Posted on 03/29/2012 10:49:33 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Bruce Springsteen played the first of two nights in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
If the news headline is that he pointedly directed his audience to hear his 2000 song “American Skin (41 Bullets)” now as a parable for Trayvon Martin, the music story of this show is that Springsteen has broken through to a new level of interest in beats, rhythms, and ways to keep his old music fresh, for himself and for his fans.
(Excerpt) Read more at music-mix.ew.com ...
Maybe he can write a new New Jersey hit titled; “I just want to be Spike Lee’.
I’ll bet he’s putting slicks on his scooterchair.
What? He plays from his wheelchair? This guy is so has been he hasn’t even been!
Two things people forget when they consider the left leanings of famous entertainers.
The almost universal lack of education among actors and musicians. It is very rare for any of them to graduate from college. In fact a large percentage of them aren’t even high school graduates. Even a cerebral song writer- poet like Bob Dylan dropped out his freshman year of college.
A large majority of successful actors and musicians quit there formal education to work on their craft in their teens.
While attending college opens you up to further leftist brainwashing; there is at the very least some time during the 4 years, that some effort is made, to teach the basics of critical thinking to students. The very interaction with other students the late night debates in the dorms or the discussions in the student union; help develop at least an rudimentary inkling of there being two sides too some issues. At the very least some people who get a liberal arts degree, develop a bit of intellectual depth, which is largely lacking from most high school drop outs.
So you take a young artist and surround them with people who are in most cases more much more educated lawyers, accountants, film directors recording engineers, media entrepreneurs, who are almost universally left of center and quite often come from secular family and backgrounds, the result is predictable.
All the intellectual forces in their life push them left none of them are critical of the left thus they mouth left wing swill. I understand how they got so stupid politically, so I try not to hold it against them, they are victims in away, themselves.
'Regional Rock' sucks. Namely, Rock music ballads where you have to be born and raised in a certain part of the USA to identify with: Like the stuff put out by Springsteen and whatever John Lemon Cougarcamp is telling people to call him these days.
I just don't have patience for Springsteen's Rust Belt steel foundry warbling, or John MellonCougarLip's lousy 'blood on the scarecrow/blood on the plow/blood on the haystack/blood on the International Harvester rotary soil cultivation combine' lyrics.
So, Springsteen has been desperately searching for a new schtick. So I guess he found one down in Florida. Maybe he'll add Latin timbales drums to the E-Street Band.
Anyone who thinks "American Skin" is left-wing agiprop hasn't heard it. The song reflects the policemen's dillema as well as the victim's:
Is it a gun?
Is it a knife?
Is it a wallet?
This is your life
The song is a powerful portrayal of a tragedy, in which everyone meant well but an innocent man nonetheless died. It is most emphatically not a condemnation of the police (who are also depicted in the song as kneeling on the floor and praying for Diallo's life.)
Which would you prefer?
I agree, especially with Cougar-Mellancamp. Their managers or record co or both make them write songs that will become hits. After they have a hit or two, then they have the clout to making the America hating songs that were always in their hearts.
Cougar had some decent songs on his first album. I think it was the second album was when he started whining about having to use the name Cougar so it became John Cougar-Mellencamp then just John Mellencamp. With each iteration of his names, his songs sucked more and more but I'll never forgive him for the treacly, Jack and Diane.
As for Springsteen, I've never heard a song of his I liked, from his first song on the radio to today.
I'll never understand why someone in Reagan's camp thought Born in the USA would be a good theme song for his second term's election; did they not listen to the song or did they have a David Brock or Huffington type turncoat(s) in his campaign?
Bruce is a mannequin of what he thinks a working man is supposed to look like. Glory Days....they passed him by.
In order to get what he got out of his career, one has to be a shameless self promoter. It’s one thing to promote your act, another to try to baptize it. Viz.
I was at the concert last night. Having sat in Bruce’s seats, eaten his food, and drank from his beverages, I won’t deride his misplaced tribute to Trayvon Martin. That would be ungracious. I will say this, I don’t agree with his politics. I don’t, however, agree that he is somehow a “regional rocker” or that he has had 3 good albums. Moreover, since I watched him perform for 3 hours non-stop, including diving into the audience, sliding 30 feet on his knees across the stage, and jumping all over the place, that he is in a wheel-chair or walker. It is one thing to disagree with Bruce’s politics. It is one thing not to like his music, musical taste is subjective. To deny his rock n’ roll hall of fame, international celebrity, is silly and discredits only those who say so. Moreover, to suggest he is a geriatric incapable of playing, only proves that the commentor has never actually seen a Springsteen Concert. That’s shame. There is no better show in Rock n’Roll.
I was at the concert last night. Having sat in Bruce’s seats, eaten his food, and drank from his beverages, I won’t deride his misplaced tribute to Trayvon Martin. That would be ungracious. I will say this, I don’t agree with his politics. I don’t, however, agree that he is somehow a “regional rocker” or that he has had 3 good albums. Moreover, since I watched him perform for 3 hours non-stop, including diving into the audience, sliding 30 feet on his knees across the stage, and jumping all over the place, that he is in a wheel-chair or walker. It is one thing to disagree with Bruce’s politics. It is one thing not to like his music, musical taste is subjective. To deny his rock n’ roll hall of fame, international celebrity, is silly and discredits only those who say so. Moreover, to suggest he is a geriatric incapable of playing, only proves that the commentor has never actually seen a Springsteen Concert. That’s shame. There is no better show in Rock n’Roll.
I wish I had the money I wasted on this man’s concerts and discs. What a disappointment. If a guy will cheat on his wife, his country may be next.
I was at the concert last night. Having sat in Bruce’s seats, eaten his food, and drank from his beverages, I won’t deride his misplaced tribute to Trayvon Martin. That would be ungracious. I will say this, I don’t agree with his politics. I don’t, however, agree that he is somehow a “regional rocker” or that he has had 3 good albums. Moreover, since I watched him perform for 3 hours non-stop, including diving into the audience, sliding 30 feet on his knees across the stage, and jumping all over the place, that he is in a wheel-chair or walker. It is one thing to disagree with Bruce’s politics. It is one thing not to like his music, musical taste is subjective. To deny his rock n’ roll hall of fame, international celebrity, is silly and discredits only those who say so. Moreover, to suggest he is a geriatric incapable of playing, only proves that the commentor has never actually seen a Springsteen Concert. That’s shame. There is no better show in Rock n’Roll.
I’ll never get over the loss of David Sancious, personally. At one of the E St Band’s first-year performances in a tiny club on the shore, I watched Sancious reach into the body of the baby grand and pluck a few strings with his fingers at a key point in the song. Nearly swooned. Went up to talk to him afterward, and went backstage to talk to Bruce. What a waste of energy, it now seems.
The problem appears to be that no one drinking the beverages of these celebrities known mostly for being known has the nerve to tell them what they don’t want to hear. That would be ungracious. Elvis’ Memphis “Mafia” of half-witted hicks carrying his handkerchiefs on stage comes to mind.
Bruce has been the Rolling Stone Lefty rock critics wet dream, after Dylan refused to play for them the little marxist game. His “discoverer” and manager Jon Landau had been a critic (a good one at that.)
Keith Richards once described Bruce’s musical output in one perfect word: “contrived”.
Collins was a back-up drummer for Peter Gabriel in Genesis for a long time, which was a stunning act to be sure. Gabriel has lately proven himself a Kool-Aid drinker.
20 years ago I’d have paid anything to see him.Today you couldn’t pay me to want to see him.
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