Bruce Springsteen (Official Thread)

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The Mavericks covered Brilliant Disguise. Is that the country singer you're thinking of?

I love all of Bruce's work, not just the early stuff.
 

JerseyGirl

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The Mavericks covered Brilliant Disguise. Is that the country singer you're thinking of?

I love all of Bruce's work, not just the early stuff.

No, it wasn't the Mavericks. Grrrr...this is gonna drive me nuts. :bonk: I haven't found it with searches either but I really didn't try too hard. I need to get in touch with my friend.

Have you heard any of the new album yet PT?
 

JerseyGirl

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Jungleland...what can I say about Jungleland that we don't already know or feel? This is my absolute favorite song of all time from my absolute favorite album of all time, Born To Run. Right from the opening violin and piano it captures me. The song plays out like a big dramatic story that we want to be a part of. The sax solo is Clarence's best and that can never be denied. That part of the song was also playing during my very first kiss with my first love so it holds very special meaning to me. This is another song that is unbelievable live. While I was deciding which song to post today, I came across these facts about Jungleland.


Jungleland Facts:

This is a poetic tale of life on the streets of New Jersey.

Springsteen and the E Street Band performed this live for over a year before they recorded it. It developed into a longer song with a grand sax solo when it was finally released.

This features the piano of Roy Bittan. He joined The E Street Band for Born To Run after playing in orchestra pits on Broadway.

This was a highlight of Springsteen’s 1999 reunion tour with The E Street Band.

Suki Lahav played the violin. She was the first female to play in Springsteen’s band, and was with him from September 1974 – March 1975.

This is the last song on Born To Run, the breakthrough album for Springsteen. He tested the patience of Columbia Records by taking over a year to record it, refusing to release it until it was just right.

Clarence Clemons played a long sax solo on this. With his bright suits and large stature, he is the most notable and popular member of The E Street Band.

This is one of Clemons’ favorites. He was disappointed when it was not included on the 1995 Greatest Hits album.

As seen in the documentary Wings For Wheels on the 30th anniversary package of the album, one take of the song had a dramatic flamenco-style intro. (thanks, Marshall – Sacramento, CA)

Melissa Etheridge said in Rolling Stone magazines 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time issue: “When Bruce Springsteen does those wordless wails, like at the end of ‘Jungleland,’ that’s the definition of rock & roll to me. He uses his whole body when he sings, and he puts out this enormous amount of force and emotion and passion.”



So here is my favorite song ever...Jungleland.

Jungleland



Jungleland - Bruce Springsteen

The rangers had a homecoming in Harlem late last night
And the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine over the Jersey state line
Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge
Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain
The Rat pulls into town rolls up his pants
Together they take a stab at romance and disappear down Flamingo Lane

Well the Maximum Lawman run down Flamingo chasing the Rat and the barefoot girl
And the kids round here look just like shadows always quiet, holding hands
From the churches to the jails tonight all is silence in the world
As we take our stand down in Jungleland

The midnight gang's assembled and picked a rendezvous for the night
They'll meet 'neath that giant Exxon sign that brings this fair city light
Man there's an opera out on the Turnpike
There's a ballet being fought out in the alley
Until the local cops, Cherry Tops, rips this holy night
The street's alive as secret debts are paid
Contacts made, they vanished unseen
Kids flash guitars just like switch-blades hustling for the record machine
The hungry and the hunted explode into rock'n'roll bands
That face off against each other out in the street down in Jungleland

In the parking lot the visionaries dress in the latest rage
Inside the backstreet girls are dancing to the records that the D.J. plays
Lonely-hearted lovers struggle in dark corners
Desperate as the night moves on, just a look and a whisper, and they're gone

Beneath the city two hearts beat
Soul engines running through a night so tender in a bedroom locked
In whispers of soft refusal and then surrender in the tunnels uptown
The Rat's own dream guns him down as shots echo down them hallways in the night
No one watches when the ambulance pulls away
Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light

Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz
Between flesh and what's fantasy and the poets down here
Don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of the night they reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand but they wind up wounded, not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland
 

TheSound

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Jackie, been busy elsewhere, but I'll post another of my favourite Springsteen tracks in the next 24 hours or so - though I'm not sure I can follow 'Jungleland' that you posted, it's going to be a bit like me trying to impress my kids with a few neat moves around the basketball hoop in our back yard after I've just been watching the Harlem Globetrotters on TV! :uh:

