So I'm Listening to 'Devils & Dust' by Bruce Springsteen...

'Two hundred dollars straight in, two-fifty up the ass,' she smiled and said

[...]

She slipped me out of her mouth, / 'You're ready,' she said / She took off her bra and painties / wet her finger / slipped it inside her / and crawled over me on the bed

(heheheheh, I said "sticker")

Illegally download "All I'm Thinking About."

xpost

assuming he sings them, as opposed to reciting them, it's kind of hard to judge just by looking at the lyrics on your computer screen. i mean, you could be right, i haven't heard the song. but written lyrics are no way to judge any music.

i know what she means by "bruce in bruceface" though. he sort of shuffles around cliches familiar from his old work but without enough narrative spark to enliven them.

i'm curious to hear this but i don't expect it to be much better than "pretty good," honestly.

ha! but if audioslave do indeed suck the lyrical suck -- and i've never taken the time to investigate -- it's because of the way the lyrics sound, not the way they look. i'm sure a lot of your favorite bands have embarrassing lyrics on paper, but you don't worry about it because that's not the way you hear them. it's certainly true of a lot of my own faves.

I'm no Amy-hater (I was a very bitter boy in 2003 - ignore threads from then) but I do take offense at the implication that loving Bruce Springsteen more than your parents signifies adulthood. But people from Philly/Jersey are weird about this guy.

my read of it is that rocking-the-pain-away is itself comforting, thus calculated, and that's why it works. maybe she didn't want to add "because it's comforting" to the end of the sentence because along w/"rock-the-pain-away" she didn't want to repeat herself. but I haven't asked or anything.

Haha, except that she comes off looking especially ridiculous in this one considering she's been a fan for only two years.

Jack Bruce …”In hindsight there was some truth in it but it really hurt at the time.”

At least when Tim Buckley wrote songs like this there was a really hilarious bite to the song. ("Trying a little trick honey/Ah, that you never used before/I wanna be your victim/Your sweet little victim of love/Come on and beat me, whip me, spank me/
Mama, make it right again")

I'm not sure who wrote the Harlin thing. I don't think it was Queenan, though. It was a celebrity profile but the entire thrust was what a complete fucking moron its subject was.

x-post: oh great. Bruce's Bloodflowers

I like this a lot, and so will you probably like it (even if you don't worship at the feet of The Man like I do).

She also makes it clear that she shunned his music for most of her life, slagging it off as "mom-music". After living and dying with Bruce's music for all of two years (during which time he didn't release a single album), suddenly she's declaring "Devils and Dust" to be "another" disappointment while lamenting that she "invested too much" in Bruce Springsteen. A whole two years, way to ride the ups and downs.

I'm not the only person here who noticed a similarity to the "Murray Street" review.

(and haha it doesn't have to be acoustic for Bruce to get a 4.5 or higher in RS)

PUNK ROCK

An only child
Alone and wild
A cabinet maker’s son
His hands were meant
For different work
And his heart was known
To none --
He left his home
And went his lone
And solitary way
And he gave to me
A gift I know I never
Can repay

A quiet man of music
Denied a simpler fate
He tried to be a soldier once
But his music wouldn’t wait
He earned his love
Through discipline
A thundering, velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls
Took me years to understand.

The leader of the band is tired
And his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through
My instrument
And his song is in my soul --
My life has been a poor attempt
To imitate the man
I’m just a living legacy
To the leader of the band.

My brothers’ lives were
Different
For they heard another call
One went to chicago
And the other to st. paul
And I’m in colorado
When I’m not in some hotel
Living out this life I’ve chose
And come to know so well.

I thank you for the music
And your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom
When it came my time to go --
I thank you for the kindness
And the times when you got tough
And, pap, I don’t think i
Said ’i love you’ near enough --

The leader of the band is tired
And his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through
My instrument
And his song is in my soul --
My life has been a poor attempt
To imitate the man
I’m just a living legacy
To the leader of the band
I am the living legacy
To the leader of the band.

