Springsteen Back on the Road Again

[jillian]

Had the great pleasure of seeing Bruce open at the Civic Center in Hartford Connecticut last night. Not quite the 4 1/2 hour shows of his younger years, but for a 58 year-old dude, certainly a tremendous effort!

Anyway, for all y'all who may be interested, here's some music from Bruce. I particularly like Livin' In The Future.

[ame]http://youtube.com/watch?v=vptKp0COn9g[/ame]

 

[Stephanie]

Who's Bruce Springsteen????

It seems I heard that name......waaaay back in the 70's...

 

[jillian]

Who's Bruce Springsteen????

It seems I heard that name......waaaay back in the 70's...

Could be, wabbit... could be... I didn't see him til '85, though.

 

[Stephanie]

Could be, wabbit... could be... I didn't see him til '85, though.

He had a few good songs back in the 70's, saw a clip of him the other morning ranting on stage before he sang........He looked like a werewolf..I'm not paying my hard earned money to go listen to a washed up musician rant about politics....

 

[jillian]

He had a few good songs back in the 70's, saw a clip of him the other morning ranting on stage before he sang........He looked like a werewolf..I'm not paying my hard earned money to go listen to a washed up musician rant about politics....

Washed up? Couldn't tell it by the sold out shows.

This isn't a politics thread though. If you're not into him, it's cool... but not the place maybe.

Muah! Kisses to ya Steffie.

 

[Stephanie]

Washed up? Couldn't tell it by the sold out shows.

This isn't a politics thread though. If you're not into him, it's cool... but not the place maybe.

Muah! Kisses to ya Steffie.

Oops my bad..

 

[Stephanie]

You know what...

I was put in my place earlier, about calling the Boss on his Political rant I saw yesterday.........

But now that I think about it..........You people need to know what you are going to get to see if you pay money to see his show....

It wasn't pretty yesterday what I saw of him...He put our President down, he put our military down and basically he put our country down....

so pay your money.........with this in mind...

Who the hell wants to go to a concert and pay money and have to listen to this......

The clip I saw of him yesterday was of him a ranting idiot on politics, so he brought politics into his new release of his album, on himself.......

Pay to see him at your own risk......

Love ya Jilly...big smacker kiss at you....

 

[jillian]

Actually love, I don't think Bruce cares if you listen to him or not. If it pissed you off, he'd gladly give back your money.

Like I said, sold out shows, honey... and not a one of us doesn't know who we're going to see...

By the by... Bruce doesn't rant. Bruce takes one song that's already political, and speaks about 2 minutes of telling it like it is. Ranting would be what you just wrote.

You know, in thinking about it.... maybe using a thread about Bruce to discuss this is something he'd appreciate. There is nothing wrong with Bruce talking about the things that he observes about the mess the incompetents in D.C. have made over the last six years. Most normal people, Steffie, realize that this admin has embarrassed this country, distorted our ideals, forgotten about the Constitution and the things that made us great. Normal people, Steffie, realize that whatever your political beliefs, the dude is the worst president we've ever had.

And it's a straight up lie that Bruce put down the military or our country. Bush is neither our military nor our country. His standing up and representing us in front of the world is simply an embarrassment, at best. Good on Bruce for saying it.

And it wasn't a far leap from Bruce talking about people who were impoverished and left behind to getting disgusted by what he's seen.

I say... Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce!

Was that a rant honey?

 

[Dr Grump]

Steph!! Puhleeze don't make this "Bruce telling it like it is = he hates his country and is anti-American"...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[jillian]

She can't help herself.

Check out the subversive lyrics:

Woke up Election Day, skies gunpowder and shades of gray
Beneath a dirty sun, I whistled my time away
Then just about sundown
You come walkin' through town
Your boot heels clickin'
Like the barrel of a pistol spinnin' 'round

Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet
Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet

The earth it gave away, the sea rose toward the sun
I opened up my heart to you it got all damaged and undone
My ship Liberty sailed away on a bloody red horizon
The groundskeeper opened the gates and let the wild dogs run

From: Livin' In The Future -- Bruce Springsteen (Magic)

YEah... he must really hate his country, thinking Liberty has "sailed away". Dang!

