Zurich 9th July 2012 - show 42

Well I can't find anything interesting about Zurich! Tina Turner lives nearby.

Taken from http://bta.bg/en/gallery/image/214839

This blogger appears to have been won over:-

A simple recipe, play the hits, give the audience what it wants and be thouroughly enthusiastic about what you do. As big as the venue was, as pricey the tickets were, you could not shake the feeling that this guy really does enjoy every minute of it. And it transcended easily, this was honest and coming from the heart. How about the music itself? Solid, well built up and fit for everyone, even to a bitter old music elitist as yours truly.

I have to say this set list was pretty extraordinary.  If I was stunned by the six songs that opened the second Paris show I would have been amazed to hear Don't Look Back as an opener. I like If I Should Fall Behind. It's a particular favourite of Mike's and ... on the piano - wow! Don't you just love it when Bruce walks towards the piano? I like to rock but those piano moments are special.

Just when you think the tour must have reached it's peak: when you think Bruce can't pull anything else out the bag he surprises us again.

Here's the set list

	Denmark 07/07/2012 Time 9.00 to 12.00 (approx)	Zurich  09/07/12 Time 7.22 to 10.45
1	No Surrender (14)	Don’t look Back (1)
2	Badlands (34)	Badlands (35)
3	Two Hearts Are Better Than One (6)	Ties That Bind (10)
4	We Take Care Of Our Own (41)	We Take Care Of Our Own (42)
5	Wrecking Ball (41)	Wrecking Ball (42)
6	Death To My Hometown (41)	Death To My Hometown (42)
7	My City Of Ruins (41)	My City Of Ruins (42)
8	Spirit In The Night (19)	Spirit In The Night (20)
9	E Street Shuffle (12)	Working On A Dream (1)
10	Jack Of All Trades (38)	Growing Up (2)
11	Trapped (10)	Save My Love (4)
12	Because The Night (16)	Jack Of All Trades (39)
13	Working On The Highway (15)	Youngstown (10)
14	Shackled And Drawn (27)	Johnny 99 (12)
15	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (41)	Working On The Highway (16)
16	The River (18)	Shackled And Drawn (28)
17	The Rising (40)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (42)
18	Out In The Street (21)	Promised Land (28)
19	Land Of Hope And Dreams (28)	If I Should Fall Behind (1)
20	We Are Alive (38)	The River (19)
21	Born In The USA (17)	The Rising (41)
22	Born To Run (41)	Out In The Street (22)
23	Glory Days (9)	Land Of Hope And Dreams (29)
24	Dancing In The Dark (41)	We Are Alive (39)
25	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (41)	Born In The USA (18)
26		Born To Run (42)
27		Hungry Heart (12)
28		Seven Nights To Rock (10)
29		Dancing In The Dark (42)
30		Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (42)
31		Twist And Shout (6)
32
33

There are several YouTube videos of If I Should Fall Behind.  I choose this one because the sound is good

Dreams Can Come True

The first time I heard Working On a Dream was almost 4 years ago during Barack Obama's campaign for the Democratic nomination to run for president of the USA - awful whistling.



At least, I think I have described this rally correctly.  I acquired my knowledge of US politics almost entirely from watching 'The West Wing'. This must be my favourite TV show of all time and whilst it might not have been exactly true to life, it did at least give me an inkling of the way the US political system works.  I mean how else would I know that The President pardons a turkey at Thanksgiving?

Anyway I've veered a little off topic here.

I'm not keen on WOAD - the track not the album - although the album isn't my favourite either. Love the sentiment - don't love the song.  Having said that, shortly after the album was released, I started working on a dream of my own. I needed to get fit enough to go to Hyde Park and Dublin, so rather perversely, even though I don't particularly like the song it does have special meaning for me.  It will forever remind me of that particular time in my life. BUT Bruce you could have written me something a bit more rousing to help me along!

I started thinking about this because Follow That Dream came on my iPod this week.  I'm a big fan of the BITUSA outtakes and this is a real goody.  In my opionion much much better than WOAD, but then researching this for my blog, I have discovered it's not a Springsteen song at all!

He mentions here that it is one of his favourite Elvis Presley songs.



Now I'm not an Elvis fan.  I don't dislike him, you understand, but I can take him or leave him. This is my excuse for having such a gap in my musical knowledge.

Bruce talks about following dreams in many many songs - the couple in BTR are reaching for a dream, the couple in Thunder Road are leaving town to find their dream, Meet Me In The Land Of Hope And Dreams etc etc etc.

