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Can somebody explain to me the Springsteen popularity?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by casty33, Feb 2, 2009.

  1. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Casty, I can't help but think this really is a tail of two Jerseys separated by about 75 miles on the turnpike. Your era of doo wop with some of its roots in Wildwood and the Springsteen era a little farther north in Asbury Park
     
  2. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    It's probably impossible why he strikes a cord with so many, but he does. (I can't understand the popularity of the Grateful Dead, who put me to sleep. So it gies.)

    I'm a huge Springsteen fan. But I haven't bought anything he's issued in about 15 years because I just enjoy his earlier stuff more.

    F-B is right - Greetings from Asbury Park and The Wild and Innocent should be combined into a 10-song CD.

    But if you've seen him live - especially in a smaller venue, as I did in 1974, the last time I saw him - you're absolutely blown away.
     
  3. casty33

    casty33 Active Member

    I appreciate everybody's help in trying to understand. The whole thing was an honest question on my part. I simply didn't understand the great lure for a guy whose voice is really mediocre. With him, though, it's the energy of the performance that most love. Okay.

    And Boom, I have been to two Beach Boys concerts and loved every minute of them. But I'm someone who appreciates voices, like Johnny Maestro, Jimmy Beaumont, Eugene Pitt, Kenny Vance, et.al. But it's not just doo-wops, I also appreciate Pavarotti and maintain that nobody can deliver lyrics better than Sinatra.

    As one of you said, different strokes ... We're all different, and I think that's wonderful.
     
  4. writing irish

    writing irish Active Member

    I'm really mainly a fan of his 1970s stuff. I agree that Asbury Park is basically fake Dylan, but most of those songs were made much better as he re-worked them over the years. And yeah, the production on The Wild and the Innocent is for shit, but I think the songwriting is very good. Born to Run is one of the best rock albums ever. Darkness isn't as great musically, but it's still very good and actually a step up, lyrically, IMO.

    Musically, I like how the genres that preceded rock- rhythm and blues, jazz- often find their way into his stuff. I enjoy that multiracial, East Coast, 1970s sound- Sly and the Family, early J. Geils. Springsteen loses me, if only a little, when he does straight-up rock.

    I also like the neo-Woody Guthrie version of Bruce, as heard on Nebraska and elsewhere.

    Lyrically, he's always walked a line of balancing optimism with being realistic about hardship. He can sing about hard times without whining and he can sing about having big dreams without sounding ridiculous.

    That's about it for my take. Listen or watch the DVD of the 1975 Hammesmith Odeon concert. If that leaves you flat, then don't worry about investigating further.
     
  5. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    He's a great performer, but there isn't a doubt in my mind that if he grew up and played somewhere away from New York City, he wouldn't be half as big as he is.
     
  6. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Well put. Because the most strident supports of the Boss are New Yorkers and Jersey people who seem as if they're protecting a regional treasure. And if the rest of us merely enjoy the music, and don't worship him, we don't get it.
     
  7. Magic In The Night

    Magic In The Night Active Member

    Well, having spent 6 hours today on Ticketmaster trying to buy decent seats for a variety of venues in at least four cities, I'd be perfectly happy if no one else in this country "got" Springsteen ever again. For all the people who hate him, supposedly, it's still a helluva hard ticket to get. I'd like to know another artist that on the day of the show you can't get tickets. So all of you out there who don't like him, don't know if you like or are on the fence, please KEEP OUT. :D It's hard enough for those of us real fans to get tickets without adding a bunch of wannabe fans. Apparently one of the top searches on Google today is Bruce Springsteen and age. So I guess the kids are jumping on the bandwagon.
     
  8. Punching out The Abbey in Dublin with his banjo band is certainly all the evidence I need to have that he's strictly a NY/NJ regional phenomenon.
     
  9. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    Imagine if Bruce was just starting out today....a whole new anthem for the Obama generation:

    I had a friend was a big Wall Street trader
    After grad school
    He could throw stock options by you
    Make you look like a fool, boy
    Saw him the other night at the WalMart store
    I was walking in, he was hiding out
    Had to give up the Mercedes and the house in Vail
    When Lehman Brothers threw him out…

    Glory Days, well they’ll pass you by
    Glory Days, when Madoff was the guy
    Glory Days, glory days

    Well, there’s a girl that lives up the block
    Back in school she’d give all the boys head
    Married a hedge fund guy and got a big house,
    By being really good in bed
    Then Merrill Lynch folded, he lost all their cash
    And she told her poor husband goodbye now,
    Now she and the kids are with her parents down in Boca
    She says when she feels like spending
    she starts crying thinking about

    Glory Days, can't afford to buy,
    Glory Days, everyone in a yellow tie,
    Glory Days, glory days

    Think I’m going down to the bank today
    And I’m going to pray til I pay my bills
    And I hope when I get done I have a little cash left over
    But I doubt that I will
    Yeah, just sitting back, trying to recapture
    A little of my 401K
    Well, the Dow slips away and leaves you with nothing mister but
    Boring stories of…

    Glory days, private planes to fly
    Glory days, driving my 740i
    Glory days, glory days...
     
  10. Magic In The Night

    Magic In The Night Active Member

    Fantastic 21! I like it better than the original. I really don't like that song usually but last night it seemed somehow appropriate. 8)
     
  11. zeke12

    zeke12 Guest

    Knocked it stiff to four feet, he did.
     
  12. Don't get me started on that piece of dreck.
    The Springsteeners on the board got all up in my grill the last time we went around on it.
    (And you're right -- 21's is better.)
     
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