Master Index of Archived Threads


Dan Federici, East Sreet Band keyboardist, dead at 58

Frayed Knot Apr 17 2008 10:06 PM

Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen [url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jWBL8bwtky7ejPHSACIDibAWnHwAD9040RBG0]died Thursday[/url]. He was 58. Federici, who had battled melanoma for three years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Springsteen's official Web site.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Apr 17 2008 10:11 PM

Holy crap.

Frayed Knot Apr 17 2008 10:18 PM

A couple of upcoming concerts in Florida have been canceled. I hadn't realized that this had been going on for several years. First I heard of it was a few months back when he left the tour to get treatment but I guess I was thinking that was the initial diagnosis.

AG/DC Apr 18 2008 07:07 AM

"Keyboardist" was what he became. Back when I got on board, it was Roy Bittan on piano and him on organ. He, of course, was the one who made the band sound like a haunted amusement park, or the world's loneliest roller rink.

Frayed Knot Apr 18 2008 07:51 AM

Federici preceded Bittan by a number of years - he even preceded the official E Street Band as I believe he was the guy who's been with Bruce the longest. So, back in the early days, he could have played any number of keyborad parts although it was one-time E Streeter David Sancious who was the organ solo in 'Kitty's Back' that supposedly no one else could duplicate well enough after he left to keep it in the live show rotation. A woman on a local radio show here does a Bruce hour every Thursday night that I was listening to during the late innings of the game last night. Poor thing was crying through most of the show.

Gwreck Apr 18 2008 08:02 AM

I remember hearing that he was sick a year or two ago, and I remember that he didn't look good at the rehearsals for the current tour, but he was there, playing every night and things seemed hopeful. Even recently, after he took time off from the tour, he showed up as a surprise guest at the show in Indianapolis less than a month ago. Seems unfathomable that E Street will never be the same.

sharpie Apr 18 2008 08:22 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Apr 18 2008 08:44 AM

They've done Kitty's Back since then, I saw them do it at Shea a couple of years ago. Bruce gave an interview last year saying how proud he was that the whole band was still alive, given the vicissitudes of the rock'n'roll life. A good friend of mine saw one of Federici's last shows in Los Angeles. A day or so later he was at LAX and ran into Federici and Springsteen's road manager. The rest of the band had left for their next show in Minnesota (Federici's last) but Federici wanted to hang around LA for another day. He and my friend talked for a while about the band, etc. That mini-tour had had a similar setlist for each show except for the Minnesota show they apparently featured as many keyboard-heavy numbers as they could squeeze in. RIP, Danny.

Gwreck Apr 18 2008 08:40 AM

Show was in Boston (not Minnesota) but the part about squeezing in as many Federici-featured numbers is correct. They did Sandy, The E Street Shuffle, Kitty's Back, This Hard Land (with an extended solo) and perhaps most poignantly, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out. They hadn't officially announced anything but I remember the crowd basically becoming aware what was happening that night. Bruce would always take the bow at the center of the stage at the end of the show but he pulled Danny up there for that night.