Please Don’t Stop Me

I’ll probably only keep that one Boss thing up for a day or two, “State Trooper” being so canonical & widely available and all. But as a postscript, I was very happy to recently discover a Steve Wynn cover of same, from a Springsteen tribute album. (Wynn’s something of a tribute-album slut, & not that there’s anything wrong with that.) The song tends to attract country-identified artists – Cowboy Junkies, Steve Earle – but Wynn brings some welcome electric thrum. This here version actually doubles the fun, clocking in at eight-plus minutes as compared with the four-or-so on the tribute disc.

I saw Wynn’s Dream Syndicate near the end of their lifespan – one bit of history I’ll always cling to, having missed so many others. The last time I saw him solo (well, with the Miracle Three backing him up, as they do here) was a great in-store at Soundscapes a few years back. I gotta tell you, what with getting older, tiring more quickly, needing more sleep, having to work in the morning or otherwise get things done, etc. etc., sitting crosslegged on a record-store floor on a summer Friday afternoon seems more & more like the ideal way to see a band.

• Steve Wynn, “State Trooper”