I hope you don't mind if I post my live favourite clip of 'Jungleland' from that historic 'Live in NYC' show from Madison Square Garden in 2001 - but it is by far and away the best live DVD ever filmed (imo). 'Jungleland' is probably my #1 Springsteen song, but then many many fans I know all feel the same, I mean a rock opera of gang warfare no less, and also populated with some of Springsteen's most colorful and dynamic personalities. I know that many believe the song is referencing the racial riots that took place in Asbury in the 60s, maybe so, but I prefer to believe it's simply Springsteen at his lyrical peak.. and I know that every time he starts to sing "The Rangers had a homecoming in Harlem late last night" a shiver goes up my spine....then when a minute later 20,000 people all join in and sing "DOWN......IN...... JUNGLELAND!!!" .... I pretty much almost lose it!!

So thanks for sharing the miraculous 'Jungleland'...anyone hanging around this thread who wants to see the very definition of rock n roll at its best, here's 11 minutes of evidence...
 

JerseyGirl

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Very early Bruce. :grinthumb


It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City - 1975
 

TheSound

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My next track I want to showcase...

'Long Time Comin' - from the album 'Devils and Dust'

'Devils and Dust' is just a great album, and there are a lot of other tracks on there that I will want to showcase in this thread. It's some way down my list of the best Springsteen albums, but that doesn't mean to say it isn't still superior in every way to 90% of the stuff everybody else releases, these things are all relative, and IMO Bruce on his worst day is still better than most other artists on their best day. 'Nebraska' and 'Ghost of Tom Joad' were great records too, however, let's face it, they were somewhat depressing and difficult to listen to for extended periods of time, 'Devils and Dust' isn't quite so dark (though it definitely has its bleak moments) and it has a backbone rhythm to it. The track I love the most on D&D is 'Long Time Comin' which stands out to me lyrically as one of the best songs ever about parental obligations to their children. If there is one thing we can hope for in a world plagued with dysfunctional families, is that fathers have the wisdom to forgive the shortcomings to their children. Maybe the song is so strong because it's written about a part of life, fatherhood, that Bruce is experiencing. 'Long Time Coming' offers hope, and is just plain fun too, and I defy you not to at least want to move to this one, and play it a couple of times and you may not be able to get the chorus out of your head the rest of the day, it swings along, I can imagine a gospel choir rocking out to the chorus.



'Out where the creek turns shallow and sandy
And the moon comes skimmin' away the stars
The wind in the mesquite comes rushin' over the hilltops
Straight into my arms
Straight into my arms

I'm riding hard carryin' a catch of roses
And a fresh map that I made
Tonight I'm gonna get birth naked and bury my old soul
And dance on its grave
And dance on its grave

It's been a long time comin', my dear
It's been a long time comin' but now it's here

Well my daddy he was just a stranger
Lived in a hotel downtown
When I was a kid he was just somebody
Somebody I'd see around
Somebody I'd see around

Now down below and pullin' on my shirt
I got some kids of my own
Well if I had one wish in this god forsaken world, kids
It'd be that your mistakes would be your own
Yea your sins would be your own

It's been a long time comin', my dear
It's been a long time comin' but now it's here

Out 'neath the arms of Cassiopeia
Where the sword of Orion sweeps
It's me and you, Rosie, cracklin' like crossed wires
And you breathin' in your sleep
You breathin' in your sleep

Well there's just a spark of campfire burning
Two kids in a sleeping bag beside
I Reach 'neath your shirt, lay my hands across your belly
And feel another one kickin' inside
I ain't gonna **** it up this time

It's been a long time comin', my dear
It's been a long time comin' but now it's here
It's been a long time comin', my dear
It's been a long time comin' but now it's here'
 

JerseyGirl

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40 Years 40 Songs

40. “Human Touch”

There are four producers attached to this song, which includes Springsteen, and it sounds like it. Slick, glossy, and drenched in ’90s overtones, “Human Touch” doesn’t top too many lists, and that’s unfortunate. It’s more or less the “love anthem” between Bruce and Patti Scialfa, and when they sing it onstage together nowadays, it’s a solid moment. Plus, we all love Max Weinberg, but Toto’s Jeff Porcaro pounds the hell out of the drums here. -Michael Roffman

39. “Bobby Jean”

