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9) Rosalita
I hesitated to put this on the list because I've never liked it as much as I'm supposed to. But what the hell, it does have one of my favorite Springsteen moments ever, and it's one of my favorite moments in all of rock and roll too. It's the bridge up through the whole third verse and I'll quote the whole fucking thing because I'm from the swamps of Jersey too. We're talking to a girl named Rosie;
Now I know your mama she don't like me 'cause I play in a rock and roll band
And I know your daddy he don't dig me but he never did understand
Papa lowered the boom, he locked you in your room
I'm comin' to lend a hand
I'm comin' to liberate you, confiscate you, I want to be your man
Someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny
But now you're sad, your mama's mad
And your papa says he knows that I don't have any money
Tell him this is last chance to get his daughter in a fine romance
Because the record company, Rosie, just gave me a big advance
My tires were slashed and I almost crashed but the Lord had mercy
My machine she's a dud, I'm stuck in the mud somewhere in the swamps of Jersey
Hold on tight, stay up all night 'cause Rosie I'm comin' on strong
By the time we meet the morning light I will hold you in my arms
I know a pretty little place in Southern California down San Diego way
There's a little cafe where they play guitars all night and day
You can hear them in the back room strummin'
So hold tight baby 'cause don't you know daddy's comin'
What more can you say. Rosie where'd you go.
10)Backstreets
He wrote too many songs that mean a lot to ever fit on just one list. What about Badlands, Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, So Young And In Love, The River, No Surrender...but "laying here in the dark you're like an angel on my chest" is a line I'm not willing to leave off this or any other list. What can you do? Terry left him on the backstreets when she said they'd always be together, and now she's back and Bruce looks her in the eyes and says, "You lied, didn't you? You lied". No, don't leave it off the list, take the song to heart instead. (I can't embed my favorite version of the song but I can link to it underneath the video here. It's from Winterland in '78, the classic song from the classic show).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDctqRZq7pg
Epilogue) The Wrestler
I'll put this one on here too just because I just saw the movie and it's a hell of a fucking movie. And the song makes me like the movie more and the movie makes me like the song more too. (Except the "have you ever seen a one legged dog trying to make his way down the street" line. One legged dogs don't try to make their way down any streets. They just lay there. But he makes up for it with "Have you ever seen a one legged man trying to dance his way free" line, and yes I have, and here you go).
Showing posts with label Springsteen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Springsteen. Show all posts
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
The 10 Greatest Springsteen Songs (Part 4)
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7) Born To Run
Of course it's on the list. This and Thunder Road are probably his two most perfect songs; the danger though is that if a song is too perfect it gets played too much and it's effect gets dulled. So usually if I hear Thunder Road or Born To Run playing on the radio I'll turn them off, try to save them for the right time. I want to die with you Wendy on the beach tonight, not drive to CVS with you Wendy.
8)From Small Things
This one shouldn't really be on the list, but I can't help it, I really love this song.
"Back home dear Johnny prays for his baby's parole
He waits on the hillside where the Wyomie waters roll
At his feet and almost grown now, a blue-eyed daughter and a handsome son
Well from small things, mama, big things one day come".
It was originaly recorded during his sessions for "The River" but not released on it and eventually given to this guy Dave Edmunds who recorded and released his version of it in 1982. Bruce's original version didn't officially come out until 2003. From a heavily bootlegged unreleased song to number 8 on this list, Bruce you should have put this on The River, it's better than "I'm a Rocker" and "Ramrod" combined.
continued next post
7) Born To Run
Of course it's on the list. This and Thunder Road are probably his two most perfect songs; the danger though is that if a song is too perfect it gets played too much and it's effect gets dulled. So usually if I hear Thunder Road or Born To Run playing on the radio I'll turn them off, try to save them for the right time. I want to die with you Wendy on the beach tonight, not drive to CVS with you Wendy.
8)From Small Things
This one shouldn't really be on the list, but I can't help it, I really love this song.
"Back home dear Johnny prays for his baby's parole
He waits on the hillside where the Wyomie waters roll
At his feet and almost grown now, a blue-eyed daughter and a handsome son
Well from small things, mama, big things one day come".
It was originaly recorded during his sessions for "The River" but not released on it and eventually given to this guy Dave Edmunds who recorded and released his version of it in 1982. Bruce's original version didn't officially come out until 2003. From a heavily bootlegged unreleased song to number 8 on this list, Bruce you should have put this on The River, it's better than "I'm a Rocker" and "Ramrod" combined.
continued next post
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The 10 Greatest Springsteen Songs (Part 3)
continued from the last post
5) Born In The USA
This one's a cliche at this point but like always with this song you need to listen to the words. As explosive as the drums, they pull no punches and deliver right up to your face what you deserve. "The first kick I took was when I hit the ground. You end up like a dog that's been beat too much till you spend half your life just covering up". It tells a story about those left cold. "Down in the shadow of the penitentiary out by the gas fires of the refinery, I'm 10 years burning down the road, no where to run, ain't got nowhere to go". The synthesizers sound dated but the message will not be as long as we still fought in Vietnam and Ronald Reagan had the presidency.
6) The Promised Land
My favorite Springsteen hook ever and my favorite song with a harmonica too. Bruce dances on the grave of every asshole down in Utah in a town full of loser's across the Waynesboro County line. (On a side note there is no Waynesboro County in Utah. There are assholes though).
continued next post
5) Born In The USA
This one's a cliche at this point but like always with this song you need to listen to the words. As explosive as the drums, they pull no punches and deliver right up to your face what you deserve. "The first kick I took was when I hit the ground. You end up like a dog that's been beat too much till you spend half your life just covering up". It tells a story about those left cold. "Down in the shadow of the penitentiary out by the gas fires of the refinery, I'm 10 years burning down the road, no where to run, ain't got nowhere to go". The synthesizers sound dated but the message will not be as long as we still fought in Vietnam and Ronald Reagan had the presidency.
6) The Promised Land
My favorite Springsteen hook ever and my favorite song with a harmonica too. Bruce dances on the grave of every asshole down in Utah in a town full of loser's across the Waynesboro County line. (On a side note there is no Waynesboro County in Utah. There are assholes though).
continued next post
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The 10 Greatest Springsteen Songs (Part 2)
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3) The Promise
If Bruce had never made it. A song that was never released in it's original version, it's one of his greatest ever; in another world Jon Landau writes "I have seen the future of rock and roll and it's dying down on the highway tonight". Mick Jagger became an acountant, Elvis Presley drives a truck, and Jim Morison sits behind a desk with kids at home and an ageing wife. They're all around you, so close they're see through, and "everyday it just gets harder to live the dream you're believeing in"; until you disapear completely to everyone but Bruce, who in a flash in the late 70's called "The Promise" saw them all for just a moment before they vanished once more in the night.
4) Incident On 57th Street
Bruce's first two albums don't really sound like him. He hadn't found a consistent voice yet and he wouldn't find one until his fourth album, "Darkness on the Edge of Town", in 1978. But that's not to say his first two aren't great, just because something doesn't last for long doesn't make it worse than the parts that do. His second album in particular is like no other album I've ever heard. Those beautiful opening piano notes set a scene one step from Born To Run, where you're still too young to question if you're not that young anymore or if there's magic in the night. A shot of the youth that ends too quickly, right before you go to fight and stand or fall defeated in the badlands where you'll spend the rest of your life.
continued next post
3) The Promise
If Bruce had never made it. A song that was never released in it's original version, it's one of his greatest ever; in another world Jon Landau writes "I have seen the future of rock and roll and it's dying down on the highway tonight". Mick Jagger became an acountant, Elvis Presley drives a truck, and Jim Morison sits behind a desk with kids at home and an ageing wife. They're all around you, so close they're see through, and "everyday it just gets harder to live the dream you're believeing in"; until you disapear completely to everyone but Bruce, who in a flash in the late 70's called "The Promise" saw them all for just a moment before they vanished once more in the night.
4) Incident On 57th Street
Bruce's first two albums don't really sound like him. He hadn't found a consistent voice yet and he wouldn't find one until his fourth album, "Darkness on the Edge of Town", in 1978. But that's not to say his first two aren't great, just because something doesn't last for long doesn't make it worse than the parts that do. His second album in particular is like no other album I've ever heard. Those beautiful opening piano notes set a scene one step from Born To Run, where you're still too young to question if you're not that young anymore or if there's magic in the night. A shot of the youth that ends too quickly, right before you go to fight and stand or fall defeated in the badlands where you'll spend the rest of your life.
continued next post
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The 10 Greatest Springsteen Songs (Part 1)
1) Thunder Road
I fell in love to this song. It was back in highschool, lost and alone, I met the most beautiful girl I've ever found and Bruce had already found her first. Everyone leaves you but this one; they'll all lie to you but her. Cry if you want to, play it loud if you want to, hold her close if you want to; down from here it's almost tragic; everything else that once was great from now on compared to this will never be as great as it was and will come up looking a little bit worse. If you're going to give your life than give your life to something special; here's making the greatest record ever and keeping the magic on this Earth.
2) Devils And Dust
Some people will think this is a bad choice for number two on a list of Bruce's best songs. But if they do then they must know something that I don't. "Devils and Dust" is the best song about terrorism, civil liberties, being a soldier and being a human that's ever been written as far as I can find. It's almost the exact same melody from one of his other songs ("Blood Brothers") but that means nothing. "What if what you do to survive kills the things you love". When this song first came out I played it in my car for weeks, and I just heard it for the first time in a while and got chills at "we're a long long way from home Bobby, home's a long, long way from us" just like I did in 2005 when it was released. Bruce was 55 when it came out; this is no country for old men but here's how old men stay alive as all the young become deceased.
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I fell in love to this song. It was back in highschool, lost and alone, I met the most beautiful girl I've ever found and Bruce had already found her first. Everyone leaves you but this one; they'll all lie to you but her. Cry if you want to, play it loud if you want to, hold her close if you want to; down from here it's almost tragic; everything else that once was great from now on compared to this will never be as great as it was and will come up looking a little bit worse. If you're going to give your life than give your life to something special; here's making the greatest record ever and keeping the magic on this Earth.
2) Devils And Dust
Some people will think this is a bad choice for number two on a list of Bruce's best songs. But if they do then they must know something that I don't. "Devils and Dust" is the best song about terrorism, civil liberties, being a soldier and being a human that's ever been written as far as I can find. It's almost the exact same melody from one of his other songs ("Blood Brothers") but that means nothing. "What if what you do to survive kills the things you love". When this song first came out I played it in my car for weeks, and I just heard it for the first time in a while and got chills at "we're a long long way from home Bobby, home's a long, long way from us" just like I did in 2005 when it was released. Bruce was 55 when it came out; this is no country for old men but here's how old men stay alive as all the young become deceased.
continued next post
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