i was tryin' to find my way home, but all i heard was a drone bouncing off a satellite
SO AS THE INTERTUBES ALL KNOW: NEW SPRINGSTEEN TUESDAY (I has listened and <3!)
Anyway, BRUUUUCE. Why I <3 Bruce Springsteen and Still Kind of Want To Be Him Because He's THAT DAMN AWESOME.
(mp3s, links, and some embedded video below the cut. also, a lot of flailing <3s)
I have loved the Springsteen since I was like four (dude, Baby of the 80s. I wanted to grow up to be him. So, Springsteen, Superman/Supergirl, and the time I wanted to be firefighter. I am a rockstar \m/)
My favorite Springsteen song *ever* is "Thunder Road". So much so that my domain is named for it.
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
&
You can hide 'neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
A song that describes that wandering, painful loneliness and need to just *get the fuck away*. You don't know where, how, or *why*, but it aches and eats at you. "Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain" is one of the most beautiful images I've ever heard in a song; it's the sort of line that doesn't need a music video clip, it paints so easily for me with bare feet in the rain standing next to an old car, in front of a screen door and looking into desperate eyes.
THE HEARTS IN MY EYES, LET ME SHOW YOU THEM.
I love Springsteen because he tells stories. Okay, good music should tell a story of some sort (even if it is a kaleidoscope to be shook and deciphered or something more straightforward. There's an emotion, a connection to be made. Politics, love, loss, pain, joy, everything is a story. Good music seeks that connection, that *expression* and excellent music seeks that with authenticity).
My favorite Sprinsteen album full stop is Nebraska. The extremely spare recording/production (Bruce, a four track recorder, and his guitar & harmonica, you can even hear the creaks of his chair in some songs) makes the songs feel even more honest, real. This album also has my second favorite Bruce song on it, "Atlantic City"
Now our luck may have died and our love may be cold but with you forever I'll stay
We're goin' out where the sand's turnin' to gold so put on your stockin's baby 'cause the night's getting cold
And everything dies baby that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
The "Bruce, his guitar, and some middle-American angst!" albums tend to be the most depressing ones (Nebraska, The Ghost of Tom Joad, and Devils & Dust), but they always feel like they're scraping away at something *essential*. For example, also off of Nebraska is the song "Johnny 99" about an unemployed man at the end of his rope,
Now judge I had debts no honest man could pay
The bank was holdin' my mortgage and they was takin' my house away
Now I ain't sayin' that makes me an innocent man
But it was more 'n all this that put that gun in my hand
Well your honor I do believe I'd be better off dead
And if you can take a man's life for the thoughts that's in his head
Then won't you sit back in that chair and think it over judge one more time
And let 'em shave off my hair and put me on that execution line
This was/is America, but not the shining one of election time commercials and feel good anthems. Even when belting out anthems, Sprinsteen pulls away certain lies in our mythology; his stories always exist in that place between the American Dream and American Reality. For example, let us take one of the most hilarious examples of People Not Getting The Point ever, "Born in the U.S.A." I can't really lyrics quote on this one, because the story it tells is so unified and great that, here, have a link. (Which, hey, did you know that Bruce was active in fighting to ensure that Vietnam Vets got fair treatment by a government that wanted to pretend they didn't exist? Even though he was extremely anti-Vietnam War? Made of Win)
Springsteen live! I've only seen him live once (2004 Vote for Change tour with R.E.M. and Tracy Chapman). It was *amazing*. If you can see him live, do. If you can't, get one of the live dvds (the DVD on the Born to Run special edition makes my heart flutter. Though, you also can't go wrong with the Springsteen HBO performance with the E Street Band from a few years back).
Some live Springsteen for you:
"The River" live
"Born to Run" live (1980s)
When I talk about awesome great concerts I have been to, I don't even mention seeing Bruce live. Why? Because, dude, my heart flutters thinking about seeing Pearl Jam AND SLEATER-KINNEY a few years back and Jimmy Eat World was made of win, but...
