Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Break Out Classics and Fresh Tracks at Benefit Rehearsal Gig

Last night Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band played the first of three benefit rehearsal shows at Asbury Park's oceanfront Convention Hall. Springsteen, who took the stage around 8:30 PM in black jeans and a black T-shirt, welcomed the 3,000 lucky fans in attendance with, "We're going to run through some things, some new things, some old things. There may be some mistakes -- but I doubt it." The band played twenty-one songs in two hours, including "Born to Run," "Candy's Room," "No Surrender" and new single "Radio Nowhere," off Springsteen's newest album Magic, which hits stores next week. The Asbury Park shows (there's another one tonight followed by a third at New Jersey's Continental Airlines Arena on Friday) are a tradition for Springsteen, as he generally warms up for major tours in the New Jersey town that's served as inspiration for much of his work over the years; he and the E Street Band will embark upon their first tour together in four years October 2nd in Hartford, CT.

For photos of Springsteen and Co. in action last night, check out our photo gallery.

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Song Stories

“Helen Wheels”

Paul McCartney | 1973

A rollicking good-time hard rocker, "Helen Wheels" was not about a woman but about Paul McCartney's Land Rover, the anthemic chorus voicing the vehicle's reckless joy as "she" took to the road. The song was added to the U.S. version of Band on the Run but was issued only as a single in McCartney's native U.K. "I like that because it's a British road song and there's not many of those around," said McCartney. "It's always Route 66. But Carlisle? How many songs have got Carlisle in them?"

More Song Stories entries »

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