Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

Springsteen and Pearl Jam are the only two big acts I've seen booed for something they said from stage

Crosby Stills Nash and Young did a tour during the height of the Iraq war that was a hell of a lot more overtly political than anything Bruce or PJ has done. There was a pretty cool documentary about it.

CSN hasbeen holdovers from the heyday of protest. Their only claim to relevance - aside from the occasional assist from Young - has been a connection to that bygone era. Springsteen and certainly PJ don't have "the '60s, maaaan" to fall back on, but to say neither of them has done anything political on par with touring during the Iraq war is nonsense.

also C and S (and sometimes Y) are genuine article Insane People

New Boss album features a buncha samples. Lyn Collins, Alabama Sacred Harp Players ...

Some good quotes from a European press conference:

"There is a feeling of patriotism underneath... in my best music, but at the same time, it's a very critical, questioning, often angry sort of patriotism. That's not something that I'm prepared to give up for fear that someone might simplify what I'm saying.... My work has always been about judging the distance between American reality and the American dream. How far is that at any given moment?"

"I never campaigned for politicians previous to John Kerry and at that moment it was such a blatant disaster occurring at the top of government, you felt that if you had any cachet whatsoever, you had to cash it in because you couldn't sit around and watch it.... I'm not a professional campaigner and every four years I don't think that I'm going to go and pick a guy and go after him. I prefer to stay on the sidelines. I genuinely believe an artist (is) supposed to be the canary in the coalmine, and you're better off with a certain distance from the seat of power."

don't really understand how N did it all those years. money is one thing, but, ehhhh....

x-post

For a guy who used to be kind of shy offstage, sort of, he's become a well-spoken, introspective, thoughtful dude.

lyn collins! if bruce goes baltimore club....

i don't know if i'm more excited by mention of lyn collins or sacred harp (and then disappointed bc it's going to blow no matter what)

Oh, yeah, lower expectations.

Actually, in this album's defense, there are few tracks that won't kill live.

how's the studio "land of hope and dreams"?

i mean maybe you don't know, couldn't tell from that post if you had actually heard it or what

I have. It's a highlight.

is the production and mastering on this one as dreadful as the previous album's?

Yes - that battle may be lost. But it sounds pretty good on a stereo, an improvement over the last couple.

i could literally not bear to listen to that last album. like a horrible ringing in my ears.

well that and "lonesome pete" or whatever the lead-off track was. jesus h. christ.

After Broadway week ends, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon will pay tribute to Bruce Springsteen during the week of Feb. 27.

In support of Springsteen's new album, Wrecking Ball, the NBC late-night show will have its musical guests perform select songs from his catalogue. Springsteen, along with the E Street Band, will drop by Monday, Feb. 27 with two performances before capping off the week on Friday, March 2, with an interview segment and several songs.

On Tuesday, Feb. 28, Kenny Chesney will perform "I'm on Fire," from Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. CD. Chesney covered the song for his album, When the Sun Goes Down, released in 2004.

Elvis Costello will perform "Brilliant Disguise" with The Roots on Thursday, March 1.

outlaw pete is a great song fyiud

WAIT, iatee, you're from california, right?

yesm why

Shakey Mo advanced a theory on ilx today that californians just don't get/don't like springsteen but you are my counterevidence!

yeah I mean californians are normal people for the most part

I have never understood Springsteen fandom. Dude is the musical equivalent of the color beige to me.

^^^

I just write it off as some east coast thing. I don't know anyone born in California who gives a shit about Bruce.

― Artful Dodderer (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, February 24, 2012 11:30 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh yeah I missed that the first time cause I was reading ilx w/ special glasses that filter out total bs

springsteen could sell out a stadium in sf

Californians are really into Human Touch/Lucky Town, his slick LA studio musician albums

but to say neither of them has done anything political on par with touring during the Iraq war is nonsense.
― Josh in Chicago,

Stick with your midwest heartland rockers man. I'm here in Jersey....I'm living it man.

just how many Californians does Shakey know exactly

Only the ones with individual utility meters.

ha

When's Bruce gonna do his Crazy Horse album, that's what I want to know.

Figures the Californian would like "Outlaw Pete."

i moved to california specifically because i never cared for bruce

would love springsteen to cover papa don't preach

― buzza, Friday, January 13, 2012 11:09 PM

read that as "would love springsteen to cover papa roach"

papa don't encroach

http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2012/02/29/147585148/one-day-only-song-premiere-listen-to-bruce-springsteens-rocky-ground

Springsteen with old gospel sample and current gospel choir and singer and rapper! Streaming just today Wednesday. Eh, it's ok

He and the band sounded great on Fallon.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/333762/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-bruce-springsteen-wrecking-ball

That song has still not won me over

Me neither, really. But I think the band sells it well. Same with "We Take Care of Our Own," which I don't really like, either.

Rage's guitarist sat in Friday night on Fallon's show with Springsteen on his Pogues type # "Death to My Hometown." Energetic, yes, memorable-- not really.

Pareles and Caramanica in the NY Times discuss the lyrics and sometimes the music of the new album. Pareles is mostly enthusiastic, but then ends in part with this:

Though I like it better than “Magic” or “Working on a Dream,” I’m not touting it up there alongside his first seven albums — seven albums! — or “The Rising.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/arts/music/pareles-and-caramanica-on-springsteens-wrecking-ball.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=arts

Though I like it better than “Magic” or “Working on a Dream,” I’m not touting it up there alongside his first seven albums — seven albums! — or “The Rising.”

That pretty much sums it up. Though I'd like to know what record Bruce could possibly release that anyone would tout up there alongside his first seven albums. Oh, shit, wait - is Pareles not counting "Tunnel of Love?" Because there is no way the new one is anywhere close to that album.

Actually, Backstreets has the clip of him doing "Death," "Jack of All Trades," "E Street Shuffle" and a surprise appearance with, um, Neil Young.

I got about six tracks into the new one and gave up. Really not very good, kinda laboured-sounding.

whats the ILM consensus on 'magic'? i thought it was a pretty solid album, some great tracks (radio nowhere, your own worst enemy, girls in their summer clothes) although not on a par with the classic stuff

"Radio Nowhere" is the only Springsteen single I've liked since "Streets of Philadelphia."

Dunno about ILM, et al, but I liked "Magic" just fine.

the new single is pretty awful. it's so obvious that lyrically, bruce is trying for something ambiguous, multivalent -- but it's just boring and meaningless. and the melody is about as good as the melodies of nearly all his tracks since 1988, that is to say, not terribly memorable.

he's just taken his criticism far too much to heart, and for the past decade+ he's been writing a lot of Big Songs designed for exegesis, but in the dullest of ways.