Born in the USA (Bruce Springsteen)

Happy Birthday Bruce Springsteen! 63. Wow.

Here's Bruce in 1985. My cousin was working for the big ticket company at the time, and would get me seats for Bruce, usually in the back. This time, my aunt Hannah asked to go, so Fred gave her 4 tickets up near the stage and my friends Ronnie and Panos came with us. The seats weren't as close as I like (yes, I'm very spoiled- I'm still never happy unless I'm right by the stage) but since I started going to Springsteen concerts after I stopped photographing professionally, this was the closest I got to Bruce. Probably not my best shots that night either - I was more interested in watching than shooting that day.

Not long after the show started, everyone was standing on their chairs. If you didn't, you couldn't see. I was really impressed when Hannah, with a little help, stood on her chair with the rest of us. She was probably around the same age then as Bruce is now. 

I miss going to those Bruce concerts. It's been a while now. I miss Hannah too.

Two Tickets to Paradise (Eddie Money)

So I'm watching the news this morning but not paying attention when the commercials come on. Then, all of a sudden I hear Two Tickets to Paradise so I look up. Eddie Money. Wow. I rewind it to the beginning and find it's one of those nonsensical commercials for GEICO, featuring the "Eddie Money Travel Agency." Two tickets to paradise. Of course. Nice to see he's still around.

Back in the day, Eddie Money was on Columbia Records, which wasn't one of the companies I did work for. But I liked his music and managed to get to see him and photograph him a number of times. (As I like to say, it's good to have friends in the castle- in this case, at the press gate of the Dr. Pepper Music Festival.) Never printed any of the photos, never got asked to submit these pictures to any magazines, but I still went to the shows when I could. 


So here's the first look at a couple of the photos. 

Central Park, July 1980

Playing the sax. Central Park, July 1979

Oh, and here's the GEICO video if you want to see it.