Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

I can't get worked up and annoyed about Bruce in the way I can about some other rockers. He has an ear for a great line (the opening of "Hungry Heart" for instance) and I can forgive him a lot for that. He doesn't resonate with me and like the Replacements I think that's a cultural thing.

I also - and this is totally subjective - never get the impression Bruce ever thinks he's particularly cool. Which is not something I can say of most other 'real rock'n'roller' types, mainstream or otherwise.

File under yet to be discovered. I was listening to an apologetic defence of his work from Sean Rowley on the radio the other day, and it got me wondering again. People of my generation's first real exposure to him was the 'Born in the USA' air-punching era and that obviously wasn't likely to engender much interest. Yes, I know it was all ironic.

What I have heard of his 70's stuff sounds like I might grow to love it. That midwest blue-collar world his songs inhabit seems harder to relate to than any other, but even in 1988, I had the feeling Paddy McAloon was missing the point with the song 'Cars & Girls'.

At the moment, I'm afraid the song of his I like best is a 90s one - 'If I Should Fall Behind', which I only know from the Grant McLellan cover version.

Badly Drawn Boy is a Springsteen obsessive, which I thought was quite cute.

N.

And yes, Tom, he's got a very good ear for a line.

I heard the version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" when I was young and that is pretty spiff, I freely agree. Circa 1984, liking El Bruce was unsurprising for me as that was a pretty damn good radio year -- Chuck Eddy specifically called it as such in _Stairway to Hell_, and he was goddamn right. Thus liking all that stuff he made was a matter of course alongside all those singles from _Purple Rain_ and _Like A Virgin_ and etc.

Time went on and I proceeded to not care. I never cared enough to buy an album anyway, and the 'classic early singles' only made sense in my classic rock phase, which lasted about nine months in senior year.

Then I ended up in LA and encountered the first of Robert Hilburn's 345,234,843 printed sermons on How Bruce Springsteen Heals the Sick, Raises the Dead and Means More to Human Existence Than the Combined Efforts of Louis Pasteur, Billie Holiday and Charles Schulz. I encountered other blowhards. The music touched me with the impact of a dying flea. A roommate was obsessed with him to the point of near mania. I cried.

The end.

Frankly, the Walkabouts any day of the goddamn week, month, year, decade, century, etc. If the relative fame levels were reversed, I would cling to this assumption with even more deep, abiding passion because then I would have The People on my side. Even alone, though, it's comfy. And Frankie Goes to Hollywood's version of "Born to Run" is my fave.

i actually liked born_in_the_u.s.a when it came out at age 7, but later, i found it to be an obstacle in getting to love bruce, and i'm sure there are a ton of artists out there whose work at that time has kept people away from them.

as sterling said, it's funny what driving a car can do, especially when it's another dark and lonely night out on an empty anonymous new jersey highway and "born to run" comes on the highway. but i've been there, so i'll move on.

you can get by on the first five or so albums on the music and production alone -- unless of course you hate phil spector and are, therefore, destined to spend eternity in hell -- and the later stuff will stick if you find something in the lyrics that rings far too true. sure, he mines the same territory in a lot of his songs, but so do belle & sebastian and so did the smiths; except the kids in bruce's songs could kick the ass of their counterparts in the aforementioned.

ned, i think you have the same problem as tom: it's a cultural thing. ;)

It's not a cultural thing; I mean for god's sake Motorcycle Emptiness might as well be Bruce Springsteen on a literacy trip in terms of subject, and I know Tom likes the song, and I believe Ned does too. Whether that particular statement was tongue in cheek or not, it's a tired excuse and reasoning, one usually used by the saddest of Bruce Springsteen fans, the ones who "identify" with his sentiments, seemingly losing track of the fact that BRUCE'S CHARACTERS NEVER ACTUALLY MAKE IT OUT. Some positive role models to rock out to.

The thing is, I think it's the voice and the earnestness, which was already said. The stylistic values of it....the basic cultural and escape sentiments, lyrically, of Motorcycle Emptiness and Born to Run might be very similar in tone, but the style and vocalisings are entirely, 100% different. Bruce has a very sarcastic bent, a very dark bent, lyrically, but his style of music softens the blow and sometimes people just don't like it.

