Meeting Across the River

The half-time Super Bowl performance by Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band this past Sunday triggered memories of my first musical encounter with the Boss. I was a freshman at a small, liberal arts college in Connecticut during the fall of 1975 and my roommate borrowed this album – Born to Run -- from a friend. I recall the picture of Springsteen, guitar in hand, leaning on the back of his saxophone player Clarence Clemons, whose full body with saxophone extended to the back of the album cover.

I’m pretty sure we played the whole album and liked it. But it wasn’t the now famous songs Born to Run and Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out that stirred my emotions and imagination that night, although I enjoy the lyrics and music of those tunes. It was a song about a man who needed to get across the river – probably from New Jersey to Manhattan – to complete some murky deal with a man who you had to be careful around. So he turns to his friend Eddie for cash and, maybe, Eddie can get them a ride to the Meeting Across the River.

My roommate and I must have played the song several times, mesmerized by Springsteen’s laid back delivery accompanied by piano and the searching, haunting tone of the trumpet played by Randy Brecker. I could vividly see a man who probably had gotten himself in one too many bad deals and if this one didn’t pan out – “they ain't going to be looking for just me this time.”

Listening to a version of the song on YouTube the other day – a performance in 1977 by Springsteen with piano accompaniment – one of my sisters described it as “sweet, sad music.” Another sister, a jazz musician, noted the jazz influences and said the song shows “a mellow side” of Springsteen that she likes.

That it does. That it does. And in my memory I see two freshmen smiling, sitting in their dorm room, discovering the Boss for the first time.

"Hey, Eddie, can you lend me a few bucks
And tonight can you get us a ride
Gotta make it through the tunnel
Got a meeting with a man on the other side."