The OtherArena

[jdw]

[jdw]

Wait... what? I was not aware of this.

Bruce Springsteen Releases Famous 1978 Cleveland Concert

BruceBase: 1978-08-09 - The Agora, Cleveland , OH

[jdw]

Eron trolled me with this on Facebook, and I had to troll Guren. :)

All 293 (+2) Bruce Springsteen songs, ranked; the ultimate Boss list

[jdw]

Glenn and my (surprisingly for me) short comments on Tracks where here on the hold boards:

https://web.archive.org/web/20030520031738/http://www.otherarena.com/cgi/post.cgi?78882&1&4&music

https://web.archive.org/web/20030520031742/http://www.otherarena.com/cgi/post.cgi?78888&1&4&music

Which is useful since I don't know where my hold burned cd of a follow up to BitUSA made up of other cuts from those sessions is laying around, or the songs I selection. Pretty sure that when I ended up burning it that I deferred to the wisdom of Glenn's suggested replacements... especially on Brothers Under The Bridges which I was forgetting about due to the 1995 version :)

So these relative rankings kind of annoy me:

Born In The USA
158. "I'm Goin' Down" - Born in the U.S.A.
154. "Darlington County" - Born in the U.S.A.
141. "Downbound Train" - Born in the U.S.A.
138. "Working on the Highway" - Born in the U.S.A.
85. "Cover Me" - Born in the U.S.A.
75. "My Hometown" - Born in the U.S.A.
70.5. "Bobby Jean" - Born In the U.S.A.
56. "No Surrender" - Born in the U.S.A.
48. "Glory Days" - Born in the U.S.A.
25. "I'm On Fire" - Born in the U.S.A.
20. "Born in the U.S.A." - Born in the U.S.A.
7. "Dancing in the Dark" - Born in the U.S.A.

jdw's This Hard Land "album"
281. "Johnny Bye-Bye" - Tracks
264. "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" - Tracks
242. "Shut Out The Light" - Tracks
213. "Pink Cadillac" - Tracks
211. "Stand On It" - Tracks
206. "Wages Of Sin" - Tracks
204. "Rockaway The Days" - Tracks
187. "Frankie" - Tracks
176. "My Love Will Not Let You Down" - Tracks
133. "Brothers Under The Bridges" - Tracks
104. "Janey Don't You Lose Heart" - Tracks
101. "This Hard Land" - Tracks

If I were combing the two, of course I would keep a number of the BitUSA cuts even though I'm tired of heating most of them. But...

Every song on BitUSA is better than Frankie, Shut Out The Light, Rockaway The Days and My Love Will Not Let You Down? Eight of them are better than Brothers Under The Bridges and This Hard Land?

AAAAAARRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

:)

[jdw]

10 Amazing Songs Bruce Springsteen Cut From 'Born in the U.S.A.': For other artists, these tracks would have beeen career highlights, but for Bruce, they were merely outtakes

Not sure I agree with all of that, of Glenn does. I like Lion's Den more than Glenn, but in the end agree that it's not a real gem. Seeds is a tricky one since it's unclear how complete a germ of the idea he had in the studio since whatever "Gone, Gone, Gone" was, it's not in circulation.

But... yeah... the BitUSA had some damn fine stuff on the cutting room floor.

[guren]

[guren]

[jdw]

It's kind of hard for me to knock the album since it was a monster hit, 7 of the 12 songs hit the Top 10, and it all fits into a certain period in his career. How does one change something that's all that? :/

Not a lot of the album rates among my favorites... or even songs that I much like. I didn't really care for it a ton when it came out, though as a fan did enjoy that he hit monster mainstream popularity. I "rooted" for it rather than enjoyed it, and instead the earlier albums were the ones on my turntable and in my car's tape player in 1984-85.

So the question would be "better collection of songs" or "better thematic collection" vs "more marketable album". I can't touch the last one since BitUSA was such a big hit.



