Hey My girl gave me that book for my birthday way back when, she knew I liked this Bruce Springsteen person.
Maybe some of us find the "rehashed mediocre albums from decades ago" better than new music. I amsorry, but I have only found one new band worth listening to. That would be the Adam Ezra Band. They opened for Southside Johnny. I listen to The Underground Garage and Debatable on Sirius and do not find any of the new rock music they play interesting enough to listen to.
Interesting you don't find anything on The Underground Garage you like. I'm just the opposite. The weekly "Coolest Song in the World" feature has led me to some really great bands like Kurt Baker, Prima Donna, The Dollyrots, Kris Rodgers and the Dirty Gems and many more. One of the few outlets that'll play new releases from veteran acts that aren't widely known like Jesse Malin and Sloan. But like everything in life, your results may vary.
From Rolling Stone's 1992 interview with Bruce Springsteen: Rolling Stone: Did you ever think about not releasing Human Touch? Springsteen: Yeah, except that every time I listened to it, I liked it. Also, I wanted to put out a lot of music, because I didn’t want to be dependent on my old songs when I went out to tour. I wanted to have a good body of work to draw from when I hit the stage. Link: Bruce Springsteen Leaves E Street: The Rolling Stone Intervi
The lyrics are weak and cliched. Not as bad as “Streets of Fire”, but still of a lesser quality than the rest of the album. It’s just a far lesser song than “Factory”. So is “Candy’s Room” for that matter.
I am very impressed with your research....Mr. Graveyard Tell me, do you prefer gravedigger, cemetery worker, or burial ground custodian? Or are you more like the Undertaker, yelling "Rest In Peace" at people, and choke slamming them if they piss you off? Where do you get the time to do all your methodical research, Mr. Dirty Hands? Read by graveside with a flashlight? See my complete interview with Graveyardboots in the next issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
One day he was riding in a taxi, and the driver kept complaining how he had to prove it all day to his boss, then he would finally get home, and have to prove it all night to his wife. Bruce had a song he was writing in 1977 called "Come On (Let's Go Tonight)", which he brought to the sessions unfinished, but it went, "a man who lost his only wife, he walks down these streets with death in his eyes, everybody wants heaven, but nobody wants to die, come on, come on, let's go tonight". Then one day in July or August 1977, he came to work with new lines about "the working life" and changed the death in the eyes part to represent the look you get after working day after day in a plastics factory like his dad. One line said, "job takes his hearing, but he understands", yeah right, with death in his eyes; he changed it in March 1978, with the overdub, "factory takes his hearing, factory gives him life". Also, he did not start calling it The Factory Song until January 1978. Factory is a very good song, there is no argument there. He also had David Lindley come in and record a violin section for it, but deleted it before the final mix, relying on Roy's piano and Danny's organ, and the new vocals he recorded on March 10, 1978. Prove It All Night was completed by September 16, 1977, and I don't have to lecture any Springsteen fan on what he did with it on the Darkness tour. If you don't like it, or not much, that's fine; it is one of my all-time favorite rockers. The lyrics are only cliche if you listen to Springsteen, many of his songs involve driving, girls and the night. You just dismissed Night, Born To Run, Thunder Road, Racing In the Street, and many others, including Candy's Room. These are themes that he uses to express the feelings, if you are bothered by them, why do you like Springsteen enough to write on this thread? I am not trying to start an argument, I think you, like me, like all these songs, just some more than others. With the cliche remark, you sounded like you were writing a review for the Village Voice (I'm sure I never do ). If anybody wants to know what happened to "Come On Let's Go Tonight), just ask, I deleted because I wrote too much. If anybody wants copies of any music referenced, just send me a message. "You hear their voices telling you not to go, they made their choices and they'll never know, what it means to steal, to cheat, to lie, what it's like to live and die." followed by "Tonight I'll be on that hill because I Can't Stop, I'll be on that hill with every thing I got....". Yeah, that belongs on Darkness.
Agreed. IMO, it's one of Bruce's greatest songs. And I think the majority of Bruce fans (and music critics) would agree with me.
No, I don’t like Springsteen at all. My favorite songs of his are “The Price You Pay”, “My Father’s House”, “Shut Out the Light”, “The Big Muddy”, “The New Timer”, “Human Touch”, “Stolen Car”, “Highway Patrolman”, “Darkness On the Edge of Town”, “The River”, “Tunnel of Love”, “Valentine’s Day”, “Straight Time”, “Reno”, “Devil’s Arcade”, “Good Eye”, “Life Itself”, “My Beautiful Reward”, “Missing”, “The Promise”, “Roulette”, “Be True”, “Breakaway”, “Shackled and Drawn”, and “Land of Hope and Dreams”. And probably a few others that aren’t coming to mind at the moment. Clearly I’m not a fan. Nice and passionate defense of “Prove It All Night” though. I’ve always found it kind of cheesy myself, certainly in comparison to any of the ones I’ve listed above.
