The Boss thread

#21

I want to watch the Bruce on Broadway thing, really. But I just can’t bring myself to do it.

I was a huge Springsteen fan for quite a few years. One of my old neighbor and softball teammates was into him more than me. He’s proven to be a total asshole and I can’t stand being around him anymore. Several years ago we had a party and I was Mr. DJ on the turntable, Bruce Fan was next to me coaching me on which Springsteen song or album to put on next. He would grumble if anybody even suggested anything else - he was as usual getting more and more drunk as the night went on. I put on Darkness and went outside for a break. My friend John, who is our drummer and a really good friend was out there. When I got out there drunken Bruce Fan followed me out there. My friend John said something to the effect of “how about we listen to something other than Bruce Fucking Springsteen?” Drunken Bruce fan about came unglued and chested up with him saying “you got a problem with the BOSS?” He was ready to throw down right there…

Now, sadly every time I hear Bruce I think of that one moment and it ruins my experience. It is a problem with me, I know. But now I have a hard time separating Springsteen from the old bro’s in my past.

#22

damn! that sucks.

well, if i were you, i’d repress and move on.

his book was really frickin good. i loved the “narration” of it all. i felt it was very poignant and moving. some of the broadway stuff had me tear up a little…(it could just be the holidays and all and i’m just missin my bro) but his soliloquies before and during songs were pure heartfelt and moving poetry. the stuff about his dad and the past and where we come from and trying to find our way through life and find who we are as a human, as a nation, yadda yadda yadda

here’s to the boss…

“When it rains, the moisture in the humid air blankets our town with the smell of damp coffee grounds wafting in from the Nescafé factory at the town’s eastern edge. I don’t like coffee but I like that smell. It’s comforting; it unites the town in a common sensory experience; it’s good industry, like the roaring rug mill that fills our ears, brings work and signals our town’s vitality. There is a place here—you can hear it, smell it—where people make lives, suffer pain, enjoy small pleasures, play baseball, die, make love, have kids, drink themselves drunk on spring nights and do their best to hold off the demons that seek to destroy us, our homes, our families, our town.”
― Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run

#23

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#24

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#25

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#26

Who’s The Boss?

#27
Bruce Springsteen and the E. St. Band685x663

This is one of my photos I shot when I went to a show in Detroit with Bruce fan bro… I borrowed his fake ID and showed It to the security guard up front when he asked me what I was doing with a camera. I showed him the ID with the other guys photo on a student newspaper badge - he had curly red hair and freckles and looked nothing like me. He said OK you’re good and took me right to the front of the stage.

I still love Springsteen, and I’ll get around to getting back together with him. I have a feeling reading his book would bring me out of this funk.

One of my bro friends commented on the broadway thing, saying it was a good thing he was watching it by himself… not the kind of guys that would want anyone to catch them shedding a tear.

#28

i hope so dougo!!!

don’t let that fucking douche canoe get in your bruce way

#29
#30

I like it.

#31

me too. i like that country twang to it. my wife thought it sucked :-/

#32

It really doesn’t try too hard. That’s what I like about it.

#33

Not to take sides in your marital discord, but I think she’s right.

#34

I’m not fond of the strings… but I like the steel guitar.

#35

i mean i’m not exactly moist or fully engorged here…but for a single from bruce i feel like this is a good start…more like devils and dusts w/ a country twang.

#36

That’s what makes me really interested in it; my favorite albums of his tend to be the more country-leaning ones. As such, I pre-ordered this one.

#37

From a 2014 article about Zevon in Uncut magazine:

“We sent [Springsteen] a rough of the track and he came up with a guitar part and an idea for a solo and flew in to do it,” says Jorge Calderon. “It was insane. We had a rented amp, a Fender Twin, very powerful. When he finished that solo, the speakers were blown, it was so raucous. He loved Warren, they had a great time together. It was one of the better days.”

“I was in awe of Springsteen,” [producer/engineer] Noah Scot Snyder remembers. “He was in the middle of, like, a 120-date tour. He flew in on his own dime. He took his own private jet and flew in overnight from Minneapolis or somewhere, came straight to the studio and played. His solo killed the amp, which kind of reached the pinnacle right there of being an amp. There was nothing left for it to do. It just died. He played this awe-inspiring solo and Warren just turned to me and said, out of the side of his mouth, ‘Did anyone know Bruce Springsteen could play guitar like that?’ It was very emotional. He was just a tornado of joy that blew through the studio and left. I don’t think he was in town for more than 12 hours. It meant a lot to Warren at a very bad time.”

#38
#39

A friend of mine, who is a poet, made the case to me a little while ago that Atlantic City is the best song ever written. He may have a point. It made me think of all of the great cover versions that there are of this song.

I particularly like Dawn Landes’s version. Having a woman sing the song gives it a different kind of vulnerability (especially when she sings, “Last night I met this guy and I’m gonna do a little favor for him”).

#40

Always loved Levon and the boys in The Band’s take on this tune…