# The Strange Magic of: Bruce Springsteen (and Tom Morello)



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Everybody knows who's The Boss. Bruce Springsteen is yet another of the multitude of famous, important, gifted, or notorious people that my small province of Nova Caesarea has unleashed upon a poor and needy world. His concerts are vast mass gatherings of the Faithful, and he never lets them down, offering musical catharsis so intense that fans come back over and over again. Our current provincial Governor, Chris Christie, boasts of having been to over 100 such events, if memory serves, and probably counts as the high point of his life his mutual embrace with The Boss, who whispered in his ear, "I think we're supposed to be friends now". Springsteen owns the genre of Anthemic Rock, and deservedly so--nobody comes close to his record of songs with the anthemic power such as displayed here: _The Ghost of Tom Joad_. Tom Morello is a perfect partner.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Although I've always liked The Boss, he's never been among my favorites. But I do really like his Americana-ish stuff, such as the album The Ghost of Tom Joad. 

Also, My Hometown always chokes me up.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

He is a musician that one is supposed to like whose appeal I don´t really get.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

I think he's very talented, but I so far have liked few of his songs.

Jungleland
Kitty's Back
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Badlands
Born to Run

Those five are the best I've heard so far. Are there any similar ones you would recommend?


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

never liked the boss.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Journey, REM and now Bruuuuce.....Strange Magic, have I said something to upset you? :lol:


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

bharbeke said:


> I think he's very talented, but I so far have liked few of his songs.
> 
> Jungleland
> Kitty's Back
> ...


Racing In the Street
The River
Spirit in the Night
Dancing in the Dark (I know it's corny. I don't care.)
No Surrender
Sherry Darling

Autobiography coming soon!


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Sloe said:


> He is a musician that one is supposed to like whose appeal I don´t really get.


He was considered really square when I got into his music, maybe 1989 or thereabouts. 'No Surrender' from Born in the USA was the perfect anthem for a disaffected schoolkid.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

These Strange Magic Of... threads are getting very predictable. I suppose Tom Petty is up next?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

ldiat said:


> never liked the boss.


Me too. Never saw what the fuss was/is about. I put the Grateful Dead way above Springsteen and his crew.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

elgars ghost said:


> Journey, REM and now Bruuuuce.....Strange Magic, have I said something to upset you? :lol:


e.g., the only thing that upsets me is seeing the nightmare of musical anhedonia blight so many lives.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

He cut some great albums in his time—talented fella. My favorite album of his is 'Nebraska'.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

starthrower said:


> These Strange Magic Of... threads are getting very predictable. I suppose Tom Petty is up next?


If you will remember back to my first SM post, you will recall that these are live concert videos that please me, for any number of reasons. I loathe virtually all rock/pop "videos", infinitely preferring the God's-eye-view and you-are-there authenticity of the live concert shot. Whether you will like them is strictly your affair. I will certainly, though, take up your suggestion of Tom Petty-- a most excellent choice. :tiphat:


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I don't really know too many Springsteen songs, because I've never listened to the albums. I hated the flag waving Born In The USA, but I like the smoldering embers of I'm On Fire.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Strange Magic said:


> e.g., the only thing that upsets me is the seeing the nightmare of musical anhedonia blight so many lives.


I least I know now what anhedonia means (had to look it up, though).


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Here are the flag-waving lyrics of Born in the USA:

Born down in a dead man's town
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
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said "son don't you understand now"
Had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

^^^
It would have been more timely in '74. I still hate the music and the shouting style.


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

My favorite Bruce Springsteen album is "Devils and Dust". A real masterpiece from the first note of the title track until Springsteen's fading voice in "Matamoros Banks":angel:


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

elgars ghost said:


> Journey, REM and now Bruuuuce.....Strange Magic, have I said something to upset you? :lol:


Lay off him. Two out of three ain't bad. He's on a rare two-game winning streak now.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Hey Magic - you need to do *Fabrizio de André* next.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

GreenMamba said:


> Lay off him. Two out of three ain't bad. He's on a rare two-game winning streak now.


Thank you for your support, my ophidian friend. However, I put my count at 29 for 29 so far--every one a winner.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

starthrower said:


> ^^^
> It would have been more timely in '74. I still hate the music and the shouting style.


Your avatar does look displeased; I'll affirm that.


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

Strange Magic said:


> Thank you for your support, my ophidian friend. However, I put my count at 29 for 29 so far--every one a winner.


maybe some Bangles next time?:angel:


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## Jeffrey Smith (Jan 2, 2016)

In my giddy youth, I was very taken with Bruuuuce, and once indeed Drove All Night to see him in concert. But I changed over the years, whereas he...

At any rate, I call The River his best album, and one of the best rock albums ever.

