Not to bash him too much, but as CindyC pointed out I think it's the fake Mr. Americana persona that grates on most people.
Even before that (Born in the USA), I never had much time for him.
His voice always sounded like a raspy grunt similar to a garbage disposal...even when he sings quietly.

With that said, I remember when the single Born To Run first came out when I was 14 yr's old. Couldn't stand it!
But in n hindsight it really wasn't as bad as most people think, the backup musicians are great and I love the sax solo on that one!

CindyC Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> StonesTod Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> >
> StonesTod, be your own man! Gazza doesn't want
> an ass kisser for a friend. He'll respect you for
> it in the morning.


I've tried to open up to him before but was rudely rejected....

CindyC Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ryanpow Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> did you know he wrote "Hungry Heart" for the
> Ramones, but his producer told him to keep it and
> put it on the River and release it as a single? It
> was his biggest hit single at that point (1980)
>
> I did not know that. Interesting. I thought they
> wrote most of their own stuff, were they looking
> for people to write songs for them, or did he just
> want to write it for them?

yeah, the Ramones are or were quite prolific writers themselves. (I like how they split their writing credits) I dont think they were looking for anyone to write their songs, I think that was just a very creative period for bruce springstien. He aslo co wrote "beacuse the Night" for Patti Smith and wrote the song "Fire" for the Pointer sisters around that time. It was a big hit for them. I heard that "Cover Me" from born in the USA was origionally written for Donna Summer but I dont know if she ever recorded it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2006-04-24 05:17 by ryanpow.

I knew about the Patti Smith and Fire, but I didn't know that about Cover Me. I do like all three of those songs a lot. Especially the Patti Smith one. That's just fantastic.

He also wrote "Jeannie Needs a Shooter" with Warren Zevon around the same time.

cc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> He also wrote "Jeannie Needs a Shooter" with
> Warren Zevon around the same time.


I did not know that.
say what you will but you have to adumit bruce is a prolific songwriter

Hairball Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > But in n hindsight it really wasn't as bad as most
> people think, the backup musicians are great and I
> love the sax solo on that one!


WHAT???LOL!!!!!! I dont think MOST people thought Born to run sucked.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-04-24 06:30 by ryanpow.

Hairball Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> He's not very well liked out here in California,
> everyone I know thinks he's a Dylan wannabe.
> He's very similar to Bob Seger or Gordon
> Lightfoot in my opinion.


I strongly suggest you move to another state. That 'new Dylan' schtick is sooo 1973...

A lot of the songs from the 76-77 era (Fire, Jeannie, Because THe Night, etc.) were released by other artists due to Bruce's lawsuit with Mike Appel.

I really like him when he's rocking and with the E-Streeters. Can't bear the solo acoustic stuff. Heard a cut off of the Seeger sessions. It sucks. Maybe he shoulda done a session of Bob Seger songs instead of Pete Seeger.

No surprise. The new album probably wont appeal to the average fan who cant see further than the rock 'n' roll stuff (thats not a dig at you, Elmo - everyone has their own personal taste). Being a fan of both Bruce and that type of music, I happen to love it.

I read on a Springsteen board that many of his fans were thinking: "OMG, what's he doing". I think it's a good idea for Springsteen to do this type of record, just like it was a good idea for Clapton with the Robert Johnson album. Hommage is good if it's done correctly, and I know that Bruce has enough taste to do it right.

JumpingKentFlash

now THATS a better post....

Gazza Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> now THATS a better post....


Ha. Wise up. :-D

JumpingKentFlash

lol

Sorry, but I respectfully disagree. "Tom Joad" and "Nebraska" both bored me to tears. "Froggie Went A-Courtin'", please! As stated, everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

Mine is for The Boss to plug in, call Clarence and Steven, dust off "Rosalita", and start rocking. Leave folk music to other dullards like Peter, Paul, and Mary.

BTW, Bruce puts on one of the best shows out there with the ESB. Excellent live.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-04-24 16:53 by Elmo Lewis.

nice piece in today's New York Daily News

The next chapter

Bruce Springsteen hits the road once more
with a new CD and a whole new sound

By DAVID HINCKLEY



A few dozen yards from the deserted Asbury Park boardwalk, where a cold April wind is fighting a warm April sun, Bruce Springsteen steps to the microphone inside an empty Convention Hall and blasts into "This Hard Land," a classic Springsteen tale of desolation meeting defiance.
"Hey there mister
Can you tell me what happened
To the seeds I've sown. ..."

"This Hard Land" isn't a new song. It was bumped off his 1984 "Born in the USA" album and spent a decade on bootlegs before he released it in 1995.

Whatever its history, the song has never sounded like this.

The opening has a country lilt, reinforced when the banjo, fiddles and pedal steel kick in. But it's not exactly a country song. It's more like something out of a Saturday night dance party.

