Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

xpost <3 goddamn

I actually went, and IMHO it was actually a great show.

What this setlist is lacking is any kind of strong thematic or narrative arc. Yes, there are songs about loss and he speaks about his bandmates and “Last Man Standing” but they’re just presented in the setlist without any connection or relevance.

I think I was aware of Springsteen's practice in doing this, but all honesty, it feels a little ridiculous to hold any show to this standard, even if it's Springsteen. A show doesn't have to be a live concept album.

Anyway, Josh was right, it was a pretty inspired cross section of his career, and while I expected the songs of mourning and remembrance, I actually did not expect the swinging jazz that was basically the core of the show (and for me, arguably the highlight). I'm guessing this has been a big part of their last few tours, but I haven't seen the full band in quite a while so this is all new to me. I should add I've been going mostly to jazz shows these past four or five months, so I was kind of primed for swinging beats and extended horn solos.

(Also, I thought it was inspired to turn a Chuck Berry number like "Johnny 99" into a different kind of Chuck Berry number, fusing it to "You Never Can Tell" and then stretching it to encompass polyphonic New Orleans jazz.)

I remember when I first got into Springsteen, there was the complaint that breaking up the E Street Band was pointless because he was releasing very little material that demanded something else (the sole exceptions were "Streets of Philadelphia" and The Ghost of Tom Joad). When tonight's show broke into "Kitty's Back" and the rest, the first thing that came to mind was Duke Ellington and to a lesser extent what Wynton Marsalis has been trying to do with a larger ensemble. I started thinking how some of these older E Street Band numbers could actually work as jazz standards - nothing against the horn players, they were fine, but imagine if it was 1990 and Springsteen fronted a residency with top flight (and sympathetic) jazz players. I could see those pre-Born to Run songs being covered and maybe laying the blueprint for new material that would fit right in - the kind of stuff Chicago could only wish for but done with better talent and without their dubious taste or risible pretensions. If Springsteen was able to pull it off, it would make the break (or hiatus) with the E Street Band much more understandable. It still would have been bewildering at the time, but it makes more sense now given his recent experiments with Southern California pop music and Tom Morello.

Also my section apparently had a lot of people from Jersey, sometimes to its detriment. When Springsteen was singing "Last Man Standing" after giving it that solemn introduction, the guy behind me erupted with WOOO's when he made references to Route 9 or anything Jersey related. I guess I should be happy they're actually listening to Springsteen instead of talking through the new material, but still...

imagine if it was 1990 and Springsteen fronted a residency with top flight (and sympathetic) jazz players. I could see those pre-Born to Run songs being covered and maybe laying the blueprint for new material that would fit right in

sting-steen!

(for what it's worth, i'd note there were plenty of jazz and jazz-adjacent players in springsteen's orbit in the early days: david sancious, ernest "boom" carter," randy brecker showing up on "meeting across the river," etc. and circa 1990, max weinberg was flirting w/jazz during his brief sideline as a label boss.)

sting-steen!

LOL, good point...I was hoping Springsteen would come up with something Ellingtonian rather than the smoothier, poppier stuff worthy of beer commercials.

It's probably no surprise that the jazz elements of the E Street Band kind of left with Sancious et al though Carter left his stamp on "Born to Run." (I think Weinberg says he's still unable to play what Carter plays on the record - it's ridiculously awesome.)

I looked up Weinberg's jazz endeavors - he has or had a big band, and they do "Kitty's Back," but it's not quite what I hoped.

I thought it was strange when he opened some (all?) River 2016 tours with NYC Serenade, with an orchestra. Didn't make sense thematically at all - only song with the orchestra, wrong album - nice as it was to hear.

sting-steen

If you need somebody, baby we were born to run

Caryn Rose has been banging on about "narrative arc" for years, here she is reviewing a 2012 show I saw in Austria: "Doing so [collecting sign requests] offers the possibility for great surprises, including this night's three tour premieres, but it also runs the risk of creating massive problems with pacing, flow, and the thematic arc of the show." It is indeed total nonsense, as bitw says a show is not a concept album. A greatest hits set is fine with me.

the thing is, it's not a hits show!

Yeah, I take your point. But even if it's a mix of hits and deep cuts, why should there be any kind of "narrative arc"? It's just a collection of songs, and I neither want nor need them to somehow hang together narratively or thematically. His main themes are pretty much present in everything he writes anyway!

to be fair, this is an artist who has literally explained the narrative arc of the "li-li-li-li-li" part of "the rising."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G_n8l-2SCQ

Fair point but it is kinda baked into the Storytellers format. You don't go on Storytellers and say "this is a word that rhymed with the word that ended the previous line."

"Well, see I had this line that ended with the word 'love,' so my choices were basically 'stars above' and 'like a glove,' or maybe stretch a bit and go with 'turtledove.'"

"At this point the rhyming dictionary was on fire in my hands."

Slightly apropos: William Faulkner wrote a short story called "The Bear," which includes an unbroken 1,800-word sentence. He was once asked an elaborate question about some thematic element. Death, truth, struggle, metaphor, existence, blah blah blah blah.

He thoughtfully sucked at his pipe for a minute and answered, "That... is a story about a bear."

Springsteen had the most perfect line in that series:

"How much of this was I thinking about when I wrote the song? None of it. How much of it was I feeling when I wrote the song? All of it. That's how they get written."

It kind of reflects one of his gifts as a lyricist - to put across an idea in the most distilled and relatable manner without oversimplifying or stripping it of character or nuance.

True bird. I am beginning to think the the answer to the thread's initial query is that this fellow is pretty much a classic, in most of the ways that matter

How much did you pay for your tickets?

Yeah that’s right. I’m gonna count your fuckin money. Cause this blue collar hero is anything but

Sorry
Enjoy your fantasy
We all have them

Seen reasonably likely that he ain't never gonna ride in no used car again

he's just gonna throw that money on the bed. then he's gonna go out walkin'.

And he'll be drinkin' ice-cold beer on the hood of a Dodge!

Well we can reasonably deduce that he's dying to walk

(And then we had sex in the caaaaaar)

Just spent the day in Freehold and Asbury Park, ask me anything.

Did either town rip the bones from your back?

Prob wasn’t there long enough

Just spent the day in Freehold and Asbury Park, ask me anything.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, April 4, 2023 4:48 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Did you get Jersey Freeze?

I got sushi, just like Bruce did when he was little.

You went to that fancy sushi place in Asbury? No, you have to go back. You messed the whole thing up.

Did have a conversation with the neighbor at the corner of E Street and 10th about his buddy in the fire department who knows a guy who knows a guy who's in the fire department with Springsteen's son. Also about his son who used to know a guy who knew Springsteen's personal chef who introduced him, and Springsteen was really cool.

We also played pinball on the boardwalk around the corner from the Stone Pony.

Riiight

Did you get chills? xp

Yeah that pinball museum is no joke

Re: Springsushi

Eel sashimi, junp a little lighter

Come on up for the ricing

Thunder Roll

Wasabi Street Band

Thunder Roe

that's a good one

The Ghost of Tom Roe'd

Roesalita?

Roe Surrender?

I think we have unlocked the key to Springsteen sushi puns.

The Rice That Binds

Sashimeeting Across The River

The Ramen Touch

Nori Days

My Tempura Will Not Let You Down

Born In The U N I

LMAO

She just said "Joe, I can't eat roe
I had it once, I can't have it any more"
She ate edamame, chicken teriyaki
She ordered California Roll
And I dropped to my knees, hung my head, and cried

and for my 19th birthday
i got a uni nigiri with some tobiko