Hardly. I'm not a big fan of Bruce, I haven't heard the album yet, and I'm fine with Phillips' opinion of it. But I do think it's silly of her to wildly oversell the drama as if she's got a lifetime of emotional baggage riding on the quality of the album, only to be let down in crushing fashion, holding her head in her hands while moaning "why Bruce, why must you disappointed me so???"

If she didn't like the album, she could have just said so, she didn't have to turn it into a coming-of-age miniseries.

i'm still giddy from the Cream thing. next EMP, there should be a secret conclave about The Band We All Decide To Break Up This Year.

matos: my read of it is that rocking-the-pain-away is itself comforting, thus calculated

i'm not sure i'm parsing this.... it's cathartic because it's designed to be comforting? or just because it's designed for something?

sometimes these reviews are like when you think you're seeing spots on the wall when really you just rubbed your eye too hard and there are little dark spots in your vision.

hold on, i think my cats are ready for their tea party

i'm not sure what else you would expect from this album other than what it is. which seems, to me, honest, reflective, contemporary. while i wouldn't mind the a "tom joad" version of these songs, we already have tom joad for that.

the songs combine the uplift of the rising with the specificity most prevalent in his acoustic albums.

i was wary hearing of o'brien's contributions, but after listening, i was pleasantly surprised. devils & dust esp. seems to open up, i could see it turning into a "racing in the streets" type live number.

There's something interesting to be said, no doubt, about why some people really love Bruce Springsteen. But something tells me using "mom rock" as an insult means you aren't really going to be able to listen to this music with an open mind. I guess lots of moms like him, but if that appeal is somehow uncomfortable, and best ignored 'cause it gets in the way of your own more sophisticated appreciation.. I think something's missing.

*well, at least "Non-Alignment Pact"

I read that as "Surrender" and was ready to totally reevaluate Bruce, just based on him covering some Cheap Trick.

*well, at least "Non-Alignment Pact"

My mom was buddies with people in Love and Spirit and all the other hip L.A. bands when she was 14 but is now a sucker for John Mayerish FM-light stuff. My mom is simultaneously lamer and hipper than me (hipper isn't saying much though).

Ha ha, this thread is funny, exactly what I was hoping for. I just love the fact that the second one of Amy' s reviews gets posted, there' suddenly 100 people who want to talk about it. Anyway, who gives a shit. It was more interesting than 95 % of the Bruce reviews out there, just like Amy's Sonic Youth review was more interesting than 95 % of the Sonic Youth reviews out there, so fuck you all. You couldn't do better if you tried, and I *hope* you disagree with me and argue all night about it while I'm sound asleep, you nitwits. Especially amateurist and Shakey -- go for broke, you crazy kids. It'll give me something besides the Times to read over coffee in the morning. All I *really* care about on this thread is the above post, which is interesting because IT WAS I WHO REVIEWED THAT 2ND CANDLEBOX ALBUM IN ROLLING STONE!! I think I gave it two and a half stars or so, and really liked one song a lot (though not as much as "Far Behind," which was killer.)

I'm not doubting Amy's honesty here, and I don't have any problem with the part about the music itself. I think the "mom rock" thing combined with the talk about politics bothers me. It's like.. there's a not so subtle disgust with all things popular in the use of that term which, to my mind, is so antithetical to how I think one should approach politics. You know? Oh man, look at all those moms with their lame ass mom rock and dads with their shitty dad rock.. and by the way, our party understands your values and we want your vote!

i hope you don't hold this against bruce springsteen!

i don't really see a problem w/phillips' personal narrative. except that it wasn't too interesting, is all, and seemed sort of a sidebar to what was otherwise a fairly normal rock review (which is to say: a few straightforward comments on the music, a few clever and slightly 'difficult' turns of phrase, a few difficult-to-parse generalizations, a few sensible generalizations).

i suppose it is more interesting than most bruce springsteen reviews, chuck, insofar as bruce springsteen's new record will probably get reviewed by every small-town and college newspaper and a million net 'zines besides, so there's bound to be an awful lot of completely rote reviews among those. i don't know why you're playing "gotcha" all of a sudden, like it brightens your eyes to imagine my staying up late posting an ambivalent response to an article you edited. i hope it won't hurt your feelings if i say that i'm going to bed in a moment.

x-x-x-post

the weird thing is that being a bruce springsteen fan over the past 15 years has been like one minor or major disappointment after another (and a few non-disappointments too). i'm not exactly sure where the letdown is, unless he's "dabbling with techno beats" or something on this one.

