Western Stars, 2nd anniversary

@Mario Brega ^^^ polls? 😋

I frequent the Steve Hoffman forums a fair bit and they love polls on there... A recent one was to vote on your three favourite Springsteen albums from The Rising to today.

Western Stars tops the poll with 172 votes, the next closest is Magic with 165. Lowest is High Hopes with 15 determined little votes...

Sometimes I wish someone here would disagree with me so that I could vigorously defend my beliefs... 🤓

I'm certain that the part from 'Tonight the riders on Sunset' onward is the most cathartic segment of any Bruce song. If you don't get all choked up all teary, well....get out of here...

I can't put into words how much I love this album.

I needed a good cry today to get things out of my system - my previous choice was always Racing, but today I chose WS (the song) and it worked its' magic.

It will also always remind me of Marsha, which is a good thing.

Unless Bruce has something hidden in his vaults this will most probably be his last masterpiece of an album. The songwriting is at his best, like it was 15-20 years ago. Great production and musical arrangements, as well. It is a true gift that, for me, totally unexpectedly fell down from the sky.

I don't remember exactly what I have been saying about the cover back then, I think I was positive about the horse while some posters complained that Bruce wearing his cowboy hat would have been a more suitable choice...

God damn, I love that horse now... The image of its untamed beauty with the shiny black coat harmonizes so perfectly with the album's theme. It creates an immediate visual distinction between other albums and this jewel.

2 years already? Wow. Feels a lifetime has happened since then.

I loved the album then, I love it now.

My list of things 'wrong' with it that I would change:

@1651997 thank you for sharing your story. Don't feel shy to write more long posts. 🙂

The one thing that always puzzled me about reaction from some fans to the album was that it would've been better without the strings... that this was a great acoustic album, and Bruce somehow ruined it with a particular production choice not to their personal liking.

To me, for most of these songs, the strings are an essential part of what is being communicated, a key element of the songs themselves. Removing the string parts from, say, Western Stars, Chasin' Wild Horses or Stones as examples makes about as much sense to me as removing the saxophone solos from Jungleland or Drive All Night.

Anything I say now about how much this album means to me would just be redundant.

Listening to the song while sailing must have been amazing, @Louisa! 🙂

I too have very fond memories of listening to the album (and the singles) for the first time, the anticipation for the album and even the next few months after it was released. It definitely is associated with my life in 2019, the good and the bad. I used to play it just for pleasure and sometimes for comfort and I still do.

I absolutely love Western Stars, and I have a very specific and simple episode of my life when a lot of the things that made me happy were starting to fall apart, all at the same time. Health problems in my family, my relationship ending, a couple of situations with some people I considered friends... The whole package. I was pretty much a wreck by the end of the day after a particularly hard week for me, and that same night my girlfriend and I broke up in a pretty terrible fashion to put the cherry on top of that shitty week, so I just couldn't stay there with her, or at home, or anywhere, really. I really wanted to escape.

I left her house and drove to... wherever. I started to drive in silence, but I needed to stop thinking about what was happening, so I played the album in my car. By the time I reached the song Western Stars, I was near a park where I used to go as a kid with my grandparents, so I parked the car there, took my headphones with me and went on a walk. I sat there looking at the park while listening to WS (still the song) and I looked back at the beautiful trees and bushes there and the even more beautiful memories I had of being there with my grandfather, hoping he would get better. That plus everything else going on made me tear up, and by the time Bruce sang "Tonight the riders on Sunset are smothered in the Santa Ana winds / Come on and ride me down easy, ride me down easy, friend" I was crying like I don't think I had ever cried before. After that I returned to the car and drove home, listening to the rest of the album. "Then it was one more shot poured out onto the parking lot / To the Moonlight Motel", Bruce sang. I closed the door and went to sleep. It was just the escape I needed.

6 months later everything was falling back into place. My grandfather's health improved drastically and I made peace with what had happened with my ex-girlfriend and those friends and with the time I was taking to get 100% back on my feet. I was returning from a friend's house and I started listening to the album again by accident, Spotify's shuffle just played Hitch Hikin' and I started listening to the whole album. I headed back to that park (it was on my way home) and I sat there in the same spot as I did 6 months before, listening to WS. When it ended I was pretty emotional, but in a good sense now. I realized how time can heal certain things and how lucky I was to still have my grandfather around and healthy after all. For some reason, I never forgot both these days, and I'm not sure I ever will for what it meant to me, and this album is a big part of it.

Western Stars really does mean a lot to me, it's a brilliant and moving record, right up there with the very best things Bruce has ever done. A huge bookmark in his career, if you ask me.

I'm sorry for the long post, I'm not one to share these kinds of things or to write posts like this, but I wanted to tell you how much this record has meant and still means to me, and this was my way of doing it.

It is one of the most surprising things our hero has ever done. It moves me like nothing else I have ever encountered. A musical moment that found me where I live and continues to reinforce it's truths. More to follow.

I don't think I've ever simultaneously 'disliked' and adored something at the same like I did this. I convinced myself that I couldn't stand some of the songs, but I couldn't stop listening to them, singing them. I'm so glad Songs From the Film came out so I could write an additional review praising the damn thing 😂

Should probably watch and write about the film itself at some point.