing to begin his Super Bowl halftime show leave me with mixed emotions.

...For the record, “Born in the USA” and “Glory Days” are co-favorites at 2-1 to open Sunday’s show, followed by “The Rising” (4-1), “Born to Run” (5-1), “The Wrestler” (5-1), “Radio Nowhere” (8-1) and “I’m on Fire” (12-1).

The betting lines are from Bodog, based in Antigua, though other betting shops in “faraway places” — to borrow on the classic modern-day euphemisms popularized in Las Vegas — have released their own odds.

One place gamblers cannot legally wager on the set list is Nevada, where state regulations dictate bets must be based on what happens in a sporting event. Betting on the results of song selections, commercials, awards and the like is verboten.

And that’s for the best. Too often the most exotic — mostly nonsports — proposition wagers we hear about are essentially advertising tools, existing to generate publicity for their creators rather than a healthy two-way exchange of money at the betting windows.

I didn't know that in Nevada gamblers couldn't legally wager on the set list or things like that, only sporting events.

I wasn't aware that there were such restrictions.

Something rather embarrassing to come out of Springsteen's Super Bowl news conference was his complete lack of interest in football, America's game, and his shameless interest in using the Super Bowl to promote his album.

I give him points for being so honest.

"If there's going to be any questions about football, this is going to be the shortest press conference ever," said Springsteen, who was surrounded by the members of the E Street Band. "I don't know anything about football."

Indeed, during the 20-minute news conference — his first in more than 30 years, he said — the New Jersey-bred rocker spoke only briefly about football, mentioning the Steelers once, and the Cardinals not even once.

"When I hear Steelers, I think Terry Bradshaw," Springsteen said. "When he retired he said, 'I'm going to live like my dog.' ... And that's about the extent of my knowledge of football."

Fortunately, Springsteen is in Tampa to perform the halftime show, not to offer on-air analysis.

Springsteen, who has been rumored in past years as a possible Super Bowl act, was blunt in explaining why he chose to perform this year.

"Because we have a new album coming out, dummy!" he said. "We have a new record — in stores!"

Not good.
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Here's video of Springsteen bashing President Bush as he promotes his new album:



Transcript

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: We lived through a Freudian nightmare in the past eight years here in the United States. It didn't take consideration of the past. It was a historically blind administration.

Thousands and thousands of people died, and lives were ruined. Terrible, terrible things occurred because there was no sense of history, and there was no sense of the past as living and real in your daily life.

My records always combine the personal and the political, and there's not a lot of politics on the record. There's context, but not a lot of politics. But those forces are enormous forces in people's lives, in nations' lives. And they play on everybody, and everybody has to deal with them.

Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, whatever.

I don't think we should have to deal with politics, "those enormous forces," during the Super Bowl halftime show.
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Springsteen at the Super Bowl

John Romano: Can’t a song be a song? Or does it have to have ideology?

Bruce Springsteen and I both released albums this week. Mine is “London Paris” by The Sugarmen and Bruce’s is “Working on a Dream.” You’d be hard pressed to think of two more starkly different approaches to recording. Bruce has admitted that his hatred of President Bush inspired his latest CD. “London Paris” was inspired by traveling with the band between two major European cities. That’s right. You guessed it. Prague and Cologne.

In my opinion, what worked about rock in the 60’s and 70’s was that the music really was asking questions of society. There was a clear difference between those in power and the musicians who rebelled against the norm. Some of it was show for sure, but who can argue with the power and emotion of “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye?

I’m neither naïve nor arrogant enough to think that music can do anything close to that today. Music is again about the simple pleasure of digging cool sounds and lyrics.

Watching Bruce at Obama rallies, nervously strumming his guitar and pontificating about the “lost America” of his youth, you couldn’t help but think about him heading back to his mansion afterward. What is he really screaming about?

And then contrast that with the band and I gladly driving 13 hours on the wrong side of the road in the rain to get to a gig in London after playing one night in Scotland. Very odd. Wouldn’t logic dictate that the musician in the smelly van should be the one railing against the system?

I’ll continue to make the best records I can and tour with the band. However, I’ll always leave direct political opinions out of my music. I’ve learned enough living in Hollywood as an artist and a conservative that politics is like curry powder: add a drop and the whole dish tastes like one thing and loses all subtlety.