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Bruce Springsteen? Really?


DaveAronow

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pretty much all of his words are particularly sad. and very well crafted. it's why i appreciate his stripped down acoustic stuff so much; when such is not drowned out by all the overproduced madness with the band.


but it's been established around here that clearly no one gives a flying {censored} about, you know, "words" and what they mean when strung together to express ... well, anything.


because actually "thinking" is, apparently, pretty hard.

 

 

lol...aahhh hemm....no comment....lol

 

I should probably check out his acoustic stuff more. Really I'm only familiar with Ghost of Tom Joad via Rage...I've heard a few other things here and there but never really followed through. His lyrics have always been the one thing that stood out most to me.

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There are a ton of live versions on YT as well -- where the solos go all the way into the Neil Young universe and beyond ...

 

 

My favorite Bruce album as well. I also loved the simple expansive moodiness of Nebraska. His lyrics are most often image filled poetry that can be accessible to most people.

 

"In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway American dream

At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines

Sprung from cages out on highway 9,

Chrome wheeled, fuel injected

and steppin' out over the line

Baby this town rips the bones from your back

It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap

We gotta get out while we're young

'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run

 

Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend

I want to guard your dreams and visions

Just wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims

and strap your hands across my engines"

 

His vision and imagery is uniquely American as was Bob Dylans back in the day. But I think, no more so than the Who's vision and imagery was uniquely British in say Quadrophenia.

 

While the topics always translate well to people who feel themselves caught up in similar situations, the long lonely highway is a very American image.

 

 

 

And yes that tone is the ballzzzzzz!!!!

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i like his acoustic stuff a lot.


not a fan of the freakishly produced e-street band {censored} though. i mean, i dig little steven and weinberg ... but as a band; they don't do it for me.

 

 

I don't know. Stripping his stuff down shows how threadbare it is.

 

Not a fan of his material, but a fantastic live performer. Best bar band ever.

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as one of the few live performers who can hold a 100,000 stadium in the palm of his hand with out all the bull{censored} fancy lighting and smoke pots and all that crap thats just cheap theatrics, in a attempt to make up for lack of musicianship... i really dig bruce.. he is right up there with bob dylan and neil young as far as songwriters go..
there is a reason he is called the Boss.
just good unpretentious american rockandroll music..

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I love his first few albums. Nothing from "Born In The USA" on really floats my boat. The poetic lyics of the first two, "Greetings from Asbury Park" & "The wild, the innocent & the E Street shuffle are a pleasure to listen to. Kitty's Back is one of my all time favotites. The only newer song I really like is Gypsy Biker.
[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

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as one of the few live performers who can hold a 100,000 stadium in the palm of his hand with out all the bull{censored} fancy lighting and smoke pots and all that crap thats just cheap theatrics, in a attempt to make up for lack of musicianship... i really dig bruce.. he is right up there with bob dylan and neil young as far as songwriters go..

there is a reason he is called the Boss.

just good unpretentious american rockandroll music..

 

 

Amen Brother...

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as one of the few live performers who can hold a 100,000 stadium in the palm of his hand with out all the bull{censored} fancy lighting and smoke pots and all that crap thats just cheap theatrics, in a attempt to make up for lack of musicianship... i really dig bruce.. he is right up there with bob dylan and neil young as far as songwriters go..

there is a reason he is called the Boss.

just good unpretentious american rockandroll music..

 

 

Exactly what I was thinking, so I'll add a +2

 

the best song writer of the late 70's into the 80's and he is still relevent today. "Working on a Dream" is a great album.

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as one of the few live performers who can hold a 100,000 stadium in the palm of his hand with out all the bull{censored} fancy lighting and smoke pots and all that crap thats just cheap theatrics, in a attempt to make up for lack of musicianship... i really dig bruce.. he is right up there with bob dylan and neil young as far as songwriters go..

there is a reason he is called the Boss.

just good unpretentious american rockandroll music..



These guys make Bruce sound like a kid in a 6th grade talent show.
see pics - Iron Maiden, last week in Houston

Nothing cheap about their stage setup, and if there were a 100,000 people at his concert, they were not their just to see Bruce.

bob dylan and neil young are legends, Bruce would be the 1st to tell you he has nothing on those guys. These guys no how to play a guitar...

The Boss :facepalm: IMO

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These guys make Bruce sound like a kid in a 6th grade talent show.

see pics - Iron Maiden, last week in Houston


Nothing cheap about their stage setup, and if there were a 100,000 people at his concert, they were not their just to see Bruce.


bob dylan and neil young are legends, Bruce would be the 1st to tell you he has nothing on those guys. These guys no how to play a guitar...


The Boss
:facepalm:
IMO



well now since you put it that way, with all the pretty pictures and stage show theatrics.. i guess im totally mistaken.. yep.. sure am...

:thu:

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Look, I respect the opinion of those who don't like Bruce's music--especially the over-compressed sound of the last few discs. There are also sound problems in the stadium shows--depending on where one sits, the mix can be painful.

:cop: But the notion that the E-Street Band lacks musicianship, and that Bruce is not one of the all-time great songwriters and performers is, well, nutty. Now I admit to being a fanboy--I've seen Bruce with and without the E-Streeters more than 30 times (which doesn't put me anywhere near the most zealous fans), and every single time I've been blown away by the energy and the emotion of the performance. Every single time. I've never seen Bruce phone it in, and for someone of his stature, you have to respect that.

