Bruce Springsteen, "One Step Up," C or D

i have to disagree that he "ordinarily" gets dark and folky when he isn't writing songs for stadia, though. a bunch of the river, the rising, born to run, etc, says otherwise. there are a hell of a lot of positively elegant, wistful songs on all these albums.

Geir and I agree about something! Hurray!

http://www.rocklist.co.uk/swells.htm

I fucking love "All That Heaven Will Allow" too. Anyone heard Everything But The Girls'(and the Mavericks!) cover(s) of "Tougher Than The Rest"?

"One Step Up" is indeed classic. I always thought the "Tunnel of Love" album production was the weirdest of all the Bruce discs, somehow stripped down and overproduced at the same time, to good effect. Unlike his current era of MOR rock. I'm surprised there's so much fence sitting for "Tunnel of Love," even among fans. Same with "Lucky Town." "Human Touch" is pretty crap, though. That's the one Springsteen album I don't own.

Ain't Got You is one of my fav acoustic songs from him as well.

One Step Up is classic too. Such a sad song for a single.

Wasn't it covered by Eddie Vedder in some capacity? Solo demos, or something by his pre-Pearl Jam outfit. I thought I read that somewhere...

"One Step Up" is indeed classic. I always thought the "Tunnel of Love" album production was the weirdest of all the Bruce discs, somehow stripped down and overproduced at the same time, to good effect.

Yes indeed.

This is more true of the title track, but apt nonetheless.

Tougher Than The Rest, too

Brilliant Disguise: best song Elvis never got to sing.

A few years ago I saw Springsteen on a solo tour where he played very few singles and quite a bit of Tunnel of Love. He played "When You're Alone", which I always thought was the weakest song on Tunnel of Love, solo on piano and it worked well.

"Valentine's Day" sounds beautiful on a scorching Saturday afternoon.

Elvis Costello did an amazing country'ish version of Brilliant Disguise.

Great record.

Brilliant Disguise: best song Elvis never got to sing.

-- whatever
One of the most OTM things ever said on ILM.

Seriously, I could almost cry just thinking about him doing it-- would have been amazing.

Seriously, this is like the album every boomer singer/songwriter's been struggling to make about middle-aged lust. The multi-tracked music compensates for lyrical generalization.

middle-aged lust

plus guilt, desperation, self-hatred. amazing to think the liner notes end with "thanks juli", as if the only thing he's got to thank her for is for inspiring him to write the record that convinced him his marriage was a mistake. bet she really enjoyed listening to it.

re: lyrical generalisation, i think that's bruce's enigma. although lots of songs try to be particular ('bill horton was a simple man of the road' etc all over his albums), they end up being effective as kind of everyman statements for which he is often pilloried. perhaps the secret is that it's difficult to pin him down to either.

interesting re: the costello cover. would love to hear it. i remember an interview where he laid into springsteen's songs, saying they were nothing but cars and girls.

Springsteen's lyrics are simultaneously general and specific. They're general in that they address feelings common to broad groups of people, e.g., restlessness, frustration, paranoia. They're specific in that they use they use those general notions (often a few general notions at the same time) to develop fairly specific, fleshed out characters (for pop music), e.g., the murderer in Nebraska, the young mother in Spare Parts, the insecure groom in Brilliant Disguise, the resigned lead of (the brilliant) One Step Up. Plus, consider what you're comparing Springsteen to, in terms of lyrics; most other pop/rock songwriters fall far short of Springsteen's ability to develop characters in the context of a pop/rock song.

To be clear, except for Born In The U.S.A., I hate Springsteen's fist-pumping, frat-boy side. I jusy don't relare to it. But I love his quiet, brooding side -- especially Nebraska and Tunnel Of Love -- where his lyric writing skills really shine.

I prefer the fist-pumping frat-boy.

Which sadly hasn't been around since "Born...." - even on "The Rising", he sounded way older (well, he was, I know) on the faster songs.

it's kinda hard to pump your fists like a frat boy while writing songs about 9/11. unless you're toby keith. who i love. but for different reasons.

To be clear, except for Born In The U.S.A., I hate Springsteen's fist-pumping, frat-boy side.

One of my favorite recordings anywhere is a bootleg of him doing this song at a Neil Young Bridge Benefit concert around 1988 or so. Acoustic, but much rawer than the later acoustic versions of this song. And it just ends "10 years going down the road/Got nowhere to run, I ain't got nowhere to go" and then a loud dissonant ugly chord, and that's the whole song.

Oh, it's magnificent!

As usual, I see that I have already said this.

One of my favorite recordings anywhere is a bootleg of him doing this song at a Neil Young Bridge Benefit concert around 1988 or so. Acoustic, but much rawer than the later acoustic versions of this song. And it just ends "10 years going down the road/Got nowhere to run, I ain't got nowhere to go" and then a loud dissonant ugly chord, and that's the whole song.

Eazy, or anyone else, can you give me any other pointers on where to find this recording? It sounds incredible! But I asked my Springsteen maniac friend, and he's never heard of it. He scoured a couple of Bruce bootleg sites and couldn't find it there either. Bruce played the Bridge School benefit in 1986, but it doesn't indicate that he played "One Step Up" that day, or any other Tunnel of Love material for that matter.

So help! please! I want to hear this!

