Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

Is he lip-synching? There's something weird about the sound.

Crushing on the bassist.

It's likely he's lip-synching. IIRC whenever he's used a live mic in his videos, the takes were allowed to run a bit (or in the case of "Brilliant Disguise" the whole video came from a single take), but it becomes much less practical when they're choreographing camera movements and they're making as many cuts like they're doing here.

I mean Bruce brings nothing to this song. It’s also kind of weird he’s singing a tribute to someone else’s friends. Did he ever meet Marvin?

I don't think he's in the video, but one of the backing vocalists on the recording is Fonzi Thornton, currently touring with Roxy Music.

Did he ever meet Marvin?

I think Bruce, like millions of others, felt like Marvin was a friend from how he connected with Marvin's music.

I think it's a fine cover, and pretty much what I expect from this album - faithful to the original arrangements and "tastefully" executed. That's kind of what he does in concert, though it's a bit more thrilling there with many of them unplanned or last minute tributes, kind of like testing the band.

I guess we'll see how the rest of the album plays. I'm sure it'll be very listenable, but at the moment it definitely feels like a lot of covers projects - Moondog Matinee, CHOBA B CCCP, etc. - where it's mostly for the devoted.

It’s also kind of weird he’s singing a tribute to someone else’s friends.

That's what I thought at first, too.

but at the moment it definitely feels like a lot of covers projects - Moondog Matinee, CHOBA B CCCP, etc. - where it's mostly for the devoted.

I dunno, Jann Wenner described the new album a "stunning."

Thanks! Now that you've told me that, it's a horse of different color entirely.

And yeah, I am sure he loved Marvin Gaye as a fan as much as anyone else, but Marvin just doesn't seem as much of a Springsteen-connected artist as, say, Roy Orbison or Ronnie Spector, to name two.

xp It's a lock for Barack Obama's best of 2022 playlist.

The synth sound and tempo are so close to "Streets of Philadelphia" that I could imagine the two songs overlapping in concert or else stay far away from each other.

But if "Streets of Philadelphia" is a chamber piece, this one expands into a Philly Soul arrangement before long. I like it a lot. And whenever I hear a major songwriter cover a song, I can't help but listen for what they admire about the song they're covering. This one definitely fits in Springsteen's wheelhouse (in themes, in the blues-to-gospel relationship between the verses and the chorus, in the blue-collar metaphor of the title) while also definitely not being a song of his own.

xp It's a lock for Barack Obama's best of 2022 playlist.

Wow, just noticed this:

Only The Strong Survive features vocals from Springsteen and instrumentation primarily from his longtime producer Ron Aniello.

So Ron Aniello plays most of the music, with others providing horns and vox? Man, looking at his credits, how did Aniello even get on the Bruce train in the first place?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Aniello

Maybe when he co-produced the Patti Scialfa album in 2007?

So there will be a few hits buried amongst a lot of who-cares misses.

Moondog Matinee is kind of like that ("Share Your Love With Me" and "Mystery Train" are highlights, the rest aren't bad but not really memorable either).

I'd have to listen to CHOBA B CCCP again but I remember it being fairly consistent with no real peaks. Enjoyable stuff, but what's missing becomes very clear when you compare it to Run Devil Run.

Yes, Moondog Matinee is exactly what I was thinking of and those tunes are indeed the highlights.

The synth sound and tempo are so close to "Streets of Philadelphia" lol I had same thought. It's a nice track but imo doesn't add anything (other than Bruce doing some odd dance-like moves).

I guess he was on Stern:

Stern asked whether Springsteen had, in fact, played guitar for Clarence Clemons on his deathbed, and Bruce confirmed that he had, reprising a good bit of "Land of Hope and Dreams." Springsteen broke into both "Not Fade Away" and "Darkness on the Edge of Town" to demonstrate how his voice has held up after nearly six decades and disk surgery (which required moving the vocal cords). Stern had asked whether he'd ever worked with a vocal coach, and Springsteen replied that he had not, citing his "naturally healthy technique." (His hearing has not fared as well: Springsteen said "it's bad" and revealed that he uses hearing aids "at home quite a bit and they help a lot.")

...

