"Devils and Dust" ~ Bruce Springsteen

Kush · Post by **Kush** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 6:22 pm

Linda...if you like acoustic pared down Bruce then Nebraska and Ghost of Tom Joad is for you. I like both a little better than Devils & Dust

Kush · Post by **Kush** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 7:02 pm

There is an outstanding new recording "How can a poor man stand such times and live" (unreleased) on the Springsteen site from the Asbury Park rehearsals for Jazzfest:

http://www.brucespringsteen.net/site.html

(you have to first stop the clip of Pay me my money down)

Andrew McGeever · Post by **Andrew McGeever** » Wed May 03, 2006 3:58 am

Dear Kush,
Sometime in 1974, John Lennon declared that he'd witnessed the future of Rock & Roll...."and his name is Bruce Springsteen".
That's when I started listening to his music.
It's been a long journey, but worth the travel.
An American artist, one of many to grace the world , from the most complicated country in the world.
You'll guess I'm new to this thread; though my contribution speaks unstated volumes .

Born To Run.....

Andrew.

Squidgy · Post by **Squidgy** » Wed May 03, 2006 1:12 pm

John Lennon didn't say that. It was a music reviewer, I'm thinking maybe Greil Marcus? Or Jon Landau? I believe it was in Rolling Stone.

Andrew McGeever · Post by **Andrew McGeever** » Fri May 05, 2006 4:22 am

Dear Squidgy,
Oh yes he did

Maybe Marcus or Landau did too: there's no dispute.

Andrew.

Kush · Post by **Kush** » Fri May 05, 2006 5:46 pm

Andrew I think it was the Rolling Stone editor who said that.

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Mon May 08, 2006 11:52 am

Hmmm. Maybe so. Maybe not. But it boils down to tramps like us, baby we were born to run...

Yes, Kush, I've not been soaking up the 'pared down' Bruce enough. I OD'd on 'Born in the USA'. I'll def. give the others a chance. Nebraska, I'm familiar with. Tom Joad, I'll have to look into. I've probably only just 'listened' to a cut or two.

Thanks all,
Linda.

PS:

you have to first stop the clip of Pay me my money down)

Right, got it.

Diane · Post by **Diane** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:01 am

Kush said:

Its the Boss' stadium/arena rock style folk album.

I admit I was a bit apprehensive as I took up my position in the crowd in front of the stage at the NEC in Birmingham last Thursday. I mean, good as the Seeger Sessions album is, maybe I was in denial that he wasn't gonna come on and belt out Thunder Road and Born to Run. The purple satin backdrop to the stage and the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling gave me an uncomfortable feeling as we all stood there patiently waiting. Get over it, huh

?

Anyway, it turned out to be a fantastic concert of course. For me, the 'oldies' he did (Bobby Jean, Blinded by the Light, You can Look But You Beter not Touch) didn't actually work in the context of this amazing folk band that Bruce was fronting. And the numbers from Devils and Dust seemed just by the by. He did My City of Ruins from The Rising and that worked well, and so did The Ghost of Tom Joad. But The Seeger Sessions songs: Wow. I never thought I could be so impressed by somebody expertly playing the penny whistle! or the tuba or the fiddle, or the piano, honky-tonk style. Altogether there were well over a dozen different instruments, put together, all that fantastic musicianship, with Bruce at the helm belting out the lyrics to those old folk songs it had been his project to revive. It worked, it worked, it worked. What a sound they created. If it is possible to pick highlights, O Mary Don't You Weep, Erie Canal, John Henry, Mrs McGrath and Pay Me My Money Down (when Nils Lofgren made a guest appearance!) were fantastic.

Bruce thanked the audience for taking a chance and coming along, and at one point when he was tuning his guitar but not getting it quite right he broke out into that wonderful boyish grin of his and said, "it's close enough for folk". None of the audience laughed at his joke. We all loved this concert. But it was nice to be reminded that Bruce really does search for that connection with his audience, even though he is a rock superstar, he is still a genuine performer. He introduced a rendition of When the Saints Go Marching In (sharing the vocals to lovely effect with band member Marc Anthony Thompson), by saying that the opening lines explain why he had done the Seeger Sessions ("we are travelling in the footsteps of those who have gone before").

