Springsteen Album-By-Album Discussion/Costume Party

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Dr. Zoom, May 31, 2019.

  1. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    They weren't. 1995 is when he first became forthrightly politically active (discounting a few general or one-off statements on earlier tours). His kids had just finished being born at that point.
     
  2. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    Yes, but they're not the crowd that ever did the whole "hero worship" thing with Springsteen. THAT group is mostly on the other side of the political gulf.
     
  3. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    I would hope so.
     
  4. GMfan87'

    GMfan87' Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT.
    The big arenas no matter who you go see,the crowds can be a problem unfortunately.
    But I find the majority at the Springsteen shows are die hard fans.
     
  5. GMfan87'

    GMfan87' Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT.
    He always made comments from the stage but I'm talking about in the 00's when it was reported on , talked about more.
     
  6. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    I disagree.
     
  7. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    Self-invention is certainly an almost indispensable part of being a successful performing artist, in America or probably anywhere.
     
  8. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    They might be, they might not be. It depends on who the guy down the street is.
     
  9. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    And what was the commercial advantage in 1962 or 1963? Folk was a niche genre and market at the time. Still, he was clearly trying to create a persona, but you have to ask, for what kind of audience? Nevertheless, I was referring to five decades of misdirection.
     
  10. JoeF.

    JoeF. Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    I agree with this and I had some of the same experiences you describe.

    But what I meant is there are a lot of college educated writers --and other media figures--from social "classes" ( I hate that word because we're not supposed to be about that here, but for want of a better term...) higher than Bruce's who have no real conception of working or blue collar aside from what they see in movies or read in novels.

    I would say that Jon Landau--who fits that description--envisioned Bruce as a "bard of the working class" and did what he could to mold Bruce into that persona. That's why he gave him that syllabus (well, according to Marsh) of Steinbeck novels and Guthrie biographies and B&W films. Landau couldn't make Bruce anything he wanted, but he could push him in a certain direction.

    And lo and behold, Bruce started writing about the poor and downtrodden, the hard cases and the forgotten, the voiceless.

    I think a corner was turned--in terms of public and media perception-- in the wake of BitUSA. I remember the late journalist Hugh Downs on one of ABC 's news programs (20/20 ?) extolling the virtues of Bruce and hailing him as a "Modern day Walt Whitman."

    And there you go.....
     
  11. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    He's not a fraud at all. And that aw shucks, please DO pay attention to the man behind the curtain, is part of the performance. No doubt. But he does seem to be genuinely plagued by guilt at times about his success and the nature of the subject matter that made him famous. I think it's another one of those legacies of a Catholic upbringing. Springsteen is one of the most Catholic American artists this side of Flannery O'Connor. It's hard for me to even thing about his work without thinking about American Catholicism and its impact on the man and his work.
     
    Tom Campbell, robcar and JoeF. like this.
  12. JoeF.

    JoeF. Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    For most people, the guy down the street ain't Bruce.
     
  13. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    I doubt Springsteen has gained many new fans in the U.S. with this politically-charged music and rhetoric over the past two decades. With respect to his standing in the U.S., it isn't as if his music really reaches anyone beyond his deep fan-base anymore. His last several albums haven't even gone platinum in the U.S., a country with over 300 million potential consumers. I suspect his political affiliations are not as influential as you think they are. While his established base that already agrees with his politics is often supportive of his politically outspoken conduct, I would be surprised if other liberals have jumped on board simply because they share his political viewpoints. In the end, they still have to like the music, and if they didn't like it before, there is no reason to think they are suddenly going to be into the back-catalogue and duds like Working On A Dream, Wrecking Ball, and High Hopes simply because they vote for the same candidate. That seems unlikely.

    You certainly are free to dismiss criticism about the deterioration of Springsteen's work and writing as some sort of guise by which certain posters are hiding their real motives (i.e. denouncing Springsteen's politics), but I would argue that is cynical.
     
    BeatleBruceMayer, GMfan87' and JoeF. like this.
  14. JoeF.

    JoeF. Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    Sure, calling himself a bit of a con, tinged with (Boardwalk) fraud is part of the act.
    And part of the "fraud."
     
  15. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    It wasn't really a niche at all. "Tom Dooley" had been a global number 1 record for the Kingston Trio in 1959, the group's first album spend 195 weeks on the Billboard album chart during the period! Joan Baez was on the cover of Time magazine in 1962. Folk music was at its commercial peak at the time. The folk revival was in full swing. You could get laid playing folk music on a college tour! It was one of the hottest things in showbiz, but it was also still insular enough a scene for a newcomer to have a change to make a splash, if you were in the right place and got to know the right tastemakers with the right story.
     
  16. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    I think it was niche. It represented a segment of popular music, and there were success stories (e.g. The Kingston Trio), but it was hardly a prominent and defining one, both commercially and economically. Dylan himself would change that.
     
  17. JoeF.

    JoeF. Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    I think you are wrong about that, if for no other reason than--as you say yourself--many don't like Bruce because of his politics.

    You also seem to imply that those who are educated, perhaps more affluent, don't engage in "hero worship."

    That is laughable.
     
  18. GMfan87'

    GMfan87' Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT.
    Don't know about any of you but I certainly never liked or continued to listen to any music let alone Springsteen because of politics.
    Can't we all agree to disagree and move on to next album ??:)
     
  19. JoeF.

    JoeF. Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    There certainly was a folk music boom from roughly 1959 to 1963-it actually began earlier and lasted awhile longer, but that was the peak--but it was (literally) electrocuted by Dylan.
     
  20. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    I don't agree. A hot pop culture trend was on. It broke big in '58, and kept growing into '62. Dylan deliberately was looking to ride the wave.
     
    robcar likes this.
  21. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    Yeah, it is probably time to move on to the illustrious Working On A Dream. @Dr. Zoom?
     
    GMfan87' likes this.
  22. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    Right. He rode it to prominence, then killed it. No wonder there were all pissed off at him.
     
    JoeF. likes this.
  23. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    Exactly. I am not suggesting it was an unknown genre.
     
  24. JoeF.

    JoeF. Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    yes, I'm ready to move on....
     
    GMfan87' likes this.
  25. JoeF.

    JoeF. Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    Some were pissed that they didn't think of it first.
     

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