A Stern Phone-call from the Boss

I know that this is a week late, but I had a busy week last week with reshoots on 'Beast...' so I'm just getting around to watching the DNC & RNC today... heck, I'm not even going to finish watching DNC highlights today, let alone catch up on analysis of the various passes, yields and of course Hillary's dramatic movement to suspend proceedure.
THAT was great theatre.
But then, Melissa Etheridge gets up on stage for a victory medley of songs.
I'm not really a fan, but I did buy her first CD back in... '88 was it that it came out? For that matter, when was it that she came out?
Anyhow... I'm off topic by a mile in just two sentences.
M.E. was at her throaty best on-stage in Denver last week... except for one lousy little galling thing.

I imagine that she took a phone call later that night.

M.E.: Hello?
B.S.: Hi. Is that Melissa?
M.E.: Yes. Who is this?
B.S.: Bruce.
M.E.: Bruce? I don't know any... oh. wait. THAT Bruce.
B.S.: Yeah. That Bruce.
M.E.: Bruce, from New Jersey, Bruce.
B.S.: Exactly.
M.E.: Look, Bruce I think I can guess what this is all about...
B.S.: You do, do you?
M.E.: Yes...
B.S.: Then why the fuck do I have to make this phone call!?
M.E.: I thought...
B.S.: First Reagan, now this.
M.E.: Well yeah, but he was a Republican.
B.S.: What kind of difference does that make?
M.E.: You let Kerry use 'No Surrender' - heck you even came out and played...
B.S.: What does that song mean?
M.E.: You mean 'No Surrender?'
B.S.: Yes. What does it mean?
M.E.: It means... uh...
B.S.: Don't think to hard now. It's right there in the lyrics...
M.E.: "No retreat... no surrender..."
B.S.: Riiiight. It was a good motto for that campaign...Christ, that fucking campaign...
M.E.: So...
B.S.: That's what it means. Simple as that. Now... what does 'Born in the U.S.A.' mean?
M.E.: "I was Bor-"
B.S.: NO!!!
M.E.: You say it like fifty times -
B.S.: It's ironic!
M.E.: But you sing it so anthemically.
B.S.: That's anger Melissa! Anger! Do you understand irate anger!?!
M.E.: Is that intended to be ironic?
B.S.: I swear to god, next R&R.H.o.F dinner, I'm gonna smack you right in the face. That song is about a country gone wrong. It's not about pride. When Republicans mis-use it, it's one thing. They look like idiots. But when it's used as a victory song for a history-making moment in Democratic Party nominations... FUCK! Melissa, Democrats should know better. The DNC should know better. Obama should know better. YOU SHOULD FUCKING KNOW BETTER!
M.E.: I'm sorry, Bruce. I'm a bad lefty. I screwed up. I'll never do it again. You are right, and by 'right' I mean 'correct' not...
B.S.: Yeah yeah, I know what you mean, I'm not nuance challenged like the rest of you.

Defending the Music XXI: A Million Different Voices Singing in Tongues

At last.


Number 21 of 21. The artist who was mocked, starting this entire series of posts, defending my choices for favourite music acts.


This is the only artist on the list who is an individual (though an argument could be made against that), and the timing is excellent as I saw him play live not 72 hours ago.


It was fucking amazing, and that should not be much of a surprize as he - and his band - have been making music together for over forty years.


I am speaking of Bruce Springsteen, and to a lesser extent, the E-Street Band. I will just as happily listen to the Boss's solo tracks as stuff with E-Street and lump it all together as Bruce Springsteen... and I am not alone.

Note that I only have one artist in my list of 21 who is an individual - Bruce Springsteen. He is that good. He can keep pace with 20 other bands that rely upon the creativity of an entire group.

I do recall hearing Born to Run and Thunder Road on my local radio station in Prince George, CKPG, as a kid. But I was hardly a Springsteen fan. I was well on my way towards being a punk rock kid by then. The chances of 'The River' making my playlist could not have been detected by the greatest science of the day. In fact I once allowed someone to play my guitar when I was about 15 and when he played 'The River' I felt the need to wash my poor instrument.

When Born in the U.S.A. came out my Dad bought it through Columbia Music House. My response at the time was something like "Aww, Dad, that album has been out for months. It's SO old." And sure enough it had seen two, or perhaps even three singles by that time. It would stay on the charts for fucking ever and it would seem like every song on the album made the top ten at one time or another. This is definitely hyperbole, but not by as much as one might assume. Seven of the twelve tracks on the album made the top ten and another, not even released as a single(!), cracked the top forty.

