Bruce Springsteen

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There is a double page story in today's Review section of The Weekend Australian. Its from Sunday Times journo Nick Rufford and was published in The Times 2 weeks ago on 2nd December. I can't get behind the Oz's paywall at the moment but when I do I will put more of the story up. It starts with

BORN YO RUN .... FOR PRESIDENT.
Donald Trump’s most dangerous opponent may not be a politician, but a blue-collar rocker called Bruce Springsteen who shares millions of the same supporters as the Republican president, and also understands what makes grassroots America tick. So Trump should be pleasantly surprised to learn that Springsteen, a long-standing Democrat who campaigned for Barack Obama, believes the Donald is heading for a second term in the White House. The president has a flair for winning over working-class voters that the Democrats can’t rival, the singer admits. In short, Trump was born to run, and may be unstoppable.......
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/ne...s/news-story/b5224f117db0cfbbc3f30fae44cc2ae4

but 20% of the way in says -
Will he throw his bandana into the ring for a last-chance power drive? Springsteen says "I'd be terrible ." In any case, he'll soon be "back to my day job" - touring with the E Street Band.

He will release a new album, his first for five years: "For the lack of a better word, it's a singer-songwriter album - more of a solo record." His fans would prefer to see "the Boss on stage than on the stump," he says.

...... Springsteen on Broadway ...... It will close shortly before Christmas, when a televised version will be shown on Netflix. There will be an album featuring the 15 songs he performs nightly......

pjcrows at the bottom of the picture in the article it says, Springsteen on Broadway premieres on Netflix on Sunday.
 
The last bit of the article is interesting. The Boss might go on for another decade. He says he's suited in for the long haul. Earlier in the article it compared Trump's brother's heavy drinking to Bruce's father's heavy drinking and why they both embraced clean living. That helps add to longeveity as well as good good genes from his mum's side of the family.


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Just finished watching Springsteen on Broadway. Astonishing piece of music theater. Bruce really lays himself psychologically bare. Must have been an amazingly cathartic experience following on from his biography. Some genuinely heart rending insights. I will always carry his differentiation between ghosts and ancestors with me.
 
Last Night I did something I don't normally do and I watched an episode of Cold Case after midnight as I was waiting for a call from overseas and didn't want to fall asleep.

The episode #57 from 2005-06, called 8 Years, was basically built around Springsteen songs. It started off with 4 young friends at the end of school days, 2 couples driving down the highway to No Surrender and 1 of the girls saying she was getting out of Jersey, then played Born to Run as the car drove down the highway before the next scene.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0543907/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl
A young man's case is reopened after his 1988 murder went unsolved. The team look at his three friends to see if any of them had the motive for the shooting..........The music of Bruce Springsteen provides the perfect accompaniment to this story of four young friends with modest dreams and the detours they take along the way. Clem was shot dead in 1988, and the Cold Case team follow up on his murder by tracking his friends' lives, forcing the survivors to review their life choices.

They look at their lives between finishing school in 1980 to 1988 and most of the following songs are played in full - "Born To Run", "No Surrender", "Bobby Jean", "Brilliant Disguise", "Glory Days", "I"m On Fire", "Drive All Night", "Stolen Car", "Atlantic City", "One Step Up".

It was like the writer Meredith Stiehm, wrote the script to fit in with these songs. The back to back playing of Drive All Night and Stolen Car sat perfectly with the story that was happening on screen. The lines of these 2 songs perfectly mirrored the action.

My friend called from overseas just after Atlantic City finished. I was really looking forward to her call, but have to admit I was pissed off that she called just before One Step Up started and the real killer was revealed. Have to find the episode on You Tube and watch that bit again.
 
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This is a long review from the 1999-2000 reunion tour, on an online magazine of religion, culture, and politics site called Killing Buddha. Its broken up into 4 parts and worth a read. I really just wanted to get down what he says to the crowd in his evangelical role during Tenth Ave Freezeout.

http://killingthebuddha.com/mag/witness/save-me-somebody-bruce-springsteens-rock-n-roll-covenant/
II. “I’M NOT BULLSHITTIN’ BACK HERE”
............... “Tenth Ave Freezeout” has served as a barnstorming finale in the past — it’s a perfect number to introduce the band — but while it does function that way here, Springsteen takes it to an entirely different place as well. He uses the song essentially the way he used “Light of Day” on earlier legs of the tour, to make manifest the spiritual purpose of the concert. He does it first by quieting down the song’s R ‘n’ B stomp and slithering into a version of “Take Me to the River” which is equal parts Al Green and Jimmy Swaggart. (In the HBO filmed concert of the concert, first shown in April, there’s even a close up of Springsteen’s feet as they scoot and skip across the stage in mock tribute to Swaggart’s ecstatic cross-the-stage shuffle.) Then slowing down further, he goes into an extended rap with the audience which borrows liberally from the styles of gospel revivalists and carnival barkers alike, though he never edges into straight parody, never gets merely “hilarious.” Hiding behind the mask is a man who wants to mean everything he says.