I think Eazy was talking about "Born in the USA".

ah crap

as usual I am an idiot

The rhythm guitar playing on the acoustic version of 'Born in the USA' is remarkable.

do you mean on the Bridge School version? Or the one on Tracks/Alone In Colts Neck? If the latter, I agree with you. If the former, I'll be back with you soon when I get a copy of that set.

ugh people referring to springsteen as a "frat boy" above. wtf. have not decades of people screaming LISTEN TO THE LYRICS made any headway?

i fondly recall the Great Springsteen Debates of... i dunno, ca. 2002, 2003? which thread is that?

ugh people referring to springsteen as a "frat boy" above. wtf. have not decades of people screaming LISTEN TO THE LYRICS made any headway?

I meant his outsized, fist-pumping behaviors in his antham-type songs, and the kind of reaction they inspire and the fans they drew. I love his lyrics. Overall, I much prefer quiet, introverted, contemplative Springsteen to loud, outsized, rock-and-roll Springsteen. That was my point.

Euler: I mean the one on Tracks. Never heard any other alternative version. But that one is incredible. So much reverb, so lots of is FX but there's still a percussive quality in the playing which is like an effect in itself. I can be quite a percussive guitar player myself but I don't think I could do that.

It is quite striking how the lyrics are IDENTICAL to the LP version, even down to the little variations at the end.

I was thinking: we all give credit to the Boss for writing that dark version of the song, like it shows the song's true meaning / tone etc. OK, and I love it. But then why didn't he release it that way? Why totally rewrite and rerecord the tune to give it such a different atmosphere? Did he think that was a better way of getting his searing political vision across? (I really like the LP version too, btw, I don't knock it.)

Pinefox, if you don't already have a copy of Alone In Colts Neck, you'd probably really enjoy it. It's the Nebraska sessions, but with a few songs that didn't make the original cut, including the version of "Born in the USA" on Tracks---and a killer version of "Downbound Train" that I find terrifying to listen to, for the tone of voice he gets. The original "Pink Cadillac" strikes me as more lewd and thus more effective than the electric one a year or so later. The guitar sound on these cuts remains incredible.

Wow!

Never heard of it.

'Downbound Train' (on LP) is a real favourite of mine. Was just listening to 'Pink Cadillac' (the electric 45) tonight.

'Downbound Train

-- that's the weak spot on that lp, in my opinion.

like b-side weak

Euler: I was talking about that 1986 Bridge School Benefit. A friend of mine long ago had a videotape of it, and what I have I taped from that. He did that version of "Born in the U.S.A." I described above, as well as a version of "Seeds" playing guitar and a tambourine with his foot, and someone from Los Lobos playing accordian. That one's fantastic, too.

Well, I think 'Downbound Train' would have to be high in my Boss top 10, along with, oooh ...

Racing in the Street
Atlantic City
Tunnel of Love
One Step Up?

something like that. I think the song's riff is marvellous; the one flaw is the odd lassitude of the breakdown / bridge, which virtually collapses, certainly loses most of its sense of rhythm. And I suppose that section (and indeed the whole song) is pure Boss being Boss, Boss-by-numbers, but I like the Boss and these are some high numbers.

(shoulda changed that back to TOP 5 - I started to think I couldn't stop at 5)

what a depressing song

That's a fact.

yes, absolutely in love w/ the last turn of the lyrics at the end.

This is certainly an autumn album, isn't it.

Was just watching the video for this song last night and was struck by how good Bruce’s acting is in it. I don’t think of him as much of an actor, usually, but man, the way you watch him descending into abysses of self-loathing over the course of the video, and you can read every little nuance and stage of it on his face – it’s beautiful. I like that quick, seemingly genuine smile he gives some rando at the bar, to show you how easily and instinctively he can switch on the charm. And then the way he sort of wakes up and blinks at the world at the very end, like he can’t quite remember who he is or how the hell he got here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZE7OchG3DY

Yeah that's why I don't think of him as an actor.

The "Brilliant Disguise" video features some good acting, too.

Some days I think "Brilliant Disguise" is his best song.

The Brilliant Disguise video is great. As a kid, I was scared of mirrors because I would do this thing where I would lock eyes with my reflection and stare until I didn't recognize myself anymore and it was like a monster was looking out from inside me. When I watched that video, I couldn't believe how perfectly the director had managed to recreate my weird childhood neurosis.

I go back and forth on the song, though. I heard it first on the Greatest Hits album, and there - since I had no other context for it at the time - I always kind of associated it with Human Touch, which came right after it iirc. Later, when I heard it on Tunnel of Love, I liked it just fine and the emotional depth of it came through better. Then I saw the video and was like, "Oh, actually this is amazing." I guess context is everything.

Tunnel of Love is his grandest AND his most intimate album. I'm pleased as hell so many have come around to it or, if they were around at the time, remember how much they loved this bleak album.

Human Touch was a whopping nearly 5 years later, which I think may be the longest he has ever gone between records. Oh, wait, Tom Joad to The Rising was even longer!

I meant it came right after it on the CD, and they sounded similar to me. I didn't know anything about either album at the time.

I should have clarified that I meant "Human Touch" the song, not Human Touch the album.

But yes, Tunnel of Love was a huge surprise to me when I got seriously into Springsteen last year. I first listened to it at three in the morning when I'd been lying awake all night, which was one of those decisions that's probably bad for the psyche but good for Art.

some of my favorite synthesizer presets/parts of the late '90s