Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

"For You" is a bad song on paper, but I loved it when he performed it solo on "The Saint, The Incident, and the Main Point Shuffle" (my very first Springsteen bootleg) - it's from a February 1975 show that was broadcast in Philly, and he puts the song across and then some. (At least to me!)

"Drive All Night" was awesome when it was a one-minute interlude on those epic live performances of "Backstreets" from 1978. Expanding it on its own into a turgid 8-and-a-half minutes was a huge mistake. I get why he sequenced it on The River, conceptually where he placed it is kind of brilliant, but it ends up sinking the experience as it plods up to "I swear I'll drive all night just to buy you some SHOES."

"Waitin' on a Sunny Day" is great LIVE. He plays up the humor, it's always fun, and you can see how one of those performances would have made a great little B-side. But on the album, sandwiched between the solemn "Into the Fire" and "Nothing Man," delivered with an equally straight-faced vocal, it can be awful. When I first heard "I'm like a drummer without a beat," "(like) an ice cream truck on a deserted street" sung without a wink or a smile, I just thought, "man, I'm sure this is supposed to be funny, because he doesn't sound like it is."

FWIW, "Into the Fire" and "Worlds Apart" are also much better live - they belong on the album for conceptual reasons, but I wish they had arranged and performed them like they do live (see the 2002 Barcelona DVD for a good example).

Yeah, "Sad Eyes" is a gem, much better than nearly everything on Human Touch. I kind of like the quiet, mood pieces that wound up as outtakes, but I can see why he shelved most of them, it's not something that would sustain a whole album.

Lucky Town has one outright dud for me: "Leap of Faith." I think I resequenced the album by removing it, then adding "Human Touch" at the start and sequencing it so that "Better Days" kicks off what would be 'Side B.' That's the album I wish he put out in 1992.

I like "Darlington County" and "Glory Days," they're done all shiny and poppy and the latter has been overplayed and overused in a terrible way, but lyrically "Glory Days" is pretty great. (Again, part of Springsteen's appeal to me is how he's successfully adapted an art form that at its best was long associated with youth.) "Darlington County" is catchy enough that I have no ill will towards it, I enjoy it.

I like those party rock tunes on The River too (and that includes "Crush on You"). I thought that was a great concept of making all of those songs work together. It's not just a manic-depressive split, it really is cinematic in building this whole community where you picture those different songs capturing all sides of life for the characters inhabiting that world. I think the darker songs work differently and in this case more effectively when they're not presented in this vacuum where their lives are devoid of the euphoria or hedonistic abandon the party songs capture. (Even Nebraska has a bit of that in the Chuck Berry numbers like "Open All Night," except he takes it a step further, making the sound organic to the more harrowing numbers and most notably arranging those songs so that they seemed to be played in complete isolation.)

I like Springsteen's album covers up to and including Tunnel of Love. Some rightfully iconic ones, and they all fit their albums well. It's not until the local-magazine-advertisement flavor of Human Touch and Lucky Town that it really gets bad. Why are they so terrible anyway? It's the same with Dylan. They're still on Sony/Columbia, don't they have good art departments? (On a related noted, here's Jeff Gold's blog entry on working with Prince. Gives you an idea of how things should work when someone submits a bad album cover.)

My theory on big stars with bad album covers is that once they reach a certain level they get more artistic control and then either they have no idea about design themselves or they delegate it to some friend or family member who fancies themselves a designer.

Makes sense.

Okay, this is awesome.

At one point, he asked with incredulity ‘What do you want me to do, wear overalls like R.E.M.?’ A bit later he said ‘Maybe I should have some clothes made for you’. I was wearing jeans and a button up shirt; he was wearing lime green skin-tight pants, high-heel boots, and a day-glo green, pin-striped, see-through shirt.

My favorite part that I so wish we could have seen is this:

After one pause, he said ‘show me some album covers you’ve done.’ I ran upstairs to my office and collected about 20 cd’s I’d worked on, most from my previous job at A&M Records. He looked at each one, saying something dismissive about it...

I would feel bad for Gold but you know Prince would be saying some mean yet hilarious shit.

Yet another excellent interview for the books:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/bruce-springsteen-interview-new-album-touring-e-street-band-1059109/

Tons of great personal stuff, of course, in this case re: old friends, Clarence and race in particular, but also news (old news?) that he has been working on a second Tracks set, may have a couple of shelved albums ready to release (he's always saying that), that Max says he has redone some drums on at least 40 songs from the archives, that they were planning to tour in spring 2021 but probably won't tour until 2022. I'm still always shocked how thoughtful and smart and honest he is about so much.

