http://www.avclub.com/articles/when-elvira-met-tom-waits-26plus-albums-featuring,45027/
Posted on 09/01/2013 4:19:27 PM PDT by nickcarraway
An entire generation has dismissed The Boss' music as lame "dad rock." Here's why they're all wrong
Every few weeks or so, I’ll be talking to someone at a bar or club or house party, and the conversation will inevitably turn toward Bruce Springsteen. The exchange is usually as follows:
BAR PATRON/PARTY GUEST: So, what kind of music do you listen to?
ME: Oh, a little bit of everything … blues, jazz, funk, Bruce Springsteen (brief pause) … you know, my tastes are super eclectic.
BAR PATRON/PARTY GUEST: Um, why do you like Springsteen?
ME: So, you don’t like Bruce Springsteen?
BAR PATRON/PARTY GUEST: Ugh. No.
(Long pause)
ME: (Shuffling away while muttering angrily, like an elderly woman being chastised for feeding pigeons) Well, you should.
This person will then enumerate the list of reasons why he dislikes Bruce Springsteen, usually employing four out of six of the following arguments:
He’s old. He sucks. He sucks because he’s old. He’s old because he sucks. He sings about being a member of the working class even though he’s made millions and millions of dollars over the past 30 years “Born in the USA” sucks. In my 24 years as a die-hard Bruce fan, I have had this conversation approximately eight or nine hundred thousand times. While the people on the other end tend to skew toward a specific demographic — white, male, in a creative profession, dating someone with bangs and an Egon Schiele tattoo — they come from a wide range of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, from Bushwick installation artists to a bouncer I met in Ireland, who used his loathing for “Born in the USA”
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
Tom Waits was truly the absolute best songwriter in the 70’s - so many great albums but “Small Change” is his masterpiece. Loved the album cover, too...
Like Dylan, one had to adjust to Waits’ voice although I loved it the first time I heard him. A local college radio station was playing “Step Right Up” - blew me away!
I couldn’t agree more, he was spectacular. I still listen to that album/DVD.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/when-elvira-met-tom-waits-26plus-albums-featuring,45027/
You know, that just might have been ‘73; 40 years come and go - - you know how it is. Speaking of Sancious, you can see him play in this, one of my all-time favorite YouTubes. I prefer this version far more than the studio version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeKE2Z-9HVM
I like the Mellencamp clip you linked, although he is not a major talent for me. But I did appreciate his showing up at Walter Reed to play for the wounded. Here is one of my favorites from Mellencamp, with its little riff from Zeppelin in the guitar solo.
This post rips the bones from my back, it’s a death trap, a suicide rap.
No kidding! Interesting, thanks.
Wow, what a treat that was -- bookmarked it! David Sancious looked so good on that video -- at 3:13, you can see him arching his fingers at a supernatural angle over the keyboard! Also love when Sting does the traditional Celtic songs. His 2009 Christmas album was just terrific.
Bruce always was totally over rated.
To be brief...
After 9/11, I spent some time at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey on a homeland security detail. During that time, Springsteen decided to do his comeback tour, The Rising. He had traditionally used the Pruden Auditorium at Fort Monmouth to practice for his tours. It was no different for this tour, except now their was a homeland security detail on the base.
When we first heard he was coming, we were excited, thinking that Mr. Born-in-the-U.S.A might put on a private show for the soldiers stationed there. After all, this was in the months following 9/11 and patriotism was pretty high. Instead, we were told to alter our normal patrol routes so as NOT to go near the Pruden Auditorium when Bruce was rehearsing. We weren’t even supposed to walk close to the building.
The treatment he and his band gave us was THE WORST. *Every* person coming on to base had to show their pass/ID. EVERYONE. Even me - and I was showing it to soldiers who knew me. Obviously, this was a precaution to determine if the pass/ID had been lost or fallen into the wrong hands. But Bruce and his band didn’t like being questioned. We got plenty of “Don’t you know who I am???” both verbally and in looks. One time, Bruce wanted to make a point about having to show his ID and took so long that he held traffic up into the main road, causing a traffic hazard (he removed his gloves one finger at a time, got off his bike painfully slow, etc). Another time, his wife spun around on the grass after being told she would have to get a temporary pass (like everyone else) for the day because she didn’t have her primary pass. We had countless “I’m with Bruce” incidents at the gate where people downright refused to show ID.
Throughout all of this, the soldiers treated the entire entourage with respect. The band cussed us out. His wife cussed us out. Bruce sneered and gave dirty looks. I don’t think he ever cussed us out, but he did act like a royal arse - and he certainly never whipped his people into shape.
I now officially hate Bruce.
Plus he delivered it in a hollering style that is profoundly irritating. The problem with Springsteen is that, leftist politics aside, he has a limited vocal capability and little nuance in any of his songs. And not much of a melodic sense.
But I once saw his saxophone sidekick Clarence Clemmons in SF playing with his own band and he was simply amazing. Maybe he had more to do with carrying "the boss" than most folks realize.
Grammies are almost as low on the prestige list as Nobel Prizes.
Sinatra pretty much invented modern pop singing.
In the early to mid 1970s there was a frantic attempt among rock critics to find a ‘New Dylan’. The old saying is true...if Springsteen didn’t exist critics would have had to invent him. The fact is that he had a very limited emotional and songwriting range.
What exactly did Born in the USA mean to Springsteen. I never ever listened to that stupid song and had no idea he was saying anything else.
No, they never even crossed my radar. Different strokes for different folks...
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