Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

NOW I WORK DOWN AT THE CAR WASH
WHERE ALL IT EVER DOES IS RAIN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-ICc5NVjck&feature=player_embedded

lmfao

<3

hahaha that's great

btw I have listened to "Badlands" approx 25 times this week. Loving it so hard right now.

Have you ever heard the concert Bruce did for the 10th anniversary of radio station WMMS in 1978 at the Agora in Cleveland? The version of Badlands on there is ball-bustingly great. That whole show is just peak after peak.

i'm really digging all of his The Wild, the Innocent through Darkness on the Edge of Town period lately.

x-post - I haven't! Will check out if I can find it.

erica i have been playing a lot of "badlands" lately, too.

:)

This is really interesting, the story of the original Dancing In The Dark video.

http://goldenageofmusicvideo.com/?p=436

oh, that's good

so descriptive!!

“Now for Bruce, this was the first single he’s releasing after Nebraska, which was not that big of a hit for him, so, Bruce is very nervous,” Pearl continued. “We’re all on set now and Bruce is really pumped. I mean, he’s been working out, and he has a little bit of stubble. Now, I would take a look at people when they first show up. I’ll say hello, and I take a quick look at their face to see, if I know them, if anything is changed – I’m seeing how to light them. I’m take a look at their face and where they part their hair — I mean, those all things that matter to me when I do the lighting. So anyhow, he’s got serious sideburns. Big sideburns, he’s pumped, rippling muscles in his arms, good muscle definition, he’s wearing a wife beater sleeveless shirt, sharkskin pants, and black pointy-toe shoes and basically, that’s the New Jersey, sort-of early ‘60s thing going on, right? But very manly, right? So I lit him very hard – hard edge lights for his rippling muscles, and just really chiseled him with light. He comes out and he stands there and he goes, ‘I don’t know. I think you should get like a big silk [lighting filter] out here and just put a big light through the silk, and silk over the camera, the big silk, you put a big light through it and I go, ‘That’s how we light Stevie Nicks.’ I said, ‘You’re not a p*ssy, you’re quite the opposite. You’re super manly here. I can’t light you like I would light a woman.’ And he said, ‘But that’s what I want.’ And Jeff Stein is there, and said, ‘Just try it once doing it Daniel’s way, and if you don’t like it, we’ll change it.’”

That's incredible Bruce with the long memory, tricks the dude into directing a video for him 10 years after the fiasco!

"This video contains content from SME, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds"

NOW I WORK DOWN AT THE CAR WASH
WHERE ALL IT EVER DOES IS RAIN

― difficult listening hour, Sunday, April 3, 2011 12:36 PM (5 months ago) Bookmark

lol

oh i thought that was a fake lyric, but its a real one

Dud - if only on a personal level. I know a lot of British people that are partial to a bit of Springsteen, and my dad was a bit of a fan of his back in the '80s. I think 'Born To Run' and 'Thunder Road' are great tracks, but on the whole I've never been able to relate to his lyrics - which seem to be the point of Springsteen. Stuff like 'Born In The USA', while the passion in his voice can't be denied, just bores me a bit... that repeating keyboard phrase just hammering itself into the ground. So yeah, I can understand why some people like it - but it's not for me.

i get the impression that tom joad is polarizing among springsteen fans, and i never much listened to it before. it's good fyi!

haha half of this thread's comments on it are like "this and nebraska are all i like" and the other half are people being like, "this is the most boring album i've ever heard." seems like most of the springsteen diehards incline to the latter view. :(

i like it, for sure, but i feel like it kind of heralds the springsteen of the last 15 years or so which is my least favorite springsteen

so i enjoy listening to it but dont like what it represents

yeah i'm embarking on a project to listen to the last 15 years of bruce tbh

the rising is so bad

i like "american skin (41 shots)" iirc. but that's not on an album iirc.

iirc

Tom Joad works best with lyrics in hand while listening.

haha half of this thread's comments on it are like "this and nebraska are all i like" and the other half are people being like, "this is the most boring album i've ever heard." seems like most of the springsteen diehards incline to the latter view. :(

ha -- I remember a time (most of the nineties) when admitting to liking BITUSA over everything else made everyone clear their throats and change the conversation.