For example:

For Springsteen, the Black Lives Matter movement has unearthed truths he hadn’t quite grasped, even when he became the rare white rock star to take on police violence against black Americans with “American Skin (41 Shots),” back in 2000. “White supremacy and white privilege have gone much deeper than I thought they did,” he says. “I think my feeling previously to the past three or four years was that racism and white supremacy and white privilege were veins in our extremities, rather than an aorta that cuts through the very heart of the nation, which I feel it is now. So that was eye-opening, whether I was previously stupidly innocent to that or not.”

He’s proud that his 30-year-old son, Evan, has been marching in New York City. “There’s not going to be any post-racial society,” Springsteen says. “That’s never gonna happen. But I think that a society where people really see one another as full men and women, as Americans, is possible. It’s a movement of tremendous hope, and it’s a tremendously diverse group of young people that are out on the street. And it’s a movement that history is demanding right now.”

I love him more as I grow older. Only recently got into "Tougher Than the Rest" which is kind of the archetypal Bruce song

Super-surprised more country people don't cover Bruce. Check out this loveliness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfeh5rTv2rM

Yeah, that's a good interview. I'm feeling a little more hopeful about the album based on some of the song descriptions, though I'm trying not to get my hopes too high. Love Steve van Zandt saying of Bruce (re: the very gradual shift in his approach to recording), "He's a little slow."

yeah new album sounds like it could be good

The first Bruce single I bought was the cassingle of 57 Channels, then the first album I listened to closely was The Rising (which I got off Kazaa) which, I think, doesn’t have a single bad track on it. It’s a great intro-to-Bruce record. That said, Magic is the last thing of his I’ve had patience for (Living In the Future is THE BEST, i will brook no disagreement).

Chuck is a young person

TS: Bruce Springsteen's "Livin' in the Future" vs. John Prine's "Living in the Future"

(Living In the Future is THE BEST, i will brook no disagreement).

― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, September 20, 2020 4:05 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm x 1000000

also agreed that nothing on the rising is bad. it's just lonnnnnnnnnng

I do really like the way he sings "bootheels clickin' like the barrel of a pistol spinnin' round."

"I'm still always shocked how thoughtful and smart and honest he is about so much."

I tend to agree.

Did you see the film of WESTERN STARS?

I did not. That album didn't really catch my ear, and the film version seemed a little ... precious? But maybe I'll give it a shot.

I love the album. The film is mostly a straight live delivery of it, but with wonderfully corny, yet wise, statements from Bruce in between eachj song. I feel that anyone who loves the Boss would enjoy it!

I was fortunate enough to see it at a UK premiere where the Boss appeared afterwards for a Q&A. An astounding, magical experience for me.

I love the Boss and liked Western Stars better than most of his more recent stuff, but the film didn't do for me. I like Bruce better when he leans into the specific details of the stories he's telling and makes fun of himself, as he did in the Broadway show. I love his radio shows, though - they've been keeping me going throughout the pandemic. I was really happy to see that he did one last week, as I was thinking that maybe with summer winding down and a new album coming out, he wouldn't feel the need to keep going with them.

Went back to the first LP today, GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, NJ.

It has never really done it for me, and ... it still doesn't.

'Mary Queen of Arkansas', what on Earth is that cobblers?

That Bruce can't now make LPs as extraordinary as he did in 1982 or 1987 - I agree.

But I still like him now better than I like what he was doing c.1973.

Greetings from Asbury Park is the reason I didn't get into Bruce until my mid-twenties. My parents aren't Bruce fans, but they got me his first album when I was ten or so, figuring it might be a good place to start. I listened to it, liked Blinded by the Light but found the rest kind of dull and overwrought, and ended up with a vaguely negative impression of Bruce that lasted until I turned 26, moved to a small town and bought a car. (At that point, of course, a Greatest Hits CD materialized in my car stereo and the rest was history.)

I'm about a third of the way through listening to the latest live release - August 6th, 1984 - and so far it's fantastic. A great version of "Open all Night" with a story, and one of the best versions of "Nebraska" I've ever heard, with a little intro about technology and how it's supposed to bring us closer together but we just keep getting more isolated.

71 today.

My hero.

I love "Sad Eyes."

I can't believe (well, I mean, I *can*) it took him as long as it did to start releasing live shows.

hbd boss!!

Happy Bruce Springsteen's birthday to all of you! I'm going to celebrate by listening to his latest radio show while cleaning.

Some truly Good Person (not me!) tagged and uploaded the first 6 installments of his radio show!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13o82qg0LpuotRgCE4dEn4x0xLdqMiFRr

Of those first six, I really recommend #3.

