As I grew older, the Who’s music seemed to grow with me. The sexual frustration, the politics, identity. These things coursed through my veins with every concurring Who album. I always found myself there somewhere in their music. “The Seeker”; the seeker is the guy in “Born to Run.”
The thing to keep in mind here, is this was Bruce as superstar, as popstar, as icon, as white Michael, as God, but what he gave was a performance for the ages which made a mockery of questions of sell out. Preaching to the converted, sure, but some of them were the newly converted.
“If this album hadn’t been so impactful to the fans, if they hadn’t gone out and broken so many records and made sure that I knew that this album was the most important one to them and the one they liked the most, I probably would have had to pull more old hits into the set.”
Born In The USA – Bruce Springsteen – This is off his new August 5th, 1985, romp in the swamps of a Jersey Arena. You can hear his ambivalence here, the way you couldn’t there – A
The sound of this CD is high quality but the only deterrent is that on a few songs you truly get to hear every note that the late “Phantom” Dan Federici plays. This is not the best live show that I have heard them play but between you and me, I would gladly give up a couple years of my life to have been there in person. Ladies and gentlemen, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band…
Mountain Of Love (Live) – From New Year’s Eve 1975 and look at this: he was 26 years old at the same and the King of every move in the rock and roll yearbook, this Johnny Rivers cover is proof, a blast of joy and fresh air which ignotes with a call for the Big Man – Terrific – A
On this live album “”12/31/75 Upper Darby, PA” Bruce was close but not quite Bruce yet. On the eve of 1976, “Devil In A Blue Dress” seguing into “Good Golly Miss Molly” into “CC Rider” as the minutes ticked into seconds, was the definition of the honest roar of rock and roll
I don’t ask for much: money, girls, tickets to D’Angelo, more money, a very long life with lots of money, but otherwise I leave you to your own devises and I don’t pray on your ass every day. But pleaaaaase, let the next round of leaks be from Sony Music
Rappers are still going strong even those I haven’t heard anything from for a long time, like Diddy ($60 million and $1.90 per second)! Beside this you have Calvin Harris ($66 million and $2.09 per second), Jay Z ($60 million and $1.90 per second), and Drake ($33 million and $1.05 per second)
Let’s give Bruce Springsteen this much at least: given the opportunity to release his inner Bono, to go to that place where low culture reaches high, he didn’t falter.
Just to test run it, and because I wanted to have his cover of “Royals”, I bought the March 1st, 2014 gig in Auckland, New Zealand, and it is exactly as advertised, three hours plus of live Bruce for a tenner, so not bad. The price of lunch!
As Costello notes on one of these songs, poverty is a different sort of enlistment but anyhow, three songs about war and all A Plusses
None of that excuses the brutal stupidity of Bruce springsteen, Dave Grohl (who doesn’t have a brain, Bruce lends him one) and Zac Brown covering “Fortunate Son”. The more I think about fortunate son, the more crappy it hits me as
U2 (in red) is the band which promotes the most its latest album without any doubt, whereas the Rolling Stones hardly played their latest effort and were rather stuck in some 60s nostalgia… they surely played all these 60s hits. Springsteen had about the same attitude, to a lesser extent.
When Bruce wrote Outlaw Pete he didn’t just write a great song, he created a great character. The first time I heard the song this book played out in my head. Like Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Dorothy Gale and, for me, even Popeye, Outlaw Pete cuts deep into the folklore of our country and weaves its way into the fabric of great American literary characters.”
This is the beauty of youth. You cannot or will not be denied when it comes to rock and roll. When we saw him in San Diego, we had seats in the first row right behind the stage and after the encore, Max threw his drumsticks to the crowd and I caught one of them…then Bruce threw his sweaty towel to us also…and I caught it!
Outside of Amarillo is a weird roadside attraction known as Cadillac Ranch – a line of ten Cadillacs buried nose first into the ground. Visitors are encouraged to spray paint graffiti on the Detroit relics. Noting one of the cars already was tagged with “Steve,” no work was required on my behalf.
