“For what are we without hope in our hearts”
Of course we bought the ‘plugged’ CD after going to the gig.
I know I played it a lot because Mike once asked me why I sing ’loving you sugar is a mans mans job’ Instead of ‘loving you woman…’ - it‘s what Bruce sings on the ’plugged’ recording.
We still didn’t have any of the early stuff so these versions of Darkness, Thunder Road etc were the only ones I knew for a while. Atlantic City was the one song I remembered from the Sheffield gig and I have always liked the live version better than the one on ‘Nebraska‘.
We still weren’t buying a huge amount of music although as we now have over 500 CDs we must have made up for this at some point. In 1995 as well as Bruce’s ‘Greatest Hits’ and ‘Tom Joad’ we bought lat least five other albums including Paul Weller’s ‘Stanley Road’ - Mike liked ‘Broken Stones’.
The albums we’re sure we bought are listed at the end of the blog. We know this because Mike has spent many a happy hour this last week cataloguing our CD collection - anal or what!
Think I played ‘Greatest Hits’ a lot and I certainly read the cover a few times. I’m a fan of sleeve notes. I like to know what musicians may have guested on the album - the music business turns out to be quite incestuous.
But my absolute favourite is the ‘thank yous’ - they can be very revealing. Who can forget the very curt ’Thanks Juli’ on ’Tunnel of Love’. Compare this with ’All my love Patti…’ on ‘Lucky Town’ and the much less effusive ’Thanks to Patti…for her love, patience and support’ which has been on the last two or three albums.
Do you think that now Bruce is older he has realised just saying ‘I love you’ isn’t enough. He needs to acknowledge that Patti has put up with him all these years. I guess he’s not an easy man to live with!
Maybe I am reading too much in to this but if you listen to Patti’s ’Play it as it lays’ album she paints a very realistic picture of a married couples ups and downs when they have been together for a while. If you believe it is in any way autobiographical (and I do) she seems to be saying she and her man have had good times and bad times. She’s thought about leaving but has decided to stick it out. From now on she is going to ‘play it as it lays’ , take it as it comes, go with the flow.
It feels as though Bruce’s thank you message is saying that he knows and appreciates all this. Yeah, I hear you, I am definitely looking in to this too deeply.
Anyway back to ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’. From time to time I try to get into it. Most recently I put it on my ipod and listened on the bus going to and from work - but it just doesn’t do it for me. Can’t say I hate it - can’t say I hate anything Bruce does - but it’s not my cup of tea. ‘Tom Joad’ itself is OK and I like the full band version of Youngstown but otherwise - no.
The ‘Solo Acoustic’ tour passed us by completely. At the time we found out about tours through Channel 4’s teletext pages but we were a bit hit a miss with this - sometimes checking every day and sometimes not checking for weeks. We only knew there had been a tour because a friend said he had been to the Newcastle gig.
We saw Rod Stewart at Sheffield Arena in December 1995. It was a freezing cold night and they kept us waiting outside for ages. The gig was good though. I had been a Rodders fan since the early seventies and knew most of the songs. This meant that I had more of an opportunity to sing along than at the Bruce gig. ‘Sailing’ although not my favourite song was quite amazing with thousands of people singing along.
Rod kicked footballs into the crowd - I understand this is a long standing tradition - in fact the atmosphere was really reminiscent of a football match. He also got a woman up on the stage to dance with him - remind you of anything?
Went to Sheffield Arena again in November 1996. We took my step daughter and a friend to see Celine Dion. Can’t remember anything about this except we got stuck in traffic and arrived late. This meant we missed the support who happened to be The Corrs.
So now we are heading towards ‘Tracks’ and the Reunion Tour.
Other albums bought in 1995
Cher - It's A Man's World
Del Amitri - Twisted
Rod Stewart - A Spanner In The Works
Curtis Stigers - Time Was
Paul Weller - Stanley Road
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