Mathew Rosengart has been “a massive Bruce Springsteen fan” since about 1980, when he was a college freshman. So it was a thrill when the high-octane Hollywood attorney was asked to guest DJ an episode of “Be the Boss” on SiriusXM’s E Street Radio. The segment, which aired Feb. 26, consists of Rosengart’s 10-song Springsteen playlist, as well as stories and memories related to each track.
Gavin Edwards, music journalist and best-selling author of “The Tao of Bill Murray: Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing” and “Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind,” calls Rosengart’s list “the best fan picks I’ve ever heard.”
Here is Rosengart’s “Be the Boss” playlist:
“Land of Hope & Dreams”
“One of my favorite all-time songs, especially live,” Rosengart told E Street Radio fans.
“Ghosts”
“[“Ghosts”] is from ‘Letter to You,’ which was released, I believe, in October 2020, which was the height of the pandemic. It was a gift I think in many ways to millions of fans, including me.”
“Prove It All Night” (Winterland ’78 version)
“My favorite song from that [Winterland bootleg] cassette and that entire Winterland performance, which is a classic, has everything.”
“The River” (“No Nukes” version)
“I found ‘The River’ to be poetic, melodic, thoughtful and, again, classic Bruce.”
“Reason to Believe”
“It’s a song about despair, but it’s also a song about optimism. And I think it’s a song about the human spirit.”
“Racing in the Street”
Rosengart is a big fan of the 1978 “Darkness on the Edge of Town” track.
“If I Should Fall Behind” (studio version)
“This song is dedicated to my wife. This was our wedding song.”
“Youngstown” (Live in New York City)
“My favorite part of that song … is the driving guitar solo of Nils [Lofgren], which seems to go on for about two minutes and is just searing and incendiary.”
“No Surrender”
“To me it’s a song about joy. It’s also a song about perseverance,” Rosengart said on the air, dedicating the 1983 song off the “Born in the USA” album to his client, Britney Spears.