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I'm enjoying the random Springsteen songs. I was rather late coming to Springsteen's music. I wasn't really exposed to his music much until college (78-81). Most of my friends were out of state students (New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts) that kept raving about him. At first, I wasn't a fan, but over time he grew on me. As I got older and my musical tastes matured, I better appreciated the depth of his lyrics.
I have enjoyed hearing some deeper cuts that I had not heard before. I has been fun reacquainting myself to some of the classics that first hooked me, so long ago.
Thank you for supporting Rando Springsteen of the Day.
Bonus fun fact: Steve Van Zandt lobbied to have "Loose Ends" as the final song on the Sopranos vs. "Don't Stop Believin'"
Good morning from Bruce-FM. This morning the big wheel takes us to "Bring on the Night"-- a leftover from the Darkness era that surfaced on TRACKS.
This is about as New Wave as the Boss got (listen the way he pronounces "eyes"), 2 minutes of power pop. The question is did he beat the Police in the same-name game? 179/340
edit-- this sounds like Graham Parker wrote it. same era
Today's Springsteen o' the Morning (#21) is "Your Own Worst Enemy" from MAGIC (2007).
Productionwise, doesn't really come off as a Springsteen song even though I like the melody and get what he was trying to do. I think this is a song about depression which Bruce knows.
Ranked 283/340 though I might slot it 1 or 2 places better than that.
Today's Springsteen SOTD (#22) comes with a health bulletin: The Boss cancelled a show in Marseille France Saturday citing doctors orders over "vocal issues." Fans may return their tickets at their point of purchase. Next up Prague is if he can recover.
Think Bruce is suffering? What about Joe? Today's tune is "Downbound Train" from BORN IN THE USA (1984).
We have a have a high school radio station on the left side of the dial here in Baltimore. The on-air personalities are mostly students, but inexplicably, they are forced to curate a playlist from their parents', or even their grandparents', collections. I confess we cruelly delight in listening to teenagers trying four or five times to read the title "Bodhisattva" before giving up, or proudly and confidently proclaime that last song was by "Hale and Oates."
Anyhow, yesterday one of those kids played "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" and it's more remarkable than I realize. With the notable exception of Dylan, few tackle the subject of sin as bravely as he does.
If you peel away the drums and maybe another layer or two from "Downbound Train," it very much sounds like it could have come off of Nebraska. A narrative of a man chewed up and spit out by the world, and getting ready to turn on it, or himself.
Hi from Springsteen World Headquarters. Today (#23) we visit with a stripped-down take on the unreleased epic "The Promise," specifically the version from "18 TRACKS" a consumer-friendly version of the multidisc TRACKS set. This one is ranked all the way up there with the "Rosalitas" at 19/340. Cool vid too
Fun Fact: The random wheel first landed on 179 which would have been a repeat of "Bring on the Night" (above). I think it's telling you not to miss that one either
Today on Bruce-A-Day (#24), a slow burner from HUMAN TOUCH, "Cross My Heart." Rankings weren't kind to this one --296/340 -- but I liked it back then. I would like more for Chris Isaak to cover it.
Update on Bruce's health: Now taking 10 days off forcing postponement of tonight's show in Prague and two in Milan.
Today's Random Springsteen Song of the Day (25) is "My Best Was Never Good Enough" from THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD (1995).
Bruce talks more than sings here, the lyrics are all cliches and spiced up with vulgarities. It's kind of funny but closes an album mostly about serious issues like homelessness and stuff. I'm not sure I entirely get this, Bruce. Do you? Ranked 255/340
Bruce is especially fiery this morning as the 26th spin of Magic Wheel of Bossdom lands on 33 and "Adam Raised A Cain" from DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN.
You're born into this life paying
For the sins of somebody else's past
Well, daddy worked his whole life for nothing but the pain
Now he walks these empty rooms looking for something to blame
You inherit the sins, you inherit the flames
I stumbled upon this article from The Ringer about Springsteen's public persona being invented across his Born in the USA videos.
The first half is a summary of the singles, the videos that accompanied them, who shot them, and what they were going for, but even though it's been 40 years, a lot of that is review for me and most who lived through the era, and remember them shot for shot. But it moves forward into the deeper meaning of the construction of his massive-but-inaccurate public image and how it became a great platform for him until it became a great weight.
