My son has showed me the DITD video and asked me if I knew who Courtney was. I suddenly realized he doesn't have a clue about how much I know about Bruce.
When I die, please someone, somehow, find my oldest son and tell him about Silvia/Louisa. His name is Leon.
It's sloppy when they misspell the city on the artwork.
I watched the Broadway show last night after such a long time and have really enjoyed it. I needed to hear the stories, I think the therapeutic aspect of his speeches can't be overlooked.
The process of growth Bruce went through is so admirable.
I'm watching The Storytellers tonight...
Just re-watching Hail Hail Rock n Roll.... the Chuck Berry doco.
Bruce being interviewed... according to him (circa late 80's), telling his grand kids when he was 70 or 80 that he 'backed up Chuck Berry' was gonna be a big deal. This interview was post BITUSA... but, if you watch it, to me he genuinely believes that him backing Chuck Berry back in the early 70's would resonate more with his grand kids than anything he might’ve done.
God bless you, Bruce.
How have I only heard this (or found out about it altogether) until now? Someone posted about it on either GL or BTX in the last few days, so I thought it was new... yet the You Tube version was posted 9 years ago.
Only a Bruce fan would understand the significance of getting these two ketchup packets with their crappy fast food lunch.
Thanks, Carl's Jr. You see me.
I need everything they have from this tour. This is one of the best things I've ever heard.
Had a nice solo campout in the high desert last night and I'm here to confirm that Western Stars remains an excellent campfire listening experience.
Listening to Heart this evening and it struck me that These Dreams reminds me of Countin' On A Miracle - the storybook imagery, the enchanted forest. I just played them back to back and they pair well as a he said/she said twofer.
To follow up on my March 2nd post...
Since 2017 my Springsteen listening has been split into halves: Archive Series when out and about; Live Downloads reserved for when I review the shows, with the ones I haven't reached yet on the blog 'locked' and only available for listening when the time calls for them - I don't 100% know why I did this, maybe to not overplay anything and tire of it?
Anyway, since February of this year my focus has, of course, been on the 2023 tour, but because of its mostly unchanging setlIsts I'm sometimes finding myself avoiding them after the most recent blog is published so as to keep the music fresh for the next release. What am I opting for on my travels? 2016! No time for the Archives right now (although I definitely didn't listen to Nashville 2008 or NJ 1999 enough). I have a suspicion it's because I'm engrossed in current day E Street right now and want more of it, but I also think it has more to do with that consistent setlist I talked about nearly twenty days ago in this thread.
To listen to songs like "Last Man Standing" from this tour and link it with what he was saying with "Meet Me in the City" and "Wreck on the Highway"; to be blown away by stand outs such as "The E Street Shuffle" and "Kitty's Back" and then play "I Wanna Marry You" and "Crush on You" which shone brightly from January to April 2016 is a blessing.
And it isn't just The River portion that I've been revisiting either, because in the build up to the Philly show, for example, I got stuck back into September 7th 2016 and revelled in "The Fever," "Does This Bus Stop," "Saint in the City" and "New York City Serenade." Would love to see these songs feature again this time around, but while waiting it's a delight to dream and just be grateful that these songs all featured on that night.
This current tour mightn't be giving us what we all wanted, but at least they're touring and I'm happy it's having an equally positive affect on music from previous tours also.
Redressing the balance a little, as there has been a bit of cynicism lately! I met with a friend who works at the Royal Opera House at the weekend. She has recently been working on a show with the woman who designed the lighting for SOB. She says that in 40 years in the business Bruce is one of the easiest people to work with. Knows what he wants, but is charming, friendly and not in the least pretentious. ❤️
Insanely entertaining, one of my new favourite live Bruce videos
Check out Roy, Gary and Steve's reactions to Bruce's carry on towards the end. And I was gonna say I grinned like a loon through the whole thing, but my reaction was nothing compared to Everet Bradley's infectious delight at the goings on...
