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

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xp, obv

― chuck, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:29 (twenty-one years ago)

"Born to Run" the song is great, although not really among my favorite Bruce stuff.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm w/ matos and m@tt and al, this is one of the greatest songs ever, and I've never really gotten sick of it. I don't own the album but I don't remember the other songs living up to the pure surging energy of the title track, so i don't know that I would like it today.

― deej ., Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait didn't Matos say it was bad?

xpost:
My bad. It was "Trapped." I just can't get on the good foot on this thread.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:33 (twenty-one years ago)

You know somebody should point out that Springsteen switched drummers from "Mad Dog" Vinnie Lopez to Max Weinberg when he made the album- whereas Mad Dog used to do this funky Latin stuff, Max was more of regular rock drummer, although after Darkness he practiced a lot to sound more like a drum machine.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:36 (twenty-one years ago)

he also switched pianists, from david sancious, who used to this funky jazzy stuff, to roy bittan, who did quite fine for awhile until he got ahold of a yamaha dx-7 that apparently only had a single patch on it and maybe only a single chord, which bittan was able to hold down and sustain for the entirety of about three straight albums.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:40 (twenty-one years ago)

who used to this funky jazzy stuff
fcc, you slippin'.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:41 (twenty-one years ago)

well ain't that the pot calling the kettle black!

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:43 (twenty-one years ago)

everything fcc says I assume to be true because of his ilx id

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:46 (twenty-one years ago)

everything fcc says I assume to be true because of his ilx id

but sometimes even the truth contains typos.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:49 (twenty-one years ago)

again with the truth!

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Grimly Fiendish's Glasgow pub jukebox anecdote. The moment Born To Run (the song) made sense was when I was on the low level train to Finniestoun on my way back from a mate's flat. I'd borrowed a random mixtape to listen to on my walkman. I was pretty drunk on red wine so I liked the idea of being totally surprised. As I headed from High Street to the Argyle St station For Those About To Rock by AC/DC came on. So far so mighty. Fists pumping in the air. As the train trundled beneath the motorway it was some John Spencer tune. Pretty rocking. Then, just as the train pulls in that trem guitar riff comes in "dahh, dah dah dah daaah". The E Street Band pile in as I leap triumphantly onto the platform and race up the stairs. I feel so fucking mighty. A glorious moment. 5 minutes later I was back at my flat feeling awesome. That's the power of The Boss.

The album that got me over my indie Bruce fear was Nebraska. That album gets better with every listen. Just stunning. Darkness would seem to be my next best step. I can get them all cheap on vinyl easy peasy.

― stew, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:51 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost:
Is there in truth no beauty?

well ain't that the pot calling the kettle black!
Precisely.

Search is slow, otherwise I would post the link where Momus hollas for fcc.

Something else readers of this thread might enjoy: Max Weinberg's drummer interview book- The Big Beat.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Precisely.

there i go, spouting the truth again.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:56 (twenty-one years ago)

An hour before spotting this thread I wondered to myself if the opening lines to the song were possibly the best opening lines for a rock song ever. "At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines" gives me goose pimples, for real. And since I've given up the ghost of boring anti-bombast punk purism (a phase which lasted me more or less the couple months in 1994 between hearing Ramones for the first time and hearing London Calling for the first time), I've come to appreciate how well-structured the track is, going beyond just verse-chorus-verse to a perfectly-contained mini-rock-opera that stays completely focused and builds to a completely immaculate peak (the one around the 3-minute-mark, right before the "1-2-3-4/the highway's jammed with broken heroes..."). 9 times out of 10 this personally, for me, beats some snotty kid plonking on the same chords for 2:30, muttering about boredom. Beats it with a tire iron.

Still, I figure that Darkness on the Edge of Town is his best album overall, with '78-'80 being his peak.

(xp: Bruce LPs on used vinyl are like $3-4 each [The River around $6] and definitely key to the experience.)