"Once the solos start," he tells the band near the end, "we gotta give it up to the rhythm."

His band can do that, even though it's very different from his E Street Band. This is a 17-piece outfit full of strings and horns. It does include familiar faces like Soozie Tyrell and Springsteen's wife, Patti Scialfa, who also play a big role in working out the vocal harmonies.

Its musical mission is country, folk, gospel, bluegrass, activist anthems, New Orleans jazz, old-style ballads, a touch of blues and whatever else peeks in. After rehearsal and between a few bites of takeout, Springsteen says it's basically "all the beats and styles I don't use with E Street, which is my rock band."

He's doing this now, some suggest, because he has to.

"Bruce makes records that reflect the time in America in which he makes them," says Meg Griffin, a longtime NYC radio host now at Sirius Satellite. "An artist who does not travel new roads experiences creative death, and like all the great ones from Van Gogh to Hendrix, Bruce has the courage to explore his soul."

He also does it because he can.

"I have no rules left," says Springsteen, matter of factly. "I don't have to get on the radio. It's wide open for me. The singer-songwriters I admire - Dylan, Neil Young, Woody Guthrie - move forward all the time."

As does he - a rocker who stepped away for 1982's dark and brilliant "Nebraska," 1995's stark "Ghost of Tom Joad" and 2005's pensive "Devils & Dust."

This time it's "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions," which is released Tuesday and features 13 songs recorded by, among many others, Pete Seeger.

Some are well-known, like the spiritual "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" and the folk ballad "John Henry," but Springsteen says familiarity wasn't his criterion.

"I looked for characters I knew," he says. "I'd say, okay, in 'Erie Canal,' I know that guy. I know this guy. I heard 'Oh Mary' and I thought, I wrote like that in 'Promised Land.'"

Several songs have spiritual themes, he notes, "and I've written a lot of religious music."

In the folk tradition, he also added touches of his own to traditional songs. The merchant seaman's lament "Pay Me My Money Down" is now a wild workout that includes the line:

"I wish that I was Mr. Gates
They'd haul my money in in crates. ..."

So "The Seeger Sessions" is no exercise in musicology. It's personal. "It returns me to some of the music I was doing when I started recording," he says. "My second album had an accordion, a tuba, jazz sounds, circus sounds. When we streamlined E Street into more of a rock band, we did less of that. So it's an area I like getting back to."

He's also taking it on the road, with rehearsal shows tomorrow through Wednesday at Convention Hall, then three weeks in Europe. Back home, he starts in Boston May 27 and comes to Madison Square Garden June 22 and the PNC Bank Center, Holmdel, N.J., June 24-25.

"This show is going to be fun," he says, because the record was already fun. "We did it in three days, all live, no overdubs."

That's a big step for a notorious perfectionist.

"The sense of raggediness in this music is important," says Springsteen. "You want to keep the raunchiness of the characters, because they were raunchy. They lived in a raunchy time.

"Part of this music is the wide elbow room you feel inside it. I sometimes tell the band, 'If this gets any better, it'll be worse.'"

Another part of his mission now is figuring out which of his own songs fit the tour's rhythm.

"Cadillac Ranch" requires little reworking, but "Open All Night" has become a foot-stomper and "Johnny 99" is now a funk number. Then there's "Adam Raised a Cain."

"It's bluegrass, like from 40 years ago," says Springsteen. "Those guys loved biblical and religious imagery, and they could easily have done 'Adam.'"

The broader challenge, he says, is that "unlike E Street, this band has no previous material. My 30 years of previous songs, we're not playing any of that. I have this long-standing arsenal and all of it is gone."

He laughs. He likes this. Not all of his fans agree.

"I just have no interest," says Mark Ashkinos, a fan since the '70s. "I'm a rocker. When he rocks with 'Where the Bands Are' or 'Mary's Place,' I'll pay attention again."

Springsteen says he will be back - at some point.

"I love playing with E Street," he says. "I always will. I have a bookful of new songs sitting there to play with E Street."

But not yet. "I have a very good and really sizable core audience that's adventurous," he says. "It's not as large as the audience with E Street, but it's a good size and I'm interested in taking them on an adventure."

In Europe, that's a go: Fans snapped up every ticket in minutes. Back home, there may be some hesitation, as this week's Asbury Park shows were not his usual instant sellouts.

He seems confident word will soon get out that these shows are just a plain good old time.

"There will be no seats on the floor," he says. "It's rowdy music. I'm hoping my rock fans will respond to that part."

And no, the man who sang for presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in 2004 isn't throwing a show without a message.

"I'm always looking for topical things in songs," he says. "Not rhetoric or demagoguery, but broader implications, like in 'Oh Mary' or 'Eye on the Prize.'

