Pre-PopBlogging the Super Bowl: The Boss’s Play-list

By
/ 31 January 2009

If you were going to listen to The Boss and his E Street pals playing four songs in a stadium of 70,000 football (read casual Boss) fans, what would the play-list be? Of course, the national TV audience is much larger (up to 100 million viewers) and depending on who you ask (The NFL: up to one billion; a more reasoned calculus: 200 million), the world-wide viewership even greater. So, what 4 songs to play?

Well, in doing some prep for tomorrow’s real-time blogging, I happened across the NFL’s Super Bowl XLIII web site where they actually provide some sample sets and allow people to weigh in on their choices. The possible sets:

  • Playlist A: Glory Days, My Lucky Day, Badlands, Born to Run

  • Playlist B: Born to Run, Rosalita, Working on a Dream, The Rising

  • Playlist C: The Rising, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Working on a Dream, Hungry Heart

  • Playlist D: Born in the USA, Thunder Road, Rosalita, My Lucky Day

  • Playlist E: Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark, Radio Nowhere, The Rising

  • Playlist F: Rosalita, The Wrestler, Glory Days, Born to Run

  • Playlist G: Glory Days, Born to Run, The Rising, Working on a Dream

And the results? As of 1:00 a.m. on the day of the event, the tally in response to this question (“Which playlist do you predict Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will play on Super Bowl Sunday?“) was:

  • Playlist A: Glory Days, My Lucky Day, Badlands, Born to Run (15%)

  • Playlist B: Born to Run, Rosalita, Working on a Dream, The Rising (6%)

  • Playlist C: The Rising, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Working on a Dream, Hungry Heart (4%)

  • Playlist D: Born in the USA, Thunder Road, Rosalita, My Lucky Day (30%)

  • Playlist E: Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark, Radio Nowhere, The Rising (13%)

  • Playlist F: Rosalita, The Wrestler, Glory Days, Born to Run (7%)

  • Playlist G: Glory Days, Born to Run, The Rising, Working on a Dream (25%)

In terms of the choices, I suppose I can see the numbers running that way. Given that they asked for a prediction of a fixed set of choices.

Of course, an entirely different — and much more relevant — question would be: “if you could pick any song from The Boss’s catalogue, which 4 songs would you like to hear Bruce and the boys play?”

To which I would say:

  1. Adam Raised a Cain

  2. Rosalita

  3. Pay Me My Money Down

  4. Born to Run.

Or, maybe sub-in Radio Nowhere for “Pay Me. . .“

Of course, as a sporting event, I could see the logic of “Glory Days“. And as the quintessential American event, and The Boss being (rightly so) a political artist, I could understand “Born in the USA” (although, to my taste, it isn’t much of a song [musically]) or — given where America is now (and what it has endured these past 8 years) — with the groundswell of optimism over Obama’s accession to power — how about “The Rising“.

But, enough of my views. I could make Bruce play-lists all night. How about you? If you could make up your own list of 4, given the stadium setting, and the world-wide audience, what four might you choose? Weigh in, if only to keep us thinking. Or else to see how close you come to being on The Boss’s wavelength.