Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

I could be misremembering, but I could have sworn that "I'm Going Down" is one of the few songs that Springsteen himself has sort of dismissed. Maybe because it's so repetitive? Looks like he's played it only 47 times since the 1999 E Street reunion, which is not that much, for a single! I dunno, I think it's a fun song, with, like the best "fun" Springsteen songs, just enough of a current of darkness to give it a surprisingly cutting edge.

"Sad Eyes" is a lovely song. If you want full MOR, Enrique Iglesias actually recorded it and released it as a single, replete with sexy video!

Yeah, Springsteen doesn't seem to think much of it but he is WRONG, it is GREAT! I don't think he understands what he did with that chorus, though, because when he plays it live he usually introduces more variation into it right away instead of making us wait for it.

There is also some awesome controlled repetition in the verses:

I used to drive you to work in the morning
Friday night I'd drive you all around
You used to love to drive me wild
But lately girl you get your kicks from just driving me down

Ok yes it is Bruce Springsteen singing the word "drive" four times in a row, but look what he does with it! He gives the meaning a twist halfway through the verse; we go from literal to figurative and from him driving her to her driving him. And every time he sings the word it comes a little later in the line, until with the last line, when we know the word is coming, he breaks the meter, draws out the line and makes us wait for it.

Darkness album release was 43 years ago today ( i heard someone say on radio)

More great close reading from poster Lily Dale.

Get one Candy’s Room!

Lily Dale is definitely bringing it

I guess I wasn't expecting this:

Bruce Springsteen will return to Broadway this summer for a limited run of Springsteen on Broadway performances at Jujamcyn's St. James Theatre. Shows begin Saturday June 26, with additional performances taking place through September 4.

I wonder if he will change anything? I also wonder if, being several years older, he will be any changed? It's been 3 years, more or less, right?

(FWIW, "Audience members will be required to provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination in order to enter the theater.")

Just saw that! I have been wondering the same thing (will he change anything, I mean). I would imagine he'd at least talk about the past year and a half. Not that there's much point in my speculating, because I do not have the budget for Springsteen on Broadway tickets plus a flight across the country.

At minimum he'll need to make an update or two (specifically the references to the dumpster fire that was the Trump administration), but it'll be interesting to see if he swaps out any songs, etc.

I mean, when I saw it he didn't even mention his kids or family, which I thought was weird for a show that focused so much on his own childhood and his parents and family.

Maybe, but I thought the section on him and Patti was enough.

I would be surprised if he didn't include one of the mourning-lost-friends songs from Letter To You.

xp There's a lot he didn't include from his memoir. A good chunk of the book is a depression memoir, but that doesn't really come into the show iirc, at least not explicitly.

Forgot, there's also his Dad's visit right after his kid's birth, and how that definitively headed off whatever troubles that would have been passed down.

(I should clarify, I meant that was in the show too.)

When you put it that way it does sound silly, but I can see how if you had fears of carrying on a cycle of abuse, that sort of gesture could be very reassuring.

That bit in the show always reminds me intensely of a not-very-good Kipling poem called "The Rabbi's Song," but for everyone's sake I will refrain from quoting it.

Yeah, I actually hesitated to put it that way because it really does make it sound silly and pretentious - it definitely does not play that way when you see the show. But ultimately I just wanted to identify that specific scene in the easiest, most direct way.

I don't think there's anything wrong with putting it that way - it highlights something that comes through for me in a lot of Bruce's stories about his dad, which is how very hard he's trying to get something positive out of this, because not forgiving his dad is just not an option.

The story in the book about his dad taking him on a janky fishing trip in a little boat in the middle of the ocean at the height of Bruce's fame was a good one.

i love that story <3

Yes.

He has the whole of WESTERN STARS to draw on now - one of his best LPs.

Back to my question about the Boss and melody, I kept coming back to thinking that the WESTERN STARS melodies were among the best. Which fits with my general admiration for that record and sense of how crafted it is. He seems to have artfully worked on the tunes in a way not evident on LETTER TO YOU.

if thats how you feel about it sure, but those two albums are coming from very different places & the crafting of Western Stars was trying to fit with a tradition of melody vs Letter To You going for more early days E Streetness

They are -- that's why I feel so different about the two!

But is LETTER TO YOU really like *early* E Street? I feel that the early (say first 3) records are more musically diverse, ambitious, unpredictable, not very Rock on the whole, and LETTER TO YOU is more straight modern rock like, say, THE RISING ... with some exceptions of tone like 'If I was the priest' where the dense lyrics do recall an early Bruce.

I feel that the early (say first 3) records are more musically diverse, ambitious, unpredictable

Landau gets a lot of blame for that: soon after he appeared on the scene, no more “Rosalita”s or “Jungleland”s.

Bruce has consciously embraced or returned to various Bruce-isms over the years. For example, "Mary's Place" from "The Rising" was hailed/received has a return to form, not in the "he's finally good again" sense but in the sense that it consciously recalled some of his early rave-ups (albeit with its personality somewhat squished and steamrolled in the studio). He's done it a few times since, too, where he brings back some of the hallmarks of prime Bruce. "Letter to You" (the album) perhaps does it more and more consistently than most of his later output. Iirc he actually told Roy and Charlie (who replaced Danny) to play more "E Street" kinda stuff, and it's those elements - glockenspiel, the pounding Bittan girl group piano nods - that most blatantly signify "Springsteen" as much as anything else, in his music and in that of others (Arcade Fire, The Killers, etc. ). Though of course there are lots of acts that recall the spirit of Springsteen as much as the sound, in his vocals or lyrics or other references (Gaslight Anthem, Hold Steady, the National, etc.). Springsteen himself has seemed kind of mired in studio mush for too long, searching for perfection in music that does not demand it or really even benefit from it, which could be why something like "Western Skies" (which I admittedly found underwhelming) and "Letter to You" (which I really like) were received so well, as both were more or less recorded live, or at least the latter was.

