Bummed...and how Bruce Springsteen and my novels are related

Tonight in Greensboro, less than an hour and a half away, Bruce Springsteen the E Street Band are playing in concert. I have tickets, pretty good though not great seats.

I won't be there, though, due to this blasted stomach bug. I just cannot be far from a bathroom for long.

I am severely bummed. Reports of his shows on this tour have been great; check out, for example, this one on his apparently amazing SXWS performance.

I wanted to be there to remember the Big Man, Clarence Clemons, and to see the new E Street horns section, which includes Jake Clemons, the Big Man's nephew. I wanted to be there because I love the music. I wanted...well, you get it.

I am glad others are using the tickets; Sarah and Ben will get to enjoy the show. I am so very sad right now, though, to miss it.

Which sadness brings me to the direct tie between Springsteen and the Jon and Lobo books. I wrote the first Jon Moore story, "My Sister, My Self," in 1982. (You can find it now in my Jump Gate Twist collection, which brought it back into print after over 25 years of being unavailable.) While writing that story, I wanted to maintain a certain feeling, a very particular mood. To that end, the entire time I was working on that story, hour after hour, I played the same side--side 3, or the first side of the second record--of Springsteen's amazing record, The River. Yes, this was on vinyl. That side captured perfectly for me the sense of loss in the story.

Among the songs on that side were the title tune, "The River." Here's a moving version that includes a little tribute to the Big Man.



Damn, I sure hope this isn't the Boss' last tour.

Damn, I'm sad at missing this.