Still, to hear Bruce recount walking into his parents' house with his Oscar for "Streets of Philadelphia" was one of several winning moments. As he told it, Springsteen merely placed the statue on the kitchen table and sat down across from his father, Douglas, and said nothing.

"I'll never tell anybody what to do ever again," the elder Springsteen said.

"aww" and stuff.. but the idea that they had that interaction at that point in his career blows my mind. Should read his book sometime.

book is great, highly recommend
sheds a lot of light on his rship with his dad & his struggles w depresson

Honestly, I recall that was the biggest conspicuous omission/absence from his Broadway show. So much was (like the book) about his family, and especially his relationship with his dad, that I was expecting at least a tiny bit about *being* a dad and surprised to get (iirc) nothing. It's a trite/cheesy subject for sure, or could be, but there was room in the show for maybe a glimpse. It's not like (Grandpa!) Bruce's kids are little or anything or need their privacy.

I still quote a bit of his from "Storytellers" - it's like a main part of my parenting philosophy.

Paraphrasing here: even if you're privileged, you should not artificially impose hardship on your children just so that they learn about hardship.

The world will do that. The world will find a way to kick everyone in the nads. So you should do your best for them, and trust the world to teach them the lessons of failure, privation, heartbreak, precarity, and peril.

There is a parallel (and in my view, wrong-headed) conversation between John Stewart and Chris Rock where they idly fantasize about creating a summer camp where rich kids get beaten up and get their lunch money stolen - "Camp Kickass."

Bruce has the right of it. He could have made his kids work in a steel mill or whatever, but that would be bullshit theatrics. He has a daughter who is an Olympic equestrian. He could have squashed her dreams; instead he let her pursue what she wanted to pursue, despite the classiest optics.

Um, classist

several times, Howard apologized to Springsteen, which led me to try to remember what specifically he could have said over the course of the show that could have offended the Springsteen Organization/Landau etc, and I can't think of anything, and I have a pretty comprehensive command of the history of the show. The only thing I can come up with is that famous people concerned with prestige and "respectable" conduct avoided Howard and indeed all drivetime shitheads from the 70s until maybe the 2000s, because Howard was an annoying drivetime shithead who would say stupid, jealous shit about people more famous than he as a matter of course (he has apologized to other people consenting to come on his show in recent years who he had a reason to apologize to, Arsenio for one).

In the 90s, when Krock was AOR/CLassic rock, guys that needed to play ball with the station like Ian Anderson and Greg Lake would come on the show and subject themselves to his antics, which they transparently found to be humiliating. during that time, the only guy who seemed to like Howard, liked going on the show, who was legit huge and didn't seem to need to curry favor with the classic rock station in NYC was Sting. On the other hand, during Howard's respectable period of the past 15 years, the only guy who seemed to still regard him as s drivetime shithead was Robert Plant. Howard asked him the MOST tedious LZ questions and is kinda stupid about music, so Plant lost patience with him very quickly.

But it occurs to me that from the jump, Springsteen didn't do a lot of the stuff that John Cougar or Tom Petty or Seger had to. Those guys had to slug it out in the rock business of the midwest, opening for Kiss or Judas Priest or other downmarket acts. They had to kiss AOR ass, talking to drivetime shitheads, and it seems that Landau was able to keep him away from menial shit like that…

I think whatever beef Bruce had with Stern maybe had to do with something Howard said about Patti, but I also think Howard used to diss Bruce himself over the years, probably because of a couple of the Stern crew were huge fans. I read that Stern didn't get Bruce at all until the Broadway show, and when it clicked he offered a mea culpa and started trying to mend things.

Springsteen of course played a ton of bills pre-BTR, but iirc his last opening slot was for Chicago in 1973 and after that he said never again. I believe Landau got involved soon after, then came "Born to Run" and the beginning of Springsteen as mythic figure, and I think you're right, the control they/he had over his career probably helped a lot, and let him dodge a bunch of potholes.

OMG Springsteen opening for Chicago would seem to go on the list along with Prince opening for The Stones and David Johansen and The Clash opening for The Who.

Which last bill happened exactly 40 years ago. Time flies.