Bruce. It's just, you can't compare it. People have said that it's not really a concert with Springsteen; it's like church. Even in a stadium full of people, Springsteen works to make the music connect with everyone, he sweats and bleeds and works for every emotion. And you believe that what he is giving you is *real*, not rockstar performance, but authentic expression of *his music* and stories.
Also, I love him performing with other bands. Such as this video of him singing "Man on the Moon" with R.E.M. or this recording of him doing "One Headlight" with The Wallflowers (omgflailflailfailforever). Or even, just his speech when he inducted U2 into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Which God, Bono, we are not on the terms we once were because I WOULD APPRECIATE A DECENT INTERESTING ALBUM AND IT'S BEEN A WHILE GUYS >:O, but your speech when you inducted Bruce? Also makes my heart flutter. seriously.)
I love his politics, even when it makes people angry at him. Even when people who insist they're his REAL FANS, snipe at him, he follows the right thing. ("American Skin"). I love the stories of him as one of the nicest celebs ever (regularly leaving fifty dollar tips at local restaurants! Just being a good guy! ). I love that he's from JERSEY. I mean, guys, Jersey (GERARD WAY, YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE FROM JERSEY). I love him and the E Street Band ("If I Should Fall Behind").
I even love the stuff from the late 80s where he was doing the love songs and coping with divorce and all that.
"Brilliant Disguise"
Tonight our bed is cold
I'm lost in the darkness of our love
God have mercy on the man
Who doubts what he's sure of
(So, I am so totally in love when Frank Pembleton quotes this during I think it was season four of H:LotS. That show was so Sprinsteen. Anyway).
and how I always see "Living Proof" and "Long Time Comin'" as bookends to the other. (From Well now all that's sure on the boulevard / Is that life is just a house of cards / As fragile as each and every breath Of this boy sleepin' in our bed / Tonight let's lie beneath the eaves / Just a close band of happy thieves to Well there's just a spark of campfire burning / Two kids in a sleeping bag beside /I Reach 'neath your shirt, lay my hands across your belly / And feel another one kickin' inside / I ain't gonna fuck it up this time)
I shall let Bruce sum it up, People deserve... the truth. They deserve honesty. The best music, you can seek some shelter in it momentarily, but it's essentially there to provide you something to face the world with.
:D
Anyway, BRUUUUCE. Why I <3 Bruce Springsteen and Still Kind of Want To Be Him Because He's THAT DAMN AWESOME.
(mp3s, links, and some embedded video below the cut. also, a lot of flailing <3s)
I have loved the Springsteen since I was like four (dude, Baby of the 80s. I wanted to grow up to be him. So, Springsteen, Superman/Supergirl, and the time I wanted to be firefighter. I am a rockstar \m/)
My favorite Springsteen song *ever* is "Thunder Road". So much so that my domain is named for it.
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again
&
You can hide 'neath your covers
And study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers
Throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I'm no hero
That's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
A song that describes that wandering, painful loneliness and need to just *get the fuck away*. You don't know where, how, or *why*, but it aches and eats at you. "Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain" is one of the most beautiful images I've ever heard in a song; it's the sort of line that doesn't need a music video clip, it paints so easily for me with bare feet in the rain standing next to an old car, in front of a screen door and looking into desperate eyes.
THE HEARTS IN MY EYES, LET ME SHOW YOU THEM.
I love Springsteen because he tells stories. Okay, good music should tell a story of some sort (even if it is a kaleidoscope to be shook and deciphered or something more straightforward. There's an emotion, a connection to be made. Politics, love, loss, pain, joy, everything is a story. Good music seeks that connection, that *expression* and excellent music seeks that with authenticity).
