Bruce Springsteen (Official Thread)

[TheSound]

@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

Thanks for that Wanderer

Extremely good and heartfelt posts there by you I thought, and by MrJim too, and I think yes, I probably should start to read your journal! I can see that you give Springsteen and his music a lot of thought and time, and nothing you say is remotely wrong in my view because when an artist is entering the 5th decade of a career as Bruce is, there will always be records from the past which divide even his biggest fans – I’m a member of the Greasy Lake forum (mainly only as a lurker, as I simply don’t have enough free time for another ‘rock forum’ ) and some of the guys on there who have seen literally 300+ Springsteen shows over the past 40 years, and who know every single word of every song he has ever written off by heart, even they can’t agree on albums such as Nebraska and The Rising. In fact the only thing which I find most Springsteen fans do seem able to agree on, is that ‘Working on a Dream’ was a total turkey (I usually refer to it as ‘Working on a Nightmare’ )… so obviously even Bruce can have a really bad day at the office! In fact I doubt I will ever play that album again end to end…for me at least there’s maybe 3 or at most 4 songs on there worth a damn ( Tomorrow Never Knows, Working on a Dream, The Last Carnival, The Wrestler)…so, be warned! ….but ‘The Last Carnival’ wouldn’t look out of place on any of the past great Springsteen records…it’s a song which has been interpreted as being a tribute to his great friend Danny Federici of the E Street Band, who passed away in 2008…



In fact that whole WOAD album was dedicated to Danny, which is why it’s a shame that it’s such a poor album.

But I’d say the only important thing for any artist in my view is that he/she makes records purely and selfishly for themselves, based on how they feel, and what they want to say, and how they want to sound at any given time, because that is what an artist does, regardless of what the public or the critics expects them to sound like, or wants them to sound like. I don’t myself believe in sticking too rigidly to ‘formulas’ at all in music…as soon as an artist starts to pander to popular taste and just churn out an endless production line of stuff in the same style, in order to have a quiet life and to keep his adoring public satisfied, then he is effectively dead as a creative artist, and he’s just become a rock ‘ n roll museum exhibit, and in the process he’s basically just become his own best Tribute-Band. So that is why albums such as ‘Nebraska’ and ‘Tom Joad’ and others are (imo) so important… I guarantee that he could by now have produced 20 albums in the ‘Born to Run’/’Darkness’ style if he’d wanted to.

So, as MrJim said, keep the passion!

 

[The Wanderer]

^^^@TS Thanks again to you(TS) and to Jim, I am glad to know I am among friends and have a "home" on the forums .

As for WOAD, seems like now that I think back to the time of it being released, I remember hearing it was decent and even bad. Don't get me wrong though, good effort for Bruce trying to do something for his friend but eh... Just gave it a listen, the tracks I enjoyed were My Lucky Day, This Life, Tomorrow Never Knows, Life Itself, The Last Carnival, & The Wrestler. I have heard/played/listened to The Wrestler many times before and is probably my favorite from the track and maybe even the best track of the album imo .

@Jim Right on, seems like I stopped with The Boss on Tunnel of Love, and then picked back up with Tom Joad,Tracks,The Rising and so on. I know exactly what you mean, have fun at the show!

 

[TheSound]

^^^@TS Thanks again to you(TS) and to Jim, I am glad to know I am among friends and have a "home" on the forums .

As for WOAD, seems like now that I think back to the time of it being released, I remember hearing it was decent and even bad. Don't get me wrong though, good effort for Bruce trying to do something for his friend but eh... Just gave it a listen, the tracks I enjoyed were My Lucky Day, This Life, Tomorrow Never Knows, Life Itself, The Last Carnival, & The Wrestler. I have heard/played/listened to The Wrestler many times before and is probably my favorite from the track and maybe even the best track of the album imo .

@Jim Right on, seems like I stopped with The Boss on Tunnel of Love, and then picked back up with Tom Joad,Tracks,The Rising and so on. I know exactly what you mean, have fun at the show!

Your enthusiasm for Bruce is obviously infectious, Wanderer, as this thread has suddenly taken on a whole new life, so thank YOU!!

Just a random video clip here, but I guess my love for Pearl Jam is fairly visibly obvious, for me Eddie Vedder has the best singing voice in rock, Bruce and Eddie Vedder are good friends and I really love this very short but beautiful gospel version of one of the songs from The Rising ('My City of Ruins') which EV sang for Bruce when he was one of the recipients of the Kennedy Center Awards...