And those people are wrong, incidentally :P

Nebraska is half good but doesn't deserve the plaudits it gets as the Springsteen album it's cool to like.

The rest is pretty much DUD.

Nevermind that Born in the USA was my first record not meant to be played on the Fisher Price record player (with the STEEL NEEDLE)

Nevermind Tracks Nevermind the fact that Born to Run is one of the best driving albums ever when your top is down and it's summer and the road between Ventura and home stretches out and empty at night with no cops...

Nevermind he has out Dylan-ed Dylan

Nevermind that he can outrage The Man as he pushes the dark side of life. (41 Shots)

Nevermind the line "The record company Rosie, JUST GAVE ME A BIG ADVANCE!"

Nevermind the Live box set, reminding us just how powerful he was

Nevermind Time and Newsweek

Nevermind Thunder-Fucking-Road

Nevermind The cover of Jersey Girl

Nevermind Tracks

Nevermind the MTV Unplugged set where he scrapped the entire notion of an acoustic show and just plugged in and tore down the house

Nevermind everyone on this list who called him a dud.

well, Bruce isn't *that* bad! ;)

La Bruce just collectively calls to my mind a stunted bastard vision of music that presumes he was the sole carrier of the 'spirit of rock and roll truth' that the Beatles and Stones 'started' in the sixties. A CLAIM I HAVE ENCOUNTERED MORE THAN ONCE, though thankfully not here, and happily never from the man's own lips either, at least to my knowledge. Without that rhetoric I would just shrug and ignore him for somebody more interesting, but with it, frankly, he becomes a very very useful target to kick against. Perhaps only a straw man, but one I wouldn't mind seeing go up in flames.

The boy has fallen off of late, but... I'm reminded of the Bangs article where he describes how he dismissed this Maoist band as sounding like Bruce, and the band replied "oh, good, the working class like that stuff" or something of the sort, and I'm reading this thinking -- no. no. no. The correct answer is "oh, good. Bruce fucking rocks!"

What I appreciate about Bruce is how he can capture the majesty of a major chord. How so many of his songs have the same progression, but you don't realize it 'till you try to play 'em yourself. How he can take gospel music and write it to a girl instead. And yes, more of them damn anthems.

I mean.. I know that anthems aren't an alien concept to the UK -- after all, The Who were full of them. But maybe British anthems are a different type a "get off of my cloud" or "sod off" type, more cynical and pissy than dreamy and wide-eyed. Maybe this is, after all, because America is The Big Country, The Great Bitch, et cet. Maybe to get America you have to get just how there's always somewhere you might go, maybe.

Along these lines, "Not Fade Away" which is a novel by Jim Dodge is a great rock road story, sort of like the lighter side of Richard Hell's "Go Now" or the more earnest(?) side of Bruce McCullough's "Doors Fan" sketch (on his album, Shame-Based Man). Yes. Get that spirit of the open highway.

I will say, though, that I do lack a car and have never had one. That might serve as a better explanation. ;-)

I wish I wasn't misinterpreting.

Inspirational in some ways. I have often felt that England needed a Springsteen, albeit not just a a copycat 'rocker'; I mean, someone who would write about all the lost and found small-town lives. But to be fair, I suppose there is already a UK tradition here: the probably Jarvis Cocker is a case in point.

1. they don't understand that he's actually not as "pro-america" as they might think he is

2. they don't have as close a connection to "old school" code (which includes "old school" rock)

3. they are mostly college kids on their way up to some office job or whatever that is removed (if not far removed) from the "underworld" (the "blue collar" or "real" world) to get the lyrical sentiments

4. well, and...sometimes people just don't like something 'cause they just don't like it

I, however, do not apply to any of those 4. For I actually do "get" some of the appeal of Bruce (albeit, it took my until my mid or late twenties to get there). Sure, his overly sentimental (downright broadway or maudlin) look at the working class can be a bit (or a bunch) too much. And sure, his music can be too simple and/or too derivitive. But, that's a part of the whole. Familiarity in both music and lyrics, is a large part of the appeal of his stuff (and those like him, ala Mellencamp, etc). He just had the concept to put nearly a whole career on the working class/blue collar life like no other has (not in such a wide reaching broad sense, at least - other than Mellencamp, but Bruce did it a bit better and first).

Classics:

Having said all that, 'Nebraska' and 'Ghost of Tom Joad' are the only two full albums that I would declare anywhere near a "classic" state of existence (with 'Nebraska' being the one clear-cut vote). Many of the rest of his 70's and 80's albums have some good solid worthy singles on them, but. I can't go so far as to get 'The River' (for example) anywhere near a "classic" nod. That one, in particular, I find to be overrated (though still having the wonderful track "Stolen Car" and the title track deserving of 'Nebraska'-like attention).

Anyways, I forgot to mention to huge (to the point of shadowing) element as to one of the why's (or why not's) of enjoy/appreciating Bruce. Which is: DRIVING. Cars and driving is such a central and/or reoccuring figure/subject in his work that...I can't believe I forgot to touch upon that (only after reading some of the others posts, darn it). But yea, I do LOVE to drive. Which also helps to explain the appeal of Springsteen (to me, at least).

*By the way, I do own that McCulloch album 'Shame Based Man' and...love it (some really funny stuff and one of the very rare comedy albums worthy of many plays - if not it's own discussion here on "I Love Music"...anyone?). Every single one of my girlfriends (one present, others past) hated it. "And if (after torching the stolen car) you can still hear the Doors playing...then you have become...a DOORS...FAN!" I'm not a Doors fan, however.

I hadn't listened to this record in a couple of years, but god, it still sounded great. Actually, I kept getting shivers down my spine when it was playing and it had me close to tears a few times (mostly on "Thunder Road" and "Backstreets.") Listening to this today finally settled an ILM debate for me: Music can never affect me quite as much now as it did when I was a teenager. No record I've heard in the last few years, including Loveless, has had as much affect on me as Born to Run did this morning, and I know it's not just because Born to Run is such a great album. This is a record that got to me when I was young and emotionally vulnerable in a way that I'm not anymore, at the age of 32. I still feel music very deeply and appreciate and enjoy a wider range of music than ever, but music doesn’t completely overpower me the way it did when I was 15. Oh well.

Springsteen is still a big classic, by the way, despite all the incredibly corny lines on Born to Run.

"candy's room" is the grebtest song ever written about being in love w. a prostitute when you sound a bit like david bowie

Is this a new genre? Cos that'd be fucking incredible.

I still love Bruce Springsteen. Put on Rosalita and you will see me go insane.

20-piece band!

Has BITUSA (the electric arrangement) ever been done with an organ (or something that sounds like a church organ) rather than the usual synth? I feel like it's almost straining to sound like a church organ sometimes, esp. in the Minneapolis stream - maybe they should just try it like that and inject some gospel fervor into the song. I could see a young Garth Hudson going to town with that in the closing solo.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bruce-springsteen/2026/target-center-minneapolis-mn-2b4b60fa.html

"Because The Night (Patti Smith Group cover)"

yeah but

I think they do that because he technically performs her version, with her finished/rewritten lyrics; I don't think the Bruce version ever made it past the demo stage, at least not at the time. Good summation here: https://americansongwriter.com/because-the-night-bruce-springsteen-patti-smith-behind-the-song/

Thanks!

i think in general they tend to give primacy to whoever released a song first, which is why "war" is a "the temptations cover" as opposed to an "edwin starr cover."

Looks like the band got to Portland early:

Bruce at Jackpot records

Max Weinberg posting from Powell's

RIP Suki Lahav, erstwhile E Street violin player (on "Jungleland" and a few other tracks) and sometime singer, 74.

i got "this guns for hire" in royal lettering below my belly button no apostrophe

xp The Springsteen Archive posted some good photos when they announced that yesterday. I actually had no idea what she looked like until then.

Crazy seeing Patti Smith, John Densmore of the Doors, Steve Earle, Dr. Dre (barely recognizable in his greying beard and glasses), Public Enemy and Bruce all onstage during Patti's "People Have the Power," which may have surpassed "The Weight" as a cross-genre and generational sing-a-long.