Here's the original:

Side 1
1."Born in the U.S.A." (4:40)
2. "Cover Me" (3:27)
3. "Darlington County" (4:48)
4. "Working on the Highway" (3:13)
5. "Downbound Train" (3:35)
6. "I'm on Fire" (2:40)

Side two
7. "No Surrender" (4:00)
8. "Bobby Jean" (3:48)
9. "I'm Goin' Down" (3:29)
10. "Glory Days" (4:15)
11. "Dancing in the Dark" (4:04)
12. "My Hometown" (4:34)



7. "No Surrender" (4:00)
8. "Bobby Jean" (3:48)

The ones that I don't care for:

Gotta Go: Cover Me, Darlington County, Working on the Highway, Dancing in the Dark

Like you, I don't care much for Darlington County and Working on the Highway.

If I don't care about hits, I'd toss Dancing in the Dark and Cover Me. I get that Dancing was the big hit, but it's weak compared to what was left off both musically and lryically. Cover Me feels like it fits more with the Human Tough/Lucky Town period.


Not Really A Fan Of:No Surrender, Glory Days, I'm Goin' Down

No Surrender is an anthem, and just strikes me as a weak one. If I wanted an anthem out of the sessions, I'd go in the other direction of My Love Will Not Let You Down.

Like I wrote on fb, Glory Days is a hit, it's beloved, Bruce seems to like it a lot since he rolls it out still. It also tends to connect with what a lot of us do from time to time. But... it's kinda trite and flawed. I'm not against it being on there... it's okay.

I'm not as much of a fan of the I'm Goin' Down / Ramrod / Etc type of rockers of this era as you are. For a long time I really didn't like I'm Goin' Down at all. It's grown on me in the past decade. Not a massive favorite, but it's also okay.

Oddly Mixed:I'm on Fire, My Hometown, Bobby Jean

I think there are better songs left off than I'm on Fire, but it is the one moderny/non-E Street Bandy songs that I think has aged well and fits the sessions well. Better than Dancing and Cover Me. It's not great, but it hits the note of desire in an interesting way in contrast to much of Bruce's work. Also, it's short so if there's a "cheat" to go to 13 songs, it doesn't take up space. :) So I have no problem keeping it since it could be snuck in.

Thematically, My Hometown fits well as a closer for this period of what Bruce was often singing about across The River / Nebraska / BitUSA. It doesn't hit the level of his better songs in those themes. But... as Yohe would point out, I have become a mark for Father-Son themes. This song bookends with that. So... mixed on booting it.

Bobby Jean... well... it kind of needs to be here. Never a big favorite of mine. Maybe hit came out at a time when I was parting from my Elementary/JHS/HS friends heading to college, and for the most part was oddly okay with that. :) And repeated listens into freshman year with new (equally melancholy) friends never had it hit a cord with me. It's odd as this is a song that at some point in life should have clicked with me, but never has. Still, it needs to be there.

Overall, I'd keep those three.

So it would be down to figuring out how many of these seven that I'd toss:

Gotta Go: Cover Me, Darlington County, Working on the Highway, Dancing in the Dark

Not Really A Fan Of:No Surrender, Glory Days, I'm Goin' Down

All of the first four I'd pitch as there's easily four songs on the cutting room floor that I'd rather have.

It's pitch No Surrender. The question also becomes one of time. These are the first six that I would add to the album:

Shut Out The Light (3:51)
Frankie (7:26)
Brothers Under The Bridges (5:10)
This Hard Land (4:52)
My Love Will Not Let You Down (4:28)
Rockaway The Days (4:43)

And these are the seven I would have on the line:

Cover Me (3:27)
Dancing in the Dark (4:04)
Darlington County (4:48)
Working on the Highway (3:13)
No Surrender (4:00)
--------------------------------
I'm Goin' Down (3:29)
Glory Days (4:15)

The ones being added are longer than the ones being pitched. At 46:57, it was right at the edge of "normal" LP times:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LP_record#Playing_time

After The River, I suspect there was no desire to do a double album again.