There's a fun look back in Backstreets about the history of "Hungry Heart" live, at least before the song was released/was a hit:

http://www.backstreets.com/news.html

HBD Brooce <3

I love this version of Something in The Night SO much (Red Bank NJ 76 - Thrill Hill Vault)

https://youtu.be/ioQ2eF1XbYY

this is v cool

Here's a great letter from Bruce Springsteen (71 today!) to the LA Times in which he politely refuses to contribute to a story about the Stratocaster because his guitar of choice is the Telecaster. https://t.co/SYk1ui4LlV pic.twitter.com/B4tepcqKqd

— Letters of Note (@LettersOfNote) September 23, 2020

Wow, I'd never seen that version of Something in the Night before. So great!

that he even though to turn it into a kind of hymn, and to be in the audience to see it?
just incredible

as a telecaster person i giggled the whole way through that letter

it reminded me of this great Jon Wurster tweet

This is like seeing a photo of Babe Ruth holding a basketball. pic.twitter.com/Npou58dy8y

— Jon Wurster (@jonwurster) August 9, 2017

New song being released in a couple of hours ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo5QNcFioZ4

I like this one. The post-chorus "I'm alive" stuff is great.

This, btw, is where his clunky lyrics somehow work to his advantage. It becomes simultaneously a tribute to his bandmate(s) in the Castilles (he's the last one standing), the fallen members of the E Street Band (he's keeping the band alive), but also a resonant declaration in this time of so much death and hopelessness.

Heh, shaking my brain for what this reminds me of. I think it's this John Hiatt song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ybaapZfiE

Or maybe this Steve Earle song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ituFNPXAaE8

Which is ironic, because Earle was riffing on Bruce for sure.

Yes, I like this one! Agree that the lyrics are still a bit clunky but I don't mind; they feel sort of clumsy but also deeply felt and honest in the way that his memoir is. And the chorus is great. (Though "I feel the blood shiver in my bones" is up there with "They tried to steal my heart, beat it right out of my head" as a lyric where Bruce does not understand human anatomy.)

Agree that it sounds awfully familiar.

Yeah I really like it! lovely tribute to his ride or dies & the Castiles. it has a good vintage bar-band feel to it but with that little touch of sadness

love the old photos & clips in the video

i like how the music gently drops away right before the surge of the chorus

i have long felt that it’s his earnestness/sincerity that is his superpower, even when it’s a bit corny/clunky - like he’s just completely unafraid to say, like, ‘man i just love my friend so much’ in a song and have that be the song, no hiding.

it’s also the thing that repels people too though i think, because it is so out-front with the big neon feels

kinda like how some ppl are repelled by broadway musicals & their similar earnestness, all the emotions are right out there up front, out loud & ppl dont always go for that

Yeah, I think his earnestness repelled me for a while because I mistook it for humorlessness, and as I got older I realized how rare and brave and lovely it is.

I think sometimes - esp. lately - he goes overboard with explicitly stating the message in the song; he used to be more subtle imo and I miss that. But there's a directness and a generosity to the message itself that kind of makes up for it.

Sometimes I think the key (or a key) to Springsteen is in his peak-pop stuff, like "Hungry Heart," "Dancing in the Dark" and "Glory Days." The melodrama of his widescreen cinematic '70s stuff is gone, but the songs are still tinged with this real sadness and regret, disguised so well by his rueful delivery and the arrangements. I mean, "You sit around getting older/there's a joke here somewhere and it's on me." "I met her in a Kingstown bar/We fell in love I knew it had to end/We took what we had and we ripped it apart/Now here I am down in Kingstown again." "My old man worked 20 years on the line/And they let him go/Now everywhere he goes out looking for work/They just tell him that he's too old." If you just saw these snippets you would never guess that these were upbeat pop songs that people sing along with. They scan like they'd pair well with the dark stuff on "Nebraska." Which, yeah, they were written around the same time, but Bruce had gotten savvy enough to know how best to present them. A song like "Pink Cadillac" is big and goofy, but then you hear the "Nebraska" version at it sounds downright spooky. Or "Cadillac Ranch," essentially a giddy party song about the grim reaper.

To me, the key to that particular Bruce is that there's always a balance of opposing forces; the dark stuff that's at the heart of a lot of his work, and then the music actively fighting against it. It's not just him playing a trick on the audience: look, it sounds like pop but it's really dark! It's more like the darkness is the starting point, and then you just push and push and push it until it turns into sheer rock'n'roll fun. That's why I find Born in the USA so fascinating; it's half Nebraska and half something else entirely, and you're watching as the change happens, as he hauls himself bodily out of this bleak, beautiful subterranean world he's created and into the company of other human beings.