And this is what he says:

That’s where I want to go
I want to go to that riverside
I want to go to the river of life
I want to go to that river of love
I want to go to that river of faith
And that river of hope.

Tonight I want to go to that river of transformation
Where you go to be changed.
But you got to work at it — that’s right!

I want to go that river of sanctification
Where all life’s graces and blessings fall down upon you like rain
But you got to work at it.

I want to go that river of resurrection
Where everybody gets a second chance
But you got to work at it.

Tonight I want to go to that river of sexual healing — and companionship
I want to go find that river of joy and happiness.

I’m not bullshittin’ back here.

But you don’t stumble on those things by accident.
You got to search them out, seek after them.
And that’s why we’re here night after night after night after night.
‘Cause you can’t get to those places by yourself
You got to have help!

That’s where I want to go tonight
And I want you to go with me
Because I need to go with you–that’s why I’m here.

In these last two lines, which basically sum up the covenant, the circle of feeling the entire concert is about creating and affirming, you can hear him — and see him on the HBO tape — as he entirely drops the barker/revivalist voice to speak in a voice that is most his own. Then back to the mask:

And tonight I want to throw a rock and roll exorcism!
A rock and roll baptism!
A rock and roll bar mitzvah!
That’s right! — We’re going to do it all tonight — everything — right now
I want the waters to fall on me and set me free, set you free…

Life, love, faith, hope, transformation, sanctification, resurrection, sexual healing, companionship, joy, happiness: Springsteen is not bullshittin’ back here. Springsteen’s faith in these things — his faith in rock’s ability to bring these things to life, in fact — comes as a desperate lunge for sustenance when other forms of faith, specifically Christianity, fail. (From “Human Touch”: “Ain’t no mercy on the streets of this town / Ain’t no bread from heavenly skies / Ain’t nobody drawing wine from this blood / It’s just you and me tonight”)......

http://killingthebuddha.com/mag/witness/save-me-somebody-bruce-springsteens-rock-n-roll-covenant/
 

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Gasometer said:
Two years ago this weekend played AAMI Melbourne.

:'( and :)
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Im in America right now and theres a Springsteen channel on satellite radio. Left Denver this morning on my way to Salt Lake City and just as I got in the car they started playing the entire concert from Feb 2.

Driving down one of the most scenic highways in America (even moreso atm because everything is covered in snow) listening to the full concert. Was an unexpected highlight of the trip.
 
NitroFan said:
Im in America right now and theres a Springsteen channel on satellite radio. Left Denver this morning on my way to Salt Lake City and just as I got in the car they started playing the entire concert from Feb 2.

Driving down one of the most scenic highways in America (even moreso atm because everything is covered in snow) listening to the full concert. Was an unexpected highlight of the trip.
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Crying with jealousy

Good luck to you
 
This looks interesting.
https://www.app.com/story/entertain...new-line-cinema-distribution-deal/2753920002/
New Line Cinema, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Pictures, will distribute, around the world, the Bruce Springsteen-inspired coming-of-age charmer "Blinded by the Light," according to Deadline.
The company paid $15 million. The film, a recent hit at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, will see a “big wide release” in 2019, according to the report.

“This is a dream come true,” said director Gurinder Chadha in a statement. “I was already overwhelmed by the amazing reception for the film, but to find a home at New Line and Warner Bros. and to have the support and passion of people who embrace the universality of this story is fantastic. Bruce congratulated me on the amazing response saying how pleased he was for me. I hope ‘Blinded by the Light’ will inspire, entertain and resonate with audiences everywhere, and do justice to both (Sarfraz Manzoor’s) wonderful memoir and the moving words and lyrics of Bruce Springsteen.”

Chadha is best known for the hit “Bend It Like Beckham.” "Blinded by the Light" is based on the “Greetings from Bury Park” memoir by Manzoor and it details the impact of Springsteen's music on a South Asian Muslim teenager growing up in ’80s England.
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Gasometer said:
Atlantic City on Tampa 2008...great version

I want to update Born in the USA. It sounds awful. Has there been a re release with new production values?
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The latest download?

Yeah, in the vinyl box set I believe. If I think that's what you're referring to.
 
Cruyff14 said:
Have the download, only listened to Backstreets.

And yeah the vinyl box set has BIT USA remastered if that's what you meant. If it wasn't, rephrase your question cos I didn't really get it.
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So with the vinyl version there is obviously no digital version anywhere?

I play the live releases (in the MP3 version) in my car and they sound awesome...,and then the opening track of BITUSA starts and it’s like listening to a cassette tape. Just lacks clarity, crispness and power.

So a quick search of JbHifi and the 2014 CD remaster is available for $9.99

Play on..
 
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Gasometer said:
So with the vinyl version there is obviously no digital version anywhere?

I play the live releases (in the MP3 version) in my car and they sound awesome...,and then the opening track of BITUSA starts and it’s like listening to a cassette tape. Just lacks clarity, crispness and power.
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BIT USA from Melb1 sounds incredible though?
 
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