Who is Bobby Jean to Bruce Springsteen? A former girlfriend? His former self? Steven Van Zandt? The Boss has never given any answers, and he doesn’t have to. Whatever the identity of the song’s titular character, it’s someone who shares an unbreakable bond with the narrator and hopefully with the listener. Replace the name with whoever you’d like, and you’ll find yourself both loving that person and wishing you saw each other more. Even if you last spoke on bad terms, and even if they’re sitting hundreds of miles away in a hotel room, Clarence Clemons’ bombastic sax coda will bridge the distance between you. -Dan Caffrey

38. “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)”

While The Boss wouldn’t completely define his sound until Born to Run, The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle most accurately captures his Jersey Shore stomping grounds. The boardwalk of “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” swirls with Danny Federici’s accordion, Suki Lahav’s heavenly choir vocals, and waves of beach imagery, emitting the aroma of saltwater from the speakers every time it plays. -Dan Caffrey

37. “Two Hearts”

This poppy cut off The River has always been a concert staple and fan favorite but no surprise there. It’s an all around “feel good” anthem with one of Springsteen’s catchiest choruses. When Springsteen yearns “to become a man and grow up to dream again,” he’s pretty much screaming his own mission statement. -Michael Roffman

36. “Candy’s Room”

“Candy’s Room” starts quietly with a cymbal hiss from Max Weinberg that, besides driving the rest of the cut with galloping momentum, is one of the most easily recognizable openings in rock ‘n’ roll history. Lifter Puller even stole the track’s title for one of their tunes simply because it had the same beginning, despite possessing completely different lyrics and music. In Springsteen’s version, the ceaseless percussion gives the song an urgency that echoes the narrator’s pounding heart, which beats for a troubled girl that will most likely never feel the same way. Not that it matters. In the world of Darkness on the Edge of Town, the characters only know how to love one way: obsessively. -Dan Caffrey

35. “Valentine’s Day”

Tunnel of Love saw Springsteen turn his songwriting inward for an album about the uncomfortable complexities of relationships, specifically his quickly dissolving marriage with Julianne Phillips. Even when the characters take a stab at romance, it’s with reservations that come with age, a far cry from the uninhibited kids of The Boss’s early work. By the time we get to album closer “Valentine’s Day”, the narrator has been through the romantic ringer, longing for his ex as he drives down a highway surrounded by the lull of acoustic strumming and mournful synthesizer. He describes admiring his friend’s joy at being a father, going as far as connecting it to the overwhelming beauty of nature, but he also recognizes it as a simple emotion that he’s afraid he’ll never experience again. -Dan Caffrey

34. “Youngstown”

Chronicling the rise and decay of American industry in times of war, “Youngstown”‘ fits The Ghost of Tom Joad‘s bleak outlook to a tee. The chorus’s “Sweet Jenny” was actually a blast furnace in the real Youngstown, OH, lit at the end of WWI and put out at the end of ‘Nam. Two years after Tom Joad was released, the furnace was demolished, a poignant parable to the song itself. -Ben Kay

33. “Girls in Their Summer Clothes”

Springsteen has a knack for channeling Roy Orbison, and on this diamond track off 2007′s Magic, he goes full Orbison. With sunny acoustics and sweeping, lush instrumentation, The Boss watches the years escape him, looking for that timeless someone, as he laments, “Hello beautiful thing, maybe you could save my life.” Who can’t relate to that? -Michael Roffman

32. “The Ghost of Tom Joad”

It’s a lonely boxcar ballad that leaps out of the sleepy anti-establishment album of the same name. Drawing largely from Tom Joad’s famous “Wherever there’s a…” speech from The Grapes of Wrath, the song’s timeless feel evokes the injustices of Steinbeck’s Dust Bowl, the politics of a Guthrie protest song, and whatever bummer socio-political headline you read just this morning. -Jeremy Larson

31. “Night”

“Night” is the first in a long line of Springsteen songs about a narrator elated to get off work to see his lady. But unlike the similarly themed “Out in the Street”, the woman in Born to Run‘s third track doesn’t actually exist. Our hero spends the entire evening driving around town looking for her. We know he’ll never find his love, but the breakneck speed, bellowing backing vocals, and constant glockenspiel alleviate the fatalistic outcome, creating a sonic juxtaposition that characterizes The Boss’s best work. -Dan Caffrey


Continued...
 

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