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Bruce Springsteen Halftime Show: Three Classics and an Unknown

Posted Feb 01, 2009 9:16PM By Will Brinson (RSS feed)

Filed Under: NFL, Super Bowl, Cardinals, Steelers

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There was plenty of hype coming into Bruce Springsteen's Super Bowl XLIII halftime show performance, as he said he wanted to have the "greatest Super Bowl halftime show ever." That's a little bit tough to achieve considering that both Prince and Tom Petty killed in recent years -- not to mention that we all saw one of Janet Jackson's unmentionables a few years back. (Not that that was "great", but it was still something.)

But all told, The Boss was still, well, The Boss.

The first song, "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out," was a good choice, even if it was a little awkward that he decided to talk for a few seconds before starting it (although he does get bonus points for telling everyone to put their chicken fingers and guacamole away). Ultimately, the song came off as a little bit forced, even if Bruce did decide to, uh, "bang his junk" (as someone at my party described it) into the camera on a slide down to the stage.

So, did he have swagger? Or was he stiff? Hard to tell: But ultimately, I think "Tenth Avenue" would have been a better second or third song to perform.

"Born to Run" followed, and frankly, there's no excuse for not opening with it; the worst part might be that Springsteen's vocals sounded a little subdued for some unknown reason. Ultimately, Bruce's voice is the reason people tuned in to the halftime show in the first place. His voice is what drives his music.


Springsteen then took things in an uncertain direction with his third selection and played "Workin' on a Dream," which is a song that involves, like, 40 gospel singers. It basically served to confuse the living hell out of the audience. Sorry, but that's a -1,000 for forcing a new song on a Super Bowl audience.

Then all of sudden everything shifted drastically with "Glory Days," because, frankly, it rocked the house. Bonus for the Boss is that, obviously, everyone only remembers the last song, and "Glory Days" is one of those songs that pumps people up. And they rocked it out. I have no idea why a referee jumped out and decided to make a random "call" near the end of the song, but I also have zero clue as to why Springsteen decided to use a new song and not just cave in and play something well known like "Born in the U.S.A.".

I'll go ahead and say that ultimately Bruce has no chance of hitting "greatest halftime show ever" status, and I wouldn't even put him over Prince. But it was ultimately a pretty strong performance, although it was still below expectations overall.

Tags: born+in+the+usa, born+to+run, BornInTheUsa, BornToRun, bruce+springsteen, bruce+springsteen+halftime+show, BruceSpringsteen, BruceSpringsteenHalftimeShow, glory+days, GloryDays, janet+jackson, JanetJackson, tenth+avenue+freeze+out, TenthAvenueFreezeOut, waiting+on+a+dream, WaitingOnADream, workin+on+a+dream, working+on+a+dream, WorkingOnADream, WorkinOnADream

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