Bruce Springsteen

Can we take a moment to appreciate the sheer power of Born In The USA?

The keyboard riff is as strong as anything and the drums are shown no mercy. The vocal is merciless. If there was ever a track to define powerhouse, this would be it.

******* fantastic.


LOVE the song.
HATE how it’s been used and abused by others.
So ironic how the masses use it as a redneck anthem.
Or maybe redneck is a bit harsh. Patriotic then.
Such powerful lyrics.
 
Yes, an excellent film which had me smiling the whole way through it.

Highly recommend watching it, a lovely film.
It's easy to forget now how hopelessly uncool Bruce had become by the end of the 80s which was kind of hard on people like me who had only really got into him in the light of Born in the USA and were still working through the back catalogue.
 
Aug 16, 2011
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It's easy to forget now how hopelessly uncool Bruce had become by the end of the 80s which was kind of hard on people like me who had only really got into him in the light of Born in the USA and were still working through the back catalogue.
I was only a baby in the late 80s, the break up really messed him up mentally.

What are your 5 favourite albums, and songs?
 
I was only a baby in the late 80s, the break up really messed him up mentally.

What are your 5 favourite albums, and songs?
Depends on my mood and how high I am to be honest but that's the great thing about Bruce, he can make you boogie, he can make you angry and he can make you cry, there's always something.
 
I was only a baby in the late 80s, the break up really messed him up mentally.

What are your 5 favourite albums, and songs?
There was a line in Freaks and Geeks when Lindsay was given the Dead's American Beauty and told how she was lucky because she was going to listen it for the first time, when Javed was listening to Bruce for the first time during the hurricane I was reminded of that.
 
Aug 16, 2011
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If I had to guess the song that I've listened to more times in my life than any other it would probably be Thunder Road and it would probably be by a fair bit too I'd think.
Not a bad song to have has your most played ever!
There was a line in Freaks and Geeks when Lindsay was given the Dead's American Beauty and told how she was lucky because she was going to listen it for the first time, when Javed was listening to Bruce for the first time during the hurricane I was reminded of that.
I wish I could go back and see my reactions of listening to songs for the first time.
 
I am sure many of you will enjoy this


Thanks for posting that. I saw it about an hour before Colbert was on last night so watched the whole show. Bruce plugging his new book with Obama, Renegades and the 1979 No Nukes CD/DVD. He made a very big point of apologising to Roy for not being in the photo from the Madison Square Gardens show that was the cover of the CD/DVD.

He brought in his trusty fender guitar that is now 50 years old and been around the world with him all these years and is favourite guitar. Its the one on the cover of Born To Run. Said he doesn't play it as much in concerts the last few years. You can see how worn the back is when he turns it around and the top front. You can see he is playing it in the clip from the No Nukes show that is in the 3rd video.






He shows off his favourite guitar in this video







Love that he says he can't go - he had his 30th birthday the day before - his heart is going to stop on him. Also love The Big Man's sound in that clip.


 
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fu** I love that song.
Has there ever been better lyrics to sum up the blue collar, backed into a corner life/existence?
Maybe Flame Trees. Both deadest classics.
In forums over the years I have seen some people write that Cold Chisel are the closest Aussie act to Bruce and the E Street Band and other people have howled them down ferociously.

I was never a huge fan of Chisel, when they were together, saw them in 1983 before they broke up in my first year at Uni and a mate had taped Circus Animals for me and I played it in the car a bit. But when Twentieth Century was released a few months after they broke up, it was Flame Trees and Saturday Night that hooked me in and I started buying their back albums/CDs over the next few years.

Everyone in the band wrote songs, and as I discovered more of their stuff, I found myself really liking the songs written by Don Walker, many got airplay over the years, but most didn't. The 2 above are written by Walker although the music for Flame Trees was written by drummer Steve Prestwich and when Walker heard the music, he asked if he could write the words to it as it had the musical profile of an emotional song and he had been tinkering with stuff about his youth. He stayed up all night putting the words to the music. Jimmy over the last 5 or 10 years, has said many times in interviews that he loves singing anything written by Don Walker.

Flame Trees has been covered by many artists a few have recorded it, its been used in a lot of films, TV shows, and docos but the best cover I've heard is probably the primary school choir in Cabramatta who sang it about 15 years ago in the Aussie film Little Fish, starring Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Sam Neill about the struggles of a few heroin / ex heroin addicts in Cabramatta trying to deal with life. The next year the primary school choir's version was released as a single, I lived in Sydney back then and ABC Radio Sydney or 2BL 702 as it used to be called played it a lot. The kids were between about 6 and 10.

That's where I see the strongest link between Bruce and Chisel, ie the power of the written word / prose and Walker to me is a great lyricist / storyteller like Bruce. The other obvious one is the energy of the two bands in concert and that they are better live than on a record.
 
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Saw this yesterday. Bruce's greatest live album/compilation and 2nd biggest seller. 3 or 4 times a year I pull out 1 of the 3 CDs and play it from start to finish.


 
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