Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

I can see an interesting doc for diehards that would accompany a box set, but hard to imagine what this would look like that would play in a cinema.

Maybe we'll get Unsolved Mysteries-style dramatic enactments of the songs?

CHANNING TATUM IS...JOHNNY 99

I really need to get into this C5X 40558… I inherited it from my dad:

https://i.imgur.com/FXZGIYF_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand

(he’s still alive, for avoidance of doubt)

Box set glory days

Nebraska remains the high-water mark for four-track cassette Portastudio recordings.

I would happily watch at least 45 minutes of someone interviewing Chuck Plotkin about Nebraska. He was my favorite part of the Darkness doc.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C20aKzMIGVW/

:(

RIP mrs springsteen <3

RIP.

One thing I'll always remember from his Broadway show:

My mother loves to dance. She grew up in the ‘40s … with the big bands and the swing bands, and that was a time when dancing was an existential act. She’s 10 years into Alzheimer’s and that’s taken a lot away from us. But the need to dance hasn’t left her. She can’t speak. She can’t stand. She can’t feed herself. But when she sees me, there is always a smile. Still a smile. And there’s still a kiss. And there’s a sound which she makes when she sees me. It’s just the sound, but I know it means ‘I love you.’ And when I put on Glen Miller and she starts moving in her chair … she starts reaching out for me, to take her in my arms once more and to dance with her across the floor.

It's probably the only truly positive thing I can think of when dealing with someone lost to Alzheimer's, like the one thing it can't take away.

I should say "when coping with someone lost to Alzheimer's"

The Tracy Chapman/ Luke Combs duet is reminding me of how much I love this video: the warmth, the mutual respect and friendship, the brilliant and subversive choice of verses for Chapman to sing, and the way Bruce turns away from the audience to sing the last "This is your hometown" directly to her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCYbnLNEPD4

I heard "Brilliant Disguise" in the supermarket this morning and almost just stood there to listen.

Kind of crazy that the original Wailers (i.e. Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Livingston) did their first shows in the U.S. opening for SPRINGSTEEN in 1973 (sadly, the only tour they'd do before Tosh and Livingston split). Springsteen doesn't mention them at all in his book, but I was wondering, has he ever talked about them or at least say whether he caught their opening shows?

is it you baby
or 20% off chicken thighs

xp

xp That's funny, I just saw an "Upstairs at Max's Kansas City – BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and THE WAILERS" ad posted on social media earlier

No Woman No Sex In A Car

Inspired by snagging two tickets to see Jon Brion here next week, did I ever post this recording of Brion and pals improvising a Springsteen show on New Year's Eve here some long time ago?

https://robby-blog.s3.amazonaws.com/2008/jon-brion-does-bruce-springsteen/jon-brion-springsteen-song.mp3

hey Springsteen thread, this is a really dumb + annoying question, but if anyone wants to team up with me to pitch a 33 1/3 book, let me know? They've already done one on Born in the USA, which kind of included Nebraska, but that's it as far as I know. I would be most interested in The River or The Wild, the Innocent and the E. Street Shuffle.

I have nothing to offer the team in terms of writing cred or musical knowledge, so I would not be a very sensible choice of co-writer, but just throwing this out there.

(also if anyone wants to write about the Vulgar Boatmen, lmk)

Springsteen is being sued for "negligent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment" due to the use of a 1968 Pontiac GTO on the cover of Only the Strong Survive. The car's owner, Louis A. Billotti (who later died of COVID):

was asked to bring his classic car, which is registered with the state as a historic vehicle, to Colts Neck, New Jersey, for a photo shoot on Oct. 18, 2021, the complaint said. He did not know who would be involved in the session, but Springsteen arrived, posed with the car and spent some time talking with Billotti about vintage cars.

At the end of the photo shoot, the photographer gave Billotti a check for $450, the court papers said. The words "car prop" were written in the memo field of the check.

Billotti was told by someone "acting with authority" that if the photos with his Pontiac were chosen for the album cover, he would receive a contract offering him terms of compensation, the amended complaint said.

A plaintive note: From the time of the photo shoot and through his hospitalization, the GTO owner "often spoke of the October photo shoot to several witnesses to nearly the day he passed and asked his son about whether the contract had come in the mail," the complaint said.

He should be rolling in dough 'cuz that GTO really sells the cover.

https://www.nj.com/resizer/k_WNhmsw7L8xuz-byOEqPnbYsLc=/1280x0/smart/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/advancelocal/DHFWHFK34RBWVIQLXIHEOF537I.jpg

They totes could have gotten away with a LeMans or Tempest.

