Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

Referring to one's SO as "my old man" or "daddy" or "my old lady" or mama" seems particularly 1970s.

Joni Mitchell did both ("My Old Man" and "you're a mean old daddy") on Blue. Jimi Hendrix sang "I'm going down to shoot my old lady." Madonna sang "You are my baby love." John Lennon sang both "Girl" and "Run for your life if you can, little girl."

Just a handful of examples but one could go on for hours. Ultimately up to you how you interpret "I'm on Fire."

I know this is totally introducing an extra-textual element to the analysis, but the object of grease-monkey Bruce's desire in the "I'm on Fire" video is definitely no little girl!!

But "Working on the Highway" I think is very clearly about someone who is in prison for taking a minor across state lines

It's his Chuck Berry song.

For fans of how the sausage is made, here's some recently unearthed/leaked pro-shot rehearsal footage from the Rising tour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM0Wc9niIxY

Oh, wait, there are more parts!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-S71yAcDys

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

Lotta interviews, nice to see Danny and Clarence.

wow!

bruce hugging/goofing with steve and clarence during the intro to tenth avenue freeze out. pure unadulterated e street joy.

part 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt7ROiatsk0

My kids have been separately and consistently asking to see Springsteen with me, not necessarily because they are fans but I think just because they are fans of me being a fan. I'd been watching the secondary market, and it's been disheartening to see the prices creep *up*, even for nosebleeds, maybe simply because the cheap seats are gone and whatever is left is whatever is left. Anyway, because of this I'd warned them that it was unlikely, but I checked the MLB site last night and actually found three respectable tickets, so bit the bullet. I was already seeing him on Friday with my wife, but now I'm seeing him on Wednesday with my kids, too.

Just realized that these Wrigley shows are his first back in the States since his Euro jaunt. Typically Bruce returns home extra fired up, and more prone to changing the setlist, but I wonder if that will still be the case. I suspect it will largely be the same songs.

There was actually a bit of a fight on social media over this, where someone (or some people?) complained about the setlist staying the same, and some people in Springsteen's orbit including Garry Tallent pushed back. I think it was a mess of responses to that complaint, but the main thing I got from it was that the setlist was meticulously built around a very strong theme and story arc that Springsteen wanted to get across, and it didn't make a whole lot of sense to carefully sequence anything for that reason only to rip it apart. (Also amusing in light of Caryn Rose's criticism of the tour, basically suggesting that this was one tour where Springsteen had a very specific narrative in mind that he wanted to tell through his songs.)

Actually got some coverage in Jersey (which probably isn't surprising):

https://www.app.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/07/24/bruce-springsteen-e-street-band-setlist-tour-garry-tallent-twitter/70456207007/

only to rip it apart.

Everybody's got a hungry heart

the setlist was meticulously built around a very strong theme and story arc that Springsteen wanted to get across,

I've heard this defense and it is total bullshit, unless that story arc is "Springsteen plays his songs." Iirc the "Tunnel of Love" tour was mostly static, that's probably the last time he did it. I imagine people are extra bummed, though, because his "Wrecking Ball" tour was among his most spontaneous and loose, with something like 215 songs played, and the "High Hopes" tour had 182 songs played. And then you get "The River," largely static by design. Then "Broadway," entirely static by design. And now this tour, practically static.

I think the notion that the E Street Band is somehow superhumanly trained to be uniquely capable of pulling off the death defying dynamics of Springsteen, and that even a static setlist is some amazing high wire act of precision, also largely bullshit. On this tour Nils, the most talented guitarist on stage, barely has anything to do, and most of Springsteen's stuff is pretty meat and potatoes, musically. So my guess is that the setlist is static because Springsteen, getting older and more reliant on routine (and teleprompter), needs it that way. And that's OK! I mean, most bands don't change the setlist, and besides, he brought any criticism on himself by setting the bar so high for so long.

Still OK to be bothered at least a little bit by the setlist, especially when he's wasting those precious minutes on disposable boilerplate like "Nightshift."

"that's probably the last time he did it."

During his peak years, at least.

I’ve been obsessively listening to “Missibg”, his gorgeous song from the opening credits of Sean Penn’s The Crossing Guard (1995). I would love to hear a “lost” album from the mid-90’s that is in this low tempo, almost trip-hop vein

Currently reading Deliver Me From Nowhere, Warren Zanes’ book on the making of NEBRASKA. Interesting stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised if he never releases the full band takes of the songs given comments that he makes in it

Iirc that "lost" album is supposedly slated for a set of five unreleased albums sometime in the near future.

whuuuut?

that's cute with your kids, Josh, enjoy the shows!

especially when he's wasting those precious minutes on disposable boilerplate like "Nightshift"

Fans gotta pee sometime.

self-xp
https://www.rock94.com/news/trending/the-boss-has-5-unreleased-albums-on-the-way/

aha cool!

The fan-favorite pee break this tour seems to be "Kitty's Back." There was a time that having that in the set was a special surprise, so I find it fascinating how fast some fans have turned on it now that it's in the set every night. But yeah, when I saw him in Brooklyn I think I went to the bathroom during "Nightshift."

Springsteen confirmed a long-standing rumor that one of his unheard albums is entirely based on drum looping. "That's going to be as weird as people think it's going to be," he said. "But it uses all drum loops and things like that, and it uses synthesizers.