Responding to my own post yet again... "as I said to myself, who was with me at the time".
But fired up by night 1 of the new tour, and now a few Friday beers, I'm watching my Hyde Park 2009 DVD and recognise two more songs that I've always enjoyed and that almost universally get panned in Bruce fan circles.
I hope by now you guys know I'm not trolling...
But I genuinely like both Outlaw Pete and Working On A Dream.
Outlaw Pete I liked from the get go... I remember buying the CD at my local JB Hi Fi, getting in the car, putting the CD in and really getting into that song straight away. And to this day I don't hear the Kiss 'I Was Made For Lovin' you connection. The live version on Hyde Park is even better. Bruce's "can you hear me" pleas, combined with that sweeping camera crowd shot... one of my favourite official live Bruce video moments.
Working On A Dream... ok, the live version does get a bit hokey and the build a house schtick isn't great, but the album track I like for some reason. It just has a casual, heart warming sing along freedom to it that I connect with. Infact, I recently relistened to the whole WOAD album and had a good time doing so. I still think, musically and thematically, it may outgrow Magic in Bruce's legacy... at least for long time fans. I challenge someone younger like, say, @Mario Brega, to come back many years from now when he has (God willing) been married and had a family, not to find amazing emotional depth and nuance in WOAD while looking at Magic as a passionate but yet archaic product of it's political times.
Both these songs, I think, are lyrically (but not musically) inspired by Bruce's Seeger Sessions period. Both songs to me reflect stuff like Old Man Tucker and John Henry. I think Outlaw Pete in particular is an amazing exercise in Bruce setting a crazy folk tale to more modern music.
Anyway, I like them, and most others don't. Oh, hang on, let's go to the Hyde Park video replay: observe, Bruce and the band pounding through She's The One. In the background crowd shots, there is zero happening. Later on, Radio Nowhere... crowd shots show the first row on the fence excited, nothing anywhere else. Let's check the Outlaw Pete replay... wow, large parts of the crowd clapping away in time. Now WOAD... what, a fair part of the crowd swaying their arms along to the song.
Maybe some agree with me afterall.
So if I'm correct, this is a 'bonus' song on DVD versions of Unlpugged.
It wasn't on my original video or audio CD versions, I know that much.
I know that whole project was gonna be a lesser one in fan's eyes... so why not include this...
So... I haven't shared this news here before.... I decided to divorce my husband of 27 years last August. It's an agonizing legal process that is still not finished, but it was the best possible choice, the alternative was me staying stuck in a dead and unhappy marriage. I love my freedom, and feel so good about it... I'm doing great...😊 Why am I telling you this? Today I received a text from my ex asking me how many Bruce tickets he is entitled to. I remained civil and replied that I planned to attend all three concerts I had bought tickets for. I politely advised him to go online and buy additional tickets... 😁
Had a big afternoon on the IPA's (and double extra IPA's and whatever other mega many times Red Ale IPA versions there are). Now sipping a Makers Mark bourbon and for the first time in maybe 10 years, I'm watching Disc 2 of the Barcelona 2002 DVD. Wow, this disc is as good a 6-7 song intro to everything Bruce live (or otherwise) is about as anything. Party Bruce, anthem Bruce, songwriter Bruce... it's all here. And if you crank the bugger up but not wanting to hear every nuanced note, the crowd heavy sound mix actually adds to the experience... the sequence during BTR where the crowd sound is going nuts and Bruce points to the crowd and you see the three person tower... iconic.
If you have been neglecting your Rising DVD in recent years, do yourself a favour and have a look / listen... well worth it.
I regularly listen to Desert Island Discs, this week the guest was Steven Spielberg and he said if he could take any other people to the island with him it would be his wife, Bruce & Patti! He chose GOTJ as his Bruce track.
Spotify wrapped my 2022. Nr. 1 song, with 244 listens, is Nightshift. 😊
Slow to things as always, I only just listened to the Bruce episode of Rick Rubin's Broken Record podcast.
