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Hi Kush,

a writer who really needed to be listened to

Yes, I agree, and there is a big story-telling aspect to Springsteen's songs.

One of the things I like about his songs is the way certain lines just stick in your head cos of the way he sings em. Man that ain't oil, that's blood (from Lost in the Flood) is one of many.

btw, what do you think of the Lucky Town and Human Touch albums? They seem to have the least to offer of all his albums, but still there is some good material there. Pity he didn't put out just one album at that time, and be a bit more selective.

Diane

Hi Diane...I think Lost in the Flood is a lot of graphic imagery street poetry too but it difficult to keep track of all the goings on..on top of that Mr. Springsteen doesnt exactly have the clearest diction in the world so just hearing it is not easy - unless I guess you are from Rahway or Mahwah or Jersey City.
Actually I have never heard those two albums properly....I stopped listening to him sometime after Tunnel of Love and then started again after Ghost of Tom Joad. But I really like the title song in Human Touch and also Better Days and If I should fall Behind.
BTW I think my favorite song is The Promise that was only released in the 18 Tracks album -- dont know if youve heard it. I heard rumors that Springsteen liked that composition so much that he wouldnt release it for a long long and only did so finally in the outtakes album.

Hi Kush,

Mr. Springsteen doesnt exactly have the clearest diction in the world so just hearing it is not easy - unless I guess you are from Rahway or Mahwah or Jersey City.

Yeah, well, whoever heard of a street poet with clear diction ? Anyway, to me, he just sounds American .

Human Touch and Lucky Town were released simultaneaously, which always seemed rather odd. I enjoy the tracks you mentioned. Also, the lyrics to Souls of the Departed (although I am not keen on the tune/delivery of that particular song):

Souls of the Departed

On the road to Basra stood young Lieutenant Jimmy Bly
Detailed to go through the clothes of the soldiers who died
At night in dreams he sees their souls rise
Like dark geese into the Oklahoma skies

Well this is a prayer for the souls of the departed
Those who've gone and left their babies brokenhearted
This is a prayer for the souls of the departed

Now Raphael Rodriguez was just seven years old
Shot down in a schoolyard by some East Compton Cholos
His mamma cried "My beautiful boy is dead"
In the hills the self-made men just sighed and shook their heads

This is a prayer for the souls of the departed
Those who've gone and left their babies brokenhearted
Young lives over before they got started
This is a prayer for the souls of the departed

Tonight as I tuck my own son in bed
All I can think of is what if it would've been him instead
I want to build me a wall so high nothing can burn it down
Right here on my own piece of dirty ground

Now I ply my trade in the land of king dollar
Where you get paid and your silence passes as honor
And all the hatred and dirty little lies
Been written off the books and into decent men's eyes

Another good track on Lucky Town is Local Hero (I can't tell my courage from my desperation ).

BTW I think my favorite song is The Promise that was only released in the 18 Tracks album -- dont know if youve heard it. I heard rumors that Springsteen liked that composition so much that he wouldnt release it for a long long and only did so finally in the outtakes album.

I don't have that Tracks album. Even my Springsteen collection has holes in it (that is how the light gets in?). I have located The Promise on youtube, will listen with the lyrics later. Thanks!

Diane

It's good, Kush. In case anyone else wants to hear (bad jumpy video, audio ok):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeHXP1YljeI

I love the way he sings the words, "thunder ro-o-oo-oad". Sounds really plaintive after the original Thunder Road.

Comparing the original Thunder Road:

We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven's waiting on down the tracks
Oh oh come take my hand
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh oh Thunder Road, oh Thunder Road
oh Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey I know it's late we can make it if we run
Oh Thunder Road, sit tight take hold
Thunder Road

With The Promise:

Well now I built that Challenger by myself
But I needed money and so I sold it
I lived a secret I should'a kept to myself
But I got drunk one night and I told it
All my life I fought this fight
The fight that no man can never win
Every day it just gets harder to live
This dream I'm believing in
Thunder Road, oh baby you were so right
Thunder Road there's something dyin' on the highway tonight

Sad to hear the disillusionment of Thunder Road.

I'll have to get that Tracks album .

Diane

Souls of the Departed appears either really hard-hitting or bitter or more likely a little bit of both. I hadnt heard that one.......one song where I really like the lyrics but but not the delivery is Glory Days.