Li'l Springsteen cameo in the new Curb Your Enthusiasm season, identical delivery to his High Fidelity cameo. It's as if he says "I'll do it, if I can tape it at home and send it to you, just gimme the lines."

xpost Funny, because this comes about a year after this:

Max Weinberg, the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, has filed a lawsuit in Palm Beach County court against a classic car restoration company alleging that its owners defrauded him of $125,000 while promising to restore a 1957 Mercedes-Benz to mint condition.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/boca/2023/12/02/springsteen-drummer-max-weinberg-sues-for-fraud-over-cars-restoration/71754048007/

Classic cars, man, what you gonna do?

I am not a lawyer but I cannot imagine the legal basis of suing someone for *taking a photograph of a thing that exists*.

Like, that describes almost every photograph

And it sounds like this person agreed to having the car photographed, and was in fact paid. Just... not enough, after finding out who would be leaning on it?

Yeah the car doesnt get residuals

Someone should have informed the car that this town rips the bones from you back. I am given to understand this it is, in fact a death trap. One might even suggest that it is a suicide rap.

I have hear that the best remedy is to be (1) chrome-wheeled, (2) fuel injected, and (3) to be willing to step out over the line.

* your, * heard, sorry

I don't know, that sounds like it's a set-up for liability.

"The court will now hear the case of Classic Car Vs. This Town, all rise."

There does seem to be some nuance, in that Team Boss apparently thought that payment was sufficient, but did not follow through with contractual paperwork.

Personally I think $450 and talking to His Bossness would be pretty cool. I would take that and walk, knowing I would have a good story. But clearly the heirs and estate have a different agenda. I can sorta understand that too.

Springsteen is doing another Greatest Hits album, this one spanning his whole career.

https://pitchfork.com/news/bruce-springsteen-announces-new-greatest-hits-album/

Now obviously this is all pointless in the era of streaming when this exact playlist probably already exists on Spotify, but I am curious: given that he seems to be trying to include about two songs per album, give or take, what would you all change about this list?

"Racing in the Street" instead of "Prove It All Night," "I'm on Fire" or "My Hometown" instead of "Glory Days."

Feels more like a “Greatest Hits” (in fact the selections are fairly similar to that 1995 comp) than a “Best Of” (which to me implies more interesting selections).

(To gesture toward answering the question – "Walk Like a Man" instead of “Tougher Than the Rest”)

What’s interesting is that the CD and 2x LP versions up for pre-order both only seem to have 18 tracks. So is the 31-track version just basically going to be a playlist?

I mean, I’m not sure what “digital edition” would mean? I’m assuming streaming and those who pay for FLACs I guess?

xp Same as tipsy mothra except "Darkness on the Edge of Town" instead of "Prove it All Night."

Agree that it feels more Greatest Hits than Best of. If it's genuinely Best of, then I'd like to add in one more each from The River and Nebraska - maybe "Wreck on the Highway" and "Open All Night." I get that he's trying for something that genuinely spans his career, but I think he can still go a little heavier on his classic period. We don't need fully half of the songs to be post-BITUSA, it could be 2/3 early, 1/3 late and people would still get the idea.

I think after "Human Touch" is where my idea of Springsteen's Best of really diverges from his. I'd probably do something like this:

Human Touch
Local Hero
Streets of Philadelphia
Youngstown
Highway 29
The Rising
Living in the Future
Wrecking Ball
Western Stars
Hello Sunshine (or Stones, which I actually like better)
Ghosts (or Rainmaker, or Burnin' Train)
One Minute You're Here

did yall already post that amazing story he told on graham norton's show about his relationship with this family in st louis
really made me happy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx0GllhVJks

I love how Bruce gives absolutely no explanation of why he did this, because to him it's clearly just "eh, why not?" And meanwhile everyone else is going "OMG this is the craziest thing we've ever heard!"

100%

Local news story on that story where they interview the family:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezPRW1wt0NE

*news report on that story

solid

that's a great story, the kids that approached him must have been terrified it would become a "don't meet your heroes" moment

TIny bit of Rashomon to this but still a great story

The third Passaic night (sept 21st) of the legendary 1978 Darkness tour has now been released officially too (aka Coup De Grace) - and even though it may not one of The Big Five (the 5 shows that were broadcast on the radio & became the most bootlegged & wellknown), you can't go wrong with any of these shows, really.