Really interesting for anyone like me who overlooked it before.
I know time has passed, as this was done soon after LTY was actually released, but the interesting thing for me was Bruce's emphasis on Last Man Standing as the song that came first and initiated all the other new songs on the album. And also the fact he states House Of A Thousand Guitars is his favourite song on the LTY album. Which I think is borne out by how often he has played that (albeit acoustically) whenever circumstances have allowed since (crucially, as recently as Light Of Day in recent days).
I personally don't think distance from this material will lessen the chances of Bruce playing it next year, given the band has never done it live. I see Ghosts as a natural opener, both thematically and in musical terms... the drums opening, dropping out for Bruce to sing "I hear the sound of your guitar.." before the band explodes into it. Hell, it sounds like it was actually arranged to start a show, all the way up to where towards the end the music drops out which Bruce could use for his "Hello, (insert location). We are so glad to be in your beautiful city tonight". A few more words before he starts singing again... "I shoulder your Les Paul...". Seriously, listen to it again, it's what the song is built for.
I Can See You In My Dreams is the closer... either as a less boisterous full band benediction at the end of the show the way LOHAD was used in 1999/2000, or maybe a Bruce only acoustic piece like he finished many shows in 2013/2014 with stuff like Thunder, This Hard Land etc. Again, made for it.
After hearing the podcast, I'm locking in House Of A Guitars as a nightly too. Infact, it may be a more subdued centrepiece of the entire set the way Tenth and Marys Place were. An extended Roy intro, a bigger outro with the added backing singer's. Or a main set closer, the way Into The Fire was in 2002.
And Last Man Standing is now in play as a regular for me also. Imagine Last Man Standing going straight into Glory Days as a thematic sequence. And make Where The Bands Are a regular, too, to tie it up in a nice bow.
Something like this for the first third or so of the show...
Ghosts
Badlands
Ties That Bind
No Surrender
Darkness On The Edge...
Western Stars
Last Man Standing
Glory Days
Where The Bands Are
House Of... or, maybe, Nightshift at this point...
I haven't dreamed of Bruce in a long time... It made me laugh. Little Steven had a vintage second-hand shop in NY. The stuff he likes to wear. 😁 I was there with a few other people, Kay was present (I don't know how she looks or sounds, but I heard a female voice commenting on the clothing and knew it was her, her remark was so typical). We were waiting for Bruce to show up. He arrived, looked as he does now, said hi, and went to the back room where Steve had been waiting. I heard a champagne pop, and they started talking and laughing. Patti entered the shop a few minutes, later, looked much older, and with long brown hair. She hugged me, then realized she had mistaken me for someone else, said, 'Oh, you are not one of the family,' turned around, and hit a glass door with her face. Then she got totally confused and ran outside A staff member commented 'She is blind as a bet' and went after her.
The weird thing is, the songs that save my life are the same ones that kill me.
It's gonna take me a long time to get over this. I have been supporting this guy since 1980. I am heartbroken. Gutted. I'll shut up.
Beautiful. Roll on 2023.
Ok, so Friday night and as is often the case I've had a few beers and graduated to bourbon after dinner.
What to watch... what to watch. I had my mind set on the Darkness full album from the Paramount, but I was grabbing the box set off the shelf when I spotted the poor lonely cardboard sleeve encased full BITUSA DVD that came with High Hopes just sitting there. Ah, screw it, let's go the drinking music party route.
The lack of guitar solo outro on BITUSA itself is disappointing, although I guess you can argue more 'true' to the album original.
Cover Me has just started though and is killer.
Looking forward to the subtle horn additions that pepper the Downbound Train outtro (and that I find myself waiting for in every live version, only to realise they are exclusive to this one).
Oh, and Bruce dancing with Adele and Pamela later... great stuff.
I'm just re-watching the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary blu ray on this cold, wintery Friday night in old Adelaide, South Australia.
