the boss? really?

[Swede]

I started to check out his catalog quite resently. I used to say, as many here has posted, that I didn't get the brass thing and the music wasn't energic enough, though he's performance has always been. I didn't like the Born To Run album, but, actually purchased Nebraska many years ago because I liked the production with Bruce alone with his acoustic guitar.

Then, a year ago, I purchased Greeting's From Ashbury Park and The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle, mostly because I had heard a live version of Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) that I liked.

Now I listen frequently to those albums, I even purchased Born To Run, The River and a couple of other albums too. But Greeting's From Ashbury Park, The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle and Nebraska remains as my favouite albums of Springsteen.

[Knebby]

Sorry, not to down anyone else's preferences, but I never, never "got" Bruce. No doubt about his workmanship ethic, which, who couldn't respect that??? But as far as the music is concerned, can't relate...i guess it's a New Jersey thing, kinda like the most noxious Bon Jovi! At least Bruce gets my props...at least I respect his songwriting skills, which I DO believe he has...Just never liked the format of the music, horns, etc (and before the flaming starts, I know, I know that other bands have used it to...) just not like the overkill of bruce...

If it's New Jersey thing, howcome this gal from Northern England loves him (and hates Bon Jovi)?

[Swede]

If it's New Jersey thing, howcome this gal from Northern England loves him (and hates Bon Jovi)?

Yeah, my girlfriend loves Springsteens old records, but definitly hates Bon Jovi, and she's from Sweden..

..and I can't but agree with you myself. I think it's a boss-thing..

[JethroTull]

Then, a year ago, I purchased Greeting's From Ashbury Park and The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle, mostly because I had heard a live version of Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) that I liked.

Those were the two releases I said were essential in my post above. IMO, anybody who lumps Bruce and Bon Jovi in the same category just doesn't get it. Musically, they are worlds apart. Big deal they both come from New Jersey, so did Frank Sinatra.

[MadScreamingGallery]

I love early Springsteen - Springsteen live. I first saw him live at (I think) the Roxy, in '74 or '75 - and then also at the Bottom Line during those years. I don't care as much for Springsteen's later work although I do try to see him live every few years. There is an amazing chemistry at his concerts; I know people who have been passionate, diehard fans of Springsteen for almost as long as I've been a Zep fan. My husband doesn't care at all for Springsteen but he will humor me and attend his concerts.

Respect him, but not really a fan.

However, "Thunder Road" is goddamn epic.

Indeed. "The door's open but the ride it ain't free."

[...]

Speaking of Thunder Road being "epic" I'd have to put Jungleland in that category as well. I recall hearing both while laying in the bed listening to the radio late at night and marvelling at the Phil Spector-esque wall of sound even if the guy out front's voice got on my nerves. They were like mini-rock operas back then.

Agree on Jungleland.

While I don't think it is of the same caliber, musically, I would add, for its lyrics, "For You" - it is a twisted love song of an "epic" work for me. "Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the god?"

I think that the lyrics of Thunder Road, Jungleland, and For You are Dylanesque. Speaking of which, during the early years, when I first saw Springsteen live, he reminded me, in some ways, of Dylan. His lyrics were one reason but the emotion with which he sang those lyrics was another. And, many of those lyrics resonate with women as well as men. Like Dylan, he would go from rage to passion to humor to tenderness - often within a single song.

Someone mentioned the beautiful and talented Patti Scialfa - I love her!

[The Bomber]

I'm going to see him live in the RDS Dublin,i hope he can muster the 4-hour set!

[Jahfin]

http://backstreets.com/news.html

APRIL 14: HOUSTON, WE HAVE... NO PROBLEMS

A phenomenal show tonight for the second of two in Texas. Just outside of Amarillo, the Cadillac Ranch sits there gleaming in the sun... tonight in Houston, that song started us off -- making 11 shows running with a unique opener. A good bit of setlist shuffling followed, one of those nights where things really felt free-form, and you didn't quite know what was coming next: "Gypsy Biker" dropped out for the first time, replaced by "Atlantic City"; "Reason to Believe" was gone, too.

