Bruce Springsteen (Official Thread)

[JerseyGirl]

JerseyGirl's 'BRUCE SONG OF THE DAY'...WEDNESDAY: Livin' In The Future

Love this song from Magic! Pure E Street Sound...it's a good rockin' song that makes you wanna get up on your feet and dance. It's a fun song with a very dark meaning...how are nation is going to waste. Bruce is an expert at putting out good tunes yet getting his point across.

Livin' In The Future


Livin' In The Future - Bruce Springsteen

A letter come blowin' in on an ill wind
Somethin' 'bout me and you
Never seein' one another again
Yeah, well I knew it'd come
Still I was struck deaf and dumb
Like when we kissed, that taste of blood on your tongue

Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet
Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet

Woke up Election Day, skies gunpowder and shades of gray
Beneath a dirty sun, I whistled my time away
Then just about sundown
You come walkin' through town
Your boot heels clickin'
Like the barrel of a pistol spinnin' 'round

Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet
Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet

The earth it gave away, the sea rose toward the sun
I opened up my heart to you it got all damaged and undone
My ship Liberty sailed away on a bloody red horizon
The groundskeeper opened the gates and let the wild dogs run

I'm rollin' through town, a lost cowboy at sundown
Got my monkey on a leash, got my ear tuned to the ground
My faith's been torn asunder, tell me is that rollin' thunder
Or just the sinkin' sound of somethin' righteous goin' under?

Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet
Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet
Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet
None of this has happened yet
None of this has happened yet
None of this has happened yet
None of this has happened yet

 

[TheSound]

That song for me was a very slow grower, I didn't like most of 'Magic' until I'd had it a while, then it suddenly began to sound like a very fine album, and now to me there's 3 or 4 tracks on there that are quite brilliant.

Not sure when my next one here will be, hopefully this weekend, but I won't be on my PC much over the next few days as we are really busy, so I'll get back asap.

 

[Big Ears]

Found this and thought it was quite interesting:

Bruce Springsteen: 'What was done to my country was un-American' | Music | guardian.co.uk

The Guardian is a left-wing newspaper.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Found this and thought it was quite interesting:

Bruce Springsteen: 'What was done to my country was un-American' | Music | guardian.co.uk

The Guardian is a left-wing newspaper.

As you probably know, I have been reading many articles on Bruce and the new album. This article was very interesting. Bruce has a way of incorporating a much needed message into most of his songs. Unfortunately, some people don't take the time to listen.

 

[gcczep]

JerseyGirl's 'BRUCE SONG OF THE DAY'...TUESDAY: Point Blank

Here is another haunting song from The River. Point Blank tells the story of a couple that couldn't make it through all the struggles life dealt them. They ended up becoming two different people than they were from when they first met. The lyrics in the middle of the song..."Once I dreamed we were together again baby you and me, Back home is those old clubs the way we used to be..." brings the listener back to the happier days of the two characters in the song. Then the present day comes back into focus again and the realization that these two people were torn apart by the struggles of life. This is one of my favorite songs in concert.

Point Blank



Point Blank - Bruce Springsteen

Do you still say your prayers little darlin'
do you go to bed at night
Prayin' that tomorrow, everything will be alright
But tommorow's fall in number
in number one by one
You wake up and you're dying
you don't even know what from

Well they shot you point blank
you been shot in the back
Baby point blank you been fooled this time
little girl that's a fact
Right between the eyes, baby, point blank
right between the pretty lies that they tell
Little girl you fell

You grew up where young girls they grow up fast
You took what you were handed and left behind what was asked
but what they asked baby wasn't right
you didn't have to live that life,
I was gonna be your Romeo you were gonna be my Juliet
These days you don't wait on Romeo's
you wait on that welfare check
and on all the pretty things that you can't ever have
and on all the promises

That always end up point blank, shot between the eyes
Point blank like little white lies you tell to ease the pain
You're walkin' in the sights, girl of point blank
and it's one false move and baby the lights go out

Once I dreamed we were together again
baby you and me
Back home in those old clubs the way we used to be
We were standin' at the bar
it was hard to hear
The band was playin' loud and you were shoutin' somethin' in my ear
You pulled my jacket off and as the drummer counted four
You grabbed my hand and pulled me out on the floor
You just stood there and held me, then you started dancin' slow
And as I pulled you tighter I swore I'd never let you go

Well I saw you last night down on the avenue
Your face was in the shadows but I knew that it was you
You were standin' in the doorway out of the rain
You didn't answer when I called out your name
You just turned, and then you looked away
like just another stranger waitin' to get blown away

Point blank, right between the eyes
Point blank, right between the pretty lies you fell
Point blank, shot right through the heart

Yea point blank, you've been twisted up till you've become just another part of it
Point blank, you're walkin' in the sights
Point blank, livin' one false move just one false move away
Point blank, they caught you in their sights
Point blank, did you forget how to love,
girl, did you forget how to fight.
Point blank they must have shot you in the head
Cause point blank
bang bang baby you're dead.