And at the center of it all was what we will call “the Bruce Springsteen Character,” a perfect leading man for MTV. In the videos for “I’m on Fire” and “Glory Days,” Bruce Springsteen is portrayed as soft-spoken, a little shy, hardworking, slightly dim, and fundamentally decent. If you were to make a list of “average working-class person” clichés and turn that list into a person, it would be the Bruce Springsteen Character from these videos.
This person was not the “real” Bruce Springsteen. And I don’t just mean that in the most obvious sense, which is that Bruce was a millionaire rock star and not a blue-collar laborer with a family. The real Bruce Springsteen liked old movies, books about American history, and above all his own company. He was a pensive loner with depressive tendencies. He was complicated.
You don’t get any of that from the simpleton you see in his videos. But the Bruce Springsteen Character overwhelmed reality. And that was helpful to the real Bruce Springsteen’s career—until it suddenly wasn’t.
A lot of it gets filtered through Neil Postman's cultural criticism, which is always enlightening, especially now that much of it has grown as distant as these videos, and we can objectively see what he was predicting would happen to our culture.
One thing I didn't know (I imagine I should've, and others here did know) was that Brian DePalma's goofy, all-American "Dancing in the Dark" video was a second attempt at a promo film for the song, the first being a darker read on the song by Jeff Stein that Springsteen supposedly walked out of the shoot on, quitting after one hilariously goofy take. I mean, I'm sure editing in other footage and camera angles would have added some more texture and substance to it, but the Internet being what it is, the footage from that one take lives on and comes across like Ben Stiller imitating Springsteen teaching an exercise class.
If that video had been released, it might not have ruined Springy's career, but it might have saved Billy Squier's
I was always ambivalent about DitD and wary of Bruce's video age. That BitUSA book is out now by the way.
Today (#27) we go back THE RIVER and "I Wanna Marry You." This was a thematic notion that was icky to me when this was new and too old-fashioned sounding against the Joe Jackson & Police I'd also have been consuming then. Better with time I suppose. Ranked 109/340
Today on Radio Bossman, it's "Down in the Hole" our first taste of the 2014 album HIGH HOPES, which was a collection of leftovers from his late period along with covers and remakes, most showcasing Tom Morello. If "I'm on Fire" with Bruce singing through a telephone, playing fake drums and a banjo is your thing, you will enjoy this one. Episode 28. Ranked 297/340
Today, the big wheel chose No. 273, "American Beauty," for the AMERICAN BEAUTY EP which seems like it came out last week but is in fact 10 years old and includes stuff left over from HIGH HOPES.
I can't place what this song sounds like but it sounds like something. Not sure I like his warbly voice or that he seems about to make out with Nils Lofgren in the video.
Bruce-A-Day #29 is made possible by a grant from the John D and Catherine T McArthur Foundation and the generous support of listeners like you.
Today on Rando Springsteen (#31), we get our first cut from WESTERN STARS, Bruce's Western album from 2019. "Hello Sunshine" is a pretty good take on depression. 158/340
You've been spared the 33rd spin on the Bruce randomizer today-- it came up at 331, "The Way" which we tackled as a doubleshot with "City of Night" back on May 18. Consider yourselves lucky as there's only 9 Springsteen songs worse than that, according to the Vulture rank.
The second spin lands us on 153 and "Seven Angels" a 90s outtake from TRACKS. It sure sounds like "Should I Stay or Should I Go" but I'm pretty sure that song ripped off someone too.
There's literally no difference between Springsteen songs that made a proper album and those that didn't, quality wise.
Day 34: Bruce-a-Day Plus Iron presents "Galveston Bay" from TOM JOAD, a sad song about how to end wars. I have a hard time making out the lyrics on this one so it helps to read along.
Yeah, your best bet is to punch the numbers one through 340 into a randomizer NOW!!!! and have them shuffled to produce a list up front. Save the list, delete the numbers that have already come up, take the next number on the list each day and match it up with the song.
I decided instead to take my chances with the randomizer and copied the article, pasted it in word, took out everything but the song titles and albums, printed it out, stapled the 7 pages together, and used a highlighter to cross off the ones we've done.
Took a lot of select-delete but reduced that sucker from 69 pages
