https://books.google.com/books?id=nRTHPE2gZ0QC&pg=PA191&lpg=PA191&dq=bruce+springsteen+human+touch+guitar+world&source=bl&ots=FWuMU1hpR-&sig=ACfU3U1eauyqto0ihNdiLPjOpGE6sav_2Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFhLCFpPfyAhWFMlkFHU0JBAIQ6AF6BAgkEAI#v=onepage&q=bruce%20springsteen%20human%20touch%20guitar%20world&f=false
See p. 196-197, re: "other people's fingerprints on their mind".
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Saturday, 11 September 2021 16:15 (two years ago) link
Really one of the best interviews given by any musician that I've read
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Saturday, 11 September 2021 16:20 (two years ago) link
Yeah, I think I have that one in a collection called "Talk About a Dream: The Essential Interviews of Bruce Springsteen."
Man, Neil Strauss. He's one of those writers that used to impress me, or at least I was impressed by his output, but then he just fell off a cliff. It began with his infamous Rolling Stone profile of Jewel that I actually clipped and saved, since it was one of the most ridiculous things I'd ever read.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 11 September 2021 16:33 (two years ago) link
Dovetails with what you wrote about a desire to hide his true self or try on lots of hats.
Honestly finding one's own voice is incredibly difficult, it's a major artistic achievement I would say, and his insight as to why is eloquent as anyone's
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Saturday, 11 September 2021 16:40 (two years ago) link
Curious now to see the Jewel piece :)
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Saturday, 11 September 2021 16:41 (two years ago) link
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/a-search-for-truth-about-jewel-233904/
At the house, I strip the guest bed of its myriad pillows and leave Jewel alone to talk with her mother in the kitchen. As I lie under the covers flipping, through a glossy color picture book of Alaska, Jewel walks in wearing a green zipper sweatshirt and either sweat pants or cotton pants, I can’t remember which, and gets under the covers with me. She lies on her left side, I on my right. Between our heads is a large pillow, which blocks part of her face. We keep pushing the pillow down as we talk so we can see each other completely and feel more intimate. But we know the pillow can never be removed completely: That would be too intimate.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 11 September 2021 16:52 (two years ago) link
Holy shit
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Saturday, 11 September 2021 16:59 (two years ago) link
JEWEL: HOT, READY, AND ALASKAN!
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 11 September 2021 17:03 (two years ago) link
Hahahaha, omg that is so ridiculousC’mon Neil, were they cotton pants or sweatpants — I demand every detail of this rockcrit fantasy!
― tumblin’ dice outro (morrisp), Saturday, 11 September 2021 17:38 (two years ago) link
She's always crazy like that
― maf you one two (maffew12), Saturday, 11 September 2021 17:47 (two years ago) link
“Dear Wenner Forum: I always thought the letters you print were made up, and never believed anything like that would happen to me. Now I’m sure a believer! Last week started out like any other week in my unremarkable job as an interviewer of rock stars and other celebrities…”
― tumblin’ dice outro (morrisp), Saturday, 11 September 2021 17:51 (two years ago) link
C’mon Neil, were they cotton pants or sweatpants — I demand every detail of this rockcrit fantasy!
― tumblin’ dice outro (morrisp),
Yeah, that made me laugh too
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Saturday, 11 September 2021 17:59 (two years ago) link
that's absurd. but what a great Springsteen interview. I hadn't read that one before. that "other people's fingerprints" thing is amazing, what a phrase.
The funny thing is that Nebraska has fingerprints all over it. Not quite the kind of fingerprints he's talking about here, but Springsteen wears his influences so much on the surface, you can easily listen to it and go "oh, here's Flannery O'Connor, here's Hank Williams, here's Suicide." And yet it doesn't keep the record from sounding like something totally original and distinctive. Of course that's a combo of influences you wouldn't find anywhere else.
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 11 September 2021 18:27 (two years ago) link
I think I've mentioned it before, but I once audited a lecture/class taught by Steve Earle that, over the course of a week, tracked the progression of Hank Williams to Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen and, ultimately, to Earle himself.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 11 September 2021 18:33 (two years ago) link
LMAO
That's awesome! Where was this?
― birdistheword, Saturday, 11 September 2021 20:09 (two years ago) link
Old Town School of Folk Music here.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 11 September 2021 20:26 (two years ago) link
Man, I miss that place. I used to live in Lincoln Square, my last home in Chicago before I left Illinois.
― birdistheword, Saturday, 11 September 2021 22:03 (two years ago) link
Ha, I used to live in Lincoln Square, too. I recently saw a Google Maps photo of the Old Town School of Folk Music location, which is now…an empty lot. But then, the 400-square-foot “rear cottage” I used to live in is now a multi-story condo complex, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 11 September 2021 22:50 (two years ago) link
It still exists! But now it's a big multi-space complex.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 11 September 2021 23:21 (two years ago) link
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/bruce-springsteen-or-stephen-king
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 13:25 (two years ago) link
I keep thinking some Christmas season I should write "Bruce Springsteen song or It's a Wonderful Life?" and send it to McSweeney's.