Great stuff. But could've been even better stuff if our man Bruce had appeared. Which begs the question, why didn't he? Afterall, the people who did are predominantly other Columbia artists. The only thing I can think of is that the 1992 tour was already underway and he just couldn't get it to work. (Indeed, without researching the specific dates, maybe there was an actual clash).
What would've Bruce done? Probably one or two acoustic songs. But the possibilities are exciting. Imagine some reworking of his I Want You cover with the (Booker T and the MGs) backing band. Or a soulful Chimes Of Freedom. Or something else... a killer cover of Series Of Dreams with Booker T which might still be being talked about in rock and roll circles today.
Anyway, Lou Reed has just finished reading Foot Of Pride off the teleprompter and Eddie Vedder is utterly owning Masters Of War in a way I wouldn't have thought possible for such a 'new' act. So the spirit of Bruce is certainly swirling around, in the absence of the man himself...
Since we seem to have gone off on a tangent...
I only watched The Sopranos for the first time this year. Some great music there, but a song I was only vaguely aware of (as the band was never that big here) was Journey's Don't Stop Believing which has suddenly become a fave... although I still don't know if I actually like the song or not, as all I see in my mind when I listen is that last shot of Tony Soprano looking up in the Cafe.
On my last rewatch of Californication about 18 months ago I suddenly found myself noticing the music a lot more and it introduced me to several songs now on regular rotation... My California by Beth Hart, New York Groove by Ace Frehley, Turn On Tune In Drop Out With Me by Cracker, Wanted Man by Warren Zevon, Eagle's Of Death Metal's cover of Stuck In The Middle.
My all time favourite use of music in TV remains The West Wing's end of Season 2 sequence set to Brothers In Arms. But that whole episode (Two Cathedrals) remains my favourite 40 odd minutes of television anyway.
I've never watched Sons Of Anarchy... perhaps that's where I need to go next in catching up on stuff I've overlooked across the years.
It's nearly ten years since it ended (bloody hell) and I still have my Songs of Anarchy playlist.
The Adam Raised A Cain opening of the S.O.A. final episode is one of my favorite Bruce videos that never was.
"When the Breakdown Hit at Midnight"
That's the title of the last episode of this season's Mayans M.C.
Sons of Anarchy saved Bruce for the greatest episode, so I'm anticipating a hell of a season finale for Mayans in a few weeks.
I know this comes up fairly frequently, but can we get the freaking Born In The U.S.A. boxed set already? If there's a studio version of Seeds, let's not forget to throw that baby on there.
Hmmmm...here's a question I'm surprising myself with.
Is Real Man any more cheesy than Glory Days?
I think the River as a "Place" is similar to the story that he tells before performing "My Father's House" at Christic in 1990. The idea that going back to those places night after night will somehow make what happened in those places easier to bear or somehow make them right. That story has meant the most to me in my fandom as I sat there and watched him telling that story. I can still see his face. You go back there because it hurt to be in there, but in truth it is locked inside you as you grow, and the monsters that live there are scary. You go there in the hopes of making it right...
Truth is you can't make them right, because what was wrong about them is what makes us who we are underneath the feelings. The River is both a place and a feeling, a state of mind, in a negative context it is where loss is made real but also a source of strength.
I have always had this concept in my mind around certain songs on the River create a real space where one can reside in a way. If you look at everything that came from 1979-1980 it creates this living breathing place where people reside and live. That piece of writing before My Hometown in the Broadway show is an intro. We grow up in the shadow of the church, went to work in the mill, tried to raise a small family and try to survive the process. We find sweet pleasures as we drink ourselves to sleep on Summer sunday nights before our shift begins at 6am on Monday. Our kids go to school and we live.
Just my thoughts.....
There are times, like this moment right now, when Janey, Don't You Lose Heart is the greatest song Springsteen ever wrote.
It was our oldest son's Prom night last night. It was held in a former industrial hall now rearranged into a fancy event place.
