he tried to go Phil Spector and wound up Jim Steinman instead
Tbf, a chunk of the E Street Band plays on that Meatloaf album.
So Britishers, is listening to very American music like Bruce Springsteen or Johnny Cash or whatever considered as much of a cultish affectation there as someone listening to, say, Pulp or Blur or Oasis (or even the Kinks) might be here?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:46 (three years ago) link
Do not put Johnny Cash in the same category as Springsteen!
― Waterloo Subset (Tom D.), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:47 (three years ago) link
YEAH, he's (better/worse/sexier/better at guitar/dead/an adulterer)
― Wrong Screamed Barney (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:49 (three years ago) link
Springsteen isn't interesting enough to have a cult following. In the UK he's just some rock star that some people like, he's more Bon Jovi than Johnny Cash in the UK.
― Waterloo Subset (Tom D.), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:50 (three years ago) link
I promised I wouldn't get angry but
― Wrong Screamed Barney (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:50 (three years ago) link
Oasis is surely more mainstream in North America than those others? "Wonderwall" is such a campfire cliche it's a meme.
― to party with our demons (Sund4r), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:52 (three years ago) link
Agreed; Springsteen needs to record about 100 more novelty songs like "One Piece at a Time" and "The One on the Right is on the Left" to approach Cash territory.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:52 (three years ago) link
I'm from the West of Scotland, everybody loves Johnny Cash there, so I'm not the best judge.
― Waterloo Subset (Tom D.), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:54 (three years ago) link
Ice Cube and Carly Simon and John Philip Sousa and Glenn Miller and Lyle Lovett are as American as Springsteen
Just as Gary Glitter and Edward Elgar and Posh Spice are equally British
Anyway the thread for hating America is
American things
― pot sounds (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:54 (three years ago) link
I doubt that there's an American equivalent to anglophilia or francophilia or whatever ppl who are really into manga and shit are, for the reasons YMP said above re hegemony. US pop culture is too dominant to build a cult around, even with artists that I hear more in the US than anywhere else, like idk Styx or 38 Special or Lynyrd Skynyrd.
― to party with our demons (Sund4r), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:56 (three years ago) link
I love America btw.
― to party with our demons (Sund4r), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 15:57 (three years ago) link
Not enough to still live there, admittedly.
Yeah, I was just wondering if here was a weirdo UK contingent that listens to ZZ Top and Skynyrd and stuff.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:02 (three years ago) link
lily's post is a revelation imo, it's like the thesis for the best book about bruce springsteen that hasn't been written yet.
― Joses Chrust (map), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:02 (three years ago) link
I'd def read that book, yes.
― A Scampo Darkly (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:03 (three years ago) link
Always kind of amazed me that Elvis never toured outside North America (except for the Hawaiian concerts).
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:04 (three years ago) link
(xxxp) Skynyrd maybe, ZZ Top had hit singles, they're famous. Springsteen is far too famous to be a cult artist.
― Waterloo Subset (Tom D.), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:04 (three years ago) link
i've limited my bruce exposure to nebraska because i found the world of it useful at a weird time in my life. haven't explored much beyond that.
― Joses Chrust (map), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:05 (three years ago) link
You guys know about this, I assume: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinded_by_the_Light_(2019_film)
― excuse me while I fold my pants (morrisp), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:05 (three years ago) link
i enjoyed that movie
― Wrong Screamed Barney (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:12 (three years ago) link
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, February 2, 2021 10:04 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
i think colonel tom parker wasn't a naturalized U.S. citizen and wouldn't have been able to get back, so he engineered elvis's career around that
it's pretty fucking incredible mismanagement, and that as huge as he was, he probably could have been 2X or 3X more popular if he would have toured
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:20 (three years ago) link
also I wish there was a UK subculture built around loving .38 Special and only .38 Special
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:21 (three years ago) link
I've a good friend who's big into Southern Rock; I note that the last time Skynrd played the UK they played the Wembley Arena, which has a capacity of 12,500, so there are plenty of weirdos who like them (don't think they are or were as legit big in the UK as BS or ZZTop though).
