STACK #237 July 2024

MUSIC FEATURE

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SHAKE SOME ACTION BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – THE SAINTS – AND FRIDAY ON MY MIND Words Stuart Coupe

I t’s strange how the brain makes connections. Random associations. I just heard that a version of Australian punk rock pioneers The Saints is going to be touring later in the year. Onstage will be founding members guitarist Ed Kuepper and drummer Ivor Hay. They’ll be augmented by bass player Peter Oxley, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey, and former Mudhoney member American Mark Arm doing the singing. Most obviously missing is original lead singer Chris Bailey, who passed away in 2022. I knew Chris well and liked him very much. I had cause to reflect on what an incredible blast it must have been for him when Bruce Springsteen covered Just Like Fire Would , a song from the 1986 album All Fools Day, which was recorded by the Chris Bailey version

absolute heroes. We’re chatting away. He’s super-friendly and seemingly happy to while away the early hours of a soon to be Paris morning chatting to this guy from Australia. At one point I asked Springsteen if there was any Australian song he’d always loved and wanted to play. He didn’t miss a beat. “ Friday on My Mind by The Easybeats,” he grinned with a sense of awe in his voice. “THAT SONG – that song – it’s incredible. One of the greatest ever songs.” It also happened to be THE very first record I’d ever bought after saving up $1.20 from doing paper rounds in my neighbourhood in Launceston, Tasmania. Springsteen went on to explain how he’d always wanted to play Friday on My Mind , but he couldn’t as the guitar chords were so complicated and he just couldn’t figure them out. I let that slide while thinking to myself that not only was Springsteen one of the finest songwriters

of The Saints. The Boss recorded his take on his 2014 High Hopes album. And – as random thoughts go – that led me to thinking about Springsteen and his fascination with Australian rock’n’roll and a conversation I had with

Bruce Springsteen

backstage area – towels, drink containers, pizza boxes, gaffer tape, that sort of stuff. Bruce was doing interviews with a few journalists who’d been flown in for the shows, sitting backstage before heading back to his hotel. This was my first time travelling outside of Australia. I was 25 years old and Springsteen – my new best buddy Bruce – was one of my total and

on the planet, he was also an INCREDIBLE guitarist. How hard could Friday on My Mind be? Wasn’t it just a straightforward and very catchy pop song? I came back to Australia and asked a few musician friends about the song, saying that surely it wasn’t that complicated. They all

him backstage at 3am in Paris – as you do – after an incredible show performed by he and The E Street Band on the 1981 tour to promote The River album. Bruce and I were sitting surrounded by all the detritus of a post-show in the

laughed and said variants on, “Stuart, you really don’t know much about music – that is a very, very complex song.” Let’s jump forward several decades to the 19th of February 2014 and Springsteen and The E Street Band open their Sydney concert with – you guessed it – Friday on My Mind . This is a lesson for all aspiring guitarists. If you work hard enough at it and practise for several decades, you too can be like Bruce Springsteen and learn the chords to Friday on My Mind .

This was my first time travelling outside of Australia. I was 25 years old and Springsteen – my new best buddy Bruce – was one of my total and absolute heroes.

18 JULY 2024

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