'The cards I've drawn's a rough hand darlin' I straighten my back and I'm working on a dream'
So 2009 had arrived and on 24th January so did ‘Working on a Dream’ which usefully can be condensed down to an acronym and from now on will be affectionately known as WOAD.
Before we even get to the music I have to say that among the Bruce community the cover seemed to be almost universally hated - yes hated. Personally I can take it or leave it. I have discussed album artwork previously so I’ll leave it at that.
Well I wasn’t sure about WOAD at the time and I am still not sure now. I really don’t know if it’s a good album or not. Perhaps I will know better in two or three years time - if I am still coming back to play it then I must like it.
It didn’t grab me in the same way as ‘Magic’. It seems to me a bit rushed somehow - I’m talking mainly lyrics here because I don’t know enough about music to tell how complicated the arrangement is. It is actually a very melodic album but ’Well surprise surprise surprise Yea surprise surprise surprise Well surprise surprise’ it’s a bit …well…repetitive.
‘Outlaw Pete’ feels like Bruce trying too hard to write another epic story song and I really don’t like it. Didn’t stop me singing at the top of my voice during the gigs though!
Not keen on ‘Queen of the Supermarket’ or ‘Good Eye’ and whilst I don’t dislike ’Working on a Dream’ - good tune great sentiments it’s also a bit repetitive. This track actually came to be my mantra, my inspiration, as you will see later on.
A lot of the tracks (‘My Lucky Day’ ‘What Love Can Do’ This Life’ ‘Life Itself’ ‘Kingdom of Days’) touch on how it feels to have loved someone for a long time: about growing old together. Mike and I can certainly relate to that - loving someone for a long time that is… OK OK we know a bit about growing old too!
I particularly like ‘Kingdom of Days’ but even this suffers from that rushed feeling. The middle eight - ’I love I love you I love you I love you I do’ etc isn’t very inspiring and surely with a bit more thought our man could have done better.
You know, I don’t want to sound as if I don’t like the album. I have played it a bit this week and whilst it’s never going to be in my top five it is a good old pop record which isn’t too taxing on the brain.
Anyway by 30 January we had tickets, hotels and flights to the Dublin gigs.
Two days later we were sat in our friends’ house waiting for the start of Superbowl XLlll.
Now a lot of my work mates thought we were mad sitting up in the middle of the night just to watch 15 minutes or so of Bruce but not watching it live would have been unthinkable. We had even looked at the cost of going to the game but we would have had to raid a bank to afford the tickets. Still it would have been good to say ‘We woz there’
In the end I am not sure how I felt about the show (if you can call such a short set a show). I was desperate for Bruce to put on a great performance and before he came on I was nervous for him. Perhaps a little nervous for me too. After all you don’t want your friends to think your choice of music is naff! My desire to get other people to see what I see is compulsive but I am also aware that, to a non believer, he is just an old man still trying to rock. He just isn’t cool.
So our friends aren’t big fans but they don’t dislike him either. I don’t think the half time show gave them any reason to change that opinion. It was OK but not amazing.
We managed to stay up until the end of the match and although I can’t remember much about the actual game I think the final quarter was quite gripping. It was quite close at the end.
Some time during 2008 we had become Gaslight Anthem fans. Like a lot of artists we follow we had found out about them because of the Bruce connection. I knew they were Springsteen fans and came from New Jersey and I had also seen Brian Fallon’s acoustic cover of Backstreets on YouTube which is a bit hesitant but still good.
“The 59 Sound” was a constant companion for months on the car stereo and is still one of my favourite albums.
It was with them in mind that I decided to book a coach trip to Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park - an excuse to see Bruce again and Gaslight Anthem were on the same bill. Neither of us had been to a festival before. Can’t say they really appeal - all that mud, camping and iffy toilet facilities.
Glastonbury was never on our list of to dos and anyway most of it is on the TV these days. Hopefully Bruce’s set would be on but I couldn’t see the Beeb showing 3 hours worth. There were many rumours flying around as to how much if any would be shown - fingers crossed time.
So by then end of February we were sorted - the Hyde Park gig on 28 June and Dublin on 11 and 12 July.
Less than a month later we were sitting with a consultant in Leeds General Infirmary and I am asking him if I will be well enough to go and see Bruce Springsteen after surgery for breast cancer.
Yes really! - the thing I was most upset about was the fact that I might not be well enough to see Bruce.
Now I had to start working on my own dream.
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