Post a controversial music opinion

Even though I'm from NJ, the NJ Springsteen is from (and about) is unrecognizable to me.

Everyone I’ve ever known/met from New Jersey has said the same thing. None of them grew up in New Jersey in the 1950s-1970s.

tbf there are also two New Jersey's geographically, I always assumed he has a bigger audience in the southerly part

tbf there are also two New Jersey's geographically
and many more "New Jersey's", metaphorically

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm8ZOQkzyFc
#OneThread

I always assumed he has a bigger audience in the southerly part

I think he is more Monmouth County/northerly guy.

this is right I think, but in the North Jersey imagination any place that has beaches is "south"

Need to get The Boss himself on here to settle this. Or Floyd, why not?..

Great post, Lily, and the thing about trying so hard/too hard, he's said (or maybe it was Sugar Miami Steve) that there were other guys starting when and where they did who were better singers, songwriters, musicians, everything except at working as hard as possible, all the time---and he in particular said that if any muso, like in his employ especially, ever said, "Well maybe I should try junior college, at least part-time, or GED (eqivalent of high school degree, after dropping out), more time waiting tables...?", he would immediately agree, because if you were thinking about being less single-minded, you already were; there had to be NO QUESTION ABOUT DIRECTION.
On the other hand, he turned Born To Run, album three, into Make or Break by taking so many years, in the time scale of them days, at such expense, to finish product, and not by recording so many different songs, but so many many different takes---and the whiff of grim, almost over-the-top obsessiveness, although it paid off, in a sometimes carefully nuanced, and mostly broadly acceptable, not-too-weird-a-vibe-for-the-70s-way (what the hell, Apocalypse Now cost a lot more)
---nevertheless this kind of compulsive momentum led toward the shut-down later, when he was so embroiled in his mostly offstage legal battle w Mike Appel, even getting his ass forbidden to enter the studio---to where he found himself thinking (as I think he said in press material re expanded reissue of Darkness) that his career might be over, or in for a long hiatus (makine me think of Fogerty's feud with Saul Zaentz, Steve Forbert's with his suits:it happens, for sure) And he said he found his thoughts turning back to growing up in Freehold in the mid-60s, a place and time for which he'd always had Highway 61 Revisited, and later, "David Lynchian" associations, more than rockin' at the hop etc.
And yadda yadda, many years later, after much therapy, "The best day of my life was when I picked up a guitar, and the other best day was when I learned to put it down."

Some of my friends who were raised Catholic (unlike me) saw it allll coming, very early.

But speaking of Brits, those painfully earnest white boy vocals, even or especially among the middle-aging, were basis of my aforementioned nfacness re U-2, Radiohead, many others.

Please don't tell me you're calling U2 British.

uh oh

lol

Same vocal effect (and when there are so many good Irish male voices to be influenced by). But if you want to say he's a heartland/boondocks/grand battered-heritage overachiever like Bruce, so, Bono is indeed Irish-as-hell in that sense.
Wiki says Bruce is of Dutch, Irish, and Italian descent...Springsteen's Italian maternal grandfather was born in Vico Equense.[12] He emigrated through Ellis Island, and could not read or write when he arrived. He eventually became a lawyer, and impressed the young Springsteen as being larger than life.[13] The name Springsteen is topographic and of Dutch origin, literally translated as "jumping stone" but more generally a stepping stone used on unpaved streets or between two houses.[14] The Springsteens, originally from the province of Groningen,[15] were among the early Dutch families who settled in the colony of New Netherland in the 1600s.[16]

Father worked as a bus driver nd held other jobs. Douglas Springsteen suffered from mental health problems throughout his life which worsened in his later years. "Larger than life" im midnight kitchen table encounters w son, as told in on-stage intro to "It's My Life, " when I saw him in '74 or '75.

Not sure what that has to do with Bono or Bono's vocals?

Buses flatten vocals

has to do with having to try harder, represent oneself as product of this underdog drama: Irish heritage, rich in culture, endlessly striving in other ways, so Bono and immigrant-heritage rebel son Bruce of the boondocks, tend to overdo things. Stated as sympathetically as possible, but I still don't care about Bono that much---he's had his moments, Springsteen had more, when I was keeping up with him.

(Springsteen sounded very worn, wearier than ever, but indomitable, an old rock singer as old rock, v. recently on Saturday Night Live w E Street Band---a more discernible melody might have helped, or hurt.)

Not really recognizing of Bono in there but neither of us are interested in him so nbd.

They are both white guys who are in a band

And frequently show up as talking heads in rock docs.

They both play to the back of the room, that’s for sure

Oh yes.

daft punk was never anything other than predictable and boring.

just like this post i am currently writing.

Homework sports a handful of classic tracks. I don’t need the rest of their discography.

There are good tracks on both of the first two albums and the Tron sequel soundtrack, and the live album is great. They disappeared pretty far up their own asses on albums 3 and 4, though.

Homework has very good bits but is kind of mind numbing, Discovery was mostly good but pretty uneven, HAA was actively awful but worked pretty well live, RAM super professional and impressive but I never wanted to listen to it. in short, they are a land of many contrasts

i had a really long post typed out about how daft punk was actually fucking awesome, but that it had nothing to do with their music. which brings me to my point: is there a "musical fan fiction" thread, by chance?

"music facts that are 100% false" maybe???

My controversial DP opinion is that playing their albums (as albums, from front to back) is the worst way to listen to them.

homework and discovery are pretty much flawless, imo, the live albums are sick, the rest is okay -> bad

these are not controversial opinions

human after all is fucking sick

My controversial DP opinion

Um

I said on Twitter that while I recognize Daft Punk were Important, they didn't mean much to me. I tried. When hip-hop and R&B artists like Kanye and The Weeknd folded their melodies or absorbed their ethos, they were at their most beautiful, though. "I Feel It Coming" and "Stronger" sound more amazing than ever.

If you folks insist it's not a controversial observation to say DP isn't really an album band, I'm fine to withdraw that descriptor. People seem to love at least their first few albums (as albums).

late period Can albums (Saw Delight, Landed, s/t) may have some goofy and underwhelming tunes, but the good stuff on those records rivals anything the band ever recorded

Dunno if I consider Landed late period, maybe the last of their classic period?

U2 are best thought of as a singles band.

Junior Jack's "Thrill Me" >>>> Daft Punk's "Burnin'"

Saw Delight is the first CAN album I heard and is still a favorite along with Landed and Soon Over Babaluma

U2 are best thought of as a singles band.

da funk was my gateway to house music, no shame, I wasn’t hangin with Gavin hardkiss and hawke when I was 13

not that I am now I don’t know what the point of that name drop was, sorry

Dunno if I consider Landed late period, maybe the last of their classic period?

Agreed.

Rob Zombie's solo albums are a) better than you think and b) better than the White Zombie catalog, most of which was pretty uninspired and some of which (Make Them Die Slowly) was actively horrible.

Pet Shop Boys are best thought of as an albums band
― brimstead, Monday, February 22, 2021 3:14 PM

for the first four or five albums, yes absolutely.

Can never made a bad album, besides Out of Reach

oh wait they had that reunion album too