Springsteen

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

77. "The Long Goodbye," from HUMAN TOUCH. This is one of rockinest cuts from that album. As an aside with books now released on NEBRASKA and BORN IN THE USA, an enterprising writer could probably craft a narrative out of the making of HUMAN TOUCH/LUCKY TOWN.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

78. I don't often include the "live" versions on the Bruce 340, but I'm not sure this "Leap of Faith" (ranked 140) is really live; only the footage is. Plus it gives a good look at Bruce's "other" band, Shayne Fontaine on guitar whose long hair was derided by E Street faithful, drummer Zach Alford, bassist Tommy Sims, along with Roy Bittan and a huge gospel chorus. I saw this combo play in Philadelphia in 92.

They should have given this band a name and maybe people wouldn't have hated so much. Can you come up with one?

Bruce Springsteen and His Multicultural Midlife Crisis

Get things goin!

Fun Facts: Zach Alford is now a member of the Psychedelic Furs and previously the B52s; Tommy Sims co-wrote "Change the World" for Clapton; Shayne Fontaine played electric guitar on Ann & Nancy Wilson's iconic "Stairway to Heaven" performance.

[Edgy MD]

I like the Break-Glass-in-Emergency Band as a band, but as for the era's material, BS seems to be searching for a new authenticity as he leaves his street-saavy grease monkey and unstoppable patriot personae behind, seemingly using a gospel underlay to sell a new spirit of cultural connectedness, perhaps as a response to the cultural alienation proffered by the grunge-era guitar bands.

But the authenticity-in-the-midst-of-an-era-of-irony only sometimes works no matter how hard he sells it with his tumbling across and his band's inter-racial embracing, and I think that's a matter of the material, which has more big ideas than relatable truths or hooks that land. The ties don't always bind, but the audience (especially there in Jersey) is fueled by the goodwill he's built up in the past. They're more than willing to meet him more than halfway even as he has forsaken the band and forsaken the state.

I feel for Bittan there. (I really like his beard, by the way.) When the bandleader throws over the whole band but kept you around for security or whatever, not only do all the other band members resent the hell out of you, but you live in existential dread that if he's whacked everybody else, you're only one whim away from getting whacked yourself, and from the time you wake up in the morning, to the time your head hits the pillow, you're thinking about what you can do to make the boss happy.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

My feeling seeing them was that they sounded fine but were a little too try-hardy on stage. Remember where they did this cheesy conga line dance during "Light of Day."

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

79. We're living here in Allentown.. No, actually Youngstown, where Bruce tells the story of forgotten munitions factory workers reflecting on the futility of their careers.

Verse sounds a little bit like "Turn the Page" No. 101/340

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

79. We're living here in Allentown.. No, actually Youngstown, where Bruce tells the story of forgotten munitions factory workers reflecting on the futility of their careers.

Verse sounds a little bit like "Turn the Page" No. 101/340

I once worked for a week in Youngstown. Was looking to leave Bridgeport, Conn. and applied to the Youngstown newspaper, The Vindicator. They demanded a weeklong tryout, which is absurd. They made staffers drive around in bright orange cars with the paper name in huge letters, also absurd. Throughout the week various staff members came up to me and said, "Do not, under any circumstances, take this job. This place is a disaster." I decided by Wednesday that they were right, but stayed the week because I agreed to do that. But it was a really rough place.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Tough to carry out investigative work in a car IDing you as press.

80. Janey is back again, this time with "Janey Needs a Shooter." You may know Bruce & Warren Zevon co-wrote WZ's "Jeannie Needs a Shooter" from 1980 which shares a chorus with this song but not much else. This song was newly recorded for LETTER TO YOU and dates to the DARKNESS sessions. Obviously Bruce was going for an epic here but the outro probably goes on too long. Ranked 186/340

[Edgy MD]

"Youngstown" has a "Jenny" that I initially thought was also a Janey.

[Frayed Knot]

I like Jeannie's shooter better than Janey's

[Edgy MD]

I had a phonebook-sized sheet music anthology collection of BS's music, published between BitUSA and ToL. It not only included every track from his albums to date, but also the songs he wrote for others, like "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)," "Fire," and "Because the Night."

