Bruce Springsteen played songs about the weekend on his 20th DJ show on SiriusXM satellite radio.
“Here Comes the Weekend” was the theme of Bruce Springsteen’s 20th DJ show on SiriusXM satellite radio, which debuted March 31 on the network’s E Street Radio channel (channel 20).
Springsteen reminisced about yearning for the weekend to come, as a schoolboy, and hanging out in Greenwich Village on weekends, as a teenager. He also remembered the difficulty of getting through the weekend when you had endured a recent breakkup. He played music by Dave Edmunds, Gary U.S. Bonds, The Drifters, The Easybeats, The Cure, Kris Kristofferson and others, including Kristina Train, a singer-songwriter who is American-born but now based in London.
Springsteen played Train’s “Saturdays Are the Greatest,” from her 2012 album Dark Black, and enthused: “This is an album you have to own. You have to have it in your library. It’s one of my favorite records of, I don’t know, the past decade. And it was terribly overlooked here in the States. And it just deserves a much bigger audience. ... You will not regret checking into this wonderful piece of music.”
You can read what Springsteen said here, and see videos for the songs that were played. In some cases, a version of the song may have been played that is different from what is embedded in this post.
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“Greetings, creatures of Earths, fellows, freaks, interstellar rock fans, local beach bums, New Jer-tians, ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls, listeners from sea to shining sea and around the globe. Welcome to Vol. 20 of ‘From My Home to Yours,’ titled ‘Here Comes the Weekend.’ What is better than the weekend? Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Even a non-working bum like me can remember being in school and counting the days, hours, minutes and seconds before that 3 o’clock bell rang on Friday afternoon, and I was free, free of anybody running my life, telling me where I had to be, when I had to be there. I would burst through the school doors, walk that happy mile from school, down through town, throw my books on the kitchen table, run to my room, rip myself out of my school clothes, deposit them on the floor, settle in for two and a half days of blissful freedom. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, the weekend! My God, how I lived for it. And there is no song that totally captures the anticipation of that that moment better than the Easybeats single, coming straight from Down Under, ‘Friday on My Mind.’ ”
“Friday on My Mind,” The Easybeats
“Easybeats, ‘Friday on My Mind.’ Epic. And here’s The Cure, with ‘Friday I’m in Love.’ ”
“Friday I’m in Love,” The Cure
” ‘Friday I’m in Love.’ Hell yes, I am.
“Friday night was the CYO dance. I’d be there in front of the band, not dancing, but doing my real homework of the week, studying, studying, studying that lead guitarist’s hands, inscrutably watching every riff and run he made, and then I would run home while the other kids were gettin’ their pizza down at Federici’s, chasing the girls. I would run up to my room, and early into Saturday morning I would be trying to replicate what I had seen down at the dance until I dropped to sleep with the guitar in my hands. Then, at 16, I would hop up around, oh, 11 o’clock. I would head to the bus terminal. I would hop on the Lincoln Transit bus headed for Washington Square Park and Greenwich Village.
“I lived in the Village on weekends. As a teenager, anything to get me from that big boot pressing down on my neck in my lovely little redneck town. That piece of MacDougal from … I guess from about Washington Square to Bleecker, I think is the only piece of the authentic ’60s Village that’s still intact. And I lived on that piece of concrete for, I don’t know, ’65, ’66, ’67. If you go there now, you can see it exactly as it was when Steve Van Zandt and I together tramped the concrete, from the park to the Cafe Wha? … check it out.
“Saturday in the Park,” Chicago
“Saturday Waits,” Loney Dear
“Now, there was only one time when the weekend could be truly toxic, and that was when you had freshly broken up with your girl. Then the weekend would stick in your guts and break your heart with time and emptiness. This is the incredible Kristina Train, with ‘Saturdays Are the Greatest.’ ”
“Saturdays Are the Greatest,” Kristina Train
“That was the great voice of Kristina Train from her album Dark Black. This is an album you have to own. You have to have it in your library. It’s one of my favorite records of, I don’t know, the past decade. And it was terribly overlooked here in the States. And it just deserves a much bigger audience. Dark Black, Dark Black, Dark Black, Kristina Train. You will not regret checking into this wonderful piece of music.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the Chairman of the Board.”
“Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week),” Frank Sinatra
“Saturday night. That’s the night the weekend was centered upon. The night when it’s supposed to happen. You’re supposed to meet that girl, play that killer set with your band, hang with your boys, go to the movies, and wait, wait, wait for transcendence.”
“Saturday Night at the Movies,” The Drifters
“Another Saturday Night,” Cat Stevens
“That was Cat Stevens with (sings) ‘Another Saturday night and I ain’t got nobody.’ Of course that was originally cut by Sam Cooke. And before that, the beautiful ‘Saturday Night at the Movies.’ That just brings so much emotion with it that … The Drifters were simply one of my favorite groups of all time. ‘Saturday Night at the Movies,’ the immortal Drifters. A lead sung by Johnny Moore. Beautiful job. Written by the amazing Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and produced by Bert Berns.
“Tony Joe White, bring us the Southern funk!”
“Saturday Night in Oak Grove, Louisiana,” Tony Joe White
“That’s right, ’cause as Tony Joe White just said, ‘when you look good, you feel good, and everything is gonna be all right come Saturday night.’ Then you wake up, and it’s Sunday morning.”
“Sunday Morning,” Acid House Kings
“As I got older, I’d spent my Friday and Saturday nights at the Stone Pony or in other clubs in Asbury Park. Never took a drink till I was 24 years old: tequila at the Osprey in Manasquan, compliments of my great friend Big Danny, and after that, for quite a while, I tried to make up for lost time. So when I woke up on a Sunday morning, feeling hazy, exposed and guilty, was when I felt terrible but knew I had had a good time. Ouch.”
“Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” Kris Kristofferson
“That was Kris Kristofferson, with the classic and oh-so-truthful ‘Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.’ I’ve been there, and I’ve done that.”
“Working for the Weekend,” Loverboy
“Loverboy, a great hit. Now, here’s the man who had the answer to it all, back in the ’60s. My friend, the legendary Gary U.S. Bonds, who knew all trouble would be gone if there was just a seven-day weekend.”
“Seven Day Weekend,” Gary U.S. Bonds
“And that’s our show. Please have a great weekend, and go in peace. Taking us out will be the fabulous Dave Edmunds.”
“Here Comes the Weekend,” Dave Edmunds
Springsteen has been doing “From My Home to Yours” shows since April of 2020. You can read transcripts of what he has said on the previous 19 shows, and see YouTube videos of all the songs he has played, via these links:
APRIL 8 (a tribute to the late John Prine and more)
APRIL 24 (thoughts on life during pandemic, New York songs and more)
MAY 6 (when the pandemic is over, he promises, “50,000 people will once again scream their heads off somewhere in New Jersey”)
MAY 20 (a tribute to the late Little Richard and more)
JUNE 3 (protest songs and more)
JUNE 17 (a “rock ‘n’ roll requiem” for those who have died from coronavirus)
JULY 1 (discussion with and songs by Southside Johnny and Steven Van Zandt)
JULY 15 (summertime songs and memories)
JULY 29 (discussion with and songs by Patti Scialfa).
AUG. 14 (“In Dreams,” nocturnally themes songs and memories)
SEPT. 2 (songs about work, in honor of Labor Day)
SEPT. 16 (end of summer)
OCT. 7 (songs about cars)
OCT. 28 (Election Day- and Halloween-oriented songs)
NOV. 25 (Election Day victory, “music about music”)
DEC. 16 (“Hits of the Week”: music that he has been listening to lately)
JAN. 20 (“Lawyers, Guns & Money: An Inaugural Special”)
FEB. 24 (“New Born Soul”: songs of rebirth)
MARCH 10 (“Fans and Bands”: Songs about bands, their muses, and their fans).
Also, click here for some of my thoughts on this ambitious series in general.
“Here Comes the Weekend” will also be played March 31 at 6 p.m.; April 1 at 6 a.m. and 3 p.m.; April 2 at 10 a.m., 4 p.m. and midnight; April 3 at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.; April 4 at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.; April 5 at 7 a.m., 4 p.m. and midnight; and April 6 at 8 a.m.
Visit siriusxm.com.
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