Breaking my vow, I guess, I will happily say that yes, this is more about how I dislike (while understanding the existence of) conflations of, for lack of a better word, entertainment with politics, or entertainers with politicians or whatever, rather than my feelings on Mr. S straight up, which are well known.

What that whole thing reminded of was what Dan talked about elsewhere when he was attending a Kerry rally last year in Boston and all the acts but one were driving him mad with boredom and all the other attendees made him hateful.

chuck and everybody else (but especially chuck) - ts: greg tate's 'coming to terms with brooce despite apprehensions' piece a couple of years ago vs. amy's piece now. what percentile was tate in?

the problem w/tom joad for me was that the music was mostly really uninspired if inoffensive, from the melodies to the arrangments, and so the lyrics didn't stick in your craw like they should've.

i thought the last record was a big improvement sound-wise (obviously he was taking a totally different tack but still).

i wonder if he can find some kind of medium between semiacoustic tedium and involving rawk...

i don't go to a new springsteen record expecting a revelation really.... though they do have real virtues, although not ones that probably interest most people on ILM.

What that whole thing reminded of was what Dan talked about elsewhere when he was attending a Kerry rally last year in Boston and all the acts but one were driving him mad with boredom and all the other attendees made him hateful.

I think you just have to turn off your critic brain (and try to turn off all misanthropic tendencies) for these things. I went to a Kerry event in January in New Hampshire and whatever music was on before and after was thoroughly lame, and the speakers killing time beforehand were uninteresting and told some painfully unfunny jokes. Kerry was brilliant during the Q & A, but the rest is part of the lame charade of the modern political campaign and ultimately just a necessary evil, I think. JK's people should have done better on the scheduling, though, to avoid all those long delays. Political events almost always have shitty music. I blame the musicians, really - my dad's generation had Bob Dylan, what have we got?

Did anyone hear the worshipful treatment NPR gave Bruce, or check out the Pareles piece in the NY Times? Apparently Bruce wrote these songs 10 years ago and just recently dug them out.

The role of age--is the average age of the audience members useful in knowing when you read a review? Can old Bruce or other over 50 musicians still write great pop melodies?

OTM...every album since Tunnel of Love has been an absolute snore, and even that one was a big downgrade from U.S.A.. The *songs* aren't there anymore. They aren't bad, they're just boring and forgettable.

I'll be skipping this one. Enough is enough.

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/107708/candlebox?pageid=rs.Artistcage&pageregion=triple1

(sound of back-slapping)

OTM. Why don't you just post links to the article on Springsteen fan boards if you're looking for kneejerk bile?

1. Who says we didn't?
2. People on Springteen boards never read Amy's Sonic Youth review.
3. I could live without the bile, to be honest; it's the 100 split-second reactions whenever an Amy review gets posted here that I love. Can any other critic do that these days? (Well, Derogatis, maybe. But pretty much nobody defends him.) Honestly, mainly I just wanted people to read the review. But by now, kneejerk bile is inevitable, so I might as well live with it. It really is kind of entertaining.

(I keep wanting to call it "Diesel & Dust," but Midnight Oil already used it)

but that's a few more "ehs" you can chalk up to your Provocative Music Section!, though.

yeah i think tunes are definitely what's missing with the bruce. even the two 1992 albums had better tunes than any since.

maybe he should do like chrissie hynde and liz phair and hire some hack songwriters to give him some help???

Depends on the context, Anthony. Only an absolute literalist would have taken the concept at face value anyway. I found it amusing.

