Heartwarming / Bruce Springsteen

• Pick a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame appearance, any Rock and Roll Hall of Fame appearance. Each doubles as a Crowning Moment of Awesome for how Bruce usually is in his many appearances at the ceremonies:
  • Of course, there's Bruce's induction in 1999. His speech is pretty adorable, being sure to call out his mom (who's in the audience!) and the E Street Band, as well as the artists he inducted in previous years.
  Thanks, Mom. This is yours tonight. Take it home as a small return on the investment you made in your son.
  • Bruce was inducted by Bono, for whom The Boss returned the favor and inducted U2 in 2005 (and did a kickass rendition of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.")
  • Bruce jams with Wilson fucking Pickett! Bruce has looked star-struck frequently, but nothing compares to this.
  • His reuniting with the E Street Band for his set of songs, kicking off their reunion tour.
  • He also inducted the E Street Band when they received the Award for Musical Excellence.
• His recent tour of The River:
  • Bringing out a 91-year-old woman to dance with him, his 90-year-old mother Adele joined him to dance to "Ramrod", and on two different occasions, little girls joined him onstage to sing his songs. In one case, he said the girl knew the words to "Blinded by the Light" better than he did! (Unfortunately it was subverted when it came to light that the first little girl's father put her up to it and was a stage dad, but Bruce didn't know and meant well.)
  • "10th Avenue Freeze-Out" cued a montage celebrating the members of the band, with special emphasis on the late great Clarence Clemons.
  • He wrote a tardy note for a 9-year-old boy who attended one of the shows.
• Here's Bruce playing "No Surrender" with a college kid fan.
• Anything having to do with his biggest fan, Jon Stewart. Jon ecstatically interviewed him on The Daily Show, gave the speech when Bruce was a Kennedy Center Honoree later that year, and had him play two songs as the final Moment of Zen for his run on The Daily Show.
• Both Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert devoted the entire hours of their respective shows to Bruce when he appeared on each.
• At Barack Obama's inauguration, Bruce introduced 92-year-old Pete Seeger onstage to sing "This Land Is Your Land" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. With all the lyrics, not the Bowdlerised ones.
• "Working on a Dream".
• "The Wish", an autobiographical song about his mom buying him a guitar for Christmas: "Well, tonight I'm takin' requests here in the kitchen, this one's for you, ma, let me come right out and say it, it's overdue, but baby, if you're looking for a sad song, well, I ain't gonna play it!"
• As noted on The Daily Show page, Jon Stewart dedicating the Moment of Zen to Clarence Clemons after the Big Man's passing.
  • Also Bruce's own tribute to the Big Man in the liner notes of Wrecking Ball.
• The story about his father while introducing "The River" on the Live 1975-85 set.
  I remember coming home after I had been gone for three days, walking in the kitchen and my mother and father were sitting there and my dad said "where you been?" I said "I went to take my physical" He said "What happened?" I said "They didn't take me" And he said "That's good".
• "Terry's Song."
• "The Rising."

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