‘Saturday Night Live’ music: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Sir Paul McCartney perform

This has been a very good year for “Saturday Night Live” when it comes to some of its music. Mere weeks after Adele performed and then also the underrated Leon Bridges, tonight Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band brought some of their musical prowess to the stage. They are the closest thing to living legends to appear on the show this season, and possibly the biggest act since when Prince or Sir Paul McCartney turned up a ways back.

Ultimately, there are few bands who do a better job live than Springsteen and the E Street Band, and while we’re not that familiar with the song “Meet Me in the City,” it feels very much like some of his classic music. Great instrumentation, big vocals, and a catchy hook at the center of it. This is the sort of music that we do love to hear the band perform, though we hope that for the second song they either do a slower song or something Christmas-related.

With that, we’ll be back a little bit later to focus on the second song of the night.

Update: For the second song, Springsteen performed the popular “The Ties That Bind,” which is also in part the title of a new collection in tribute to “The River.” This is why he is specifically performing some of the music that he is on the show tonight. More than probably anyone else, Springsteen really has his pick of almost any song that he could possibly want for the show.

Update 2: At the end of the show, Springsteen gave us what we wanted and then some, bringing out Paul McCartney to sing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” Wonderful.

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