Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

I'll give it another chance. I actually have some mixed feelings about that album - I don't think it's bad ("Sorrow"'s great), but a lot of it feels too arch. I know Greil Marcus actually cites it as one of his very favorite Bowie albums, but he's not really a fan either and doesn't like most of his classics from that era.

Turn it up tomorrow, September 29th at 10:00 AM ET! 📻 pic.twitter.com/uvu93rgGAo

— Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) September 28, 2022

1. Only The Strong Survive - Jerry Butler
2. Soul Days - Dobie Gray
3. Night Shift - The Commodores
4. Do I Love You - Frank Wilson
5. The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore - The Walker Brothers
6. Turn Back The Hands of Time - Tyrone Davis
7. When She Was My Girl - The Four Tops
8. Western Union Man - Jerry Butler
9. I Wish It Would Rain - The Temptations
10. Don't Play That Song - Aretha
11. Any Other Way - Jackie Shane
12. I Forgot To Be Your Lover - William Bell
13. Rooms of Gloom - The Four Tops
14. What Becomes of the Brokenhearted - Jimmy Ruffin
15. Someday We'll Be Together - Diana Ross and The Supremes

(heavily rumored track list)

"Night Shift"!

I Wish it would rain + what becomes of the brokenhearted = hell yes

Lots of great tracks in that list. William Bell one and Tyrone Davis one. Bell still does gigs and was great both times I saw him.

This could be good if it's recorded relatively raw and live-ish.

I'm fully expecting overproduced glop.

I’m hoping for overproduced glop, tbh. At least half the songs on this list had wonderfully massive and dramatic production.

well, those tiny little snippets teased already sound pretty big, backing vocalists and stuff, but not unlike the seeger sessions. in character. hard to tell.

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

Short, sweet, sounds fine, just what you'd expect it to sound like.

I think that's violinist Katie Jacoby, who's actually been a highlight of the Who and Roger Daltrey's tours in recent years (she gets the spotlight on "Baba O'Riley"). Also, not an exact match, but the lighting and color makes it look like an homage to Elvis's 1968 TV special.

But yeah, classic sweet soul music - sounds pretty good. Would've made a very nice B-side back in the day.

Digging this! Who's the drummer? (Kind of glad it's not Max, tbh.) And yep, Jacoby's great -- kills the "Baba" solo every time.

They kind of obscure the band in the video, so it remains a mystery.

Someone noticed that there is a "Covers (Vol. 1)" affixed to the album title ...

https://is2-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music112/v4/ea/bb/1b/eabb1b66-4007-6270-82fb-da7a94a30a15/196589231055.jpg/1000x1000bb.webp

Shoulda called it "Cover Them."

Tragic missed opportunity

At least the cover looks good. Best cover since Tunnel of Love

"How YOU doin'?"

"Before my daughter takes you out in this car, let me tell you about the time I drove it to the boardwalk in 1986, Annie Liebowitz was waitin' there for me, I had my bolo tie..."

Everyone looks cool next to a '50s-'60s American car.

Sit on the hood of a Prius, Bruce. See if you still look cool.

A vintage wood-paneled station wagon might be a better fit.

Or convalescent home shuttle bus

Played the Killers' encore with Jake Clemons.

It's been years and years since he was so active popping up with other people.

Besides McCartney (which he's done at least twice), the Killers and Coldplay, where else has he popped up in recent years?

I can only remember four: Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam and Arcade Fire (in 2007 when they did "State Trooper" and "Keep the Car Running").

Bleachers, too.

Billy Joel lol (2018)

Total projection, but after doing so much autobiography with the memoir and the Broadway show, I can imagine it's refreshing for him to do a bunch of songs where the meaning is simple and on the surface. And the arrangements here feel like an extension of the Western Stars orchestrations.

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

Nice to see him in a suit again.

The sound of it is kind of bland and soul-free. Technically good but it doesn't do much for me.

Crushing on the bassist.

Glad to hear the song, but kind of an odd choice, as the sole '80s track on the record (right?). Also, a nostalgia take on a song about nostalgia. Sonically it sounds like his slick '90s wilderness years.

Kinda stiff with less range compared to Commodores

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrkEDe6Ljqs

He should’ve covered this on his 1985 tour, though I doubt Max could’ve played with the necessary finesse. And that’s what this feels like: a somewhat unexpected and mildly interesting one-off — “Hey, didja hear what Bruce covered the other night?” — but not something I feel compelled to return to (unlike the original).

And at the beginning he doesn’t seem to know what to do with his arms.

Is he lip-synching? There's something weird about the sound.

Crushing on the bassist.

It's likely he's lip-synching. IIRC whenever he's used a live mic in his videos, the takes were allowed to run a bit (or in the case of "Brilliant Disguise" the whole video came from a single take), but it becomes much less practical when they're choreographing camera movements and they're making as many cuts like they're doing here.

I mean Bruce brings nothing to this song. It’s also kind of weird he’s singing a tribute to someone else’s friends. Did he ever meet Marvin?

I don't think he's in the video, but one of the backing vocalists on the recording is Fonzi Thornton, currently touring with Roxy Music.

Did he ever meet Marvin?

I think Bruce, like millions of others, felt like Marvin was a friend from how he connected with Marvin's music.

I think it's a fine cover, and pretty much what I expect from this album - faithful to the original arrangements and "tastefully" executed. That's kind of what he does in concert, though it's a bit more thrilling there with many of them unplanned or last minute tributes, kind of like testing the band.

I guess we'll see how the rest of the album plays. I'm sure it'll be very listenable, but at the moment it definitely feels like a lot of covers projects - Moondog Matinee, CHOBA B CCCP, etc. - where it's mostly for the devoted.

It’s also kind of weird he’s singing a tribute to someone else’s friends.

That's what I thought at first, too.

but at the moment it definitely feels like a lot of covers projects - Moondog Matinee, CHOBA B CCCP, etc. - where it's mostly for the devoted.

I dunno, Jann Wenner described the new album a "stunning."

Thanks! Now that you've told me that, it's a horse of different color entirely.

And yeah, I am sure he loved Marvin Gaye as a fan as much as anyone else, but Marvin just doesn't seem as much of a Springsteen-connected artist as, say, Roy Orbison or Ronnie Spector, to name two.

xp It's a lock for Barack Obama's best of 2022 playlist.

The synth sound and tempo are so close to "Streets of Philadelphia" that I could imagine the two songs overlapping in concert or else stay far away from each other.

But if "Streets of Philadelphia" is a chamber piece, this one expands into a Philly Soul arrangement before long. I like it a lot. And whenever I hear a major songwriter cover a song, I can't help but listen for what they admire about the song they're covering. This one definitely fits in Springsteen's wheelhouse (in themes, in the blues-to-gospel relationship between the verses and the chorus, in the blue-collar metaphor of the title) while also definitely not being a song of his own.

xp It's a lock for Barack Obama's best of 2022 playlist.

Wow, just noticed this:

Only The Strong Survive features vocals from Springsteen and instrumentation primarily from his longtime producer Ron Aniello.

So Ron Aniello plays most of the music, with others providing horns and vox? Man, looking at his credits, how did Aniello even get on the Bruce train in the first place?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Aniello

Maybe when he co-produced the Patti Scialfa album in 2007?