Springsteen

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

174. AIDS is bad, Tom Hanks is good, Springsteen is a champion for the little guy. But I still wouldn't pick "Streets of Philadelphia" as a Top 20 Springsteen song, much less #14. What do you think?

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I think he won an Oscar for that song, too. It's very atmospheric, but doesn't seem to be a whole lot there. Almost like background music.

[Edgy MD]

It wasn't even the best song on the soundtrack. That honor goes to Neil Young. But as Tom Hanks said about his own Oscar that night, "I know that my work in this case is magnified by the fact that the streets of Heaven are too crowded with angels."

The idea that it was played among the block of FUCKYEAHPHILLYROOLS songs before the only Veteran's Stadium game I was at was mindblowing.

In truth, I actually like the track, but yeah, "All That Heaven Will Allow" > "Streets of Philadelphia."

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

175. Young men are dying and Bruce is sad and frustrated in the snarly "Souls of the Departed." Not many Bruce songs with a slide guitar. Ranked 185

[Edgy MD]

Still digesting "Streets of Philadelphia" at 14.

It remains, to this day, Springy's last trip to the Billboard Top Ten.

It makes sense that — with the death of first-run rock radio, and MTV turned over to the three-headed monster of grunge, R&B, and gangsta rap (to say nothing of non-music programming) — movie soundtracks were the last remaining platform for Bossy to expose his stuff.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

176. This song is also better than "Philadelphia." At #45 in fact the highest-scoring of the GREETINGS debut.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

177. Well we finally did it, the randomizer hit No. 340 and we're doomed to hear the worst Springsteen song of all time.

Only, "Mr. Outside" isn't so bad at all. Sure its not fully developed but neither was all of NEBRASKA. This song reminds me of Jonathan Richman strumming away. Vaguely Caribbean or something. Better than "Philadelphia"!

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

178. Well I don't know about youse guys but I feel like we dodged a bullet, we've cleared the deck of "Philadelphia" and the other worst Springsteen song! Now from 340 to 240: A cut from the "The Crossing Guard" movie soundtrack I'd never heard, the moody and atmospheric sound of a parent mourning their child, "Missing"

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

179. Elvis-y Bruce is condemned to "Working on the Highway" one way or the other. Ranked #130

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

180. Johnny is back from Vietnam and all is not ok in "Shut Out the Light." This was the B side of "Born in the USA," ranked #133

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

181. No matter how bad it gets -- even when a "criminal clown has stolen the throne" -- rocking out with your band, or listening to your favorite band rocking out, is what keeps Bruce in shape as America's Greatest Entertainer. Ranked #257

Willie Nile also rocks out behind a song called "House of a Thousand Guitars" (below). Did Bruce borrow the title?

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

182. Predicting the scene where Springsteen performs "Open All Night" into his bedroom tape recorder will win a Golden Globe award. I don't know why the guy would live three hours away from his girlfriend but good description of the Turnpike late at night. Ranked #61, but only the 5th highest from NEBRASKA.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

183. Bruce's marriage is in real trouble. He's not getting any, he's been kicked out, he's drinking, he's cheating, he's riddled with self-doubt. Video features pensive Bruce faces. "One Step Up" is ranked #88.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

184. Springy goes nuts about gas prices and talent agents in "Held Up Without a Gun," the non-album B-side of "Hungry Heart." At 1:16 this is your easiest assignment yet. Ranked #123

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

185. I'm sure Bruce took note of how those "remember when" songs like "Old Time Rock n Roll" turned into chestnuts and he went for it no matter how repetitive and simple, and how awful the second line comes off. Does he really need a giant band with three guitars to play this song?

Now the video

--Bruce plays a pile driver operator who looks like Stallone in "Over the Top," complete with a red hat and a big truck.

--His windup is okay but he doesn't follow through; his pitches would likely be behind a righthanded hitter.

