Springsteen's Letter To You thread (second try)

Good point.

 

"Yea well, it's the same reaction in every situation
Do you really think it's so necessary to be so mean
Yeah, and it's hard for me to justify my position
Yeah, when everything that I'm saying can be said bad about Mr.
Springsteen, yea"

Mellencamp's "The Kid Inside" from 1977

 

Yeah I wouldn't say Bruce's work was greater than Petty's, but I do feel Bruce's "pretensions" were greater that Petty.

 

I was fortunate enough to see Petty on the last tour. A great double bill with Joe Walsh opening. Petty was hobbled and needed help getting to the stairs leading to the stage but he was positively glowing and seemed lifted up as the performance went on. He always seemed like a genuine guy who just loved rock n' roll and the fact that he could do it for a living - and very well, I might add.

 

Yes, it's fair to say Bruce widened his scope when he began to move away from cars and girls.

 

Petty always played with the Heartbreakers. He may have done a few solo records but he had band members on the records and subsequent tours.

 

Oh, that's terrible. I'm so sorry for you. If I had been there I would have raised hell, or at least advocated for you and the other handicapped folks who were treated so thoughtlessly.
Please don't lose faith, there are people who are considerate. Frankly, I have not gone to many shows in the last 10 years or so. People are rude with their cell phones, etc. Too many jerks...
Re: Jerry Miller, I was lucky to have seen him live more than a few times in the last days of Moby Grape (in San Francisco,) and his "Some Days Are Like That" album (cd) is one of my favs
along with all the great Moby Grape albums as well! - Regards, Chris

 

Only good songs (imo):
Burnin' Train
Ghosts
Song For Orphans
I'll See You In My Dreams

 

Mellencamp has often cited Springsteen's influence. One anecdote on comparing his live shows to Bruce's - "Bruce does a marathon, we do a sprint."

 

I do think that Petty's stuff always seem natural, easy going, and organic, and didn't have the overly "labored" feeling that a lot of Bruce's later work suffers from.

 

If he left Joe off it wouldn't have hurt the record, I grant you that. I tend not to dwell on a couple of less than stellar songs to the detriment of the whole piece.

 

Mellencamp is a more genuine artist than Springsteen (imo), he did not like any of the "Rock Star" crap, and is happy painting.
He only got as far as he did because his record company pushed him into it. Saw his interview with Dan Rather and it was pretty
revealing (and refreshing, actually). One of the best concerts I ever saw was John "Cougar" (Mellencamp) opening for Heart
in the early 80's. He was great, and did a lot of covers (Stones, Humble Pie,) not having many of his own songs yet.

 

I think Western Stars needs "Sleepy Joe" in the same way Nebraska needs "Open All Night."

 

For the past 50 years, it's always been a battle to get decent disabled seating. When I started going to shows in the 70s, I don't even think any special seating was in place yet. By the 80s most arenas were starting to provide it and it's been mostly larger venues where I've been able to get good seats. When I saw Bruce in 2016, I had the best seats ever for one of his shows, right over stage left, so close I could read his teleprompter and see his "SEATTLE" location reminder on the edge of the stage. Clubs are hit or miss. Sometimes they'll let me up front, other times it's back at the bar where I can't see anything. The Steven show just made me wonder if all the trouble was still worth it.

 

That's why it's too bad Sleepy Joe doesn't work. I agree that Western Stars needs at least one up tempo number.

 

That was the joke and generic criticism of him back in the late 70's-early 80's. Of course his songs had cars and girls in them, but they were never really about at face value, girls or cars, the way say The Beach Boys were.

"Rosalita" isn't really about a girl, but about having unstoppable hopes and dreams.

"Racing In The Street" isn't really about cars or racing, but the death of those hopes and dreams.

That's why I say Bruce was always trying to reach for something heavier than the 3 minute pop/rock song. Sometimes he succeeded, sometimes failed, but he always seemed to be trying to say something more trenchant, a lot of people find that pretentious but I find it to be an admirably quality in him, his life, and work.

