Bruce Springsteen

RJN

lost all chats
Pronouns
he/him
Joined
Feb 11, 2013
Messages
21,377
Location
Atlanta
After I found that he had written Because the Night a few days ago, I've been starting to explore Bruce Springsteen a bit. I've known the big hits but didn't give him much time in the past. I guess as a kid I saw him as dad rock. I listened to The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Band a couple of time yesterday and enjoyed it it. I LOVE 4th of July Asbury Park (Sandy) and Incident on 57th Street.

The only songs of his I listen to regularly are the singles from Born In The USA, and Hello Sunshine recently. I want to get more into him so I think I'll listen to his albums in order. He really has influenced a lot of music I, particularly the Killers
 
The cover of Fire by the Pointer Sisters is AMAZING, as is Pink Cadillac by Natalie Cole
 
I love love love Born in the USA as an album- the 80s power pop rock vibe is totally my thing- and it’s just wall to wall singles, but I also love The River as an album in a much more understated way.

He went off a cliff mostly in the late 80s for me, but I don’t think I’ve investigated enough to know a lot beyond the singles from the later years.
 
Also, he’s a big supporter of the gays, so that’s nice.
 
I’ve investigated more since falling in love with Sam Fender, who is basically Bruce reincarnated for a 20s audience.

I like his more Dancing In The Dark stuff when it’s more of a pop rock new wave mash up. And his more gritty Americana stuff. Not into the heavier stadium rock stuff.
 
Oh yeah he has definitely damaged some of his base by coming out in attack of many Republican and Trumpian rulings and ideologies. He doesn’t hold back. Nice work
 
Quite famously a friend of Obama.

I'm not familiar with his work beyond the BIG HITS but I like everything I've heard.
 
Omg we have a Bruce Springsteen thread?!! :disco:

The only songs of his I listen to regularly are the singles from Born In The USA, and Hello Sunshine recently. I want to get more into him so I think I'll listen to his albums in order.

Did you ever get around to this? His consistency through the 70s and 80s was remarkable so it's hard to go wrong with such a strategy. The two Born albums hoover up all the attention - and they're both great, esp Born to Run, so that's not a huge issue for me - but my personal faves are the acoustic heartache of Nebraska (one of the greatest records ever tbh) and the blue-collar anxieties of Darkness on the Edge of Town. I love the wild, Dylan-on-acid storytelling of early Bruce too. Fuck, I love everything about him. A musical titan who's always given voice to the tramps, the screwballs, and the oppressed; who consistently tears apart the myth of US exceptionalism while simultaneously recognising the transmutative allure of the American Dream. I also can't think of anyone else who has a song to match every single feeling on my crazed emotional spectrum.

Things have been more inconsistent since the 90s, but that's true for every artist with so lengthy a career (and none of those that are living can match Springsteen's highs). There's stuff to cherish on almost every album imo. If you listen to nothing else from the later years, at least listen to 'Moonlight Motel' which does things to my withering heart and malleable tear ducts that I cannot adequately put into words. Honestly, I'd play an album of his bathroom farts I love him so damn much.

That said, I'm not sure what to think about this tendency among artists to open up EVERYTHING from the vaults. Quality over quantity and all that. My time is a finite, stretched resource and I'm looking at Tracks II's 83(!!)-song tracklist with mild concern. I suppose the original Tracks gave me one of my fave Springsteen songs (his reinterpretation of the mythical-amongst-fans 'The Promise', which assumes infinitely more gravitas when delivered in middle age) and had plenty of other very worthy cuts. Let's see if round two can approach that kind of strike rate.
 
I love both versions of The Promise but I lean towards the bigger sounding seventies take.

I was listening to disc three of Tracks at the weekend. Janey Don't You Lose Heart was the one that I hit repeat on.
 
I'd have guessed that someone of your taste would be a Bruce Springsteen fan, FetchFugly - but to be a next-level nerd who listens to disc three of Tracks? :disco: I would force you to shake my hand IRL. Incidentally, I went and listened to the entirety of Tracks right after my last post. There's a lot more good stuff than I remembered and I've had to edit my Boss 100 accordingly. My picks from the third disc would be 'The Wish', 'This Hard Land', 'Man at the Top', and 'Frankie'.