Brief glimpse of the proceedings

Last night I was walking the dogs with my music on shuffle and the Live In Dublin version of "Open All Night" came on and how had I missed this before? The band is hot and Bruce can barely keep up with the swing, stiff in the first verses but after all the solos he gets in the groove. He's at the limits of what his voice can do but he's stretching and that's exciting. It feels like he's trying something different (for him) and it's fresh and great, swinging with an Andrews Sisters USO vibe. Looking back on Dublin, it's the last release of his that I really liked a lot.

I wish he had experimented more after this but instead he doubled down on what his perception of what Bruce Springsteen is supposed to do, sticking with the myth and staying firmly MOR. As an artist, going back to the E Street Band is probably the worst thing he could have done.

(xp)Heh, I just had a funny Steve Earle sighting in my local coffee shop.

I feel very lucky that I've been able to see Springsteen as much as I have, but honestly tonight might have been one of my favorites. Great setlist, thematically sound/pointed, solid performances, his voice is still strong enough to do what it needs to do, his speeches were inspiring, couple of well-chosen covers, just great all around.

Same experience in Atlanta last night. The whole thing was pumped and pretty joyous, even with the sometimes heavy themes. A reminder that he really is a guy who is worth seeing at arena-scale, he just supercharges the place. There's nothing like being part of 20,000 people all shouting along. I had read they were doing "Clampdown" and didn't know how they would handle it, but I thought it sounded great. I'm not the biggest Tom Morello fan, but he definitely helped power that one. So great to see the surviving E Streeters up there, looking and sounding better than I expected really. Max can still really rock, Nils seemed the shakiest physically but he killed on his solos. And man, Bruce just loves it all so much. It struck me how much he's the last of the great old-school bandleaders, a guy who grew up on early rock n roll, big dance and R&B bands. It's hard to think of a contemporary heir to the tradition.

I mean, he's up there with 23 people!

swinging with an Andrews Sisters USO vibe. Looking back on Dublin, it's the last release of his that I really liked a lot.

I wish he had experimented more after this but instead he doubled down on what his perception of what Bruce Springsteen is supposed to do, sticking with the myth and staying firmly MOR.

x-post to Cow Art's music on shuffle

I feel like it's one thing to like that expanded sessions band in Dublin take w/ the Andrew Sisters like vocals on that track and another to claim that was his last time being fresh and experimental. The Sessions band thing you like was a Springsteen retro Americana and folk genre exercise I think to him just like his later albums "Western Stars" and "Letter to You" with the Jimmy Webb influences. In some ways that Dublin live sessions band one you like seems more MOR to me than Springsteen sticking to his rock canon. And as Josh and Tipsy note, Springsteen now in his live takes with his 23 piece band plays around with and alters his rock canon just enough to keep it interesting and powerful.

five things about last night at madison square garden:

his voice is surprisingly strong

his message and his band remain on point and inspirational

i melted when he launched into "two hearts" (i had very carefully avoided seeing any previous setlists)

i didn't recognize the song "american land," it is great!

i don't think i've ever seen so many non-bruce guitar solos at a single bruce show, and all three non-bruce soloists were on fire

\m/

I really liked the biopic film and, turns out after being pretty much agnostic towards him that Atlantic City is an absolute banger. I wonder what else I’ll like.

"Atlantic City" is amazing yeah. I was 12 or 13 when that album came out and my dad played it a lot, and I got pretty obsessed with it. "Atlantic City" had the effect on me of great literature, it illuminated sort of a whole way of seeing and experiencing the world.

try “The River” next (the song)

His story songs are so good

There's a lot to like but Atlantic City is as good as it gets.

You'll probably like Brilliant Disguise. If you don't, there's something wrong with you.

Co-sign The River and Brilliant Disguise, two very different takes on doomed relationships.

I’m assuming you’re giving all of Nebraska a go? It’s as great as they say.

"Atlantic City" feels like the ur-text for a lot of Craig Finn's solo songs, so it may be worth it to check those out.

Also hard rep for “Racing In Street” for Bruce songs that seem like they’re about a boring thing but are actually about a beautifully sad thing

in the context of BitU, utter miracle "downbound train" made the cut.