" 'My Oklahoma Home' jokes about this guy's woman being carried away by a twister. It's light. But it's really a song about losing everything - and in New Orleans today we have our biggest disaster since the Dust Bowl. That's the way our lives tie into old folk music. It's why songs like this last."

"I guess if you think you'll wake up and walk around tomorrow, you're an optimist," he says, after a brief pause. "And I sing about hope. But I've also played the other end heavily.

"A song like 'Promised Land' has very sharp internal edges. The verses are blues and the chorus is gospel. The blues is like you feel something big pressing down, a real perniciousness, and then you look for something to lift the weight. There's so much brinksmanship. That's how the world feels so often."

Springsteen's contribution to lifting this burden, the reason he still matters even to people who wish he'd play "Jungleland," is music, particularly live music.

So, at the age of 56 and long past the point where he needs the money, he keeps doing it, which makes especially intriguing another verse he adds to "Pay Me My Money Down":

"If I were born a rich man's son
I'd sit on the river and watch it run ..."

Is that going to happen?

"I'd love to watch the river run," he says. "My problem is that I'm not very good at sitting still. My children have taught me to be a little better at it. But I tend to like to keep moving."

And maybe, on the way, keeping track of the seeds he has sown.

Elmo Lewis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sorry, but I respectfully disagree. "Tom Joad" and
> "Nebraska" both bored me to tears. "Froggie Went
> A-Courtin'", please! As stated, everyone is
> entitled to their own opinions.
>
> Mine is for The Boss to plug in, call Clarence and
> Steven, dust off "Rosalita", and start rocking.
> Leave folk music to other dullards like Peter,
> Paul, and Mary.

Jesus..this new album isnt simplistic folk music like that. With a 17-piece band?

I'd like an E Street Band tour too, but I'm glad he's talented and diverse enough to make different types of music and (as can be seen from the interview above) doesnt feel the need to make a type of record that has to be radio and fan friendly for the sake of it

I guarantee you that if the Stones released a newly recorded album of blues and r&b covers tomorrow (akin to the sort of songs they did in their early days) the average audience that goes to their shows these days simply wouldnt get the connection at all and would probably hate it. They sure as @#$%& wouldnt buy it either.

doing an ESB tour is hard to organise anyway these days with the different band members having other long term commitments. maybe next year
>
> BTW, Bruce puts on one of the best shows out there
> with the ESB. Excellent live.

indeed

All opinions are right, as long as they agree with Gazza.

Yeah, I'm old, but spare me listening to Bruce whining this stuff.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-04-24 18:18 by Elmo Lewis.

Elmo Lewis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > Leave folk music to other dullards like Peter,
> Paul, and Mary.
>
>


Excusez moi? Something "dull" about folk music? My folks taught me alot about music....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-04-24 18:23 by T&A.

Elmo Lewis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sorry, but I respectfully disagree. "Tom Joad" and
> "Nebraska" both bored me to tears. "Froggie Went
> A-Courtin'", please! As stated, everyone is
> entitled to their own opinions.
>
> Mine is for The Boss to plug in, call Clarence and
> Steven, dust off "Rosalita", and start rocking.
> Leave folk music to other dullards like Peter,
> Paul, and Mary.
>
> BTW, Bruce puts on one of the best shows out there
> with the ESB. Excellent live.


I somewhat agree. I'm not a big Springsteen fan. However I do think that he is one of those who can make these sort of releases tastefully. IMO Bruce shouldn't do a record without Clarence ever. He's just too good to be left out.

JumpingKentFlash

My folks taught me alot about music....

That's good, T & A! Hope they weren't Peter, Paul, and Mary!

PPM weren't all that bad. I still like to play "Puff" on the ol' geetar. Great drug song.

ROTFLMAO!

the thing about the boss is that hes not only folk music, hes also inspired by the phil spector sound and other influences. someone may have said that already but im in a hurry cant read all the posts now, gotta go.

I just arrived home with Bruce's brand new CD.The album is made of covers of traditional folk songs, some sounding really "country" with banjo, violin, washboard etc.

Listening to track 4 currently
Sounding good, very positive 1st impression.