 

[jillian]

http://ingrainedrefrains.blogspot.com/2007/10/when-they-built-you-brother-they-broke.html

Interesting article with some cool links....

check out some of Bruce's new stuff and The Cowboy Junkies doing Thunder Road. Worth a listen.

 

[Shogun]

Ok, I really wanted to yell CHICK FIGHT while reading this thread...


I love this:
Political reactions

In late August 1984, the Born in the U.S.A. album was selling very well, its songs were all over the radio, and the associated tour was drawing considerable press. Springsteen shows at the Capital Centre outside of Washington, D.C. thus attracted even more media attention, in particular from CBS Evening News correspondent Bernard Goldberg, who saw Springsteen as a modern-day Horatio Alger story. Yet more notably, the widely-read, bow-tied conservative columnist George Will, after attending a show, published on September 13, 1984 a piece entitled "A Yankee Doodle Springsteen" in which he praised Springsteen as an exemplar of classic American values. He wrote: "I have not got a clue about Sp
ringsteen's politics, if any, but flags get waved at his concerts while he sings songs about hard times. He is no whiner, and the recitation of closed factories and other problems always seems punctuated by a grand, cheerful affirmation: 'Born in the U.S.A.!'"[1] The 1984 presidential campaign was in full stride at the time, and Will had connections to President Ronald Reagan's re-election organization. Will thought that Springsteen might endorse Reagan, and got the notion pushed up to high-level Reagan advisor Michael Deaver's office. Those staffers made inquiries to Springsteen's management which were politely rebuffed.

Nevertheless, on September 19, 1984, at a campaign stop in Hammonton, New Jersey, Reagan added the following to his usual stump speech:

"America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about."

The campaign press immediately expressed skepticism that Reagan knew anything about Springsteen, and asked what his favorite Springsteen song was; "Born to Run" was the tardy response from staffers. Johnny Carson then joked on The Tonight Show, "If you believe that, I've got a couple of tickets to the Mondale-Ferraro inaugural ball I'd like to sell you."

During a September 22 concert in Pittsburgh, Springsteen responded negatively by introducing his song "Johnny 99", a song about an unemployed auto worker who turns to murder, "The President was mentioning my name the other day, and I kinda got to wondering what his favorite album musta been. I don't think it was the Nebraska album. I don't think he's been listening to this one."

A few days after that, presidential challenger Walter Mondale said, "Bruce Springsteen may have been born to run but he wasn't born yesterday," and then claimed to have been endorsed by Springsteen. Springsteen manager Jon Landau denied any such endorsement and the Mondale campaign issued a correction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_the_U.S.A._(song)


No one can accuse The Boss of hating America. You might as well also be saying that Willie Nelson hates farmers. It's just stupid.


kinda like the cabal against the dixie chicks by those who have no problem when toby kieth and crazy uncle teddy are busy on stage expressing political opinions.. Last I saw the Chicks were not hurting either.

 

[jillian]

LOL! Well, I'm kind of protective about Bruce. After 56 or 57 shows (I can't remember which right now) since 1985, I guess you'd expect that. heh...

I remember the hubub following Reagan implying he and Bruce were somehow alligned. And I remember Bruce making those comments. He didn't only make them in Pittsburgh, though. He started saying that during at least a couple of East Coast shows that I went to.

As for BITUSA, it's one of my least favorite Springsteen songs.... mostly because a good song should be capable of being interpreted by the listener, but not in a way that is the polar opposite of anything the artist is saying.

And yes... implying Bruce is unAmerican is simply nuts.

 

[Shogun]

Yea, and it's a song where the music is a repeated simple refrain for the most part which allows the listener to hear the words, even if they are sung in Springsteenese and embedded between some serious hook filled chorus line.

