Springsteen

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Slightly disappointed we didn't get "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" or "Merry Christmas, Baby" during the last couple days! Are they included in the rankings?

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Only songs Bruce wrote and were released as recordings are eligible.

215. Today's song was written & recorded in the early 80s but released on Tracks in 1998. Bruce says "My Love Will Not Let You Down" should have been on Born in the USA. It's a rocker with a guitar solo that doesn't sound like other Bruce-song guitar solos. I'm not sure it deserves the sacred #41 ranking tho.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

216. Bruce and his "hot rod" are at it again in "Ramrod" No. 79

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

217. Today we get a the soulful and uplifting "Be True," which was the B-side for the sad and mournful "Fade Away." (We've yet to encounter Fade Away in the countdown). Be True ranks #105 and is 100% Springsteen grade stuff. It was evidently left off The River in favor of "Crush on You."

[Edgy MD]

I like that live version of “Ramrod.“ His bloated band doesn’t overwhelm the tight and kicking Eddie Cochrane swagger of it.

The song itself is rewrite of Larry Williams' “Boney Maronie,“ I think.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

218. Bruce-A-Day rings in the new year with the tale of brotherly love, "Highway Patrolman," #69.

Fun Fact #1: This song was originally called "Deputy."

Fun Fact #2: Sean Penn based the movie "The Indian Runner" on this song and scenes from that flick are in the video.

Fun Fact #3: There evidently was no song called "Night of the Johnstown Flood" before this came out-- but several since.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

219. The world is is filled with death and sorrow and Bruce is horny in "The Fuse." If you like your Springsteen with vocal echo effects and fake drum beats this is your cut.

Ranked #321

[Edgy MD]

I didn't know Fun Fact #3.

It took me a bit when I was a kid to get past the notion that the title Nebraska didn't mean that all the songs should be understood to be set in the bread basket states, even as several explicitly reference Atlantic City and Mahwah and such. With "Highway Patrolman" referencing a place called Johnstown that was vulnerable to a flood, I took that as a midwest setting, and then later in the song we get to Michigan roads and Ohio plates and Perrineville and the Canadian line, and the Springsteen atlas grows more and more specific. The album becomes like a crescent of gothic Americana arching from the Jersey streets through the industrial Midwest and down into the Heartland.

Its ending, though, takes him right back to the beginning with "Mansion on the Hill" and "My Father's House," though both kind of only half represent a corporeal destination and half a spiritual home, but somehow not quite reachable in either sense.

Our hero had outlasted punk and found himself haunted by an existentialism that no band could make swing. The weight of the world was on his shoulders with creaking ice beneath his feet.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

220. I don't recall seeing that RS cover before.

Just as you were saying we're back home in Linden Town for "Mansion on the Hill," ranked #128. As you probably know this isn't the only M.O.T.H. in rawk history.

[Edgy MD]

All three are pretty terrific songs.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Over the top but fun homemade video on Neil

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

221. Bruce tests positive for positivity in "Better Days" from Lucky Town. This is a great song full of energy and lyrics that demonstrate even big-shot starlet-banging rich successful handsome rugged rock stars like Bruce get the woe-is-me blues sometimes, and that being happy can take some effort. The video seems to mix alternate vocals into the song and I don't recognize the musicians beyond Patty and Roy. Ranked #90

[Gwreck]

The video seems to mix alternate vocals into the song and I don't recognize the musicians beyond Patty and Roy.

He did a live vocal so it wouldn’t look like lip-synching.

Randy Jackson, later of American Idol fame, on bass.
Vocals are Lisa Lowell and Soozie Tyrell, who have sung (and Tyrell plays violin) on various Bruce tours and projects for years.

[Edgy MD]

Lowell and Tyrell were both with Patty Scialfa in Trixter, a New York City outfit that struggled to make it much beyond the busking stage, but somehow found their way into the Springsteen orbit, because they ultimately ended up sharing in one of the sweetest gigs, joining the ever-expanding latter-stage E-Streeters.

He's, like, really self-conscious about being a rich dude dressing down. I feel like variations on that lyric appear in three or four different songs.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Who's the

The video seems to mix alternate vocals into the song and I don't recognize the musicians beyond Patty and Roy.

He did a live vocal so it wouldn’t look like lip-synching.

Randy Jackson, later of American Idol fame, on bass.
Vocals are Lisa Lowell and Soozie Tyrell, who have sung (and Tyrell plays violin) on various Bruce tours and projects for years.

Thanks. Who's the drummer? Where's Shane?

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

One of my favorite Bruce songs!

[Gwreck]

Who's the drummer? Where's Shane?

I think that’s Gary Mallaber, who played the drums on that record. No Shane because at the time of the filming of the video, Bruce hadn’t yet done the auditions for the band for the tour. Fun fact: Jeff Porcaro of Toto (who did the drums on Human Touch) reportedly turned down big bucks to do the tour.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I know Gary Mallaber from the Steve Miller Band! I used to champion him in fights with my brother as to who was the better drummer-- him or Peter Criss.

[Edgy MD]

I know Gary from his incredible run with Van Morrison, sharing drums, vibes, and other percussion with others on Tupelo Honey, Saint Dominic's Preview, and Hard Nose the Highway.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

222. Bruce is believed to have written "My Lover Man" for his wife Patty's Rumble Doll album, but it didn't make the cut despite being a rare Bruce tune written from a woman's POV. Or, its a gay song. Sounds a lot like the Human Touch era of its creation, pretty spare and bassy. Not bad though. Ranked #262

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

223. Here's Bruce and his original band bringing it handsome and hot. This was the song they played at their Hall of Fame induction and not "Born to Run" or... "Hungry Heart." Ranked #60

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

224. Side A, track 1 on Western Stars. Ranked #188 on your Stairway to Bruce

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

225. Adele Springsteen died last year at age 99. Back in 1987 Bruce recorded a true-story song about her called "The Wish." The world's greatest, Gary Mallaber, provides the drums. I didn't know this song existed. #96

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

226. If you've hung with us this far you can now brag to the kids on your playground growing up that you've listed to fully two-thirds of all Springteen songs.

Bruce had fired the E Street Band and was in a dry writing period when he got together with old bandmate Roy Bittan, who showed an Bruce his synthesizers and shared a song he'd written with the E Streeters in mind. Bruce was so intrigued he went home and wrote the gambling-infested lyrics right away and would lean on Roy's newfangled gear to refire his writing gene and develop Human Touch.

This is another candidate for the histrionic vocal subset, Bobby King sings backup and Jeff Pocaro plays drums. Ranked #139

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

227. Bruce reconvened the E Street Band in 1995 to record new work for a Greatest Hits package including the soulful party song "Without You." This is another that could probably have been done better by Southside Johnny, and I'm suspicious of the "fun party" supposedly going on the background given how restrained the parts are. No screaming organ or blaring sax, just polite accompaniment. Ranked #211