Springsteen -- Darkness Box Set

okay, i'll be the first to weigh in: i've watched doc three time since last night and, predictably, love it, as i'd imagine 98% of bruuce fans will. will non-converts be interested, converted or bored? i don't much care. my fave segment: on how "because the night" became to be co-wriiten by bruce and patti smith. interview with smith is priceless...

can't wait for my christmas presents! i'd imagine the dvd of the '78 houston show will be of outstanding quality.

 

I liked that Because the Night segment a lot but I also loved the segment with Bruce and Steve screwing around, writing songs and generally having fun. Had no idea Steve could play the piano! Also, the visual of Bruce, shirtless, playing the guitar will stay with me for a while.

 

Stevie without the bandana looked like Southside.

 

I might pay $500 to watch the complete outtakes of Bruce and Steve goofing off on the piano. The snippets of Talk to Me and Sherry Darling were just superb.

 

agreed. great stuff there. what a vault of video/audo tapes have yet to be offered to us.

oh, and my frustration is greater than ever that bruce "was too close" to "the promise" to see how perfectly it would have fit in on "darkness..." a shame no one -- not steve, not landis -- could shake him and just say, "you can be a deaf, stubborn genius sometimes, boss. i'm quitting right here if we don't put this masterpiece on this album..."

 

I'll be candid -- didn't love it. There was a lot of talking about what didn't belong, but not enough as to why the songs which made the final cut did so. I loved the stuff about Obie and Steve and the version of racing, but there was too little of that. And too little of the actual music.

Look, I can pontificate on Bruce lyrics until people's eyes gloss over. But I don't need 20 minutes of Bruce reading from prepared text about the message of the album. Which can be summed up as -- how do I live life as an adult.

What was missing was the fun. Heck, I would have liked to have even seen some anger from Bruce, but he's so above it all, he's even forgiven Appel for forcing him to take an Ali like break from the studio.

Stevie was the highlight by far because the rest, even Landau, are all in awe of the Boss.

 

i can understand the perspective of your post overall. but on this i disagree -- no way bruce is going to dance on aead; he won a bppel's hitter, 2 1/2-year battle more than 30 years ago and went on to become rich beyond anyone's dreams. who has ever of appel in the last 30 years.

they were obviously close once; bruce would only come off as an unforgiving, heartless sore-winner if he refused to toss him a bone.

 

I'll be honest -- I haven't seen all of it yet.
Thursday night I was physically and mentally exhausted from work, class, and a 22-month old son who thought it would be a good idea to get up in the middle of the night, waking his parents up. So I tried to watch it that night, but was so tired I couldn't stay awake for all of it and didn't fully take in the parts I did watch.

I haven't had a chance to watch it On Demand yet, but hope to in the next couple of days.
The home rehearsal footage was great as was the footage of Bruce & Steve goofing around on the piano for Sherry Darling and Talk To Me.
Don't ask me much anything else from it, because I honestly don't remember.

 

Saw some of it. Liked the Patti Smith part. Wished they would have spun that segment a little more into Bruce's appearance on the Dictators' awesome album Bloodbrothers during that same time period.

 

Great documentary. You really get a sense of the innate musical talent that Springsteen really has. Would have liked to hear from Southside.

 

Ask drunk shockey!

 

I'd give the documentary about a B+. Some of the raw footage from the rehearsal sessions was pretty cool. The Danny Federici clips were poignant, of course.

I didn't get the idea Bruce was reading off cue cards or a script -- I think he has eye-contact issues and tends to look a little sideways when he's talking to people (I do the same thing sometimes).

Although I almost always refuse to buy into fanboi bitching about rock stars and their wives (i.e. John-Yoko, Paul-Linda, Bruce-Patti), I was waiting waiting waiting for the golden nugget of wisdom Patti Scialfa was going to drop to justify her inclusion in the program. It never came.

In fact, the one factoid she DID drop which came as news to me was that she had "never seen" Bruce before the Darkness tour. Not "never seen him in concert" -- "never seen" him as in "never laid eyes on him."

I guess the general recollection I had was that Patti supposedly worked the Jersey bar scene (including Asbury Park) for several years after high school (I think she graduated in 71 or 72), so the idea she had never ever seen Bruce Springsteen until 1978-79 seemed a little hard to believe.

Now as for her actual comments -- pffft. Waste of air time.

Nils Lofgren's comments were really no more insightful for that matter -- it might have been interesting to hear from HIS perspective what other East Coast rockers in the late Seventies expected out of Bruce after "Born to Run," or maybe how Bruce explained the "Darkness" songs to him after he joined the ESB.

But I still liked the program. You get an idea how Bruce avoided simply putting out "Born To Run Again."


It will be interesting to see if a similar project is done for "The River," which I actually like best of all Bruce's albums -- it's his version of the "White Album."

"The River' is a fascinating crossroads of his career: it contained lots of material left over from the Darkness sessions ("Sherry Darling," "Independence Day,") stuff which wouldn't appear until "Born in the U.S.A." (its title tune), germs of a few ideas that ended up on "Nebraska," all mixed in with the realization he was really a rock star now, not just a one-hit wonder (as he feared after BTR).

I suppose it will probably depend how this package sells on CD/DVD.