Bruce was getting known for taking a long time to produce his albums, but it was during this time he fought for the rights to his own music, and won. So it was 1978 before his next album was released. I knew before I put it on the turntable that it was my least favorite of his first five albums, but I could still sing along with most of the songs, almost involuntarily. I actually have no favorite song on Darkness, which is a little – dark. I do however like the slow, almost dismal sound of “Racing in the Street.” I heard that it was going to be one of Bruce’s fast-paced songs, but Jackson Browne suggested he slow it down. It certainly does not glorify the life of the street racer.
I get the feeling that Bruce’s women are passive and put up with the crappy life his characters have to offer, and he loves them for it – deeply and with remorse.
So his progression continues heading into the responsibilities of adulthood, not so much kicking but definitely screaming. And Steve Van Zandt joined the band, completing the E Street Band as we knew it. Yes, I know this is the back of the album cover. But the front is not much different, he’s just wearing a black leather jacket over his undershirt.
With the departure of Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez and David Sancious, and the addition of The Professor, Roy Bittan on piano and “Mighty” Max Weinberg on drums, Bruce’s music lost some of its jazz-like qualities and went more rock – extraordinary rock. Born to Run also shows the maturing of Bruce Springsteen, in the way that the male of our species matures I guess. He was a punk kid in his first two albums, and now he’s become a punk man, with regrets, responsibilities and an implausible dream. And he’s always trying to convince the girl. My other favorite Bruce song, “Thunder Road” is on this album. There is no chorus, no repeating, no stopping, just moving forward at a manic pace, changing tempo here and there. And I know all the words.
I remember driving back from some party in a wealthy neighborhood somewhere in Connecticut in the wee hours of the morning singing “Thunder Road” with my Bruce lookalike boyfriend, impressing my friend that just passed and her brother’s wife, who were sitting in the backseat of my Corolla. I also remember impressing a bunch of strangers at the party, including some guy named Terry, who was a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers that wasn’t Bradshaw, and some 21-year-old lacrosse player, his 30-year-old girlfriend and their friends, with my ability to remain standing, or seated on a barstool, after multiple shots of vodka. I had no choice. We were so out of our element. There had actually been a woman sitting on the couch at one point, who was married to the producer named Duke and was stroking a little foo-foo dog that she held on her lap. I went off to get shot glasses and the vodka because I thought we needed to do shots, and when I came back in the room, my crew was gone, and I didn’t see them for the longest time. Turns out they went to the basement with the musicians. When they finally returned I was quite tipsy and I think engaged to the lacrosse player. I was not the driver back to New York.
But that was 1982, and we are actually talking about an album that came out in 1975, when I still didn’t know who Bruce was, but had started to hear bits and pieces. Born to Run is another amazing album, though I don’t think it’s on the Ram alternative list. It not only has the title song and “Thunder Road,” it has the incredible “Jungleland.” Who doesn’t love good sax? And this is great sax. The story line, the street life, Clarence Clemmons’ wailing saxophone cutting through the night montage. So cool. There’s also “Meeting Across the River,” which a friend confessed always made her cry, and “Backstreets,” which I have to admit that the part where Bruce repeats “hiding on the backstreets” like a dozen times, which I used to so get into, I now find a bit tedious. Eh. Growing up. What can you do?
Each time I heard “Kitty’s Back,” I would try to figure out the first line, the one before the words “Kitty’s black tooth.” No internet then. Someone eventually told me, and it made sense to me. But that was a very long time ago and I no longer remember what it is and still can’t figure it out on my own. Whether you can always understand what Bruce was saying or not, this was and still is a really great album. Song after song. I never much cared for “Wild Billy’s Circus Story,” but I think it just pales in comparison, considering the songs that are on this album, like “4th of July, Asbury Park,” better known as “Sandy.” This was only his second album, and saw the addition of the late Danny Federici on organ, accordion and such. It was also released in 1973, at which time I knew nothing of Bruce.
