BLUES RIFF (HIGH FIDELITY)^©

[Instrumental]

Page last updated: 04 Nov 2009

Intro

BLUES RIFF (HIGH FIDELITY) is a short Bruce Springsteen instrumental that he wrote for and used in the Stephen Frears 2000 film High Fidelity.

Copyright

Bruce Springsteen copyrighted BLUES RIFF (HIGH FIDELITY) as a 100% composition of his at the US Copyright Office in 1999. "Words and music" that is mentioned in the copyright file doesn't necessarily confirm that the song had words. The small snippet seen/heard in the movie may only be part of the song. The "2000-03-31" date in the file relates to the release date of the movie where the song (or some part of it) first appeared.

The film

High Fidelity is a 2000 film directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack. It is about Rob Gordon (played by Cusack), a record store owner and compulsive list maker who recounts his top five breakups, including one in progress. The film is loosely based on the 1995 British novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, with the setting moved from London to Chicago.

Springsteen's cameo

In Hornby's book, the narrator wishes he could handle his past girlfriends as well as Springsteen does in the song BOBBY JEAN. "We had this idea to have [the main character] Rob have this conversation with Bruce in his head," Cusack told The New York Times. "Of course we never really thought we'd get Bruce, we just thought putting him in there would make a good read for the studio and get them all excited. But I had met him socially, so I thought even though he's going to say no, I may as well call him and throw the Hail Mary pass and get it over with. And he kind of just laughed at the idea and said, 'Send me a script.' So when we finished shooting, we wrapped around 2 a.m., flew to New York, and taped him in his studio for an hour the next morning." It is reported that Cusack's first choice for this role, Bob Dylan, had declined.

Film production

On 02 Jul 1999, Springsteen made his first-ever appearance in a feature film (i.e., excluding documentaries and music films/videos), playing himself during a 2-minute dream sequence for the movie. The shooting took place at Disney Soundstage Studios in New York City, NY. It was the final scene shot for the film.

In the film, Bruce performs a blues riff on guitar while talking to the film's dreaming lead character (Cusack), who ends the conversation with Bruce by saying "Good luck, goodbye", a spoof of the final line in Springsteen's BOBBY JEAN.

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