Do you like The Boss? Hard to say anything bad about the man even if you dislike his music. I think The Rising is a really poignant response to 9/11, full of wisdom and compassion.
The imagery in Into the Fire never fails to give me a chill.
You gave your love to see, in fields of red and autumn brown You gave your love to me and lay your young body down Up the stairs, into the fire Up the stairs, into the fire I need you near, but love and duty called you someplace higher Somewhere up the stairs, Into the fire
And American Skinā¦ what other white artist with commercial success was making such songs in 2001?
When did you see him? I watched his On Broadway show on whatever streaming service and couldnāt help to cry on a few occasions from the stories he told in-between songs. What a decent human beingā¦
Been a fan since 1979, the year I was born, by virtue of the fact that my parents are fans. I live on the west coast now but born and raised in the Midwest āGods countryā some might say. So when Born in the USA dropped in 1984 it pretty much played everywhere you went. All that to say all of those songs are kind of, in a way, a part of who I am.
It has always been a goal of mine to catch a show with my dad. He and I were lucky enough to catch the second round of Broadway shows. He did a final two week run of those shows following the reopening of Broadway after covid. Interestingly enough though covid was still in full swing at that time. My dad and I caught a red eye from California to NYC, caught the show the following evening.
Itās really difficult to articulate what that night was like. Coming of the heels of the previous two years, and everything that had happened - covid, Trump, Floyd, the election and all that crazy shit - bring at that show was like coming up for air after being held underwater. I donāt think Iāve cried as much in one night as I did during that show since I was a child.
It was an honor to be there and a night I will never, ever forget. I mean to sit there in a room of 1,500 people and hear him play My Hometown on solo piano is literally the stuff life is made of.
One of the best two shows Iāve ever seen and likely the best night of my life in 44 years thus far.
I wish I could remember the year I saw him. Probably around the mid-2000s. It was in Denver and I remember having to tell some randos to stop talking during one of his stories.
I used to despise Springsteen. As a kid all my classmates liked cool bands like Kiss, W.A.S.P., Dio and Twisted Sister, except this one kid who came from a better off family. He listened to Born In The USA while we were pretending to be Ace Frehley with a tennis racket as a guitar. His taste in music seemed lame and uninteresting. Little did we know.
Years later I went to Stockholm to see Arcade Fire perform on their Neon Bible tour. I loved the show, but after the gig there were a bunch of Finnish music journos saying that the new album was really indebted to Springsteen. I was appalled by their analysis. How can this majestic indie band with ten members switching instruments mid song be compared to that boring twat in denim singing middle of the road rock music?
A few years later something happened. I guess I stumbled into Darkness On The Edge Of The Town or Nebraska or something and fell head over heels in love with his music. All these years spent hating the man turned into loving his body of work. Nowadays I have an almost complete vinyl discography in my possession. Iāve never seen him play live, but Iām not sure standing for hours on end in a crowded stadium would be my idea of fun anyways.
In my opinion thatās the beauty of life. Thereās always new music to find and even something that you dislike intensely can become your favourite new artist. Life is a never ending journey discovering cool new stuff to listen to.
I canāt say Iām a fan but itās by virtue of ignorance. I donāt know a lot of his music apart from āBorn in the USAā.
āStreets of Philadelphiaā is a lovely, lovely track though. As an aside, Neil Youngās āCity of Brotherly Loveā, from the same soundtrack, stirs up a lot of sadness for me.
Streets of Philadelphia is a triumph of a song. If you like the more mellow side of Springsteen check out his record The Ghost of Tom Joad. It solidified him as one of the greatest song writers of all time for me when I heard it as a hound adult.
In 2014 I found a CD box set of 5 early albums in a charity shop for Ā£2 or Ā£3.
That was when I finally understood why one or two old school friends used to listen to him back in the mid to late ā80s.
Second-best concert I ever saw, in 1979. I only have his second album now, and I can only listen to it about once a year. I did like the film of his Broadway show, though.
Springsteen is prime Boomer dad-rock. Heās got some songs that are absolutely canon, and Darkness on the Edge of Town is a great album. But man, those hard key changes in his songs, where the whole thing just shifts up two whole steps are like nails on a chalkboard to me.
I just read his autobiography. Itās a great and quick read. He spent a couple years living in the back of a small surfboard factory is asbury park and playing in a heavy blues band (he was kind of a shredder back then, he played a six string bass strung with guitar strings for a while). They toured up and down the east coast and out to california but the band fell apart at some point.
Nebraska is the one I always come back to. I wish heād made a few more home-recorded albums in that vein. He āmasteredā that album by running his 4-track through a echoplex and into a boombox. The production on a lot of his big albums is just too cheesball 80s for me.
Tunnel of Love is still my favorite with Nebraska closely following. Seen him a few times and I just bow down to his 50(!) year body of work. Very very few artists have a run like him and he still kills it live. Heāll always have my respect and admiration and heās really one of the best songwriters of his or any generation. And by all accounts a really good guy.