The last part of The Promise is really striking for me...

I won big once and I hit the coast
But somehow I paid the big cost
Inside I felt like I was carryin' the broken spirits
Of all the other ones who lost
When the promise is broken you go on living
But it steals something from down in your soul
Like when the truth is spoken and it don't make no difference
Something in your heart goes cold
I followed that dream through the southwestern flats
That dead ends in two-bit bars
And when the promise was broken I was far away from home
Sleepin' in the back seat of a borrowed car

Thunder Road, for the lost lovers and all the fixed games
Thunder Road, for the tires rushing by in the rain
Thunder Road, Billy and me we'd always say
Thunder Road, we were gonna take it all and throw it all away

Yeah, well, whoever heard of a street poet with clear diction ? Anyway, to me, he just sounds American .

Let me assure you that the sounds coming out of somebody from say Seattle Washeeengton is nothing like that of someone from Loouong Island where there drink Cooouoffee and toooualk real funny!

well I am off for the long weekend....Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate and even if you dont you can still be thankful for everything you have.

....Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate and even if you dont you can still be thankful for everything you have.

Thanks, Kush. You, too .

~ Lizzy

Cheers Kush, I am very tempted to respond and continue rambling on about The Boss and copying lyrics, but I'll give it a rest for a little while.

Anyway, as Linda du lac said:

it boils down to tramps like us, baby we were born to run...

A Very Happy Thanksgiving to all you people in the land of the twangy 'r's !

Diane

Thanks, Diane ... now this "twangy r"s thing, I'm trying to get an auditory 'hit' on which sound that is... any way you can spell it out phonetically? You sure did it with the wolf's howl .

Happy non-Thanksgiving Day to you, too; though, as Kush said...
and, perhaps, you can be thankful, anyway, since the day is so linked to those with the twangy r's leaving your shores and coming to ours .


~ Lizzy

A new original from the Boss (although its not that new anymore)


American Land:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vt4r_QUQnA




What is this land of America, so many travel there
I'm going now while I'm still young, my darling meet me there
Wish me luck my lovely, I'll send for you when I can
And we'll make our home in the American land

Over there all the woman wear silk and satin to their knees*
And children dear, the sweets, I hear, are growing on the trees*
Gold comes rushing out the river straight into your hands*
If you make your home in the American land*

There's diamonds in the sidewalks, there's gutters lined in song
Dear I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long
There's treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who will make his home in the American land

I docked at Ellis Island in a city of light and spire
I wandered to the valley of red-hot steel and fire****
We made the steel that built the cities with the sweat of our two hands
And I made my home in the American land

There's diamonds in the sidewalk, there's gutters lined in song
Dear I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long
There's treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who will make his home in the American land

The McNicholas, the Posalski's, the Smiths, Zerillis too
The Blacks, the Irish, the Italians, the Germans and the Jews
The Puerto Ricans, illegals, the Asians, Arabs miles from home
Come across the water with a fire down below

They died building the railroads, worked to bones and skin
They died in the fields and factories, names scattered in the wind
They died to get here a hundred years ago, they're dyin' now
The hands that built the country were all trying to keep down

There's diamonds in the sidewalk, there's gutters lined in song
Dear I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long
There's treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who will make his home in the American land
Who will make his home in the American land
Who will make his home in the American land

Hi Kush, thanks for posting that. I've yet to get the new version of the Seeger Sessions cd/dvd with more video footage and five new tracks including this one. Musically, I am not too keen on this song, at first hearing. But I think it's quite effective, the way 'message' of the song comes close to its end.

It is entirely your fault that I spent over an hour earlier watching Springsteen videos on youtube. Lots of fantastic footage from the 80s of when he used to have fun with Clarence on stage and the music lifted the roof. And yet the one that captivated me the most today was one without the original band, of Atlantic City, in the early 90's. I like it because it's a good video and includes close-ups, and when you watch his face you can see clearly that he is singing the song and not just reciting it. The fact that he does this is a large part of the reason why he is so fantastic live. Here stands the world's greatest rock musician:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6sR_lSX9pk

Not a well-made video but here he is doing Badlands with the E St on The Rising Tour. It doesn't get much better than that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qxV-Js6XEk

That's it. Forget everything else. Let's get some live Bruce out. Why drink wine when you can drink whiskey?

