New Springsteen Jan 27th

[Analogman]

The Dusty Springfield question was one of the ones I missed. I don't recall the other ones.

[LouisvilleGreg]

I can beat that. My future wife and I went to see REM at Carbondale back on the green tour. They played a nice show and one of the encore's was the Rolling Stones Paint it Black. She looked at me and said "I didn't know this was their song".

 

I knew multiple metalheads who though Motley Crue doing "Anarchy in the U.K." was a new song by them.

[Moss]

The Dusty Springfield question was one of the ones I missed. I don't recall the other ones.

 

Missed 5 although I got lucky on a few.

[Analogman]

It was certainly different from the run of the mill rock trivia quizzes you usually find.

[Moss]

I used to go take the Rhino music aptitude test when I lived in LA in the Tower Records parking lot. It was a blast. One year Alice Cooper was there, the next year Devo hosted. It was basically a bunch of school desks in the parking lot and a 1 hour test. I think there were 100 questions or something. I don't think I have your head for music trivia (analog) but I did not do half bad. I find the older I get the less I am remembering though. I was huge into rock biographies and things so that helped. They may still do it online every year, not sure. It was a blast and was actually quite challenging.

[Analogman]

I would like to take that test.

 

(Dear Friends & Fans, a little glimpse from center stage.)

[LenF]

It

[Moss]

I would like to take that test.

 

(Dear Friends & Fans, a little glimpse from center stage.)

 

Here is the link to the test. Looks like it was in March last year so should be coming up soon this year I would think.

 

http://www.rhino.com/RMAT

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

It

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

I do not think his recent E Street albums were very good.. The Rising had some good songs but was way too bloated and about 5 songs too long for my tastes. Magic felt completely derivative to me

[LenF]

It's effectively about the small graces of life. As I've stated before, it's a political record, not a POLITICAL record. The small graces of seeing beauty in the mundane. The small graces of growing old with somebody you love. The Small graces of losing a longtime friend and companion.

 

(For Me) This record is about mortality, redemption and the wonder of everyday life. Everyday topics treated in an often epic fashion.

 

I know my attempts to wax eloquent about this may be tiresome; but I feel that this record is a BIG record about seemingly small topics.

 

Hs best work is always about the small things. I

[LenF]

For me, The Rising was generally a successful record. No other artist attempted to deal with the anger and agony of dealing with the losses of 9/11 as completely and as subtlely. Neil tried...but he was anything but subtle. I think he might have prejudiced a lot of folks with his tale of how he came to record this one (the 'we need you Bruce' story). But what could have become an angry, jingoistic, strident record became a thoughtful, appropriately passionate and introspective snapshot of the American psyche in the months following 9/11. It is not an 9/11 record per se, but it is a record that deals with the rush of emotions that 9/11 wrought.

 

For me, there are only two songs that don't really work in the context of the record (The Fuse and Let's be Friends). I think there are some pretty sublime moments on The Rising:

 

The desperation of loss in the repitition at the end of "Counting on a Miracle" segueing into the angry acceptance of "Empty Sky". The angry guitar work in Worlds Apart...really killer live.

 

I personally dig the desperado's tale of "Further on up the Road". Bruce has a real fascination with the desert. And once again, he sees the ultimate end of the story that we all share.

 

 

I just always felt like he was trying to be a bit too grand in the topics he covered on that album. I never like "Counting on A Miracle".... it just seemed way too cliche to work in the context of what he was writing about. I completely agree about "The Fuse" and "Let's Be Friends". Despite his heavy borrowing from Sam Cooke and my aversion to the nightly 15 minute version, I always thought "Mary's Place" and "Lonesome Day" did the best job of capturing the sentiment of what the album was about, at least to me.

 

I too love "Further on up the Road", which has a deeply personal meaning to me and "City of Ruins" also worked very well. I just think that he would have been better served by a bit more focus.... to each his own.

[John Smith]

I do agree that the rising is a bit too long for single and too short for a double. The thing about the risiing for me is that it may be about 9/11 but it does nto have to be. For me the record sounnds like a record of mourning and loss that could fit into many situations. It just happens to be about 9/11 and fits our national conscious in that regards, but in twenty years I think it will still stand up as being relevant.

[tongue-tied lightning]

It may not have worked on the record, but for some reaosn I love the song Lets Be Friends.

