"Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen -- who really enjoys this overproduced crappy glop?

I like that album, but I didn't like it for a long time when I was force-fed it on the radio back in the day. The way I get a handle on it is to focus on certain small moments, like "when the screen door slams [and] Mary's dress waves," so that I am not totally swept away by the bombast. Then I gradual divide and conquer. Sort of like an approach described on the Guided By Voices thread.

And this album wasn't supposed to be stripped down, it was deliberately Phil Spector-esque.

Of course, I prefer Darkness On The Edge of Town.

I listen to Q104 on my crappy kitchen radio, because it's all we can get besides NPR and 1010 Wins (and some crappy salsa stations).

I was actually just referring to the song, not the entirety of the album.

[[sees someone else in class raising hand, and decides to raise own hand too, even though he prefers slightly later, stripped-down bruce, and even though he agrees bruce wasn't very good at the whole production thing]]

xpost:
"gradually," put tense from present to past,etc. I think I better stop now.

you really, really, really don't need to add that [and]. please remove it at once. it's making my eyes and my ears hurt. k bye.

[Why the fcuk did I put that "and" there?]

Frankie Goes to Hollywood definitely did a better cover version of "War" by Edwin Starr than Bruce did, that's for sure. (They did theirs *first*, so I always wondered whether they influenced *him*, just like Suicide and the Dictators -- who he apparently shared studio time with in early days -- respectively may or may not have influenced the spare screaming mass-murder songs on *Nebraska and his rhyming of "growing up" with "throwing up" on his debut album)

I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE!

Re FGTH being overproduced as well, absolutely and we wouldn't have it any other way! Their Born To Run version seemed so much more wound up and excited than the original. But, you know, respect to Bruce and all that.

xpost:
My bad. It was "Trapped." I just can't get on the good foot on this thread.

but sometimes even the truth contains typos.

The album that got me over my indie Bruce fear was Nebraska. That album gets better with every listen. Just stunning. Darkness would seem to be my next best step. I can get them all cheap on vinyl easy peasy.

well ain't that the pot calling the kettle black!
Precisely.

Search is slow, otherwise I would post the link where Momus hollas for fcc.

Something else readers of this thread might enjoy: Max Weinberg's drummer interview book- The Big Beat.

there i go, spouting the truth again.

Still, I figure that Darkness on the Edge of Town is his best album overall, with '78-'80 being his peak.

(xp: Bruce LPs on used vinyl are like $3-4 each [The River around $6] and definitely key to the experience.)

But wait...

I think I've kind of always wanted Bruce Springsteen to sound more like Jackson Browne so I am digging this. Also reminding me again of the existence of the Hold Steady who did a pretty decent pastiche on "Stuck Between Stations."

Dude! Enunciate!

i always figured that mumbling thing was the product of severe underbite + not opening mouth to speak

Also, for a belter, Bruce back then was pretty shy. So maybe it was a form of modesty manifesting itself at the wrong time in the wrong song? He opens up his voice more as the song goes on, though.

I always figured that mumbling thing was the product of Dylan/Van Morrison emulation (and is really the major thing I DO like about "Born To Run.") Like, enunciation was not the thing that made Rolling Stones records rock.

Bruce back then was pretty shy

Think it's fair to say he's overcome it since

i like his bad vocals and mumbling on this song

Album is 45 years old today

I'm as old as it is, but it is better than I am.

I like it

BABY THIS TOWN RIPS THE BONES FROM YOUR BACK, IT'S A DEATH TRAP, IT'S A SUICIDE RAP

Little dramatic in spots, no?

But then you hear the new Killers album and realize it's actually kinda subtle.

ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

THE HIGHWAY’S JAMMED WITH BROKEN HEROES ON A LAST CHANCE POWER DRIVE
EVERYBODY’S OUT ON THE RUN TONIGHT
BUT THERE’S NO PLACE LEFT TO HIDE


if for whatever reason you cannot fuck with this kind of awesomeness then i cannot help you

otm

Does this thread mention the case of Steve Van Zandt and the unheard string bend?

