Darkness, Rising and The River. Of the 3 I enjoyed Rising the most, then Darkness right behind and the River bringing up the rear. Of course that's really just a first impression after not listening to any of them for ages.
@TS I agree with LG, Nicely written man . I enjoyed The Promise . I hate to say this BUT I have not given The Rising the listen it deserves. I more than likely have heard tracks off the album I liked and didn't even know they came from The Rising . Searched The Rising up on Spotify and listening to it while I type this up . I would like to know your thoughts on his Nebraska album, if you don't mind. Peace and love.
@LG I am glad to hear you enjoyed DOTEOT and your "Boss Morning Marathon" . The River, I never could really get into it like Darkness or the others, but before I can say that for sure I need to give it a "true" listen so hold the phone XD. Don't get me wrong, I liked the title track/The River and Cadillac Ranch, but from what I recall the other tracks just couldn't latch onto me.
^^The River might take a few listens before it 'grabs me' as well. I was never a huge fan of it back in the day, even the hit singles didn't do much for me.
But like many other albums if you go back after a few years, and are older you might gain a different perspective about music you weren't crazy about.
I don't have a copy of the Promise so listening to it is not an option right now.
Darkness, Rising and The River. Of the 3 I enjoyed Rising the most, then Darkness right behind and the River bringing up the rear. Of course that's really just a first impression after not listening to any of them for ages.
Nice job with the Boss albums LG, that was (I hope) a good day’s music, it’s very satisfying to just concentrate on certain bands/artist and give them some quality time, I’ve been the past few weeks dipping in and out of the Springsteen, Tom Petty, Van Morrison back catalogues…sometimes doing 2 or 3 albums a day when I get the time, and am still nowhere near finished with them (around 80 albums)... but it’s been extremely rewarding.
@TS I agree with LG, Nicely written man . I enjoyed The Promise . I hate to say this BUT I have not given The Rising the listen it deserves. I more than likely have heard tracks off the album I liked and didn't even know they came from The Rising . Searched The Rising up on Spotify and listening to it while I type this up . I would like to know your thoughts on his Nebraska album, if you don't mind. Peace and love
Hi again Wanderer, well ‘The Rising’ is basically Springsteen’s ‘requiem’ for New York City following ‘9/11’….he apparently got his inspiration when a few days after the attacks he was driving in Manhattan and some guy pulled up in a car alongside him, wound down the window, and shouted across to him “Bruce, we really need you now”… and so he went off and started to write some songs. So most (though not all) of the tracks on the album are very overtly written about such things as personal loss, the destruction of parts of the city, humanity's ability to overcome such a tragedy, the plight of the rescue workers and firefighters etc…though very noticeably, and quite rightly in my view, he avoids any references whatsoever to the actual political/religious reasons behind the attacks. So I find it an incredibly touching album, especially Nothing Man, Lonesome Day, My City of Ruins, The Rising, Into the Fire, Empty Sky, You’re Missing… in fact I don’t know how people who were affected personally and who lost family and friends that day could ever listen to The Rising album without it deeply moving them, and even upsetting them.
As for ‘Nebraska’ .... this record to me is nothing less than a work of genius, but I can also quite understand why some people say they don’t care that much for it….it’s certainly a million miles away from the Springsteen of Born to Run or Born in the USA…but then with artists like Springsteen I tend to look at these things primarily from the point of view of the actual song-writing, because singer-songwriters are what I care about the most, so I am mainly buying his records to listen to what he has to say at any given time, rather than the sound he makes while doing it, or the instrumentation and production (though it’s a ‘given’ that the tunes are also certain to be great)….and obviously ‘Nebraska’ is Bruce as Woody Guthrie, but circa. 1982.
It’s a record which sounds exactly like it’s album cover, which as you know features a photograph taken from a car on a desolate and cold country road, and it’s basically an incredibly stark and pared back ‘folk’ album, so you really have to treat it as such and forget about all his other ‘rock’ records. For a start he recorded the whole thing himself using just a 4-track cassette recorder…. in his bedroom at his house!!!
I really love Springsteen in this mood, I feel the same way about the Ghost of Tom Joad and Devils and Dust albums, which are both similarly very exposed and stark/acoustic albums, they are hardly ‘rock’ albums at all in fact. On ‘Nebraska’ the simple acoustic guitar and harmonica just emphasizes the depth of the stories he tells in these songs, it’s stark and beautiful, and truly haunting. For me Springsteen is a folk singer at heart anyway, who happens to have a lot of rock ‘n roll energy bursting out of him. If you were an artist and you painted pictures from these songs on ‘Nebraska’, they'd have to be in black and white, maybe with splashes of red, the title track is unsettling, the opening lyrics can make my hair stand on end:
"I saw her standin' on her front lawn just twirlin' her baton
Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people died"
This is really a nod in the same direction as Terence Malick’s 1970’s ‘Badlands’ movie, which was also, like Springsteen’s song here, based on the same true story of the real-life murder spree of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend back in the ‘50s. If Bruce isn't talking killers, then he's talking cops….oh he just loves talking cops!! …like in "Highway Patrolman" …. Sgt Joe Roberts we are told has got to put up with family troubles, and this time it’s his brother….
"Now ever since we were young kids it's been the same come down
I get a call over the radio, Franky's in trouble downtown
Well if it was any other man, I'd put him straight away
But when it's your brother sometimes you look the other way..."
Then there's Bruce singing about poor kids watching how the rich live in "Mansion on the Hill," or they’re driving in the dark in "Open all Night," and there’s a whole lot more. So this is definitely not a party album, or one you’d listen to if you were needing to be cheered up, but the storytelling's just some of the best I ever heard by any singer .
