New Bruce Springsteen album with Morning Call freelancer Brian Hineline's photo as the cover
John J. Moser Contact Reporter Of The Morning Call
Photographer Brian Hineline, who has shot thousands of concerts by artists in most every genre over the past two decades, knew the show by Bruce Springsteenand the E Street Band on Oct. 20, 2009, would be special.
It was Springsteen’s final show at the Philadelphia Spectrum, finishing a four-night stand at the venerable venue – a sort of last dance at the arena where he and his band had played 35 times in 36 years. Just 11 days later, the Spectrum was to close with a concert by Pearl Jam and be razed.
So when Hineline – a freelance photographer for The Morning Call -- shot that show, he tried to capture in his images all the feelings of the night: The hopes, the dreams, the triumphs, the failures, the regrets and the celebration. Hineline’s images ran with Lehigh Valley Music’s review of the show the next day.
Now one of those images will become as timeless as the show was.
A photo of Springsteen and his iconic saxophone player and foil Clarence Clemons that Hineline shot that night will be the cover of a new live CD of that Spectrum finale.
“Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band: Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA 10/20/09” is available now as an MP3 download on Springsteen’s website, www.springsteen.net for $9.95, and for $23 can be pre-ordered as a CD, with Hineline’s cover shot, that will be released Aug. 7.
This will be the first photo Hineline, whose photos have appeared in Rolling Stone magazine, Time, Entertainment Weekly and Spin magazines and The New York Times, has had on the cover of a major artist’s album.
“The fact that the first one is Springsteen certainly is pretty exciting,” said Hineline, a native of Monroe County who lives in Mount Pocono. “It was a very unexpected surprise.”
Hineline, who also conducts concert photo workshops for ArtsQuest in Bethlehem, previously had a photo he shot of John Mayer used as the cover of a compilation disc put out by a guitar magazine.
Hineline said an art director for Springsteen sent him a Facebook friend request, which he accepted, and which was quickly followed by a message saying she had come across his images online and wanted to see them for possible use as the cover.
Hineline said he” dug up 43 photos” he had taken from that show and sent them on a day or so later.
“There were three or four I thought might work,” he said. “And one of those was the one they used.” Ironically, The Morning Call and Lehigh Valley Music didn’t use the image chosen for the cover.
Hineline was paid for the photo, but didn’t disclose how much. He also is credited on the album liner notes for having taken the shot.
Three or four of the photos he sent included Clemons, arguably the most prominent member of the E Street Band, who died in June 2011.
The Spectrum show was the last Clemons played in Pennsylvania with the E Street Band. His last show ever with the group was just a month later -- Nov. 22, 2009, in Buffalo, N.Y.
The new cover is the only one besides Springsteen’s biggest album, “Born to Run,” to feature Clemons on the cover.
Springsteen’s art team tinted Hineline’s photo blue for the cover, but otherwise left it the way it was.
The new album captures the Spectrum concert’s 31 songs in three hours and 20 minutes, with surprises.
Springsteen opened the show with “The Price You Pay,” a song from “The River” album that the group hadn’t played live in 28 years (Springsteen since did a tour in which he played “The River” in its entirety.)
Also at The Spectrum, the band played songs from the band’s earliest years, including “Spirit in the Night,” from its first album, with original E Street drummer Vinni “Mad Dog” Lopez sitting in. They also played a long, jazzy “Kitty's Back” from the second album. Both discs were released the year they first played the Spectrum.
And it played, sequentially, the full “Born in the U.S.A.” album in the show’s middle hour.
“I remember Vini Lopez coming over to where the photographers were waiting to chat with us,” Hineline said. “Really nice guy.
Springsteen also played the then-new song “Wrecking Ball,” which he wrote for his closing concert at New Jersey’s Giant’s Stadium, introducing it for “our last night ever here at the Spectrum.” He even changed the words to refer to “my home away from home here in the City of Brotherly Love” … “Where Dr. J played the game” … and people eat “cheesesteaks as big as airplanes.”
Hineline said, “I remember the photographers talking about how we would miss the Spectrum when it was torn down. I think all the photographers realized that this was a special night and not just another show. I remember leaving the show thinking that would be a night I would not forget and it wasn't.”
Hineline said an unexpected benefit of having his photo used was having the chance to look back through his work from that night.
“I had not looked at those photos in years,” he said. “It was nice to revisit them. Brought back memories of a great night.”
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