I think there are a lot of deep veins of americophilia in the UK, but I'm not sure whether people would think of the charm as "american" rather than "country" / "deep soul" / ""southern rock" / "NYC hip hop" / whatever.
― Tim, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:23 (three years ago) link
(In my case it was the other way round - I've loved visiting America in large part because it is the natural habitat of the big lumps of US culture that I enjoy.)
― Tim, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:25 (three years ago) link
Pronouncing the "z"s like "zee" is like a secret handshake for admission to the cult.
― to party with our demons (Sund4r), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:33 (three years ago) link
that's funny - I never considered whether it may be pronounced "Zed Zed Top"
― excuse me while I fold my pants (morrisp), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:35 (three years ago) link
Same, and I say 'zed' (Sund4r too, I assume).
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:36 (three years ago) link
Wouldn't it be "double-Zed Top"?
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:36 (three years ago) link
Two Zeds and a Top
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:38 (three years ago) link
yeh, we say Jay-Zed too
― mahb, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:41 (three years ago) link
LOLing at the idea of Glaswegian record shop assistants being asked if the have any Jye Jye Cale records.
― Waterloo Subset (Tom D.), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:42 (three years ago) link
Interestingly, the only person in the UK who does not pronounce it "zed" is named Frank Zed.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:43 (three years ago) link
Zed Leppelin
― pot sounds (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:43 (three years ago) link
it was fun to watch dragon ball zed when i lived in canada
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:45 (three years ago) link
Haha, I think I did say "zed zed top" the first time I read the band name as a child before I heard anyone say it.
― to party with our demons (Sund4r), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:51 (three years ago) link
Hey have you heard of this band called the 13th Floor Lifts?
― pot sounds (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:53 (three years ago) link
Or Pavement... uh, never mind
― pot sounds (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:54 (three years ago) link
love a girl with some junk in the boot
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:55 (three years ago) link
Living Color
― joygoat, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:55 (three years ago) link
Lol
― Wrong Screamed Barney (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 16:56 (three years ago) link
She got dumps like a lorry
every bird crazy bout a sharp dressed lad
― Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 18:15 (three years ago) link
I'm trying to imagine being repulsed by someone who (for example) britishes so britishly that I just can't stand it
Richard Dawson (raucous experimental UK folk racket w/ intense picaresque realness vox)
― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 20:37 (three years ago) link
― Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, February 2, 2021 6:15 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
lmao
― Joses Chrust (map), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 20:46 (three years ago) link
that was great
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 20:50 (three years ago) link
Thank you, map! That just made my day.
― I am not a psychic community (Lily Dale), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 21:34 (three years ago) link
lol Paul
― to party with our demons (Sund4r), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 23:18 (three years ago) link
Great post on bruce for sure
Im ok with bruce,the e st band can do one tho
― Qanondorf (darraghmac), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 23:30 (three years ago) link
Even though I'm from NJ, the NJ Springsteen is from (and about) is unrecognizable to me. Where I grew up, it was rich kids listening to the Grateful Dead and poor kids listening to rap, metal and punk
totally feeling this as another native garden-stater
don't want to derail this with another "authenticity" debate, but I recall a few years ago (in the NY'er?) reading a really long profile that his perfectionism/discipline extended to choreography of every onstage gesture—exactly when a fist gets pumped and how many times, etc.—and I remember thinking oh yeah, that makes perfect sense, because the whole thing has always struck me as a kind of contrivance.
Again though I know I'm bringing some NJ anti-Bruce bias into this having had to endure his weird devotees growing up
― John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 23:47 (three years ago) link
Hard to work too hard to display authenticity as the hardworking archetype imo
Its a funny angle at which to come at anyone tho
Massively popular superstar cultivates image, yeah but like so do i
― Qanondorf (darraghmac), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 23:52 (three years ago) link