Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Boss - he works for you
Posted by DogFacedBoy on 9 November 2009 - 3:36pm.
First we had him playing 'Darkness At The Edge Of Town' and 'Born To Run' in their entirety. Then he recently threw in 'Born In the USA'. But over the past two nights in NYC Springsteen has played 'The Wild, The Innocent....' and 'The River' from beginning to end.
I don't think he has ever 'just phoned it in' in his life unlike others of his vintage
and isn't Elvis looking trim these days?
what chance a full 'Nebraska'?
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OOooooOOOO...
Time for me to hit Dime and TTD! Thanks
er....
I know he did some shocker's in the album stakes, but why the need to physically abuse Terence Trent D'Arby just because Bruce did a good show ?
And is that Dime or Dame - you also taking it out on that nice Mr Bowie ?
arf :-)
A man in a glass house prepares his stone...
Costello has lost weight. He's recording the second series of Spectacle at the minute. He might have caught a glimpse of himself in the first season...
Pity
he left his singing voice at home...
Lower and lower
Bruce's decline into the role of 'the beloved entertainer,' and away from anything remotely credible as a songwriter or musician is one of the saddest debacles in the history of popular music. This series of 'album' specials is just another ploy to sell the remaining faithful more and more tickets in support of what was always a dead horse. He is not selling any more copies of Working On A Dream. When will Sony and Landau let him off the wheel? Sad and pathetic.
'Ver Dan' are also doing album-themed nights
on their current US tour in venues where they're playing more than one night.
I suspect Beckeranfagen are even less susceptible than Bruce to record company/management pressure.
Classic album shows
To suppose that these great artists all decided at the same time that featuring a classic album in a show - and there are lots of others this year - Devo, The Pixies - was a brilliant customer-friendly gesture is naive in the extreme. It doesn't matter what level they are at, their careers are sustained by deals with major labels and concert promoters and once they sign up they are subject to the law of contract. That's why Bruce is still out there playing the execrable Outlaw Pete night after night. And these album shows? It's the only way to get people to buy the tickets.
For what it's worth I went to the Royal Scam show. Played at the start with no commentary, the audience grew restless as they realized that only 4 or maybe 5 of the tracks were truly 'classic' and the band too, you felt, knew it. We were robbed of much more enjoyable material. Is there anything worse than sitting through a set of 'new'? Yes, sitting through material that failed its durability test decades earlier. Can you imagine how tedious all those duff bits on The River must have been?
It's the only way to get people to buy the tickets
Well of course. In addition, punters are more likely to buy tickets for multiple nights.
It's all about bums on seats after all, and the money has to be made.
All that may be
but he's having fun
How do you know he's having fun?
'The show must go on' mentality is a staple in showbiz. Even in his terminal decline Elvis managed to put on a smile. Bruce is doubtless healthier and happier than the King but the spectre of a great star being pushed by unscrupulous businessmen haunts this last tour from the Superbowl on to these cynical efforts to fill half empty sports arenas with the same fans night after night.
How do you know he isn't?
We could keep at this forever.
You could no more push Springsteen to do 3hr plus shows every night than get a nation to vote two tuneless twats as winner of the X Factor. (no, hang on.....). If there is a clearer example of an artist who seems to do what he bloody well likes then I'd like to hear it.
I just don't buy into your conspiracy theory. I undertsand that the men want the money but a millionaire has enough 'fuck you' money to tell em where to go. The fact he can't completely sell out 5 night runs atm is hardly unique to him.
If he's faking it then he should have been picking up Oscars for acting rather than songs by now. But as his cameo in High Fidelity suggest - that ain't happening.
If he was "pushed by unscrupulous businessmen"
then we would have seen him on bloody X-Factor, and certain records would be only remembered because they had been a "Levi's" ad (or whatever)
They're just mixing it up towards the end of the tour, which has always happened
For what it's worth, when I worked at Sony in the late 90's, my understanding was that we only knew what was going to happen as and when the Springsteen "organisation" deemed it pertinent to "tell" the Record Company.
So how come ...
... the albums for MSG were announced only a few days ago, long after the shows had sold out ?
MSG?
There's a new Michael Schenker Group album?!
MSG
Monosodium Glutenate, I mean Madison Square Garden
It's not a conspiracy..
The deal is transparent. He has to go out and play to promote the succession of shoddy products that he is handing in to Sony on the terms of a deal made by his management company just as the bottom fell out of the market for new album-length CD's. He is on a wheel. It doesn't matter how much fuck-you money he has. He all but admitted it himself in the pre-Super Bowl interviews when asked why he'd capitulated in doing the long-disdained promotional stunt. He has to go out and try to sell the records. He's contracted to and the egos and stakes at that level are too high for the deal to be rewritten.
The other aspect of having to tour is that he takes a huge pride in his role as man of the people and his sense of responsibility towards the audience. There is no shortcut for someone who built his reputation on epic performances, just the gradual whittling away with gimmicks like the request portion and now, the album show. It makes me sad as a veteran of thirtysome years of going to his shows to see his star descending when the other artists of his generation who were his peers are still whittling away at their crafts and creating art rather than pastiche.
Jealous ?
You're just jealous you couldn't be there ...
I was though...
...on Saturday at least, and it was a fantastic show. If that's a man forced into gimmicks by his manager/record company then I've never been to see Aldershot Town in my life. He was totally committed to the material and was clearly having the time of his life. I don't even like "The Wild The Innocent & The E St Shuffle" all that much (especially Rosalita) but this was just great - wait til somebody posts the phenomenal version of "Kitty's Back"
check out
his contribution to this often unfairly neglected tune.
http://open.spotify.com/track/0efVgPoSoAdZD2BOTOfFBK
any other suggestions of lesser known springsteen contributions to other arists material - at the back of Bargepole's mind is one with Graham Parker from many years ago?
GP & Bruce
he's on Stupefaction on The Up Escalator
a pedant writes
Endless Night, actually. Great album, though.
Anyone with a taste for Bruce and Graham Parker should take note that Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes are on tour in the UK at the moment. Now that's what I call a great night out. Highly recommended.
Springsteen and Bon Jovi
What a rotter
Yeah, every member of the crowd looks like they are also disgusted to be watching a terrible diminution of a once credible artist's standing with this slide into gimmickry. Lucky bastards.
Will he have the brass monkeys.....
....to play Human Touch??
Can't see any apes onstage
Is that the whole album?
Maybe Lucky Town? (scratch that - seen him do that live)
And he wastes his time
doing stuff like this, when he should be collaborating with Jay-Z or Mark Ronson etc etc
Actually I suspect that this may have been pure pleasure.....
Bo Doogley you may have
something of an argument but you need to check the facts. He hasn't played the 'execrable Outlaw Pete' in the last month so I don't think that amounts to night after night. Also if you look at his setlists they are all significantly different each and every night - his recent set with John Fogerty being an example. The problem with this most recent tour is that it follows hot on the heels of the last one and is playing in mostly the same venues. This will be a problem for any artist - it risks burnout but is a sympton of not being able to make money from record sales any longer. Take for example Steve Earle - he played a solo tour a little over a year ago that didn't sell out. He is currently playing another tour that I suggest also hasn't sold out. These tours are becoming like bus services - if you miss a gig this time round don't worry because the artist will be here again next year. There is so much choice out there for live music which on the one hand is great but you can guarantee in a year or two years time this site and the magazine will be discussing declining attendances at live gigs. Our society thrives on overkill.
By the way Indus is right - I saw Southside Johnny last week and it was an excellent show.
Just saw Steve Earle
a week ago in the great rock and roll mecca that is Croydon.
A very good show and by no means "sold-out". It was only really the lower stalls that were full. No touts about at all.
If more regular touring and (possibly) declining attendances means Springsteen comes back and only plays indoors, then that would be fine with me.
