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Bruce Springsteen

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cruyff14
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**** Thank you for picking that up Ron, appreciated, I wouldn't have noticed it other wise ****

47) The Fuse

Your kiss and I'm alive

What is unique about this song is that Bruce uses a 12 string, and Max uses a drum machine. Not something we hear often in Springsteen songs, and especially together. (I think in the live version he uses a double kicker. I am not 100% sure on that though).

I think it’s one of the best tracks off The Rising. Severely underrated by a lot of Bruce fans and it is played nowhere near enough. It’s got that haunting feel about it too. The drums are what do it for me in this song. Just something about that beat makes me want more. The image I have when I listen to it, is a country town, on a very hot summers day.

Absolutely love the bridge on this track.

Tires on the highway hissin' something's coming
You can feel the wires in the tree tops hummin'
Devil's on the horizon line
Your kiss and I'm alive

It feels almost climatic to an extent, it pulls up short though, which I think is what makes it great.

[YOUTUBE]BemmP0tenVw[/YOUTUBE]
 
Cruyff14 said:
Also, nice to know that people are reading. Have there been any surprises so far?
Click to expand...

I'm not a hard core fan (although I do have the deluxe version of Tracks, just haven't played it much) and am not familiar with many of these so far. Enjoying your descriptions. Carry on!
 

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46) The E-Street Shuffle

Everybody form a line!

Bruce Springsteen: "I wanted to invent a dance with no exact steps. It was just the dance you did every day and every night to get by."

And that’s how it started. The real E-Street is in Belmar, New Jersey. It is where former piano player in the band, David Sancious’ mother lived.

The first song in the countdown to appear from the 1973 album, The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle. It’s a fun song; you can see Bruce, as well as the band enjoy performing it. And it’s one I have a smile on my face when I listen to it. Just evokes a whole heap of joy.

Power Thirteen, what a name for a character in a song too. Very unique. E-Street Shuffle involves heavy horn use too and the opening guitar work by Bruce is catchy as hell. Piano work is phenomenal too. And let’s not forget the ‘Ye-ah, yeah, yeah’!

What amazes me though is that this is on the end credits of the live in N.Y.C. DVD. I have no idea why they would not include it. Puzzling to say the very least.

Be sure to watch out at the 3.00 minute mark :p

[YOUTUBE]eb_GhFKiEQI[/YOUTUBE]
 
The band's intro to "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" on the Hammersmith 75' CD always gets me up and about, Bruce has been an incredible, honest and inspiring artist over the years but Bruce and E Street from the mid to late 70's will always be my all time favourite.

One good thing is that his songs are still so strong with a couple of songs from his last few albums getting decent airplay in this country, then again Bruce still tops the album charts in the states and has managed to sustain his commercial success not only in the states but worldwide and unwaivering critical acclaim for both his music and performances.

Could have summed it up by saying he is simply the boss :D
 
45) Darkness On The Edge Of Town

Till some day they just cut it loose, cut it loose or let it drag 'em down

Firstly, I’ll start by saying this is one Hell of an album. It might be dark, it might be angry, but oh boy, this is one ripper of an album.

The song itself closes the album. Jon Landau has always said you need to start and finish the album with strong songs. (Badlands opens Darkness).

The first time I remember hearing this was on the Live in Barcelona DVD. What impressed me most about it was that massive note that Bruce holds towards the end. I thought it was amazing. I remember counting how long it went for, I think it was 10 seconds.

Like most characters in Darkness, this guy is down in a real rut. He’s lost the love of his life, however, by the third verse; it seems he does not care too much for that.

Bruce has stated this song is best performed live so the audience can generate its intensity. I can see why.


[YOUTUBE]9CIqoCFKJpY[/YOUTUBE]
 
bradrowe#32 said:
Good work Cruyff14. I hope "Youngstown" makes your list.
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Cruyff14 said:
54) Youngstown

I pray the devil comes and takes me, To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell

My first choice from Nebraska.