We can safely fast forward fifteen years during which I was pretty much unaware of Springsteen. I knew he won an Academy Award for the song he wrote for Philadelphia and had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and got married to one of his bandmates, but really I wasn't interested. The closest he came to really registering on my radar was when Rage Against the Machine (of all people) did a cover of one of his songs... which I found I actually quite liked.

Then someone flew a plan into a building in New York and changed the world.

Springsteen responded with what for me would proved to be his most important album. Some people saw it as opportunistic - capitalizing on the grief and disaster, but not me.

My friend Norm exhorted me to give The Rising a listen. I evaded it until he gave me a copy, at which point it became nothing but capriciousness to not give it at least a token listen. Musically it was a revelation for me. Damn he's a good song-writer - I suppose that ought to go without saying if someone is going to have as long and illustrious a career as he had had. In many ways The Rising said many of the things that were lingering in the back of my mind. He personalized the incident and stepped away from the cliches that had already developed. He was the only artist with the voice to say the things I needed to hear without getting all jingoistic about it.

Roughly a year later I had been cast in "Of Mice and Men." As is my practice, a ritual developed around the show for me - I won't get intot he philosophy of that here, though it may be worth commentiing upon at another time. In this case the ritual included walking each night to the theatre - about a 45 minute trip across town (as it turned out, usually in the pouring rain). I was going to need some music for the trip. The very first night, I stopped at a store to choose the disc that would be my ritual disc for the trip. It turned out to be a really easy selection. The thin edge of the wedge was already in. When I saw Springsteen's Greatest Hits disc on the shelf I knew that it was the appropriate choice - after all, the RATM song that I had liked had been "The Ghost of Tom Joad", so there was an obvious Steinbeck connection. That and the additional ties between Americana and my own developing musical tastes made it a shoe in.

Within a few months I also owned a copy of "Live in New York City." And within another year I pretty much owned his entire catalogue.

He remains one of the best song writers of the past fifty years, and proves it album after album. When his latest single was relased, Radio Nowhere, I was stunned that a man approaching retirement age could rock that hard.

Last week - a week ago tonight, in fact. I recieved a phone call from my friend Mark asking if I was a fan. I told him that I was and he asked me to come use his extra concert ticket. It didn't take any real provocation.

The concert was spectacular. He opened with my favourite song, 'Atlantic City', moved on to the hard rocking 'Radio Nowhere' and just kept on killing. During those first few songs I thought to myself that Bruce was looking his age, but 3 hours later he was looking a lot closer to the 35 years old he was back when he recorded the 'obscure outtake from Born in the USA', that they played for allegedly the first time ever live.
The raw energy of his performance was inspiring - and is legendary. On top of that, the nine members of the E-Street band make up a wicked group of musiciians who have been playing together for around 40 years... is it any wonder that they can turn a relatively sedate gospel-blues number like Reason to Believe into something that had more in common with heavy metal, with The Boss literally screaming through his harmonica (which was sonically awe inspiring, and something he apparently started doing after the best clip I could find of the song in concert).

I have only ever been to one other concert where there was such an air of mutual belonging. As Mark said, this show 'wasn't a concert so much as a revival.' The house was packed with true believers, and any doubt as to why they felt that way would have been put to rest long before the crowd leapt (and admittedly in come cases creaked) to it's feet for the opening chords of 'Born to Run'.

A week later I still have "The River" pleasantly coursing it's sad path through through my skull. It was amazing.

Who's the Boss?

When I started a few days ago, I chose the blog title "What's Your Problem. Canada?" after a still-born T.V. magazine I was involved in a few years back. I've always kept the name in the back of my head as a title for... something. Over the years I've kind of come to know that whatever it became it would probably focus on Canada's relationship with the U.S. It's actually surprising that my Urgemagnet column, didn't get titled "What's Your Problem,Canada?" but the American Gothic graphic just couldn't be ignored, and the accompanying title simply had to be.

So far, any connection to my opinions about the U.S. has been tenuous at best. And once again, this post is going to largely ignore the originally intended theme. However, at least this time I'll be talking about an American Cultural Icon...