My taste in music is very narrow. It's not that I dislike other music as much as it is I don't get much enjoyment out of it. I keep coming back to Bruce and The Beatles. Then there are probably ten or so other artists who I listen to, but it's usually just for a few days. But it's always back to Bruce and The Beatles.
That was never in question. You are the next generation. I am BTR-Darkness and all the others after those. There are many young people who like songs I haven't got around to listening to yet. Good talking to you.
The rumored lost albums collection coming to us as the next Tracks 2 style outtakes release... while awesome and if great would clearly be an achievement - that someone could release a box set of "lost albums" and that they be of high quality.. who has ever done that! Yeah maybe one lost album or two in a legends career (Brian Wilson's Smile is the obvious example)... but a box set of lost albums... huh, could they be good or great... who knows. Even more groundbreaking would be the first ever "lost albums" of a lost album box set -- the unheard of designation for lost albums that didn't make the lost album box set.... It is hard to imagine this not happening.. especially in the minds of diehard fans..
Would be nice to hear anything without the overdubs I don't care if he hums or la-las the whole way thru!
@tillywilly17 couldn't agree more... but highly don't we are getting the rough cuts. Could be wrong.. but if past actions are any indication plus social media posts of E Streeters in Springsteen's home studio over the last year.. The modern touches - particular the vocals kill the vibe. But if he is releasing albums of lost material I have no doubt that he is going to edit and over edit these things to with an inch of their lives.
He was very specific about Tracks - that it was a collection of songs that were outtakes from released albums. He implied that he had other projects. I happen to be very excited to hear what he's got. I have to wonder if it goes back to 85-86 like the rumors are saying. Would be sweet.
Well if it's a choice between a modern vocal and not ever hearing some of the unfinished tracks that never had a final vocal take, I'll take the modern vocal. You can't expect him or Sony to put out the versions that we have on bootlegs, assuming that those rough versions are all that exist. Yes, some of the Lucas-like tinkering is annoying. But like disc 1 or 2 of Tracks, if the choice is not at all or futzed with, well...
Weird! The 1987-1996 was released domestically in Canada, at least the vinyl version anyway. Got my from Amazon.ca and it was all english packaging.
How many lost albums are there? He already released The Ties That Bind. Arguably he could include an alternate BITUSA (he had a couple different tracklistings, as well as the Murder Incorporated album), the alleged country-esque album circa 1987, the “other band” album from 1994, the alleged album with hip-hop backdrops from the mid-90’s. Did he complete a pre-Rising album with the E Street Band circa 2000? What else?
At the turn of the decade, Springsteen was working on three separate projects: Wrecking Ball, the material that eventually became Western Stars, and a still-unreleased "gospel" album. Shackled & Drawn and Rocky Ground (released on Wrecking Ball) were plucked from those gospel sessions. I'm not certain but I suspect the "other band" album from '94 is one and the same as the album with hip-hop backdrops. There seems to be potentially two separate post Born in the USA, pre Tunnel of Love recording sessions. One is the country-esque material you mentioned and the other is more solo, garage-studio material separate from the songs recorded for Tunnel of Love. There's also the fabled electric Nebraska material although I suspect those recordings would be more apt to find a home on a Born in the USA deep dive box set. And, of course, there's an abundance of solo acoustic material from the early '70s...most of which is really not very good.
I would love to see a legitimate comprehensive release of these demos. Of course you're entitled to your own opinion but, as far as I'm concerned, those recordings are the best things he ever did. Then again, I have very little use for any of Bruce's work once Landau got involved.
Another thing to consider is that if this box set ultimately surfaces and is indeed a vehicle for “lost” albums, there could be some considerable work done to the material with the contemporary era overdubbing and re-recorded vocals because most of these albums were only under development and probably left in an unfinished state. If that is the case, I would rather just hear a collection of unreleased finished songs spanning multiple eras.
It's a good point to be wary of, but consider that Western Stars is basically one of these lost albums. I think most of us are very satisfied with its quality and cohesiveness, but it was also worked on in 2010, 2014 and 2018 (per Ron Aniello's comments). So that is a case of a lost album being returned to and worked on years later and coming up with great results.
True, but there's a HUGE difference between working on and tinkering on music that none of us have ever heard on bootlegs (or live shows) and going back 40 years after the fact to record a new vocal of an oft-bootlegged lost track--and then selling it as "old." I've said a million times--I don't mind the "tinkering"--as long as Bruce sells it as NEW --which is what the recordings are. Western Stars is being sold as new--which it is, even though we know (from Aniello as well as from Bruce's vocals) that some of the songs are almost 10 years old.