My favorite Sprinsteen album full stop is Nebraska. The extremely spare recording/production (Bruce, a four track recorder, and his guitar & harmonica, you can even hear the creaks of his chair in some songs) makes the songs feel even more honest, real. This album also has my second favorite Bruce song on it, "Atlantic City"
Now our luck may have died and our love may be cold but with you forever I'll stay
We're goin' out where the sand's turnin' to gold so put on your stockin's baby 'cause the night's getting cold
And everything dies baby that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
The "Bruce, his guitar, and some middle-American angst!" albums tend to be the most depressing ones (Nebraska, The Ghost of Tom Joad, and Devils & Dust), but they always feel like they're scraping away at something *essential*. For example, also off of Nebraska is the song "Johnny 99" about an unemployed man at the end of his rope,
Now judge I had debts no honest man could pay
The bank was holdin' my mortgage and they was takin' my house away
Now I ain't sayin' that makes me an innocent man
But it was more 'n all this that put that gun in my hand
Well your honor I do believe I'd be better off dead
And if you can take a man's life for the thoughts that's in his head
Then won't you sit back in that chair and think it over judge one more time
And let 'em shave off my hair and put me on that execution line
This was/is America, but not the shining one of election time commercials and feel good anthems. Even when belting out anthems, Sprinsteen pulls away certain lies in our mythology; his stories always exist in that place between the American Dream and American Reality. For example, let us take one of the most hilarious examples of People Not Getting The Point ever, "Born in the U.S.A." I can't really lyrics quote on this one, because the story it tells is so unified and great that, here, have a link. (Which, hey, did you know that Bruce was active in fighting to ensure that Vietnam Vets got fair treatment by a government that wanted to pretend they didn't exist? Even though he was extremely anti-Vietnam War? Made of Win)
Springsteen live! I've only seen him live once (2004 Vote for Change tour with R.E.M. and Tracy Chapman). It was *amazing*. If you can see him live, do. If you can't, get one of the live dvds (the DVD on the Born to Run special edition makes my heart flutter. Though, you also can't go wrong with the Springsteen HBO performance with the E Street Band from a few years back).
Some live Springsteen for you:
"The River" live
"Born to Run" live (1980s)
When I talk about awesome great concerts I have been to, I don't even mention seeing Bruce live. Why? Because, dude, my heart flutters thinking about seeing Pearl Jam AND SLEATER-KINNEY a few years back and Jimmy Eat World was made of win, but...
Bruce. It's just, you can't compare it. People have said that it's not really a concert with Springsteen; it's like church. Even in a stadium full of people, Springsteen works to make the music connect with everyone, he sweats and bleeds and works for every emotion. And you believe that what he is giving you is *real*, not rockstar performance, but authentic expression of *his music* and stories.
Also, I love him performing with other bands. Such as this video of him singing "Man on the Moon" with R.E.M. or this recording of him doing "One Headlight" with The Wallflowers (omgflailflailfailforever). Or even, just his speech when he inducted U2 into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Which God, Bono, we are not on the terms we once were because I WOULD APPRECIATE A DECENT INTERESTING ALBUM AND IT'S BEEN A WHILE GUYS >:O, but your speech when you inducted Bruce? Also makes my heart flutter. seriously.)
I love his politics, even when it makes people angry at him. Even when people who insist they're his REAL FANS, snipe at him, he follows the right thing. ("American Skin"). I love the stories of him as one of the nicest celebs ever (regularly leaving fifty dollar tips at local restaurants! Just being a good guy! ). I love that he's from JERSEY. I mean, guys, Jersey (GERARD WAY, YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE FROM JERSEY). I love him and the E Street Band ("If I Should Fall Behind").
I even love the stuff from the late 80s where he was doing the love songs and coping with divorce and all that.
"Brilliant Disguise"
Tonight our bed is cold
I'm lost in the darkness of our love
God have mercy on the man
Who doubts what he's sure of
(So, I am so totally in love when Frank Pembleton quotes this during I think it was season four of H:LotS. That show was so Sprinsteen. Anyway).
and how I always see "Living Proof" and "Long Time Comin'" as bookends to the other. (From Well now all that's sure on the boulevard / Is that life is just a house of cards / As fragile as each and every breath Of this boy sleepin' in our bed / Tonight let's lie beneath the eaves / Just a close band of happy thieves to Well there's just a spark of campfire burning / Two kids in a sleeping bag beside /I Reach 'neath your shirt, lay my hands across your belly / And feel another one kickin' inside / I ain't gonna fuck it up this time)
I shall let Bruce sum it up, People deserve... the truth. They deserve honesty. The best music, you can seek some shelter in it momentarily, but it's essentially there to provide you something to face the world with.
:D
