Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

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.

Neil Young kind of already beat the boss to the 'wrecking ball' although I think Emmy Lou Harris' does the best version.

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

I think one thing that oddly puts Springsteen into his own box was that the guy was so infatuated with keyboards and saxophone where many rock and roll fans were obsessed with the guitar. I think it made his classic peroid music a bit more unique and not tied as much to fashion of the time, but in a way also kind of separates it from some fans as it was such a look back sound even when it was contemporary and at least with 'rock' the guitar kind of won the war.

Huh?

Anyway, Bruce is as guitar rock as it gets, and he was only into keyboards in the sense that he was into organ and piano. The synths didn't crop up til much later. His problem as of late is not one of intent but execution. He just hasn't found a way to sound the way he needs to sound.

Also, he's in his '60s.

A great Bruce Springsteen song with a rap, delivered by gospel singer-cum-M.C. Michelle Moore.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROCKY ROAD")

SPRINGSTEEN: (Singing) Stars have faded. The sky is still. Sun is in the heavens, and a new day is rising.

MICHELLE MOORE: (Rapping) You use your muscle and your mind, and you pray your best that your best is good enough. The Lord will do the rest. You raise your children, and you teach them to walk straight and sure. You pray that hard times, hard times come no more. You try to sleep. You toss and turn. The bottom is dropping out. Where you once had faith, now there's only doubt. You pray for guidance, only silence now meets your prayers. The morning breaks. You awake, but no one is there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9EbOXYenJY

1) At least Springsteen doesn't rap himself

2) It's really not as bad as it reads (see also: a huge quantity of hip-hop that doesn't always translate to the page)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUYnoWqct0

Listening to the whole thing (still streaming at NPR). These songs'll make a great show in 10,000-50,000 arenas.

just as $9 hot dogs will make a great dinner in the same

Also interesting that he's going more toward Irish barnstompers and ballads than gospel and blues.

(pubthumpers, or whatever you call them)

Maybe part of the inspiration for this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCY8kaUSZq8

(March 2011)

"Death To My Hometown" is an extraordinarily powerful song for anyone to pull off at this stage of the game. Coming from a 62-year-old stadium rocker, it's miraculous. Definitely the album's highpoint IMHO.

OK, the Homer post was unfair. This is better than I expected.

His last tour typically ended with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qoqsDL0gBk&feature=related

Fwiw, Springsteen's dad was Dutch/Irish.