These days you don't wait on Romeos you wait on those BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN POLL RESULTS

^^ what it sounds like inside the tunnel of love

stop teasing me

Yodel solo.

My depressing Bruce benchmark is that he was pretty much exactly my age when he finally got around to "Tunnel of Love." I better get cracking on my world-changing music career.

I should probably make clear that I haven't really heard and dismissed other albums, I'm consciously engaging in unfairly cheering on the stuff I know - I'm happy you're all happy.

Also though I know that everyone says live Bruce is not the same as other Bruce, everyone always says that about everyone, so I was genuinely surprised to see the JB-channeling, band-introducing, master of ceremonies and setter of the pace in the Rosalita clip in the first post here, which I think has possibly been de-emphasised in his public persona behind Bruuuuce and the train-jumping poet of the dispossessed. Or as always I may be generalising my own ignorance :)

Actually, I'll give my ignorance one more workout - how did he change the world?

jamie--I'm not a Brooce(TM) Fan in the classic sense, but my dad had a bunch of Springsteen albums and when I was ten or whatever we had funny words to "Hungry Heart" & I can sing most of most songs on "Born to Run", so--maybe not your target group exactly.

But I have no patience for anything after "BITUSA": just can't bear the production/vocal affectations/broad strokes songwriting. The Bruce career narrative doesn't matter to me; it's over, for me.

Having said that, only three of my 20 have showed up thus far, and I'd bet money that 18 eventually do....

One of the things I like most about Bruce is how well he covers a wide range of emotions. I mean, he can do sweet romantic, scary romantic, smutty, predatory, and celebratory love songs, and those are just the love songs.

I wasn't even including Born to Run and Thunder Road -- heart exploding love songs. Or the super sad ones!

Incident on 57th Street my #1---the absolute bestest Bruce. Not sure what else I can say that I haven't said on other threads. The Main Point is tres classique---the siren sound at the end! maybe I'll say more later, for now goodnight Jane

28. I'm Goin' Down from Born In The USA (1984)
166 points, 8 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqwuV883Kg4

Primo hot Bruce!!

YESSSSSSS

The only BITUSA top ten I never heard at the time. Kinda wonder if payola pushed it into its quick peak.

I heard it TONS in it's day. Bruce ruled the New England rock airwaves for what seemed like years with BitUSA singles.

its, damn it.

27. Kitty's Back from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973)
167 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXDYOEO1EHE

as I said upthread, "I'm Goin' Down" is an awesome karaoke number

my entire ballot is being revealed

"Kitty's Back"!!! YES.

ooh ooh ooh what can i do?

the road is dark
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8525/8518196825_3d8428535f_m.jpg

"I'm Goin' Down" way too low!! Should be a top 20!

hoping "State Trooper" is top 20, didn't vote but god it is classic

Kitty's Back rules so hard

The thing I love most about live Bruce in-person is that you feel like you're standing 10 rows back even when you're in the nosebleeds. He's so magnetic he can shrink a venue like no-one else I've ever seen

xpost

Actually, I'll give my ignorance one more workout - how did he change the world?

Because the world is a better place with Bruce in it! Duh.

Also, anyone who can see him live and leave not feeling awesome and that the world is a much better place with Bruce in it is dead to me.

otfm

I was genuinely surprised to see the JB-channeling, band-introducing, master of ceremonies and setter of the pace in the Rosalita clip in the first post here

That's the thing -- that whole side of him (which is still 100 percent intact, at least as of when I saw him in November) is important to understanding how Bruce became BROOCE, and it gives the recorded music some important context. I remember taking a Bruce-neutral friend to a show years ago, and she started laughing after the first song and said, "I didn't know he was so showbiz!" (She loved it.) Lots of bands are "better live," but Springsteen live isn't just a concert, it's a show, in a grand old cheeky hokey tradition.

I've never not been O_O at his fixed-mike-stand pole dancing prowess. In a good way. He still dances like James Brown and he's how old now?

I was only 9 when Eddie & The Cruisers made its splash, but I'm listening to the soundtrack again right now and...did John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band get laughed right off the face of the earth for nicking Springsteen so hard?

I know right? It's shocking when you listen to them with full Bruce knowledge

I felt the same to a lesser degree when I went back and listened to ELO after getting deep into the Beatles.

iirc the band was originally just called Beaver Brown, and their management and label asked them to change it to make it sound more like "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band."

Don't forget about the hilarious Cleveland-boosting Light of Day, starring Michael J Fox and Joan Jett!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I0Aa4czyLs

>:-(

:)

aw hell, put your bruce ears on and listen to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEbTRl6oq58

that is my faaaaavorite pat benatar song!!

mine too!

(xp) beaver brown had been at it for a while before the movie came out and i'm pretty sure they were welcomed and adored by the springsteen faithful. they were one of a few bands doing a similar thing in the northeast around that time. another one was john eddie and the front street runners, who went on to some renown of their own after he/they dropped the front, street and runners from the name.

btw shadows gets a total pass in my book bc

a) nicks from btr/darkness bruce
b) predates bitusa world domination era
c) written by a jersey guy
d) is awesome

it's stuck in my head now and making me very happy

We have so little here in Cleveland, don't make "Light of Day" into a joke. For a relative throwaway, Bruce liked that song a lot, though. He used to play it on the regular until about 2000 or so.

(BTW I used to play with a drummer who is an extra in that movie.)

If Fast Times came out in 1983, does that mean that "Shadows of the Night" is Judge Reinhold's first notable acting appearance?

Fast Times was '82, no?

Let's not forget Michael Stanley -- down in Akron we used to scream "AKRON" instead of "CLEVELAND" during the chorus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl-zQhr0V6g

And in Pittsburgh it was Joe Grushecky.

http://www.backstreets.com/Merchant2/graphics/cdgrush7503.jpg

We have so little here in Cleveland, don't make "Light of Day" into a joke. For a relative throwaway, Bruce liked that song a lot, though. He used to play it on the regular until about 2000 or so.

he loves that song! it was his set-closer for a long time. still plays it pretty frequently.