I love him. I especially like 1975-1987 (Tunnel of Love), but I think there were some gems sprinkled throughout all the records since then, especially most of The Rising record where it seemed to take the 9/11 tragedy to get the best writing out of him. I haven't liked much of the last decade, but I always give anything he does a chance. I think the thing I like the most about Bruce Springsteen is that, more than almost any other artist, you can tell he loves rock 'n' roll, he BELIEVES in rock 'n' roll the way a lot of us do when we're younger. For him, whatever turned him on about rock 'n' roll the first time he heard it, it still turns him on now.
Superb post. Springsteen's enjoyment of rock & roll and his enjoyment of interacting with his audience is precisely what makes his music, special. He loves people, his country, communicating. He has an inner decency. If he were a nihilist like some other superstar rockers I could mention I would not be listening.
Somewhere in the old closed threads someone suggested that the Japanese edition of Nebraska was different from the US edition somehow or another. What was he talking about, anyone know?
I know people on this forum don't rate Pitchfork, but a few days ago they had a look at Nebraska. They did a bang up job too. Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska Album Review | Pitchfork
Outstanding essay. Well-researched, well-writ, trenchant insights. Thanks for the link. I just ordered Springsteen's autobiography -- a pricey First Edition in pristine dust-jacket, of course. Also ordered the unabridged talking-book audio edition. On CD. Not sure who reads it, but I figured I should get 'em both.
It's wacky tunnel of love was seen a let down for whatever reason. I was disappointed but it has aged well. Itcontains 4 or 5 really good songs which make it a solid album . Valentine's day is a great song.
I have a love hate relationship with Bruce. My favorite album is The River. I adore The Ghost Of Tom Joad, I think it's his masterpiece as a songwriter. I particularly don't like his moral high ground politics preaching, especially when he hasn't had to work hard jobs like the common man, but that goes for a lot of celebrities who think they hold some special moral high ground over us. I think he has done a lot of good though with the food banks and with the Vietnam vets in the early 80's.
From the cover: "Read by the author" I just checked this audiobook out from my local library: it's 16 CDs!
I tracked down an earlier Springsteen related thread where I posted this story. Copied here for your enjoyment..... I've mentioned before that during the 60's my family used to vacation in Asbury Park every summer. I suspect that last time we vacationed there was in August 1969. The riots were the following summer, which is when my family and everybody else stopped going to Asbury Park. I remember all the freaks hanging out at Convention Hall for a Led Zeppelin concert, so that's how I can pinpoint the date. Anyway, we always stayed at The Berkeley Carteret hotel. A pretty ritzy place for the time. I'm not positive of the year this occurred, but I used to play pool in the game room. Over the period of a couple of days, I started playing with some older, scruffy, looking guy, who clearly was not staying at the hotel. He told me he was a musician. In 1969, I was 13 years old. The scruffy looking guy caught a glimpse of my attractive 18 year old sister and asked me how old she was. This could have occurred a year or three earlier, so my sister would have been jail bait. I often wondered what the name was of that scruffy looking guy.
Read by the author? Springsteen reads the entire book aloud? Wow. I may not read the book after all. Consider this: when we read a book, we hear it in our own voice. The voice in our head. We interpret how the emotions are, what the mood and feeling is. Like, I used to read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Then he put out an audio version, reading it himself. His voice changes the experience. He interprets the subtleties of his story different than my mind did. The book became a different story under Bradbury's own voice. I'll just listen to Springsteen read aloud. I'll bet he reads it as if it's a song. The voice of Springsteen on 16 CD's. Looking forward to it.
He was the first artist I really got into in the 80's (I was born in78). My late stepdad had a rega planar 2 with a trio amp and used to play nebraska, the river and born to run all the time. Then when born in the USA came out I absolutely loved it. I remember putting dancing in the dark on 10 times in a row down at the local asylum social club (he worked in the asylum). He realised what I'd done after 4 plays and we made a sharp exit as people were beginning to look a bit agitated by it! It still amuses me wondering if what the people in there must've thought as it came on again and again and again! I saw Bruce a few years ago and hate to say it went on too long! Wish I'd seen him before 1990 when his sentiment was so relevant and true, to me anyway. Somehow it doesn't seem to fit as well in this day and age. I still find many of the tracks mentioned on the albums above very emotional to listen to, which is perhaps why I don't listen to them often anymore. I will always go back to them though.
The show I saw at Winterland in December '78, the night after the KSAN broadcast, was incredible, the likes of which I can't compare to much else other than the days when the Dead did three sets. (That comparison is relative to time on stage rather than presentation...). Have seen many fine shows since and I have nothing but respect for the man.
Tunnel love is underrated going from memory it is the follow up to the monster born in the USA album which didnt age as well imo. I never thought his rockers were that great. The first abum is unlike any of his other albums. I like it. The second album has the best sound but i rarely listen to much of it anymore. Born to run I still like jungleland but that's it. Nothing from darkness anymore for me.
I can't relate to this talk about Springsteen's decline or playing too long. I used to like going to see John Wayne movies in the 1970s. Not only the new ones, but some of the older films from the 1950s were re-released as double-features or as co-features to his new films. Some, like True Grit and The Cowboys and The Shootist were superb westerns, but others weren't very good. It didn't matter. I knew about his politics which I disagreed with mostly but that didn't matter either. I liked spending time with John Wayne. I could have been critical and ripped those movies apart, especially when I was in broadcast school and later in film school, I could have torn those films down. But what's the point of doing that. I liked John Wayne; I recognized his good nature and responded to his decency. He was fun and adventurous up there on the screen. I had several years to do that and then he died. Someone special left us. Likewise, I'm not going to get into a critical rut over Springsteen. I'm so glad he's still with us and doing what he does. At the age of 68 it's not so easy. A career won't all be great, but who says he has to be great or perfect all the time. Whatever he does is okay with me.
I totally agree. However I do think there is more hit and miss in the last 20 years in the catalogue. I also think that since Human Touch/Lucky Town he has had a tendancy (in the CD age) to release albums that are too long/contain too many songs and needed to be edited. Compare with BTR (8), and Darkness, Nebraska , BITUSA (10). Still the best in the business live. The later albums contain some of his best work but there is definitely filler and some are too long. By filler I don't mean that the songs are bad - just that they diminish the album because they are not as strong as the songs around them. Which songs you identify as filler is very much YMMV - don't want to debate that - but they are on all of those albums and the length of the album increases their impact. Still buy everything he releases though!
I'm a big admirer of Mr Springsteen and regularly listen to his music. Unfortunately I haven't yet had the opportunity to see him live but I did get to meet him and get a signed copy of his autobiography a couple of years ago. I still have to pinch myself and look at the photo evidence sometimes to remind myself that it actually happened!
I used to be a big fan of Springsteen - the concert I saw on The River tour in early 1981 is still one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen, but when he started promoting presidential candidates (starting in 2004), it totally turned me off and I haven’t bought another album of his since.
Essential Springsteen threads: Poll: When did you see Bruce Springsteen live on stage for the first time? Springsteen Nebraska CD Original Mix (Japan) Springsteen Live Archive Releases
