A Bruce Springsteen oddity

I hope you had a chance to check out Today's Upper.

Each morning I post an item in an effort to inject a little "lighter" news in what is usually a fairly dour morning report.

I didn't have to look far this morning.

Last night Billy Joel celebrated his 100th show at Madison Square Garden in the Big Apple.

And he had a special guest to help with the festivities.

Maybe you've heard of him. His name is Bruce Springsteen.

I am a huge Springsteen nut.

But my favorite Springsteen story is not the shows I have seen - including a 1978 concert after Darkness on the Edge of Town was released in the most spectacular place I have ever seen a show. That of course would be Rock Rocks outside Denver, an amphitheatre carved out of a natural rock formation in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

My favorite Springsteen story involves a show I did not see.

Actually, I was supposed to, but something came up at the last minute and I didn't make it.

It's a shame, because that show holds legendary status in Philly, but not for the reason you might think.

It was the winter of 1973, and my regular gang of high school friends had tickets to see Chicago at the Spectrum.

We didn't pay much attention to the opening act on the bill.

Some guy named Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

So why is that show legendary?

Well, the story goes that some folks in the audience, who clearly had come to see Chicago, were a bit perturbed that the not yet 'Boss' and his band were playing too long.

And they did what Philadelphia always does when it is displeased. They booed.

Yes, Bruce Springsteen once got booed in Philly.

Or so I'm told.

I was supposed to be there.

But I was not.

By the way, all my friends were blown away by Springsteen. I immediately went out and bought "Greetings From Asbury Park" and the "Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle."

I've been a Bruce freak ever since.

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