I started with side two, which only contains three songs, all vivid stories. It begins with the rarely heard “Incident on 57th Street,” which, when heard on the radio always leads right into one on my two favorite Bruce Springsteen songs, “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight).” That was always exciting for me, when they’d play the first song and I knew, because as one DJ said, “it’s the law” due to the connecting piano piece, that they would play the song that turned me. It’s the first one I saw him perform, and yes, Bruce is a great songwriter and arranger, but he is also one amazing performer. Sure, by that time I had heard “Born to Run.” It was background music in a bar or on the radio, and it had caught my interest because the woman’s name in the song is Wendy and that was one of my mother’s nicknames for me (refer back to Peter Pan). One day or night, I was watching something on TV, pre-MTV, that showed a clip of a Bruce in concert performing “Rosalita.” I was intrigued by him and the song, and then even more so when two girls rushed the stage, practically knocking him down to kiss him. One got him good and he didn’t protest until after they were pulled off of him. And then he went on to finish the end of the song. I thought it both funny and cool. I’m doing this from memory, so I have to wonder how much of that I made up.
I recommend if you like good music, you take a listen and turn it up to eleven. Oh, and this album has just bumped Delaney and Bonnie from their Ram 2 spot. So close, but they had a good run.
Yes, it’s true. I am a Bruce Springsteen fan. Not to worry, though. For those of you who are not Springsteen fans, I don’t have too many albums, and they only go so far in time. But, unlike the other albums in my whole record collection, which are in alphabetical order by artist then title, this mini-collection is in chronological order. And so we start with Greetings From Asbury Park, Bruce’s debut album that was released in 1973.
A couple of the songs are duds, and a couple are just okay. However, the good ones, well they’re real good and demonstrates Bruce’s mastery of story-telling by painting vivid pictures with both music and lyrics. I began with side two, which includes “For You,” “Spirits in the Night” and “It’s Hard to be a Saint in the City.” “For You” is an amazing song about attempted suicide that is far from a dark and somber song. It’s a song of admission and admiration with a quick tempo that echoes the singer’s perception of urgency. At least that’s what I think it’s about. The album is kind of short, so I flipped to side one and danced to “Blinded by the Light,” a song that I had heard long before I knew who Bruce was. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, a group that successfully crossed over from the 1960s’ British Invasion, had a hit with it, even though the controversial word in the song that they sang, was not what is in Bruce’s version. He wrote “deuce,” they sang “douche.”
I think it might have been 1976 before I knew who Bruce Springsteen was, and maybe 1978 before I started to really take notice. But it wasn’t until 1980 that I became a fan – definitely short for fanatic.
If I had to pick my favorite song from this album, it would have to be “Growin’ Up,” a song that captured the awkwardness and confusion of, well, growing up, while poking good-natured fun at it. While Greetings is pre-E Street Band, saxophonist Clarence Clemmons and bassist Garry Tallent were with Bruce from the beginning.
We are heading right into another very important time for me in my music life. I am sure some of you can guess where we’re going. So I’m taking a break right now. I need to mull this over carefully and decide how to handle it. Whatever the plan, however, knowing me as I do, it will probably, at least in part, go all astray as soon as I play each album. I just hope I don’t muck it up.
Tonight, I pulled out The Best of Delaney & Bonnie, which still holds the first Ram alternative title, and added a little other Ram alternative, Bette Midler for a nice workout. Yesterday was one of those movies with the ex day, but unfortunately we broke our streak of seeing really good movies by going to see The Lego Movie, because one or both of us have already seen everything out at this very moment that we care to see, and we agreed that we both really liked Despicable Me, so had no problem going to see a kids’ movie. Still we had a good time and were the only ones in the theater. I actually had to go find the projectionist when it looked like they had forgotten us.
You don’t think I would share a picture of my great grandmother on my father’s father’s side, without also sharing my great grandfather on my father’s father’s side, do you? This is him.
