"Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen -- who really enjoys this overproduced crappy glop?

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m@tt has a good point. all irish musicians, up to and including bob geldof, are bruce springsteen in one way or another.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 7 January 2005 16:40 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah i guess Shane Macgowen fits the bill too, in a way.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 7 January 2005 16:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Bono one time said a funny thing on the VH-1 Music and Fashion Awards: "All that 70s shit. In Ireland, we had that in the 80s"

xpost:
fcuk! I did the classic bonehead move of typing in my wrong info and getting 80 google hits, whereas if I had typed the right info, I would have got 8000. fcc, I throw myself upon the mercy of the court.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 16:52 (nineteen years ago) link

if it's any consolation, ken, the cops probably would've fired 51 shots if they hadn't run out of ammo after 41.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 7 January 2005 16:55 (nineteen years ago) link

haha no the jury said they were "holding back" or something.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:03 (nineteen years ago) link

>Elvis Costello dissed the Boss back in the day by saying "Springsteen writes about the street. I hate the fucking street" which all good EC fans bought into at the time.<

Ha, I never heard this before, but I just remembered that when I first bought a Springsteen record in new wave 1979(I swear this is true) it's because his music *sounded* to me kind of like Elvis Costello (who I loved at the time), though really, the "oh-oh-oh-ohhhhhhh"s's EC was sticking at the end of songs in *Armed Forces* days were more likely inspired by Bruce (who had been doing them for years) than the other way around.

― chuck, Friday, 7 January 2005 17:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Chuck, I agree that the oh-oh-oh-oh-ohhhhhh in "Oliver's Army" (for example) bears a strong resemblance to the oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-ohhhh in "Born to Run." But I'm disinclined to say post hoc ergo propter hoc about that, because there's such a strong possibility that they were both inspired by some prior model. Or that both utterances just sounded right in the song at hand.

Further, I think a vastly greater proportion of Elvis's influence-seeking at that point entailed looking back in time rather than in keeping up with what was going on on American top 40 radio (more Hoagy than Bruce).

― The Mad Puffin, Friday, 7 January 2005 18:31 (nineteen years ago) link

oh yeah, that totally occured to me, mad puffin -- that they might both *share* an oh-oh-oh influence; i just can't think of what it would be. i'd love to hear nominations, though. i assume both bruce and elvis had many of the same r&b and soul and country and garage-rock and girl-group and rockabilly (and maybe mel torme and little feat and ????) records in their collections as well, so a common denominator is obviously a distinct possibility.

― chuck, Friday, 7 January 2005 18:40 (nineteen years ago) link

xpost:
chuck, I believe you that you heard that and I think some others had the same idea- that's why EC was saying stuff like that. But he always claimed, and I'm inclined to believe, that the big influences on Armed Forces where The Idiot,Lust for Life and Abba Arrival. Maybe it was in that interviewed that appeared in virtually identical form in two different publications under two different bylines, the one being New York Rocker?

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 18:43 (nineteen years ago) link

Is it time for a new thread ?
TS The Boss vs. The Maestro

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 18:44 (nineteen years ago) link

oh yeah, that totally occured to me, mad puffin -- that they might both *share* an oh-oh-oh influence; i just can't think of what it would be.

i've always heard all such oh-oh-oh's as distinct ronnie spector homages, though my brain is currently too fried to pinpoint the exact spector moment or moments they're referencing or to even guarantee that one exists. but i think it does.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 7 January 2005 18:51 (nineteen years ago) link

also, both elvis and bruce were totally rocking '50s-homage looks in those days, though they had different takes on the look. for whatever that's worth.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 7 January 2005 18:53 (nineteen years ago) link

what a fanny.

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 7 January 2005 18:54 (nineteen years ago) link

Here's what Elvis had to say about Bruce in a recent Rolling Stone Q&A, FWIW:

RS: I've heard demo tapes you made in the mid-1970s with your band Flip City. Some of them sound a lot like '72 Bruce Springsteen.

EC: That's who we were copying. When Bruce came to London for "the future of rock & roll" gigs in 1975, we were like, "Who are these johnny-come-latelies?" We'd been digging him for years. I loved The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. The songs are so operatic. Then he narrowed it down. I learned something from that. When he wanted to get over, he wrote "Born to Run."

― Rob Brunner (RBrunner), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Really? Then, like the super-logical robots in a certain Stanislaw Lem tale who, upon hearing a superior argument to their current one, immediately switch their way of thinking, I'm inclined to believe that too.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:16 (nineteen years ago) link

But I must add, drawing upon my experience as a new parent, that the sum of genetic influences can add up to more than 100%. An impossibility, a paradox? Only seemingly.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:19 (nineteen years ago) link

The oh-oh-oh's" in both are an allusion to the Ronettes' classic Phil Spector-produced "Be My Baby," one of the greatest and most influential records of the last 50 years.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:41 (nineteen years ago) link

I knew it was either that or "Baby I Love You" but I couldn't place 'em (Ronnie did the "whoah-oh-oh-oh" thing a lot, but even then I think it goes back even further to the R&B whoooooaaah-oh-oh originator: SAM COOKE)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 7 January 2005 19:43 (nineteen years ago) link

Man, give me those kind of "whoah-oh-oh-oh"s over the shiznit of today anyday. I'll even take Karen Carpenter's version.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Who knew this thread would have such staying power?

I don't think "whoah-oh-oh-oh's" really belong to anybody. Hell, they're all over the Misfits' catalog too (hmmm....who were also from New Jersey!)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:56 (nineteen years ago) link

the shiznit of today
Whoops. Sorry, non-ILM-cardcarrying googler temporarily stole my Login. Xtina, much love!

