Springsteen Plays Entire “Born to Run” Album in James Gandolfini’s Honor


Jimmy Gandolfini was close with the E Street Band. Little Steven Van Zandt played a key role on “The Sopranos.” But the link between Tony Soprano and Bruce Springsteen is stronger than that. More than any other fictional character, Tony embodied the restless New Jersey desperation Springsteen chronicled in his early period. He was a Jersey boy, stuck in the provinces, torn between reckless escapism and lord-of-the-manor patriarchy. Born to Run. Hungry Heart. Racing in the Street. Those songs get to the big, complicated heart of Tony Soprano.

It’s more than fitting then, that last night in Coventry, England, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played Born to Run in its entirety, dedicating the performance to Gandolfini, who died Wednesday at 51.

[Rolling Stone]