Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

Meh, I forgot, he already weighed in.

Caryn Rose otm:

_Do you remember that 90’s movie, The Commitments? It was a bunch of Irish kids who form a soul band. (Glen Hansard was in it!) Anyway, the soundtrack was super-popular, but when I made a tape of the originals for people who adored the movie, they didn’t like it and they didn’t care. They liked the versions of the songs they heard in the movie. Only The Strong Survive is for those people, and there are more of them than there are of people like me. _


https://jukeboxgraduate.letterdrop.com/c/only-the-strong-survive🕸

i read that review & it annoyed me bc it’s not the Commitnents fault that you have dumb friends, even my own fuckin ~family~ knew & appreciated the original songs & that was ~why~ they liked the movie/soundtrack ie do not come for the commitments please and thank you

i don’t feel any kind of way about these bruce covers. dude just wanted to do something he hadnt done before & he seemed to enjoy doing it. i mean maybe it’s an old age cash grab, it’s fine
not everything is going to be a bullseye, i just can’t get worked up about it

i mean rod stewart labored over those motown songs & no one wanted that

all these millionaire dudes do it eventually

Across the spectrum of good-to-bad Motown covers, I think the majority are probably bunched into the "bad" end.

But I think Springsteen's "Do I Love You" is more towards the good end, and he already had a solid one in "War," especially with the intro taken into account: "in 1985, blind faith in your leaders will get you killed"

And Rod actually did one of the greatest Motown covers ever - "I Know I'm Losing You" is amazing! (Faces actually backed him on that even though it's on a solo album.) And "This Old Heart of Mine" was fine both times he recorded it, if not on the same level.

Springsteen's "War," like the best of his covers, is the perfect pairing of performer and material. See also: "Jersey Girl," "Trapped," "Summertime Blues," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," pretty much all the covers he did live before he started doing a ton of covers. So, I saw him do "Take It Easy" the night Glenn Frey died, and it was boring. I don't like Springsteen's Prince cover, or his AC/DC. Imo his INXS and Bee Gees covers were inspired and transcendent. "Dream, Baby, Dream," too. But I saw him at the Harley-Davidson 105th anniversary show up in Milwaukee, and he and the band spontaneously busted out "Wooly Bully" and it ruled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdPr0MDd9kE

Springsteen isn't in the same class of R&B singer as Rod Stewart, not even close

Ha, hard disagree. But I'm not much of a Rod guy.

Springsteen is an okay singer not a great one by any stretch, the end of the day he is who he is because he's a songwriter but not a great interpreter of material as proven by this mediocre record.

Ha, I'm not defending this boring record from a way past his prime 73 year old that I'm not going to listen to. I just love his covers he used to do. Dunno if that makes him a great interpreter or not, but on that front imo he's definitely on par with, say, John Fogerty.

I am with Josh here. Rod's reedy rasp has never appealed to me and there is not much foundation underneath it - Bruce has more bottom and body. And he appears to know his limits and stay within them.

Did you guys see Springsteen & Fogerty do "Great Balls of Fire" at the R&RHOF induction show?

as a white male this might be the only time i get to experience gaslighting

I saw them together at a Vote for Change show in Cleveland, it ruled.

And it's no surprise that Bruce is so sympatico with Fogerty:

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

Btw, it was Mellencamp with Bruce at the RRHOF (not Fogerty)! Mixing up my grouchy white dudes

i love Rod Stewart, next to Elvis imo there’s no one better at covers of other artists and Bruce is NOT in that rarefied air
he just isn’t

i shouldn’t have brought Stewart up because i think it undermined my point

I just found and still find Rod’s late 80’s motown stuff embarrassing even though he clearly meant it from the heart. it just sounded kinda bad to me

The least loved BITUSA single is the most fun to karaoke:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fdZWbIsrFk

I just found and still find Rod’s late 80’s motown stuff embarrassing even though he clearly meant it from the heart. it just sounded kinda bad to me

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl),

"The Motown Song" is an embarrassment for which he should've been tarred and feathered.

XP Ya boi Ezra knows what's up

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

Trying to watch this Howard Stern Interview on HBO and ugh. Cringey public-access-cable level banter. Stern is so dumb that he somehow drags Bruce downward into banality.

All the pointless chuckling over stale anecdotes, then more shared chuckling, then a question that would embarrass a high school journalist: so, do you, uh, write in like a notepad, or what? So, uh, do you write lyrics first, or music first? Did you ever have music lessons?