Outlaw Pete
...thanks for the pointer on Outlaw Pete. I had hoped he would have dropped it by the time I got around to my first sighting this year at Bonnaroo in the summer, but, no, there it was like a cruel joke being played on the band and audience and it seemed to be staying there until somebody said they liked it. I should have checked recent setlists. Encouraging I suppose that good sense prevailed in making room for I Wanna Marry You and Crush On You.
I think the Boss's last two
I think the Boss's last two albumns have been pretty good with 'Magic' up there with his best. Outlaw Pete is a stinker of a song but it works really well live. It really is terrible when a brilliant artist lowers himself to producing a superlative live performance every night. Perhaps he should phone it in like Dylan?
"Phoning it in..."
...is precisely what I think Bruce has been doing for decades. Why do I harp on about it so? Because once upon a time nobody moved me more. His songs, through Tunnel of Love, seemed to come from some deep emotional core; they were something that he had to get out of his system, not made to order. At his best his lyrics were as poetic as Bob's and Tom's, his tunes and his integrity as memorable as Neil's, his commitment and soulfulness like Van at his peak. I have seen occasional glimpses in songs like Land Of Hope and Dreams and performances like his cover of Suicide's Dream Baby Dream, but for the most part all we've had recently is thin pastiches of former glories inspired in recent years by an insipid producer and an oldies show - for energy level still in a league of its own - designed to please the lowest common denominator in the audience with as many singalongs as possible. I know there are folks who love what he does now who perhaps didn't have a chance to see him at his peak and I don't mean to demean their experience by insisting it is nowhere near as good as it once was. But I wish Bruce would follow his muse rather than the agenda determined by his manager and Sony, let his grey hair show through like Neil, indulge himself like Bob or Van or carve out some seriously new path like Tom. He is smarter and less naive than Elvis, I'm sure, but he seems to be dancing to a piper's tune rather than fulfilling his potential.
And I wish Bowie would play The Shepherd's Bush Empire
Bo, your love for Bruce is manifest: but it's like your heart-one day it doesn't perform as you, or indeed your doctor, would like.It gives you bother. Then one day it stops. Thank it for the years of service, for the millions of beats and have the grace not to scream at it on the gurney.
I have seen
Springsteen intermittently from the second tour he ever made in the UK onwards. Unfortunately I didnt catch either the solo tour or the Seeger Sessions tour both of which would bury the argument that he is 'phoning it in'. There are certain songs that most Bruce fans would want to see in any show ie. Born to Run, Dancing in the dark, Badlands, Jungle land etc. My favourites would greatly differ and include Candys room, Trapped, Point Blank, I'm on fire, My hometown and Philadelphia. The last 2 shows I saw him he obliged with Candys room in the first and Trapped in the second. The other personal favourites I mention he has never played when I have seen him. I know however that when I see him in future there is a chance he could play anyone of them. Last month he played The price you pay for the first time since 1981. That is the mark of a true artist. I would love to see a show made up entirely of the cover versions he has done on this last tour. He is a fantastic live artist without question and if he leaves it 2 years the next tour will be massively over subscribed as the Magic one was. Working on a dream came too soon and sounded exactly like what it was - outtakes from the Magic sessions.
You've got to strike a balance
between fanboy and more casual fan which i think he does quite well regularly. The 'sign requests' throws in some curveballs (although I don't believe some of the songs that are rejected aren't noted for future shows) plus he likes digging out the rarely played. Even if he freely admits that they were shit (ie "Crush On You")
Claiming that by playing 'ver hits' he is somehow lowering himself or his art is absolute smug and superior nonsense. You may have heard them many a time but there are people who discover these artists all the time and get a real kick out of hearing those songs played live. Friends of mine who came to the Hyde Park shows had never seen him before were just as excited to hear 'Racing In the Street' as 'Born To Run'. And I was satisfied as he'd thrown a sign requesting that away at one of the Emirates gigs the year before.