 

[The Wanderer]

^^^Anything Eddie covers is gold, might be an over-exaggeration but that is just imo If you haven't already look up his I Won't Back Down cover.


As for Bruce covering songs, here is Bruce and E-Street trying to figure out how to play "The Wanderer", they eventually get it XD

 

[mrJim]

Ok, I put The Rising through it paces today. it's been a long time since my last Springsteen acquisition.

First I thought the music was arranged and mixed very well, very cohesive sounded great. But I did feel it was probably 5 tracks or so too long, more than once I said: why is this on here?

I understand the connection to the events of 9/11 and clear references to loss. But honestly I didn't feel overly moved by the songs, but surely I could see why some folks would be.

Overall I really liked it and thought it was pretty solid, but its not nearly Nebraska good. My favorite tracks were "The Fuse", "You're Missing", "Worlds Apart", "Empty Sky", "Further On", "Paradise".

That's all I have, I am more impressed with a lot of his prior work, but I definitely liked it and will return to it.

Jim

 

[TheSound]

Ok, I put The Rising through it paces today. it's been a long time since my last Springsteen acquisition.

First I thought the music was arranged and mixed very well, very cohesive sounded great. But I did feel it was probably 5 tracks or so too long, more than once I said: why is this on here?

I understand the connection to the events of 9/11 and clear references to loss. But honestly I didn't feel overly moved by the songs, but surely I could see why some folks would be.

Overall I really liked it and thought it was pretty solid, but its not nearly Nebraska good. My favorite tracks were "The Fuse", "You're Missing", "Worlds Apart", "Empty Sky", "Further On", "Paradise".

That's all I have, I am more impressed with a lot of his prior work, but I definitely liked it and will return to it.

Jim

Glad you gave it a spin Jim! I absolutely see what you mean about the ‘9/11’ thing, and how some people could relate to it, but most others probably can’t, but I do peronally find the album very moving – we were actually living in D.C. on 9/11 when the Pentagon got hit, and I watched the sky across the Potomac River filling with thick black smoke all morning from my office window, in fact many government buildings around us were actually evacuated, it was a very scary situation, the rest of the day there were US airforce fighter jets continually swooping across the skies above the city. And so The Rising album was still very raw to a lot of people emotionally when it was released just a few months later, there was really only about 9 months between the attacks and the album release date.You’re right, it’s his longest album, 15 tracks at around 75 minutes, which is his longest record by about 25 minutes (if you exclude The River, which was a double) I just think he felt he had so much to say and he couldn’t do so in the usual 50-55 minutes.

 

[Johnny-Too-Good]

Bit of a review here on the new album 'High Hopes'. Anybody given it a listen yet?


Bruce Springsteen, 'High Hopes' - Album Review

 

[The Wanderer]

Sorry I'm late...

^^^Might be a little late to respond to you but anywho XD, I heard him on XM radio, his station E-Street Radio, he was doing an interview about it. Gave the interview a good 5 minute listen then turned it to something else, couldn't really understand what they were talking about XD. As for High Hopes, I have not listened to it but I have heard things about it. I heard it was all his albums into one from somewhere.

I have listened to most of the LPs from his Live 1975-85 set, it even came with the book ,bought The River this past Sunday, was going to wait til tomorrow but I just finished another LP, so I'll start now...

 

[ecisgod]

I have been absolutely hooked on Pearl Jam recently due to the recent concert in Vancouver. But, through my current Pearl Jam period I have come across Bruce once again...and once you come across Bruce it usually takes weeks before I move to the next addiction...which most likely will be the Beatles once again!

Anyway, I thought fans of The Boss would enjoy the following (even if already viewed)


Cheers...













Rolling Stone Magazine article - 100 Greatest Bruce Springsteen Songs

100 Greatest Bruce Springsteen Songs of All Time | Rolling Stone


Now I can't wait to get home after this last night shift and listen to Bruce on the ride home from work and then strum my acoustic with a couple of classic Springsteen Tunes!

Cheers...

 

[The Wanderer]

The River was fantastic, it def knocked The Wild,The Innocent,and the E-Street Shuffle out of its place on my Bruce Springsteen favorite albums list.