When I first heard Youngstown on the Live In N.Y.C. DVD I did not like it. At all. I don’t know what it was, I think it was that it was a little too heavy for me at that stage and I was still pretty much into mainstream Bruce and was still delving into his catalogue yet to discover his true potential.

But the years wore on and I thought I’d give it a go. Then it started to grow on me. Basically it’s about a steelworker who works in Youngstown, Ohio.

And it revisits a common theme in Bruce’s song – the division between the poor and wealthy.

Once I made you rich enough, rich enough to forget my name

Bruce sounds really throaty when he sings this. Having said that though, I think he delivers a great vocal performance. We are treated to Danny, or Charlie, now, on the accordion. And The Professor on keyboards. The highlight is obviously Nils’ solo. Probably his most famous one. It’s blistering. He is such an underrated guitarist it isn’t funny. Max delivers yet another more than convincing performance behind his drum kit too.

[youtube]P9FgwO1ysNM[/youtube]
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Didn't look hard enough ;)

Ron The Bear said:
Reckon the first two albums are a bit of a blur to listen to at first, but this one grows on you.

A truly angry song. Hope it makes your list!
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Greetings is a great album. Wild & Innocent is not as good (although two of his best songs appear on it). The song writing is very unique on Greetings - he used a rhyming dictionary I believe, well at least to write Blinded By The Light anyway.

Yeah E-Street Shuffle is great, it's very catchy.

Haha, you will have to stay tuned!
 

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44) Bobby Jean

Good luck, goodbye, Bobby Jean

The second song to appear off BITUSA.

Despite having a (somewhat) joyous sound, if you listen to the lyrics, they are kind of depressing, not majorly, but a little. For those who don’t know, this is about Stevie leaving the band to pursue a solo career.

Bobby Jean is another of those songs that I don’t hate nor love. It is in the rotation, but I don’t play it consistently. Not to say it is a bad song though. I didn’t discover it until quite a few years after I got into Bruce. Which is strange considering BIT USA is his most commercially popular album. Clarence’s solo is great.

Springsteen: "A good song about youthful friendship."

[YOUTUBE]7Z1ouquZ-Xo[/YOUTUBE]
 
43) American Skin

Is it a gun, is it a knife, is it a wallet, this is your life

The story of 41 shots is pretty grim. It was written after NYPD officers shot a black man dead after they thought he was reaching for a gun after they asked him for I.D. Yeah, that’s pretty bad, but it gets worse. They proceeded to shoot him 41 times. The six officers were cleared of murder.

Now, being the person Springteen is. He decided to write a song about it. It caused a lot of backlash, and when he was playing at MSG during the Reunion Tour, they refused to provide security in protest.

It’s a fairly dark song. The lyrics are powerful and provocative, the music builds as the song progresses and Bruce pulls out a great solo while wielding that famous Butterscotch Telecaster.

How ironic would it have been if this was two spots higher?

[YOUTUBE]aQMqWAiWPMs[/YOUTUBE]
 
Great thread Cruffy, keep it up.:thumbsu:

I am not a huge fan of Springsteens' but I do love several of his albums and my top 5 albums would be:

1. Tunnel Of Love
2. The Rising
3. Born To Run
4. Nebraska
5. Born In The USA

I have had the pleasure of seeing him live twice, I enjoyed the first time a lot but the second was out here (at Etihad) and I felt a little bemused at some of his overtly patriotic banter. He started the gig draped in the Stars'n'Stripes and delivered a sort of elegy before rambling his way through "American Skin." I also thought his overly long work-out of the gospel-on-steroids "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" was incredibly self-indulgent. He turned a classic song into a wayward gospel nightmare.

Anyway, the first time I saw him was on June 29, 2000 in NYC during my trip to the USA. They were filming the show for a DVD and although I have it I haven't seen myself out there in the crowd (they probably cut and pasted more than one show together). I was about ten rows back in the centre-floor area, no shirt and long blonde hair. I just remember cameras everywhere and the crowd going bonkers as the band came up two-by-two onto the stage. So I'm posting my favourite song from that night, which is:

[youtube]U0ExmL4LzCk[/youtube]
 
Incidently, I really like his wife's work too and have all three of her solo albums.