[doctorstonesblog.blogspot.com]

In 1982, Springsteen recorded about 22 songs on a half-broken 4-track device. Songs of Nebraska and Born in the USA. he played them all with the E-street Band, but it didn't work out. So he decided to put some songs on one album, which became Nebraska. He played the songs again, alone in the studio, but that didnt work out either, the first recordings made on the broken 4-track turned out to be the best. They tried and tried to get it on the master, and in the end it all worked out because of some sort of trick with the recording volume, remember, the device was broken. (this is why nebraska has to be played louder on your stereo, great story). It became his masterpiece.
He returned to the E-street band and started off Born in the Usa, which originially was played in nebraska style, same as all songs on Born in the USA. Max Weinberg slammed his drums, Roy Bittan played the tune. It was the 80's, it was new, it worked, and the people loved it.
Dear Cindy, I don't know what you're talking about, but mr Springsteen made us (in Europe, you know what Europe is? believe there is a better america than that big arrogant machine which is brought to us by the news. He showed us the soul and spirit, and made us understand your patriotism. You go ahead and puke, puke all over yourself, cause that is what you're already doing right now. Springsteen does not think he represents everyone in America, I know he is not representing you.
After Born In The USA he went solo and @#$%& up a little bit. Still good songwriting, for results see the live recordings of some of his solowork wíth the E-Street Band on the reunion-tour. Well, live he kicks ass anyway, there are NO artists who can perform like springsteen does.
And Mr Elmo Lewis, I don't know man, your old, I'm young, you supposed to be wise. Nebraska bores you when you don't listen to lyrics, I suppose there's no value for you in lyrics. Then, 'leave folk music to dullards like peter, paul & mary?' Well how old are you, cause in my world the YOUNG ones can't understand folk music and it's meaning. Springsteen isn't even playing folk like peter, paul & mary, he's playing with a big band, and it's all new in a new direction. Sure I'm hoping for a new E-street Tour, but you can't blame the artist for heading towards a new direction. He can do it all, 4,5 out of stars on Allmusic.com. I suggest you and Cindy move to one state so you can talk all day there in your tiny little world. Have fun.


Jake Bee

Jake wrote:

And Mr Elmo Lewis, I don't know man, your old, I'm young, you supposed to be wise. Nebraska bores you when you don't listen to lyrics, I suppose there's no value for you in lyrics. Then, 'leave folk music to dullards like peter, paul & mary?' Well how old are you, cause in my world the YOUNG ones can't understand folk music and it's meaning. Springsteen isn't even playing folk like peter, paul & mary, he's playing with a big band, and it's all new in a new direction. Sure I'm hoping for a new E-street Tour, but you can't blame the artist for heading towards a new direction. He can do it all, 4,5 out of stars on Allmusic.com. I suggest you and Cindy move to one state so you can talk all day there in your tiny little world. Have fun.


Okay, for starters, learn how to spell and use punctuation. Next, as for the no value in lyrics comment, please note that on a recent post I listed one of Bruce's lyrics as one of the best ever (No Surrender). The old-young argument doesn't hold water (I'm 45 BTW). If you're sitting around listening to this boring stuff, then you're a lot older than I am. Can't speak for Cindy, but I choose to rock. If you're getting your impressions of real Americans based on Springsteen songs, you have no idea. He a multi-millionaire who knows nothing about day to day people anymore. Don't base your opinions of music of "star" ratings from music critics either. Bite me.

P. S. I listen to and enjoy all types of music. This is too dull for me.

Oh, yeah, have you even heard the CD?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2006-04-25 16:58 by Elmo Lewis.

Elmo Lewis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sorry, but I respectfully disagree. "Tom Joad" and
> "Nebraska" both bored me to tears. "Froggie Went
> A-Courtin'", please! As stated, everyone is
> entitled to their own opinions.
>
> Mine is for The Boss to plug in, call Clarence and
> Steven, dust off "Rosalita", and start rocking.
> Leave folk music to other dullards like Peter,
> Paul, and Mary.
>
> BTW, Bruce puts on one of the best shows out there
> with the ESB. Excellent live.


Elmo, I'm with you bro.' Dust off Rosalita for crying out loud....Maybe some Blinded By The Light, Spirits In The Night, Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, Point Blank, Froggy Went A Courtin (oops, let's not get carried away).

haha, SIR, please, I'm from Holland, I won't ask yóu to speak or write in my language (Dutch, it's very tricky by the way), I'm sorry if it bothers you the whole world can't use good spell and punctuation when it comes to English. You may find Nebraska boring, when one says that, I doubt he listened very good to the lyrics. But okay, YOU think Nebraska is boring and it's lyrics too, fine by me. And no Sir, my impressions of real Americans are a lot worse than the ones Springsteen give in his songs. My impressions, and those of 90% of my fellow-europeans. You should be grateful. But hey, you don't no the slightest bit of Bruce Springsteen when you see him as a multi-millionaire. I think you don't know either what he did during his BITUSA tour with the money he made. And o yeah, I'm 21

Ps: I have the cd mister, for a week now



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-04-25 17:04 by Jake Blues.

JB, you, like many on here, value all opinions as long as they agree with yours. If you like Bruce doing this, great! I don't care for it.

Most Americans, like the Dutch and most others in this world, are normal, decent hard-working folks.

I was going to see Bruce before you were born. Love him live and rocking, just don't care for the solo acoustic stuff.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-04-25 17:10 by Elmo Lewis.