Hi Diane..American Land means a lot to me and would have irrespective of who had written the song. Its a happy coincidence that Springsteen did so.

Atlantic City is of course a favorite ..he has a gift for churning out lines that is so easily identifiable to everyday life

Now I been lookin' for a job but it's hard to find
Down here it's just winners and losers and don't get caught on the wrong side of that line
Well I'm tired of comin' out on the losin' end
So honey last night I met this guy and I'm gonna do a little favor for him

Here's a couple of videos back at you and another hour or so of your time ...Blood Brothers written for the E street (almost 35 years of music and still going strong) and This Hard Land. Both have snippets of commentary and really cool footage of the band hanging out in the studio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDTTFo9D4CQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLCoe7dwwMI

American Land means a lot to me and would have irrespective of who had written the song. Its a happy coincidence that Springsteen did so.

Yes, I can imagine. Not especially coincidental that Springsteen wrote it though, because, like you say in reference to Atlantic City, his heart is with the common man and his struggles. Blood Brothers is another fine example of course, and This Hard Land:

Hey frank wont ya pack your bags
And meet me tonight down at liberty hall
Just one kiss from you my brother
And well ride until we fall
We'll sleep in the fields
We'll sleep by the rivers and in the morning
We'll make a plan
Well if you cant make it
Stay hard, stay hungry, stay alive
If you can
And meet me in a dream of this hard land

Marvellous to see the making of those two tracks (plus post-recording chat) for Greatest Hits 95 cd, Kush. Excellent commentary on 'what you come to an artist for' too!

Here's My Beautiful Reward, a haunting song from the Lucky Town album (seems this entire concert Stockholm 93 is on youtube). I don't remember him doing that one in any of the concerts I've attended, and he sings it live just the way I'd have imagined him to, and then some:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HW937K_gfY

From a house on a hill a sacred light shines
I walk through these rooms but none of them are mine
Down empty hallways I went from door to door
Searching for my beautiful reward
Searching for my beautiful reward

The idea of a house with a shining light on a dark hill is reminiscent of:

Tonight Ill be on that hill 'cause I cant stop
Ill be on that hill with everything I got
Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost
Ill be there on time and Ill pay the cost
For wanting things that can only be found
In the darkness on the edge of town

(from Darkness on the Edge of Town)

and:

There's a place out on the edge of town sir
Risin' above the factories and the fields
(...)
At night my daddy'd take me and we'd ride through the streets of a town so silent and still
Park on a back road along the highway side
Look up at that mansion on the hill
(...)
There's a beautiful full moon rising above the mansion on the hill

(from Mansion on the Hill)

Youtube is amazing. Let's do Thunder Road from Hammersmith 75:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYPSZiE0OAs

Diane I was waiting waiting waiting for the band to take off on Thunder Road and they never did. Looks like they forgot and Roy Bittan is doing all the work (just kidding).....I did not care for this version the first time but after a few hearing I do like it now. Similar to The Promise where Springsteen is on the piano (and also refers to Thunder Road).

I believe this may be the first time I am hearing My Beautiful Reward....very nice song. Will hear it again when I get a chance to youtube more...

And while we are at it here's to Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim - the founders of Youtube.

When you hear a different version it jars for a while doesn't it.

I noticed yesterday that Beautiful Reward has been removed from youtube, as has Atlantic City. That makes it a bit daft for people who are reading this thread now. Never mind.

And while we are at it here's to Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim - the founders of Youtube.

Yes, we owe a debt to the creators of youtube, and to those who upload the videos. It is an honour to have free access to all that. Thanks people!!

This is a fun one for Sherry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fXq_rWb5ls

I think Clarence hits a bit of a bum note at one point, but we'll let him get away with it, all things considered. Big Man indeed.

I got some beer and the highway's free, and I got you and baby you got me, say hey hey, what do you say, Sherry Darlin'

Nice happy words.

Thanks very much for that Diane! I did enjoy it.
It's the first time I've heard the song. Thanks to
you and others on this forum who are broadening my
musical horizons. I guess I've been living in an alternate
universe for a long time.

Sherry