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 00:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I think with that post and that postee, we can safely lock the thread.

But wait...

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"poster". WTF is a "postee"?

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:01 (twenty-one years ago)

there i go, spouting the truth again.
Every word I type is a lie, including "and" and "butt."

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:02 (twenty-one years ago)

It's an acquired taste. New York and Long Island radio in the 70s forced me to acquire it.

Where the hell do you think I was during that time period? Your argument holds less water than a rusty colander.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:20 (twenty-one years ago)

And you never made your peace with Bruce? Then I'm afraid this thread isn't going to help you.

Your argument holds less water than a rusty colander.
I think I was going more for a Sieve of Eratosthenes approach.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not that I had to "make peace" with him. I've never hated Bruce (in the same manner I hate, say, Destiny's Child or Scout Niblett or Bread or that ass monkey who sang "This is How We Do It!"). I just don't understand why people get their internal organs in a clustered fulsome bundle over this music. Like I said, he's a charismatic, interesting enough guy -- but his music just ain't cuttin' it for me. I liked "Atlantic City", I suppose, but nine tenths of his more celebrated catalog is of the same overblown, over-the-top crappy rote bar band sonic lard as this. Rife with cliche. Ugh. I just don't understand how people get so into this stuff.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Sometimes you have to hate before you can love- it's the razor's edge.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Our ears must not work! (xp)

― What's this place, Biblevania? (natepatrin), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't read all of the posts, but Nedless to say, I knew this would be an Alex thread....

I hated Born to Run for years .. only in the last two or three have I decided that it's a pretty good tune except for that horrible, misplaced sax solo. I'm glad my reflexes made me shut it off over the past 20 years, but I kinda like it now - although I would never put it on intentionally.

xpost.. (Ken L is one of my favorite ILM posters these days...)

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

i agree with alex's opening post. I haven't given his earlier stuff much time, mainly cuz I prefer his '80s synth-pop.

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Bruce got it wrong and thought a thousand words was worth a picture

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I am under the impression people from Jersey disagree

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the song. I love all his stuff (except the "Human Tough" album). And x-post (probably): who in world considers Springsteen "stripped down?" "Nebraska," yes, but the rest? "No nonsense," I can see that, but "stripped down?" No way. Also, per the Meatloaf comparison, "Bat Out of Hell" enlists most of the E. Street Band. So does "Total Eclipse of the Heart," another Steinman special.

"Trapped" is awesome. As is everything Springsteen did from '78 to '81. Ever heard the song he wrote for Donna Summer, "Protection?" Great great great.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Bread is so anti-hate, Alex. Love the Bread. The Bread is good. It is warm, and soft, and smells good. Like . . . well, like bread. And who doesn't like bread? If you like bread, how can you hate Bread?

― J (Jay), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I only like "Everything I Own" and "Diary"

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 02:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Ann Powers once noted that Lou Barlow was a lot like the dude from Bread.

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

What's "Trapped"? because just this morning, Southside Johnny's "Trapped Again" popped into my head. I miss that song, although if I heard it, it would probably only excite me for about 20 seconds.

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 02:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait didn't Matos say it was bad?

no.
Alex asked "who enjoys this overproduced crappy glop" and matos answered by raising his hand (I think).

― deej., Wednesday, 5 January 2005 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh. I thought he was raising hand to Gear's post that was prior to his, and then fcc raised his hand which I guess was pro too even if equivocal, and you were there too, and you too...

Everything I say on this thread is a lie, including this.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 02:20 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.beneden.com/lifebook/gallery/thumbnails/zvillinger_vilem.jpg

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 02:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Lou Barlow WISHES he had as much going on as David Gates.

