uh, there was that recent huge article in uncut where everyone goes on and on about bruce springsteen and how he's the greatest and so underrated and constantly misunderstood and so forth...
the article piqued my curiosity; now i'm asking you folks to make me a convert.
i realize that lyrically 'born in the usa' is just the opposite of the jingoist crap that the reaganites tried to make it out as being...i like the spookiness/hauntedness of 'i'm on fire'...i'm intrigued by his early lyrical style, like in 'blinded by the light'
but most of the stuff i've heard by him strikes me as being, well, just more of the same old boorish '70s and '80s style American Rock(tm). do the springsteen apologists/revisionists/reappraisers honestly enjoy the Music? are his lyrics really that Profound? isn't he just this dude in a bandanna, plain white t-shirt and blue jeans playing up to some tired and corny myth of the american working class stiff and his broken dreams?
i know his praises have been sung in this forum before...i'm asking you to step up again and state the case for the greatness of errmmm, The Boss (sorry, couldn't resist)
― Dallas Yertle (Dallas Yertle), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 10:39 (twenty-two years ago)
Y'know...when I was a wee one (twelve or thirteen) I was *obsessed* with him--this was before "Born In The USA," mind you, around the time he released 'Nebraska'--then went on to lose interest, and, as his records became more and more exactly the way you describe, felt this loss of interest justified.
I think the true proof of this for me was when he jettisoned the E Street Band and--while I reckoned he could've had any band he wanted behind him (I remember thinking, The Pogues would've been a good idea) he hired...Jeff Porcaro and a bunch of wussy sessioneers. Fuck him, I thought. (And the lyrics--which were never too special--*really* began to blow.)
Then, recently, someone gave me a 2-disc boot, excellent fidelity, of a show in Philadelphia in 1975. This is right before Born to Run came out (in fact he gives a few of those tunes their first public airing,) and, uh, it's unbelievable. The energy, the humor (that's right, humor, if you can imagine such a thing,) the sheer involvement with every note: Patti Smith, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan and Lou Reed at their absolute peaks--I swear to God not *one* of them could compete with this. It's stunning: there's a version of "I Want You" to rival Dylan's original (from which it differs completely in tone and tempo,) and a cover of "Back In The USA"--God help us, standard bar-band fare you'd imagine--which mops the floor with the MC5's. No one could have remained this great over time, but I stand by this as the best live recording I've ever heard. I'm *not* a Springsteen missionary, and I reckon the way you describe him holds good for the last 20 years (plus) of his career...he's one of those guys where each record was less fun than its predecessor--none of his studio albums are great--but if you can ever lay hands on this (it's famously booted as "You Can Trust Your Car to The Man With The Star," I believe,) you should. You and anyone else who spots it...
― M Specktor (M Specktor), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 12:25 (twenty-two years ago)
so underrated?!?! And the planet the person who wrote the article lives on is called...?
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 13:36 (twenty-two years ago)
...Uncut?!?
hm, then again Uncut, tho not literally a planet,
is flat, literally...
― t''t, Tuesday, 22 April 2003 13:42 (twenty-two years ago)
wow, your description of the boot sounds amazing.
thanks for your post.
― Dallas Yertle (Dallas Yertle), Tuesday, 22 April 2003 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)