As is my wont, I asked my guitar teacher at my last lesson about Springsteen (he's a fan) and melodies. He admitted it's nothing he'd ever really thought of, but broke down a few songs, playing the melody on guitar, and yeah, there's not often a lot of real movement, though there are hooks and whatnot throughout. He brought up in response a band like the Eagles (he is not a fan) and showed how a lot of their songs kind of sit in place melodically, too - Hotel California, Life in the Fast Lane - which actually makes them weirdly tough to sing if you don't have the right voice for it. It did get me thinking that this is all something I've never, well, thought about that much, because just sticking with someone like Don Henley, a lot of his songs (that I know) do kind of hover around the same melodic range, with a couple of big exceptions (Desperado, the chorus of Boys of Summer or Heart of the Matter).

Don't really know why I'm talking about Don Henley or the Eagles, sorry! Waiting for my coffee to kick in.

I suppose it is telling that a lot of the stuff that sounds like Bruce does in fact recall *Bruce* and not the stuff Bruce himself was referencing. For example, the beginning of Mellencamp's "I Need A Lover." It doesn't sound like girl groups or Dylan or Duane Eddy or whatever, it sounds like .... "Jungleland."

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

Or "Tunnel of Love" by Dire Straits. Yeah, that's Bittan on the piano, and it's all it really takes to recall Bruce:

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

And then there's this, possibly the most Bruce of all non-Bruce songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgIsyoxZ7Uw

Again, it comes down to the "She's the One" piano a lot, but this one also has sax and slap-backy vocals and guitar that make me think of Bruce specifically, and not just "'50s rock and roll" or whatever.

Don't really know why I'm talking about Don Henley or the Eagles, sorry! Waiting for my coffee to kick in.

DON: Springsteen's arrival in LA back in '75 was a real Sea Change. We caught him at the Whiskey--checking out the competition as it where. He was impressive, perhaps the final push we needed to go full epic 'Hollywood' in our own songwriting: making movies in our songs the studios were too scared to touch.

GLENN: We were down with that 'New Kid In Town' as long as he got us up close and personal with Mary, Wendy, Candy, and Rosalita!

DON: Well, yeah.

"i know a pretty little place in southern california down san diego way / there's a little cafe where they play guitars all night and all day / you can check out any time you like..."

Dire Straits' 'Tunnel of Love' is Bruce-like as well as sharing a name with a later even greater Bruce song? I hadn't really thought that.

For example, "Mary's Place" from "The Rising" was hailed/received as a return to form

You CANNOT BE SERIOUS. That's practically his worst track of the 21st century. I can even remember it being actively badly received at the time!

That album has a few contenders.

xpost I specifically said was hailed/received as a return to form ****not in the "he's finally good again" sense but in the sense that it consciously recalled some of his early rave-ups."**** That is, the song is six minutes long and features lots of different parts. Live it would often top 10 minutes. I never liked it myself.

I do know one critic who singled out "Mary's Place" as one of only two highlights from that album...Jim DeRogatis.

In a brand new interview Bruce revealed he is working with Brandon from the Killers on a track, and sings on a few songs on Mellencamp's upcoming album. Also that they have been working on numerous things from the vault, or at least more the one project.

The Killers track is OK:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3BZ8hnLyRc

I am curious about the upcoming 2022 Bruce tour. I last time I saw him with the band a couple of times, on The River Redux tour, was the first time I noticed his voice struggling at all. And that was, incredibly, five years ago. I saw him on Broadway after that, but that was more mumbly speak-sing most of the time, no barnstormers. Now, he sounds pretty good on "Letter to You," but I wonder if he can handle a three hour show, or how he might fare doing some of his tougher (but impossible to skip) songs every night. Of course, I know better than to doubt the Boss, but everyone gets old, and he more than most of his peers seems to recognize he's in a different stage in his life.

BTW, went on a road trip with my daughter the other day, and she let me blast the whole "Born to Run" album for that stretch. Even better, she seemed to enjoy it.

He should skip some "impossible to skip" songs if necessary. He has enough other ones to play.

I hear the Broadway show was largely the same, with some obvious updates about the last year, including jokes about his arrest. Supposedly there were anti-vax morons picketing out front, since you needed proof of vaccination to get in.

“I like beer…do you like beer?”

Dire Straits' 'Tunnel of Love' is Bruce-like as well as sharing a name with a later even greater Bruce song? I hadn't really thought that.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, June 9, 2021 8:28 AM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

more impressive, they ripped off bruce seven years in the future!

I hear the Broadway show was largely the same, with some obvious updates about the last year, including jokes about his arrest

same but with rewrites/revisions sprinkled throughout and a handful of different songs. his riff on his arrest was v v amusing (and allowed for an equally amusing callback later in the show).

new songs:

fire (w/patti, instead of brilliant disguise)

american skin (41 shots) (!!!) (instead of long walk home/ghost of tom joad)

i'll see you in my dreams (instead of born to run, and though i remembered nothing about either that song or that album, dreams was a much better finale than btr!)

Cool, you got to see it?

i did! feel very fortunate.

nice!

Goddammit, I want a Blu-ray of that show. Did the Netflix deal preclude that?

I assume the Netflix show is still pretty close to the current show, though a review or two suggested he seemed a little looser this time around. Butut that could just be projection.

xp Glad you got to see it, that's awesome!

How did his voice sound?