I'm listening to Bruce, my hero in my late teens.
I didn't get to see Bruce until The River tour. He was tiny on that stage, up the other end of Wembley Arena. It might as well have been Fozzy Bear & The Sesame Street Band for all I could see and hear.
This was before Bruce pumped up his body and his sound. Before the air-punching Born in the USA. Before the American right saw a chance to muscle in on Bruce's new anthemic rock.
The Bruce songs of my youth are all about the working man. The blue collar worker who works damned hard at a shitty job and can only break free at night or at the weekend.
My life has never lived up to Bruce's songs. I'm definitely white collar and my weekends have never consisted of burning up/sweating it out on the streets or wild partying. I've always taken it as easy as Val Doonican or Perry Como.
In Bruce's song Independence Day, he's leaving his dad, breaking free from the family, making his own way in the world, away from the older man he resembled a little too much.
In my case, it wasn't me but my dad who upped sticks, took permanent leave from the family. I was left with his old responsibilities. I have never lived a Springsteen song. And I'm so grateful because if I had I'd now be divorced with five kids, a knackered old chevy and several broken dreams.
And bollocks to that for a game of soldiers.
I like Bruce but I can't love him like guys seem to because, like Dickens, his women are rubbish.
ReplyDeleteHe's better than Bruce Hornsby though... and his "Range"
ReplyDeleteRealdoc - It's all Boys to Men. Doesn't happen in real life.
ReplyDeleteBilly - That's just the way it is.
I would rank them:
ReplyDelete1. Robert The
2. Hornsby
3. Willis
27. Forsyth
29. Springsteen
Takes all sorts, eh?
Below Willis?
ReplyDeleteHe'll be changing his name to Bruce Deego.
Congratulations on your tercentenary. Have you been told by a silicone sister that you've got what it takes?
ReplyDeletehappy 300th, geoffster.
ReplyDeletedon't get springsteen. it's all a bit something-or-other*, isn't it?
* see? articulate as ever.
Richard - Thank you. Ah, Bruce's early wordy works. I prefer the Manfreds' version to be honest. He'd hate me saying that.
ReplyDeleteSurly - Cheers. He's a bit for the 40 something or others. You had to be there in the mid to late 70s in your sweatshirt and jeans drinking your pints of light and lager.
So do I.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Little Steven prospered into a position where he was able to champion the true garage bands of the sixties.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah...and then he did The Sopranos.
Happy 300th, Geoff!
ReplyDeleteThese are your blog's Glory Days!
Istvanski - He's not so Little now.
ReplyDeleteMJ - Cheers. It's all downhill from now on.
Happy 300th Geoff!
ReplyDeleteI used to be into Bruce Springsteen in a big way some years back, mostly cos of hanging out with a crowd who were into him.
Bruce Springsteen vs Bruce Forsyth? You decide!
Cheers Llewtrah. Springsteen could have done with Forsyth to help him with the video to Dancing In The Dark. Have you seen worse dancing?
ReplyDeleteI got The River for my 18th birthday, and I left home 23 days later after the Lego Trainset Incident.
ReplyDeleteBruce has a lot to answer for in terms of encouraging others to write epics about cars, girls, and saturday nights, but there's nothing to touch him for that sense of something lost (except perhaps Douglas Coupland).
The E Street Band were/are a classic line-up of instruments and sounds, though. Fender guitars played through Fender amps, fairground organ, piano. Even the saxophone is bearable.
A lot of The River is not up to the quality of his previous two albums but the slower songs really touch your heart. I love Nebraska and Tom Joad but the E Street band pumped up lost me a bit after Darkness on the Edge of Town.
ReplyDeleteI also love Bruce's guitar (the look and sound).
Tenth avenue freeze-out...
ReplyDeleteAnd Im all alone, Im all alone
And kid you better get the picture
And Im on my own, Im on my own
And I cant go home.
This song was one of those paradigm shifters..I was completely taken in.
Congrats on 300!((Crikey)) I would love it if you did a post (you prolly have) on the bands/songs that shook your head or stirred your soul when you were coming of age (and since)..you know the songs that sounded so new or different..or lyrics that you instantly connected with.
PS Bruce has already paid for Superstardom...
Dancin' In The Dark will be remembered in the future as That Courtney Cox Video.
cheers
Cheers, HE. I was listening to Born To Run (the album) this morning. The title track still makes me tingle and the rest ain't bad, is it?
ReplyDelete