A new episode of Bruce Springsteen’s SiriusXM radio show From My Home to Yours debuted this week with the Boss celebrating songs about and inspired by the Golden State, California. At the beginning of the program, Springsteen, who has been sidelined from touring this year by peptic ulcer disease, shared a bit of positive news about his health.
“Hello, hello, hello! This is Bruce Springsteen and I have no bellyache,” the 73-year-old rock legend announced. It’s worth noting that during the previous episode of From My Home to Yours, Springsteen mentioned that he was suffering from “a bitch of a bellyache.”
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Getting into the theme of the new episode, which is titled “California Sun,” Springsteen declared, “Today we are heading west. We are going to California … I lived there for six years on and off, and while it’s not New Jersey, it’s pretty spectacular.”
He kicked things off with The Rivieras’ “California Sun.” Other songs the Boss played on the show were Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer,” Roy Orbison’s – “California Blue,” Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “California Soul,” Lana Del Rey’s “Bel Air,” Jan and Dean’s “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena,” Joni Mitchell’s “California,” The Beach Boys’ The Beach Boys’ “California Saga (On My Way to Sunny California),” and The Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’.”
Springsteen said “The Boys of Summer” was one of his “favorite all-time California records.” He mentioned that longtime Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell had written the music for the song, but Petty had passed on the tune, so Campbell brought the track to Henley, who “wrote this great song to it.”
After playing “Bel Air,” Springsteen praised Del Rey as “one of our great current American songwriters.”
He added, “She writes fabulously about California. I love the detail in her writing and she gets that fabulous noir ambience on her records.”
As for Mitchell, Springsteen called, her “one of the absolute greatest songwriters … of the second half of the 20th century.”
Regarding “California Dreamin’,” Springsteen recalled having a tricky time trying to cover The Mamas and the Papas’ classic 1965 hit with his early band The Castiles due to the singing being so good.
“It was so strangely and darkly romantic,” Springsteen reflected on the song. “I remember sitting in my little snowbound house in New Jersey and just imagining that song in all of its beauty and its richness, and thinking of getting to California somehow, someday.”
You can listen to “From My House to Yours on SiriusXM’s E Street Radio channel.
In other news, Springsteen has donated a 1952 Reissue Fender Telecaster guitar that he signed to an auction to benefit the WhyHunger charity’s Hungerthon initiative. The auction is also offering someone the chance to be a guest DJ on E Street Radio’s The Wild and the Innocent show with host Jim Rotolo. Bidding for both lots will be open until December 7. Visit Hungerthon.org/Springsteen to place a bid.
Experience the Boss live on stage! The Bruce Springsteen 2024 tour is not to be missed. Grab your tickets and enjoy a night of legendary music!
(Featured Image by Matthew Baker/Getty Images)