Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

what is the closed area they speak of? a car?

the soul of a man who's seen it all, worked his fingers to the bone, and just can't catch a break

i would like the record to reflect that i was in the dumps with the mumps when along came those chumps with a little promise of some relief

You put him and Obama together, though, and Obama actually has a kind of similar vibe to me - that charming openness that goes only so far and no further, that glossy expertise in controlling the narrative and making it seem natural -

I just finished the new Cary Grant bio, in which the author reaches a similar conclusion and Grant himself acknowledged it when alive.

what is the closed area they speak of? a car?

― tobo73, Wednesday, February 24, 2021 11:28 AM (twenty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he was in a park that was closed at night iirc?

A national park where there's no alcohol allowed.

Parkness on the edge of town

Even if we're just drinkin' in the park

If the story about fans ambushing Bruce so they could offer him tequila is true, then I guess he is, indeed, easily found.

xp to Alfred:
"Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant." - Cary Grant

"People see you onstage and, yeah, I'd want to be that guy. I want to be that guy myself very often." - Bruce Springsteen

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

Free tequila, jump a little lighter
Free tequila, come sit by my fire

Okay, this one is good ^

Huh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8AClJsbO6o

Isn’t that great? WXRT used to play it with some regularity in the ‘80s.

I’ve heard of Stanley Clarke but I’m afraid I am unfamiliar with this gentleman.

That's actually a brilliant idea - one wonders if it was inspired by Grandmaster Flash. I wish it eased off on the echo and the gimmicky effects.

(The idea being a hip-hop cover, that is a Black perspective, of a massively popular rock song about Vietnam vets.)

I keep having to stifle the instinct to duck to avoid being hit by one of those sprung bass strings.

Better sounding version here, because we all deserve it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgGtViqj-ps

Kinda wish their prior album was called "Fuck Around".

A+ post

haha wow that's really something

This thread went from "Bruce is an alcoholic who betrayed an auto corporation" to "Bruce took a shot with fans and Ranger Dick pulled him over."

Definitely scuttled whatever controversy the Jeep ad engendered! It's a multiple win for Bruce. Jeep ad goes away, NJ police look foolish busting the Boss for stupid reasons, and reaffirms his man of the people status in a way that no car commercial could ever do. I hope he writes a silly song about it.

The Jeep ad is back, fwiw

This thread went from "Bruce is an alcoholic who betrayed an auto corporation" to "Bruce took a shot with fans and Ranger Dick pulled him over."

Yup, I fucked up. In my defense, Bruce admits to lots of drunk and reckless driving in his memoir, and how often do rich famous white guys get busted for stuff and turn out to be innocent? Still, I definitely overreacted. This came out on the same day as the Joss Whedon allegations, and I think I was just on a general anger kick.

I wish they'd used this as an excuse to suppress the Jeep ad forever.

Has anyone advanced the theory that is was all an elaborate ruse timed to coincide with the launch of the Spotify podcast (the way they do when pop stars get engaged or something right before an album drops)?

This thread went from "Bruce is an alcoholic who betrayed an auto corporation" to "Bruce took a shot with fans and Ranger Dick pulled him over."

biggest surprise twist itt this week is: i'm not sure anymore who does my favorite version of 'born in the usa'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzbl6n7Mqjo

The Jeep ad is back, fwiw

― stuck in the version layer (morrisp), Friday, February 26, 2021 10:00 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm hearing "the ad is back" to the tune of this ad (which Bruce was offered millions to do, and turned it down):

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

sorry I'm still stuck on bruce springsteen and president barack obama hosting a podcast called "renegades"

its been a wild & rocky ride this last couple of weeks but i guess fair is fair and i am now heading out to lease a well equipped 2021 Jeep Cherokee 80th anniversary edition starting at only $199 a month no money down

xp Equally absurd that the first episode is called "Outsiders: an unlikely friendship." They are not outsiders, nor is their friendship unlikely.

I haven't listened to it, but the episode description references "growing up as outsiders." Is that not accurate in Bruce's case? Seems accurate for Obama.

Yeah, it is very much about growing up as outsiders, and in that sense it's accurate for both of them.

But they're both very much insiders now, so as much as it's meaningful to them to reflect on having been outsiders growing up, as a title I think it's a bit off. The "unlikely friendship" part of it also seems forced to me. They're two rich, famous, liberal Boomers who met on the campaign trail; it feels a bit manipulative to have them pitched to us like they're a horse and a puppy in a Budweiser ad.

