As a bit of trivia, John Peel mentioned on more than one occaision that he couldn't stand Springsteen, said he had asked for a Peel session and John turned him down. Although I did buy the single of "Hungry Heart" when I was a kid, I must say today I would not be caught dead buying a Springsteen record or listening to one. Also Fiendish, I marvel at how you can rate Dylan worse than Brooce. Not that I'm a big Dylan fan at all, but it does puzzle me.
― Bimble..., Wednesday, 5 January 2005 03:50 (nineteen years ago) link
Burned-out Single songs:
Rolling Stones - Start Me Up, Jumpin' Jack FlashJimmy Buffet - MargaritavilleSister Sledge - We Are familyVan Morrison - Brown-Eyed GirlThe Police - RoxanneSteppenwolf - Born To Be WildLed Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven, Rock-n-RollKool & the Gang - CelebrationDexy's Midnight Runners - Come On EileenLynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird & Sweet Home AlabamaQueen - We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions & Bohemian RhapsodyRoy Orbison - Pretty WomanGeorge Thorogood - Bad To The BoneJimi Hendrix - Purple Haze, Hey Joe, Foxey LadyDon Henley - Boys Of SummerSister Sledge - We Are FamilyDerek & The Dominoes - LaylaBachman Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care Of BusinessThe Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I GoDire Straits - Sultans Of SwingAll covers and remixes of the above songs
Burned-out Groups:
All Village People songsAll James Brown songsAll Motown songsAll Foreigner songsAll Bob Seger songsAll Beach Boys songsAll Boston songsAll Bee Gees songsAll AC-DC SongsAll Doobie Brothers hit songsAll Eagles songsAll Bad Company songsAll Steve Miller Band songsAll Pat Benatar songs
Songs/"Artists" that just plain SUCK!:
Bette Midler - Wind Beneath My Wings (A close 2nd for worst song ever)Journey (Steve-I'm-such-a-wimp!-Perry ruined this band)Chicago (Peter-I'm-a-wimp-too!-Cetera ruined the band)Stevie Nicks (extremely irritating voice & repetitive lyrics)Celine Dion (we ALL know why)Bon Jovi (Bad pop music masquerading as hard rock. Just plain despicable!)Lionel Ritchie (extreme schmaltziness)Eddie Money (Was this guy a tard?)Tom Petty (Bland music with chorus lyrics derived from Bartlett's Quotations)Bruce Springsteen (Bland music with schmaltzy lyrics sung by a man who just stubbed his toe)David Bowie (Alot of people like him, he's a "legend". I think he sucks!)Pearl Jam (Bland Alt Rock with unintelligible gravelly lyrics)Any song with the word "Jump" in the titleAny song with the name "Jane" in the title (EXCEPT Lou Reed's classic "Sweet Jane")Any song ever played on any "Adult Contemporary" radio station
Worst song ever:Labelle - Lady Marmalade (extreme screeching and caterwauling)
― Paul Bass, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 14:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― stew, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 14:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― Triomphe, Le Chien Qui Insulte N'Importe Qui (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 14:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― David Allen (David Allen), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 14:47 (nineteen years ago) link
Paul Bass, you are PUNKbut misguided, cloth-eared, andcorny to the MAXXX
― Haibun (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 14:55 (nineteen years ago) link
Speaking of montage music, "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg" in "School Of Rock" evokes similar feelings for me (leaving aside the debate about the quality difference between the two songs).
― alex in montreal, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 15:01 (nineteen years ago) link
That said, I've always suspected Bruuuuce of being a genius who works on two levels: he knows he can get your garden-variety classic-rock fan to pump his fist in the air and sing drunkenly along to an anthemic chorus. But he also knows that he has some really quite eloquent and crystal-perfect lyrics--a delicacy that some proportion of his fans are missing in their sweaty frenzy.
I have no proof of this, but I think he knows that he's casting pearls before swine a large part of the time. More like irony than condescension: I think he loves the trucker AND the intellectual in equal measure, but in different ways.
Not too long ago I saw a video of him playing live, and I thought I saw a twinkle in his eye that spoke untold volumes. He sang the line "a close band of happy thieves," then looked as if he were thinking, "You know, I just tossed that line off, and it's really apt and articulate. I'm a fucking poet, and half this audience doesn't notice or care. And I'm at peace with that."
Maybe I'm imagining it. Heck, I probably am imagining it. But that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
― The Mad Puffin, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 15:28 (nineteen years ago) link
This morning while feeding the offspring breakfast, I was subjected to another moldy Bruce oldie, fuckin' "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out". WILL THE TORTURE NEVER END?
Q104 must have some iron-clad condicle in its by-laws that prevents the station from playing anything recorded after 1982 with the lone exceptions being Nevermind by Nirvana and Achtung Baby by U2.
Supposedly, "Hungry Heart" was written for the Ramones (and fuckin' imagine that!), but Springsteen was convinced to keep it for himself.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 15:30 (nineteen years ago) link
But the less-over-the-top things, like "Atlantic City" or the totally underrated "I'm on Fire" rank among my favorite pieces of music. Much of Nebraska acts as a counterweight to the saxophonic sludge of the rest of Mr. Springsteen's career.
