It's interesting because we approach this specific element -- ie, *how* something is sung -- from different viewpoints while prioritizing its importance. In my case, it's less one of how that influences the vocabulary as to how it adds to the music -- there's the quality (however defined) of the voice but also how said voice reacts with/reacts against the backing -- or even how well it sounds on its own, a capella.
i guess that's what frustrates me a lot, ned, since your obstinance-in-tastes seems to resemble willful ignorance a lot of the time. sorry to be so harsh about it. again, there's no reason you need to like springsteen, there's no reason you even need to appreciate the multifarious functions of words in song, but it's a damn shame if you don't.
You may call it what you like and that's fine, but I will still argue that there is no one way to listen to a song -- which we do seem to be agreeing on -- and that there no monopoly in how you get what works (or what doesn't) out of a song as a result. I note you weren't entirely happy with it yourself, but your parody of the Pumpkins thread above is inaccurate because in that exchange if someone said that to me regarding the lyrics, I wouldn't then be trying to argue against that stance in such a fashion. Tons of people have noted to me in turn that they just really don't like Corgan's voice and that's also fine, and so forth. I just don't think it's a 'damn shame,' or any sort of shame, to approach one's likes or dislikes musically in those fashions. It's not willful ignorance in my mind if you focus in on or completely not concentrate on something that I feel in an opposite manner about, it's *how you hear the song* -- and that differs.
I suspect we'll be going in circles if we continue any further, though -- if we're not already!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 August 2004 11:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― drew, Thursday, 12 August 2004 11:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― |a|m|t|r|s|t| (amateurist), Thursday, 12 August 2004 13:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― drew, Thursday, 12 August 2004 14:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― |a|m|t|r|s|t| (amateurist), Thursday, 12 August 2004 14:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― drew, Thursday, 12 August 2004 14:17 (nineteen years ago) link
my take is he's agreed to go down in a prizefight. what dies and may come back is his self-respect.
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 12 August 2004 22:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― cºzen (Cozen), Thursday, 19 August 2004 16:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!!st, Thursday, 19 August 2004 17:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!!st, Thursday, 19 August 2004 17:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― cºzen (Cozen), Thursday, 19 August 2004 17:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― christgauºzen (Cozen), Thursday, 19 August 2004 17:06 (nineteen years ago) link
incidentally the line that per springsteen's website is "sometimes it's like someone took a knife baby edgy and dull and cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my soul" i always heard as "sometimes it's like someone took a knife baby edgy and dull and cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my skull"--i like my mishearing better, because the image is so grotesque and powerful and i've always been distrustful of springsteen when he uses concepts like "soul."
― amateur!!st, Thursday, 19 August 2004 17:09 (nineteen years ago) link
now i really want to hear tara jane o'neil's version.
― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 19 August 2004 17:51 (nineteen years ago) link
I think Ally's sarcastic comment about Born in the USA as an "overlooked classic" is actually true. I've been listening to a lot of Springsteen lately (inspired by Kerry) and to me it sounds like BY FAR his best record. But I know plenty of Springsteen fanatics (of which I'm not one) and none of them seem to agree. Nebraska and Darkness and Born to Run (which I think is both overstated and overrated, though I LUV "Thunder Road") seem to be more popular picks.
I'd try to say something pithy in support of Born in the USA, but it's easier just to cut-and-paste one of the most on-point Consumer Guide entries Christgau ever wrote:
Born in the USA [Columbia, 1984]Imperceptible though the movement has been to many sensitive young people, Springsteen has evolved. In fact, this apparent retrenchment is his most rhythmically propulsive, vocally incisive, lyrically balanced, and commercially undeniable album. Even his compulsive studio habits work for him: the aural vibrancy of the thing reminds me like nothing in years that what teenagers loved about rock and roll wasn't that it was catchy or even vibrant but that it just plain sounded good. And while Nebraska's one-note vision may be more left-correct, my instincts (not to mention my leftism) tell me that this uptempo worldview is truer. Hardly ride-off-into-the-sunset stuff, at the same time it's low on nostalgia and beautiful losers. Not counting the title powerhouse, the best songs slip by at first because their tone is so lifelike: the fast-stepping "Working on the Highway," which turns out to be about a country road gang: "Darlington County," which pins down the futility of a macho spree without undercutting its exuberance; and "Glory Days," which finally acknowledges that among other things, getting old is a good joke. A+
― chris herrington (chris herrington), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 17:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 17:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 17:51 (nineteen years ago) link
which is why my favorite album of his is the home-recorded nebraska, as i probably said somewhere way upthread. i do like the production on tunnel of love, but the songs on that are hit-and-miss. and i'm in love with the guitar sounds throughout the river. and i hate every synth patch he's ever used.
