Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

He could have quite after Born to Run and still be classic classic classic. That album is one of the great moments in pop music history, and a cultural icon (in the States at least).

Even if you don't like his music, he's still classic.

And it is about time people start liking "Born In The USA" again. Just because the album sold zillions doesn't make it a bad album.

Of course the adulation is typically overboard. But what do you expect for someone who has had, at least at moments, near-Madonna-level pop smarts and still gets content, even poetry, into his lyrics?

One of the differences between him and "heartland rock" - r&b. A greater proportion of it, at least. Who else (besides the aforementioned Californians) has had such a sound during the same period at remotely similar levels of popularity?

but he loses that card for this, the final page of the aforementioned document, in which mr. springsteen proves he can't spell "asbury park."

i otherwise kinda like springsteen, so perhaps i'm not the best to answer this, but i'd say his career mathematically boils down to this:

1. great singer
2. damn good songwriter (despite a huge drop-off in the '90s)
3. fair-to-average, overrated bar-band backing (playing mostly hackneyed arrangements)
4. poor production (i like "born to run" just fine, but after that it's just so completely lacking in punch and warmth i can't believe he's ever been lauded for it)

"nebraska" discards with (3) and (4), leaving him playing entirely to his strengths. and as it happens his songwriting hit a peak at the same time. i'd say it's far and away his best.

i'd have to guess anyone owns the record knew, what with him screaming those lyrics out for the entire length of the song, not to mention the fact that he included a lyric sheet. that'd be 15 or 20 million people right there.

Wonderful and glorious. No, no need to thank me.

the 2nd verse of "41 shots" is heartbreaking, astonishing. the rest of the song doesn't quite live up to it.

also the man can sing. i don't like the way he pronounces "somewhere" (mumbled: "some-wahr") BUT: "lit-tle-world-fal-lin-apart"!!!

My mom loved his music, and I think it has something of a sentimental value for me for that reason. But I think it's deserved. Perhaps this is a cheap shot (bcuz I know there are poor ppl who don't like him) but I think most people who have ever been on the underside of reaganomix will agree that he spoke for people who needed someone like him. I don't care how un-hip it is to say that I like his music because it speaks to me from a place that few kinds of music do - certainly moreso than Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Favorite work of his: side two of Tunnel of Love. A perfect piece.

That embarrasment aside, I do still like Bruce, though. For one thing, I like that (apart from Nebraska), his most depressing songs are also his most clappy-singalong songs. "Hungry Heart," "Born in the USA," "Cadillac Ranch", etc.

The "heartleand" thing" is more complicated than people who live there are willing to admit -- that's the problem. They ought to be populist (if not leftist), but they're not. They have a habit of ignoring their own reality in favor of something that someone told them was "simple." They buy "simple" like it was bread, and swallow it whole, and don't even realize they're choking on it.

But anyway... you're right, Springsteen does not fit into that mold, not by a mile.

"Ought to be?" Nothing more amusing than someone who isn't part of a group dictating to them what their preferences and priorities should be, as if they're too stupid to figure it out for themselves.

Anyway, "Downbound Train" > "Dancing In The Dark" > "Born in the USA", as far as that album goes.

Yeah, I like that one.

i agree. love for this song suddenly sprung upon me within the last four or five years. i was pretty indifferent to it, and then one day i was driving (naturally) and it came on the radio (of course) and that was it. i saw bruce last summer at meadowlands, and i cried twice (you want to hear atlantic city in a stadium in the dark with tens of thousands of people around you absolutely silent).

i sort of imagine springsteen has a randy old man album in him, but he'll have to get all the faith/hope/redemption metaphors out of his system first.

the river: i'm partial to "the ties that bind," "stolen car," "ramroad," "the price you pay" (not sure why i like this one so much). "wreck on the highway" is a really amazingly clear expression of a very simple and powerful idea, though i'm starting to like it a bit less than before. "hungry heart" i like, but i think i need to listen to it harder. (??)

i love "bobbie jean."

a lot of the now-officially-released-formerly-unreleased stuff is unspeakably bad. maybe 15% of it is good.