E Street Band

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band "Working on a Dream" Columbia **1/2 -- Bruce Springsteen is the quintessential album-era rock star. Hear me out, ye who would argue Beatles-Dylan-Marvin-Brian Wilson-Who-Pink Floyd-Stones: Those artists might have made superior individual efforts, but none has used the long-player form itself more powerfully over the arc of a career, not only to establish a world through song, but to inhabit an enduring persona.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Monday. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are releasing a new album (the first since the saxophonist Clarence Clemons died) and will tour in 2012. ( Bruce Springsteen.net ) "Breaking Dawn -- Part 1" made a lot of money, but not as much as "New Moon. " Twihards are growing up. ( Los Angeles Times ) Taylor Swift won the American Music Award for artist of the year, but aren't we really talking about LMFAO and David Hasselhoff in his underwear?

Keyboardist Danny Federici, a low-profile but essential and original member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, died Thursday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City after a three-year battle with melanoma, according to a statement released by Springsteen's publicist. He was 58. "Danny and I worked together for 40 years," Springsteen said in the statement. "He was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure, natural musician. I loved him very much.

Saxophonist Clarence Clemons, an indispensable part of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band both for his full-throttle tenor sax work and his larger-than-life onstage persona as "the Big Man," died Saturday. He was 69. Clemons, who put his stamp on such Springsteen staples as "Born to Run," "Jungleland" and "Rosalita," died in a Palm Beach, Fla., hospital of complications from a massive stroke he suffered June 12 at his Florida home, a spokeswoman for Springsteen and the E Street Band said.

For anyone who didn't attend Bruce Springsteen's only previous solo acoustic tour a decade ago, it must have felt strange to see the celebrated rocker walk on the Fox Theatre stage Monday without the Big Man, the Professor and the rest of the E Street Band gang. Even though this was clearly labeled a solo tour, numerous fans in the lobby speculated on who from the band would be joining him on this opening night of the tour.

"There are a lot of ghosts in this place," Bruce Springsteen said as his boots clomped on an ancient staircase at the Asbury Park Convention Hall. It was here in this old seaside venue that Springsteen, as a teenager, watched Jim Morrison prowl the stage and Keith Moon thunder away on drums for the Who. It was also in the corridors here that he brushed past a wild-child named Janis Joplin.

Clarence Clemons, on the phone from his Marin County home, paused to find the right words to describe how he felt when Bruce Springsteen, his boss for nearly two decades, called him and said that he wasn't going to need the E Street Band, at least for now. "It's a blessing," Clemons said. "And also . . . a hurt. "It wasn't what I thought I'd hear. Bruce called me and said that he wanted to try something different.

The sparkling Palau Sant Jordi arena is a long way from the Jersey Shore, where Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band began their legendary association a quarter-century ago. But for 20,000 fans here Friday, it felt like the promised land. Kicking off the most anticipated reunion tour in rock since Bob Dylan and the Band reteamed in 1974, Springsteen and the eight-piece group didn't waste any time demonstrating that they can still make spirits soar.

The phone rang, and it was Bruce. That probably meant it was time for the band to tour. But that's not what it meant. This time, in late 1989, Bruce Springsteen told Danny Federeci he was breaking up the band. "I was surprised," Federeci recalled. "I was very hurt. It was the only life I had known for 22 years." Five years later, Federeci, 44, isn't completely healed. He says he is still "working through all that stuff," but he is happy.

Bruce Springsteen will be closing Giants Stadium. The rocker told fans at the nearby Izod Center in New Jersey this week that he and the E Street Band will be the final musical act before the stadium is demolished after the 2009 football season. Three shows are scheduled on Sept. 30, Oct. 2 and Oct. 3.

It's a funny thing in the world of rock music, but for some artists to get creatively amped up, it's necessary to pull the plug. It worked for Bob Dylan, who returned to the wellspring of acoustic folk music in a couple of early-'90s albums before reasserting full command of his songwriting mastery in 1997's "Time Out of Mind," a musical renaissance from which he's never looked back. It worked for Bruce Springsteen when he put the E Street Band on hiatus and assembled the Sessions Band to mine the richness of American folk and gospel influences in "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions" album in 2006.

Bruce Springsteen will be closing Giants Stadium. The rocker told fans at the nearby Izod Center in New Jersey this week that he and the E Street Band will be the final musical act before the stadium is demolished after the 2009 football season. Three shows are scheduled on Sept. 30, Oct. 2 and Oct. 3.

It was no accident that on tax-reckoning day, the same day Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was holding a forum in downtown L.A. to address the Golden State's buckling economy, Bruce Springsteen put a decidedly California spin on his overarching musical message about holding onto hope even in the face of such hard times.

"There are a lot of ghosts in this place," Bruce Springsteen said as his boots clomped on an ancient staircase at the Asbury Park Convention Hall. It was here in this old seaside venue that Springsteen, as a teenager, watched Jim Morrison prowl the stage and Keith Moon thunder away on drums for the Who. It was also in the corridors here that he brushed past a wild-child named Janis Joplin.

The razing of Shea Stadium later this year marks the end of an era for baseball fans, but it's also closing the door on a chapter of pop music history that began in 1965 when the Beatles became the first pop group to play a concert at a U.S. sports stadium. Billy Joel will play the final notes at Shea on Friday in a performance to be documented for a film and DVD titled "Last Play at Shea," slated for release next year. Several guest artists are expected at the concert, which is one of only a handful that have been held at Shea in the 43 years since the Beatles played.

Keyboardist Danny Federici, a low-profile but essential and original member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, died Thursday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City after a three-year battle with melanoma, according to a statement released by Springsteen's publicist. He was 58. "Danny and I worked together for 40 years," Springsteen said in the statement. "He was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure, natural musician. I loved him very much.

You'll be able to wake up and go to sleep with Bruce Springsteen on Tuesday. He'll be performing with the E Street Band on NBC's "Today" show in the morning and then will appear on ABC's "Nightline" that night. Why? He has a new album hitting the stores.

Over the last 13 years I have had the good fortune of seeing Bruce Springsteen on nine occasions. The April 22 opening-night concert just goes to show that what I have said for years is true: "Move over, James Brown, the hardest-working act in show business is Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band." BILL COLLINS Glendale

Danny Federici, a keyboard player who was a longtime member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, died Thursday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, according to an announcement on Springsteen's website. He was 58. Federici had battled melanoma for three years. He had taken a leave of absence in November during the band's current tour. He returned to play portions of a show in Indianapolis in March. Springsteen's concerts tonight and Saturday in Florida have been postponed.