Like I said. Acting like Bruce frickin springsteen is unpatriotic is going pretty far out of the way to avoid criticism of a personal political philosophy. By all means, disagree with the man.. but acting like he is not an American icon is absurd.

 

[jillian]

Yea, and it's a song where the music is a repeated simple refrain for the most part which allows the listener to hear the words, even if they are sung in Springsteenese and embedded between some serious hook filled chorus line.

Like I said. Acting like Bruce frickin springsteen is unpatriotic is going pretty far out of the way to avoid criticism of a personal political philosophy. By all means, disagree with the man.. but acting like he is not an American icon is absurd.

Well, you know I agree... a little something from his 60 Minutes interview this evening:

"I guess I would say that what I do is I try to chart the distance between American ideals and American reality. That's how my music is laid out. It's like we've reached a point where it seems that we're so intent on protecting ourselves that we're willing to destroy the best parts of ourselves to do so," Springsteen says.

Asked what he means, Springsteen tells Pelley, "Well, I think that we've seen things happen over the past six years that I don't think anybody ever thought they'd ever see in the United States. When people think of the American identity, they don't think of torture. They don't think of illegal wiretapping. They don't think of voter suppression. They don't think of no habeas corpus. No right to a lawyer … you know. Those are things that are anti-American."

"You know, I think this record is going to be seen as anti-war. And you know there are people watching this interview who are going to say to themselves, 'Bruce Springsteen is no patriot,'" Pelley remarks.

"Well, that's just the language of the day, you know? The modus operandi for anybody who doesn't like somebody, you know, criticizing where we've been or where we're goin'," Springsteen says. "It's unpatriotic at any given moment to sit back and let things pass that are damaging to some place that you love so dearly. And that has given me so much. And that I believe in, I still feel and see us as a beacon of hope and possibility."

Springsteen sees himself following a long American tradition reaching back through Vietnam and on to the Great Depression.

"There's a part of the singer going way back in American history that is of course the canary in the coalmine. When it gets dark, you're supposed to be singing. It's dark right now," Springsteen says. "And so I went back to Woody Guthrie and Dylan and the people who said, say take Pete Seeger, who wants to know, doesn't want to know how this song sounds, he wants to know what's it for."

"What needs to be said, in this country at this moment, in your opinion, what needs to be said?" Pelley asks.

"I think we live in a time when what is true can be made to seem a lie," Springsteen says. "And what is lie can be made to seem true. And I think that the successful manipulation of those things have characterized several of our past elections. That level of hubris and arrogance has got us in the mess that we're in right now. And we're in a mess. But if we subvert, the best things that we're about in the name of protecting our freedoms, if we remove them, then who are we becoming, you know? Who are we, you know? The American idea is a beautiful idea. It needs to be preserved, served, protected and sung out. Sung out."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/04/60minutes/main3330463_page3.shtml

Subversive, huh?

 

[red states rule]

Why is Bruce back. I thought he had a Farewell Tour in 2004

Oh well, the Bush economy is so damn good, people can have the inflated concert prices to see this washed up has been

 

[jillian]

Bruce must be doing something right to get up your nose so bad

 

[red states rule]

Bruce must be doing something right to get up your nose so bad

Not at all. It is nice people have the big bucks for the tickets to see him

I thought he did have a Farewell Tour in 04 - now he is back

 

[jillian]

Not at all. It is nice people have the big bucks for the tickets to see him

I thought he did have a Farewell Tour in 04 - now he is back

Nope...wasn't a farewell tour at all. That would have been The Rising tour. You remember The Rising? When you guys loved him because he was singing about the losses of 9/11. Of course, then he'd sing 41 Shots and all the loony toons went nuts. And went even more nuts when he said people have the right to say what they believe. heh...

And it is nice to see him tour. What have you done that people pay big bucks for?

 

[Shogun]

Do you really think there is a correlation between the price of bruce springsteen tix and bushs economy?


Id love to see you walk through that one for me.