By ERIC DEGGANS

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 5, 2001

When it comes to discussing Bruce Springsteen, separating man from myth and artist from artistic legend is a tough task, indeed.

Since he first exploded onto the music scene in the mid-'70s, wearing his poet's soul and working man's heart on his sleeves, this rough-and-tumble son of New Jersey fed a public thirsty for real rock 'n' roll heroes.

And now that pop music has turned itself over to the Britneys and Puff Daddys of the world, can you blame rock fans for paying attention when the Boss decides to open up shop once again?

"He has continued to put out music that reflects its times -- very forward-looking and very here and now," said Christopher Phillips, editor of Backstreets, the Springsteen-based fanzine that has been publishing for more than 30 years. "I think a lot of people have grown up with him. You know, the issues you relate to when you're 16 are a lot different than what moves you when you're 35."

It's that sense of history and artistic progression that helps make his latest effort -- an HBO film and two-CD set culled from the final two nights of a triumphant, 10-show gig with the E Street Band last summer at Madison Square Garden -- more than an '80s superstar running through his old hits for even older fans.

Filled with classic Springsteen fare such as Born to Run, Badlands, Murder Incorporated and a 15-minute Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (including the right Rev. Springsteen offering a patented rock 'n' soul sermon on the power of the groove), HBO's film also offers a peek at the future, with two songs never before recorded by the band.

Sure, there's nostalgia here. When Springsteen ambles over to saxophone man Clarence Clemons, proclaiming him the "Minister of Soul" midway through Tenth Avenue, he's playing to an onstage dynamic that has decades of history behind it.

But HBO's crystal-clear production and well-focused visuals hint at something else. Disbanded in 1989 when Springsteen decided to try other musical options, the E Street Band has returned with greater power and range -- with guitarists Nils Lofgren and Little Steven Van Zandt touring together for the first time.

Yes, Virginia, even in an age when million-selling pop bands are assembled by TV networks in a matter of months, there's still value in a group of players who have spent more than 30 years anticipating each other's moves.

"This is the best E Street Band I've ever played with," Springsteen recently told the New York Daily News, reflecting on the year-long reunion tour that ended with the Madison Square Garden shows. "You never heard our songs played better. The way (drummer) Max Weinberg was playing. Three guitars -- we'd never had that before. We pushed each other."

Longtime fans, used to the Boss' legendary reticence in releasing studio albums, will soon be drowning in new Bruce product, including Tuesday's debut of the CD Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Live in New York City (featuring several tracks not included on the TV version), along with HBO's Saturday telecast of the concert film and an expected DVD release later this year.

Indeed, that may be the biggest change for Springsteen in the year 2001. Instead of talking about putting new albums in stores, he's actually doing it.

"He's one of the greatest live performers of the rock era, and this is only his third (official) live album," says Phillips, who saw about 30 performances by the E Street Band during the latest tour. "There's so much great live material out there -- you've got to hope one day they take a page from the Grateful Dead and just start putting it out."

My own observation of the Springsteen legend began up close in 1993, as music critic for the Boss' hometown newspaper, the Asbury Park Press. For nearly three years, I watched the area reeling from the slow decline of the working man's rock 'n' roll that had once put the Jersey Shore's music scene on the map -- devastated by the era of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and other Seattle-inspired grunge rockers.

Back then, Springsteen was dividing time between homes in New Jersey and Beverly Hills, crafting evocative theme songs for the movies Philadelphia and Dead Man Walking while pondering his next musical move (in 1995, he would release the acoustic album The Ghost of Tom Joad).

We talked right after he produced an album for Pittsburgh-based rocker Joe Grushecky that he hoped would rescue his friend from a day job teaching school (it didn't).

"Joe is a grown man making grown-up rock 'n' roll -- so if it pushes you to the margins in the industry, what can you do?" said Springsteen, who also seemed to be talking about himself -- perhaps seeing Grushecky's struggle as the way things might have been in a luckless universe. "You get guys who are Joe's and my age (he was 45 then), and it gets a lot tougher in this business. I've been in this business for a while -- and I'm not sure what the (industry) bases its decisions on."

But any such reticence is invisible on HBO's concert film, which captures Springsteen and his pals in their element. Opening with the one-two punch of energetic rockers My Love Will Not Let You Down and Prove It All Night, the band falls into its traditional roles with renewed vigor -- with the Boss himself whipping out lead guitar lines that favor emotion and sonic fury over technical precision.

With Lofgren and Van Zant occasionally turning to pedal steel and mandolin, respectively, the E Streeters provide a more varied and textured background than they did in the days when they would blast out three-hour marathon shows. Contemplative ballads such as Mansion on the Hill and The River benefited best from that treatment, gaining added meaning through the band's expanded sonic palette.

Of course, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out remains a significant highlight -- a marathon soul workout that gives Springsteen a chance to explain why he and his buddies are still climbing on concert stages past age 50.

"Tonight, I want to find that river of joy . . . that river of happiness . . . that river of resurrection, where everybody gets a second chance," preaches Springsteen, 51, while introducing the band -- including wife, backup singer and "First Lady of Love" Patti Scialfa. "(But) you don't find these places by accident. You've got to seek them out and search for them. That's why we're here, night after night after night. Because you can't get to those things by yourself."

The night's most impressive moment belongs to American Skin -- a lament on the dangers of being the wrong color in the wrong place at the wrong time. Inspired by the New York police shooting of unarmed immigrant Amadou Diallo, the song had a New York City debut that prompted a police union spokesman to call Springsteen a "dirtbag."

Opening the song with the chanted refrain "41 shots," spotlights piercing a darkened stage, Springsteen plays the moment for all its weight and power -- calming a clapping crowd with a wave and the admonition, "We need some quiet here."

"If an officer stops you/promise me you'll always be polite/and that you'll never, ever run away/ Promise Mama that you'll keep your hands in sight," he croons, taking the voice of a black mother instructing her child on the rules of surviving a police encounter.

"It was a meditation on what it means to be an American at a particular moment in time," Springsteen told the Los Angeles Times of the song. "I wanted to point out that people of color are viewed through a veil of criminality . . . that ultimately means they are thought of as less American."

It's here that Springsteen presents his most potent case as a pop star who still has something left to say. Since 1984's Born in the USA propelled him to superstar status, he has worked hard to keep his feet on the ground and keep speaking the truth to power -- an awesome task, given the bloated, egocentric state of pop music these days.

Things still aren't that settled for Springsteen, who hasn't released an album of original songs with a band since 1992's ill-received Human Touch and Lucky Town records -- made mostly without his E Street bandmates.

News that the E Streeters hit the studio to record a shorter version of American Skin and some new tunes brings renewed hope among fans that the Boss will bring his invigorated vision to record stores soon.

Despite the side projects that may keep band members busy -- Van Zandt has a role on HBO's mob drama The Sopranos, while Weinberg leads the house band on Late Night With Conan O'Brien -- HBO's concert film provides evidence of a musical bond that seems less about nostalgia and more about making music informed by 30-plus years of shared experiences.

"I'll be curious to see what happens when a new Springsteen record comes out," says Backstreets' Phillips. "There are a handful of artists out there for whom (radio) airplay may not be the point. The fans are just looking forward to more activity -- and right now, that doesn't seem a futile hope."

[HBO photo: Danny Clinch] The Boss takes charge, right, with some guitar support from Steven Van Zandt in the background.

-- AT A GLANCE: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Live in New York City airs at 9 p.m. Saturday on HBO. Grade: A. Rating: TV-PG.

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