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― ccconor, Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:47 (nineteen years ago) link
xpost
― amateur!!st, Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:47 (nineteen years ago) link
that's super cool
― ccconor, Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!st, Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:54 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.booktrail.com/Video_SelfDefense/Winning%20A%20Street%20Knife%20Fight.jpg
― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 18:59 (nineteen years ago) link
(this was certified true as of about a year ago, and i assume it's still true, but i can't give it my official fact checking certification.)
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 19:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!st, Wednesday, 25 August 2004 19:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 19:15 (nineteen years ago) link
"Nebraska". Brilliant.
Also, too many people focus on "Born in the USA", hating it for what they think is "rah rah" US patriotism and not realizing it's a protest song.
― Thea (Thea), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 21:18 (nineteen years ago) link
The screen door slamsMary's dress wavesLike a vision she dances across the porch as the radio playsRoy Orbison singing for the lonely . . .
― chris herrington (chris herrington), Thursday, 26 August 2004 04:00 (nineteen years ago) link
He opened with an instrumental version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" on 12-string guitar, then "Born in the U.S.A." and I have to admit, I teared up.
― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 12 October 2004 17:56 (nineteen years ago) link
I am supporting this tour, figuratively.
― the bluefox, Tuesday, 12 October 2004 19:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― the bluefox, Tuesday, 12 October 2004 19:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lela, Tuesday, 12 October 2004 20:39 (nineteen years ago) link
How long was this show??
― frankE (frankE), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 20:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 12 October 2004 22:30 (nineteen years ago) link
Also check out the then and now inderrated "The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle", which contains his best ever song, "4th July, Asbury Park (Sandy)"
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 22:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― the bluefox, Wednesday, 13 October 2004 10:10 (nineteen years ago) link
To a 17yr old full of testerone this was a shining light in the darkness of new wave shite around at that time .
― Born Again, Monday, 1 November 2004 04:13 (nineteen years ago) link
Let's leave the last word to Thurston Moore: "Dude, have you heard Darkness On The Edge Of Town? It's just as good as Swell Maps!"
― Stew S, Monday, 1 November 2004 12:44 (nineteen years ago) link
note:
(a) i like swell maps(b) i think darkness is one of bruce's most uneven records
― amateur!!st, Monday, 1 November 2004 16:56 (nineteen years ago) link
i love the shit out of bruce springsteen
― max, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 05:12 (sixteen years ago) link
im from new jersey so its natural but seriously the guy like means something to me
i have a picture of him in my room like a russian orthodox icon or something
― max, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 05:13 (sixteen years ago) link
I spend a lot of time defending the man.
― Davey D, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 05:47 (sixteen years ago) link
I used to loathe his music, his persona, all that shit -- like he was the personification of everything American that made me retch. But weirdly, I've come around lately, just sifting through the periphery of his catalogue/discography (fuck, is there a better word for that?), although I always had a soft spot for Nebraska, especially after a long solo road trip across the continent during which I found myself on the New Jersey Turnpike among other Springsteen reference points.
― Lostandfound, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 06:48 (sixteen years ago) link
I used to loathe his music, his persona, all that shit -- like he was the personification of everything American that made me retch. But weirdly, I've come around lately
Credit Arcade Fire.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 11:04 (sixteen years ago) link
i can't see beyond the cock-rock in him. so dud
― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 11:10 (sixteen years ago) link
i just wish he had a clue about production: too slick, too polished, too FM radio, too much synth/piano, too little guitar. neil owns his ass.
― QuantumNoise, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 12:05 (sixteen years ago) link
too slick, too polished, too FM radio
yawn
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 13:08 (sixteen years ago) link
you said it: Boss = yawn.
― QuantumNoise, Wednesday, 20 June 2007 13:16 (sixteen years ago) link