Upon arrival, I noticed an interesting sign, a glowing ball, hoped it would lead to some mystical place, but it turned out to be a fully stocked all you could drink bar with that beautiful and deceiving name...
Well, that's a huge relief and I feel like a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
I've finally backed up all my Nugs purchases for 2021 to my external hard drive for safe keeping.
I can't get it out of my head.
Froggie went a courtin'
And he did ride
Cross the river to the Jersey side
Uh huh, uh huh, uh
Jerseyfornia's after-smoke nap reminded me of a similar experience I had about 25 years ago. The day before I had surgery on my sinuses, the 4CD Roxy Music set, The Thrill Of It All, arrived in the mail. I was most interested in the 4th disc, which contained a bunch of non-LP singles and B-sides, and I decided to wait until after the operation to listen to it. The next day I came home from the hospital and disc 4 was already loaded into the boombox that was sitting on the bureau next to the bed. I took a couple painkillers to stay ahead of the anticipated pain, and laid there listening to a few songs. One in particular caught my attention, a dance tune that had a chorus that consisted of a repeated phrase. I really enjoyed it. When I awoke some hours later, I took a look at the list of songs on CD 4. It wasn't there. It never existed, outside of my drug addled mind. I not only dreamed of a new Roxy Music song, I dreamed of a complete arrangement and recording of one. Wish I could remember it...
Bruce wrote a lot of great rainy day songs.
I've got a more sentimental thought to share...Remember years back, don't know exactly when, but there was a rumor about Bruce getting a Vegas residency. I hated the idea back then, and have just logged in to say how happy I'm that it never happened. On the contrary, what he did later, the book, Broadway, both new albums with both movies, radio hosting shows, the Obama podcast and book, even the Jeep commercial... He never fails to surprise me with his creativity, and at his age, this is something to wholeheartedly admire. His mind must still be flooded with ideas, and I hope he continues to maintain sparks in his eyes in the future.
Damn. I told you I'm being sentimental.
I don't recall ever having a dream about Bruce, but today when I was having an after-smoke nap, I dreamed he released a studio album of vintage soul covers and I was pretty disappointed when I woke up and realized it hadn't happened.
I love reading this tonight.
The Racing outro is a musical masterpiece. I have been playing this with different versions and have come to the understanding that everyone is a vital moment of redemption and amidst the seeming ruins that exist at the moment when the verse ends and the interlude begins. It always begins with Roy and whatever he does set the tone for the rest. It rises and falls and begins again. To me, at this moment it is proof that life exists and by the end, the narrator and his muse are redeemed yet again. It is essential E street material. I love that Paramount version, and of course Hyde Park. I played Tempe 1980 the other day, and although it's shorter than the others it really punches it home. Then I played one from Australia in 2017, it is so incredible. They all are amazing in their own ways. What I think in all honesty is that it may be the greatest thing Bruce can ever do live.
Darkness, I have attempted to write about for years. I always come back to it, If any of you want to know the real Adam (the one hitting these keys tonight) You just have to put on Darkness on the edge of town. It speaks to my obsessions and how they feed me. or I will more accurately say, how my obsessions have almost made me half of who I am. That other song where the guy does some things that he thinks are saving him cause they make him feel free, but in truth are really killing him. That's me in that dark place out near Abrams bridge. I don't race cars, but I do remember that girl who has her style she's trying to maintain. She sometimes lives in my house at the end of that long hall. I was, and sometimes am a ghost amongst the ones who love me, which is the crux of the first part of the song. But then he changes gears and goes deeper. The secret we try to keep can kill us, and then one day you cut it loose or it will kill you. I suggest if you have a secret, tell it to someone, it will become lighter...I suggest shedding the things that hold you back. I used to think my secret defined me, it's just baggage we don't need that weighs us down, or it'll get you loaded or land you in bed with someone who isn't your wife. I think the girl loved him but as he gave up on himself she fled. The point is to keep going up that hill. It's all we have. The struggle for acceptance. Tonight I'll be on that hill and we all know the rewards are the search itself.