I like some of Tom Joad, but it's not real strong melodically. Apart from the title track, I can't remember a single tune off it (tho I do remember the narratives, which is where I think he put most of his effort).

"Tom Joad" is pretty boring. Ironically, the solo tour behind it was one of his best, and set the stage for his ongoing resurgence.

I liked 'Magic' maybe the most of the recent 'old Bruce' albums, but still not as much as I love 'young Bruce'.

ha -- I remember a time (most of the nineties) when admitting to liking BITUSA over everything else made everyone clear their throats and change the conversation.

this went a few years into the 00s and covered most of his career save for nebraska and maybe tom joad. 04 or 05, the whole world decided to change its mind on him all at once.

I find it a lot still, where saying you like Bruce is like saying you like, Toby Keith or something. It's kind of a bummer.

Toby Keith has a lot of good songs though. A lot of bad ones too, sure, but still.

I liked 'Magic' maybe the most of the recent 'old Bruce' albums, but still not as much as I love 'young Bruce'

xpost: i liked magic the first time i heard it, then his singing on it started to bug me. he's kinda "shouty" on it and in a way i don't like. devils and dust on the other hand is the one later bruce i'm glad i still own

yeah i prefer Devils & Dust compared to Tom Joad. first one sounds so weirdly vulnerable.

Toby Keith has a lot of good songs though.

in the early 2000's he was writing better ones than Bruce.

Not to get all rockist or anything, but Toby Keith has a writing partner. Bruce's contemporary mediocrity is all his own doing.

Keith has often written solo (and his most recent albums are all self-produced).

Yeah, but during that period you cite (early '00s) he was part of a team.

fuckin knew it was a mistake citing Toby Keith. ;)

Ugh:

The Hollywood Reporter has quotes today from someone who has heard the new, "as-yet-untitled" and "terrific" Springsteen record. Judging by this earwitness account, it's a wrecking ball of an album: "He gets into economic justice quite a bit. It's very rock 'n' roll. He feels it's the angriest album he's ever made. Bear in mind, though, that he wrote and recorded the majority of the album before the Occupy movements started, so he's not just setting headlines to music."

Sonically, look for "unexpected textures — loops, electronic percussion," according to the source, "an amazing sweep of influences and rhythms, from hip-hop to Irish folk rhythms." The Hollywood Reporter also confirms that the album was produced by Ron Aniello."

The Aniello wiki is some sad shit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Aniello

Oh dear. Not a good track record for Mr. Aniello.

aw crap

The (potential) horror lies in the contrast between the two paragraphs. On one hand, an angry wrecking ball of a political record. On the other, loops, electronic percussion (whatever that means), hip-hop to Irish folk rhythms. By the guy who brought you Jars of Clay, Sixpence None The Richer, Lifehouse and Candlebox.

The thing is, risk-taking in terms of arrangements/orchestration has never been Springsteen's strong suit. But I wouldn't be saying that if, say, the original Bomb Squad had reunited to produce this record.

a lot of the recession/blue collar-themed stuff on Darkness and BITUSA has been very important music to me in the last couple years and i've often thought about how few people are writing songs NOW that speak to what's happening these days like the songs Bruce was writing back then, so honestly i'll give him the benefit of the doubt if he wants to try to do it again. and the E-Street-via-Pearl-Jam production of the last few rock albums was so wearying that i'll even happily look forward to any kind of change in sound.

Clearly you missed "Working on a Dream."

uh that's one of the Brendan O'Brien-produced albums i was referring to, and didn't seem like a particularly angry or economy-themed record

It was definitely a change in sound, though.

The Hollywood Reporter also confirms that the album was produced by Dan Aiello