I agree their friendship doesn't seem so unlikely on its face.

Eh, assuming they are actually friends and not just friendly, I'm not sure how many presidents are friends with huge rock stars. Besides besties Elvis and Nixon, of course.

i enjoyed the conversation so far

but i mean, this is cliched i know but it really is what it us” if it sounds like something you’d enjoy, you prob will. if it sounds like something you’d hate, likewise. it’s not going to convert anyone.

ugh - i meant - it really “is what it is”

Has anyone advanced the theory that is was all an elaborate ruse timed to coincide with the launch of the Spotify podcast (the way they do when pop stars get engaged or something right before an album drops)?

― stuck in the version layer (morrisp), Friday, February 26, 2021 9:36 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Lol at the idea of a podcast with Obama and Springsteen being lacking in promotion or awareness

^it's the same with a release by a major pop star! and yet ppl sometimes insist anything/everything in their private lives is some constructed event for PR purposes. (to be clear, that's what i'm clowning on, not the podcast)

ah sorry gotcha

waiting for the Trump/Marilyn Manson podcast

I'm enjoying the podcast tbh, I think I just feel the need to be snarky about the messaging because it works so well on me. Behind all my criticism beats a heart that reacts to all this blatant emotional manipulation with "Aww, Frog and Toad Are Friends!"

I think it would be much better received without the stupid & annoying promo language accompanying it

Like, PLEASE stop calling my hamburger “a bridge to a brighter tomorrow” and stop playing ‘Ebony and Ivory’ while i’m trying to eat it

Listening to the second ep of the podcast, where they start out by talking about Clarence. It’s interesting because I still think the whole thing feels much too comfortable and practiced, but there are these occasional moments where humanity breaks through.

Bruce has told the same stories about Clarence so many times, often in the exact same words you get here, and at times it seems like Obama is pushing for more from Bruce than he gets. He points out that Clarence couldn’t have a successful music career without allying himself to a younger, less experienced white man, and that’s an interesting perspective that Bruce doesn’t really respond to; he just goes into the same reflection we’ve heard before, about how lonely it was for Clarence as the only Black person in the band. But then there’s a moment when Obama just says, “You miss him,” and Bruce finally breaks from the script and starts searching for the right words, as if this is a question that deserves a real, unrehearsed answer. And what he comes up with is very simple, and sort of incoherent, and I find it very moving.

It was 45 years of your life you don’t… you know, you don’t… It’s never something that comes again.

I've been listening to concert recordings from '77/'78 for really the first time. For some reason I've been gravitating toward the later ones, I guess because of the setlists, even though y'all told me to go earlier.

They're great, obviously; I was listening to Albany 77 and every song was so crazy intense the audience must have felt shell-shocked by the end of it. "It's My Life" is a suck-in-your-breath, holy shit! moment, you wonder how the show can possibly move on from this, and then those moments just keep coming.

And of course it's startling to hear just how feral his stage persona was at that point. I'm used to the Growin' Up story being very innocent and goofy, but there's a version of it here that starts with him and Clarence and Steve deliberately driving some girls down a dark back road and shutting off all the lights in the car to scare them as punishment for not putting out, and while that's obviously just as apocryphal as any other Growin' Up story, I'm glad the version of Bruce that thought that was funny didn't stick around.

And it's really fun to see how much code-switching he's already doing at that point w/his accent and word choice and just the way he presents himself. I was listening to his intro to Racing in the Street from '78, where he makes fun of himself for writing songs about cars but not knowing anything about how to fix them - essentially the same thing he does thirty-odd years later on Broadway. He does the whole intro in his most mumbly working-class Jersey accent, says, "Yeah, I dunno nuttin' about dis stuff," waits for the crowd to laugh, and then says, "But I think I understand the spiritual and religious significance of the 396." And for just that moment he sounds exactly like seventy-year-old Bruce Springsteen, giving an interview about his craft.

I appreciate this thread; I’m not a huge Bruce fan, but what are you and Josh (and others) have to say here is really interesting and informative.

I loooove that era of live Bruce, it’s so electric & because the venues are a bit smaller you can really hear how they are just WITH him from the moment he hits the stage, rowdy & joyful, it really puts you in the moment

and that kinda husky very youthful speaking voice just makes me swoon like nothin else my god