NDRU said:

"I'm not real into Bruce Springsteen's music," he says, "but I have a lot of respect for his talent."

Where (and when) is that from?

Ace said:

NDRU said:

"I'm not real into Bruce Springsteen's music," he says, "but I have a lot of respect for his talent."

Where (and when) is that from?

This is allegedly from a 1990 Rolling Stone article.

Ace said:

Gunsnhalen said:

Bruce was an independent artists for years & had a huge cult following.... and finally got a top 10 with Hungry heart... and 3 years later with the Born singles.

Actually, he was never an independent artist. All of his records have been released on Columbia, which was an imprint of CBS (which became "Sony", which became "Sony BMG").

Although he'd never scored a Top 10 single prior to Hungry Heart, Born to Run went to #3 (and put him on the covers of TIME and Newsweek in the same week) and Darkness on the Edge of Town, #5.

Take another listen - lyrically, BUSA is very bleak (which makes sense, since most of the material was written at the same time as the Nebraska songs). ...Not that "dark" is usually a selling point for records, though. Not as "powerhouse" as Born to Run? I guess it depends on what you mean by "powerhouse". Personally, I don't care for the melodrama of much of BTR. And BUSA's more conventional song lengths and structures made it much more radio-friendly.

But what is it that made Born so big?

Bruce had steadily built up a very devoted following with his legendary live show and then Born to Run, Darkness and The River. This following was large enough to send an album of folk songs, recorded on cassette in his bedroom (Nebraska) to #3!

Enter Born in the U.S.A., less than two years later, with the now-buff Boss' derriere on the cover, against the American flag. Potent imagery, to be sure. The first single (Dancing in the Dark) is engineered for dancefloor play (and remixed as such), as well as the radio, and his first real video is all tight-jeans and rippling muscles. He's a mainstream sex symbol now.

He goes on a SRO tour, where he continues to pwn nightly (including, for the first time, in Australia and Japan). More hook-heavy, radio-friendly singles follow: Cover Me (originally written for Donna Summer), Born in the USA, I'm on Fire, I'm Goin' Down, Glory Days and My Hometown. USA, I'm on Fire, Glory Days and My Hometown are all accompanied by videos that go into heavy rotation on MTV and elsewhere. Now he's into stadia.

Short answer:

- Chock-a-block with very strong singles

- Bruce's new, buff image, just in time for the music video explosion

Wow! great & descriptive response

You are right Born is pretty bleak on a lot of tracks... I mean maybe it's cause they sound more upbeat.... that they don't seem as bleak.

I feel Hungry Heart has a dark ..eerie edge cause songs like The river & Fade Away come after it & it's like the calm before the storm in many way's.

And i forget Columbia was big in the 70's so i guess independent would be a stretch & it seems after his success people went to checkout his old albums. Cause every album from his debut all the way to Tunnel Of Love(Minus Nerbaska) Are multi-platinum

Well we have to put it in perspective that the bleakness in the lyrics and the optimistic production were a way to get people to buy the record.

Timmy84 said:

Ace said:

Where (and when) is that from?

This is allegedly from a 1990 Rolling Stone article.

that's it

http://princetext.tripod....one90.html

[Edited 10/10/12 13:22pm]

Timmy84 said:

Well we have to put it in perspective that the bleakness in the lyrics and the optimistic production were a way to get people to buy the record.

True , sometimes songs like.. the original Mad World or If I Was Your girlfriend sound chilling cause they have an upbeat type of sound... yet the dark undertones are what makes it.

P.S I recall you saying you really liked that cover of Bruce & his back Bruce

Gunsnhalen said:

Timmy84 said:

Well we have to put it in perspective that the bleakness in the lyrics and the optimistic production were a way to get people to buy the record.

True , sometimes songs like.. the original Mad World or If I Was Your girlfriend sound chilling cause they have an upbeat type of sound... yet the dark undertones are what makes it.

P.S I recall you saying you really liked that cover of Bruce & his back Bruce

lol I did say that. And anybody who thinks Bruce's ass didn't sell records is lying through his teeth. It's kind of a shame about his own view of politics but that was a nice tail and under the U.S. flag pretty much.

Gunsnhalen said:

Ace said:

Bruce had steadily built up a very devoted following with his legendary live show and then Born to Run, Darkness and The River. This following was large enough to send an album of folk songs, recorded on cassette in his bedroom (Nebraska) to #3!

Enter Born in the U.S.A., less than two years later, with the now-buff Boss' derriere on the cover, against the American flag. Potent imagery, to be sure. The first single (Dancing in the Dark) is engineered for dancefloor play (and remixed as such), as well as the radio, and his first real video is all tight-jeans and rippling muscles. He's a mainstream sex symbol now.

He goes on a SRO tour, where he continues to pwn nightly (including, for the first time, in Australia and Japan). More hook-heavy, radio-friendly singles follow: Cover Me (originally written for Donna Summer), Born in the USA, I'm on Fire, I'm Goin' Down, Glory Days and My Hometown. USA, I'm on Fire, Glory Days and My Hometown are all accompanied by videos that go into heavy rotation on MTV and elsewhere. Now he's into stadia.

