Back In The Day

In 1985, Bruce Springsteen had the number one album in the country. Madonna came in at number three. In many ways, this was the high-water mark of both artist's chart power. Single after single from Bruce and Madge came out and had their day in the sun, only to be replaced almost as abruptly by another. "Into The Groove," "Dancing in the Dark," "Material Girl," "I'm On Fire." You could not escape them on the radio, and as MTV began to find its audience, these were the videos that were in nearly constant rotation. The notion that these were two different sets of fans seems a little unlikely, since the Boss sold more than fifteen million copies of "Born in the USA," and Her Midgeness topped that with twenty-one million copies of "Like A Virgin." Tours for both records crisscrossed the globe, raking in millions of dollars for both of America's biggest stars.
Twenty-seven years later, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen have survived the digital age, and continue to make music and perform live. Both have been halftime entertainment for the Super Bowl. A few weeks back, London officials pulled the plug on Springsteen's show at Hyde Park when an encore with Sir Paul McCartney pushed past the curfew. Madonna showed up a few days later and was warned about exceeding the limits at that same venue. She and her people complied.
Maybe that's what was going through the Material Girl's head as she took the stage at Paris' Olympia club last week. She and her crew kept their show to a tidy forty-five minutes, sparking outrage among the crowd and online viewers who were watching a streaming version of the concert. Considering three-quarters of an hour is what the E Street Band refers to as "sound check," perhaps the "boos" that Madonna was hearing were actually "Bruce."