This is from 1993's, Rumble Doll:
[youtube]zDFajspQd38[/youtube]

This is from 2004's, 23rd Street Lullaby:
[youtube]rvUZ8bZm8KQ[/youtube]

This is from 2007's, Play It As It Lays:
[youtube]1Vp_yU4e1tk[/youtube]
 
TheBlondeBomber said:
Great thread Cruffy, keep it up.:thumbsu:

I am not a huge fan of Springsteens' but I do love several of his albums and my top 5 albums would be:

1. Tunnel Of Love
2. The Rising
3. Born To Run
4. Nebraska
5. Born In The USA

I have had the pleasure of seeing him live twice, I enjoyed the first time a lot but the second was out here (at Etihad) and I felt a little bemused at some of his overtly patriotic banter. He started the gig draped in the Stars'n'Stripes and delivered a sort of elegy before rambling his way through "American Skin." I also thought his overly long work-out of the gospel-on-steroids "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" was incredibly self-indulgent. He turned a classic song into a wayward gospel nightmare.

Anyway, the first time I saw him was on June 29, 2000 in NYC during my trip to the USA. They were filming the show for a DVD and although I have it I haven't seen myself out there in the crowd (they probably cut and pasted more than one show together). I was about ten rows back in the centre-floor area, no shirt and long blonde hair. I just remember cameras everywhere and the crowd going bonkers as the band came up two-by-two onto the stage. So I'm posting my favourite song from that night, which is:

[youtube]U0ExmL4LzCk[/youtube]
Click to expand...

The New York shows would have been epic! Badlands is a ****ing ripper song.

I will try and post some more songs this afternoon/tonight.
 

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42) Working On A Dream

The sun rises up, I climb the ladder, A new day breaks and Im working on a dream

The album which inspired the most recent tour. As for the song itself, it’s got that pop sound, that in turn making it catchy.

I’ve mentioned simple earlier in the countdown, and I’ll do it again. There is nothing fancy about, it is just straightforward. No fancy tricks here, just sounds like simple pop music. And I’m pretty sure it’s the only song to have a whistling solo!

[YOUTUBE]PG6wg0VYC5E[/YOUTUBE]
 
41) She’s The One

But if she wants to break you, she's gonna find out that ain't so easy to do

And so we have hit number 40, another track from Born To Run. In my opinion, Max and Roy really drive this. The drum beat is so commanding, it reminds me of Backstreets. It is furious, it’s thumping and it’s fast. Boom, boom, boom, boom-boom. The floor toms really get a work out. If you notice in the clip I pasted, during the first verse, there is a towel over the floor tom, to give it a more a of a heartbeat sound.

Roy’s work on the piano is nothing short of brilliant either. It’s fast and it helps drives the song with Max’s beat. The two combine so well, which is ultimately thanks to Bruce. But you have to give credit to Max and Roy. Then there is that ripping solo from the Big Man about 3/4s of the way through, again a ripper. You can hear that he’s really going for it.

And just to finish it off, Bruce decides to rip out the harmonica. There’s a lot going on in She’s The One. And all of it is great.

[YOUTUBE]vw-e8GNxqKM[/YOUTUBE]
 
Thread of the year!

Huge fan.

Best songs? Pffft way too many. But one that gets me every time is his piano solo version of Incident on 57th Street, Barcelona 2002.

It is absolute musical perfection.

To me, Nebraska is one of the most unperfect-perfect albums of all time. I am a bigger fan of his acoustic/darker tunes than his poppier ones, if I had to pick. Tom Joad is superb - Ghost, Highway 29, STRAIGHT TIME, it's all good. Devils and Dust aswell - Maria's Bed is great. And Long Time Comin'.

I think Magic contains some of his best work (Magic, Terry's Song, Girls In Their Summer Clothes).

Hoping he tours ASAP.
 

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