Bruce can write a great melodic pop song when he wants to, like Hungry Heart.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

I do agree that the rising is a bit too long for single and too short for a double. The thing about the risiing for me is that it may be about 9/11 but it does nto have to be. For me the record sounnds like a record of mourning and loss that could fit into many situations. It just happens to be about 9/11 and fits our national conscious in that regards, but in twenty years I think it will still stand up as being relevant.

 

 

EXACTLY.

 

And the same can be said for Magic...an anti-war, anti-loss of individual power and rights record that is specific in its non-specificity.

[Analogman]

Little Steven Tunes Up For Springsteen Tour

Bruce Springsteen

February 18, 2009 11:44 AM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

 

Between hosting his popular satellite radio show "Underground Garage" and running two record labels, one of them brand new, Little Steven Van Zandt assures Billboard he'll have time to tune up for the next Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band tour, which begins April 1 in San Jose, Calif.

 

"This will take, I'm going to guess, five or six rehearsals, only because we have a new album," Van Zandt says. "We need to re-learn or re-arrange the new songs for the live versions. We'll fool around with that stuff for maybe a week, and out we go. I have fun learning on the road (laughs). Every tour, you spend the first month or two relearning the songs as you play them. I'm still learning the chords for 'Born To Run!'"

 

Van Zandt admits the E Street Band rehearsed for their recent Super Bowl halftime show appearance "more than the last two tours combined. The technical stuff was absolutely fascinating, to see how they did that staging. It was just amazing to me. They had the thing up in four minutes!"

 

The guitarist also says there are no firm plans at the moment for Springsteen and company to feature complete performances of vintage albums as part of the upcoming tour, as had been suggested in the press, but that he doesn't rule out the idea.

 

In fact, the band played the albums "Born To Run" and "Darkness on the Edge of Town" in full at a May 2008 benefit in Red Bank, N.J. "That was so much fun," Van Zandt reports. "It might be a fun way to do something different. Maybe we'll be able to fit that in somewhere, but we have a whole new album to do as well."

 

Meanwhile, Van Zandt is about to launch a new hard rock label, Lost Cathedral, with the May 14 release of Crown Of Thorns' "Faith." It joins Van Zandt's garage rock label, Wicked Cool, under the banner of parent company Renegade Nation.

 

"We basically decided to keep Wicked Cool identifiable as a garage rock label, at least for now," he says. "In the last couple of years, we've gotten a lot of hard rock things submitted to us. A lot of it is quite good -- a little bit punkier or hard rock than we do with Wicked Cool."

 

And, one of the labels may prove a logical place to reissue Van Zandt's back catalog, which includes several successful solo albums from the '80s. "We're in possession of all of those," says Van Zandt, who now owns the masters. "I just haven't had time to focus on it. We actually should, because my stuff is really not very available. Maybe we'll stick it into one big boxed set."

[solace]

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Damn

[LenF]

Saw "The Wrestler" this past Saturday (fortunately my wife is pretty open-minded about movies, even on Valentine's day).

 

It reminded me a lot of "The Apostle" in that the story was pretty predictable but the level of performance is so good that it substantially raises the overall quality of the film.

 

The song and how it's used is perfect.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Saw "The Wrestler" this past Saturday (fortunately my wife is pretty open-minded about movies, even on Valentine's day).

 

It reminded me a lot of "The Apostle" in that the story was pretty predictable but the level of performance is so good that it substantially raises the overall quality of the film.

 

The song and how it's used is perfect.

 

 

And I STILL think Springsteen got hosed by the Academy.

[Moss]

And I STILL think Springsteen got hosed by the Academy.

 

He did. The biggest slap in the face is they only nominated 3 songs instead of 5. They can't even argue there was no room for him on the ballot. But then again it's the freaking academy. The Boss don't need them.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

The theory of relativity holds. On stage your exhilaration is in direct proportion to the void you're dancing over. A gig I always looked a little askance at and was a little wary of turned out to have surprising emotional power and resonance for me and my band. It was a high point, a marker of some sort and went up with the biggest shows of our work life. The NFL threw us an anniversary party the likes of which we'd never throw for ourselves (we're too fussy) with fireworks and everything! In the middle of their football game, they let us hammer out a little part of our story. I love playing long and hard but it was the 35 years in 12 minutes

[Sir Stewart]

fannies

Awesome.

[imsjry]

He did. The biggest slap in the face is they only nominated 3 songs instead of 5. They can't even argue there was no room for him on the ballot. But then again it's the freaking academy. The Boss don't need them.

 

Let's not forget the one he got for the inferior "Streets of Philadelphia"....

[John Smith]

Let's not forget the one he got for the inferior "Streets of Philadelphia"....

 

I don