Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

One thing I love about Bruce is that none of this is spoilery; he could (and likely will) do an entirely different set next month (or next week, or the next night).

Or he may not do a song for a decade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SIvN7ULkNE

Van Halen's "Jump"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoGL2PsPEh8

Now see, that's pretty much the only reason to have Morello in your band, and even then, I'm pretty sure Nils would have done better. He's a secret tapping wiz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Wu3maOs44

Lofgren is twice the guitarist Morello is, fo sho

You can do it, too! But patience, grasshopper:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtEbZ-NioIc

Bring your own hat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd6c6z2owak

'Stayin Alive'

holy shit this is good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n1GT-VjjVs&feature=youtu.be

Saw him last night, and he brought out "Stayin' Alive" (by request).

This was my first time seeing him and yeah, I think this kid is goin' places. Holy fucking shit.

There was a lot of audience participation: a woman got up and danced with him for most of a song; a couple of "whaddya call 'em now...tweens?" requested "Seaside Bar Song," and danced onstage with him; and, the point at which I got something in my eye, he danced with a fan's mom (who was also a fan) to "Save The Last Dance For Me" for Mother's Day.

He opened with "Don't Change" (which was great, but I was hoping for "Clampdown"), did a bunch of new stuff I hadn't heard, a bunch of old stuff at the end, and a few things that I think (?) are rarely played -- the aforementioned "Seaside Bar Song," "Mary's Place," "Something in the Night," "Ramrod."

no matter how lukewarm I get about his albums these days, I'll always go see him live

dude puts on a SHOW

Imagine what a bummer it would be if he ever went the Prince route, where some nights it's the best thing you've ever seen, and some nights he just did not give a fuck. Fortunately Bruce currently gives enough fucks to carry all the other acts who do not give a fuck.

Yeah that's the thing with Bruce ---and I get a bit of the same thing from Pearl Jam live too, not quite at that same level but close --- where you might see him do a 4 hour show and feel like it's the most amazing set you've ever seen, and then two days later you read a set list that even more off the chain, and that will continue for like, months.

Bruce live is never just, 'eh that was okay'...it's always 110%, and I can't imagine what it does to him physically to do that every night but goddamn, you gotta love him for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vT-VaMXsAw

<3

http://brucespringsteen.net/

Complete 73-84 Studio Albums Box on remastered CD and Vinyl due November 17. Unfortunately, dspite what they say, the links provided are just for the MP3 edition.

I wonder how much Bruce had to do with this, and also if he messed around at all with the mixes, etc.

Interview with Bob Ludwig here: http://www.backstreets.com/remasters.html

No remixing, and Bruce is happy with them. Also, thought this was interesting:

There are a few albums where originally Bruce wanted to use some compression, and the remasters have a little less. It is a balance, and a question of what 'feels good' that day.

I like the remastered version of Born to Run and Darkness, so I'm expecting good things. Very sneaky of them not to include Tunnel of Love, because Vol. 2 will have to have some draw.

Happy birthday Bruce. He turned 65 yesterday...

Dj'd on Sirius-Xm, is working on a children's book and more

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bruce-springsteen-turns-65/

Yeah, the BtR and Darkness remasters sound great, but I don't wanna double them with this set.

There's some talk on Bruce message boards that this set is exactly what fans didn't want, particularly with recent chatter/rumors about a possible River box and archival live stuff.

Those individual albums were so slow going in development though.

"Individual Album BOXES" even

so easy to find most of these used on vinyl - kind of hard to justify paying big bucks for remastered versions of 5-buck records

Yeah, I don't want to rebuy the remastered versions of BtR or DatEoT. But it has been s l o w going with the box sets. Is it too much to ask for a once a year box set remaster? My favorite albums of his are the ones not remastered to this point - the ones encompassing The River through Tunnel of Love.

It's true that the boxes have been slow coming out, but jeez, he made a movie for each one!

Two in the case of Darkness...(the doc and the new live performance of the album)

At the pace they were going, The River set would be 12 discs (the album, outtakes, two docs, three concerts plus a replica Little Steven beret).