All three laugh. Uh, heh heh heh.

Bruce ought to be pretty skilled at this kind of thing, but what could potentially be an interesting talk drags quite a lot. I guess this underscores the fact that his Storytellers and Broadway things were carefully scripted and rehearsed.

The least loved BITUSA single is the most fun to karaoke:

Vampire Weekend version was grebt, thanks. RFI where is that video somebody once posted of Bruce singing it preceded by a very long monologue contextualizing it about “…when the moon is full…why does that always happen?”

Different album obv. but I am intrigued that “The River” seems to be available for karaoke purposes. Might be fun, although I am not sure what kind of crowd would dig it.

The least loved BITUSA single is the most fun to karaoke

The bassist in a band I was in wanted us to play "I'm Goin' Down", the only way I could stomach it was to increase the tempo to "as fast as possible".

Started listening to ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE.

As a Boss LP I suppose it will remain a minor work. I note that it's COVERS: VOL 1 and wonder if the next volume would be of a different genre, such as rock & roll, blues or country.

'The sun ain't gonna shine anymore' is the one for me; a swirl of sound for the Boss to try to match with his voice.

I reflect that I admire the Boss's ability to work in different genres. Rock (THE RISING), folk (THE SEEGER SESSIONS), the soft-rock-country (unsure of the name; Glen Campbell style?) of WESTERN STARS; and soul music here. To be able to do this shows some imagination, breadth and skill, eg in arrangement.

Tour starts tonight ...

Ladies and gentlemen... the E Street Band! pic.twitter.com/Lo7OU0r4AO

— Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) February 1, 2023

more like E STREET BALD, amirite?

(sorry, just harking back to the hair discussion)

Actually started last night, setlist looked pretty great to me.

The rare band that's worn fewer hats the older they get.

just in case some people consider this type of thing spoilerish:

Last night’s Springsteen tour opener set list with the “Candy’s Room”/“Kitty’s Back”/“Brilliant Disguise” trifecta giving me a contact buzz. pic.twitter.com/6xQvfrVVJx

— Steven Hyden (@Steven_Hyden) February 2, 2023

Well that didn't work!

Sorry!

xpost, weird, I wonder why Backstreets is not up to date? But yeah, setlist looks good, considering. Sounds OK, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol7Q1YCQhGk

xps

Well, quite a few of them already had thinning hair even in their heyday - Danny, Garry, Roy, and I think Bruce supposedly had a visible bald spot by the mid or late '80s. They were always a mature-looking band, not a bunch of boys.

Just saying, the peak of their hat wearing was also the peak of their hair-having.

Steel Mill aside:

https://www.prlog.org/12573552-early-press-photo-of-the-steel-mill-band.jpg

That trifecta is otm.

yeah that’s killer

glanced at Stubhub and Springsteen tickets are still insanely high in most places ($200 and up up up), but in Tulsa, Ok there are obstructed view seats for $20 and nose-bleed seats on the side for like $75.

is it the hidden text thing in jon's post that crashes the android app?

Yeah, it's weird. There were $80 behind the stage (which is still unobstructed) in Milwaukee until a few weeks ago, now everything there is $300+. But Tulsa has remained affordable for months. Of course, getting to Tulsa ...

MSG is still ridiculous at $500 and up. A lot of tickets though so I imagine they'll come down when we get closer to April.

Behind The Stage nosebleeds in Houston (on Valentine's Day!) start at $12 on StubHub

In front of the stage nosebleeds look to start at $55.

Backstreets Magazine is closing down.

DId something happen to Terry?

Wow. Ticket situation so fucked up they broke the spirit of Backstreets.

43 years!

wow. I hope Bruce notices.

My mom went through a heavy Springsteen phase when I was a kid and she had a Backstreets subscription for years. It was an excellent fan produced mag with an eye for granular detail and the writing quality was very good.

I'm sure there are other factors in them deciding to shut down, but it's a real bummer.

Inevitably, a couple of band members tested positive for covid (so far), Steven and Suzie. I guess they played the Dallas show without them, which is one advantage of touring with an army of musicians.

Went to the Dallas show, it was pretty fucking great... there were still like fifteen people on stage even with three missing! Never seen him before and when I got invited I felt like I couldn't pass it up.