Ironically, in the song that helped take him from mere rock stardom to international giga-stardom, you can hear the restlessness that led Bruce Springsteen to – at the absolute height of his commercial success – dramatically change artistic gears.
“I get up in the evenin'/And I ain't got nothin' to say,” “Man, I'm just tired and bored with myself” are some of the lines he sings in Dancing in the Dark, the point of the spear of his blockbuster 1984 album, Born in the U.S.A.
Three years later, Springsteen turned dramatically inward with Tunnel of Love, a contemplative album mostly devoid of the shiny, mass-market dressing that adorned its predecessor. Most significantly, he also – after a world tour behind that album – disbanded the E Street Band, the colorful cast of musical misfits who for so long had helped define his sound.
After taking a few years off the road, Springsteen was, by the early '90s, itching to return. He was not, however, looking to return to the E Street Band. Instead, he cast his net for a new backing group.
Into the Boss's orbit came Shane Fontayne, an English-born guitarist who already had a ton of road miles under his belt with the band Lone Justice, and as Rolling Stones alum Mick Taylor's six-string sidekick for a time.
Springsteen, as it turns out, had seen Lone Justice perform on Saturday Night Live years before, and been impressed by Fontayne. When the time came to put together a new band, Fontayne was one of his first calls.
In a new interview with Guitar World, Fontayne recalled the audition that came next.
“I had a pedalboard at the time, which is somewhere in Bruce’s locker, which I was running in stereo,” he says. “I remember bringing out that pedalboard, and I’d asked him for a couple of amplifiers, and maybe I took my Gretsch Tennessean with me.
“So, I get down to the audition, and Bruce’s handler, if you want to call him that, says, ‘Don’t be nervous about anything. He’s gonna make you feel so comfortable.’”
If he got the gig, Fontayne's job would be to (attempt to, really) fill the shoes of Springsteen's longtime six-string sidekicks, Stevie Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren. Though a tall order, Fontayne wasn't phased.
“I was excited, but I don’t think I was overly nervous. We started playing – and I don’t remember what we played, but it was in the key of E. It’s an interesting key; it’s great on guitar,” Fontayne said. “We jammed, and it was one of those spark-flying moments.
“I don’t know how long we played; it could have been five minutes, it could have been 20, but after we took a break, Bruce goes, ‘Man, you’ve got a lot of twang.’ I said, ‘Too much?’ And he said, ‘Ah, you know…’ It was just a feeling that, sensibility-wise, I’m not a technical player; I trust my gut and instincts, and I respond.”
What may have seemed an inconclusive opinion, or even a slight dig, soon revealed itself to be a compliment.
“I was just responding to what was happening in the room – and it seemed to work for him. Later in that session, he said, ‘Man, with some of the stuff you’re playing, I wish I’d had you play on the album,’” Fontayne explained to GW.
“His material was so forgiving for a player like me; it’s not too complicated, so I stumbled, there was just a sensibility to it that I wouldn’t feel like that happened. That made me a good fit.”
Though Springsteen would eventually re-group permanently with the E Street Band in 1999, he thought highly enough of Fontayne that he recruited the guitarist for some studio sessions not long after their tour. These would apparently produce an entire album's worth of material, though little of it has seen the light of day.
“Whenever I see him, he’s told me that he might still [release the recordings] – that he wants to get those sessions out there,” Fontayne said.
Keep an eye on Guitar World in the coming weeks for the full interview with Fontayne.
