Watch Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith and Michael Stipe Jam
Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith and R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe shared a stage together last night during Smith’s concert in New York City to mark the premiere of the documentary Horses: Patti Smith and Her Band.
Smith and Springsteen performed “Because the Night,” the song they both recorded 1978, before Stipe joined them for Smith’s 1988 anthem “People Have the Power” at the Beacon Theater as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
You can watch the videos below.
Smith last performed those songs at Stephen Stills’ autism benefit show over the weekend at a concert that also featured Neil Young and Heartbreakers members Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and Steve Ferrone, making their first stage appearance since the death of Tom Petty.
Springsteen’s appearance came during an 11-day break from his Springsteen on Broadway show, which started out as an eight-week run at New York's Walter Kerr Theatre in October, but has since been extended several times and now runs until Dec. 15. (The full list of dates can be seen at his website.)
Last year, Springsteen told Variety that the show had a “loose connection” with his recent autobiography. “I read a little bit from it, I tell some stories and play some music – that’s basically the show," he said. "Back in the early ’70s, when we played smaller places, there was a lot of time for storytelling. People were up close and it was fun, so it’s a bit of a return to some of that. We needed a place that was very small, so that’s how we ended up on Broadway, where all the beautiful small theaters are."
He noted that he had been "thinking about doing something that combined the book and music for a while, and I performed it once. In the last few weeks of the Obama Administration, I played at the White House in the East Room for about 300 people, and I brought this idea down there and it felt really good. I haven’t really played a venue of that size in probably 40 years.”