"You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright"
- GREETIINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J
- BORN TO RUN
So, I'm sitting here with an album called Greetings From Asbury
Park, NJ. The cover pretty much looks like a post card. You know those post
cards with sunny pictures that occasionally dumps into your mail box from people
that you really don't know that well? Post cards giving you a hard time trying
to figure out the short, rushed, hand written message about the sun, the beach
and the lovely nice people? Post cards showing some paradise in a far off place
that you possibly can not imagine what its like? No matter how hard you try.
Let me tell you, this post card is different.
Everybody knows how to relate to the message that lies within the text on the
back. The stories that are being told with this post card are not rushed, hand
written, short messages. No, they are thoughtful, careful, and throughout easy
to relate to. With simple melodies and rough musical arrangements we are taken
away to a place that really exists. And it exists everywhere.
We get to read about complicated love affairs. "I don't understand how you can
hold me so tight and love me so damn loose". How many post cards have you received
saying that? This postcard says that over here times are hard, but I'm standing
up for myself and I won't let anybody put me down. And you know what? I can
still have a good time doing it!
Sure, sometimes it can be a little too much to handle at once, but this sender
knows how to put together a great story. And what's more? It isn't that long
either. You won't get bored. There's just simply not enough time for it. And
while you're being told the fabulous stories about madmen and drummers, angels
and guys growing up, stories about how your mother told you not to look into
the sun, but you did anyway because that's were all the fun is and you ended
up blinded by the light, you will find that every single sentence on this post
card is in some way or another about yourself.
Most post cards are from people that you have met at least once or twice, this
one is the first meeting with a new friend. A friend for life. He introduced
himself with a post card from New Jersey and signed it: Yours truly, Bruce Springsteen.
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and reviews!
Everybody knows this record, even if they're not aware of it,
songs such as "Thunder Road" "Jungleland" "Backstreets" and "Born To Run" will
send shivers up and down your spine just by glancing at the titles.
This is classic rock about the victims and leftovers of a narrow-minded society,
it is young people desperately trying to break free from the older generation
and make something out of their situation. This is where happiness can be driving
your car all night with the radio on, where happiness can be just sitting down
strumming your guitar on the front porch. This is rock and rolls finest hour
and sums up what the genre first was all about.
But then again, is this album rock at all? Just like Pet Sounds, Thick as a
Brick and Sgt Pepper, you can always wonder if this really is rock music. Is
it even pop? Well, yes the title track sure is rock, and it is rock at its best.
"She's The One" features the drummer Max Weinberg doing a nice, easy going Bo
Diddley rhythm, slightly hidden beneath the rest of the band. But on the other
hand we have piano driven ballads like "Badlands" and "Jungleland", both songs
spiced up with decent sax solos from the big man, Clarence Clemons, for those
of you who cringe at the sax stylings frequently featured on other Springsteen
songs, I can assure you that on this album all sax parts are carefully arranged
and played. Tasteful, even!
Then we have an incredible slow, quiet song entitled - "Meeting Across The River",
it has a kind of jazz feeling running through it, piano, sax and Bruce's vocals
being the mainstay on this track. Is it about selling drugs? Is it about buying
drugs? I really don't know. But it's about doing something that most people
look down on, something very risky and dary. And according to the lyrics, at
least worth "2000 grand".
My favourite song on here probably is the more lightweight Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.
It has a great southern soul feeling. I for one wouldn't be much surprised if
Wilson Pickett has recorded a cover version.
This album is raw energy coupled with calm observations of life and living,
it's pure fun at the same time as it is dead serious. Springsteen delivers his
poetic lyrics with great emotion and power whilst Roy Bittan puts on a fantastic
piano performance throughout the record. Perhaps it's been a bit over rated
over the years, but then again, which classic album hasn't?
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The day of 11th September will be with us in our minds forever. No matter how we feel about the Taliban and American conflict we can agree on that innocent people had to give up their lives that day, and as any person with a normal functional brain will tell you, that is truly terrible.
People died, but what happened to the ones left behind, the mourning wives and the grieving children? What about the survivors that stared into the eye of death, passed the test and were able to go home to their families? What about them? What about those with hunting memories that keeps them awake, cold sweating at night? These are the people Bruce sings about on The Rising. He tells the stories of people desperately denying the fact that their loved one will not return home today. He sings about people who cook their partner’s favourite meal, kids who take out their dad’s favourite records, ready to be played when he gets home. But no matter how long they wait, there won’t be any echoes from footsteps in the stairs, nobody will turn the key, nobody will walk through that door and say that everything is ok. Can you imagine this?
Still, in all this darkness and despair Springsteen is also able to look at the future. He can see a life after this. Songs such as Let’s Be Friends, Mary’s Place and Waitin’ On A Sunny Day brings hope for tomorrow.
The one song that might have the biggest reference to the terror attacks is My City In Ruins, but it was in fact written much earlier and is about Bruce’s hometown that slowly falls apart.
Some of the songs are classic Springsteen sounding (Lonesome Day, Counting On A Miracle and already mentioned Mary’s Place), some are amongst the heaviest the Boss ever put on record (Further On), but more important, they’re all good songs. The only flaws I can track down here are The Fuse, World’s Apart, Let’s Be Friends and the chorus in Into The Fire, (“May your strength give us strength/May your faith give us faith/May your hope give us hope/May your love give us love”? Yuck!) which otherwise is just as good as the other stuff. That leaves us with 11 great songs. My personal favourite being the dark, acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad offspring Paradise.
Several artists have tried to deal with this subject. Some more successful than others. Most often it tends to be novelties and banal. Bruce take on the 11th September is not. 15 songs, ticking in for a good 70 minutes means that this would have been a double album in the old vinyl days and would probably have got even more attention. Sure, the nod against the attacks are obvious, but many of these songs are still highly enjoyable as your average depressing album of lost love, meaning that people with no connections to the Twin Towers or the USA can relate to The Rising on a personal level.
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