Johnny Cash’s cover versions of two of Springsteen’s songs from ‘Nebraska’ are also beautifully done btw if you are interested you should YouTube them, they are both on JC’s brilliant ‘Johnny 99’ album from 1983.
Whenever I listen to the ‘Nebraska’ album from start to finish, which is how it should be heard, uninterrupted, I never plan on listening to anything else afterwards for quite a while, because it would just be a total waste of time, the emotions and chill that I get from it is so intense that nearly anything else pales in comparison, and if I try to listen to music afterwards, I still have ‘Nebraska’ going around inside my head, so I usually try to forget about music for maybe a few hours and I go off and do something else….same thing applies with The Rising to some extent, that’s a very emotionally draining album. So I find ‘Nebraska’ quite brilliant, and of course it’s uniquely Bruce, nobody else that I’ve heard really writes stuff like this anymore, I’m sure plenty of them wish they could, for me really only Tom Petty comes closest to Springsteen in my own great songwriter league table.
Here’s my favourite track from ‘Nebraska’ anyway, in fact it’s one of his most absorbing songs ever imo…and I love the way this YouTube video (below) with clips from the superb Sean Penn movie ‘The Indian Runner’ complements the song here…Sean Penn actually wrote the screenplay and based his movie on Springsteen’s ‘Highway Patrolman’ ….
Highway Patrolman
My name is Joe Roberts I work for the state
I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number 8
I always done an honest job as honest as I could
I got a brother named Franky and Franky ain't no good
Now ever since we was young kids it's been the same come down
I get a call over the radio Franky's in trouble downtown
Well if it was any other man, I'd put him straight away
But when it's your brother sometimes you look the other way
Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good
Well Franky went in the army back in 1965 I got a farm deferment settled down took Maria for my wife
But them wheat prices kept on droppin' till it was like we were gettin' robbed
Franky came home in '68 and me I took this job
Yea we're laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin', teach him how to walk that line
Man turns his back on his family he ain't no friend of mine
The night was like any other, I got a call 'bout quarter to nine
There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line
There was a kid lyin' on the floor lookin' bad, bleedin' hard from his head there was a girl cryin' at a table, it was Frank they said
Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights
I must of done 110 through Michigan county that night
It was out at the crossroads down round Willow bank
Seen a Buick with Ohio plates behind the wheel was Frank
Well I chased him through them county roads till a sign said Canadian border 5 miles from here
I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear
Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good.
@TS First off, I just want to say thanks for your "Over the top" input/response . I was expecting maybe a paragraph or 2 when I came back from school, I got 4 . Peace and Love
I listened to most of the album yesterday, actually re-listening to it now. I'll be honest it doesn't really "move" me, sad yes, depressing yes, but I don't know it just doesn't...:/. I mean I understand most of it was written after the events of 9/11, tragic it really was, I guess it doesn't move me as much because I wasn't "there to understand" the events at the time, I was maybe 3 when it all went down, I mean sure I've heard about the events and the aftermath many,many times over the years in History class and on the news, again all I can say is just tragic. Back to the topic of the album, I enjoyed it, I especially liked the tracks Waiting On A Sunny Day,Worlds Apart, and Nothing Man. If I had to rank this album on a list of my favorite Boss albums, this one may be about 7th or 8th, I can't really say for sure because I still need to fully listen to his albums Working On A Dream,Magic,Devils & Dust,and Wrecking Ball. Now as for 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th and 6th the order is -
Nebraska, Born To Run, Darkness on The Edge of Town, Born In The USA, Greetings from Asbury Park N.J., The Wild The Innocent and The E-Street Shuffle.
As for your thoughts on Nebraska, I see your point and agree. I read about how he recorded the album at his home, read it in this special edition copy of Rolling Stone that is all about Bruce, as well as plenty of other good info about The Boss. My opinion on the album is simple and I believe you might have said this in your post too, just take a glimpse at the album cover and it will get the story started.
As you listen to the album, you are driving along on a dark,snowy,cold country road. You've got a gas tank full of problems and no where left to turn. All you can do is keep going straight, you gun it, hoping no cops see you. "Mister State Trooper... Please don't stop me." You don't care where you go, you've got no family, or at least people that care about you so you just "Go". "Canadian border 5 miles ahead...
Now that might have been a little vague, bottom line what is my opinion Springsteen at his best. Reminds me a lot of what goes on down around in my state, I can really relate to the album. Almost My album... but that is another story in another thread XD. I apologize for any confusion and if you have any questions don't be afraid to quote/PM/post in my journal/ect. Peace And Love.
Nebraska is an all time favorite Springsteen Album of mine, but I missed all that deep stuff. it didn't take me driving on any dark snowy roads or anything. but its cool hearing what it does for others.
All this time I thought it was just a cool raw low-fi masterpiece that carried strong direct lyrics about dark stories and despair. Bad economic issues killed the family farm, deathbed regrets, soldiers returning from a false war. Socio/economical deprivation stuff.
seriously though, I think the greatness of this album is demonstrated by its almost mythical status... and folklore. legends about chair and floor noises etc. etc. they never stop.
@Jim XD Sorry for the confusion man, the whole "Dark Snowy Roads" thing was just me venting some emotion and an attempt back at poetry,probably shouldn't use poetry to describe an album , just the album really moves me. And I see/like/agree with your view on the album . Peace and Love.
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. I enjoyed The Promise 
. Searched The Rising up on Spotify and listening to it while I type this up 
. The River, I never could really get into it like Darkness or the others, but before I can say that for sure I need to give it a "true" listen so hold the phone XD. Don't get me wrong, I liked the title track/The River and Cadillac Ranch, but from what I recall the other tracks just couldn't latch onto me.