>even though its been a decade since I've lived in Bloomington I still have a little too much sympathy for the Coog.<

Me too; have proclaimed his superiority over Springsteen for decades on end. But that doesn't mean I require my writers to agree with me.

>telling a band to break up is pretty puerile<

Oh baloney. Some bands *should* break up. And even if it *is* puerlie, since when is puerility a mortal sin in music criticism, anyway? Lots of music criticsm out there would be better if it was *more* puerile.

>i don't actually see much bile on this thread. responses were mostly along the lines of "eh."<

I love how, whenever any Amy Phillips link get posted, 100s of posters automatically chime in a matter of minutes with their "eh"s.

From the 4-24-05 NY Times article

Blount, you are delusional. Vikes will take it easily. bet it.

Yeah, man, passion is BAD. For fuck's sake, people have personal histories with this music stuff SHOCKAH. (Search: Xgau's preview of the NY Dolls show.) The critical/analytical shit is about as intriguing as a saltine and it takes a lot of balls to get all "emo" or whatever in your writing.

The Amy criticizing is so fucking tired and old. If you have problems with her age, gender, emotional attachments to the music, don't fucking read it. Grab People and read their music reviews.

Seriously, I'm fucking sick to death of the holier-than-thou attitudes whenever Amy's mentioned.

And fuck you, xhuxk, for getting me all riled up on this otherwise boring afternoon.

yep...it's not like the Lions have a history of being hyped then being a massive disappointment.

THE ROAR IS RESTORED!

I don't have a problem with any of those things. I couldn't care less if that article was written by her or by a fat balding black Jewish gay male. Nobody on this thread who has criticised the review has even said anything about Amy, other than to compare the Bruce review with the Sonic Youth one (which is a comparison that makes itself and needs no elaboration). Nonetheless, the people who are rushing to defend her are looking past the legitimate criticisms of the piece and are rushing to make pithy accusations of ageism, sexism, or whatever.

The problem with her "passion" is that it feels forced. I can't buy into her sentiment because she disliked Bruce's music for her entire life, then bought into his music along with some sort of college liberal "we're gonna change the world" dreamweaving, and then decided that his new album is crap. Sorry, but I'm not feeling the crushing letdown that she obviously wants us to empathise with. That's her fault as a writer and a fairweather Bruce fan, not as a 20-something woman.

ok never mind i shouldn't even have finished your post. forget it.

Oh, okay then; I would think Blenderification might be equated with "selling out," by maybe not. Anyway, sometimes I think the music section has become more boring too. But then I remember boring pieces that I ran five years ago, or that my predecessors ran for years, and I think of great new writers who have come into the section in the past couple years, and I don't feel so bad. I don't believe I publish more first-person stuff (which I've always liked, though in general my bosses haven't been crazy about it) or less "criticism and ideas" (which I've also always liked) now than I ever have, and I think it's foolish to pretend one negates the other anyway. But yeah, nobody is going to be a fan of every writer; what else is new? Tastes differ. I guess it just bugs me that the Voice music writers who people dismiss as hacks on this board almost always tend to be of Amy Phillips's gender. (She's not alone, but I don't feel like bringing other names into this.) At any rate, I actually think that one's response to the Voice music section these days might depend a lot on whether one sees it on line or in print, which might somewhat sway what exactly one considers the "music section" (i.e., the "blurb and blog" stuff, which isn't part of the three and half pages plus occasional feature I concern myself with week in/week out--honestly, I don't have time to think about b&b much beyond offering stray advice here and there to website folks; it's not like it *replaced* anything in my mind, the rest of the section is still there {and greg tate is writing way more reviews now than he has in years, by the way}, but yeah, if blurbs and blogs are what you're going to focus on, you're going to believe the section has changed more than I tend to believe the same.)

Anyway, to be honest (and as any sane person who's ever had a job might understand), I'm not crazy about talking about my job on line {which is why I avoided the thread you linked to above}; you also really have no idea how vocal a stance I may have taken here as far as the directions the Voice has taken re word-count, coverage of Saddle Creek bands, the website, etc. Let's just say I've dealt with the stuff every day for years, okay? Hard to believe in my mind that somebody could have dealt with it better, but you're welcome to think so if you want. And I also wish people who believe they can write better than the writers I publish should put their money where their mouth is and pitch me an idea once in a while. If it would make the section better, I'd welcome it. (And when it happens, which is actually fairly often, I do.) But that probably just makes me selfish.

