I’ve always been told that I have “eclectic” tastes in music. I personally believe this is a person’s way of politely saying “What the hell is the matter with you” but I’ve yet to prove it. Anyway, what it technically means is that I tend to like music from all over the spectrum – today I’m talking about Springsteen which is a notable departure from what I’ve talked about in the last review of Rush! Now before you moan and grown and start with the “he sounds like he’s tryin’ to take a crap!” and “he’s only had one album that got overplayed!” bit, let me get some myths outta the way: I was listening to him before Born in the USA. Tunnel of Love was in fact an album of ass. And he’s been around long before 1983 – he was playing music from before I was born – and he was just as surprised as everyone else was when Born in the USA took off.
The man is a born song writer. I know, so what, right? Paul Anka is (was? I dunno if he’s still around) a gifted song writer and, musically speaking, you couldn’t entice me with much of anything to sit thru one of his concerts. Springsteen however does a lot of everything to make his CDs and, more importantly, his shows are always a success. For the latest CD, The Rising, he’s said on many an interview that it was heavily influenced by last year’s attack. Now, does that mean it’s all about the attack or aftermath? No. He’s just influenced by it – he was just starting to write a new CD for him and the E-Street Band when the attacks occurred. It impacted him as it did the rest of the nation – his impact is reflected in his music. In fact, one of the new songs – My City of Ruins – was written for Asbury Park (NJ) and not NYC, as you might think. He also has been reportedly talking to survivors of the WTC attack as well as the families of the victims (office workers, NYPD, and FDNY) for their feelings and reactions. This makes for a rather wordy CD – in that the lyrics are profound and moving – but it actually works. There’s a nice balance of “deep” songs as well as the “frivolous” and light tunes.
The music on the CD itself is something unique yet familiar to me. Over the years, Springsteen has had a constant and unique sound (hence some of the constipation jokes – show me a rock song with a groan in it and odds are it’s Springsteen) as well as mixing in some obscure sounds: Sax, a Hammond B3 Organ, Piano, and random percussion. This is sorta weird for rock, even when he first got started – most rock in the 70’s were solely guitar with maybe a few ballads with an organ or piano. In the 80’s, that FM sound that everyone wanted put the focus on synthesizers… Springsteen has always seemed to have ignore the “trend” and just done what he wanted. This is why he was such a cult figure in the 70’s, a superstar in the 80’s (his music happened to be the “trend” of the nation at the time, otherwise it would have been just like the 70’s – he didn’t seem to sell out for stardom, is what I mean) and a relative unknown in the 90’s. This CD has turned just about everyone’s ear in one way or another. See, the interesting thing about this CD is that every song comes from a different genre. Every single song sounds like it’s from a different period of Springsteen’s career. This is something I’ve seen (well, heard) occasionally in the industry but it rarely works – yet, for him, it does. You can point to each song and say “Hey, that sounds like it’s off Darkness” and other fans will give you a “Hey yeah!”. Between the lyrics appealing to the populous and the music appealing to the critics, (you don’t have to appeal to the die-hard Springsteen fans – they’d love it anyway!) he’s got the #1 CD in something like 14 nations, the first week of its release. Color me surprised – I was getting used to him being obscure again!
On to the concert – yes, this was the concert that I had to go to New Jersey for – on the opening night for the tour. Now, this guy sold out like 15 shows (no exaggeration either – might have been 14 or 16, but it was that many) on the last tour, when he played NJ. And I mean sold out – no seats left, people begging for tickets on the way in. This tour? 46 shows, 46 cities – he wants a packed bar feeling every show. Floor seats? General admission! And I quote “I want it to be like a huge Stone Pony [a small bar Bruce used to play at – like Toad’s for you CT people or Kell’s for you WA people] every night.” So that’s an impressive thing right there – a blitzkrieg of a tour for him and the band. He played for about 2 1/2 hours (I think anyway – it was long) so you got your money’s worth. Like most musicians with a new album they believe in, he did a lot from the new CD – about eleven songs worth (the new CD has about 15 tracks, so that too is longer than the average CD these days) – so if you don’t like the new stuff at all, stay away from this show. The rest of the show was quintessential Springsteen: Born to Run while in the USA, living onThunder Road so you can Prove it All Night, by drinking 41 Shots.
My advice? If you can afford the show (pricey this little guy from southern Jersey) and you like the new CD, go see it – they’re good performers and the music sounds as good live as it does in the studio – just got some extra oomph live, so worth seeing it. If you like his old stuff, this is not the tour to expect to see Spirits in the Night or a five hour marathon of days gone by; just giving you fair warning. If you like the old and the new – go see it. The best news I can give you is that he seems to have forgotten the Ghost CD altogether – seeya down at Mary’s place!