Last year as Bruce Springsteen reflected on the death of his friend and teenage bandmate George Theiss, who died in 2018, he grabbed his guitar and pen and began writing a song about being the sole living member of his first band.
He wrote about the New Jersey clubs where the Castiles played their first shows. And the flannel shirts and thrift store jeans he and his bandmates wore onstage. Reminiscing about his first musical experiences as well as his longtime friends who have died, 71-year-old Springsteen sings the refrain: "Somewhere deep into the heart of the crowd/I’m the last man standing now."