Springsteen as POTUS-maker?
Posted: November 14, 2012 Filed under: Politics, Rock and roll | Tags: Music, Politics Leave a commentI was going to write a post on this subject, given Bruce’s support of President Obama’s reelection campaign in performances throughout the swing states. I would even have mentioned his contribution of surely the worst campaign song ever, “Forward.” And Bruce was riding around with the president on Air Force One. Adele and Doug Springsteen’s boy from Freehold, New Jersey, on Air Force One. You gotta love it.
But given some of the articles written since the election, I don’t need to give Mr Springsteen credit for electing a president. Others have already done that. Read the rest of this entry »
Live or Memorex?
Posted: November 10, 2012 Filed under: Music, Rock and roll | Tags: Music, radio, theater 2 CommentsIn the antediluvian days of cassette taping, one company’s tagline was “Is it live or is it Memorex?” Their message was that the recording on their tapes was so true you would think you were listening to live music. Which of course is balderdash. Or the modern day equivalent.
Sound purists would say it’s all in the quality of the sound. Ok, that’s important. Studio performance or concerts recorded on vinyl may well be the best available recorded sound. And modern recording technology can strip out some of the sound between the sounds to create files that fit on our walking-around devices. We are willing to sacrifice sound quality for portability. Or as Bruce Springsteen said in his SXSW speech, “… the records that my music was initially released on gave way to a cloud of ones and zeroes, and I carry my entire record collection since I was thirteen in my breast pocket.” Read the rest of this entry »
My top 20
Posted: October 29, 2012 Filed under: Music, Rock and roll Leave a commentAnyone who’s not a Bruce Springsteen fan may went to quit reading now.
Backstreets.com, one of the top fan sites, has a message board titled BTX. A member named Jamesy recently invited others to submit their All Time Bruce Top 20 Songs — from which he will do the analysis and post results in January. I finally submitted my list today:
1. Thunder Road
2. Racing in the Street
3. The River
4. Born to Run
5. Incident on 57th Street
6. Promised Land
7. Rocky Ground
8. Because the Night
9. Death to My Hometown
10. Shut Out the Light
11. Streets of Philadelphia
12. Jungleland
13. Tenth Avenue Freezeout
14. No Surrender
15. Land of Hope and Dreams
16. Ghost of Tom Joad (2012 version)
17. Badlands
18. City of Ruins
19. The Price You Pay
20. Red-Headed Woman
And of course, as soon as I submitted it, I thought oh for heavens sake, why did I put Badlands at number 17 and what about Spirit in the Night, Rosalita, For You, Shackled and Drawn, Wrecking Ball, Tougher Than the Rest, Atlantic City, Brilliant Disguise, Born in the USA, and a dozen more.
Bruce Springsteen has written hundreds of songs over the last ~40 years. Most of them are in commercially recorded albums (studio and live) but many exist only in bootleg recordings that fans make at concerts. (This is not illegal, as someone suggested to me recently. Bruce and other musicians don’t discourage bootlegs. It is a violation of his IP rights to make copies of those commercially recorded albums for other people. That’s why I have bought six copies of the Wrecking Ball album so far — to give to friends with whom I was going to concerts.)
If you want to take a look at this BTX thread or submit your own top 20 list, here’s the link. http://tiny.cc/zofymw
Glory Days!
Posted: October 10, 2012 Filed under: Rock and roll 2 CommentsI spent a recent long weekend in one of my favorite places in the world besides Chicago: The Jersey shore, especially Asbury Park and West Long Branch. Of course, we had a few great meals at restaurants on the shore and heard bands at The Stone Pony (a bar that deserves to be an historic landmark). The main reason I was there was to attend the third Glory Days: A Bruce Springsteen Symposium at Monmouth University organized by the University of Southern Indiana with Monmouth and Penn State Altoona. (Previous symposia were held in 2005 and 2009.) Read the rest of this entry »
Wrigley x 2
Posted: September 12, 2012 Filed under: Rock and roll | Tags: Bruce Springsteen, rock and roll 6 CommentsOh, give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away.
No, Bruce Springsteen didn’t perform the great pop-rock song “Drift Away” in his two Wrigley concerts. But I did get lost in his rock and roll for two nights and it was sublime.
You can find plenty of reviews of these concerts online, as well as complete setlists. http://www.backstreets.com/setlists.html and http://brucespringsteen.net/. Both were epic nights with setlists highlighted by songs like the 1978 version of “Prove It All Night” with its long instrumental opening, “Spirit in the Night” and “Blinded by the Light” from Springsteen’s first album, Greetings from Asbury Park. And rarities like “My Love Will Not Let You Down” and even “None But the Brave,” which really surprised me. Fifty-five songs in two nights — a total of 42 different songs in the two setlists.
On both nights, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and Tom Morello, the Nightwatchman, of the late great Rage Against the Machine, joined Bruce on stage. Morello and Springsteen played the powerful electric version of “The Ghost of Tom Joad” both nights. Morello’s frenetic solos on his old custom-made “Arm the Homeless” guitar produce sounds you rarely hear out of a guitar. I’m a big Morello fan.
