Steel Mill, the New Jersey club band featuring Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, Danny Federici, Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez and two others, played its first West Coast show, at the Matrix in San Francisco, 50 years ago today. (January 13th). The late E Street Band organist Danny Federici thought the song Blinder By the Light was too fast for people to dance to. It was recorded for the album Greetings From Asbury Park, New Jersey It didn’t even chart, though a cover by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band topped the charts four years later.
Danny Federici recalled in a 1990s interview that Bruce didn’t really