I was confused by this "Jeannie Needs a Shooter" song and couldn't really make heads or tails of it. I figured it was some B-side I was unaware of, and it took a while before I realized it was a track he cowrote with/for Zevon.

So not being familiar with the recording, I never really tackled the song, and in my mind, I set it to the melody of The Replacements' "Gary's Got a Boner." It's nothing like that and doesn't fit into it, but the title lines scanned the same way, so I conflated them.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

81. What do you know? More Bruce & The Imposters live, playing the Barbusters' classic, "Light of Day." Stay for the blistering guitar solo and the gospel-preacher bit but don't fall for the false endings! ranked 71/340

[Gwreck]

81. What do you know? More Bruce & The Imposters live, playing the Barbusters' classic, "Light of Day." Stay for the blistering guitar solo and the gospel-preacher bit but don't fall for the false endings! ranked 71/340

Fun trivia: this is the makeup song Bruce gave Paul Schrader after borrowing the original title of Schrader’s screenplay.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I don't recall it being any good the first time I saw it but I guess I should watch "Light of Day" again.

Joan Jett resorts to a life of crime so that the Barbusters can tour. Somehow she's related to Michael J Fox.

[Edgy MD]

Light of Day is okay, but it just transforms from one genre into another as it progresses. It's a rock 'n' roll fable, then it's a family drama. By the end, it's LifeTime content.

The funny thing is that Joan Jett seems perfectly comfortable as an actress, and is far from the weak link in the film.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

82. Watch out for your junkman, it's the amazin' "New York City Serenade." No. 13/340. I feel like the piano is more authentic when David Sancious plays it but this is a pretty super performance.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

81. What do you know? More Bruce & The Imposters live, playing the Barbusters' classic, "Light of Day." Stay for the blistering guitar solo and the gospel-preacher bit but don't fall for the false endings! ranked 71/340

Sorry to skip back a day. But that live "MTV Plugged" disc is an underrated gem. A lot of good songs on there, especially of you like the "Human Touch/Lucky Town" discs. I think "Light of Day" goes on a little long, and the part about taking off your clothes and standing in front of the TV is a little odd for Bruce. But there's a lot of great stuff there!

[Edgy MD]

I like that "Light of Day" delivery, but my staging tip of the day is that, if you have five backup singers, you don't have to give all of them tambourines.

The B-52's almost inexplicably reached the top of the heap with Zach Alford on drums and Sara Lee on bass, and they should have made both of them full-time members.

[Frayed Knot]

... and the part about taking off your clothes and standing in front of the TV is a little odd for Bruce.

Odd? It's more like standard operating procedure for Bruce.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

... and the part about taking off your clothes and standing in front of the TV is a little odd for Bruce.

Odd? It's more like standard operating procedure for Bruce.

I gotta listen to more Bruce!

[Gwreck]

but this is a pretty super performance.

Don’t be fooled by the sign he took from the crowd. They rented out a club in Rome the day before that show specifically to practice with the string players and to get it just right. (And boy did it pay off).

At 5:07: check out the violinist with her sheet music autographed.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

83. "Reason to Believe" off NEBRASKA.

Ranked 56/340. Peter Ames Carlin argued that the word "some" is key to Bruce's message here. "At the end of every hard day some people find a reason to believe."



Here's the song with a blooze-rock treatment:

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

84. Bruce is moved by an Iraq war casualty in "Devil's Arcade" from MAGIC. Sad but I kinda like it. 206/340

[Edgy MD]

I really like that John Lee Hooker treatment on "Reason to Believe." That's the sort of gutsy re-arrangement surprise I look for in a live performance from 'Steen, but when he finally gets past the long extended intro into the verses, Bruce seemz to have trouble making the lyrics and melody fit into blues syncopations, and kind of loses the song.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

85. "Across the Border," from GHOST OF TOM JOAD. Singer-songwriter Bruce doesn't dare raise his voice while telling what seems like a striving immigrant story but might instead be a sorrowful widow/er story. It could be both! 145/340

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

86. Back-to-back TOM JOAD cuts on Bruce-FM. "The New Timer" tells the story of Hobo Bruce, out to avenge the murder of Hobo Frank. Ranked 183