Bruce Springsteen to Release Cowboy Graphic Novel

Bruce Springsteen can now add graphic novel writer to his long list of accomplishments. It was announced that the Boss is currently working on a graphic novel which will be based on 2009’s “Outlaw Pete” from his album, Working on a Dream.

The song was directly inspired by the 1950’s children’s book, Brave Cowboy Bill which Springsteen’s mother, allegedly, read to him as a child. That went on to inspire the tale of the cowboy.

“Like Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Dorothy Gale, and for me, even Popeye, Outlaw Pete cuts deep into the folklore of out country and weaves its way into the fabric of great American literary characters.” said illustrator Frank Caruso about the joint venture between him and Springsteen.

“Outlaw Pete is essentially the story of a man trying to outlive and outrun his sins” chimed in Springsteen about the book.

“When Bruce wrote “Outlaw Pete,” he didn’t just write a great song, he created a great character,” Caruso added.

The novel, which is set to be released on November 4, will feature “words” by Springsteen while all animation will be done by Caruso. At present time, there’s no clarification on whether that means Springsteen will be writing the actual text for the book or if he’ll be giving ideas to someone else to write.

“The first time I heard the song, this book played out in my head.”

Springsteen released his eighteenth studio album, High Hopes at the beginning of the year and has been tour relentlessly behind it, though, things have gotten quiet down on the touring front for the New Jersey icon, recently.

Musician Swindles Hundreds of Thousands from Investors

We know that musicians are desperate to make music even though it costs a lot, but most of the time, they just get a dead-end job to help fund their dreams.

But not for one man, who managed to not only scam many investors, he took the money and put it towards his own music career.

Portland-based musician, Kasey Anderson did just like. Anderson was sentenced to four years in prison after defrauding 30 investors out of nearly $600,000.

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the singer-songwriter told investors that the money was going to a charity album titled, Trapped Like a Ghost. He had claimed that acts like The Arcade Fire, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, and R.E.M. would be contributing tracks to the record, but in the end he got caught using the funds for his own personal gain.

Anderson said that the money was going to benefit the West Memphis Three Legal Defense Fund. He went so far to convince investors that he posed as a Seattle tour manager as well as an entertainment attorney, he forged an email from a family member of one of the West Memphis Three, and reportedly even played previously released Bruce Springsteen tracks, passing them as a never-before-released version featuring the Arcade Fire. He, reportedly, even claimed that he would be able to get a Springsteen/Lady Gaga collaboration, but as we know, that did not happen.

Anderson plead guilty to the crime last August and now owes investors over $400,000.

Recently, he released a letter to the court as an attempt to apologize for his crime. In the letter he claims he has a mental illness that made him do it.

We’re going to assume the court did not buy his scapegoat excuse of mental instability.

Bruce Springsteen Covers Van Halen at NCAA Music Fest

Bruce Springsteen had been covering songs throughout his complete tour in Australia and New Zealand and now it looks like he is bringing that special tradition back home for his Spring tour.

During last night’s headlining performance as part of the NCAA March Madness Music Festival in Dallas, Springsteen kept up the tradition by adding a cover into the mix during his gig. This time, the song was “Jump” by Van Halen because what other song would you pick for a basketball tournament? Maybe “Space Jam,” but we’re not sure how a drums and guitar version of the song would sound.

The video, though it does start out with a crappy, fuzzy image of the performance sharpens up to the E Street Band arriving on the stage. The Boss arrives onto the stage shortly, carrying a basketball which leads to a tip-off between him and guitarist Nils Lofgren. And yes, even a referee was on hand to toss-up the basketball into the air.

Talk about getting into the spirit.

Check out the full video below.

The NCAA March Madness Music Festival marked the first day of the Springsteen and the E Street Band’s North American tour in support of the recently released High Hopes. The tour is slated to travel to several cities in the United States eventually wrapping up on May 18 at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT.

Bruce Springsteen Covers Lorde

Throughout his time touring Australia and New Zealand, Bruce Springsteen has covered several different songs and his stop at Auckland, New Zealand was no different. Previously, he had covered AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” with help from Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder as well as The Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.”

In honor of performing in New Zealand, the Boss kicked off his show with an acoustic version of hometown favorite, Lorde’s hit song, “Royals.” Of course, he changed up one of the lyrics, the “you can call be queen bee” to “you can call me king bee” to fit the situation at hand.