It is a very stark song...like a little movie. Intense mood and athmosphere. What I picture is that the gal ended up on the streets lost and doing things to survive. I've always imagined Pacino and Pfeiffer playing the leads.

 

[TheSound]

Born in the USA (1984)

Maybe still his most instantly recognisable song from the first note in the first bar of music. It's a big, pounding and very patriotic sound of course, but WAIT...it's actually about a Vietnam vet exploited by his own country. Trouble is almost everyone mistook the anger in this song as representing pride in his country, in fact the song is about Vietnam vets and how the government and country have forgotten them... Springsteen's character is crying out that he was "Born In The USA" and should be treated better. I remember the track was even co-opted by Reagan in one of the lowest moments of an extremely low presidency, and it was vastly misread all over the map - liberals I recall called it patriotic jingoism, whilst conservatives called it anti-US propaganda, but it was, of course, neither. This is one of Springsteen's most powerful songs from one of the greatest albums of the 80's. When the album itself hit the streets in 1984, I remember I was at college and it just exploded like a hurricane, even in England everybody was walking around with a copy, and it pretty much defined the 80's stadium, chest thumping, blue collar rock for the time. The album also produced 7 top ten singles, was at or near the top of the album chart for almost 2 years, and it sold 15 million copies in a heartbeat.

Two YouTube versions here, including Bruce's amazingly heartfelt bluesey acoustic version that he used to sing on tour a lot, and which I now much prefer to the original electric/band version, the trouble being that its chorus is too sing-along friendly in the original, and so it was immediately taken up as a party song, and you could just never get away from it, almost to the point that I almost started to hate it, whereas this acoustic version is just incredibly stripped down and moving....





'Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up

Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "Son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said "Son, don't you understand"

I had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone

He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go

Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A.'

 

[JerseyGirl]

^^^ Very nice write up for a great song. I hate that the song was so misunderstood. And still is to this day...again, by people that don't take the time to listen.

 

[JerseyGirl]

I missed yesterday! I guess because I usually follow you TS.

JerseyGirl's 'BRUCE SONG OF THE DAY'...FRIDAY: Bobby Jean

Bobby Jean is also from the album Born In The USA. There are various interpretations of this song, one being that it was written for Steve Van Zandt when he left the E Street Band. Steve does not admit this however and I don't think Bruce ever did either. The song has both a male and female name so the listener can also interpret it as a love song or a song about friends who have parted ways, etc. This is a favorite song for the Bruce concert goer. "Good luck, goodbye."

Bobby Jean


Bobby Jean - Bruce Springsteen
Well I came by your house the other day, your mother said you went away
She said there was nothing that I could have done
There was nothing nobody could say
Me and you we've known each other ever since we were sixteen
I wished I would have known I wished I could have called you
Just to say goodbye Bobby Jean

Now you hung with me when all the others turned away turned up their nose
We liked the same music we liked the same bands we liked the same clothes
We told each other that we were the wildest, the wildest things we'd ever seen
Now I wished you would have told me I wished I could have talked to you
Just to say goodbye Bobby Jean

Now we went walking in the rain talking about the pain from the world we hid
Now there ain't nobody nowhere nohow gonna ever understand me the way you did
Maybe you'll be out there on that road somewhere
In some bus or train traveling along
In some motel room there'll be a radio playing
And you'll hear me sing this song
Well if you do you'll know I'm thinking of you and all the miles in between
And I'm just calling one last time not to change your mind
But just to say I miss you baby, good luck goodbye, Bobby Jean

 

[JerseyGirl]

Just saw this great picture of Bruce and Clarence and thought I would post it.

 

[TheSound]

Trying to date it Jackie, what do you think? I'd guess around the time of the Tunnel of Love tour when Bruce I recall was dressing pretty smart for live shows, I mean is he wearing a collar and tie there? I think so.