"Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen -- who really enjoys this overproduced crappy glop?

Paul Bass, you are PUNK
but misguided, cloth-eared, and
corny to the MAXXX

Speaking of montage music, "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg" in "School Of Rock" evokes similar feelings for me (leaving aside the debate about the quality difference between the two songs).

That said, I've always suspected Bruuuuce of being a genius who works on two levels: he knows he can get your garden-variety classic-rock fan to pump his fist in the air and sing drunkenly along to an anthemic chorus. But he also knows that he has some really quite eloquent and crystal-perfect lyrics--a delicacy that some proportion of his fans are missing in their sweaty frenzy.

I have no proof of this, but I think he knows that he's casting pearls before swine a large part of the time. More like irony than condescension: I think he loves the trucker AND the intellectual in equal measure, but in different ways.

Not too long ago I saw a video of him playing live, and I thought I saw a twinkle in his eye that spoke untold volumes. He sang the line "a close band of happy thieves," then looked as if he were thinking, "You know, I just tossed that line off, and it's really apt and articulate. I'm a fucking poet, and half this audience doesn't notice or care. And I'm at peace with that."

Maybe I'm imagining it. Heck, I probably am imagining it. But that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

This morning while feeding the offspring breakfast, I was subjected to another moldy Bruce oldie, fuckin' "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out". WILL THE TORTURE NEVER END?

Q104 must have some iron-clad condicle in its by-laws that prevents the station from playing anything recorded after 1982 with the lone exceptions being Nevermind by Nirvana and Achtung Baby by U2.

Supposedly, "Hungry Heart" was written for the Ramones (and fuckin' imagine that!), but Springsteen was convinced to keep it for himself.

But the less-over-the-top things, like "Atlantic City" or the totally underrated "I'm on Fire" rank among my favorite pieces of music. Much of Nebraska acts as a counterweight to the saxophonic sludge of the rest of Mr. Springsteen's career.

darkness on the edge
is stripped-down and is my fave
springsteen of them all

Well, I guess I plain fucking hate music then.

-- fact checking cuz (factcheckingcu...), January 5th, 2005.

These are both kinda OTM though....His albums...starting after The Wild, The Innocent, really, start to get less interesting rhymically and arrangement wise....I like the first two the best still (although Nebraska and Darkness kind of make a virtue of the stripped down stiffness that crept into his work, at least alot more than like say the River does)....I really like the wild, over the top arrangements and sense of daring of the first two....

-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), January 5th, 2005.

yeah, but you like Iron Maiden, so you can't be all bad!

you seriously don't like any of the big motown singles?

misplaced sax solo
saxophone sludge
I have to say I sometimes have a little bit of a Clarence problem. Not every rock and roll sax player is King Curtis.

There is some sax usage in softer rock songs that I find appropriate: Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years," and Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are" both have elegant sax solos (regardless of how you feel about those songs/artists as a whole).

But in a more rockety-rock song I usually find the saxophone superfluous, if not unwelcome. I am, of course, not averse to horns taking their traditional place in ska, jazz, etc.

But yeah, that's a pretty mellow song.

yeah i guess yr right, i meant more stripped down rhythmically compared to the first two....i guess it feels more stripped down to me than it is for some reason....

also, "candy's room" may have the best classic-rock guitar solo of all time.

Also check: The swampy bass on "Adam Raised A Cain."

see: Gerry Rafferty, Quaterflash, Men at Work, Supertramp

I read that as "sausage." It's been a long day.

i persist in hearing bruce's clipped repeating of the title phrase at the end of the song as him singing, "talkin' bout the talmud!"

Okay, well I will concede then that quite recently, hearing it on the radio it struck me as strange that I didn't find "Dancing In The Dark" to be such a terrible song after all these years. Don't ask me why. Not that I would choose to listen to it in the comfort of my own home under any circumstances, but in the vast wasteland of crap on the radio, you hone your pearls where you can, I suppose.

Well, I guess I plain fucking hate music then.

Well for god's sake isn't that why we're here?

"Yeah man ... Velvet Underground ... Stooges ... Bruce Springsteen ... That's what we're about, man. Alright!"

HA HA!

But in a more rockety-rock song I usually find the saxophone superfluous, if not unwelcome.

HAWKWIND TO THREAD!!

strike that

Re: Rockin Saxes:
How about Roxy Music, Stooges, Rainy Day Sunshine Girl.

hey, let's not forget x-ray spex and ESSENTIAL LOGIC.

That dude in Romeo Void wasn't bad either, IIRC. It broke my heart to see him have to watch the crappy ringer they got to replace him on the backstage monitor on Band Reunited

Hey, I've said my piece! The most I'll add is that one can like Motown and Spector without liking what might follow. ;-)

not P and not Q implies probably not R

which is not equivalent to
P and Q implies R

Yeah, I'd say the music on "Darkness" is definitely much simpler than Bruce's earlier stuff. That perhaps explains why all those '78 shows are the stuff of legend. When I last saw Sleater-Kinney cover "The Promised Land," they joked that there are always three or so guys in the crowd who just go nuts and sing along. That's the power of the Bruce-asaurus.

You know, so much of the Bruce hate (or what little there actually is on this thread) no doubt stems from his massive '80s popularity/overexposure. But this is a dude who released five albums before he had a top 40 hit, and even then he followed "The River" with "Nebraska!" That's something. A lot of that "Nebraska" stuff made it into those "Born in the USA" shows in one way or another. As did "Trapped" and "War." Bruce's speachifying about "blind faith will get you killed" before "War" on the "Live" album gives me chills.

Also, not that it's worth very much, but when Peter Buck and Mike Mills joined the E. Street Band to play "Born to Run" at one of those Vote for Change shows last year, they were going nuts, like a couple of excited teenagers.

Anyway, love the guy, and love the fact that even his unreleased stuff is good. Anyone ever heard "The Klansman?" That's some spooky shit.

point taken and agreed with, but just for the historical record, note that his bossness had top 40 hits on album #3 ("born to run," #23) and album #4 ("prove it all night," #33).

i'm also not entirely sure that whatever bruce hate there is stems from his '80s massiveness, inasmuch as the songs the bruce haters around here tend to admit liking are "hungry heart," "dancing in the dark," "i'm on fire" and "brilliant disguise," all from his '80s pop star phase. it's bruce the cult star, not bruce the pop star, that seems to piss them off.

for whatever that's worth.

Rolling Stones - Start Me Up, Jumpin' Jack Flash
Jimmy Buffet - Margaritaville
Sister Sledge - We Are family
Van Morrison - Brown-Eyed Girl
The Police - Roxanne
Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild
Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven, Rock-n-Roll
Kool & the Gang - Celebration
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird & Sweet Home Alabama
Queen - We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions & Bohemian Rhapsody
Roy Orbison - Pretty Woman
George Thorogood - Bad To The Bone
Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze, Hey Joe, Foxey Lady
Don Henley - Boys Of Summer
Sister Sledge - We Are Family
Derek & The Dominoes - Layla
Bachman Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care Of Business
The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing
All covers and remixes of the above songs

Wow Paul. This list is totally OTM, except I still like Roxanne.