― Lily Dale, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 13:37 (two years ago) link
"Bruce Springsteen song or Sandwich."
1. Born to Run2. BLT3. Turkey Club4. Thunder Road5. Grilled Cheese6. Atlantic City7. PBJ8. The Price You Pay9. The Promised Land10. Reuben11. Rosalita12. Muffaletta
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 13:49 (two years ago) link
13. Torta of Love
― Richard Marxist (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 22 September 2021 13:56 (two years ago) link
14. I'm on Rye
― Richard Marxist (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 22 September 2021 13:59 (two years ago) link
That Stephen King one is actually pretty clever - see the key on the bottom, they are all real references (if often vague enough to be easy to generate)
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 14:12 (two years ago) link
Ha, didn’t have time to study it or even get to the key but yeah.
― I, the Jukebox Jury (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 22 September 2021 14:14 (two years ago) link
15. Marbleland
― maf you one two (maffew12), Wednesday, 22 September 2021 14:21 (two years ago) link
16. Devils and Crust
― Richard Marxist (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 22 September 2021 14:23 (two years ago) link
17. Land of Hope and Pretzels
― maf you one two (maffew12), Wednesday, 22 September 2021 14:25 (two years ago) link
19. Jungleham
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 14:31 (two years ago) link
20. Adam Raisin au Pain
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 14:34 (two years ago) link
21. Used Carbs
― Richard Marxist (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 22 September 2021 14:44 (two years ago) link
incident on foccacia
― maf you one two (maffew12), Thursday, 23 September 2021 00:27 (two years ago) link
It's a Wonderful Life or a Bruce Springsteen song, here you go:
1.As a child, you watched your father being humiliated by someone richer and more powerful than him and swore that would never happen to you.
2.You feel a lifelong compulsion to help out your baby brother, even though he never does anything for you.
3.Your brother went off to war. You stayed home.
4.You feel trapped in this miserable little town and you’re going to get out, do great things, and take Mary with you.
5.You and Mary got married too young, and let’s face it, you’re not all that happy anymore.
6.You got Mary pregnant, and man, that was all she wrote.
7.You’re basically an honest guy, but when someone close to you commits a crime, you automatically cover for them.
8.The slow death of all your dreams has turned you into a seething mass of barely-controlled rage.
9.Overcome by the general crappiness of your life, you decide to drown yourself. You’re contemplating the water temperature when Clarence shows up and saves your life.*
*Technically this last one is a "Growin' Up" story rather than a song, but close enough.
― Lily Dale, Thursday, 23 September 2021 00:38 (two years ago) link
the answer is...yes?
― maf you one two (maffew12), Thursday, 23 September 2021 00:39 (two years ago) link
i love this
as far as I can tell, the answer to every McSweeney's "x or y" list is yes
― Lily Dale, Thursday, 23 September 2021 00:40 (two years ago) link
i see now the conceit
― maf you one two (maffew12), Thursday, 23 September 2021 00:41 (two years ago) link
I told my students that Bruce is my favorite singer and showed them a picture of him, bc I thought we'd bond more if they had something to make fun of me about. Mentioned offhand that today is his birthday (I was speaking French and birthday is a word they know) and for some reason they got all excited about that and crowded around one student's computer to look up this info and verify it. Middle schoolers are funny.
― Lily Dale, Thursday, 23 September 2021 23:06 (two years ago) link
Now that I think about it, I don't think I knew any of my teachers' musical tastes up to middle school with the exception of the music teachers: IIRC, they were fans of Lionel Richie and Bobby McFerrin. May help explain why I never got excited about music classes.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 23 September 2021 23:31 (two years ago) link
ooh la la, la chef
― maf you one two (maffew12), Friday, 24 September 2021 01:24 (two years ago) link
le chef. dammit. i only have the compulsory Canadian 4 years, I'm sorry
― maf you one two (maffew12), Friday, 24 September 2021 01:26 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDc5j0gpG3IThought the thread might enjoy this clip. I caught this on Twitter and started watching the show. It's ok. They could use the capoiera fighting alpaca a bit more.
― maf you one two (maffew12), Saturday, 25 September 2021 13:40 (two years ago) link
very belated xp: omg I just had a business idea so good it probably already exists. Local Hero, a Jersey-based sandwich shop using all ingredients sourced from local farms, including Bruce's.
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 25 September 2021 17:36 (two years ago) link
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/04/13/PAPP/e53ad3a8-4bf3-47da-8156-9d1b17f604cd-BruceHotDog.jpg
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 25 September 2021 18:14 (two years ago) link
Do you think if we got Jon Landau's blessing on the name Bruce would show up at our grand opening and pose like that with our signature sandwich?
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 25 September 2021 18:18 (two years ago) link
if we survive the signature sandwich debate
― maf you one two (maffew12), Saturday, 25 September 2021 18:33 (two years ago) link
70 year old man eats hot dog: details at 11
― calstars, Saturday, 25 September 2021 18:39 (two years ago) link
Glory Dogs
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 25 September 2021 18:49 (two years ago) link
We go down to the WC
― calstars, Saturday, 25 September 2021 18:51 (two years ago) link