I don't know if this clears up anything, it's great to have a place to write and friends to read it.
Prove It... its a live performance piece that really needs an audience, and for me this doesn't add much to versions we already have. But there is a way cool moment where Bruce's mid song solo starts, and we get a shot of Stevie grinning before the angle switches to the other side and we get Clarence shouting encouragement at Bruce.
Oh, outro solo... I may have spoken too soon. That is one of the best Reunion period outro solos I've seen or heard, TBH.
Streets Of Fire... never a favourite, TBH. But the Darkness archive show versions are incredible. Bruce's vocals here for the first part fall flat for me, but the guitar playing... wow. And then the pseudo howling vocally after the last chorus is immense. Great closing solo, also.
so Promised Land has just hit, and it's the first Clarence focussed moment other than the Badlands solo. Clarence then doing the 'hey heys' in the outro probably hits harder emotionally than the sax itself.
Candy... his voice is flat at the start, the 2019 Bruce can't quite do that 'ssshhh, quiet I have a secret' intro any more. Nevermind, greatness incoming...
Racing... well, what can I say. When suddenly at that 'some guys just give up living' line, Bruce stares straight into the camera at the viewer and it's... well, I don't know what... thrills, chills and spills. And he sings straight at us in several more points. It's freakin' moving to the point of emotional overload. A few songs from now, he'll tell us that everyone has a secret, something they can't face... well, we've just been Sony for a few minutes and he's shared it with us.
Oh, and then there's this whole musical outro that is just.... well, Mario/Paolo may need to help me, or perhaps Buddhabone can sort it out. Because I have no words.
Ok, some drunken as it happens real time Bosstralian reporting. All complaints to, well, me I guess. No guarantee I'll answer them. (Or, indeed, read them).
So Saturday night, and Australia Post failed to deliver my No Nukes Blu Ray. Screw you, Aussie Post.
Nevertheless, Bosstralian and his extremely strongly mixed Makers Mark and Dry will not be deterred. So, for the first time in many aeons, I've dragged out the Darkness box and put on the Darkness album performance DVD.
Badlands without false endings is cool.
Adam is insanely intense. Great, great version.
Bruce howling at the start of Something... is elemental.
More incredibly insightful reporting to come...
That is fascinating. What did you love so much about it? The scenery?
So, back in 2018, we did our 'once in a lifetime' family holiday to the US.
We visited San Francisco, flew across to NY, caught the train down to Washington DC, flew across to Vegas. From there, one of my favourite five hours ever, Luxbus through to Anaheim. Before heading into Univeral City for five days in LA.
We spent 3-5 days in each location, doing the family friendly tourist stuff.
Including a night tour of the monuments in Washington DC. We stood on these steps. I saw the view. I felt the undescribable weight of what it represented.
And, I feel in my soul, what Bruce is singing about on those same steps. Does anyone living there in the US feel the same, or is just guarding your little team box more important?
New strain available at the pot shop today.
I'm expecting a three and a half hour experience or it isn't worthy of the name.
"Meeting" into "Jungleland" has happened a canny few times (using https://www.setlist.fm/stats/songs/bruce-springsteen-2bd6dcce.html?songid=1bddc9a4, here a few more)
September 17th - Palladium - 19th and 21st - Passaic - in 1978;
October 1st, 1978 in Atlanta;
Richfield Coliseum on New Year's Day 1979;
A bunch of times on the Reunion Tour, including:
Earls Court '99; Arnhem 99; August 2nd, August 7th and 12th in Continental Airlines Arena; August 21st in Boston; September 17th and 21st in Philly; September 27th in Chicago etc.
Also happened in MSG in October 2007 and March 2016; there are more instances, but yeah, it's happened before 😀
I'm sure must've happened live cos on the album it's completely.......right/seemless.