Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

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

He's a total shitheel, obv

got a wife and kids in baltimore, jack / i went out for a ride and . . . wait, who called me a hack?

Remasters are out now. "The River" sounds great. Biggest boost seems to be the clarity of the horns and Danny's organ playing, but there are all sorts of things I'm noticing - backing vocals, extra guitars. It almost sounds remixed, tbh. Definitely pretty different. FWIW, the little I've listened to the new "Nebraska," despite its lo-fi austerity, has been revelatory as well. Apparently even the recently remastered "Born to Run" and "Darkness' have been re-remastered as well.

Actually, the bass on "The River" - like, there is bass playing - is pretty revelatory at times, too. "Crush On You," of all things, sounds great.

I didn't properly appreciate Tallent until I watched that Houston show on the Darkness box. Really amazing player, as essential to the E Street dynamic as Max.

got a wife and kids in baltimore, jack / i went out for a ride and . . . wait, who called me a hack?

― Daniel, Esq 2, Friday, November 7, 2014 4:58 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I got very confused for a sec because a "hack" is what they call a gypsy cab in Baltimore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np3LcKxolts

Holy crap, "BitUSA" got a bottom end!

And now there are some spooky synths or vox (I can't quite tell) at the end of "My Hometown" that I have never noticed before.

Just officially released the 1978 Cleveland Agora show, a classic, one of his best shows of all time: http://live.brucespringsteen.net/live-music/0,11757/Bruce-Springsteen---The-E-Street-Band-mp3-flac-download-8-9-1978-Agora-Theatre-and-Ballroom-Cleveland-OH.html

Winterland Night is also officially available now and would surely be the one to go for if you only need one '78 show.

There are also these two, which look unofficial to me but are being sold on Amazon so maybe they are kind of semi-official?

This one also from '78:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Theatre-Atlanta-Georgia-30th-September/dp/B00PCJAD3S

and this weird mishmash of live and radio recordings:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LIVE-COLLECTION-Bruce-Springsteen/dp/B00PCWSPP8/

I've long had a bootleg of that Agora show and it is terrific. My understanding is that these are the original source tapes and have been really cleaned up, so I may need to grab the official anyway.

Winterland my all time fave.

way to go, Bruce, for first and letting the bootleg circulate for decades, then finally release it when no one pays for music anymore.

Wow, had never seen this live page before.

Agora show RULES

Looks pretty good.

it's a real rowdy fun show

xpost Winterland is not legit released yet, don't know where you saw that. Agora/Cleveland is the only '78 show he's selling right now.

oh man that agora show is unbelievable and I'm not even the world's hugest springsteen dude.

Winterland is not legit released yet, don't know where you saw that

Oh yeah you're right, I was looking at this and assumed it was official as it is being sold on Amazon but on closer inspection it is a bootleg:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Winterland-Night-3cd-Bruce-Springsteen/dp/B00OU04976

Since when did Amazon start dealing in bootlegs, by the way? Or is this some kind of grey area thing like the two I linked above?

I will say, regardless, that anyone who has never heard the Cleveland show will be absolutely agast and baffled that it was never released in any form before now.

otm

yeah it is maybe the only springsteen anyone needs! ok, maybe not... don't attack me springsteen stans!
bootlegs are always popping up on amazon these days, which does seem weird -- not sure if it has to do w/ copyright loopholes. or it's just illegal!

I think the loophole is that it's a radio broadcast. So, technically/theoretically, whoever owns the broadcast recording (like the radio station) can maybe-not-entirely-illegally release it, or at least license it for release (in Europe, at least).

tyler otm imo, it's pretty definitive

like if you only have one, this is the one to have

though it is also crazy that the agora show was the *norm* for 1978 (at least the recordings I've heard suggest this). dude was operating on a whole other level.

completely!!

Yeah, I don't think there is a single Springsteen show up through the breakup of the E Street Band that could be considered less than great, actually. He was famously grouchy during his I think No Nukes festival set, but it's a killer set, still, and I can't think of any of date he's ever played sick or less than 110%. The Tunnel of Love tour was a pretty set setlist, for once, but those shows were also great. Even post reunion there have been no real stinkers. He's a force of nature, really.

Hope they release Winterland, and Roxy. At least as far as 1978 goes. River and BitUSA, the band is still strong, but 78 is his peak. It's no small wonder that he just managed to stretch that peak for 10 more years of touring.