He is certainly the most charismatic performer I have ever seen.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Strange Magic said:


> Your avatar does look displeased; I'll affirm that.


I'm not sure if Ligeti was into "The Boss"? He liked Hungarian rock!


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Jeffrey Smith said:


> He is certainly the most charismatic performer I have ever seen.


This is a fine place to consider those factors that make for a memorable live concert clip. The personal charisma of the performer, almost invariably the lead singer, is certainly way up there. Also I am very strongly affected by the music--here our old friends Rhythm, Melody, Harmony spring to the fore. This is rock and pop, so rhythm will be paramount. Affecting, powerful lyrics are icing on the cake. The appearance of the performer--I affirm strongly that young and nubile females do not make me turn away in disgust--is a factor, with dress, perceived attitude, and idiosyncrasy drawing attention. And then there is audience response-- there is a strong human affirmative reaction to seeing throngs of ecstatic, cheering fans embracing the performer in a concert setting. There is no ideology, no theorizing here; there is just the music, the performance, and my enjoyment of it--it's that simple.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

starthrower said:


> ^^^
> It would have been more timely in '74. I still hate the music and the shouting style.


Even more timely in 1960, though we have to pretend not to know about that of course.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

Can you elaborate on what your 1960 reference is about? I honestly have no idea.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

bharbeke said:


> Can you elaborate on what your 1960 reference is about? I honestly have no idea.


It goes back much farther than that. Ho Chi Minh had been petitioning the US government for decades in the hopes of becoming independent from French rule. Of course the good ol' USA, land of the free and home of the brave, had other plans.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

bharbeke said:


> Can you elaborate on what your 1960 reference is about? I honestly have no idea.


US destruction in Vietnam began about that time, apparently herding southerners into concentration camps for their own protection amongst other things. Vietnam couldn't be allowed to have independence, because it would lead to other nations standing up to the US too.

Of course, the main point of the song was about the treatment of returning Vets, so my post wasn't too pertinent, sorry. Also, I've just had it pointed out to me that Bruce would have been 11 in 1960, so it wouldn't be to kind to blame him for a lack of political awareness at that age.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

I should admit that, apart from The Pete Seeger Sessions, I don't own and haven't heard any Springsteen albums later than Tunnel of Love, which completely turned me off then-current Sprinsgsteen. He did play some of his newer stuff when I was at a very under-amplified gig in Hyde Park, but the inebriated audience conducted shouted conversations during anything composed much later than 'Born in the USA', and even the favourites were rendered inaudible by loud audience participation.  Which later Springsteen albums would TCers recommend?


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Like several others here I don't dislike him, but despite seeing him in concert he's never really offered me any emotional link into his world. It feels like this is what a rock star should be like, but in fact for me he just isn't. I do like Rosalita and especially The Seegar Sessions when I can tap into having a great time with him.

I've pretty much always felt that way about him even when he was regarded as the next coming, circa Born to Run. I was dating a teacher at the time who had the most radiant smile I've ever met and she laughed at ALL of my jokes. Well she was big for Bruce. I bought her the first Nils Lofgren album as an example of what I really liked. I must have been too forthright in my opinions because that night led to our parting, seemingly much more to my regret than hers. About 15 years later I saw her in a record shop (that smile, couldn't have been anyone else) with two young kids in tow. I was with my wife and if she saw me, she gave no sign of it. I did watch her and she went straight to the "S" section. Perhaps it worked out all for the best.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Based upon many of the remarks that others offered previously about Bruce Springsteen, I could just paraphrase my friend Morimur's remark (concerning another artist) as follows: If you don't like Bruce Springsteen, you must be dead! But I won't. I understand that some look at popular music through lenses that offer them only a small, select field of view of often little-known or actually totally unknown artists, singing in remote corners of the musical world of esoteric things. Often the appeal may actually be their very Chthonian obscurity; one can thus be an expert, a devotee of a god nobody else knows (or cares about). I have my own idiosyncratic idols, at whose shrine I worship.

But to not be somehow moved by The Boss is to confess/admit/affirm that American Rock and Roll is just Not Your Thing, and that's fine; it works for you. I, however, am grateful that my lens is wide-angle enough to include Bruce in its field of view along with whole other universes of artists and musics. I am a fan of anthemic rock, and few have ever done it better than Springsteen. Here is _Badlands_, one of the most anthemic of them all. Warning: try to suppress the overpowering urge to tap your feet :lol:.


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## Templeton (Dec 20, 2014)

Haven't listened to him for a while but was a big fan in the '70s and '80s. Met him in 1981, when he performed at Stafford Bingley Hall, on The River tour, and what a nice bloke he was. Favourite albums were his second, ' The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle' and fourth, ' Darkness On The Edge of Town'. In concert, up there with the likes of The Who and Led Zeppelin, yes, that great.


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