Yes, Bob Dylan's birthday raises a rather unpleasant question: If Bob is 80, how old does that make us? But it also gives us a good excuse for a Bruce Springsteen news roundup, featuring some of the stories that dropped today about the long Bob/Bruce relationship:
• Clash Music revisited our favorite Bob/Bruce story ever, "That Time The Police Caught Bob Dylan Outside Bruce Springsteen's Childhood Home."
• Backstreets.com: "FOREVER YOUNG: CELEBRATING DYLAN AT 80," featuring some choice thoughts on Bob by Bruce and "links to eight of our favorite Dylan covers performed by Springsteen through the years," one for each decade Bob's been on earth.
• Far Out: "Watch Bruce Springsteen cover Bob Dylan's classic 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door'," which oddly enough is not one of the eight.
• The Middletown Press revisits Dylan's longest show ever, his four-hour stop at Toad's Place in New Haven that featured a cover of "Dancing in the Dark."
• Boston.com (my day job!): "For Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday, watch some of his best Boston performances"
• Bruce makes the Rolling Stone list of "The 80 Greatest Dylan Covers of All Time" -- we'll let you scroll through to find it.
Plus, in non-Bob Bruce news:
• Some details on Bruce's guest spot on John Mellencamp's next LP, otherwise known as two-thirds of the dad rock trifecta. (Bob Seger was busy?)
• Pitchfork has one of the better takes on the Springsteen/Obama podcast. Plus, make sure to "like" Spotify's playlist collecting the songs from the series.
• The Catholic Herald has an insightful look at Bruce Springsteen's Catholic roots and what they've meant for his work.
• ICYMI: Jay Lusting's transcript of Springsteen's latest "From My Home To Yours" on SiriusXM is on NJArts.net. (Also, I always like to take the opportunity to thank Mr. Lustig for providing this vital public service.)
WATCH PARTY:
• Watch Bruce accept the 2021 Woody Guthrie Prize, and perform four songs:
• Who wouldn't have loved to be in on this Sopranos conversation with Stevie Van Zandt, Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa?