So much hate

Last week when I was trying to find any evidence that Bruce actually dislikes The Way I came across several threads on a number of forums simply discussing how much they hate Bruce.  I Googled 'Bruce Springsteen dislike' by the way.  Dislike I can understand.  Not everyone cares for Bruce's voice and some people don't like his politics.  There are folks who say his music is a bit overblown and any number of people who think he is overrated.   

This guy has actually written a whole blog post telling us how much he hates our hero and he's not the only one.  I see his post is dated a few years ago.  Perhaps, by now, he has turned his vitriol to someone else - U2, maybe, as I see they seem to inspire a lot of hatred too.

This post written only last month is a good read, though, by someone who previously didn't like Bruce and has recently changed their mind.  I quote ...

I have just finished listening to Darkness on the Edge of Town in its entirety for the first time (via the awesome recent box set The Promise), and it was glorious.

I don't understand why someone would suddenly announce to the world that they hate a person, I don't understand how someone can carry around such negative feelings and I certainly don't understand how someone could hate Bruce!  There are even Facebook pages for people who hate him.  They don't have many friends admittedly but what possesses people to set up 'I hate' pages anyway.

This exchange on one message board made me smile though.

Original post
I Hate Bruce Springsteen
Does that make me un-American? Not only has the blasting of “Born to Run” here at the cafe made it impossible for me to concentrate. Now one of the boys at the table next to me is singing along! Save me! 
Reply
I LOVE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN. It doesn't make you un-American to hate Bruce Springsteen, it just makes you a little sad to not have that joy in your life.

For an artist of any kind - musician, painter, author or actor the worst thing must be indifference: for the public not to care about you.  I found an article about indifference.  Quite highbrow but it sums it up like this :- 'there is no hope for the one who does not care but all the hope in the world for one who is connected albeit in denial and rebellion'.  So is there hope for our haters?

I think that as long as Bruce can excite such high emotion, positive or negative, he must be doing something right.  At least people are aware enough of him to offer an opinion.

And talking about negative feelings Mark Wright started a thread on Greasy Lake about the 1995 Sony Studio Show. Now I'm not familiar with this, but to put it kindly, Mark says it's not Bruce's best work. Most other peeps agree with him... in some fashion.

Here's a clip see what you think.




I can't, of course, let this week go by without mentioning Stan Goldstein's tweet of 23rd August:-

Hear we're getting a new Bruce Springsteen (non E Street) album this Fall and a tour with E Street Band in 2012. Stay tuned... 


I don't know how close Stan is to those in the know but can't think he would say anything publicly if he wasn't fairly certain.

• • 
    

Songs From My iPod: Track 1

I listen to my iPod most days on my bus journey to and from work. 

 Always on shuffle - sometimes the whole library, sometimes just Bruce.

 This is a series of posts inspired by one of the songs I have heard during the previous week.

This week hasn't been so good, for reasons I won't bore you with, and my number one man has been away for a few days.  It's at times like this I turn to Bruce so my iPod has been playing all Bruce all the time.

So one morning... 'one, two, keyboards down, three, four'.  This is Bruce's count in to Unsatisfied Heart although it's cut from the beginning of this version.



A quick search of the internet has revealed the lyrics and guitar tab which only goes to prove that I like this song because of the melody particularly the chorus.  I had no clue about the rest of the lyrics and now I've seen them I'm not at all sure what they mean.  It's one of those Springsteen songs with that underlying menacing feel and that recurring theme of his about the bad things you do coming back to haunt you... I think! Anyway here you are

Unsatisfied Heart - Bruce Springsteen

           Eb
Sir I am a pilgrim
        Ab              Eb
And a stranger in this land
Eb
Once I had a home here
   Fm                Db
My salvation was at hand
Eb
I lived in a house of gold
Ab                   Eb
Yeah on the far hill side
Eb
I had two beautiful children
       Fm             Db
And a kind and loving wife

 CHORUS:
         Fm
 And you live 
        Db        Eb             Ab
 With unsatisfied heart, can you live
        Db        Eb             Fm
 With unsatisfied heart, can you live
        Db        Eb             Ab
 With unsatisfied heart, can you live
        Db        Eb
 With unsatisfied heart

And one day a man came to town
With nothing and nowhere to go
He came to me and he mentioned
Something I’d done a long time ago

I allowed him into my home
On his vow that secret wouldn’t see the light
At night I lay awake in my wife’s arms
She sighed Joe are you alright

 CHORUS

 BREAK: Eb Ab Eb Fm
        Eb Ab Eb Fm
        Ab Db Eb
        Ab Db Eb
        Ab Db Eb
        Ab Db Eb

Day after day, time
Yeah time passed on by
But I could feel myself changing
Yeah changing deep inside

One night I woke up
And as my wife did sleep
I got dressed in the darkness
And I fled into the street

 CHORUS

Night after night
The same dream keeps comin round
I'’m standing high on the green hills
On the outskirts of town

The night air fills my lungs
And rustles my shirt
I can see the house where we live
The building where I used to work

As I draw near
The town’s lit by a red summer moon
I feel your arms around me
I wake up in this room
 

CHORUS

I also see that you can buy the BITUSA outtakes from here but DON'T because one of your friends among our Bruce community is bound to let you have a copy for free.

Anyway hearing Unsatisfied Heart got me to thinking about The Way.  They were my two favourite unreleased songs.

When I was hoping for a tour on the back of 'The Promise' I harboured a vain hope that I might get to hear The Way live.  Rumour had it, at the time, that Bruce doesn't like the song so, if that's true, perhaps a live version was really unlikely.  Now I assume any up coming tour will be to promote a new venture so perhaps the few songs from The Carousel gig is all we are going to see of 'The Promise' live.

