Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

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."

Hoos hasn't heard Nebraska yet?! Dude, that's impossible.

My longwinded thoughts about his new album (which I don't like much) are toward the bottom of this thread, if anybody is at all interested:

Rolling country 2007 thread

I still have not heard Nebraska despite its various accolades.

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, October 5, 2007 6:00 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

But good lord dude, he claimed to be listening to it on the drunk thread!

The lyrics quoted here are some of the worst abuses of English I've ever read, in any context, by anybody. Seriously. Is that what he really sings on this record? That's horrifying.

Terry's Song": Jeez, that really reads like its fucking over-wrought; I'm kinda simultaneously dreading it and facinated by it! In other words: "same as it ever was."

oops, missing a " at the beginning there.

These titles and lyrics: did Springsteen get into a broken transporter with Robbie Robertson?

Anyone hear some "Don't Fear The Reaper" in "Radio Nowhere"?

some really great discussion btween ally, amateurist and 'spittle' upthread

Neither classic nor dud, but certainly overrated. But give him credit for a consistent vision of what he's trying to do.

Never could stand either of his Borns, neither to Run nor in the USA, but have to say I'm an admirer from afar of Nebraska.

And I have no idea whether or not this feeling will be echoed by ANYONE else, but as an American I will always remember him as the artist who led off the concert for 9/11 relief. Hate most of his music or not, for him to have been there in that space at that time makes him emblematic for me in a way that his somewhat overwrought albums never could.

what on earth are you trying to say?

Hmm, thought I was pretty straightforward, but maybe the following will make sense: I dislike his music, not least because it pretends to some working classman's purity, because it is arrogant enough to suggest that if you grew up in some shithole town in New Jersey, you are somehow rendered heroic, or at least you are if transformed into one of the Boss' songs.

But I liked that he chose to appear on that telethon, and am OK with the idea the producers had that he should go first.

Did I do better that time.

Not sure if there's a thread for the new album (Working on a Dream), but I heard it today. Really liked it. His voice sounds just scratched - not as gruff as Dylan or Young or Waits, but obviously starting to go, and it's starting to acquire some flavor (something that I always thought Springsteen was missing).

Anyone else heard this yet?

ctrl+f "jungleland" - 1 result

come on guys

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

Is the new disc as overproduced and antiseptic-sounding as the last few with his band?

Nah. More raw, more bluesy on some tracks. ("Good Eye" in particular is pretty rocking)

I've only heard the title track, I like it alright.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99173117

The new album is streaming at NPR. Some of it is instrumentally clunky but Bruce is trying to be a little more pop on some of it than in the recent past, while others have a raw, rocking roots feel (a little sound like recent Dylan but more rocking). Plus there's some spaghetti western influence on one cut and various other new things from him.

Huge poster for the record in Easy Street here. The four albums listed additionally include Born to Run and . . . Nebraska.

Super interview with him on BBC radio last night. The new material sounded smashing also.

He's putting the big push on over here, playing the Super Bowl holiday next week.

Sounds better than the last one, but the best songs aren't as good as the best on the last one. The album falls somewhere between "Human Touch" (bad) and "Lucky Town" (good). In other words, average. In other other words: five stars!!!!!!

I think Federici dying was yet another reminder that he can't do this forever, so he's cranking them out and doing everything on his wish list that he'd never done before (Super Bowl, campaigning, etc.). Speaking of which, losing the Oscar nom means he misses the rare promotional four-fecta of Obama, Golden Globes, Oscars and Super Bowl.

Oh, also, the new album is about 95% sax-free, FWIW.

I wish the alleged Beach Boys and Byrds influences I read about in one review were more prominent.

Oh, also, the new album is about 95% sax-free, FWIW.

― Josh in Chicago

FAIL. The big man Clarence Clemens is the most awesome human ever.

I'd sure love to hear a Byrdsy Boss.

I think Magic is super!

I know that in 1992 people said Lucky Town might be better than Human Touch, but on the whole I'm not even sure it is; they really do feel somewhat of a muchness ... don't they? I like both but still you can feel he's historically under par.

The unwritten rule says that the quality of a Springsteen album is directy proportional to the number of sax solos in it. So, mathematically, this album royally sucks Greg Kot OTM

^omtfm

(about the sax solos, that is)

I'm listening to the new LP on spotify; goodness, it's terrific!

Oh man, one of my favorite performances anywhere has made it to YouTube. These versions of "Seeds" and "Born in the U.S.A." are the definitive ones for me, never been better. I think this is one of the first times he played these songs acoustic and live.

Are those performances available officially on DVD anywhere?

For any skeptics out there, please let this video answer the question for you.

I've seen it a hundred times and it still gives me chills.

Prove It All Night - Passaic, NJ 1978
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3vUKBOJ5sU

I came in here to post this picture but after reading all the hate, I had to post what converted me. Anyway, here he is with some other guys:

http://www.brucespringsteen.net/photos/miscphotos/gallery-whitehousedec16.jpg

ok so

i'm watching bruce's "storytellers" right now and like

he's breaking his own songs down like an english professor it's weird and cool

he like sings a line and then does exegesis

"la la laaa la la la la la laaaa....once again, there is an unspoken subtext about the power of rock n roll here. what do the la la las say? they say 'sing with me,' they also say 'stand by me and we will stand together in this'"

^^^^^ actual quote

"did i think of all this before i wrote it? no, of course not, but i felt it as i wrote it. after years of storytelling you internalize the mechanics of your craft and the song itself becomes a second language, and communicating through it becomes second nature"

^^^^^^^ as concise an explanation of how that kinda thing works as anything i've ever heard

Yeah, Springsteen puts a heck of a lot more thought into what he does than many give him credit for. He's a real craftsman. That "Songs" coffee table book is full of illuminating self-analysis.

Haha ok in the credits it just listed after like DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY and shit

INSPIRATION
Ray Davies

brooce probably saw the ray davies storyteller episode, which is worth yr time as well.