Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

my take is he's agreed to go down in a prizefight. what dies and may come back is his self-respect.

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."

now i really want to hear tara jane o'neil's version.

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+

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.

xpost

that's super cool

http://www.booktrail.com/Video_SelfDefense/Winning%20A%20Street%20Knife%20Fight.jpg

(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.)

"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.

The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely . . .

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.

I am supporting this tour, figuratively.

How long was this show??

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)"

To a 17yr old full of testerone this was a shining light in the darkness of new wave shite around at that time .

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!"

note:

(a) i like swell maps
(b) i think darkness is one of bruce's most uneven records

i love the shit out of bruce springsteen

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

I spend a lot of time defending the man.

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.

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.

i can't see beyond the cock-rock in him. so dud

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.

too slick, too polished, too FM radio

yawn

you said it: Boss = yawn.

I'll go with classic, but the only songs I ever really want to hear are the early, kinda funky ones (10th Ave Freeze-Out, E Street Shuffle), and of course "Rosalita" and "Blinded by the Light" are completely awesome.

I prefer synth-pop Bruce (especially the ruminative Tunnel of Love, which is an electro Nebraska) to earnest wordy Bruce.

I love his cadence on the line "The night is dark but the sidewalk's bright
And lined with the light of the living"