Bruce Springsteen teased Tim Russert and introduced a new song, “Living to the Future,” in a performance on NBC’s “Today.

Springsteen to Russert: Tiimmmmmmmm
By Jacques Steinberg
Bruce Springsteen teased Tim Russert and introduced a new song, “Living to the Future,” in a performance on NBC’s “Today.

Bruce Springsteen teased Tim Russert and introduced a new song, “Living to the Future,” in a performance on NBC’s “Today.”At 8:50 this morning, Bruce Springsteen was telling the big crowd that had gathered on Rockefeller Plaza to watch him perform on the “Today’’ program about the things that he loves about America.
His list included cheeseburgers, “the Jersey shore,’’ “the Yankees battling Boston’’ and “trans fats.’’ But then there was also this: “Tim Russert’s haircut.’’
As luck would have it, and as Mr. Springsteen well knew, Mr. Russert was in the audience, watching just a few feet from the stage. An hour and a half earlier, Matt Lauer, the co-host of “Today,’’ had interviewed Mr. Russert live in the “Today’’ studio during a segment about Thursday night’s sparsely attended Republican primary debate, which was held at Morgan State University, an historically black college.
During that interview, Mr. Lauer could not resist ribbing Mr. Russert, who is based in Washington, D.C., for showing up in person “to talk about this subject – or was it Bruce Springsteen?’’ (Tavis Smiley, who was also interviewed in the segment, appeared via remote hook-up from Baltimore.)
“I’m just an opening act for the Boss today,’’ Mr. Russert said.
As it turned out, Mr. Springsteen’s list – which likened the way “we love all those things’’ to “the way the womenfolk love old Matt Lauer’’ – was something of a diversion. Continuing his introduction to a new song called “Living in the Future’’ – which, he explained, is actually about “what’s happening right now’’ – Mr. Springsteen began to itemize those things about modern-day America that give him great pause.
“Over the past six years we’ve had to add to the American picture,’’ he said, “rendition, illegal wire tapping, voter suppression, no habeas corpus, the neglect of our great city of New Orleans and her people, an attack on the Constitution, and the loss of our best young men and women in a tragic war.’’
“This is a song,’’ he said, in a monologue over Max Weinberg’s somber drumbeat and Roy Bittan’s soft, electric piano, “about things that shouldn’t happen here, happening here.’’
The crowd, which stretched from 48th Street to 49th Street, cheered.
Link E-mail this