Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Bruce part 2



Springsteen went through a bit of a dip in the early 90s - he'd married the wrong woman, they'd moved to LA (which is not much like New Jersey), and he was suffering that 'detachment from the audience' thing that very very famous rock stars get when they find they're a squillion times richer than the people they're singing about. However...

1 'Tougher Than the Rest', from Tunnel of Love: forever one of my favourites for the verse

Well, it ain't no secret
I've been around a time or two
Well, I don't know, baby:
Maybe you've been around too...


2 'Youngstown' from The Ghost of Tom Joad
3 'Born in the USA' the acoustic version, from Tracks. Once, standing in the queue outside the stadium, I heard him doing this one in this way as part of the soundcheck. So I thought it would be in the concert, but it wasn't.
4 'You're Missing' from The Rising. Even if it's not really true, it's nice to think that Bruce was indeed pulling out of the supermarket carpark a few days after 9/11, and someone spotted him and shouted "We need you now!"; so Bruce took the shopping home, went into the music room and wrote The Rising.
5 'Long Time Comin' from Devils and Dust. No, not that one.
6 'Erie Canal' from Live in Dublin. Bruce goes back to Pete Seeger's roots, with the Seeger Sessions band.

1 Tougher Than the Rest
2 Youngstown
3 Born in the USA
4 You're Missing
5 Long Time Comin'
6 Erie Canal

(Meant to post this on Sunday, which was my RR one-year anniversary!)

6 comments:

Abahachi said...

I loved Tunnel of Love when it came out - reminded me of Nebraska, in an odd sort of way - so it's good to hear 'Tougher than the Rest' again. I also enjoyed the 'Erie Canal'; was anyone else brought up with the fabulous illustrations by Peter Spier, most famous for the even more fabulous De Koe die in het Water viel?

treefrogdemon said...

Nope...have to look 'em up!

For Buffy fans who don't get the actual Grauniad, a short piece today by Lucy Mangan:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/nov/11/cable-girl-lucy-mangan-buffy

Mnemonic said...

Creepy coincidence I just started rewatching the box set three days ago.

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary TFD!

steenbeck said...

Happy anniversary, TFD. I tried listening early but it wasn't working. Looking forward to hearing it all, especially the Born in the USA, which I remember Dorian talking about back in the day.

steenbeck said...

I meant earlier, of course. I read that back and didn't even notice.*I*tired*.