Mrs. Lorene Burns, an Alabama woman that had the famous seven digits for her telephone number was not a fan. “When we’d first get calls at 2 or 3 in the morning, my husband would answer the phone. He can’t hear too well. They’d ask for Jenny, and he’d say ‘Jimmy doesn’t live here anymore.’ Tommy Tutone was the one who had the record. I’d like to get hold of his neck and choke him.”
“I lied to myself and others, and believing those lies, I told myself consistently that whatever was going on with me … I could fix it on my own. I convinced myself that it was normal. I am a deeply flawed and mentally ill person who made some terrible choices, causing so much emotional and financial damage to others. But I believe I have much to offer my community.’
The years have passed and I still think the “Born to Run” and the “Darkness” LP’s are about the best back-to-back albums ever released by an artist. I still hadn’t seen the man live in concert yet. I lived vicariously through bootlegs, live radio concerts and my brother Jack’s photos of Bruce’s show at The Forum.
“For a long part of the year, Thom Zimny and I have been talking about shooting a short film for Hunter Of Invisible Game. We’ve finally got the job done, and we think it’s one of our best. Thanks Thom for the hard work and brotherly collaboration. You and your crew bring it all. And to all of you out there in E St. Nation (fan club), we hope you enjoy.”
The most misunderstood song of the 1980s but it isn’t the audiences fault, Bruce wrote a chorus which is about as huge an anthem as humanly possible: “Born in the USA, I’m a cool rocking daddy in the USA’ begs to become a national anthem and did. And his brother is still all gone – A+
Van Halen erupted on the scene in ’78 with Eddie’s unmatched guitar pyrotechnics and David Lee Roth’s tongue-in-cheek (and elsewhere) macho posturing. Pretty much a coin flip on whether to select this one or “Dance the Night Away,” but the campy “I been to the edge” monologue makes the difference for me.
I Could Easily (Fall In Love With You) – Cliff Richard And The Shadows – On Saturday, Cliff mentioned recording in Nashville and you might wonder how he would do with country, this is a modified country (not even rockabilly lick) drenched in melodic goodness – A
I wear tee shirts all the time but I only get stopped when I wear either Stevie Wonder or Titus Andronicus. And with Titus only two sorts of people stop me. 1. Shakespeare fans. 2. New Jersey denizens.
How did we not think of this before. This is the simpliest concept known to man: the biggest stars and their age, and what does it all mean? Well, not much and what does it all mean but definitely the biggest stars and their age. Actually, I stole the idea off Yahoo who just did it for filmstars and so with no further ado… Happy bithday to everyone…
Coldplay or Adele around $750K, Rihanna or No Doubt $500-750K, Britney Spears $500K, Keith Urban or Maroon 5 $400-600K, Foo Fighters $500K, , Kings of Leon $400-500K… Are you surprised by these numbers? I am! Dave Matthews and Bon Jovi worth the same than Bieber or Timberlake?
During his first show of the weekend, the Boss yelled “Massachusetts!” several times to a confused crowd at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. The Bay State shoutouts came during one of Springsteen’s encores, prompting dozens of fans to shout back “No!”
You can browse through random things like Springsteen’s 1976 vehicle registration, 1975 car insurance, driving license, service card classified 4F showing he could not serve in Vietnam due to medical reasons, early letter from his former manager Mike Appel to William Morris Agency, terminating contract
In 2014 he bristles so much he seems to made of tinder, his eager is so fragile it is constantly as display, his super-ego has taken a snooze, and his quality control has snapped. Springsteen is such a self-proclaimed genius he writes his own reviews now… and he likes his work very much.
Hong Kong Gardens – Siouxsie And The Banshees – The purely disparaging colors Siouxsie is painted in Moz’s autobiography at least leaves some musical room to maneuver. Well, I’ll give her this one – A-
The great WW2 English songwriters Art Noel and Don Pelos (they did “Kiss Me Goodnight, Sergeant Major”) find a way too make the conceit on this singalong stick in your throat along with the childlike rhymes because whenever you’re singing “nursie nursie imma getting worsie” maybe you’re not thinking high concept but you are thinking danger. Where there is a nursie there is an injury – A
Rodney Crowell makes an appearance with a hat in the ring country song of the year, as do the bluegrass Seldom Scene, the Stampfel album is a real treasure and Bruce releases a fair EP. I guess Bruce got the memo: keep your name out there.