Hi Bruce, welcome to 1997

Well it sounds like it was literally recorded in the 90s

It...was?

If I’m reading that “Rock94” article right, yeah, all five were “mainly recorded during the '90s.”

Correct. These “lost” albums were recorded around the time of Ghost of Tom Joad

Did he do a grunge album?

If anyone thought Bruce's current output sounds too clean or flat or fussed over, just wait until we collectively wade into the morass of '90s slick. My gut tells me he or his producer will have further sanded away whatever rough edges remained of that era and polished them within an inch of their life.

xpost "High Hopes," lol

Human Touch Me I'm Sick

The Big Muddyhoney

Born In Utero

There are quite a few interviews in the mid-to-late '90s (probably to promote Tracks as this was right before they officially announced an E Street Band reunion) where he admits having specifically a "hip-hop" album and a "country album" all more or less finished but for whatever reason he decided to keep them on the shelf. I don't think people had high expectations about either, so it don't think it was huge surprised that after 25+ years they finally announced a planned release, but the fact that there are five complete albums, not just two, is definitely a surprise. I imagine the other three are possibly fully conceived albums and not just stockpiled songs that he recently arranged into albums, but I could be wrong.

*was a huge surprise

a "hip-hop" album

My name is Bruce, and I'm here to say
In 30 years my rhymes will see the light of day!

Boyeeeee!

Ah, looks like he actually talks about FOUR albums in this Time magazine article published in November 1998:

Despite Tracks' impressive length, it represents only a portion of the unreleased material Springsteen has stored up over the years. While recording his last studio album, The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995), he also laid down a country album. That unreleased effort, says Springsteen, features "roots country and West Texas swing music," but it didn't fit in with this current boxed set, and he hasn't decided what to do with it.

Then there's his lost hip-hop-influenced record. Not long after he wrote the Oscar-winning song Streets of Philadelphia, Springsteen all but completed a kind of hip-hop album. "I got together a lot of samples and loops and started to put this album together," he says. "It was fun; I enjoyed doing it, but I needed two or three more songs, and for some reason, I never got around to writing them. So I put it away. Eventually, I'm going to find a way to get this music out to people."

Meanwhile, fans are just going to have to make do with brand-new material. Springsteen says he has nearly completed two albums, one acoustic and one electric. He's reluctant to predict a release date but says he'll have new music in stores "sometime before the end of the century."

https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,989581,00.html

lol of course prices have finally started to drop for tonight, but whatevs.

More or less the standard setlist, but still a lot of fun. You know you're getting old when the the first thing you think when you get home is, gosh, I'm doing this again in two days. I wonder how Bruce feels? (Answer: old and rich.)

I was reading some forum defending Springsteen not really changing his setlist by saying hey, look at Taylor Swift, *she* barely changes her setlist. But that's not a fair comparison at all, since Swift's set is built around a huge multi-million dollar multi-media array, plus choreography. There's only so much she can change. But Bruce, his set is bare bones, with nothing to sync , and his band is at the ready. He's totally untethered, free to change whatever he wants, whenever he wants to. He just doesn't want to.

Not entirely unrelated, back on the Band thread someone posted a video of Bruce, Elvis Costello et al paying tribute to Joe Strummer, and it struck me that it's been years since I saw Bruce performing with eyes wide open and engaged with the crowd, not staring down at the prompter (which he disguises by affecting this kind of earnest, eyes-down pose, like he's deep in the feels).

I don't fault the guy, he's getting older, and still puts on a great show. But I'm glad I'm seeing him on this tour, since it's not going to get better. When I saw McCartney at Wrigley it was all I could ask for, and he was in great form. But in the 10 or so years since then, his decline, especially vocally, has been pretty noticeable. I've always kind of suspected that Bruce's little creative detours, with different bands, different styles and approaches, was in some ways R&D, to see what might suit him as he gets older.

I saw Springsteen and McCartney for the first time in 2009, two of the best shows I've ever seen, and since then they have definitely aged. Still great, I'd encourage anyone who hasn't seen them to go, but we're definitely seeing age catch up with them. Such is life.

I wonder if the Broadway show had an effect on his performing choices. That one was the same show night after night.

Isn’t streets of Philadelphia just a drum loop with synths?

More or less, yes. Supposedly from that same unreleased synth era.

Broadway was the first time I saw him doing that eyes closed thing.

Actually, nu-River tour might have been the first time I saw him do that. One of the River shows was definitely the first time I had ever seen him at anything less than full power. By "Broadway," he was pretty clearly using a prompter at least as a, well, prompt, and doing that eyes-cast-down all the time thing.

Monday had "Darlington County," "E Street Shuffle" and "Johnny 99" in the set. Tonight swapped them out for "Night," "Candy's Room" and "Trapped," which was awesome. And yet, somehow tonight's set was maybe 25 minutes shorter? Still, tons of fun. Bruce seemed even more loose and lively tonight. I don't think you can fake that happiness.

someone posted this and honor of his Philly show tonight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERpb9ESkGhA?

lol I'll try that again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERpb9ESkGhA

Man, Candy's Room is so fucking good. If that was the only song he ever recorded it would still be a massive accomplishment. It's like somebody put a jet pack on Roy Orbison.

Ha, excellent post!