Springsteen

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

We haven't had our daily glass of Bruce juice yet!!!

Springsteen a day is taking a short break this weekend while we're on a trip

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

"57 Channels" had a big launch and a disappointing landing (peaking at #68) as a single when it was released in 1992, but found new life that summer as a remix, incorporating sounds of street unrest shortly after the Rodney King riots had peaked.

Kinda proved to be less-than-inspiring source material when I drew Eric Valent in the Parody Challenge.

It was too easy to view that song as Bruce complaining about the quality of cable tv.

[Edgy MD]

No, it was more broadly about the consumerist culture and it's diminishing returns — a facet of the American dream that he was now pretty well steeped in, having resettled in Southern Cal, divorced, and lost much of his own brand authenticity at the altar of his superstardom.

Fabulous success leading to Southern California alienation leading to new songs about alienation being the fruit of fabulous success ... which lead to more fabulous success ... sure seemed to be Bruce learning from the Henley formula well.

Musically, I think it failed a bit because it was a blues built around a crude bass riff played (or at least performed in the video) by Bruce, along with a half-sung lyric. It needed some guitar/melody/treble stuff.

It was more of the foundation of a good record than it was a good record, and that's why it needed the remix to give it nu life.

Bruce in the video appears in the first chorus with dark sunglasses and his receding hair pulled back, and he kind of looks like he's cosplaying as Graham Parker.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

49. Cops and firemen and many of their sympathizers turned on Bruce after today's song, "American Skin (41 Shots)." Ranked No. 22/340

[Edgy MD]

With Bruce, even in a song about getting murdered by police, "we're gonna take that ride."

"57 Channels" also has a favorite Bruce lyrical turn in that there's a trial in Verse 3, and the protagonist gets to stand up and address the judge.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Our 50th Big Bump of Bruce is "She's Always a Woman to Me" ... um, "Secret Garden." This sexy, synthy song comes from his 1995 GREATEST HITS collection and is most famous for being included in the enormously overrated movie JERRY MAGUIRE. Ranked 218/340

[Frayed Knot]

Today's video is a case of Brucelosis Duplicatis

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, let's fix that, especially since today's song has an official video, directed by Peter Care, but with a lot of the feel of Springy's John Sayles videos. Maybe more of a daytime version of the Springsteen/Sayles collaborations.

More importantly, it doesn't include clips from the film.

[Edgy MD]

I had always understood the third line of the mumbly lyric to be "She'll let you into her mind."

But now I'm hearing "She'll let you in her mouth" and I think that's actually correct.

I think Jerry Maguire might be different from how I remember it.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Thanks for that fix. I was rushing around this morning and sacrificed copy editing

[Frayed Knot]

btw, there's a pretty decent documentary on Steve Van Zandt currently floating around HBO
It's 2 hours+ and I'm about half-way through.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

51. I really like "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?" the best song ever about a panther and a dockworker who raise money to purchase a rodeo.

Even if the lyrics are a bunch of nonsense, they demonstrate young Bruce's raw creativity and has some memorable turn of phrase. It's got a great groove and doesn't overstay its welcome-- just 2 minutes and 6 seconds. Ranked 169/340

[Edgy MD]

"Man, the dope's that there's still hope"

　　— Mary Lou

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

52. "We Take Care of Our Own" from WRECKING BALL (2012).

This was the song that got me "back into Springsteen" as it were. It's pretty much what I consider to be the late-period Springsteen sound, dolled up with artificial effects and vaguely evocative of some other song by some other artist (this one: "Love Vigilantes" by New Order).

But taking in the lyrics for the first time really moved me, and signaled this was "Born in the USA" all over again. I think Bruce intended that too, that this song could be another big hit with a meaning hiding in plain sight. We take care of our own is scary and right on; and "wherever this flag is flown" seems a knock on Big Oil as this song references the Katrina response and the BP tanker disaster, and what they said about how we take care of our own.

Nobody gives this song any credit but for me it kicked off a Springsteen appreciation tour where I actually went back to discover all I'd missed. Ranked 138/340

[Edgy MD]

Right about the time this song was out, my wife and I had a confusing conversation with a West Virginia government worker about the services available to her declining mother. The worker used the expression "We take care of our own" at one or two points and it wasn't clear to my wife whether the worker meant it helpfully or not.

And it struck me as a righteous phrase used to by different people to connote two different notions of America. "We take care of our own" can mean we take care of all of our vulnerable people and a good, working government is the vehicle through which we do that. Or it can mean that it's a family's job to take care of the vulnerable, and if somebody doesn't have a family, they'd better hope somebody adopts them, because no interfering government is going to force me to care for some freeloader that's not my responsibility. That's not "my own."

I'm not sure what Springsteen's connotation is — the door that's open or the door that's shut — but my wife heard the latter in the lady's words, and has subsequently always hated this song.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

As I interpreted it Bruce meant for you to reflect on both meanings but was always condemning those who were excluding.

53. Today we have a "Sundown" from Springsteen's WESTERN STARS album, accompanied by a gigantic orchestra and a team of singers. This performance reminds me a lot of Roddy Frame's Western-tinged "Seven Dials" album. Ranked 213/340

[Edgy MD]

As I interpreted it Bruce meant for you to reflect on both meanings but was always condemning those who were excluding.

Yeah, it's sort of like "Born in the USA II" in that regard. It's alluring in that it champions a noble American promise, but you have to pay attention to realize he's lamenting how empty the promise ultimately is for so many.

Good call on the Roddy Frame reference.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

54. Here's another one I never hoid until the Random Spin of Springsteen hit on No. 148: "A Night with the Jersey Devil." It's a joke Bruce released as a download-only Halloween single in 2008. Overranked.

[whippoorwill]

Yuk

[Edgy MD]

I'm thinking that, if you're going to try to sound like Muddy Waters, do it in earnest. You're Springsteen.

But I guess that's part of his problem. Other people suck when they take themselves too seriously, but Springsteen has invested so much in being earnest, he sucks when he doesn't take himself seriously enough.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

55. "Working on a Dream" from WORKING ON A DREAM. Here's yet another late-period Springsong where the melody vaguely recalls another tune.* I kind of like the na-na na-na-na-na part. Ranked 327/340 for vapid lyrical content and whistling




*"Keep It Tight" by Single Bullet Theory? (if not, free new wave bonus)

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

56. Settle in for a bit and take in today's rando Springsteen song, "Thundercrack" from TRACKS. This is a party-down concert staple that was meant to be just that (and is that), although this studio version was apparently under consideration to make the BORN TO RUN starting lineup. Very obviously recorded in 1973 with the original E-Streeters. Ranked 111/340

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

57. I'm not entirely sure this belongs on the countdown, but today we get a rousing version of one of Bruce's most loved but saddest songs. It's "Racing in the Street ('78)" an E-Street infused, faster version of the DARKNESS classic. Ranked 165/340

Fun Fact: Kiss in 1978 did a different version of one of their most-loved songs with "Strutter '78" off their DOUBLE PLATINUM greatest-hits package. The argument was the original recording was too muddy; but this one is way too clean and disco-y.

[Edgy MD]

I like that, in that version, Springy switches the car in the opening lyric from a '69 Chevy to a '32 Ford. (Did he want to be in ZZ Top?)

He probably alternated the lyric depending on whether he was playing in a Ford town or a Chevy town.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Good call on Strutter '78! I think I actually have the 45 of that somewhere!