Text Me In The Morning – Neon Trees – This defines the bands main problem, they have life and they have an idea, but they don’t have a strong and they miss out on the execution – C+
In 72 I was 14 and a way too short and baby like a boy to be anything but seldom taken seriously enough by that baffling other sex and Browne, who certainly was taken seriously enough by that other sex, lived out worlds of love and breakups and sad smile ladies standing and staring miles away with eyes like windows to another age.
For those of you who read young Steve Crawford’s number crunching and provocative analysis of Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Bruce Springsteen songs that no song on my Top 10 is later than 1992 should come as no big shock. But that two of em came off his solo albums? That’s a shocker right.
Tthe list clearly shows that the quality of Springsteen’s work has declined since the 1990s. Maybe he established a standard that was impossible to maintain over time, but here are the stats: 72% of the list is from the ‘70s and ‘80s; 80% of the Top 50 are pre-90s; and a whopping 88% of the Top 25 precede the Clinton era
Nothing so far has rung the clarion call for a new year. Still, new Warner Bros find TheChain Gang Of 1974 might be making some new friends for the third place WB. Persnally, I’m hoping Angel Haze has legs…
Both A Great Big World and Young The Giant are happy to be here, one of these bands got that sort of break everybody dreams of, and the other one did nothing of the sort, but both of them are on the charts and are suddenly like really real bands.
Wow, this really sucks. Sophie Ellis-Bextor is the best of a bad bunch. And why is Blunt back in the charts? I guess Bastille got another hit from the deluxe version of the new album. Gary still hasn’t released the newbie in the US… for good reason is my bet.
Impressed by Bruce? In 2002 The Rising hit the # 1 spot with over half a million units shifted, in 2014? Less than 100,000. And that’s with giving away a free DVD with each CD sold. A depressing state of affairs in the music business, no doubt.
I just checked it out again, I’ll give Bruce four out of the twelve tracks, plus two we know so well they don’t really count but let’s call it six tracks. In other words a not untypical batting average for Bruce in the 10s. Or in other words, the EP remains King.
Cool – The Time – Near the start of their career, Morris and the guys came out with this ten minutes of pure groove which sounds so like early Prince, the DNA is the exact same; the call response hasn’t changed since then – A
before their ridiculous four and a half star review of Bruce Springsteen’s High Hopes, they printed yet another exclusive interview with Bruce and this is what Bruce had to say about unreleased songs: “I take them out just to amuse myself. Very often, if I have nothing to do late at night, I’ll take them out and look at the different bodies of music.”
It has been nearly five years since “The List” and three more on top since her last album of original songs “Black Cadillac” so a new Rosanne Cash album is a reason to celebrate and The River And The Thread is our album of the week.
Wrecking Ball was a fair to middling album that acted a little too big for its britches with its all its got debts no answer man can pay repeated over and over again for an hour of heavy handed rock and folk.
Once upon a time at home
I sat beside the telephone
Waiting for someone to pull me through
When at last it didn’t ring I knew it wasn’t you
let’s say, you are one of the lucky ones, well, it doesn’t matter because if you have nothing to be sad about, devastated about, your brain won’t let you rest. You’ll make one up. Yes, and if it gets really really bad and it can, it will, it does, it can leave you an emotional and physical wreck, insane with grief, you can die, you can be alone, you can kill yourself. Life doesn’t care.
Really, this is an amazingly lame little track, who exactly is he singing for? It is so generic it could be for really any one and it is so unspecified it seems like a general complaint about nothing. The song itself isn’t fully formed: it doesn’t coalesce in your ear.
The victims of, and the remains of the victims of, 9-11-01 did not lend themselves to what amounts to a form of anthropomorphism: essentially, changing their character to make them what Springsteen needed them to be in order to fit into his true blue collar tableau