So what made it in? "Out in the Street" -- which has both opened and closed the main set on this leg -- turned up in the middle. "The E Street Shuffle," in its first performance of 2008, was played by request for a kid in the crowd; Bruce said he probably wrote the song before the boy's grandaddy was born. Next up, a world premiere, Bruce saying those magic words: "We haven't done this." It was "Terry's Song," the moving, unlisted track from Magic, played in honor of Terry Magovern. Bruce said, "A friend of mine for 23 years... today would have been his 68th birthday." Roy led it off on the piano, with just Charlie, Max, Bruce on acoustic, and Nils on backing vocals for a sparse and reverential performance. Musically and thematically, it was a powerful lead-in to "Devils Arcade," which found Bruce on his knees to begin the song.

A note-perfect "Thunder Road" closed the set in style after the five-pack, but it was the encore where things really cooked. Not one but two special guests in the encore: at the previous show, Dallas got "a double shot of Jersey" in the form of Jon Bon Jovi, but Houston got a pair of true Texans, both Austinites. "I've always been a fan of the Texas songwriters," said Bruce, and he demonstrated it by playing with two of the best of his Lone Star State contemporaries: Alejandro Escovedo and Joe Ely.

First off, man, what an absolute thrill to finally have Alejandro -- a longtime Backstreets fave -- on stage with the Boss. "He's been putting out good music for so long," Springsteen said, and we agree -- Escovedo's former bands include the Nuns, Rank & File, and the True Believers, and he's been offering up incredible solo records since the early '90s. (Also of note, he very recently signed with Jon Landau Management). For Alejandro, the E Street Band learned "Always a Friend," the lead single from his forthcoming album Real Animal. "One of the best he's ever made," Bruce said, plugging the album twice, "Due June 10th!"

And then, "There's got to be some other Texans around here..." and out came another of our heroes -- Flatlander, Clash tourmate, and all-around bad-ass Joe Ely -- for "All Just to Get to You" (which he and Bruce recorded together on Ely's 1995 album, Letter to Laredo). And it rocked.

With those two barnburners kicking it off, energy stayed high for the rest of the encore, featuring "Rosalita" and "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out." For the Freeze-out, Springsteen held a backbend from the mic stand so deep and long you thought he might have actually frozen there; on "Rosie," he was channeling Curly of the Three Stooges: "Whoop-whoop-whoop-whoop!" Couldn't have said it better ourselves. A brain-meltingly good show. Just ask Alejandro, who told Backstreets at the end of the night: "It was my best musical experience, ever."

[JethroTull]

APRIL 14: HOUSTON, WE HAVE... NO PROBLEMS

A phenomenal show tonight for the second of two in Texas. Just outside of Amarillo, the Cadillac Ranch sits there gleaming in the sun... tonight in Houston, that song started us off -- making 11 shows running with a unique opener. A good bit of setlist shuffling followed, one of those nights where things really felt free-form, and you didn't quite know what was coming next: "Gypsy Biker" dropped out for the first time, replaced by "Atlantic City"; "Reason to Believe" was gone, too......

thanks for posting that Jahfin. I would have seen it eventually. You never know what Bruce is going to deliver. Well actually one thing, he WILL NOT play a four hour show. Expect about 2 - 2 1/2.

[Jahfin]

thanks for posting that Jahfin.

Really? I'm surprised you responded at all considering your aversion to such alt.country artists as Alejandro Escovedo and Joe Ely.

[euro]

Bruce seems incapable of playing a bad live show

[dragster]

I don't mind his new album!!

[JethroTull]

Bruce seems incapable of playing a bad live show

Exactly!! I've never heard a Springsteen fan discuss a particular period or year(s) where Bruce didn't deliver. Talk to a fan of almost any other band and you start getting the well they lost it in 75 due to so and so's guitar playing or the singer losing it. Not with Bruce.

[Jahfin]

With few exceptions I've never been able to get past his voice, which was once described in a Life magazine article by one of his high school teachers as, "a dying buffalo in heat". Then again, I have never been bothered by Dylan's voice.