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 19:57 (nineteen years ago) link

I thought Qwest was Quincy Jones' label.

Yes that is correct, silly me. I sure had a lot to drink last night.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:20 (nineteen years ago) link

Hasn't the New Cole Porter similarly fizziped fizzoped on other artists he once dissed, such as the Grateful Dead? Assuming I am correct about the original quote, that is.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:24 (nineteen years ago) link

elvis costello loves springsteen!! he even did a cover of "brilliant disguise" (it was a boring cover).

i'm dreading some anti-costello and -springsteen comment following on this post's heels.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:51 (nineteen years ago) link

This is not an anti-Elvis comment from me (for those look elsewhere), but he probably admits to liking Ray Charles these days as well.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 20:56 (nineteen years ago) link

uh, didn't EC actually PLAY with the Dead (or at least Jerry Garcia) sometime back in the late 80s (Spike era?) on SNL or something? I'm not aware of him ever harboring any dislike for them...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 7 January 2005 21:00 (nineteen years ago) link

he was certainly LOOKING LIKE jerry garcia back in the spike era.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:01 (nineteen years ago) link

xpost:
I'm telling you, I was there, man! He used to joke about selling his old man's Dead records because he needed the bread. No wait, I remember now. He sold Ross McManus's Grateful Dead records and used the money to buy Marvin Gaye records.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:03 (nineteen years ago) link

dude elvis costello recorded a song for a dead tribute album! although i think he said he only likes two or three of their records.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:08 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm gonna try one more time. He may like these groups now, he may have liked them then. But as far as the kind of shit he was talking back in the day it was a different story. Of course, I have as yet no factual evidence to back this up and no old geezer has showed up on this thread to confirm it so there is the possibility I'm totally talking out my asshat, but so be it.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:12 (nineteen years ago) link

i bet john lydon liked the beatles too!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:14 (nineteen years ago) link

he even did a cover of "brilliant disguise" (it was a boring cover).

That's `cos it's a boring song to begin with. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still going to be a pig.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:14 (nineteen years ago) link

xpost:
I never thought I would or could say this in a million years, but now I now how chuck feels, at least in one corner of his chuckness.

xxpost:
Hell yeah

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Broken link

― Henry A Blacktune (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:30 (nineteen years ago) link

Very funny. You should really remember to log off before you do that, guy.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:31 (nineteen years ago) link

I guess this thread has now become my solo show. I don't even have my equivalent of Steve Nieve to interfere with my vision.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:45 (nineteen years ago) link

m@tt has a good point. all irish musicians, up to and including bob geldof, are bruce springsteen in one way or another.

Anyone care to compare/contrast Springsteen with Van Morrison?

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:50 (nineteen years ago) link

I have three words for you:
"Streets of Fire."

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:50 (nineteen years ago) link

elvis costello loves springsteen!! he even did a cover of "brilliant disguise" (it was a boring cover).

See also 10,000 Maniacs. So what was it that Costello was supposed to bring to Springsteen appreciation again?

― martin m. (mushrush), Friday, 7 January 2005 21:57 (nineteen years ago) link

I started it with these words:"One more thing, Macca collaborator Elvis Costello dissed the Boss back in the day"

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 22:01 (nineteen years ago) link

The first time to make the thread sick, and the second just now to kill it. But don't these spells usually require a threefold invocation?

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 23:10 (nineteen years ago) link

On a music-related board, isn't there a Godwin's Law type of thing about mentioning Natalie Merchant? Cause I was trying to help out, you see?

― martin m. (mushrush), Friday, 7 January 2005 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link

For those not inclined to click the link, which is apparently everybody:
I was never very taken with psychedelic music - my dad went a bit psychedelic around the edges, about 1968. He grew his hair quite long; he used to give me Grateful Dead records, and "Surrealistic Pillow". I'd keep them for a couple weeks, and sell them at the record exchange and buy Marvin Gaye records.

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 8 January 2005 01:59 (nineteen years ago) link

Or this link
with this quote
The prospect of being compared to Springsteen, whose panavision scenarios - replete with so much obvious romantic, rock-mythology imagery of a kind quite antithetical to Costello's writing - fills Elvis with anguish and dread. "Springsteen always romanticising the f----- street," he complains, with no little justification. "I'm bored with people who romanticise the f------- street. The street isn't f--------- attractive.

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 8 January 2005 02:06 (nineteen years ago) link

But that was then
and this is now

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 8 January 2005 02:12 (nineteen years ago) link

everyone knows that the american musician that elvis costello most resembles (nowadays at least) is billy joel, not bruce springsteen. we've even had threads on this insight!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 8 January 2005 03:34 (nineteen years ago) link

though to be fair, springsteen "discovered" burt bacharach before elvis costello did (it was called tunnel of love).

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 8 January 2005 03:38 (nineteen years ago) link

xpost:
Shakey Mo and amateurist, I think you owe me an apology. But Shakey, since 95% of your posts are so otm, and since amateurist, I admire your hopeless romantic quest to untangle all the tangled prose in the Universal Library of Rockcrit, I'll let it go this time.

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 8 January 2005 03:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Repost of the Elvis Costello melody maker link ( so it's not pointing to the google cache!)
http://www.elviscostello.info/articles/m/melody_maker.770625a.html

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 8 January 2005 06:30 (nineteen years ago) link

What an unpleasant little man.

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Saturday, 8 January 2005 06:41 (nineteen years ago) link

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