― The Mad Puffin, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 15:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 15:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 15:39 (nineteen years ago) link
darkness on the edgeis stripped-down and is my favespringsteen of them all
― Haibun (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 15:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 15:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― stew, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 15:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:03 (nineteen years ago) link
Well, I guess I plain fucking hate music then.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:05 (nineteen years ago) link
-- Ken L (lauter...), January 5th, 2005.------------------------------------------------------------------------
he also switched pianists, from david sancious, who used to this funky jazzy stuff, to roy bittan, who did quite fine for awhile until he got ahold of a yamaha dx-7 that apparently only had a single patch on it and maybe only a single chord, which bittan was able to hold down and sustain for the entirety of about three straight albums.
-- fact checking cuz (factcheckingcu...), January 5th, 2005.
These are both kinda OTM though....His albums...starting after The Wild, The Innocent, really, start to get less interesting rhymically and arrangement wise....I like the first two the best still (although Nebraska and Darkness kind of make a virtue of the stripped down stiffness that crept into his work, at least alot more than like say the River does)....I really like the wild, over the top arrangements and sense of daring of the first two....
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― alex in montreal, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:07 (nineteen years ago) link
-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), January 5th, 2005.
yeah, but you like Iron Maiden, so you can't be all bad!
you seriously don't like any of the big motown singles?
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:11 (nineteen years ago) link
misplaced sax solosaxophone sludgeI have to say I sometimes have a little bit of a Clarence problem. Not every rock and roll sax player is King Curtis.
― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:21 (nineteen years ago) link
There is some sax usage in softer rock songs that I find appropriate: Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years," and Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are" both have elegant sax solos (regardless of how you feel about those songs/artists as a whole).
But in a more rockety-rock song I usually find the saxophone superfluous, if not unwelcome. I am, of course, not averse to horns taking their traditional place in ska, jazz, etc.
― The Mad Puffin, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:34 (nineteen years ago) link
But yeah, that's a pretty mellow song.
― The Mad Puffin, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:42 (nineteen years ago) link
yeah i guess yr right, i meant more stripped down rhythmically compared to the first two....i guess it feels more stripped down to me than it is for some reason....
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:46 (nineteen years ago) link
also, "candy's room" may have the best classic-rock guitar solo of all time.
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:52 (nineteen years ago) link
Also check: The swampy bass on "Adam Raised A Cain."
― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 16:54 (nineteen years ago) link
see: Gerry Rafferty, Quaterflash, Men at Work, Supertramp
― chuck, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 17:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 20:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 20:29 (nineteen years ago) link
I read that as "sausage." It's been a long day.
― Je4nne Ć’ury (Jeanne Fury), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 20:45 (nineteen years ago) link
i persist in hearing bruce's clipped repeating of the title phrase at the end of the song as him singing, "talkin' bout the talmud!"
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 22:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 22:56 (nineteen years ago) link
Okay, well I will concede then that quite recently, hearing it on the radio it struck me as strange that I didn't find "Dancing In The Dark" to be such a terrible song after all these years. Don't ask me why. Not that I would choose to listen to it in the comfort of my own home under any circumstances, but in the vast wasteland of crap on the radio, you hone your pearls where you can, I suppose.
Well for god's sake isn't that why we're here?
"Yeah man ... Velvet Underground ... Stooges ... Bruce Springsteen ... That's what we're about, man. Alright!"
HA HA!
― Bimble... (Bimble...), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 23:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 23:52 (nineteen years ago) link
But in a more rockety-rock song I usually find the saxophone superfluous, if not unwelcome.
HAWKWIND TO THREAD!!
― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Thursday, 6 January 2005 01:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Thursday, 6 January 2005 02:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 6 January 2005 02:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 6 January 2005 02:46 (nineteen years ago) link
strike that
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 6 January 2005 03:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 6 January 2005 03:30 (nineteen years ago) link
Re: Rockin Saxes:How about Roxy Music, Stooges, Rainy Day Sunshine Girl.
hey, let's not forget x-ray spex and ESSENTIAL LOGIC.
That dude in Romeo Void wasn't bad either, IIRC. It broke my heart to see him have to watch the crappy ringer they got to replace him on the backstage monitor on Band Reunited
― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 6 January 2005 03:38 (nineteen years ago) link
Hey, I've said my piece! The most I'll add is that one can like Motown and Spector without liking what might follow. ;-)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 6 January 2005 03:40 (nineteen years ago) link
not P and not Q implies probably not R
which is not equivalent toP and Q implies R
― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 6 January 2005 03:47 (nineteen years ago) link
Yeah, I'd say the music on "Darkness" is definitely much simpler than Bruce's earlier stuff. That perhaps explains why all those '78 shows are the stuff of legend. When I last saw Sleater-Kinney cover "The Promised Land," they joked that there are always three or so guys in the crowd who just go nuts and sing along. That's the power of the Bruce-asaurus.
You know, so much of the Bruce hate (or what little there actually is on this thread) no doubt stems from his massive '80s popularity/overexposure. But this is a dude who released five albums before he had a top 40 hit, and even then he followed "The River" with "Nebraska!" That's something. A lot of that "Nebraska" stuff made it into those "Born in the USA" shows in one way or another. As did "Trapped" and "War." Bruce's speachifying about "blind faith will get you killed" before "War" on the "Live" album gives me chills.
Also, not that it's worth very much, but when Peter Buck and Mike Mills joined the E. Street Band to play "Born to Run" at one of those Vote for Change shows last year, they were going nuts, like a couple of excited teenagers.
Anyway, love the guy, and love the fact that even his unreleased stuff is good. Anyone ever heard "The Klansman?" That's some spooky shit.
― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 6 January 2005 04:04 (nineteen years ago) link