--Dwight Gooden at 1:36

--No respectable blue-collar worker would dress his kid in red suspenders.

--Nettles? Bruce pitches for a National League team then. I always got the feeling he pulls for the wrong team but that was interesting writing. Nettles?

You tell me. Does "Glory days" (#43!!) have any redeeming qualities?

[Edgy MD]

Forty-three is ... charitable.

The notion that this is his version to ”Old-Time Rock 'n' Roll” or ”Keeping the Faith” certainly doesn't help redeem it.

[metirish]

185. I'm sure Bruce took note of how those "remember when" songs like "Old Time Rock n Roll" turned into chestnuts and he went for it no matter how repetitive and simple, and how awful the second line comes off. Does he really need a giant band with three guitars to play this song?

Now the video

--Bruce plays a pile driver operator who looks like Stallone in "Over the Top," complete with a red hat and a big truck.

--His windup is okay but he doesn't follow through; his pitches would likely be behind a righthanded hitter.

--Dwight Gooden at 1:36

--No respectable blue-collar worker would dress his kid in red suspenders.

--Nettles? Bruce pitches for a National League team then. I always got the feeling he pulls for the wrong team but that was interesting writing. Nettles?

You tell me. Does "Glory days" (#43!!) have any redeeming qualities?

Man this is a great summary, I guess fastball didn't work so he used speedball 😆

[whippoorwill]

I don’t remember this video at all. Yeah I always associated the pitcher with Gooden.

This was out when hubby and I used to go out to bars so it was a familiar tale for us seeing old friends from HS.
None of us made it big either lol

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, that use of "speedball" was weird.

The use of "Nettles" in "San Diego" was interesting. Firstly it suggested that the only thing worse than being a guy who's no longer good enough for the Yankees and is playing out his career in exile is being the guy who so clearly peaked in high school that even in his fantasies, he can't beat the guy who's no longer good enough for the Yankees and is playing out his career in exile.

Also, it suggests Bruce is a guy whose pile-driving career has taken him away from home, to a National League town, where the only Yankee fix he can get is when Yankee castoffs come through town in different unis, and he tells his kid how great things were in 1977-78. (This notion, I would later realize, kind of clashes with the setting — the ballfield footage and the barroom scenes are both shot in north Jersey.)

The barroom stage overcrowded with a band that would even look bloated on an arena stage was comic then as it's comic now. Steve Van Zant had left the band after the album's recording, at which time Bruce hired Nils Lofgren to replace him for the tour. The tour was well under way and Lofgren an established band member by the time this — the FIFTH single from the album — was to be released, so while it made sense to bring back Miami Steve for the video, it would have been dicky to ask Lofgren to sit out, so they end up with three guitarists, which is two more than the chord-riff/keyboard-driven track really needed.)

There's awkward foreshadowing as the video features both model/actress Julianne Phillips (who he would wed around the time of the the single's release) and next wife Patty Scialfa (depicted, like Lofgren, performing with the band, despite not being added until after the album's release).

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Is that Julianne at 4:12?

[Edgy MD]

Julianne is rockin' in the crowd at Maxwell's, sort of at 7:00 if you treat Bruce as 12.

More importantly, she's also the wifey figure come to pick Bruce up at the end.

[Edgy MD]

I also want to throw a bone to the little kid in the red suspenders. Yeah, pile-driver Bruce wouldn't outfit his kid like that, but I got the read that BS is sleeping in on Sunday and Mom has the kids dressed for church and sent them in to wake Dad up.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Also weird that they'd go to the trouble of casting 2 sons for Bruce, Suspender boy and the fat-assed Pirates fan

[Frayed Knot]

Mo matter what one thinks of GLORY DAYS as a stand alone song, this video helps to cement my opinion
that more music videos detracted from the song they were meant to promote than enhanced them.

[Edgy MD]

Suspender boy and the fat-assed Pirates fan

My favorite new hip-hop duo.