― J (Jay), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

alex, face it: you're surrounded by people who like the bruce. they're everywhere. they're in your home, at your work, serving you your morning coffee, checking your gas meter, giving you an eye exam. everywhere. so my advice is to give in to the bruce. give in, and you will find all kinds of doors opening for you.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 02:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Amateur(ist), he's not gonna buy that. Your argument makes mine look like a solid silver spittoon

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 02:33 (twenty-one years ago)

it's not a real argument. i was being silly.

ilm is so testy lately!!!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 02:36 (twenty-one years ago)

it's not a real argument. i was being silly.
I know. I was just trying to pass it along, sorry. Search: James Joyce's "Counterparts."

ilm is so testy lately!!!
Must be all that post-holiday testosterone.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 02:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Rosalita and Blinded By The Light were precursors to Born To Run. They both contained a lot of that excitement of a great writer on the way up. The last one is what made the masses finally sit up and notice. It landed him on the freekin' covers of Time and Newsweek and then he goes and says:

"I wanted to make a record that would sound like Phil Spector. I wanted to write words like Dylan. I wanted my guitar to sound like Duane Eddy". I hated it. I couldn't stand to listen to it. I thought it was the worst piece of garbage I had ever heard. I told Columbia I wouldn't release it. I told 'em I'd just go to the Bottom Line and do all the new songs and make it a live album".

― jim wentworth (wench), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 03:26 (twenty-one years ago)

but Nedless to say

What, where?

I love me the Frankie version very much. And that is all I will say.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait, wasn't Rosalita on the second album and Blinded By the Light on the first album?

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 03:30 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost:
Nedless in Jerza

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 03:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I always found the Frankie GTH cover rather boringly faithful.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 03:37 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost

Well, yeah. That's what makes them precursors.

― jim wentworth (wench), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 03:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I always found the Frankie GTH cover rather boringly faithful.

Bruce's "1-2-3-4" vs. Holly's orgamzogroans.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 03:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, hearing "Born To Run" on the radio as a kid...I'd have to say it was a moving song. But somewhere along the way it became like a cliche over a certain number of plays. I can't remember how the Frankie cover sounded, but then I'm not sure I really want to anyone do the song, so...

As a bit of trivia, John Peel mentioned on more than one occaision that he couldn't stand Springsteen, said he had asked for a Peel session and John turned him down. Although I did buy the single of "Hungry Heart" when I was a kid, I must say today I would not be caught dead buying a Springsteen record or listening to one. Also Fiendish, I marvel at how you can rate Dylan worse than Brooce. Not that I'm a big Dylan fan at all, but it does puzzle me.

― Bimble..., Wednesday, 5 January 2005 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Bruce sucks. I have complied an entire list of suckage. It started one day after hearing the Rolling Stones song "Start Me Up" on the radio for like the millionth time. Check it out!

Burned-out Single songs:

Rolling Stones - Start Me Up, Jumpin' Jack Flash
Jimmy Buffet - Margaritaville
Sister Sledge - We Are family
Van Morrison - Brown-Eyed Girl
The Police - Roxanne
Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild
Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven, Rock-n-Roll
Kool & the Gang - Celebration
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird & Sweet Home Alabama
Queen - We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions & Bohemian Rhapsody
Roy Orbison - Pretty Woman
George Thorogood - Bad To The Bone
Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze, Hey Joe, Foxey Lady
Don Henley - Boys Of Summer
Sister Sledge - We Are Family
Derek & The Dominoes - Layla
Bachman Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care Of Business
The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing
All covers and remixes of the above songs

Burned-out Groups:

All Village People songs
All James Brown songs
All Motown songs
All Foreigner songs
All Bob Seger songs
All Beach Boys songs
All Boston songs
All Bee Gees songs
All AC-DC Songs
All Doobie Brothers hit songs
All Eagles songs
All Bad Company songs
All Steve Miller Band songs
All Pat Benatar songs

Songs/"Artists" that just plain SUCK!:

Bette Midler - Wind Beneath My Wings (A close 2nd for worst song ever)
Journey (Steve-I'm-such-a-wimp!-Perry ruined this band)
Chicago (Peter-I'm-a-wimp-too!-Cetera ruined the band)
Stevie Nicks (extremely irritating voice & repetitive lyrics)
Celine Dion (we ALL know why)
Bon Jovi (Bad pop music masquerading as hard rock. Just plain despicable!)
Lionel Ritchie (extreme schmaltziness)
Eddie Money (Was this guy a tard?)
Tom Petty (Bland music with chorus lyrics derived from Bartlett's Quotations)
Bruce Springsteen (Bland music with schmaltzy lyrics sung by a man who just stubbed his toe)
David Bowie (Alot of people like him, he's a "legend". I think he sucks!)
Pearl Jam (Bland Alt Rock with unintelligible gravelly lyrics)
Any song with the word "Jump" in the title
Any song with the name "Jane" in the title (EXCEPT Lou Reed's classic "Sweet Jane")
Any song ever played on any "Adult Contemporary" radio station

Worst song ever:
Labelle - Lady Marmalade (extreme screeching and caterwauling)

― Paul Bass, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 14:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Bloody hell. What do you like?

― stew, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 14:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 341 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

("Acoustic guitar" may have been how I heard bass of the late great Richard Davis at some points.)

― dow, Wednesday, 26 August 2020 17:41 (five years ago)

"Late"? He's not dead yet.

― Isinglass Ponys (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 17:51 (five years ago)

Hoped you'd say that! At this point, I just assume, esp. w venerable jazzers.

― dow, Wednesday, 26 August 2020 17:55 (five years ago)

Jazz guys can live pretty long these days.

― Isinglass Ponys (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 18:33 (five years ago)

one year passes...

Listening to this album again and I'm struck as always by how much it's basically two distinct EPs with identical structures/sequencing. I've never met another album that gives me such a vivid sense of "End of side one, now get up and turn the record over" even when I'm listening to it on my phone.

― Lily Dale, Saturday, 21 May 2022 16:46 (four years ago)

I heard the title track in a shopping centre a couple of weeks ago.

― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Saturday, 21 May 2022 17:01 (four years ago)

it sure beats most of the crap of today!

― xzanfar, Saturday, 21 May 2022 18:22 (four years ago)

The key to this song is to see it performed live.

Seriously, it is hard not to be a Springsteen fan after seeing him perform.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 21 May 2022 18:31 (four years ago)

Is this the only Springsteen recording with wah-wah guitar on it?

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 21 May 2022 19:52 (four years ago)

I like it okay, but not as much as his first album, his fourth one, and probably a couple others by him. (also not as much as many, many john cougar mellencamp, bob seger, thin lizzy, boomtown rats, and iron city houserockers albums.) (it is probably better than *bat out of hell* and *slippery when wet,* though.)
― chuck, Tuesday, January 4, 2005 6:58 PM (seventeen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

*chef kiss*

― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Sunday, 22 May 2022 01:23 (four years ago)

loool

have to respect the joe grushecky shoutout tho

― mookieproof, Sunday, 22 May 2022 01:41 (four years ago)

xhuxk’s kiss

― Apollo and the Aqueducts (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 22 May 2022 01:47 (four years ago)

one year passes...

For the “Jungleland” instrumental section before “in the parking lot” it often seems like he shouts “sax!” and then proceeds to play a guitar solo.

― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 17 February 2024 17:21 (two years ago)

Unless Nils plays it

― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 17 February 2024 17:22 (two years ago)

Not to be confused with
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WXgHkujfI0

― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 17 February 2024 17:27 (two years ago)

I think Springsteen plays all the guitars on that album.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 17 February 2024 17:28 (two years ago)

Actually I was talking about live versions, sorry

― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 17 February 2024 17:44 (two years ago)

Hammersmith Odeon ‘75 he calls for that solo by saying “Something!” a few times.

― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 17 February 2024 17:54 (two years ago)

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