Also "Meeting Across the River" is a predecessor of "Atlantic City" - desperate guy gets involved in probably criminal and likely disastrous activity.

If you don't, there's something wrong with you.

I don't dislike it, but I know I'm not feeling what he is, singing it.

A"Meeting Across the River"...likely disastrous activity

ah, man, you don't understand that two grand's practically sitting here in bruce's pocket. and tonight's gonna be everything that he said!

"Highway 29" off Tom Joad is such a beautiful song, a haunting little crime spree tale that goes surreal at the end in a very powerful way

"Meeting" is sort of his mini Scorsese, you can really tell he'd been watching a lot of movies.

"Brilliant Disguise," even setting aside the (in retrospect) semi-autobiographical nature of it, it's just such a simple but heartbreaking conceit, a person in a purportedly loving relationship who suspects deep down that neither he nor his partner ultimately has their heart in it. The narrator is wracked with a paranoia and a self-destructive insecurity ultimately stronger than love. It's the same sort of self-destructive tendency that drives (no pun intended) "Hungry Heart," "Stolen Car," "Racing in the Streets," and plenty of others in Bruce's big bummer pantheon.

I mean, Bruce knows it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idnJnjV_8rg

my favorite thing about the song is my thinking "the gypsy lied" is a Lou Christie nod.

My least favorite thing is getting stuck on the idea that he's singing "brick in da skies"

I think "Two Faces" on the album is a nod to Lou Christie, so he had Christie on the mind!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pdp76Q98xk

Also hard rep for “Racing In Street”

Had this on in the car not long ago, and my wife — who you could at best call a casual fan, she doesn’t dislike him but she wouldn’t put him on on purpose — said when it was over, “He sure can write, can’t he?”

My social media feed spit me one of those Fantano videos. I never watch him, but I clicked on this one to get his "hot take" on the Times songwriter list. It was funny which ones he pondered, and which ones he just sped by with a basic "well, yeah, they're one of the greatest songwriters of all time." I think Bruce got a perfunctory "sure, he's in the top 15" nod before the dude moved on.

“Racing In The Street” was the one that made me take him seriously

I think the lyrics to "Tunnel of Love" are possibly his best.

Darkness is my favorite Bruce album. I still have this terrible idea that Nick Cave should cover the entire thing.

I think hearing the title song in the movie copland triggered something. Like before that I was a casual fan, hip enough to know Nebraska was the cool one or whatever, but Darkness did it for me.

Lou Christie is an interesting bit of Bruce DNA. I don't know how big he was worldwide, but from New York to Cleveland and especially south jersey and philly to pittsburgh, he was a king.

another place to go after "atlantic city" - "it's hard to be a saint in the city," which could be the same character earlier in life, full of bluster and bravado, aware of the system but not yet beaten by it, cinematic images tumbling out of his head almost faster than he can sing 'em, his small rock and roll combo pushing him forward into those dark, romantic city streets

Also recommend "Darkness on the Edge of Town," "The Promised Land" "Wreck on the Highway," maybe "Independence Day."

Agree with ums about Highway 29, just a perfect chilling little noir novel condensed into a song

I always felt like I’m On Fire & State Trooper were two halves of the same Jim Thompson story, just set to different music

Saw Springsteen, Tom Morello and E street band at Nats Park in DC and enjoyed and was inspired by the show. He does an anti-Trump and worry about our troops opening talk, condemns ICe later as well as shut down of us aid , removal of Black history from parks and museums and more , among other pointed comments. He wishes for a constitution, civility, and support for those in need. War, 41 Shots, Clampdown and many others sounded great with the big band and the skilled backing vocalists and extra musicians . I enjoyed the bit of Motown “It takes 2” at the end of “2 Hearts” and a later inclusion for another song of bits of “People Get Ready “ and “This Train is bound for glory.” While the last tour I saw him do featured a meaningful but sad theme about mortality, this tour like a recent European one , is about what America has become and was and what it can be . Springsteen seemed especially inspired being in DC .

He had ACLU tables in the concourses and gave them a shout out also.

Anybody else see this tour?