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="John Cougar Lunchbucket":6xkituy0]Not since Faith Hill in the pregame.[/quote:6xkituy0]
Aw, man.
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RealityChuck
Feb 02 2009 09:28 AM
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I heard he was going to perform in 3D.
My question is, isn't that how he always performs?
I'd prefer to see him perform in 2D instead, especially when he turns sideways.
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Edgy DC
Feb 02 2009 09:51 AM
Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Feb 02 2009 10:00 AM
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I was in a room full of people giddy to see him. Absolutely giddy.
Then he started "Tenth Avenue Freezeout" and none of them knew what he was playing. They figured it was something knew. Intelligent, educated, giddy people.
Finally, somebody saw my brain exploding, and asked, "Edgy, do you know this song?"
Edgy: "There was this album called <i>Born to Run</i>, which..."
Giddy Person: "But this isn't 'Born to Run'!"
Edgy: "No, but it's from the album, <i>Born to Run</i>, which most rock critics will place in the top five all time. This is the second track. It's been playing non-stop on rock radio for thirty years."
Giddy People: "..."
Edgy: "I'm the oldest person in the room again, aren't I?"
It took me a few beats to realize, but I'm certain they were all giddy about Springsteen because Bruce threw his weight behind Obama.
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SteveJRogers
Feb 02 2009 09:59 AM
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Incredible.
Speaking of which, I wonder how many in the stands or watching TV saw Little Steven and said "Hey, what is Silvio (from the Sopranos) doing up there" as well as wondering why Conan O'Brien's drummer (and the full Max Weinberg 7 as well) was on stage.
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Edgy DC
Feb 02 2009 10:30 AM
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You're Bruce Springsteen. You've got the biggest audience of your life and get three songs in which to shock and awe both deep devoted fans and those more familiar with your image than your oeurvre.
Go.
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Gwreck
Feb 02 2009 10:34 AM
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There was also a new album to promote and tickets to sell (what a pain in the ass this morning was). Much prefer things when tickets don't go on sale the day after 500 million people watch him on TV.
And a time limit.
I was fine with the selection of songs. 10th was a great choice.
That being said -- in a total vacuum, the definitive Springsteen experience in three songs is Thunder Road, Badlands, Born to Run.
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Frayed Knot
Feb 02 2009 10:43 AM
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"They figured it was something knew"
Doncha hate it when spell-check misses stuff like this?
'10th Ave' was never one of my favorites but it fit in well last night with that leading the revival meeting persona he likes to slip into every once in a while so I think it was a good choice.
I thought maybe he'd go with something up-tempo from 'Magic': Sunny Day'; 'Radio Nowhere'; 'Girls in Clothes', rather than tap the '70s/'80s catalog three times out of four.
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Edgy DC
Feb 02 2009 10:43 AM
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Well played. For me, I'm thinking perhaps more of a definitive Springsteen experience for the moment (while ignoring, as you note, the momentary exigencies of his professional obligations):
I go with:
"Detroit Medley"
"Out of Work"
"Rosalita"
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Edgy DC
Feb 02 2009 10:44 AM
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| ="Frayed Knot"]"They figured it was something knew"
Doncha hate it when spell-check misses stuff like this? |
Yeah, but my self-image is such that I can survive the mortification of being called out.
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Frayed Knot
Feb 02 2009 10:45 AM
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Damn! I was hoping I destroyed you for eternity.
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Edgy DC
Feb 02 2009 10:51 AM
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Two weeks, tops.
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G-Fafif
Feb 02 2009 10:52 AM
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Loved "Tenth Avenue Freezeout" as his icebreaker, not just musically but because in my Tampa days I lived on 42nd Street, and if you've ever spent any time in Tampa, you don't think of it as having a 42nd Street or a Tenth Avenue.
As opposed to Knew York.
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seawolf17
Feb 02 2009 11:10 AM
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I new he would play the knew one and "Born To Run." I love "10th Avenue Freezeout," so I thought that was a winner. I would have added
Missed most of Glory Days, as I was chasing a toddler around, trying to get him to put his frigging socks and shoes on so we could go home NOW, but I thought the lyrical switch was cute. I would have gone with "throw that pigskin by you," but that's just me.
I figured he would have played "Radio Nowhere" or "The Rising."
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jerseyshore
Feb 02 2009 11:27 AM
Edited 2 time(s), most recently on Feb 02 2009 12:49 PM
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I figured 10th and Born to run, but thought that "Hungry Heart" or "Dancin in the Dark", being his only Top TEN Hits #4 and #2 on the Billborad Charts, would make an appearance for familiiarity sake.
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Vic Sage
Feb 02 2009 11:27 AM
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="Edgy DC":3o6o6jcd]You're Bruce Springsteen. You've got the biggest audience of your life and get three songs in which to shock and awe both deep devoted fans and those more familiar with your image than your oeurvre.
Go.[/quote:3o6o6jcd]
i remember a thread where top Springsteen songs were listed and analyzed, but i can't find it in the archives.
Anyone?
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John Cougar Lunchbucket
Feb 02 2009 11:41 AM
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Maybe I'm overthinking this but in retrospect they were easy choices because "10th Avenue" made a show of his/your comfortable relationship with Black Guys and "Glory Days" reminded us how Bruce soaks character and energy from fun-loving Jersey crook figures like Silvio/Van Zant.
"Born to Run" is the obligatory song-he-couldn't-get-off-stage-without-playing and he had to play a new one and since he's long since lost his soul he may as well involve the black gospel choir to try and bring "Working on a Dream" to life.
Maybe I am overthinking...
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Gwreck
Feb 02 2009 11:47 AM
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| ="Edgy DC"] For me, I'm thinking perhaps more of a definitive Springsteen experience for the moment (while ignoring, as you note, the momentary exigencies of his professional obligations):
I go with:
"Detroit Medley"
"Out of Work"
"Rosalita" |
Out of Work is an inspired choice but I am kinda tempted to call a foul on the use of a cover song(s).
---
Also a trainspotter moment from this thread: Springsteen has never had a US #1 single. Dancing in the Dark only got to #2. Valuable prizes* to the person who can tell me what song kept it from reaching #1.
*Assuming that the winner buys them
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John Cougar Lunchbucket
Feb 02 2009 11:50 AM
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Something by Michael Jackson
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TheOldMole
Feb 02 2009 11:51 AM
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This is a tough room. Bruce was great.
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John Cougar Lunchbucket
Feb 02 2009 11:52 AM
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="TheOldMole":3pgctw3v]This is a tough room. Bruce was great.[/quote:3pgctw3v]
Oh, I totally agree.
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Edgy DC
Feb 02 2009 11:52 AM
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| ]Out of Work is an inspired choice but I am kinda tempted to call a foul on the use of a cover song(s). |
For a guy who built a rep as one who walks with those suffering from economic hard times, a little love during the darkest economic period of his career would've been nice.
As for the cover medley, yeah, I know, but Prince (who should teach an honors course in how to stuff a set into 12 minutes) did a great job peppering his set with cover snippets. I'm citing his precedent in my defense.
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G-Fafif
Feb 02 2009 11:54 AM
Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Feb 02 2009 12:00 PM
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"When Doves Cry"? (Song that kept Bruce from No. 1 in Billboard that is.)
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metirish
Feb 02 2009 11:55 AM
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I think looking back the Janet Jackson fiasco was a good thing in that the years since have featured credible artists.
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Edgy DC
Feb 02 2009 11:56 AM
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="TheOldMole":zrl415x0]This is a tough room. Bruce was great.[/quote:zrl415x0]
Yes, but it would have been better if he called me.
Why doesn't he call?
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G-Fafif
Feb 02 2009 11:58 AM
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="John Cougar Lunchbucket":3c0ofrqc]Maybe I'm overthinking this but in retrospect they were easy choices because "10th Avenue" made a show of his/your comfortable relationship with Black Guys.[/quote:3c0ofrqc]
Santonio Holmes had no use for Bruce before halftime. Once reassured of his character by song choice, he was inspired to make an unbelievable catch to win the game and sit on Ticketmaster.com all morning.
Bruce does it again!
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metsguyinmichigan
Feb 02 2009 11:58 AM
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I was kinda surprised by 10th as the opener.
The laying-on-the-ground-with-the-mic-stand-through-the-legs thing, from the angle they showed it, looked like, well, something Prince would get away with. And then you had the obvious unintentional overslide into the cameraman giving a billion people a close-up of Boss Groin.
I suspect he held back on Rising because it got all that exposure at the Obama thing.
I'm a bad Bruce fan. I don't like his popular stuff or his depressing acoustic stuff. But I think the whole "Tunnel of Love" CD is brilliant, and I liked at lot of the songs on the Human Touch/Lucky Town discs, which the critics slammed and he seems to disown. I really liked the whole "Rising" CD and about half of "Magic."
So if I had to pick three for that show, I'd say, "Born in the USA," followed by "Better Days" and close with "Born to Run."
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G-Fafif
Feb 02 2009 12:00 PM
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="metsguyinmichigan":xlpnjzy2]a close-up of Boss Groin.[/quote:xlpnjzy2]
They have ointments for that now.
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Gwreck
Feb 02 2009 12:41 PM
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| ="G-Fafif"]"When Doves Cry"? (Song that kept Bruce from No. 1 in Billboard that is.) |
Yes. Nice pull.
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G-Fafif
Feb 02 2009 12:48 PM
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The guy who had the franchise on being The Bruce Guy on our floor my senior year in college had the Cashbox singles chart taped to his wall from whichever week "Dancing In The Dark" hit No. 1 on not Billboard. (I won't swear it wasn't Radio & Records, but I remember it not being Billboard.)
Squeezed out a bit between the two behemoth hits, "State Of Shock" by the Jacksons and Mick Jagger.
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Vince Coleman Firecracker
Feb 02 2009 12:48 PM
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That was one of the corniest things I've ever seen. The banter was embarrassingly staged and the referee bit seems like it was written by an eight year old. I like Springsteen's music, but after watching that disaster of a show last night, I'll never pay money to see him play.
I know there are constraints put on the artists in that setting, but Prince performed under those same restraints and put on an amazing show.
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Edgy DC
Feb 02 2009 12:51 PM
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Word to your cracker.
Now, in Bruce's defense, cornball has long been part of his charm, but it's way too easy to fall back on that.
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metirish
Feb 02 2009 12:53 PM
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="Gwreck"]| ="G-Fafif"]"When Doves Cry"? (Song that kept Bruce from No. 1 in Billboard that is.) |
Yes. Nice pull. |
Wikipedia says Duran Duran's "The Reflex" also kept it from reaching number 1 that year.
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G-Fafif
Feb 02 2009 01:21 PM
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="metirish":29jep9rq]Wikipedia says Duran Duran's "The Reflex" also kept it from reaching number 1 that year.[/quote:29jep9rq]
"Curses," snarled the Boss. "Foiled again by that Revolutionary conspiracy between the Fab Five and His Purple Highness. Perhaps I can trump them with 'Cover Me'."
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metirish
Feb 02 2009 01:25 PM
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One thing I did notice during Springsteen's set , actually two tings I noticed during his set was the MILFy doll with the nice set wearing the low cut red dress.
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Gwreck
Feb 02 2009 01:28 PM
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There is a subset of frequent Springsteen show attendees who are no-so-fondly referred to as the "Desperate Bruce Housewives" -- but I am kahnfident that the person to whom you refer was a plant.
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jerseyshore
Feb 02 2009 01:46 PM
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Bruce's music took a big turn after his second LP and the departure of David Sancious (sp?). Born to Run is the classic Rock and Roll Album, The River and Darkness, runners up. Born in the USA, is Bruce giving into commercial interests, Tunnel of Love documents both the break up of his marriage and the The e-street Band. Human Touch is average, Lucky Town is a hidden gem of gutsy rock and roll songs. The Rising, IMO is Bruce giving in to commercailism, again . Nebraska, Devils and Dust, Ghost of Tom Joad ande Seeger Sessions are Bruce syaing, what the hell, this is fun...just gonna do something I like.....
Most of Working on a dream was done at the same time as Magic.....thaey are basically the same album. Standard Springsteen,I like them boith, but I'm a big fan.
Just my two cents
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Gwreck
Feb 02 2009 01:52 PM
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="jerseyshore":1id7naba]Most of Working on a dream was done at the same time as Magic.....thaey are basically the same album.[/quote:1id7naba]
In the sense that the name on the cover is the same, sure.
In every other sense? Not so much. Save a couple of good tracks towards the end, the new album is somewhere between bad and terrible.
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John Cougar Lunchbucket
Feb 02 2009 01:57 PM
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+ Easily the worst Springsteen album cover since... ever, I think.
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Edgy DC
Feb 02 2009 02:06 PM
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<img src="http://blog.mlive.com/soundcheck/2009/01/medium_bruce-working-on-a-dream.jpg">
Oh, man, a concept worthy of America.
Or the Alan Parsons Project.
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G-Fafif
Feb 02 2009 02:15 PM
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He should have Obamicon'd.
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jerseyshore
Feb 02 2009 02:21 PM
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="Gwreck":3hc3c9z7]="jerseyshore":3hc3c9z7]Most of Working on a dream was done at the same time as Magic.....thaey are basically the same album.[/quote:3hc3c9z7]
In the sense that the name on the cover is the same, sure.
In every other sense? Not so much. Save a couple of good tracks towards the end, the new album is somewhere between bad and terrible.[/quote:3hc3c9z7]
a matter of opinion......not saying its his best work but I would not go as far as bad / terrible
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metirish
Feb 03 2009 12:32 PM
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From Slate
]
He Should Have Played "The Wrestler"
Bruce Springsteen misreads the national mood in his halftime performance.
By Stephen Metcalf
Posted Monday, Feb. 2, 2009, at 10:21 AM ET
"Is there anybody alive out there?" Bruce Springsteen blues-shouted to an audience of tens of millions of presumably catatonic football fans, by way of introducing a 12-minute medley of "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" (fan favorite), "Born to Run" (signature anthem), "Working on a Dream" (Please Proceed to Checkout), and the obligatory and eternally unfun romp known as "Glory Days." Springsteen has evolved, in the 35 years I've adored him, from an acquired taste that almost no one acquired to America's favorite karaoke act. (Is it possible to enjoy Springsteen's music without fantasizing that you are Bruce Springsteen?) Having grown older with Springsteen, one would hardly begrudge him the need to play the Bridgestone Halftime Show at America's pseudo-event extraordinaire. It is, as he put it, a "promotional outlet" not to be denied.
I love Bruce for the simple reason he is, from all appearances, a social phobe and a depressive. (Takes one to know one.) He may have been faking it for all these years, but he shrinks like a failing soufflé in the presence of an interviewer, and, in general, he speaks with the tiptoe pedantry of the unsure Everyman. Springsteen, the shy Jersey kid who comes alive only as a stage hound, first hit the big time during an energy crisis—of oil embargoes and, as legend has it, Carter-induced malaise—to which his four-hour shows were seen as an animal corrective. I've always admired him more, though, for his ability to bring down the room and was disappointed when he went for the Full Ya-Ya from the opening bars of "Freeze Out." Bruce mugged, pranced, japed with the Big Man; he brought in a gospel choir and did a Pete Townshend windmill; he even winked at Daniel Boorstin by closing with "I'm going to Disneyland."
Nothing will ever compete for sheer tone-deafness with Paul McCartney playing a zealous Super Bowl rendition of "Live and Let Die" at the height of the Iraq war. But Springsteen would have put America on its ass—its mind shortly to follow—had he strolled out with a Martin and played "The Wrestler." (And how about a nice "This one's for Danny," aka Danny Federici, the recently deceased keyboardist who was with Bruce for more than 40 years?) The national mood is sober bordering on a galloping panic. Lively as he was, I wouldn't say the Boss did much to either banish or capture it.
The Springsteen persona was originally intended as a stand-in for a blue-collar working class living in an insular white ethnic neighborhood and working a job on more or less permanent offer from an industrial economy. He was the poet of their decline, but he's moved away from that specific community of origin as his persona has evolved into a bit of general-purpose kitsch Americana. Not coincidentally, Springsteen has flogged more and more a highly abstract idea of "community," one centered around Bruce Springsteen. "It's not just my creation at this point," he recently told the New York Times, referring to the Springsteen iconography's debt to its fans. "I wanted it to be our creation. Once you set that in motion, it's a large community of people gathered around a core set of values."
Pardon me if I don't hear a note of true reciprocity in these words. Springsteen concerts, when I first attended, were Atlantic Coast joy fests for a small community of like-minded fans. To discover that many other people share a taste for something oddball is a source of true shelter from the agglomerating powers of the mass. A Postmodernist would scoff and say nothing has changed, that Springsteen was always only merchandise. True, but in every possible way, Springsteen holds himself out as a force against such Postmodernist sophistication—on behalf of meaning, sincerity, and authenticity! As media outlets reported, the field seats for the halftime show were filled with extras, a crowd of "excited fans," as the cattle call put it, to be seen dancing and clapping by the real audience, the 90 million sitting at home.* I'm glad that my oddball favorite from middle school has become a zillionaire and a living legend. But watching him play the Super Bowl, I couldn't help saying back to my flat screen, "Is there anyone alive in there?"
http://www.slate.com/id/2210287/
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Edgy DC
Feb 03 2009 12:43 PM
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Not bad.
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jerseyshore
Feb 03 2009 12:43 PM
Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Feb 03 2009 12:44 PM
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Daughter #1 (21) and I will be at the show opener in San Jose. Daughter #2 and I will be at show #2 (19) in Phoenix....it will be their first exposure to a Springsteen show. I am curious to see how they react and what they think.
I'm biased, grew up arond him, saw him during the early days at 200 seat clubs, played softball agains him, he bought me a beer one time, played darts with Clarence. He came on the scene and made it, tempararilly, cool to be from central jersey while I was in college in South Carolina.
I enjoyed the halftime show and am pretty much enamored by anything he puts out. Don't mean to sound corny, but his stories are my stories
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metsguyinmichigan
Feb 03 2009 12:44 PM
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"The national mood is sober bordering on a galloping panic. Lively as he was, I wouldn't say the Boss did much to either banish or capture it."
He's over-analyzing. It's was half-time at a football game, not an opportunity to make great and profound statements. The moment calls for spectacle.
Much of the audience at home was partying, beered-up and binging on chicken wings and Pringles. If Bruce had wandered out there with an acoustic and got loose with "Johnny 99" or something of that ilk, it would have been a massive downer.
U2 pulled it off, but that was a different type of crisis.
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Edgy DC
Feb 03 2009 12:50 PM
Edited 2 time(s), most recently on Feb 03 2009 01:07 PM
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I disagree. Speaking to the national mood in 12 minutes is no doubt a challenge, but it's also an opportunity to transcend and one he chose to pass on.
Yeah, "Johnny 99" would have been a downer. But maybe "Out of Work" wouldn't have been. You can speak to people's pain and turn it into something else. It's a role artists like Brooce have been taking on for a long time.
| ]U2 pulled it off, but that was a different type of crisis. |
A far greater challenge, if you ask me.
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metsguyinmichigan
Feb 03 2009 12:57 PM
Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Feb 03 2009 01:03 PM
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="Edgy DC"]| ]U2 pulled it off, but that was a different type of crisis. |
A far greater challenge, if you ask me. |
Absolutely! And they handled it masterfully. That image of the names rising behind them was perfect. Honoring, but still a spectacle.
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metirish
Feb 03 2009 01:00 PM
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I think their song choices though helped reflect hope , at least for me they did , especially MLK.
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Gwreck
Feb 03 2009 02:05 PM
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="Edgy DC":2lp3793e]I disagree. Speaking to the national mood in 12 minutes is no doubt a challenge, but it's also an opportunity to transcend and one he chose to pass on.[/quote:2lp3793e]
So it should've been The Promised Land, Darkness on the Edge of Town and Badlands? I could accept that.
Some idiot suggesting that he should've played "The Wrestler?" Nope.
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sharpie
Feb 03 2009 02:20 PM
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The set came in at 13:20.
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G-Fafif
Feb 03 2009 02:53 PM
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| ]The Springsteen persona was originally intended as a stand-in for a blue-collar working class living in an insular white ethnic neighborhood and working a job on more or less permanent offer from an industrial economy. |
Intended? The author seems to be implying that the Bruce he loved way back when was a put-on, which I doubt anyone would seriously believe. Or does he mean the "persona" was "intended" to be taken as described by those who would interpret Bruce at the expense of enjoying him? One can do both, but this writer seems to have interpreted the joy right out of his subject.
The halftime show was a little cheesy, but it was the Super Bowl. Nobody came away shortchanged for their 13:20.
And as much as I like Nebraska, there is no way I would expect hear it in this context.
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metsguyinmichigan
Feb 03 2009 02:53 PM
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="jerseyshore":2tnr2wbp]Daughter #1 (21) and I will be at the show opener in San Jose. Daughter #2 and I will be at show #2 (19) in Phoenix....it will be their first exposure to a Springsteen show. I am curious to see how they react and what they think.
I'm biased, grew up arond him, saw him during the early days at 200 seat clubs, played softball agains him, he bought me a beer one time, played darts with Clarence. He came on the scene and made it, tempararilly, cool to be from central jersey while I was in college in South Carolina.
I enjoyed the halftime show and am pretty much enamored by anything he puts out. Don't mean to sound corny, but his stories are my stories[/quote:2tnr2wbp]
I forgot to say .... all of that is awesome!!!! What wonderful experiences!
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