As noted in the Wiki, Dylan at times went "long" on one disk albums. The second side of Desire was close to 30, and Blood On The Tracks overall went 51:42 (25:20 + 26:26 + whatever the was between songs). Of course Bob wasn't as nutty about "sound" as Bruce was.

That's the big problem of getting Frankie onto a single disc album: it's 7:26. If I do just this:

Shut Out The Light (3:51)
Frankie (7:26)
Brothers Under The Bridges (5:10)
This Hard Land (4:52)
My Love Will Not Let You Down (4:28)

For:

Cover Me (3:27)
Dancing in the Dark (4:04)
Darlington County (4:48)
Working on the Highway (3:13)
No Surrender (4:00)

That's a 19:32 --> 25:47 change. The seven songs retain add up to 27:01. Which takes one past 52:00 for Columbia's "extended" LP. So a song would have to go to make it an 11 song LP. :/

All of these issues aren't relevant in the CD era, which was hitting later in the year of release but it was a while before CD's dominated the business. Even Tunnel of Love stuck to 46:25, while Human Touch took advantage of CD's being dominant by 1992.

It's a hard thing to figure out. :)

[guren]

If I were to make an album of just my favorite songs from that time, here's what it would look like (basically in order).

Side 1 (23:45)
1. Born in the U.S.A. 4:40
2. Frankie 7:26
3. Downbound Train 3:35
4. No Surrender 4:00
5. Dancing in the Dark 4:04

Side 2 (23:50)
6. Brothers Under the Bridges 5:10
7. This Hard Land 4:52
8. I'm Goin' Down 3:29
9. I'm on Fire 2:40
10. Shut Out the Light 3:51
11. Bobby Jean 3:48

[jdw]

Just in time for Christmas to compete with the Dylan Box set:

The Ties That Bind: The River Collection - Box Set Trailer

From Amazon:

52 tracks on 4 CDs

The released 'The River' (2CD)

'The River: Single Album' is the 10-track album that Springsteen recorded in 1979 as a follow up to 1978's 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town' but never released.

The fourth CD on the box set is 'The River: Outtakes,' which spans the entire 'The River' sessions in 1979 and 1980. Eleven songs are rarities that have never been released before, and for the most part are completely unheard and unknown even to fans, who have long considered Springsteen's outtakes to be treasured secrets.

4 hours of never-before-seen video on 3 DVDs

"The Ties That Bind," on one DVD, is a brand new 60-minute documentary that features an intimate interview with Springsteen as he reflects on the tumultuous, extended period writing and recording 'The River.' The film transitions between Springsteen telling the stories behind the music and illustrating them with solo acoustic guitar performances -- interspersed with period concert footage and rare photos of Bruce and the band in and out of the studio.

The final video component is "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: The River Tour, Tempe 1980," a new film produced from footage professionally filmed in 1980 using four cameras and recorded in multitrack audio. The film features 24 songs 2 hours, 40 minutes on 2 DVDs from Springsteen s November 5, 1980 concert at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. Widely regarded as one of Springsteen s finest performances, this intense show features early live versions of over half of 'The River' songs. Also included is 20 minutes of footage from the late September, 1980 River Tour rehearsals held in Lititz, PA, showing Springsteen and The E Street Band working through live arrangements of what was then unreleased material from the upcoming album.


Coffee table book

200 rare or previously unseen photos & memorabilia with a new essay by Mikal Gilmore.

$129.98... not cheap.

[guren]

It sounds like there will be a new Bruce tour starting next month.

I seem to recall that at least one notable poster here is a fan of the hot, minky Mary-Louise Parker. Apparently Ms. Parker is a fan of a certain New Jersey rocker.

Review: In ‘Dear Mr. You,’ Mary-Louise Parker Writes to Men, With Lust and Rue

[jdw]

Great line. :)

[jdw]

This is very mean-spirited:

"Drive All Night": How Much Time And Money Would Bruce Springsteen Waste Trying To Trade Shoes For Sex?

:)

[guren]

As an old fogey, I loved the Imelda Marcos reference.

glenn

[jdw]

As did I. :)