Those of you who read my blog regularly will know I'm not necessarily an advocate of the Bruce-was-better-in-the-seventies view.
This week two tracks popped up on the ipod from the early days. Jungleland from 'Live At The Main Point, 1975' and For You from 'Hammersmith Odeon London '75'. Both of these may have just persuaded me that Bruce, although different, was pretty good way back.
The Jungleland choice might be a bit controversial because Clarence's famous saxophone solo doesn't feature. Maybe this is an example of a song that improved with age. I really like this early version, though, and Suki Lahav plays a beautiful violin.
I played For You for Mike when I got home because I thought it was so good. He said it wasn't as good as Paris. So we dug out our boot. Mike is right. This was stunning. It was one of those times when you almost hold your breath until it's over.
I'm sure you are familiar with the Hammersmith version but if not you can find it on YouTube.
So, a necessarily short Sunday blog today - well a girl's got to eat at some point!
Well a bit of excitement this week. Our man was just down the road watching Jessica at The Royal Windsor Horse Show. Although I don't like to champion The Daily Mail they probably had the best pictures and article here. At least they focused on Jessica and after all it was her gig.
Had I known dad was going to be there I might well have taken a trip. I could legitimately claim an interest so it wouldn't really feel like stalking. You see when I was a kid I went through the pony stage.
Below is my fat little pony - Sherry and here I am all dressed up and ready to go
And this is one of me on another pony showing off my good seat - it's an equestrian term!
These were taken more years ago than I care to admit and when I grew out of Sherry we couldn't afford to buy a horse. After a while I lost interest.
Anyway in case you need to up date your diary:-
The Royal International Horse Show is on at Hickstead between 26 and 31 July
The Horse Of The Year Show is on at The NEC in Birmingham between 4 and 9 October.
I can't remember how these things work so no idea whether Jessica would qualify to jump at either show.
I was on the bus this week when Born To Run took a turn on my iPod... followed by Badlands. I have an irresistible urge to punch the air at the appropriate moments when these songs come on.
If I'm in the car I do it - whilst singing at the top of my voice. A couple of years ago when I was off work convalescing I tried to do 10,000 steps a day and during these walks I would throw my arms up. I had to do arm exercises anyway so it was as good reason as any...
...but on the bus - well - didn't want to startle the other passengers so early in the morning.
So I bought 'Live At The Main Point' this week. I know, I know, I could have downloaded it for free or somebody would no doubt have sent me a copy but in the end after reading Uncut Magazine's review I had to buy it.
Regular readers will know I don't subscribe to the adage that Bruce was better in the seventies. Different yes, but not necessarily better. To be honest some of the stuff from the early days does nothing for me. I think you had to be there.
For those of you who don't know we first saw Bruce in 1993. He was with the 'other' band but we didn't know, or care, we loved it. That being our first time was special for us just as 1975 was special for the people who saw him then.
Anyway despite my reservations about the early days I absolutely love this version of Incident.
We were lucky enough to hear this live at the Wembley gig in 2002 which I talk about here. Don't know if we have heard it since because my old laptop gave up the ghost and our Bruce spreadsheet went with it.
We had listed all the shows we had been to and the set list for each show. Need to do it again but as it's such an enjoyable thing to do we won't mind. It's a good excuse to get all the boots out a have a listen to each show as we go along. Quicker to get the set list off Greasy Lake of course but not so much fun.
Finally just had to let you know that my Bruce doll went down really well at work and I'm excited to say I've got my first order - it's Claudio Sanchez