How about this one from 1973:

https://www.concertarchives.org/image_uploads/photo/image/354080/large_The_Village_Voice_-_New_York__NY_July_19_1973.png

!

that nightshift is fuckin terrible compared to the original

^this

Now imagining any one of the singers in The Band doing it and how that would work and be an improvement.

Or even all three trading vocals.

I have very low expectations for the new album, which sounds like it was recorded in Garageband when it probably should have been recorded in a garage.

blah blah blah blah
streetcorner poetry
blah blah blah
Mixed down in Garageband

But it occurs to me that from the jump, Springsteen didn't do a lot of the stuff that John Cougar or Tom Petty or Seger had to. Those guys had to slug it out in the rock business of the midwest, opening for Kiss or Judas Priest or other downmarket acts. They had to kiss AOR ass, talking to drivetime shitheads, and it seems that Landau was able to keep him away from menial shit like that…

in addition to refusing the opening-band game, springsteen for most of his career simply didn't do any interviews he didn't want to. he avoided the tour press game completely.

Yeah, I happen to have a copy of "Talk About A Dream: The Essential Interviews of Bruce Springsteen" within arms reach, and while it is an edited collection, it begins with a 1973 interview in the Asbury Press before immediately shifting to national magazines, radio shows and TV.

iirc his last opening slot was for Chicago in 1973 and after that he said never again. I believe Landau got involved soon after, then came "Born to Run" and the beginning of Springsteen as mythic figure

I think he (and/or Landau) decided he’d rather focus on barnstorming a bunch of small halls and clubs — and absolutely blow everyone away — than roll the dice opening for schmucks like Chicago in arenas. The money situation was likely shakier in the short term (hence the departures of Carter and Sancious), but where’s the benefit in playing for a huge disinterested audience when you could play for a small (and growing) rabid fan base?

several times, Howard apologized to Springsteen, which led me to try to remember what specifically he could have said over the course of the show that could have offended the Springsteen Organization/Landau

I remember Stern playing "American Skin" in 2001 and saying, "41 shots, what the hell does this sheltered guy know about being a policeman and urban violence", etc.

Not just a tired argument but a really tired bit of logic that's lazily trotted out whenever someone has a problem with a topical work by anyone famous. Regardless, "41 Shots" is great - especially the idea of marginalization being taught and passed down to one's children, the implication that we're less than these other people and you have to accept it and learn how to behave accordingly. Just one moment in the song and realized through a few narrative details.

What did Herman's Hermits know about being Henry the eighth?

What did Robbie Robertson know about working on the Danville train?

I sincerely doubt Jimmy Webb had worked on telephone lines

etc.

Some kind of fallacy maybe, forget which one though.

Yeah, Howard Stern not understanding anything shocker.

In other news, "Streets of Philadelphia" came on the radio the second I got home. Now I have to sit in the car. I love Bruce's post E Street dalliance with moody MOR/adult contemporary.

Caryn Rose otm:

Do you remember that 90’s movie, The Commitments? It was a bunch of Irish kids who form a soul band. (Glen Hansard was in it!) Anyway, the soundtrack was super-popular, but when I made a tape of the originals for people who adored the movie, they didn’t like it and they didn’t care. They liked the versions of the songs they heard in the movie. Only The Strong Survive is for those people, and there are more of them than there are of people like me.

That was grebt, thanks.

Am sure she’s fairly spot-on but

Years ago, Dave Marsh once told me, “You are the toughest critic in the fanbase that still gets what he’s trying to do.” It’s my job to pay attention and hold Bruce Springsteen accountable, and so, here we are.

This form of writing in music journalism is… trying

Yeah, I read that. OTM re: why Bruce, who could get anyone in the world to play on his records, if not his tried and true live in a room band, would entrust a tribute to classic soul to a soulless studio hack who wouldn't know grit unless it came as a plug-in. He should have had Steve assemble a crack band and then just cut the record live over a couple of weekends.

This may be the first Springsteen album I just don't listen to. Though I'm not sure I've heard all of "Human Touch," either.

a soulless studio hack who wouldn't know grit unless it came as a plug-in

The problem is there are so few musicians left who can convincingly pull it off. So many of the musicians from that era are gone or inactive, and the younger ones...I remember watching the Dap-Kings and thinking, "They are so close...but that's as close as they're ever gonna get."