Jon Stewart once said that "if you don't like Bruce Springsteen, you don't like joy." (Quoting from memory here.)

Finally, Bruce is in my opinion every bit the equal of Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Sure, he might not come out and say this out of respect for guys who have been fighting the good fight longer, but his output as a songwriter places him in this company. If you all put down your guitars for just a moment and allow yourself to comtemplate the lyrics, the themes, particularly as he moved into the later phases of his career, you would find some of the most thoughtful and ethically profound music of our time.

He carries on the tradition from Bob and Neil back to Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie--and he weds it better than anyone else to soul and old-time RnR. You may not like his politics (and I respect that, as long as you're thoughtful about it), but you have to respect his integrity in speaking his mind on important matters. You may not like Bruce, but he's one of the most important artists of our time.

And if you insist on trashing our Boss you may earn yourself a prime location in the new Giants Stadium. :rolleyes:

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USA > everything else



I'm not really sure where this is coming from. :confused: Sure, Bruce celebrates certain aspects of American culture, but he is hardly jingoistic. He is also very critical of certain aspects of American culture. In fact, he's on record as supporting a Canadian- (and European-) style health care program.

Remember that Born in the USA (despite Ronald Reagan's infamous misreading) is very critical of American foreign policy.

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I'm not a fan. I just never got him. He's too sentimental, perhaps, for my blood. Give me Elvis Costello's sarcasm any day over Springsteen's sentimental Americana tripe.

 

 

I stopped listening/watching after Born in the USA. I didn't hear any "sentimental." Just cars, gurls and New Jersey. Sort of like the early Beach Boys transported East, and musically pumped up on 'roids.

 

Maybe he's changed lyrically, but the music just got too dull to bear.

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I saw Bruce right after he put out his "Born to Run" album.

It was one of the greatest shows that I've ever seen by far. One hell of a performer.

He lost me after the became "The Boss".

"Jungleland" is one of the greatest songs ever written. :thu:

[YOUTUBE]0aRhqVWUPPs[/YOUTUBE]

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well now since you put it that way, with all the pretty pictures and stage show theatrics.. i guess im totally mistaken.. yep.. sure am...


:thu:

 

To Each their own. I find Bruce absolutely and completely pretentious in his attempt to seem unpretentios.

 

I will not comment on his lyric writing skills. They may be fantastic but I have never been able to sit through enough of his music to enjoy the lyrics.

 

How do I think Bruce is pretentious, when he is so "real" and keeps it so "

"simple and honest"?

 

He appears to be a giant walking, living, breathing, Rock n Roll Cliche and to me it looks like he tries WAY to hard to look and act like he is not trying WAY too hard. I find his whole act pretentious.

 

He seems like the invention of a writer or director that read a script about what Rock n Roll is supposed to be all about but has never actually heard or seen it in real life.

 

He seems like a really cool guy and seems to really love what he does and I know his fans would die for him. But his whole deal does not seem the least bit natural to me. It seems like something he has honed and contrived for a long time to try and look like the plain old American clean cut rocker. Whatever he is doing is definitely working though.

Millions of people have bought into the act.

 

The music couldnt be any more middle of the road and generically uninteresting to me though. I have never heard a bruce Springsteen song that didnt make me yawn and want to change the station.

 

And although it might not seem like it, I REALLY love just about all music and have a hard time finding stuff I DONT like. I dont hate Bruce at all or anything. I just find very little if anything interesting in his music, and lyrics alone could NEVER completely make the song for me. There has to be something musically interesting to go along with the great lyrics or else all you have is some dude reading poetry over the top of some boring background music. :bor:

 

Im not trying to convince the believers they are wrong. Im just asking what I am missing, because I cant even understand how someone could like him that much, much less make the fuss that the masses have made over him. It sounds like music written and performed for Ward Cleaver, and even nerdy kids, Wally and The Beave are bored as their dad drags them to the concert and keeps trying to explain why they should be excited. :lol:

 

Rock on Bruce fans. You bunch of wild men you!!:rawk::rawk:

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as one of the few live performers who can hold a 100,000 stadium in the palm of his hand with out all the bull{censored} fancy lighting and smoke pots and all that crap thats just cheap theatrics, in a attempt to make up for lack of musicianship... i really dig bruce.. he is right up there with bob dylan and neil young as far as songwriters go..

there is a reason he is called the Boss.

just good unpretentious american rockandroll music..

 

 

 

I got to go with this. I'm not a big Bruce fan. I like Born To Run era stuff the best. But not enough to pay to go see him. Then one night I was watching Palladia and they had him on and I could see why he's such a big draw live. The show was full of energy.

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, I meant
lyrics
of our time.


He carries on the tradition from Bob and Neil back to Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie--and he weds it better than anyone else to soul and old-time RnR. You may not like his politics (and I respect that, as long as you're thoughtful about it), but you have to respect his integrity in speaking his mind on important matters. You may not like Bruce, but he's one of the most important artists of our time.


And if you insist on trashing our Boss you may earn yourself a prime location in the new Giants Stadium.
:rolleyes:

 

Fix'd it for ya.

 

And oh yeah, If John Stewart said it, it MUST be true. :rolleyes::facepalm:

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