March 4 – Tuesday – Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes – Live – Reach Up and Touch the Sky – Pt 2
Just so you know, the picture has nothing to do with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. So not to bore you with the same album cover as yesterday, here’s one of my great grandmother on my father’s father’s side. I sure didn’t want to put up another picture of Max, who was nothing but a lump tonight.
But, this was fun. I’d totally forgotten most of the songs on this live set, so when side three started with “I Don’t Want To Go Home,” I was immediately lifted out of the bit of a funk I found myself in today. Then when the second song began, I recognized the sound but couldn’t place it. What was it? It was crawling from the base of my memory, I knew it, I liked it, but could I remember before the introduction was done? Then I heard the piano and I not only remembered the song, I remembered why I bought this album – for Southside Johnny’s live version of Bruce’s “The Fever.” So I played both songs again. I need the extra exercise anyway.
And you know, since the third and last song on the aerobic side is that old standard “Stagger Lee,” and it all kept me moving even through the floor exercises, which is not necessary, just a bonus (side four has a lot of Sam Cooke including “We’re Having a Party”), I hereby dub the second record of the Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes double set live album a Ram alternative. To think, I never even took it out of the cellophane.
I never saw Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes in concert, but I always heard that’s where they shined. And so far, this album is a good representation of that. I don’t have any attachment to the group. They were Springsteen contemporaries and New Jersey pals, and I especially like the Springsteen songs they do like “Talk to Me,” “Hearts of Stone” and “Trapped Again,” all of which I just heard. They certainly were a peppy band and the workout was good, but not Ram-worthy. But, we’ll see what happens with the second record.
I debated writing anything about the Academy Awards, but I’m going to, so if you don’t want to follow along, I mind not a bit if you choose to leave now and come back another time. I confess that my favorite part of the Academy Awards is the roll call of the dead, and the last two years’ presentations of it had annoyed me with the interfering singing of James Taylor and Queen Latifah, both of whom I like just fine. However, I just want to see the names and faces, and maybe a small clip of those we lost in the past Oscar year. But James and Queen are not there for us roll call purists, they’re there to entertain those who are disinterested, for whatever reason. To them I say, it’s a good time for a bathroom break, and take James and Queen with you. So, I was pleasantly surprised that they changed it back and had the song after the presentation ended, when our own Bette Midler came out and sang “Wind Beneath My Wings.” Yeah, I think it’s sappy too, but it’s also kind of catchy. I thought the last photo shown would be an icon like Peter O’Toole or Shirley Temple, but I guess Philip Seymour Hoffman is more dramatic. I won’t go on too much more, or even mention John Travolta’s gaffe, because it was the most congenial Oscar show I think I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot. There were a lot of good movies this year, and while my favorite movie of 2013, Lake Bell’s In A World (highly recommended, clever, funny movie), was barely recognized by the Indie Spirit Awards, much less the Oscars, I liked all the movies I saw and the performances. I had no problem with the winners, but I would have been thrilled if American Hustle had swept the awards, and would have griped if Leonardo DiCaprio had won. I just find him irksome.
“I don’t want to drink my whisky, but still do.”
Slade rules and to Quiet Riot I say ptooey. Slade was really big in the early 1970s, then weren’t, and then a decade later Quiet Riot totally rips them off. I don’t know anything about Quiet Riot nor anything else that they’ve done other than Slade songs in Slade style, and I don’t want to, so I shan’t say another word about them. Slade however has long been on the list of ugliest rock bands (there is an actual list), which they kind of deserve. For a glam rock band they seem to have played up their unattractiveness, even though one guitarist was kind of cute. This compilation album consists of their hard rocking hits like “Cum On Feel The Noize,” “Gudbuy T’ Jane” and the above quoted “Mama Weer All Crazee Now.” It’s not exactly sophisticated music, but it got my heart pumping but good throughout the whole album. It’s not a stretching and chanting record either, but, yes indeed, it has made it onto the Ram alternative list. It is my only Slade album, so while their reign was short-lived in my rock ‘n roll realm, it did exist.