Didn't Simon Reynolds catch a bad one recently (and for writing an article with dodgy classist/rockist inferrences) ("don't be fooled by her brown skin"?)?

I don't hate any of the writers in the Voice at all (and indeed my irritation with the whole Springsteen/Democrat/benefit love feast aspect above has jack to do with Phillips, it's because I am a freakin' cynic and would likely -- I resist saying definitely -- have reacted that way at nineteen as much as I do now). I'm just hesitant to pitch more to you, Chuck, in that I either find myself having little to say about things that are more immediately attention getting among many other people/writers/whatever or that what I do find interesting seems not to have much in the way of a potential niche. This is probably more building phantoms in my head with stereotypes of what *is* covered, but if a lot of the newer albums I'm listening to tend to consist of modern obscurodrone (without direct connections to, I dunno, Animal Collective or something), reissues of postpunk stuffage or random mp3s I've grabbed from the ether, then I tend to think, "I dunno, would Chuck et al even *care*?" Which is gracelessly self-defeating, I realize, but still. (I mean, personally I'd love to write on the reissues of the first couple of Gene Loves Jezebel albums somewhere because not only do I think they're hysterically over the top craziness but because they inadvertantly predated a lot of screamo/flail bizarreness. I'd LOVE to write about the Cure reissues but I already know how you feel about the Cure! Etc.)

haha you're not like me cuz I was a toddler then!

Aw. But it moves so well.

to this I say AMEN:

"Thirty years later, and largely thanks to Landau, Springsteen is no longer a musician. He's a belief system. And, like any belief system worth its salt, he brooks no in-between. You're either in or you're out. This has solidified Bruce's standing with his base, for whom he remains a god of total rock authenticity. But it's killed him with everyone else. To a legion of devout nonbelievers—they're not saying Bruuuce, they're booing—Bruce is more a phenomenon akin to Dianetics or Tinkerbell than "the new Dylan," as the Columbia Records promotions machine once hyped him. And so we've reached a strange juncture. About America's last rock star, it's either Pentecostal enthusiasm or total disdain."

http://www.newyorker.com/goingson/recordings/articles/050509gore_GOAT_recordings

"Popular music is good at using speed, physical sensation, and unmediated language to articulate the experience of life. Short stories are good at using carefully edited prose to slowly reveal the universal truths in everyday accidents. Making the former do the latter’s job sounds like a bad idea. That’s because it is a bad idea, though nobody told Bruce Springsteen."

adj : without the interposition of other agencies or conditions; "unmediated relations between God and man"

does Desmond Child qualify as an "agency"?

By Sasha's definition of pop's strong suits - "speed, physical sensation, and unmediated language" - it seems that the ultimate pop music would be something like Pig Destroyer: Speed? Check. Physical sensation? If you turn it up loud enough... Unmediated language? Well most of the time you can't even tell what the guy is screaming, so that is pretty unmediated.

This paragraph is a bit better.

Listening to The Ghost of Tom Joad again. It seems quite good, no problems, nothing dislikeable. It seems very close to Devils & Dust - 10 years apart, but so similar lyrically and structurally I feel. But the other similarity: the way he sings. He puts on this mannered (it it supposedly southern?) voice, on Tom Joad especially and in parts of Devils & Dust, which makes the words nigh incomprehensible!

Has anyone else had this problem with this late-Boss vocal strategy?

I've just realized that most of this thread is not about the Boss, but obscure Americans arguing what they did or didn't say about other obscure Americans.

Yes, I was excited to get Tom Joad when I read that it would be an acoustic record, but I've never gotten over the vocal affectation. I enjoyed Devils and Dust more. I think I'll revisit these songs; maybe after all the years I'll enjoy the voice more.