Larry Campbell perfectly remembers the vowel that arrived in early spring. The voice was familiar, the joking tone: “They are Bruce Springsteen, Sai, the husband of Patti Scialfa”. Campbell has been for seven years, starting in 1997, in the Bob Dylan band and recorded with him, Paul Simon, Levon Helm, Rosanne Cash and practically any other legend of American music of the last half century (as well as with his wife and singer Teresa Williams). He met Scialfa in the 80s, when they both attended the tour of the New York clubs. He met Springsteen at a birthday party of Garry Tallent of the E Street Band, as well as having played in one of the Sgalfa albums. It was even the boss's boss, so to speak, when in 2003 he produced a disc of the common friend Soozie Tyrell in which Springsteen was also there.
While knowing Bruce, Campbell was displaced when he discovered the reason for the call. At that time the filming of Deliver me from Nowherethe film on the crisis that led to the realization of Nebraska. Springsteen had never played it in full, from the beginning to the end, with the essential accompaniment typical of the original of 1982. With the film in the packet of arrival, the time had come to do it. «He explained to me that those songs had never been played in the way they had been recorded and that to do so he needed a second guitarist. He asked me if I was interested and if I had time available. I replied: “Famemici thinking for a moment … yes!” ».
Campbell remembers very well when he came out Nebraska And how much was different not only from the other Springsteen records, but also from the music that went at the time. «Below I am an old Folksinger and if there is one with the guitar that tells a story, and it does it good, I am there. He showed a side of Bruce that I didn't imagine existed, I had a great respect for what he had done ».
After accepting and learning that the only other musician involved was Charlie Giordano, one of the keyboards of the and Street Band, Campbell went to listen to Nebraska focusing on the thin overcursions that Springsteen had added to voice and guitar. «I had heard that record a lot of times, but I had never noticed what happens on an instrumental level, also because in reality it does not happen much. Bruce asked me to listen to the tracks and remain faithful to the parts of the second guitar that they feel. It also made me send me some of those isolated guitar parts, because in the mix of the time they do not stand out much good ».
With a few weeks available before filming, Campbell started playing by accompanying the disc, trying to replicate both the rhythmic attitude of Open All Night, Johnny 99 And State Trooperboth the delicate folk cadences of My Father's House and the title track. «Reproduce them note for note was impossible, but I wanted to absorb the feeling and study the revolts of the agreements. Once I seemed to have entered it, I went to the successful piece ».
And then what Campbell came to call “one of those moments when you give you a pinch to understand that you are not dreaming”. He and Giordano, who in the end used synthesizer and celesta to reproduce the parts of Glockenspiel, found themselves in Springsteen's home study in New Jersey, to try the material for the first time in the trio. To recreate the sound of the mandolin that Springsteen used for example in Atlantic CityCampbell brought his instrument and borrowed one of the twelve Bruce strings for other pieces.
The songs of Nebraska They are structurally simple and therefore the tests have not been particularly difficult. “From a technical-circuit point of view there was nothing demanding. The challenge if anything consisted in trying to recreate the atmosphere and emotion of the pieces. To do this, I listened carefully to the texts and tried to empathize with what Bruce tried to say. I had to be sure I was inside the songs ».
After just a few days of rehearsals, the musicians, the troupe and the director Thom Zimny - who has already worked on five Springsteen films including the one based on Broadway shows – met at the count Basie Center for the Arts in the nearby Red Bank, without public. Arriving at the theater, Campbell realized that the thing had been kept secret: there were no fans in the surroundings. «I didn't think about it, I was not aware of it, the mystery was secondary compared to what we were doing. They have chosen to keep a low profile ».
Nobody explained the reason exactly, but Campbell understood the choice to play in front of an empty audience only when he got on stage and arranged the tools. «Maybe it's just my theory, but that feeling of emptiness contributed to the atmosphere. I looked at Thom to turn and that simplicity, that visual rigor seemed to me the perfect representation of the stories contained on the disc. They evoked the emotional landscape of the work. I seemed to me that Thom wanted to film Bruce in that way to amplify that darkness “.
Over several hours, more take have been recorded than all the pieces of Nebraskapassing loose from each other. «It was type: let's do this song as if we were in the studio and we immediately move on to the next. Bruce and Thom confabulated after each execution. Thom said “Ok, excellent”, and even Bruce was satisfied, we went further ». According to Campbell, the trio played only the pieces of the album, but since they attempted more versions, it means that there is a Nebraska Live in alternative version.
It's all over as it started: very quickly. “Bruce was kind, he said everything had gone very well and then everyone went on his own way.” Campbell has not yet seen the film, which will be included in the box Nebraska '82: expanded edition Output on October 17, but feels you now have a deeper understanding of the album. «Bruce has created an interesting and emotionally intense sound landscape. I look forward to the next collaboration … if ever happen ».
From Rolling Stone Us.