Just to let you know right off the bat, this is a Ram alternative. Not a contender for the top two or even three slots, but it will probably come out again for workout purposes and for sheer entertainment. This is one swell album. Bob Seger is a good story teller and a hard rocker. Another one that I didn’t know what to expect or how I was going to react when I put the record on the turntable. Not all the songs are winners, but it starts with “Hollywood Nights,” goes into “Still the Same,” deserving of its hit status, and then when “Old Time Rock & Roll” begins, you can see Tom Cruise sliding across the floor in his underwear. I’ll admit that the song is not my favorite and I didn’t find Tom Cruise attractive until I saw him in Knight and Day, which I watch whenever it is on, no lie. It’s not that I didn’t like Tom Cruise before, I did, in many things. I liked him in Born on the 4th of July, Vanilla Sky (I seem to be the only one that liked that movie), and even though I was such a big fan of Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat, when I learned, like all other fans, that Tom Cruise would be playing the part of tall, lithe and catlike Lestat, I was outraged. That was until I saw him in A Few Good Men, and realized what a good actor he was. There was that scene in the courtroom where he’s deciding whether to go after Jack Nicholson or not, and he pauses, knowing what he has to do and the little bead of sweat going down his temple, that’s when I knew he would make a mighty fine Lestat, and I was right. And then there’s that movie he made with Jamie Foxx, Collateral, in which he is just so evil. But we won’t talk about that because apparently Jamie Foxx is dating Katie Holmes.
Well, that was quite a tangent, wasn’t it? As I was saying, “Old Time Rock & Roll” is not my favorite song, even if it is a tribute to my favorite music genre. Seger’s “Rock and Roll Never Forgets” is not only a far better song, it helped me turn 30 with ease (“sweet sixteen has turned 31”). But that’s not on this album, and neither are my other two favorite Seger songs, “Katmandu” and “Betty Lou’s Gettin’ Out Tonight” (say what you will, but I just love a good slut song). What is on this album always surprises me. You’ve got to appreciate a guy who can belt out song after song, then comes out with the amazingly lovely and oh so relatable “We’ve Got Tonite.”
You know, sometimes I know some of what I’m going to write beforehand. But I started my workout with a blank page this evening, and just went with whatever came into my head. And for some strange reason, that was Tom Cruise.
I apologize that I this is the wrong album cover, but it’s what I had. It’s the same picture on both, so I thought, close enough.
This is a compilation of songs from their albums Meet the Rutles, Tragical History Tour, Sgt. Rutter’s Darts Club Band, and Let it Rot, plus songs from their movies A Hard Day’s Rut, Ouch!, and the animated Yellow Submarine Sandwich. Their 1978 television special All You Need is Cash told the story of the four young men from Liverpool and their rise to stardom. Now I haven’t heard any of this since, well, 1978, but I still recognized all the songs, at least the ones they had parodied, often more than one to one. They got the Beatle sound down without duplication, which progresses by paralleling the short but long in our memories, career of the Beatles. It was the brain-child of Monty Python’s Eric Idle and Python extra and musician Neil Innes, who wrote all the songs. The pair also played the Paul and John type characters. The executive producer was SNL’s Lorne Michaels, but I believe George Harrison had a role in it, more than just his performance in the special as a reporter, which if I remember correctly made me aware of why George never had many lines in the Beatles’ movies. But the show was very clever, complete with an all-star cast including Bill Murray as Bill Murray the K (no one will get that), and interviews with Mick Jagger and Paul Simon, whose answer to the question: Did the Rutles influence you at all? was simply: No. The album of the songs from it is just delightful. I had fun listening and working out and grinning from ear to ear.
Among the songs on Tragical History Tour (not included on this best of album): “The Fool On The Pill,” “Your Mother Should Go,” “W.C. Fields Forever,” “Denny Lane,” (no one will get that either) and “All You Need is Lunch.”
The Walrus Was Paul 