His show at Auckland’s Mt. Smart Stadium marked the second time, ever, that Springsteen has done a live appearance in New Zealand; his first time in almost eleven years. Springsteen’s tour down under officially wraps up tonight with a second appearance at Mt. Smart Stadium. After that, the musician will be heading back home to America for a five-week tour.

Eddie Vedder Joins Bruce Springsteen On Stage

Bruce Springsteen had a little help opening his show in Melbourne, Australia yesterday evening (February 15). The guest of honor was none other than Pearl Jam frontman, Eddie Vedder. Vedder came on stage to lend vocals to two songs: Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.”

This show is not the first time Vedder has joined forces with Springsteen on stage; the duo have performed together a handful of times including a 2002 gig in Chicago, a few shows in 2004 and most recently in 2012 when they performed at Chicago’s Wrigley Stadium.

Rage Against the Machine guitarist, Tom Morello is also on tour with Springsteen and posted up a picture of the three of them on his Instagram page with the caption, “Vedder/Springsteen/Morello trifecta bask in afterglow of Melbourne #1. Ed slayed Highway To Hell/Darkness On The Edge Of Town.”

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Vedder/Springsteen/Morello trifecta bask in afterglow of Melbourne #1. Ed slayed Highway To Hell/Darkness On The Edge Of Town

A post shared by Tom Morello (@tommorello) on Feb 15, 2014 at 8:12am PST

Vedder was currently in town on his solo tour in Australia following Pearl Jam’s headlining gig at the annual Big Day Out Festival.

Bruce Springsteen and CBS Team Up for Album Debut

UPDATE: Stream the full album over at CBS.com here.

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Amazon might be to blame for leaking Bruce Springsteen’s new album two weeks early, but that doesn’t mean that the Boss is going to let that stand in the way of releasing his songs through a television network.

Today, it was announced that Springsteen’s new album will be available for download through CBS’ website CBS.com, while the network will “highlight the disc’s availability on its website during a sneak preview after the January 5th episode of The Good Wife.”

The album, High Hopes, will then be available at CBS.com/Springsteen after the broadcast on Sunday, January 5 through Monday, January 13 at 7:00 PM EST.

In support of the advance streaming through the network, three of Springsteen’s tracks will be featured on the January 12 episode of The Good Wife.

This is the first time that such a promotional stunt as been attempted. A somewhat attempt similar to this was made last year by CBS for an episode of their hit, long-running show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigators. The episode featured none of the characters speaking, much like a silent film, but rather the music of Green Day taking the narrative of the episode.

As for High Hopes, it is one of the most anticipated albums of 2014 since its initial announcement. While the album won’t feature any “brand new material,” it does feature covers, rarities, and reworking of past songs. The album is set to be released on January 14 and will feature members of the E Street Band as well as guitarist Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine.

Bruce Springsteen’s Album Released Early

Fans who were patiently waiting for Bruce Springsteen’s new album High Hopes to be released in a couple of weeks, were treated to a pretty great gift when the album was released well before its appointed date this weekend.

Thanks to Amazon, High Hopes had surfaced on their website for purchase. While the “buy album” option wasn’t available at the time, the option to purchase each individual track on the album was. Upon finding out what had happened, the online retailer quickly took down the album, but no before many people on the interweb purchased it. Of course, that has led to the album already making its way onto file-sharing sites.

Talk about a late Christmas gift.

High Hopes is the Boss’ 18th studio album and is different from all the other albums he had put out in his career. The new record is made up of cover songs, outtakes, and major reworkings of songs from earlier recordings and tours.

“The best way to describe this record is that’s its a bit of an anomaly,” Springsteen told Rolling Stone during a recent interview with the publication. “But not much. I don’t really work linearly like a lot of people do.”

One of the major guests to be featured on the new album is Rage Against the Machines’ Tom Morello who has been confirmed to be on one of the new tracks.

 

Fun. Cover The Boss

Fun. gave fans a little treat during the New York City stop of their “Most Nights” Summer Tour at Pier 26; they performed Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 hit song, “Born to Run.” The video of the band performing the famous song can be seen below.

Fun. just finished wrapping up the first half of their current tour and will be heading over to Europe and Asia for a few festival stops over sea. After that, they will be returning to North America to continue the rest of the tour. Dates and tickets for the second half can be found over at their website.

Considering that many artists have covered The Boss’ song before, how do you rank fun.’s version of the song?