I wish they'd bang out single-disc or double-disc versions of the outtakes + alt versions etc for each record. I'm perfectly happy with 2-cd version of "The Promise" over the 6-cd box. I appreciate that stuff being available in a manageable package for people without $ or inclination to wade through the whole she-bang - would be nice if people did this more. A nice best-of of the new Self Portrait stuff would be fine for me, for instance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/books/review/bruce-springsteen-by-the-book.html?action=click&contentCollection=Baseball&module=MostEmailed&version=Full®ion=Marginalia&src=me&pgtype=article

Books he has been reading

Who is your favorite novelist of all time, and your favorite novelist writing today?

I like the Russians, the Chekhov short stories, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. I never read any of them until the past four years, and found them to be thoroughly psychologically modern. Personal favorites: “The Brothers Karamazov” and, of course, “Anna Karenina.”

Current favorites: Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy and Richard Ford. It’s hard to beat “American Pastoral,” “I Married a Communist” and “Sabbath’s Theater.” Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” remains a watermark in my reading. It’s the combination of Faulkner and Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns that gives the book its spark for me. I love the way Richard Ford writes about New Jersey. “The Sportswriter,” “Independence Day” and “The Lay of the Land” are all set on my stomping grounds and, besides being poignant and hilarious, nail the Jersey Shore perfectly.

He has done a lot of book reading since the age of 29

it'd be cool to be bruce springsteen and rich and have a lot of time to catch up on great novels you've missed

Yeah, he's such a rich slacker, isn't he? Just sitting home year 'round, counting his money.

on Friday i turned on my local classic rock station and they were celebrating 'Springsteen Halloween' and playing nothing but Bruce the entire day. they were playing a lot of cuts not usually played on the radio much, it was fun, although i can't imagine any other stations are doing it.

Don't forget the cross-country motorcycle trips that Springsteen regularly does

i think this "springsteen halloween" sounds made up

Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack / I went out for a ride and I never went back Baltimore Halloween, Baltimore classic rock radio Halloween

x-post--Didn't critic Dave Marsh start giving Bruce books?...

I skipped most of college, becoming a road musician, so I didn’t begin reading seriously until 28 or 29. Then it was Flannery O’Connor; James M. Cain; John Cheever; Sherwood Anderson; and Jim Thompson, the great noir writer. These authors contributed greatly to the turn my music took around 1978-82. They brought out a sense of geography and the dark strain in my writing, broadened my horizons about what might be accomplished with a pop song and are still the cornerstone literally for what I try to accomplish today.

If Fred Goodman is to be believed, Jon Landau taught Bruce the alphabet, while Marsh propped Bruce's eyeballs open Clockwork Orange-style forcing him to watch John Ford films.

Screen door slams
Mary's dressed weird
Like a vision she dances across the lawn
Wearing Mr. Spock ears

The Marsh books also mention Jon Landau passing books onto Springsteen in the Darkness era, I think.

yeah i think jon landau sort of self-consciously decided to turn springsteen into an "organic intellectual"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/bruce-springsteen-on-outlaw-pete-and-not-sheltering-kids-from-the-realities-of-life/2014/11/03/877967a0-6394-11e4-836c-83bc4f26eb67_story.html

And now he has a book out himself

disappointed that Mo Rivera is the baseball reading he cites

Had no idea Keith Richards was also in the burgeoning business of children's books.

Bruce's buddy Joe beat him to the punch by 3 years:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dkY4CPIeL.jpg

My friend Sarah wrote this and it's wonderful: http://consequenceofsound.net/aux-out/how-bruce-springsteen-helped-me-face-my-childhood-bullies/

Classic: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/two-wealthy-fans-paid-300000-to-eat-lasagne-with-bruce-springsteen-9847063.html

Springsteen started off the annual Stand Up For Heroes event by playing an acoustic set, then offering the instrument to the highest bidder.

When bidding reached $60,000, he threw in a guitar lesson, which someone offered $250,000 for. At this point, he offered up a lasagne dinner at his house, a ride around the block in the sidecar of his motorbike and the shirt off of his back.

Bidding reached $300,000 between two clearly die-hard fans, who agreed to both pay the agreed amount and split the prize in two. Let’s hope that lasagne is home-made.

The event raised more than $1 million, with Springsteen's packages making up over half of the contributions.

good old bruce, always looking out for the ordinary joe with 150k to spend on a sidecar ride and half a plate of pasta

yep, what a totes fraud getting that much money from rich superfans, and for a meaningful charity no less