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Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons in Cleveland, 1977, by David Gahr, my edit of original via smithsonianmag

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The more things change the more they stay the same...

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Inside Out > Toy Story > Walle-E > Up > Finding Nemo 

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Springsteen Ask List

K, I guess ask lists are a thing? Here’s a Springsteen one. 1. Favorite song

2. Why does he say “speedball” instead of “fastball” in Glory Days

3. Is Glory Days his happiest sad song, or his most depressing happy song

4. How many times have you seen him live

5. Most important band member

6. Most underrated song on Born to Run

7. Most overrated song on Born to Run

8. Give me 5 overlooked lyrical gems

9. Best album

10. Worst album

11. What lyrics confuse you

12. How can a multi millionaire sing about the plight of the common man

13. What is the maximum you’d pay/travel to see a show

14. What song do you like more than most people

15. What song do you dislike more than most people

16. In what period was he most attractive

17. Favorite album cover

18. Who should play him in a Hollywood biopic

19. What band besides E Street would you like to see Bruce front

20. What front man besides Bruce would like to see front E Street

21. Favorite character from a song

22. Patti?

23. Does he says “Mary’s dress sways” or “Mary’s dress waves”

24. What song from Tracks should have been on the original album

25. Who is today’s Springsteen

26. You know how during the Darkness tour, he would kind of screech out “Badlands” during the end of the song? Wasn’t that awesome?

27. First song you play for someone who says they “don’t really listen to Springsteen”

28. What song by another artist/band do you wish was a Bruce song

29. Best lyrical innuendo

30. Best wedding song

31. What song of his would work really well for another artist/band

32. Best fantasy sports team name that uses a lyrical reference

33. Thoughts on Gaslight Anthem

34. Thought on The Killers

35. Give me a good reason why someone might dislike him

36. Favorite song to dance to

37. Would you rather listen to only Bruce for the rest of your life, or listen to any music but Bruce

38. Best concert opener

39. If you could talk to him for 2 minutes, what would you ask/say

40. Favorite thing to do while listening

41. Shots

42. Did you know I made a Springsteen power hour of my top 60 favorite songs

43. If he was an alcoholic drink, what would he be

44. Would you rather attend a concert or your favorite team’s championship game

45. If there was a dating site for Springsteen fans, what would it be called

46. Best advice given in a song

47. Favorite musical section of a song

48. Best nickname for the big man

49. Favorite YouTube video

50. Something I forgot to ask?

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Springsteen Super Bowl

A Twitter thread from @darthastuart about Springsteen’s Super Bowl Halftime performance. I’ve compiled the tweets below in narrative form. Link to thread at end.

In 2009, Springsteen had surely accomplished everything he could possibly have wanted as a rock star. He actually accomplished most of that by 1989 or so, then went back and did it all over again in 1999, with the return of E Street. 

So he and the band were ten years and a couple albums into this de facto “reunion.” If you attended any of these shows or saw the concert films, there’s an unmistakable air of appreciation running through it all. It’s like a second chance. “Phantom” Danny Federici died. An original E Streeter from the earliest days, his death contributed an unmistakable air of mortality to the band—if they weren’t before, they were suddenly playing on borrowed time. Springsteen and the band walked into the 2009 Super Bowl with nothing and everything to prove. Nothing, because they’d already conquered so much; everything, because everything they’d conquered led them to this ultimate stage—the last rock frontier. 

It is easily the most tightly choreographed performance in Springsteen’s career, and it’s widely accepted the band played live to a pre-recorded backing track—BUT I don’t know if any artist has ever managed to condense his message and brilliance into 12 minutes this well. 

They start with “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” and “Born to Run,” where many of us started with him—music of escape and liberation, of a man with a guitar and a band of misfits ready to make a break for it. Iconic songs and the origin story of a modern rock mythos. T

Then—and this is important—the dude straight-up plays the lead single and title song from his new record. He’s not here to fuck around! He’s moving product. Rock is liberation and commerce at the same time. And there ain’t no shame in it. (That song, “Working on a Dream,” is regarded by many as a middle to lowlight of modern Springsteen. But it brings in a gospel choir, allowing the Boss to spotlight a heavy source of his songwriting inspiration since 2001’s The Rising). 

And when you have twelve minutes, there’s not time to take an audience through the desperation of Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River through the bleak landscape of Nebraska and Born in the USA. You have to skip to the ending, which he does. “Working on a Dream” may not be his greatest song, but it is great at succinctly summarizing his value system—you work for what you get, the love you have and the money you make, in a world where “the nights are long and the days are lonely.” It’s The Price You Pay. 

And then to “Glory Days,” which is the only place this could end up—returning to his biggest record, and a song that was a massive worldwide hit, but also a reminder that you should take none of this too seriously, because it’s over too soon...and if you’re lucky, if you’re LUCKY, life slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of glory days. Which is what we’ve just seen—not boring by a long shot, but a testament to glory days, those that have been and those still to come. It is 12 minutes rich in detail and feeling, especially if you come in as a fan. Think about Springsteen, singing to Clarence “the Big Man joined the band,” a line he wrote in the mid-seventies for a guy he’d known since 1971. And there he is, 38 years later...with his onstage foil and offstage soul brother, after hardscrabble days in shitty clubs and hours upon hours in theaters, arenas, stadiums—suddenly in front of 103 million people. Then he slides across the stage and slams his crotch into a camera. 

The show ends with classic Springsteen buffoonery, a mock referee coming out to do a fake “delay of game” call as they wrap things up, the kind of schtick he’s been doing since he opened Halloween shows by rising out of a coffin and doing “Monster Mash.” I never get tired of watching it. It always makes my neck hairs stand up. That wasn’t the end of Springsteen’s career, not by a long shot. And he’d play plenty more in the decade to follow. But it is the perfect capper on the greatest story rock ever told. 

PS “Glory Days” is also inspired because it’s a subtle fuck-you to the ad industry—the greatest song ever written for a beer commercial, refused for any beer commercial, on the biggest night for beer commercials every year. 

Link to twitter thread: https://twitter.com/darthastuart/status/1091372925897322497

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Seems about right. 

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Me, getting into any Uber I order in a Chicago suburb, 800 miles away from New York City: Is this the Cash Cab?

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my Christmas list is complete

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The new Sturgill makes me want to bathe in motor oil. 

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I swear that God is there every time I glare in the eyes of my best friend

Sturgill Simpson

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“If you’re an artist, the darkness is always more interesting than the light… I always wanted to base my work in the dark side of things, and then find my way. You have to earn the light.”

Bruce Springsteen

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When you rediscover a lyric that has taken on new meaning in a song you’ve heard a hundred times

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Big Mood

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I got Palermo.