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Re: Who Woulda Thunk It? THE BOSS in a Band With an Accordion!

That's good to hear !!!

.. but wait.. Didnt' the Boss had Danny Federici playing accordion on his song : 4th of July Asbury Park ( ... with the opening line: Sandy, the fireworks are bustin out over Little Eden tonight .. " .. or something like that) circa 1975 ??.. If I remember correctly, Danny was the keyboard player and was featured on accordion on that and few other songs ( one about a Circus and perhaps a few more.. ).. they had that Fellini feel to them.. a smaltzy Italian American style ala Santa Lucia.. via Piano Accordion.. ( Like DeNiro.. the Boss is Irish-Italian )

Glad to see him back packing a PA in his band.. Glenn Thanks for the thumbs up on this !

Re: Re: Who Woulda Thunk It? THE BOSS in a Band With an Accordion!

Seems like I've met quite a number of guys born in the 1945-1955 era who grew up in Brooklyn or Northern New Jersey who, upon learning that I play accordion, jump right out with their story of coming home from school one day only to find the accordion and teacher their parents would love for them to get to know better. Piano accordion, of course.

There's still an accordion academy in Haddonfield, NJ, right accross the creek from Philly (or at least there was five years ago).

Was Bruce one of the victims of parental accordionation? Perhaps we'll never know...
S'b'B

Not so surprising.

The keyboard player in Bruce's band known to be an accordion player of long standing. I can't think of his name, but I read an interview with him that was done in the mid to late 1980's. He was one of the thousands of people who learned accordion at a young age, before it became associated with all that was un-cool and un-hip. He switched to keyboards, but he said that he always kept up with the accordion and would bring it to parties "in case someone would ask me to play". I believe that there were Springsteen recordings early on that had accordion, but perhaps not in a very prominant role.

That was at the time where there was a huge resurgence of interest in the accordion in rock music. Suddenly rock musicians realised that the accordion could be hip and cool after all, and it became a mainstream instrument again, rather than an embarassment.

I know that many people like Lawrence Welk, but the fact is that he single handedly set the accordion back for decades! Very undeservedly, but true nevertheless.

Re: Who Woulda Thunk It? THE BOSS in a Band With an Accordion!

There's a band here in NYC called the Gotham Playboys, who I've never actually seen but have heard some of the individual members play. My understanding is that they play a mix of Cajun, zydeco, and R&B, though they've been inactive for the last couple of years. Anyway, rumor has it they've played at least one private party at Springsteen's home in New Jersey.

Re: Re: Who Woulda Thunk It? THE BOSS in a Band With an Accordion!

What a musical gumbo - I like it. Reminds me of a video my kids have, legend of John Henry. I've also heard of Bruce affiliated with piano accordion, but this sounds different and pretty darn good. Love to see some fiddle action in the mainsream world too. Check out the link, see what ya think, I stumbled across it recently and think its pretty good.



Jamey Hall's most excellent Cajun Accordion Music Theory

Brett's all new Cajun Accordion Music Theory for all keys!

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