But his best, in blowtorch approval
I think Springsteen has more in common with the Bat Out of Hell record than the Rolling Stones… East Coast salt water taffy boardwalk blues…
- Thread starter Mike Eskimo
- Start date
Bat out of hell and born to run are both exercises in a sort of epic, meandering songwriting style. Springsteen said he was trying to capture the tension and release of escaping something that's holding you back. Steinman wrote the songs as if they were to be performed as a stage musical.
It's almost like they both met up after their albums were released and agreed to never to do anything like it again lest they get the blame for turning rock n roll into a parody of itself.
It's almost like they both met up after their albums were released and agreed to never to do anything like it again lest they get the blame for turning rock n roll into a parody of itself.
Brue has had a very long run and a very very long and prosperous career. I would never begrudge a person success in their chosen career unless it was selling dope to school kids or robbing old ladies of their social security checks,
that said ""THE BOSS" always appealed to me about as much appeal to me as Ethel Mernin or Bob Hope or maybe May West.
slauson slim
Poster Extraordinaire
Bruce, Billy and loaf. Me: engage Thumper Doctrine.
Willie Johnson
Friend of Leo's
Meatloaf and Billy Joel are Drama Club Rock.
meatloaf is off broadway, a good ways off broadway, Billy is Catskills, the Boss is broadway.
one of my nephews in law is a 'serious' actor in london. at christmas we were talking about his studies and his work at his school (some kind of shakespearean thing, it sounds like a big deal and he is a great kid, he was an accountant at DreamWorks and quit to be a 'serious' actor) anyway, we were talking about our favorite Shakespeare plays and parts and out of the blue he says, 'you know, being on the stage is really important to me, but I'd be the first person to tell you that watching a film is much more entertaining and has a lot more potential to really move you.'
I saw the boss 3 times in the late 70's early 80's. Great show. But, theater more than rock'n'roll and theater more than seeing Waylon or Hag lay it out for you.
Everyone has their spot. no harm in any of them.
Theater is a good way of putting it.
I recall watching a piece where Bruce is explaining the lyrics to his songs to a small audience and took questions. One guy stood up and said that he has listened to all of Bruce's songs and he feels like he knows him. He then asks if he really does? Bruce quickly replies "No, you don't, the songs are from a third person's view". Most actors in Hollywood are far from their famous characters in real life, Bruce is that way with his music.
Bryan Adams is a pop songwriter with some great hooky songs. Mellencamp hit his sweet spot with Big Daddy and Check it Out - you know , when he had Lisa Germano in his band.
Musical style/their particular permutation of “rock” is what I’m talking about.
Guitar is there but - not to the front.
I’m inarticulate but it is very east coast/vaguely Brill Building/lotsa guys with Italian derivation/went to the peppermint lounge etc.
By the way, tunnel of love remains one of his best records and the record that I wish they could run through an “80s scrubber” and take all the 80s production out of it and/or it’s due for a re-release with all the demos.
THX1123
Tele-Afflicted
Maybe it is the over-emotive desperation they seem to feature?
I think you’re right!
rand z
Friend of Leo's
Yes.
That "goin down the shore" thingy, helps.
Bruce's song's are vignettes of a period of time in the 60's and early 70's.
I can attest to that because I was there.
I (and millions of other kids; now old timers) know how wonderful and magical it was to be at the Jersey, MD, Delaware shore point's during the heyday of Motown, Brill Building Writers, CA Surf, Philly Soul, NYC Pop/Folk etc.
The great music was coming at you from the transistor radio while sitting in front of the boardwalk, checking out the girls in polka dot bikini's, listening to the background pounding of the surf and soaking up the sun on the beach towel with your feet in the sand.
I remember walking down the street of Rehoboth Beach after parking the two-toned red and white '59 Chevy, passing the fire hall with the band playing on the second floor; kids hanging out in front on the sidewalk, laughing and making precious memories... painting a living portrait that gave Bruce Springsteen a palette for the songs he would write a few years later.
It actually happened... I was there.
imo.
posttoastie
Poster Extraordinaire
Country likes Springsteen
pypa
Tele-Afflicted
Jim Steinman made Bat Out of Hell and a plethora of pompous pop.
https://slate.com/podcasts/hit-para...ffic&utm_source=article&utm_content=web_share
In fact, steinman was very much influenced by Springsteen.
https://slate.com/podcasts/hit-para...ffic&utm_source=article&utm_content=web_share
In fact, steinman was very much influenced by Springsteen.
staxman
Tele-Afflicted
I’ve always thought of Meatloaf as the Rocky Horror Picture Show of rock.
bowman
Friend of Leo's
Springsteen obviously has some really good songs, but in general I quickly get very tired with the whole “Jersey Rock” thing. Bruce, Southside Johnny, Little Steven - they all love the music and seem like good guys, but it’s kinda all the same. And I do know there’s a lot of cross-pollination in all those bands. There is one exception, and that is the guy who did it better than any of them, IMO: Willie Deville. He’s fabulous, and I could listen to his stuff all day and still think it’s the best.
hepular
Tele-Afflicted
with reason . . .
JulianPrimeaux
TDPRI Member
I LOVE Mink Deville!!!
mycroftxxx
Tele-Meister
I love Mink DeVille (the band that Willy DeVille created and fronted) too, but Willy wasn’t “Jersey Rock” at all though; NYC through and through. Mink DeVille were one of the house bands at CBGB’s for a few years, and fully accepted there, even though they were old-fashioned Latin-tinged R&B, about as far as you can get from Springsteen (or the punk/New Wave aesthetic that normally ruled at CBGB’s).
And even though Springsteen, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and Little Steven (with or without the Disciples of Soul) were all tangled up with one another, especially songwriting-wise, I don’t see them as one monolithic “Jersey Rock” thing. I dislike Springsteen in toto except for a couple of songs from Nebraska and Tunnel of Love; but I like Southside’s stuff, most of which was written and produced by Stevie Van Zandt, and a couple of Southside’s best songs - “Talk To Me” and “Hearts of Stone” - were gifts from Springsteen. And I consider the 1982 Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul debut, Men Without Women, one of the great albums of the ‘80s (what followed, not so much, but it still sounded nothing like Springsteen).
But Willy was one-of-a-kind, deeply missed.
whoops
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So, who cares about all that meaningless media generated springsteen hype, Appealing to New Jersey, New York wanna be's and perpetuating the myth of how cool jersey was hence Springsteen, and it was just so obviously music industry hype ,any time somebody appears on the cover of Time magazine and News Week magazine in the same week telling the same b.s story, the fix is in, if they hadn't set off a nuclear device in Times Square, the fix is definitely in.
Bruce was a great entertainer and he worked hard , very hard at being very good at his craft, but so Did Henny Youngman and Bette Midler, they entertained people, pleased the promoters by putting lots of butts in the seats two shows a night 6 nights a week. But this a Miles Davis or Stavinsky does not make, it only makes them good business. Son House had more art, in his slide finger than the sainted dude from the Jersey shore, who made all the money and rode a river of sewage into annul of business history.
A myth better forgetten when thinking of 20th century geniuses.
Andy Warhol knew he was hype and proved his point over and over again , but never claimed to be anything else, as Andy said My Art is business and business is my art.
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