Chip Minemyer: Sweet sounds on the 'Nightshift'

Mar. 24—The Commodores' final top-10 hit was 1985's "Nightshift" — a tribute to R&B legends Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson, who both died the year before.

With Walter "Clyde" Orange on vocals, the song salutes the enduring impact of great music — with references to Wilson's signature song, "(Your Love Keep Lifting Me) Higher and Higher," and Gaye's amazing world-changing album and hit single "What's Going On."

The chorus goes like this ...

Gonna be some sweet sounds

Comin' down, on the nightshift

I bet you're singing proud

Oh, I bet you'll pull a crowd ...

Rocker Bruce Springsteen recorded a version of "Nightshift" in 2022, offering his voice to that moving tribute to Gaye and Wilson.

Springsteen and the E-Street Band played that song during a fantastic set Saturday night at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center on a night of energetic live music — typical of a Boss show — with some nostalgia woven in.

At one point, Springsteen stood alone on the stage under a single spotlight, and told the story of his first band, The Castiles, which he joined as a teenage guitarist in New Jersey in the late 1960s — years before "Born To Run," "Glory Days" or the Johnstown-referenced "The River."

Springsteen recalled the 2018 death of bandmate George Theiss, whose passing inspired the reflective song "Last Man Standing."

"Somewhere high and hard and loud

"Somewhere deep into the heart of the crowd

"I'm the last man standing now ..."

The Boss, going strong at 73, put on an amazing show. But he seemed to recognize that some day he would be playing the Nightshift alongside Theiss and his legendary saxophonist, the late Clarence Clemons, whose sound drove so many Springsteen classics — from "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" to "Rosalita" to "Jungleland."

Nephew Jake Clemons stepped into the E-Street lineup in 2012, a year after Clarence's passing, wailing on the sax and adding percussion and vocals.

In a 2020 interview with David Cruz on Chat Box, Jake Clemons compared playing his uncle's sax solos to a rabbi translating ancient scripture — "conveying" the passages through his own interpretation, while staying true to the sound fans know and love.

The next slide guitarist to join the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd — Damon Johnson — faces a similar challenge in replacing a legend.

Gary Rossington — an original band member who survived Skynyrd's 1977 plane crash — died March 5, taking his signature sound to the Nightshift.

Rossington's slide riffs gave a unique power to Skynyrd hits such as "Travelin' Man" and "You Got That Right."

And without Rossington's slide sound — which reached deep into your heart and soul — there would be no "Free Bird."

In 2022, we lost a string of impactful performers and songwriters — including Meat Loaf, Thom Bell of Kool & The Gang, Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac, Irene Cara, Jerry Lee Lewis, Coolio, Lamont Dozier, Olivia Newton-John, Jimmy Seals, Naomi Judd, Ronnie Spector and on and on.

Just since January, we've said farewell to the likes of Jeff Beck, Lisa Marie Presley, David Crosby, Burt Bacharach and others.

Good thing there's an infinite stage at the Nightshift.

That's where, as the Commodores and The Boss sang, "It's gonna be a long night."

But "it's gonna be alright."

Chip Minemyer is the publisher of The Tribune-Democrat and The Times-News of Cumberland, Md. He can be reached at 814-532-5111. Follow him on Twitter @MinemyerChip.