THUNDER ROAD vs. BORN TO RUN

And OMG at Richard Neer and the disgraced Dave Herman. The latter sounds a lot more like Lou Reed when talking than I remembered.

This image is bad enough.

(Don’t worry it’s SFW, just didn’t want to have to look at it in the thread)

I think this one features him:

📹

Ha, whoops, yeah, he also played at the Bottom Line a year earlier, August 1974. There must be recordings out there.

Supposedly the earliest available performance of BtR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJEmPVFAvM8

I found a few early "Born to Run" cuts from '74. Here's a '74 "Jungleland"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICJr6lSGS3c

And then there's this:

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

I think they all feature Carter, but I could be wrong

I’m not gonna take the bait again!

Scott Miller had some interesting things to say about "Thunder Road":

I have a serious love/hate relationship with this song. For the most part, I think the album is overrated; there's just not enough there there in the composition. "Thunder Road" is the one that stretches out the most, and it's the one I like the most, but from the first sung lyric it stays a little aimless. The final always gives me chills, and makes the road straighten behind it as it were- but I'm not sure I'm proud of that reaction. Really the singer is feeding this poor girl such a banquet of self-mythologizing nonsense as to make one weep. The message is: "Trade in these wings on some wheels...It's a town full of losers/I'm pulling out of here to win." Quiet good deeds and unheralded personal sanctity are for suckers; it's all about cobbling together an elitist worldview from whole cloth and putting it over for material advantage. So, this is good wild-oatsy stuff, but I'll say it again: if you want world-class lyrics with a reasonable ethical grounding, go try that joke of a flitty chimera David Bowie.

For me, I'd be satisfied with this album if it were a single of "Night" b/w "Meeting Across the River". Gets straight to the point.

Half of rock is singers feeding self-mythologizing nonsense to poor girls. Kind of a dumb take.

Maybe Bruce didn't flirt with fascist iconography enough for Scott Miller.

"go try" this other guy who sucks? what lol

Did we ever poll the songs on Born to Run?

I don't think so!

Really the singer is feeding this poor girl such a banquet of self-mythologizing nonsense as to make one weep. The message is: "Trade in these wings on some wheels...It's a town full of losers/I'm pulling out of here to win." Quiet good deeds and unheralded personal sanctity are for suckers

I suppose this is a helpful warning for anyone who had "Thunder Road" confused with Middlemarch.

Supposedly the earliest available performance of BtR:

That sounds like it might be Carter, based on the bit at 2:45 -- Weinberg sometimes attempted it, but soon gave up. Doesn't sound like Max.

And that's DEFINITELY Carter on the '74 "Jungleland."

Quiet good deeds and unheralded personal sanctity

we should do a pox songs about quiet good deeds and unheralded personal sanctity

Miller's got an unconventional take on Springsteen; the other two songs he writes about in his book are "Candy's Room" and "Girls in Their Summer Clothes", probably not general top three fan favourites.

*raises hand*

Meaning I’m a huge fan of “Candy’s Room.”

I’m not minding Scott Miller’s contrarian take tbh.

"Candy's Room" is one of those songs even people I know that don't like Springsteen like. He doesn't have many songs like it.

The funny thing is that blurb is from a playlist of the best songs of 1975 (fitted between "Better Off Dead" by Elton John and "Poker" by Electric Light Orchestra)! Although occasionally he'll include a song less out of musical excellence than to make a point about the historical context.

"Better Off Dead" from Captain Fantastic? Haven't thought about that one in ages.

Thunder Road come on

You ain’t a beauty but hey you’re alright