One of the finest treats of the past few months was watching that shaky footage of Win and Régine joining Bruce & the E Streeters up in Ottawa. In hindsight that collab has an air of inevitability about it (as does the Fire's time with Bowie, Byrne et al), but if you had to pinpoint a precipitating event, look no further: Win and Bruce reacquainted themselves (they'd met in passing in '05) at an E Street show at Continental Airlines Arena in late September, Butler and Chassagne on hand as the Boss's guests of honor, SPIN on hand to document the mind-meld ("not interviewing so much as eavesdropping") for its December cover story.
It's a long one packing a bunch of pics; sidebar pledges of allegiance to the Boss from Craig Finn ("Aging gracefully in rock is hard to do, but Bruce looks awesome") and Matt Berninger ("Springsteen is one of those people you always trust"); and Bruce and Butler finding similarities in their bands' organizational structure (lots of family and friends) and approach to a winning fanbase (says Win: "Not enough artists build it up the right way. You start with the guys, then get the girlfriends to come. That's how you get the loyalty.").At one point Butler professes his love for "State Trooper." A few weeks later, this happened.
But our favorite part:
...when [Bruce] greets Butler and Chassagne after soundcheck, the first thing he mentions is the fan-made YouTube clip for their song "My Body Is a Cage," set to scenes from Once Upon a Time in the West.
Just fun to think of Boss man at a laptop watching fan made YouTube clips.
Check the Win + Bruce SPIN cover after the jump.
Read an excerpt over at Spin.com.
