Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

OH man, I am so excited.

The Rising had some good songs but it's not exactly something I'm dying to listen to all the time. He hasn't made a great rock record since Born In The USA so this is really great news. I love Radio Nowhere. When he wants to, the guy can make some of the best sounding music of anyone.

He hasn't made a great rock record since Born In The USA

TUNNEL OF LOVE DUDE, TUNNEL OF LOVE

"Radio Nowhere" is pretty in all, with its Tommy Tutone guitar hook, but it says NOTHING AT ALL except that the radio scares Bruce but he's not about to get all Tom Petty about it.

*pretty and all

the new song is funny, the sax break reminds me of the backwards bagpipes on "Under The Milky Way"

seeing the video for "Human Touch" on VH1 Classic was REAL funny

bruce should figure out a really ridiculous haircut for this album, or at least shave it all off.

"Radio Nowhere" is one of the weaker tracks on the new album, IMHO.

a co-worker says a friend of his was once making a documentary about ashbury park and while walking around some abandoned warehouses on (the darkness on) the edge of town he thought he heard some noise and opened a large door to discover Bruce and a band rocking out inside. after a minute, some security guys ran over and told him to get out of there.

LEGENDS OF BRUCE.

Also, it's totally pimp that he's releasing it on vinyl a week earlier than the CD.

Kick a can in Ashbury Park and out comes BROOSE.

Also: "Radio Nowhere" IS "Human Touch."

That's a lie and you know it!

Not the thing about kicking a can. That's true.

you guys know its asbury, right?

woooops

'magic' is great, certainly the best full album of his since....i don't know what.

Magic is a genuine bore, but boring in a different way than D&D and Tom Joad were.

Kick a can in Ashbury Park and out comes BROOSE.
Hence the term "Bruce Juice."

Bruce Juice: Taste The Myths of America

<i>'magic' is great, certainly the best full album of his since....i don't know what.</i>

Since "Tunnel of Love," or perhaps "The River!"

I really love it, I gotta say.

fuck

I can deal with the hits, but mostly I love Nebraska and really like Tom Joad - is Magic worth checking out?

I still have not heard Nebraska despite its various accolades.

I'd say the first half is his best album half, anyway, since Tunnel of Love. The second half is dicey.

I really don't know how anyone can listen to this album without laughing.

GYPSY BIKER! DEVIL'S ARCADE! RADIO NOWHERE!

I have a hard time believing this album was made after 1991.

Mix and match the titles and you get what sounds on paper like an Electric Six album: "Gypsy Arcade," "Radio Biker, "Nowhere Devil."

Tru dat.

Frankie's Diner's
Over on the edge of town
Neon sign spinnin' round
Like a cross over the lost and found

Fluorescent lights
Flicker above Bob's Grill
Shaniqua brings a coffee and asks "fill?"
And says "penny for your thoughts now my poor Bill"

She went away
She cut me like a knife
Had a beautiful thing
Maybe you just saved my life

In just a glance
Down here on Magic Street
Love's a fool's dance
I ain't got much sense but I still got my feet

And the girls in their summer clothes
In the cool of the evening light
The girls in their summer clothes
Pass me by

Are the titles really any worse than the ones on Human Touch, though? (Still haven't heard this 5 star masterpiece, btw.)

yeah, but try telling Jeff Porcaro that the Pearl Jam guy's going to produce you.

The Human Touch ones, aside from "Soul Driver," are more commonplace cliches like "Cross My Heart," "A Man's Job," "Roll Of The Dice," "Real World," etc. The new one's got "Long Walk Home," "Last To Die" and "Your Own Worst Enemy" but its more obviously self-parodying.

or self-paradistic, as I'm not sure he's in on it.

paradistic = parodistic + parasitic

Well yeah, but that's really been Bruce's biggest problem since the dawn of the '90s, I'd say.

has he ever bought a new car?

A downtown window flushed with light
Faces of the dead at five (faces of the dead at five)
A martyr's silent eyes
Petition the drivers as we pass by

you can really hear the parentheses on the track

I kinda dig some of the instrumental breaks on this, Max Weinberg's a pro.

They should have just recorded all the grand backing tracks and let us write our own overwraught americana over it

I'll cite Christgau's remarks on Undercover: "What do people hear in this murky, overblown, incoherent piece of shit?"

OH THE JESUS ON MY DASHBOARD HE AIN'T SLEPT IN FORTY DAYS
AND I'M HOPING FOR A MIRACLE, THAT CRIME ISN'T ALL THAT PAYS

see Bruce should write about that rather than how it's gonna be a long walk home

ohhh the devil's arcade is war

i hope the video stars Barry Pepper

Mr. Hoos keeps talkin' bout Nebraska. I'm afraid to dispute it, I don't know it anyway. But Hoos is usually on to something good.

But he admits he hasn't heard it yet, Bimble.

"Terry's Song"

Well they built the Titanic to be one of a kind, but many ships have ruled the seas
They built the Eiffel Tower to stand alone, but they could build another if they please
Taj Mahal, the pyramids of Egypt, are unique I suppose
But when they built you, brother, they broke the mold

Now the world is filled with many wonders under the passing sun
And sometimes something comes along and you know it's for sure the only one
The Mona Lisa, the David, the Sistine Chapel, Jesus, Mary, and Joe
And when they built you, brother, they broke the mold

When they built you, brother, they turned dust into gold
When they built you, brother, they broke the mold

They say you can't take it with you, but I think that they're wrong
'Cause all I know is I woke up this morning, and something big was gone
Gone into that dark ether where you're still young and hard and cold
Just like when they built you, brother, they broke the mold

[harmonica bridge]

Now your death is upon us and we'll return your ashes to the earth
And I know you'll take comfort in knowing you've been roundly blessed and cursed
But love is a power greater than death, just like the songs and stories told
And when she built you, brother, she broke the mold

That attitude's a power stronger than death, alive and burning her stone cold
When they built you, brother

[harmonica bridge]

It actually might be genius to wrap an acoustic "nobody like you" coda around the phrase "broke the mold." That this guy was SO UNIQUE that he had to whip out the most trite phrase imaginable to capture it. That he TRULY DESERVED it.

Turns out its about the death of his "long-time assistant."