You're asking too much to expect your heroes to stay the same or effect you as much as they did when you first found them. He's never gonna live up to those standards and why should he?
This Note's For You...
I don't want my heroes to stay the same. I want them to delight me anew, just as Mark Oliver Everett does and artists like Dylan, Young and Waits, who I used to think of as Bruce's peers, continue to. I'd also be disappointed if he didn't play Thunder Road or another bunch of my favorites at a show.
I got fired up by your post because I don't think it's true that 'the Boss works for you.' As great a showman as he is, and as committed as he is to delivering value to his fans, he all but admits when interviewed that he is on the road doing promotional stunts like the Super Bowl trying to sell records. He's not doing it for the money. He's doing it because he's contracted to. Ever since the huge deal that Landau signed with Sony he's produced very little of consequence and been on an endless tour to flog the records that he's made under that agreement. Dylan's Endless Tour? Neil's wretched car albums? Tom's wacked out tour schedule and orneriness with advertisers? They are all masters of their own destiny and following their muse, not tied to agreements with majors. If Bruce sticks much longer with this current pace, putting out schlock like Waiting On A Dream and touring in support, he will end up an oldies act, playing casinos alongside Journey and Blue Oyster Cult, all implants and dyed beards. Forgive me if I seem overly passionate but the irony of the greatest performer of his day, the one with the keenest sense of responsibility to the heritage of rock 'n' roll, turning into a dupe a la The King, is too great. I just want him to make some new music that excites me, age appropriately, in the way he did thirty years ago. And if he can't, to retire gracefully before he dilutes his considerable legacy.
"And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
but I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days."
Bo Doogley Has Enlightened Me!
Oh Bo Doogley ... thank you! Thank you so much for opening my eyes (and ears) to the folly of my Springsteen passion this past year. I feel like a fool for having enjoyed myself so much at the 5 live shows and the Super Bowl I saw ... now I get it. I was ripped off! I should have seen through his sham. I had no right to have such a great time enjoying the music and passion and atmosphere when I should have been thinking about his record contract! This past decade of 5 different tours with E Street,Sessions and as a solo act were nothing but the work of a charlatan. He didn't get the band back together to have fun, share his old and new songs, see old friends and make new fans, support political causes and local community banks, enjoy the company of his bands and fans, sweat and dance and sing and rock -- he did it all for ... Jon Landau? Sony? -- ugh, what a corporate hack! I feel bad for all those old fans who stood in his audiences and danced and sang like they were 30 years younger; I feel bad for all those younger people who went to his shows, discovered his music and then (gasp) went out and bought his CDs (idiots!!); I feel bad for all my friends who I dragged along to all those shows who stood next to me pumping their fists and singing along to those songs with a smile on their faces while they jumped up and down(I hope they forgive me) ... I now realize I have my rock n roll priorities out of line. Here I was thinking it was about how the artist spoke to ME; how the music made ME feel; how the camaraderie and joy of sharing a Springsteen show with the faithful was about OUR community and joy. Now I know he really doesn't care about me or his fans he's only in it for ... Jon Landau? Sony? ... wow. What a revelation. I wish I could take back those 25 hours of joy this past year and instead sit in my room and listen to a continuous loop of "Mule Variations" while contemplating the emptiness of the universe. ... and the worst part is I am going to be hating myself again when I find myself standing on a chair,feeling like a kid, pumping my fist and shouting "tramps like us" the next time Bruce and the boys come to town ... only now I will know my joy and happiness are as empty as your ridiculous obsession with Jon Landau.
Totally agree
I am so glad you wrote this response to Bo. Does any artist deserve 'fans' such as he? I am pretty sure that Springsteen does exactly what he wants artistically and is beholden to no one. He is still probably the best live act around. Some people need to get over themselves and I will not be told what I should enjoy by anyone, let alone some nutter seems to think I do not appreciate the true boss. I have liked him for 25 years so I think I understand his music.