Eddie Vedder performed two songs with Springsteen each night. Fine duets on “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “Atlantic City” and “My Hometown.”
Photo at right: Bruce, Eddie, Tom and drummer Max Weinberg. (Photo by Lois Bernstein from backstreets.com.)
For our family, the highlights were Saturday night. My grandson James (he’s 14) went to his first Springsteen concert with me. And it rained. But most significant was the fact that my 7-year-old niece was on her dad’s shoulders when Bruce sang Hungry Heart and made his way down a platform out into the field seats. He was singing to the crowd and high-fiving fans as he walked. And he stopped and high-fived Juliana and said something like “you go” to her. It was a priceless moment.
The difference between the two shows, of course, was the rain. Friday night was clear. Saturday night was too, until about two-thirds of the way through the show when a light rain started. And continued. It never poured. It just rained and rained. But it didn’t spoil the show and everyone got wet, including the frontman, who spent plenty of time out in the crowd, performing on the platforms built out among the pit and field seats.
Oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away….
Great truck!
Posted: August 30, 2012 Filed under: Rock and roll | Tags: Bruce Springsteen Leave a comment
Springsteen fans on Twitter all wanted to hire this fellow fan for their carpet cleaning chores. Thanks to Steph Brown (@stephrah) for the great photo catch. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
The photo was taken in England, specifically Surrey, for those who have been trying to figure out the geography of the license plate or phone number.
Listen to the words!
Posted: August 23, 2012 Filed under: Music, Politics, Rock and roll Leave a commentJim DeRogatis posts a great article on the meaning of music and its bleed over into politics. He describes the Pussy Riot event and provides lyrics to the song that offended Russian authorities. (Also see the post No Pasaran! for a photo of the Pussy Riot three.)
And he reviews the Paul Ryan claim that he’s a fan of Rage Against the Machine. http://www.wbez.org/blogs/jim-derogatis/2012-08/what-words-mean-101817 …
I believe in rock and roll
Posted: July 18, 2012 Filed under: Music, Rock and roll 2 CommentsI believe in rock and roll. I believe in serious things too, like the First Amendment, the democratic process, three-day weekends, and free wifi. And I believe that some day the Cubs will win the World Series. But today I want to tell you why I believe in rock and roll.
I was a grownup — you could even say middle-aged — before I became a rock and roll fan. Most people become rock fans when they’re young, but among my friends in college, jazz was the only cool music. We listened to cool west coast jazz and bebop. We were all really serious about jazz.
Then one day in 1984, I hooked up a TV set to cable TV for the first time and discovered MTV. Those were the days when MTV programmed music videos day and night. I was mesmerized — by Michael Jackson, the Police, Prince, and most of all, by Bruce Springsteen. His Born in the USA album was a huge hit and the title track plus Dancing in the Dark played in regular rotation.
I began buying Springsteen records and then CDs, but it was years before I attended my first Springsteen concert. I don’t know why it took so long. My nephew, a lifelong fan, took me to my first Bruce concert. It was a life-changing, magical experience.
The lyrics to his songs had always spoken to me but now his voice, his movements, and all the keyboards, drums, guitars and saxophone of the E Street Band spoke too. I was caught up in the experience with thousands of other fans, singing, dancing, clapping and yes, sometimes crying. A live rock and roll concert is loud, emotional, cathartic, exhausting and exhilarating. Recorded music can never come close – it just reminds you of the real thing.
Now, 13 years after my first Springsteen concert, I’ve attended 28 more, six of them this year. My saner friends ask, “Aren’t they all the same?” No, each one is different. Each one is full of surprises. And the crowd at each one is a moving, singing, celebrating community. At each concert, Bruce recognizes some of the political issues of the day in his music and his commentary. That’s how he creates a community that believes in the power of rock and roll.
(Photo at left from my first concert 9/27/99 — Bruce with the Big Man. Photo © Chicago Tribune. The ticket is faded but mine.)
Today, I’m in post-retirement mode and my belief in the power of the music hasn’t changed. Most of the time, I go to concerts with friends or relatives. But even when I go alone, I still feel that power that joins us in the spirit of rock and roll. In this divided world, that’s not a small achievement.
Decades ago, Don McLean wrote “American Pie,” a classic rock song about “the day the music died” — the day of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. McLean sings, “Do you believe in rock and roll? Can music save your mortal soul?”
I’m not sure about the soul part. But I’m positive about the magic of rock and roll.
_________________________
Note: This essay was submitted to This I Believe and accepted for the organization’s essay library. It now appears here. http://thisibelieve.org/essay/120141/
This I Believe, Inc., was founded in 2004 as an independent, not-for-profit organization that engages youth and adults from all walks of life in writing, sharing, and discussing brief essays about the core values that guide their daily lives.
nancy bishop's journal 