I did miss his own lyrics, and all the classic tracks. But they can wait til next time.

He has lost none of his vocal power or his energy over the years and he still gives it all he has. A man in the audience shouted out, his voice quite full of emotion, "Bruce, I so fucking love you!"

Yep. I had a great time.

Cheers,

Diane

, singing "My Oklahoma Home was blown away, blown away!"

ps Apparently he previewed a new political song (one he wrote after the mid-term elections in the US) in the Wembley shows.

pps Linda, you shoulda been there.

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:23 am

Great colour commentary, Diane. It's easy to imagine I was there. The Seeger Sessions really rock, eh? It was so 'live' in the videos I saw, that I imagine the concert being the same. Thanks for the low down.

Diane · Post by **Diane** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:47 pm

Hi Linda, yes, the Seeger Sessions Rock!

I notice he is playing Sheffield tonight, then three nights at The Point in Dublin (where we saw the Dublin LC Tribute) followed by a night in Belfast. I wonder if anyone else from the forum has or will be attending this time round...?

I have started listening again to Devils and Dust; realise how little I actually know that album...

Diane

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:12 pm

... and it's so much more rocking in person, Linda

.

You got a much broader variety of Bruce's work than I saw in New Orleans, Diane. I had zero complaints on that, of course. Zero. Z-E-R-O ZERO

. Zero.

I would love to see him do the other stuff you mentioned, but I can see how it may have seemed a bit of a collage of a concert.

But it was nice to be reminded that Bruce really does search for that connection with his audience, even though he is a rock superstar, he is still a genuine performer.

So true

... and he really does hold high regard for those in whose footsteps he follows

.

It worked, it worked, it worked. What a sound they created.

Yes it did. Yes they did.

Thanks to the man in the audience who gave the shout-out

.

Thanks for your report, Diane. It takes me straight back

.

~ Lizzy

Diane · Post by **Diane** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 5:22 pm

Hi Lizzy

,

Yes, how could one describe that amazing sound created by the Seeger Sessions Band live? You just gotta stand in front of it.

I have been playing Bruce in the car today. Old Bruce, new Bruce. It strikes me how this man is a living paradox. He's managed to become massively popular (well, he was a couple of decades ago, and remains so to an extent), and yet has never wavered from producing sincere work, nor lost the ability to connect with his audience. He has always been a folk singer (and rocked a lot of it up beautifully), and always managed to retain an air of ordinariness. Nothing has distracted him from being an artist rather than a pop star.

I am listening to Devils and Dust properly for the first time

. Oh my, I am off on a Bruce trip, happens everytime I see him

.

The Hitter, from Devils and Dust

Come to the door, Ma, and unlock the chain
I was just passin' through and got caught in the rain
There's nothin' I want, nothin' that you need say
Just let me lie down for a while and then I'll be on my way

I was no more than a kid when you put me on the Southern Queen
With the police on my back I fled to New Orleans
I fought in the dockyards and with the money that I made
And the fight was my home and any blood was my trade

Baton Rouge, Ponchatoula, and La Fayette town
Well they paid me the moon, Ma, to knock the men down
I did what I did, when it come easily
Restraint and mercy were always strangers to me

I fought champion Jack Thompson in a field full of mud
Rain poured through the tent to the canvas and mixed with our blood
In the twelfth, I slipped my tongue over my broken jaw
And I stood over him, pounded his blooded body into the floor

Well the bell rang and rang, still I kept on
'Til I felt my glove leather slip 'tween his skin and bone
And the women and the money came fast, in the days I lost track
The women red, the money green, but the numbers were black
I fought for the men in their silk suits to lay down their bets
Well I took my good share, Ma, and I had no regret

I took the fixed staid hombre with Big Diamond Don
From high in the rafters I watched myself fall
So he raised his arms, my stomach twisted, and the sky it went black
I stuffed my bag with their good money, and I never looked back
Understand me, and Ma, every man plays a game
If you know anyone different, then speak out his name

Well Ma, if my voice, now you don't recognize
And just open the door and look into your dark eyes
I ask of you nothin', not a kiss, not a smile
Just open the door and let me lie down for a while