Mike's big wanna hear is Back in Your Arms .  No doubt he has a better chance than me as this does get an airing from time to time.  He missed it by one show back in November 2009 but would he have traded 'The River' night at MSG to hear BIYA in Cleveland?

We all know that part of the magic of a Springsteen concert is not knowing what gem you might get and isn't it ironic that you can be chasing the one song that someone else has heard several times.  One of my best Bruce buddies mentioned the other week that she is still waiting to hear Land of Hope and Dreams. We've heard it three times!

On what you might think is a completely different subject  Mike and I are thinking about decorating our kitchen.  At the moment we have some framed pictures of New York City on the wall but I was wondering whether to go for a stencil instead - something like this:-

But! but!! but!! whilst I was looking I found this:-

and I really like this one on Ebay.  Hmmm can I lean him somewhere?  I am so tempted !!

Practice Makes Perfect

Well this week, over the last few days, I've been browsing around the blogosphere to find out what other folks are posting.  This is mainly because I have nothing to say for myself!

One of the most surprising things to me is how many bloggers mention Bruce.

So just this week we have posts on Aquarium Drunkard a music blog based in Los Angeles talking about I'm on Fire and Silverio's Showbiz Silver Platter a writer who is talking about Fire.  There is a cover version on this blog which is well... awful!!  Fire is also the subject of a discussion on Greasy Lake which you might have been interested in if you could get onto the message board.  Apparently it's offline for a couple of days.

This post on This is bold just seems to be a Bruce biography.  Not sure what the blog is actually about but this post is written under the heading of Amnesty International.

Jeremy Baker, who describes himself as a music nerd, lives in British Columbia and has a blog called The Morning After  His post this week is about I'm Going Down and here we have a  cover version by Vampire Weekend ... Hmmm much better.

My favourite Bruce blog Blogness on the Edge of Town is almost always first with any useful news so it's no surprise that I found out about Clarence's public memorial from this blog.  The memorial is on 19th August if you need to arrange flights!!

Those of you who have been with me from the start will know that Mike was a bit of a Donna Summer fan back in the day.  This was before Bruce crossed our radar, so, we had no interest in the fact that he had penned one of the songs on a Donna album we had.  Can't say Protection was ever a favourite but this merger of Bruce's and Donna's versions' is interesting. I couldn't resist putting a comment on the post - us bloggers love getting comments as it shows someone is reading!  Glad I did as I've now found out that although the YouTube clip is an unofficial mix Bruce and Donna did actually sing the song together.

There are at least a couple of other non Springsteen blogs in which the writer has posted about our man this week and with a bit of delving I'm sure I could find more.

As far as Bruce blogs go as well as Blogness... you might also want to bookmark All Bruce Springsteen which does exactly what it says on the tin.

If you want to brush up on your french you could have a go at Le Blog... or if your german needs a bit of work you could join The Wish.  Quite a good header on this one featuring Springsteen-through-the- ages.

Finally I had resisted writing anything about Bruce's Dancing in the Dark efforts but there is such a lot circulating again at the moment I thought I'd put a couple of clips in.  I have to watch from behind the sofa!!

I'm Riding Down Kingsley

So last week I admitted there are some Bruce songs that I don't really like.  At least two of my Bruce buddies disagreed with my choices - both mentioned Kitty's Back.  Now I know this is a good song it's just that I can't get my ears around the syncopation if that's the right word.  Somebody who knows about music can perhaps tell me.

This week I've been thinking about my favourite tracks from the same albums.  This isn't so easy or in many ways so interesting.  Anyway here they are... I think.  There are others I was tempted to add but I've been ruthless.

Sandy
BTR
Thunder Road
Backstreets
Badlands
Racing
The Promised Land
Drive All Night
Atlantic City

So what would you add, and of course, take away?

Mind you, having said there are some songs I'm not keen on, I would quite happily listen to them all If the man was standing on a stage in front of me.  Just lately I find I'm really hankering for a tour - more than usual that is.  Perhaps it's because I've some money in my Bruce account that's burning a hole in my pocket!

There is some talk on Greasy Lake.  Now, I'm happy to clutch at straws and it's a great thought but don't you just hate it when somebody pops up out of nowhere to say they know something that you don't?  It's not the only thread suggesting a tour in the autumn, though, and we know Bruce can spring something on us last minute.

Had to chuckle at the comment by DetCaptain on this page. Didn't find my way to the beginning of the article but it's about Barack Obama's 50th birthday party.  How come some people hate Bruce so much?  It's such a random and vitriolic comment that once I'd got over the shock it just made me laugh!

The Guardian newspaper is a great supporter of Bruce and he gets a mention in a roundabout way in this article.  You need to go right down to the last paragraph.  Great to see artists are still dedicating stuff to Clarence  and here's Damon's version of Thunder Road.



There's many a time when I wish I lived in Asbury Park.  In a couple of weeks time 'Outside the Box' are going to play WIESS in it's entirety at The Stone Pony.  Would love to be there for that.

Not so sure about the triathlon although I wish I was fit enough to do something like this.  Here are the details of  the route. Lots of places we all recognise of course and I notice they cycle down Kinglsey at one point!

Talking of Asbury Park I was flicking through the TV channels last week and stopped on an episode of 'The Sopranos'.  We have some of the box set and I'm sure we've watched season 2 but I don't remember this.



And last of all this week still on the subject of AP Blogness on the Edge of Town is asking for your Springsteen Landmark stories.  Now I know some of you have them - ahhhh happy memories.