 

Although it’s highly unlikely, I hate to say i think it’s possible. Anytime you have someone with deep seated depression, who is already on heavy psych meds, the door can get opened quite easily to anything that will provide relief. Especially if the body starts to break down. If you had told me 10 years ago that Prince and Tom Petty would both be dead due to accidental narcotic overdoses, I would have said you’re crazy.

Such a shame Tom didn’t take better care of himself. There was a lot more water yet to come from that well. But Tom always did things his way.

 

It’s the 66th song Springsteen has written about “regular people going out on Friday night and having fun”.
65 of them are better.

 

A passage from Frederic Dannen's books Hit Men regarding JCM: "The rock star had a wholesome public image—he helped organize Farm Aid, a benefit concert for bankrupt American farmers—but in private he was a hard case. His former manager, Billy Gaff, once said of him, not altogether unkindly, 'John would murder his mother for a hit record.'”

I suspect John pushed just as hard as Springsteen, at roughly the same time in the 80s, for stardom in something resembling his own terms. I surely don't resent either for doing so - great things came from those ambitions, in John's case a string of hit singles and albums that we're still listening to and talking about. I don't have any idea if a behind-the-curtains glimpse of how he functions at that level of stardom would be as revealing and complicated as Springsteen's. But it doesn't seem like it would? Both felt comfortable enough to go on living near where they were raised, and nearly everyone I know from central Jersey has a Springsteen story regarding how unassuming and friendly he has been in small public appearances or chance meetings. And even shorter than expected.

The older I get, the more I prefer JCM and his more prickly, unpolished image. I keep a playlist in iTunes called American Cheese that has nothing but Springsteen, Mellencamp, Seger and Petty. (And a few other liked-mined artists from the turn of the 80s. Think "This Town" by Michael Stanley Band or "Have a Good Time (but Get Out Alive) by The Iron City Houserockers.) That frame of mind is as much a time and place (rural America, late 70s into early 80s, high school into college) that serve as numerous touchstones for me. I find myself playing that list quite often, but most often while out driving. That's a hard connection for a middle-aged man to define, or break.

 

I could never get into JCM, I found him pretentious and the various criticisms that I attribute to Bruce now.

Once I found out about his being a big fan of the Lovin’ Spoonful, I gave that impression a rest.

Still, the only thing I have is Rough Harvest, which a friend gave me.

Kudos to his Farm Aid involvement, but a lot of times I see him, I can’t get Robert Blake out of my mind.

 

One other thing about Petty and his roots, it was great when he would have someone like Winwood, etc., open for him, and join onstage.

 

I definitely agree with you but I would argue that for Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys it was also always about more than cars and girls.

 

One thing that I always wondered about when it came to heroin use by famous musicians is "who or what" turned them on to the drug? Everyone knows how addictive that drug is and how it has left scores in it's wake.
I guess I can understand how it may have been in the '60's and rock stars were surrounded by hangers on, acolytes and assorted other sycophants, or who spent their time with a desiccated, debauched , spoiled upper-class jet set ---I'm guess I'm thinking of Swinging London.

I bring this up not to pass judgment , but to set up my point that it would be highly unlikely that Bruce--who has not even a rumor of illegal drug use in his past, has never been known to hang around with that type of crowd, and is surrounded by a carefully vetted coterie of mostly longtime employees, handlers and aides--would succumb to that particular temptation.

 

Yes, but "Open All Night" added to the Nebraska. "Sleepy Joe" detracts from Western Stars.

"House of 1,000,000 Guitars" on LTY is in the same class as "Sleepy Joe."

 

Very true to that, and even their pure "car" songs (409, Shutdown, Little Deuce Coupe, Don't Worry Baby, Get Around) are some of the greatest pop songs of all time, and with Wilson you're talking pure pop genius of the highest order.