Now the grey rain is fallin' and my ring fighting's done
So in the work fields and alleys, I take them who'll come
If you're a better man than me then just step to the line
And show me your money and speak out your crime
There's nothin' I want, Ma, nothin' that you need say
Just let me lie down for a while and then I'll be on my way

Well tonight in the shipyard, a man draws a circle in the dirt
Like I always do, I move to the centre and I take off my shirt
I study him for the cuts, the scars, the pain man no time can erase
I move hard to the left and I strike to the face

Kush · Post by **Kush** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 9:45 pm

Oh its alright Ma, The Hitter's only bleedin'!

Diane sometime back I developed a real appreciation for both Devil's and Dust and The Rising...neither of which I heard very much when I bought them even though I thought they were fine albums.

Diane · Post by **Diane** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 4:57 am

Hi Kush. The Hitter is one Hell of a sad song. Yes, I listened to The Rising a bit when it came out, but D&D hardly at all. It takes time and attention to appreciate anything that's worth having doesn't it. It'll be a nice project for me to give D&D some time this week. It's like having a new album. Be good to watch the dvd again too...

Cheers,

Diane

Kush · Post by **Kush** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 6:51 am

Old Bruce, new Bruce. It strikes me how this man is a living paradox. He's managed to become massively popular (well, he was a couple of decades ago, and remains so to an extent),

Yes its kinda funny to remember that in the mid eighties (when I started hearing him as a teenager) he was one of a trio with Prince and Michael Jackson in mass popularity and commercial appeal. I remember reading an article that got me more intrigued and to start hearing the words more carefully. It said (more or less) that his songs were more like monologues in a play or theater and that he was "a writer who really needed to be listened to" as opposed to reading on paper. The song the article particularly referred to was Lost in the Flood and so I went and got his first album and listened to Lost in the Flood with lyrics in front of me. The Hitter is another song like that..its like a monologue (no theater ain't dead Mr. Paul Simon!)

Lost in the Flood

The ragamuffin gunner is returnin' home like a hungry runaway
He walks through town all alone
He must be from the fort he hears the high school girls say
His countryside's burnin' with wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide
The hit and run plead sanctuary, beneath a holy stone they hide
They're breakin' beams and crosses with a spastic's reelin' perfection
Nuns run bald through Vatican halls pregnant, pleadin' immaculate conception
And everybody's wrecked on Main Street from drinking unholy blood
Sticker smiles sweet as gunner breathes deep, his ankles caked in mud

And I said "Hey, gunner man, that's quicksand, that's quicksand that ain't mud
Have you thrown your senses to the war or did you lose them in the flood?"

That pure American brother, dull-eyed and empty-faced
races Sundays in Jersey in a Chevy stock super eight
He rides her low on the hip, on the side
he's got Bound For Glory in red, white and blue flash paint
He leans on the hood telling racing stories, the kids call him Jimmy The Saint
Well the blaze-and-noise boy, he's gunnin' that bitch loaded to blastin' point
He rides head first into a hurricane and disappears into a point
And there's nothin' left but some blood where the body fell
That is, nothin' left that you could sell
just junk all across the horizon, a real highwayman's farewell

And he said "Hey kid, you think that's oil? Man, that ain't oil that's blood"
I wonder what he was thinking when he hit that storm
Or was he just lost in the flood?

Eighth Avenue sailors in satin shirts whisper in the air
Some storefront incarnation of Maria, she's puttin' on me the stare
and Bronx's best apostle stands with his hand on his own hardware
Everything stops, you hear five quick shots, the cops come up for air
And now the whiz-bang gang from uptown, they're shootin' up the street
And that cat from the Bronx starts lettin' loose but he gets blown right off his feet
And some kid comes blastin' round the corner but a cop puts him right away
He lays on the street holding his leg screaming something in Spanish
Still breathing when I walked away

And somebody said "Hey man did you see that? His body hit the street with such a beautiful thud"
I wondered what the dude was sayin' or was he just lost in the flood?

Hey man, did you see that, those poor cats are sure messed up
I wonder what they were gettin' into, or were they just lost in the flood?