I am partculary partial to a never-give-up-on-your-dreams-just-go-for-it type of song.  I find them very uplifting: very inspiring.  They can persuade me that I can do anything - at least for the duration of the song!

And talking about dreams and Elvis this is one of his best. It brings a lump to my throat whenever I hear it.  Having said I'm not an Elvis fan I reckon he really pulls it out of the bag on this one.



 It's on this list of The 100 Most Beautiful Song Lyrics and look what's at the position below!


On a completely different subject I bought a new compact camera this week. I guess most people judgea cameras on their ability to take a good holiday photo or a good landscape. I, on the other hand, needed a decent zoom and one that takes good pictures in low light. Yes you've guessed it - I'm planning on smuggling it into a gig.

Anyway I've been playing with it.  It has one of those thingys that isolates certain colours. Here's something you will recognise with the red bits only highlighted.

Repeats

Well I’m listening to The Killers - Sam’s Town - at the moment.  This album falls into two of our buying categories.

1. They are influenced by Bruce
2. It’s a critically acclaimed album

So whilst we weren’t sure whether we would like it we gave it a go. The Springsteen - esque nature of the album might be apparent to some but I can’t really detect it.  Maybe I’m looking for the obvious - you know - a kind of light bulb moment when I think wow! that sounds like Bruce.  That moment has never arrived but I really like the album.

I am listening to this today because my search for Bruce stuff has taken me to this blog   The Killers 'When You Were Young' is number 17 in the list.  We have been here before because both 'Born To Run' and 'Jungleland' have featured previously.  Although I don’t know this person I find I am interested in his choice of music simply because he likes Bruce.  I haven’t heard of some bands/artists in the list.  Some of his choices I agree with and one or two would be pushing towards my list of all time dislikes!!

I really like the idea and I am tentatively considering putting together a list of my favourite Bruce songs to do a similar thing.  Deciding why you like a song is quite a task though.  Sometimes you - well - just like it and that doesn’t make for very interesting reading. Anyway I’m not even sure whether I would be able to choose, say, my top 50 but at least I would have a list of every song to hand - in the CD rack.

Trying to decide on my faves, If I were to include any artist, is an impossible task.  I can’t even remember half the tracks I love. Whenever I've tried this before I've always come unstuck at a point where I have to choose between songs by the same artist.  Which do I pick? and in the case of Bruce would this mean that my top 100 would include 80 Springsteen songs and 20 others!

This week, on the radio, I heard 'The First Cut Is The Deepest' by P P Arnold.



I love this song and this is the definitive version (sorry Rod - you know I'm still a fan).  I like the way verse is gentle but it builds up towards the chorus and then those drums and horns (trumpets?) are just great. One for my top 100 I think.

I also heard 'Anchorage' by Michelle Shocked today.



Now this is an example of a song I like for no reason that I can put my finger on.  Perhaps it’s just the tune because I usually find myself singing along.  Not sure if this one would make the top 100 though.

This knotty problem of why I like a song had occured to me earlier in the week when two Springsteen tracks popped up on my iPod.   I don't really love Working On A Dream (the album).  I played it a lot when it was new in an effort to embrace it but - no. For me, the lyrics are kind of lazy and I find them really repetitive.  The obvious is Surprise Surprise Surprise etc etc etc. but it’s not the only example of a line being oft repeated.

I thought this was why I hadn’t fallen in love with the album but now I’m not so sure.  The first song on the iPod? ... I’m going down down down down I’m going down down down down - you know the rest.  The second? ... My love love love love love love love love will not let you down!  Now you can’t deny that each is somewhat repetitive but I love them both.

And whilst we are talking about being repetitive the news this week is the repeat release in May of The Promise: The Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town.  OK it has a couple of other bits with it - the set from The Carousel and the Q and A session with fans.  More from Shore Fire here

Now I've got the documentary and seen it a couple of times on the TV. I downloaded the Carousel set and copied it to DVD (shhhhh - is this illegal?) but I haven't seen the 'conversation with the fans'.  I assume it's out there somewhere but I haven't looked.   I was hoping for the rest of the Carousel set that hasn't previously been broadcast but perhaps they (whoever they are) are saving that for later.  Will I buy it? Don't think so but.... if I pop into HMV I won't be able to resist having a look to see if it's there and if it is? - well it might just shout out 'Buy me buy me!'

My and finally this week is something that made me chuckle from a Yahoo! message board :-

Bruce Springsteen at Apple???
11-Mar-11 03:25 pm    
I live in vegas and just visited 2 store locations.
Lines are just huge with people waiting for their ipad 2's. I thought they were selling Springsteen tickets as that is the last time I saw people lining up for stuff to buy.