Explain please

When The Boss played the original recording of BTR: The Song for Miami Steve the first time, he said something like "I particularly like that minor key riff" to which Springsteen replied "What minor key riff?" Turns out he had been doing a string bend but in that Spectoresque arrangement with all that stuff in it you couldn't hear the bent note. So they went back and redid the guitar part and the whole mix again which took quite a bit of time back in the day.

i haven't heard this song in ages! i love it tho

I think it might be in the doc, where they play the minor version of it? Anyway, the minor didn't work, obviously.

Yes, Springsteen talks about it in doc. Some interviews online with Miami Steve about it as well.

ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

THE HIGHWAY’S JAMMED WITH BROKEN HEROES ON A LAST CHANCE POWER DRIVE
EVERYBODY’S OUT ON THE RUN TONIGHT
BUT THERE’S NO PLACE LEFT TO HIDE

if for whatever reason you cannot fuck with this kind of awesomeness then i cannot help you

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 01:27 (eleven hours ago) link

otm

― whiney on the moon (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 01:37 (eleven hours ago) link

otm

It's the most direct descendant of Like a Rolling Stone, but filtered through suburban 50s teenage greaser angst. Rebel with a Cause: Getting the Fuck Out of Here. At nearly 48, no song quite connects me to the rush, hope, romanticism, and desperation of being young. Fuck tha haters.

All the lore is classic, not least that Springsteen really had no idea what he had on his hands. Hence the tale of him sitting on it for 6 months, not sure what to do with it, convinced he ripped it off from somewhere. Or my fave illustration, the classic Main Point '75 boot, where "Born to Run" comes third (!) in the set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARuCO6RGAJU&list=RDARuCO6RGAJU&start_radio=1

First comment, btw: "This is the version where you still hear the 'minor' chord that Van Zandt via Springsteen gets removed from the final recorded version. Van Zandt later expressed being 'undecided' about whether he (they) had made the right decision or not! Judge for yourself!"

Weird: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARuCO6RGAJU

I love that boot, because you can here how small of a venue it is and, together with the intro by Ed Sciaky, Bruce just sounds like some minor local bar band with a loyal following (which I guess he is on some level).

*hear*

Main Point is the one thing by Bruce that I'd keep if I could keep no other.

I would probably agree. The "Incident on 57th Street" with the violin that kicks off the album is my favorite thing he has ever done. It amplifies the melodrama of the album version.

yeah that's my favorite bruce song & that's my favorite version of it

that version is so beautiful

?Meeting Across the River" is my fave, with "throw that money," acoustic guitar for "on the bed---she'll see I wasn't just talkin'---and I'm gonna go out walkin'...", trumpet solo, "Heyyy Eddie can you get us a ride..."piano, trumpet

Bruce Springsteen – vocals
Roy Bittan – piano
Richard Davis – double bass
Randy Brecker – trumpet

("Acoustic guitar" may have been how I heard bass of the late great Richard Davis at some points.)

"Late"? He's not dead yet.

Hoped you'd say that! At this point, I just assume, esp. w venerable jazzers.

Jazz guys can live pretty long these days.

Listening to this album again and I'm struck as always by how much it's basically two distinct EPs with identical structures/sequencing. I've never met another album that gives me such a vivid sense of "End of side one, now get up and turn the record over" even when I'm listening to it on my phone.

I heard the title track in a shopping centre a couple of weeks ago.

it sure beats most of the crap of today!

The key to this song is to see it performed live.

Seriously, it is hard not to be a Springsteen fan after seeing him perform.

Is this the only Springsteen recording with wah-wah guitar on it?

I like it okay, but not as much as his first album, his fourth one, and probably a couple others by him. (also not as much as many, many john cougar mellencamp, bob seger, thin lizzy, boomtown rats, and iron city houserockers albums.) (it is probably better than *bat out of hell* and *slippery when wet,* though.)
― chuck, Tuesday, January 4, 2005 6:58 PM (seventeen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

*chef kiss*

loool

have to respect the joe grushecky shoutout tho

xhuxk’s kiss

For the “Jungleland” instrumental section before “in the parking lot” it often seems like he shouts “sax!” and then proceeds to play a guitar solo.

Unless Nils plays it

Not to be confused with
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WXgHkujfI0

I think Springsteen plays all the guitars on that album.

Actually I was talking about live versions, sorry

Hammersmith Odeon ‘75 he calls for that solo by saying “Something!” a few times.