Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Everything in the world is depressing, and I just finished the Springsteen biography that I got for Christmas. So here is a boring thread that is sure to get people (probably me) inexplicably angry. In advance, all of Predicto's songs are going to be off Born to Run and Born in the USA. 1. Thunder Road. So stupidly obvious, but I can't help it. It's my favorite song by my favorite artist and is probably the greatest rock song ever written. "It's a town full of losers and I'm pulling out of here to win" pretty much defines the ethos of Rock and Roll itself. 2. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy). Part of me wishes every Springsteen album sounded like The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. But if every Springsteen album sounded like that, he would currently be playing in a coffee house in Jersey City to make his rent. So, life is full of tradeoffs. 3. Born to Run. It has to be here, and I like putting the most obvious song at #3 on these kinds of lists. 4. Girls In Their Summer Clothes. I ****ing love this song, and I know it's ridiculous to put it at #4 but **** you, it makes me cry and I'm over 40. It's the best song Brian Wilson never wrote. It's the best late period Springsteen song. In the 80s, it would have been in the top five on the charts for 6 weeks and would have been inescapable on the Boardwalk in Ocean City. 5. Badlands. I like this song better than The Promised Land by a hair, simply because it takes off like a cannon shot and never stops. Bruce does angry well, and Darkness is probably my favorite album. He shouldn't do angry all the time. 6. Bobby Jean. I sometimes think of Thunder Road, The River, and Bobby Jean as a three part movie. I love the melody line in this. I love the nostalgia. I love the sadness. I love the fact that I have no idea if he is singing to a man or woman. I love the idea that it may be about Steve Van Zandt. 7. Walk Like A Man. Tunnel of Love is an album that you have to be 34 to fully appreciate, I bought it when I was 13 on the day it came out, and it utterly flummoxed me. Today, I listen to it in a dark room with a glass of Scotch and it makes perfect sense. Bruce making up with his dad in his very Bruce way is a beautiful sentiment. 8. Jungleland. It has to be here too, right? God, Born to Run was good. Maybe I'm Predicto. This is Clarence's song. 9. Cadillac Ranch. Stupid Bruce is pretty under-rated too. I like songs about cars. This is a song about cars. It's a good song about cars. 10. Mary's Place. Remember what I said at #2. I think Bruce wrote this for people like me who think that way. I went to two shows on The Rising tour, and fans went ape**** for this song. The cool thing about Bruce in the 21st Century is that - for the most part - his audience actually bought his recent albums and wanted to hear the songs live. It wasn't like going to a Rolling Stones show where the most recent song is from 1981. Honorable Mentions The Rising - The Bridge still gives me chills. Youngstown - I loved the song on the album. Live with Nils guitar solo takes it to a new level. Land of Hope and Dreams - I saw the '99 Reunion tour, and remember thinking "That's a goddman Bruce Springsteen song" when he played this. I like the album version too - mainly because it's like a nice goodbye to Clarence. The Wrestler - This might be the best pairing of song and movie ever. Dancing In The Dark - Has anyone listened to this without all the baggage attached to it? Because, my gosh, it's a great pop song with incredibly dark lyrics. If you slow it down, it could be about a suicide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TradeTheBeal! Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morrison J Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Can't beat it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Predicto Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Off the top of my head, I really like Jungleland, Spirit in the Night, I'm on Fire, Backstreets, Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, Rosalita, The River, and Thunder Road Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 It's really really hard to pick 10 so.. 10. Radio NowhereGood song about how much radio sucks anymore. 10. Born to Run: Quintessential Bruce song. Polished power. It just sounds like chrome. 10. Candy's Room: This song goes to friggin' town. This one is bad for me in the car because i will get up over 80 before i know it. 10. Backstreets: Bruce wrote songs i could relate to, and this one fit a lot. 10. It's Hard to be a Saint in the City: Lyrically amazing, and rocks like nobody's business. When the uninitiated scoff at Bruce's guitar playing, this is the song to play. 10. Streets of Fire: Powerful song, my favorite song on my favorite Springsteen album. 10. Rosalita: because it has to be on the list, especially if you've seen Bruce live, which I have 7 times. It's just too much fun live. 10.: The Wild the Innocent and the E Street ShuffleOk, so the drum track is so muddy it's hard to even hear on that album, and Little Angel is a girl dancin' the Shuffle like she ain't got no brains, and by the end of the song Little Angel is a guy who slips on his jeans and moves on off down to the scene.. the song is so damn funky i can't help it. Little Angel say Oh-a-whoa whoa, and I dance like i ain't got no brains. Everybody form a line. 9. Meeting Across the RiverI just love that trumpet. It's perfect. 8. Born in the USA, acoustic version.The version on the album is good, but it obviously does not convey the meaning of the song due to it's anthemic ringing sound and the fact that stupid politicians have used it without listening to it.. and stupid voters swoon over a song that cries that the country failed it's veterans and youth. I think the acoustic version is on "18 tracks", and the tenor is completely different. It's stark and harrowing and powerful. It's desperate, and the outlook isn't good. 7. Blinded by the LightI swear, when people tell me they like the Manfred Mann mangling of that song, I really want to strangle the life out of them. But unfortunately, it'/s the version most people have heard, and it doesn't make a single lick of sense. At all. Mann changed lyrics, moved verses, dropped verses,, he did not cover it, he sampled it all over the ****ing place, and he should be mercilessly hunted down and stabbed to death with crooked pitchforks for what he did. (And so should the producer who allowed it to happen.)But Bruce's own version is one of the most lyrically brilliant songs ever written about coming of age. (Granted it's written from the perspective of a musician, but just the same, the notion of stepping out of what you were and shaping what you will be as you move onto the threshold of Life has, IMHO, never been better written. If all you have ever heard is the never to be named again Manngling, do yourself a favor and look up Bruce's version and listen to it 3 or 4 times. 6. Jungleland, What an epic. Easy to get swept along, the characters are vivid, and whatever story it actually is just seems to me to be a slice of life of some pretty sleazy people. 5. The FeverI don't know if he even wrote it,, something tells me it was Southside Johnny who wrote it, and it never appeared on an album until a greatest hits package that came out in the 90s.. it's a great song about having it bad over a girl. Good smoky and velvety feel to it, i could hear Billie Holliday doing this song. I first got it on an infamous bootleg in the 70s of a concert at Winterland,, i think i got a 12th generation cassette.. couldn't hear it very well, but man, i loved this song from the first time i heard it. 4. Spirit in the NightStoryteller Bruce at his best.. classic characters, the everyman story of testing the limits of innocence as a teenager. And a great groove. 3. Kitty's BackOh man, i get going just thinking of it.. it's a song Sinatra could do, big band, swing, rock and roll, jazz,, it's all in there and it's glorious. It's intimate and huge at the same time. Live versions are amazing. 2. Thunder Road: everyone who knows the song knows why you can't say enough of how good it is, because it's just that good. Get out and live. 1. .. just pick any of the above, really. ~Bang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinInsite Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Secret Garden? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Itoolu Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Had to chime in that I love Drive All Night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Predicto Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Bruce Springsteen is every bit the musician that Bob Seger wished he was and pretended to be. Seger is like the Bizarro Springsteen, where everything rings false. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Predicto Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 In advance, all of Predicto's songs are going to be off Born to Run and Born in the USA. I was going to choose all the songs off of "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ" just to spite you. I spent several weeks down the Jersey Shore every summer, but every time I went to the Stone Pony, everyone said "you missed him, he was just here last week, man!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjfootballer Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 No Santa Claus is Coming to Town? I like Hungry Heart also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momma There Goes That Man Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 No Santa Claus is Coming to Town? Well there went my attempt at humor. I will bow out of this thread since I neither know nor care for Springsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney B Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I spent several weeks down the Jersey Shore every summer, but every time I went to the Stone Pony, everyone said "you missed him, he was just here last week, man!" You should've tried The Fast Lane. I grew up near there in the 70's, and though everybody knew who Bruce was, his music wasn't overwhelmingly popular, least of all with us young males (saw him in the Monmouth Mall Sam Goody in '78 or '79, and nobody even paid him any mind). "Born to Run" got decent airplay, but the lyrics made fun of all us Jersey rednecks, and his every song seemed to be about getting away and leaving us far behind (if it's the last thing we ever do). Oh, and that guitar solo on Badlands is turrible, just turrible. It took many years, and leaving Jersey far behind, to grow into liking his music. 1- Hungry Heart 2- Jungleland 3- Born to Run 4- etc., etc. 5- oops, forgot Thunder Road 6- double oops. Because the Night should be at the top of this list Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Predicto Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 You should've tried The Fast Lane. I grew up near there in the 70's, and though everybody knew who Bruce was, his music wasn't overwhelmingly popular, least of all with us young males (saw him in the Monmouth Mall Sam Goody in '78 or '79, and nobody even paid him any mind). "Born to Run" got decent airplay, but the lyrics made fun of all us Jersey rednecks, and his every song seemed to be about getting away and leaving us far behind (if it's the last thing we ever do). Oh, and that guitar solo on Badlands is turrible, just turrible. It took many years, and leaving Jersey far behind, to grow into liking his music. 1- Hungry Heart 2- Jungleland 3- Born to Run 4- etc., etc. 5- oops, forgot Thunder Road Interesting. I remember being on the boardwalk in Seaside and it seemed like it was all Springsteen, all the time, at least in the mid and late 70s. Every Wheel of Chance booth and every arcade was blaring his music. My Jersey cousins wouldn't stop talking about him, especially after he was on the cover of Time and Newsweek Magazine the same week. But I wasn't a true Jersey kid, and maybe my couple of weeks at the Shore each summer weren't representative. I know back home in the DC burbs, we clueless morons mostly listened to Led Zep and Lynyrd Skynrd (and schlock bands like Boston and Foreigner). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 A couple I haven't seen mentioned: "Growing Up" from Greetings From Asbury Park. It fills me with nostalgia for my lost youth. "No Surrender" from Born in The U.S.A., though the acoustic version in concert sounds especially poignant. "Promised Land" from Darkness on the Edge of Town, because. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
China Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 But I wasn't a true Jersey kid, and maybe my couple of weeks at the Shore each summer weren't representative. I know back home in the DC burbs, we clueless morons mostly listened to Led Zep and Lynyrd Skynrd (and schlock bands like Boston and Foreigner). Nobody turned you on to WHFS? You poor ****. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney B Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 But I wasn't a true Jersey kid, and maybe my couple of weeks at the Shore each summer weren't representative. I know back home in the DC burbs, we clueless morons mostly listened to Led Zep and Lynyrd Skynrd (and schlock bands like Boston and Foreigner). Those were dark days. WNEW was playing Bruce and Elvis Costello, but interspersed with Meatloaf and Skynyrd. A little googling shows that your memory is a bit better than mine. In '78 Bruce's tour got him 3 nights at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, which I think sat 3,000. Not bad. But even the Tubes sold out their one night there, and if you know any people who claim to have seen the Tubes, they're probably lying. Interestingly, Bruce sold more tickets in places like Cleveland and Boston than in Jersey on that tour. I dunno. I know his concerts were already the stuff of legend, but apart from Stevie's little sister and her friends, I didn't know anybody who'd been to one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Another really good one that's often overlooked is rockabilly raver "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cReBk3wXPU I had a Dave Edmunds album, DE7, with a version of the song that I heard long before I even knew it was a Springsteen song.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq6TwUJ25zs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 Those were dark days. WNEW was playing Bruce and Elvis Costello, but interspersed with Meatloaf and Skynyrd. A little googling shows that your memory is a bit better than mine. In '78 Bruce's tour got him 3 nights at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, which I think sat 3,000. Not bad. But even the Tubes sold out their one night there, and if you know any people who claim to have seen the Tubes, they're probably lying. Interestingly, Bruce sold more tickets in places like Cleveland and Boston than in Jersey on that tour. I dunno. I know his concerts were already the stuff of legend, but apart from Stevie's little sister and her friends, I didn't know anybody who'd been to one. Bruce was really really weird about concert venues until The River tour. He never wanted to play anything larger than a theater because he thought it destroyed his sound. By the time of the Darkness tour, there were several cities where he could have sold out sports arenas (oddly, Phoenix was one of them) but he refused to do it - depsite the fact he and the band were pretty broke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovetoaster Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 In addition to everything that has been mentioned, I have to throw Atlantic City in there. I love that song. Also, in the vein of Dancing in the Dark, I like Brilliant Disguise a lot. Yes, it is very poppy, but I love some of the lyrics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky21 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Good list LBK. I hate people who pick other people's lists apart but Mary's Place seems like The Springer said I've got this album filled with slow depressing songs; what do I do? So he wrote a cloying, pandering, up tempo song to balance the rest of the material out. Makes me cringe when I hear it. Bang, The Fever is the ****. And he wrote it. I miss that part of Springsteen but I'm afraid it's gone forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosher Ham Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I had no idea he had enough good songs to have a top ten. I like maybe 3 of his songs. Rock on Bruce. Good for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 I had no idea he had enough good songs to have a top ten. And that guy shows up...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosher Ham Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 And that guy shows up...... haha. I really didn't know that he was so hot. He is the James Taylor of Rock music to me, John Denver maybe. 10 songs ? Damn. I can think of three and recall a few more based on the thread. Hell, I was giving him props. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 Good list LBK. I hate people who pick other people's lists apart but Mary's Place seems like The Springer said I've got this album filled with slow depressing songs; what do I do? So he wrote a cloying, pandering, up tempo song to balance the rest of the material out. Makes me cringe when I hear it. Bang, The Fever is the ****. And he wrote it. I miss that part of Springsteen but I'm afraid it's gone forever. Fans seemed to love Mary's Place. The Rising is a strange album. It's got too many songs on it, but there are about seven songs that are as good as anything he's ever done. I really wish that album had 11 or 12 tracks on it instead of 15. The Fever is an amazing song. I like the Southside Johnny version, but the Tracks version is amazing. I don't think Southside has written many songs. Most of his stuff has been covers, songs written by Little Steven, or songs written by Bruce. (For the record, Little Steven is a really good songwriter too. "Men Without Women" is an incredible collection of songs with a very ugly man who cannot sing on the cover. It's amazing his solo career never took of it, isn't it?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky21 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I had no idea he had enough good songs to have a top ten. Talk about a contrarian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.