The other day I was waiting for a bus at a stop outside of a magazine store.
In the window of the store a magazine was being displayed that seemed to be dedicated to The Boss. Every single article in it was about Bruce Springsteen. Every one. Seems a bit excessive to me - an entire magazine about one person... mind you there is a magazine called 'Oprah' so who knows what niche markets are going to appeal to a broad enough segment as to warrant an entire magazine.
One of the articles touted on the cover was something to the effect of "Celebrities pick their top Springsteen songs of all time!" Which makes me ask - "Why do I care?" Why do I want to know what Scott Weiland or Sandra Bullock think are their favourite E-Street tracks? I don't really. But it got me thinking, what are MY favourite Springsteen songs of all time? Not that me telling you is really any different than Jon BonJovi telling me...
Bruce Springsteen. I'm not a particularly big fan. I respect him, for certain, but I wouldn't include myself among the true believers. I own a whopping three of his albums, one of which is a Greatest Hits package... which in my mind is a mark of a band-wagon jumper. Why would a real fan have a 'Best of' album? They should already have all the best stuff right? Point being, I'm about to pass judgement on a subject I'm not terribly well informed upon... not the most enlightened of positions, but I have to think that the Socratic admission of ignorance is worth something.
I remember when the Born in the U.S.A. album came out - it was also about the time that Much Music premiered. I recall seeing the 'Dancing in theDark' video and thinking it was a pretty cool song - and that chick he pulled out the crowd was pretty cute...
A few more singles came out - I think 'Bobby Jean' was next; and then the eponymous track. Then my Dad bought the album. I recall thinking "Way to go, Dad. This album is OLD already." I was a young teen, so my idea of old vs. new was pretty skewed. The album stayed in the top ten for something like a year and a half after that point producing no less than three more hit singles: "Glory Days" "My Hometown" "I'm on Fire" possibly more - I remember thinking that virtually every song on the album was a hit. That was a bit of exaggeration.

So what is Bruce's greatest song?
How do you define it?

"I'm on Fire" has been remade by a variety of artists including Tori Amos and Johnny Cash. Each one markedly different from the others, and each one a little gem of a song. That's a mark of a good song - that it can be remade with such breadth successfully. Look at Elton John's "Rocket Man" - none of William Shatner, Kate Bush or William Hung could ruin it. Hell, even Elton John couldn't ruin it.

What made the biggest impact to his career? Well, an argument can be made that no song does more than the first release - as if you didn't impress with it, there wouldn't be any others, but that aside...
"The River" - possibly. Definitely a great song. It's the absolute essence of the Springsteen ethic, with it's bleak blue-collar story-telling. Shot-gun weddings, union-cards, the empty passion of nihilistic youthful sex and mourning lost childhood. Springsteen arguably wrote this song over and over again for the next fifteen years... which is also it's failing.
"Born in the U.S.A." - Possibly the most misunderstood song he ever wrote. Leave it to heartland America to miss the point. Perhaps the song itself is at fault. It's anthemic chorus certainly seems victorious. But listen to the rest. The song could not possibly be much more cynical. It features one of the most brilliant lyrics I've ever heard. After three verses of two sets of paired rhyming couplets, he drops a line. "Had a brother at KheSahn/Fighting off the Viet-cong/ They're still there, he's all gone..." ... and then nothing. The simplicity of it is staggering. The listener's expectations are all set-up by the previous verses and then the loss of the brother is echoed by the gaping absence of a lyric. Amazing. Infuriatingly basic. But what is infuriating is that I didn't think of it first.

But I think that Bruce has got one collection of songs... er, I guess that's an album... that is different. Songs of hope. Songs of patriotism. Lyrically and sonically beyond most of his past work. Yet, in relative terms it was largely ignored. Mind you it was released in a different world - popular music fragmented, rock losing ground, P2P sharing knocking the hell out of the music industry... and of course that little matter of someone thinking it was a cool political statement to fly a plane into a building.
Now, it's going to become viciously apparent as I continue to post that I am among the less sympathetic of people when it comes to the 9/11 disaster. I won't get into it now, but suffice to say that it was a terrible thing - I just think that the American response kind of misses the point.
Having said that - "The Rising" nails the human aspect of it perfectly for me. Song after song, Springsteen explores a new side of the tragedy and taps into a new voice. It's a love-letter to New York. It's an exploration of heartbreak. An evokation of the inexplicable. A humble salute to heroism. I'm stuck as to what the best song amongst them is... "Nothing Man" the lament of a Fireman who survived while the rest of his crew died; "Into the Fire" - the mournful voice of a family member of a lost rescue worker; or the unadulterated victorious pride of the title track...

No definitive answer. Just an overview.

That was kind of a fun exploration... I may have to do that with other artists. Take that as a threat.