LIVE (Retro): Bruce Springsteen @ Union College Memorial Chapel, 10/19/1974

This was before the hype; before the reverent prophecy “I have seen the future of rock and roll and its name is Bruce Springsteen,” before the simultaneous Time and Newsweek cover stories.

So, forgive me for hitting another show in Albany before racing back to Schenectady that night 46 years ago tonight when I found Springsteen was almost levitating the Union College Memorial Chapel. He and a stage-filling band made the purest and most powerful rock and roll joy; music that filled every ear and every heart and blew apart every expectation of what a show could do.

First the bad news.

Latter, weaker versions of John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra and Chick Corea’s Return to Forever showed why fusion was on its way out the Albany Palace Theater show I hit before Springsteen. Both were OK, but lacked the fire of their first impact, when they knew they were inventing something new. With their bosses indulging the younger replacements of their original hot-rod band mates, the Palace show substituted flash for soul.

Now, the good news.

Springsteen had both, as Cindy N. and I could hear as we walked — no, ran! — from our dubiously parked car to the Chapel.

Nobody stopped us at the door as we dashed inside.

We couldn’t even see the stage at first. Everybody was standing, shouting, exultant.

I’m guessing we burst into the Chapel during “Jungleland” or “Kitty’s Back” — those songs have the mood I remember in that first rush.