'tougher than the rest'

this fucking song.

i was prepared for the stadium/video version to suck but those horns work perfectly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_91hNV6vuBY&ob=av2e

his finest hour IMO.

my homemade version of tunnel of love just skips ain't got you and starts right off with this doozy. i also cut out cautious man and spare parts. it's still 36 minutes long. and the best album her ever made.

I like 'Ain't Got You' but it does feel like a preamble/intro. Tunnel of Love is definitely my favourite Springsteen though.

i also cut out cautious man and spare parts

I skip those too.

Everything But The Girl have a lovely cover of "Tougher..."

you have excellent taste in bruce springsteen songs, amateurist.

I first became familiar with this song thanks to this great disco edit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFpJp29MELM

This song is the best. Love it

my homemade version of tunnel of love just skips ain't got you

crazy imo

honestly as a huge bruce fan i've never really understood the adoration of this song, but it is possible i am not in the 'tunnel of love' phase of my life

*quite yet

Both those versions are fabulous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsV2WTIpbGA

this is pretty but it doesn't touch the original IMO

love that martin vogel edit so much

xpost

they also botch a few lyrics. i know we've been over this on ILM. but i can't find it. this entire thread is giving me deja vu.

btw i just tried to listen to 'human touch' and holy shit the arrangements/production on so many of those songs is just so fucking pedestrian. 'lucky town' has some redeeming qualities.

fwiw my favorite springsteen songs OTOH. i haven't tried to be P.C. and include the new stuff which i don't care much for.

tougher than the rest
dancing in the dark
i'm on fire
born in the usa
brilliant disguise
the ties that bind
nebraska
one step up
walk like a man
stolen car

omg that martin vogel edit

there's a funereal aspect to the video version of this song

well the video really projects self-importance if that's what you mean.

discovering a springsteen classic through disco edits. only on ilm

love this song (and the edit is cool)

well the video really projects self-importance if that's what you mean.

hahaha i mean the horns! the statelier tempo! etc.

Were he and Patti a public thing when they made that video?

Also, why hasn't some huge country star covered this?

Greg Hawks has a good version but I can't find it online to link. Here's his bio though
http://www.greghawksmusic.com/biography.html

He is...not exactly a huge country star, but his version is straight country iirc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PAZOLOhxos

Chris LeDoux?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM0AZW7f-1k&feature=related

Hmm, guess Emmylou did it in 1990, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAX2NF2zByc

Live in Vegas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irLOtpIg6xo

One of the better covers, because it realises the song is not about toughness, but loneliness. That Cher version takes the Springsteen arrangement, without paying the slightest attention to the lyric, and destroys the song. And though I like Camera Obscura's reading, I think is one of those songs that really needs Springsteen's voice for the bruised dignity to work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70he4zgJzoU

The Mavericks famously covered "All That Heaven..." in the mid nineties.

yeah i guess i don't buy that singer as someone who's been around the block a few times.

also this song has an extra frisson sung by a man with a *masculine* voice, b/c as people have pointed out it's among other things a confession of vulnerability.

xpost

Seriously you need to hear the Greg Hawks version -- the guy sings it like he means it and understands what it means.