I love the grander soundscape of the 70s 'Promise' as well. I can't go into what the 90s versh does to me without launching into another dull essay so I won't, but I think even in its band-backed form it deserves its reputation as the greatest of his 'lost' tracks (I'd probably have 'The Wish' and 'Santa Ana' right up there alongside it tho).

Agreed with your thoughts about 'Blind Spot' which is likely the strongest of the Tracks II songs so far. My main concern (besides the length!) is that the original Tracks set already covered the most fertile period of his career. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the disc I'm most excited about in this one is LA Garage Sessions '83! But I'll keep an open mind, I suppose I should be grateful that an artist of his stature is so generous with his recordings, eh.
 
I agree this new release is unlikely to stack up quality wise as most of it seems to be later period. I'm also a little dubious about whether they really are the fully realised albums they are being sold as but we'll see. Obviously quite a few b-sides are included on Tracks but that period up to and including Born in the USA is especially consistent. I did give the fourth disc a listen and it is much better than I remembered.

Saying that, there was already some scammery at hand with The Promise and the other two 18 Tracks exclusives not on the box set proper. To be fair The Fever can't compete with this surely definitive reading:

 
Please all join me in my 90s thread shortly as Bruce Springsteen is about to release a song in early 1992 that I’d never heard of before and that has become probably my most played song of the year so far :o

I was never a Bruce fan really but the rise of the likes of Sam Fender and War On Drugs has totally won me over and while I don’t love everything he does (he’s quite versatile), I’m desperate to find more songs that sound like this song. I don’t wanna spoil my thread but it’s coming up soon :disco:
 
Saying that, there was already some scammery at hand with The Promise and the other two 18 Tracks exclusives not on the box set proper. To be fair The Fever can't compete with this surely definitive reading:



I had no idea that 'The Promise' wasn't included on the box set proper (had to look this up!). Weird, cos it's on the Spotify Tracks album. Bit cheeky of him to not only fleece the diehards, but subsequently TROLL them by not giving them the 'Promise' they want, LOL. I'm so grateful that he gave us the alternative reading though. And I'm also grateful that we live in the streaming era and I don't have to spend my non-existent pennies on exorbitantly-priced box sets anymore.

Had no idea that the Pointer Sisters covered 'The Fever'! Do they have a whole album of Bruce covers or sth! I will say that their studio version of 'Fire' >>>>>>> Bruce's. (His live performances are a different story tho!)

Please all join me in my 90s thread shortly as Bruce Springsteen is about to release a song in early 1992 that I’d never heard of before and that has become probably my most played song of the year so far :o

I was never a Bruce fan really but the rise of the likes of Sam Fender and War On Drugs has totally won me over and while I don’t love everything he does (he’s quite versatile), I’m desperate to find more songs that sound like this song. I don’t wanna spoil my thread but it’s coming up soon :disco:

Not teacher funky coming in here to self-promote amongst the Boss-tards!! You're presumably referring to 'Human Touch' which is one of the songs I just booted OFF my Bruce playlist, lol. I will let my fellow Professor in Springsteen Studies FetchFugly handle this one.

(:disco: @ War on Drugs tho!)
 
If it is Human Touch, I'm FULLY ON BOARD

And if it is that, I'd suggest Tunnel Of Love as the next best soundalike
 
I agree this new release is unlikely to stack up quality wise as most of it seems to be later period. I'm also a little dubious about whether they really are the fully realised albums they are being sold as but we'll see.
They're not all fully finished

According to Springsteen: “The Lost Albums were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released. I’ve played this music to myself and often close friends for years now. I’m glad you’ll get a chance to finally hear them. I hope you enjoy them.”

From the lo-fi exploration of LA Garage Sessions ’83 (CD 1 in the box), serving as a crucial link between Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A., to the drum loop and synthesizer sounds of Streets of Philadelphia Sessions (CD 2), The Lost Albums offer context to 35 prolific years of Springsteen’s songwriting and home recording.

Throughout the set, that sonic experimentation takes the form of film soundtrack work (for a movie that was never made) on Faithless (CD 3), country combos with pedal steel on Somewhere North of Nashville (CD 4), richly woven border tales on Inyo (CD 5), orchestra-driven, mid- century noir on Twilight Hours (CD 6) and E Street flavoured rock on Perfect World (CD7).
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom