Springsteen

[whippoorwill]

Jackson Browne was a looker, sure, but after his 1972 album I mostly lost interest in him. Loved Rock me on the Water and Doctor my Eyes.

His later stuff didn’t do much for me, even the wildly popular Running on Empty. Though I remember it on the radio on my first date with Mr Whip

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

126. "If I Was the Priest" from LETTER TO YOU. This is a full-band recording of a Bruce song from a 50-year-old demo tape we passed around on cassette. That one is Bruce alone on piano and sounds similar to Elton John's early cowboy songs. Ranked #156, or 2nd highest on that album (I think)



Here's the original

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

127. One of Bruce's best-known Seaside tunes. Here's a live version featuring wool-hat Bruce and Danny Federici. Ranked #46

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

128. "The Last Carnival." Bruce pays tribute to organ/accordion/calliope player Danny Federici who passed away in 2018 while WORKIN ON A DREAM was recorded, a somber sequel to "Wild Billy's Circus Story." ranked #189

Federici, who had melanoma, was the first E-Steeter to die

We won't be dancing together on the high wire
Facing the lions with you at my side anymore
We won't be breathing the smoke and the fire
On a midway

[Edgy MD]

125. Young Bruce pens a majestic song about wolfman fairies, "Lost in the Flood." I don't think I get the first verse all shot through with Catholic imagery, but "Still breathing when I walked away" is pretty powerful stuff. Ranked 98

Fun fact: Long time Bruce consigliere Steve Van Zandt's only contribution to the entire GREETINGS album was participating in the sound effect that starts this song. He wouldn't rejoin the band for another two years.

The 1995 Pulp Fiction-derivative crime drama Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead may take its title from a Warren Zevon song, but the main character's name "Jimmy the Saint" comes from a character in this song.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

129. Elvis Costello and the Ramones agree that Bruce's late-70s power pop is better than his studied 2010s style. More fun anyway.
"Where the Bands Are" ranks 110.

[Edgy MD]

　　Tonight I wanna feel the beat of the crowd
　　And when I tell you that I love you
　　I wanna have to shout it out loud!

This totally a KISS reference, right?

[Frayed Knot]

Bruce, btw, turned 75 today.

[Edgy MD]

It's sometimes like Springbone has power pop tastes, but he has to arrange his songs for his ever-expanding band. And so, songs that work best with a tight four-piece arrangement either get left off albums or gifted to other acts.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

That's totally true. And happy diamond anniversary to Bruce.

130. Today he's down with an orchestra and french horns to tell the story of a disgraced crane operator whose abandoned wife is supposedly on the way back. This is a hard song not to like yet only made it to #233.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

131. "Give the Girl a Kiss" from Bruce's rock n soul period. Calls out solos for Danny and himself ("Boss time!"). I didn't think he ever referred to himself as the Boss. ranked #125



Trailer out for the forthcoming band documentary

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

132. The spooky and chilling "State Trooper," No. 34 on your Bruce countdown.

[Edgy MD]

Like the Beatles' "Come Together," the lyrics grow out of phrases from Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me."

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

That's a Fun Fact

[Edgy MD]

Also, like "57 Channels and Nothing On" and "Radio Nowhere" and probably others, we get a frustrated protagonist pushed over the edge by shitty media programming.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

133. Of course the Bruce version of the song made famous by Patti Smith has different lyrics about workin' all day. Good jams from this period, he was arguably at the height of his powers. No. 32



Fun fact-- did you know Patti Smith's excellent "Frederick" was also based on a Springsteen jam? The intro to Prove it All Night.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

134. Bruce reminisces of his adolescent dream to get a cool car and drink beer outside in "Brothers Under the Bridges ('83)" This is an awful lot like "No Surrender" The '83 is to distinguish it from a different "Brothers Under the Bridges" song we'll hear later. Ranked #224

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

135. I tend to stay away from Greatest Hits albums so I'm not really familiar with "Murder Incorporated" which was a BITUSA leftover like the above one. This really isn't like a lotta Bruce songs thematically. Rated # 82

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

136. Boy meets girl, boy robs bank, boy wrecks car. It's "Highway 29" from TOM JOAD. Effectively bleak Springsteen story ranked #152

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Brace yourselves for the worst Springsteen song yet! Ranked 337 out of 340, its "This is Your Sword" from HIGH HOPES. From his small subcategory of Irish ditties, sung with a fake Irish accent, sounds like.

[whippoorwill]

Yeah pretty bad!

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

138. Today we get the title tack of Springy's latest album, "Letter to You." This is fine but generic Bruce, and the lyrics always struck me more of a way to sell autobiographies than a way to help fans better understand their own lives but either interpretation is valid, and both are probably true. Ranked 198 on the big list

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

139. Mansions of pain. Mansions! One of Bruce's ultimate workin' man songs, "Factory" checks in at #82. The alt version included below is bouncier and has some different lyrics and less organ and harmonies but perhaps didn't fit the take-no-shit posture of DARKNESS.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

140. Bruce's ode to the workin' man extends to Hollywood with "Drive Fast (the Stuntman)" from WESTERN STARS.

I dunno, I kinda like it. What do you say?

Only 200 more days to go!

[Edgy MD]

It's a like West Coast old-man's "Born to Run."