New Time but same Old Stuff

For the benefit of my regular readers - thank you one and all- I will start this blog 

with a short

  announcement

My routine has changed in the last few weeks and this has had an unexpected knock on effect on my blog.  This means that my Weekly blog is going to become my Sunday Evening blog.

Hopefully my musings will round off your weekend nicely and set you up for the week ahead.

So as promised during the week I listened to the Born to Run outtakes.  Arcade Fire was put on the back burner.  Well it goes without saying that Bruce must take precedence.

We downloaded this collection of songs a long time ago and I realise now why I haven't checked this out more thoroughly before.  At the time I wouldn't have been interested in alternative versions.  I was only just getting to know some of the officially released stuff.

I assume the whole thing suffers a little from not being finished - the two versions of 'Backstreets' sound really tinny.  I haven't got a very musical ear but there are definitely strings in version 1 which seems to lick along at an unnaturally speedy pace.  I prefer version 2.  This is more similar to the official version musically but has different lyrics.

Born To Run has strings too and weirdly backing singers pop up from time to time - very unerving and a bit Partridge Family - ish.  Could this be Mike Appel's influence? Anyway yuck!

There are three versions of Thunder Road and I must admit I really like this one.





Takes a bit of getting used to after hearing the familiar track so many times but if you have never heard it before give it a chance.  You will be singing along to the new tune in no time.

The two songs that are new to me are 'Walking In The Street' and 'Lonely Night In The Park' which (as I mentioned last week) was the track that prompted me to dig out the CD again - both great songs.  I'd never heard of 'The Heist' before either but this turns out to be 'Meeting Across The River' by another name.  It's not one of my favourite tracks but this version has more trumpet on it and it's OK.

Anyway on to other things.

Our man has been fairly busy this week here he is visiting The Upstage Club
I must say I'm not sure about the outfit here - perhaps it's because I'm not used to seeing him in beige. Showed it to Mike who has always kind of liked Bruce's fashion sense.  He won't be going out to buy anything similar any time soon.

Bruce also popped in to Little Steven's Underground Garage to chat about this and that.  The interview will be aired in three parts this weekend and 8th and 15th April.  Don't know if we can hear this in the UK.

And in a spare moment he has found time to put pen to paper.  As I write this I wonder if he actually sent a letter or just emailed.  A letter might be worth a few $$$ on Ebay!

A good few years ago now Mike did a stint as a city councillor.  He had to hold regular surgeries where the same complainers turned up time after time.  These folk often wrote to the local paper and I couldn't help but think about this when Bruce wrote his letter to the local rag.  Not that Bruce is complaining about his dustbins not being emptied

And finally he also turned up at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park last night



Interesting to compare this to another You Tube clip on the same page from way way back



My sign off for this week is another blog.  Wouldn't mind swapping locations with this woman, and if I knew how, I would put the clip of Bruce on my own blog.  A project for some other time maybe.

Even if you don't want to read the blog just click on the link - it will make you smile and you all know how I feel about smiles.

See you next Sunday.  Have a good week.

Cover Me

I lived the first 18 years of my life by the sea.  Sutton-on-Sea to be precise – a small town on the Lincolnshire coast about 4 miles from Mablethorpe to the north and 15 miles from Skegness to the south. This has skewed my opinion of the seaside somewhat.  When I go home I have an irresistible compulsion to go to see the sea but suggest I get in the car on a sunny Sunday and drive to Scarborough or Blackpool and I would be horrified.  You see the seaside was my prison when I was a teenager.

Sutton was, and still is, a sleepy little place.  All the excitement,if you could call it that, was to be had in Mablethorpe (Skegness being an expensive and long bus ride away).  Here during the summer the amusement arcades opened and there was a funfair.

As teenagers it was expected that we would get summer jobs waitressing or selling ice creams, rock and candyfloss but during the evenings and on days off we would hang around the fair.

This was way back in the days before video games had even been thought of so our 'pleasure machines' were penny slots, table football or pinball.  There was a carousel, waltzer, twister and big wheel and we had our very own Madame Marie, although she was called Gypsy Rose Lee or some such..



There wasn't a boardwalk instead a concrete promenade lined with a few shops, cafes and beach huts.

A bit off topic you might be saying but as you know all roads lead to Springsteen (or in this case they lead from Bruce and back round to him again) and I was prompted to tell you this after I pulled out our copy of Light of Day – A tribute to Bruce Springsteen. 


The cover depicts probably the first picture I had seen of the Asbury Park boardwalk and I was struck by how similar it is to my home.  It's not that it looks the same it's just a feeling:something about the atmosphere of the place. Maybe it's just the sea.

Anyway I escaped my seaside town at about the same age as Bruce landed in his but in an odd way his affection for the place made me appreciate my own home a bit more.

So Light of Day was the first covers album we actually bought.  We had two albums given away free with Uncut magazine which Mike had played over and over.  He is a champion of the cover really.  In fact there are some occasions when he would choose to listen to the cover over Bruce's original.  On the other hand I know there are many tramps who can't even bear to listen to any version other than Bruce's.

I fall somewhere between the two.  I have nothing against covers.  Some I like, some I don't like and some are just so different that it makes me listen to Bruce's version in a new light.  On the whole though I don't think I would ever prefer someone else's interpretation of a Springsteen song more than his own.  At least I'd never admit it not even to myself.  Or would I ?... I'm not a Tom Joad fan but I like this






That version of 'Sinaloa Cowboys' is on the albums (it's a double) along with some other unusual covers.  I would recommend it to any Bruce fan just for the experience of hearing a new interpretation of an old, familiar and ,in some cases, much loved song.  I can't pick out a truly bad track.  There are artists we have never heard of, some we didn't know at the time but have familiarised ourselves with since and one who we have met a couple of times – you know who you are Mr Wright.

The first version of 'The Promise' we heard was a cover from the album by an Italian – Graziano Romani. During a holiday in Italy a few years back we went into every record shop trying to find something by him but to no avail. 

Anyway Mike's fascination with the cover means we also have One Step Up Two Steps Back – The songs of Bruce Springsteen. Another great double album.  More dubiously we own If I Were The Boss – The Songs Of Bruce Springsteen which includes such gems as 'Growin Up' by Alvin Stardust and 'Fire' by Shakin' Stevens.  The weirdest album? - it has to be The String Quartet Tribute to Springsteen.

Back in the days when we were just getting into ripping and burning, these many versions of the same song inspired Mike to make up two CDs of our own featuring only the one song in it's many guises. Atlantic City because it's his favourite and Thunder Road for me.

Well guys to be honest I can't find much Bruce news for you this week.  There's this DVD which is apparently being released in February.  For the intellectual among you this blog compares Steve Jobs with Bruce.

And finally this week to go back to the covers theme here's a medley for you to consider.  There is only a snippet of each so if there's something you hate it'll soon pass!