Short answer:

- Chock-a-block with very strong singles

- Bruce's new, buff image, just in time for the music video explosion

Wow! great & descriptive response

You are right Born is pretty bleak on a lot of tracks... I mean maybe it's cause they sound more upbeat.... that they don't seem as bleak.

Yes. The (mostly) upbeat music is in contrast to much of the lyrical content:

Born in the U.S.A.

Vietnam vet returns home and can't find employment. Brother killed in action.

Cover Me

"The times are tough, man / Just gettin' tougher..."

Darlington County

Two dudes head down south, looking for work and chicks (not necessarily in that order). One disappears for a week and, as the narrator's leaving town, he sees him "handcuffed to the bumper of a state trooper's Ford".

Working on the Highway

Dude hooks up with a minor and ends up working on a chain gang.

Downbound Train

Begins "I had a job, I had a girl / I had somethin' goin', mister, in this world". All three gone before end of Verse I.

I'm on Fire

Narrator, controlled by lust, tries to entice another man's woman.

No Surrender

A song that laments ageing.

Bobby Jean

Narrator's best childhood friend leaves home unannounced and he never hears from him (her?) again.

I'm Goin' Down

The end of a relationship.

Glory Days

Narrator bumps into former sports star from his high school days, who just wants to relive the past. Spends the occasional Friday night drinking with his neighbor - a faded beauty queen and divorced mother - "after she put her kids to bed". Parting message of the song? "...Time slips away / And leaves you with nothin', mister, but / Borin' stories of / Glory days".

Dancing in the Dark

Narrator (depressed, ageing and "livin' in a dump like this") searches for some connection.

My Hometown

Due to racial unrest and an eventually depressed economy, the hometown in question's main street has become "whitewashed windows and vacant stores". Narrator considers leaving and takes his young son on what is possibly one last spin around the place.

NDRU said:

Timmy84 said:

This is allegedly from a 1990 Rolling Stone article.

that's it

http://princetext.tripod....one90.html

Thanks. I remember reading that article. Shows you that time can cloud the mind. I do know that, since then, Prince has attended several Bruce shows and spoke highly of him during his recent View appearance. Didn't he also drop a little Born in the U.S.A. into one of his live medleys in the early-'90s?

Ace said:

Although he'd never scored a Top 10 single prior to Hungry Heart

Not as an artist, anyway. Manfred Mann's Earth Band scored a #1 with a heavily revised version of Bruce's Blinded by the Light and the Pointer Sisters took Fire to #2.

Ace said:

Ace said:

Although he'd never scored a Top 10 single prior to Hungry Heart

Not as an artist, anyway. Manfred Mann's Earth Band scored a #1 with a heavily revised version of Bruce's Blinded by the Light and the Pointer Sisters took Fire to #2.

Damn I must've missed that. I didn't know he wrote Blinded by the Light!

Timmy84 said:

Ace said:

Not as an artist, anyway. Manfred Mann's Earth Band scored a #1 with a heavily revised version of Bruce's Blinded by the Light and the Pointer Sisters took Fire to #2.

Damn I must've missed that. I didn't know he wrote Blinded by the Light!

Virtually a different song:

By the way, did you know that Bruce guested with Prince on the Purple Rain tour? Played guitar on Baby, I'm a Star, in L.A.:

Ace said:

NDRU said:

that's it

http://princetext.tripod....one90.html

Thanks. I remember reading that article. Shows you that time can cloud the mind. I do know that, since then, Prince has attended several Bruce shows and spoke highly of him during his recent View appearance. Didn't he also drop a little Born in the U.S.A. into one of his live medleys in the early-'90s?

Sure, and I don't doubt that Prince's respect for Bruce has continued to grow, too, now that they are not "competitors" and he's had time to absorb the larger picture of bruce's career.

Ace said:

Timmy84 said:

Damn I must've missed that. I didn't know he wrote Blinded by the Light!

Virtually a different song:

Ah gotcha!

Said it a million times and I'll say it again, with Prince and Michael making a joke out of anyone else in terms of sales and artistry Bruce was the only white guy to balance out the situation in this fucked up country. In an era when Heavyweight champ Larry Holmes and White Hope Gerry Cooney still garnered death threats and real fear of rioting it was necessary. BITUSA was not a great album it was a good album, Bruce has 4 or 5 albums that are better in my opinion. The key was timing and a willing artist who for the first time was ok with writing 3 minute pop songs which pissed off his true fans, who called the Dancing In the Dark video "Disco Bruce". Still a very good album compared to anyone else but compared to Darkness, the other Born, no can't even touch those.

Gunsnhalen said:

And i forget Columbia was big in the 70's so i guess independent would be a stretch

Columbia was never "independent". That's the label Johnny Mathis started on in the 1950's.

TonyVanDam said:

For most people that never bother to listen to the lyrics of the title track, Born In The USA was taken as 100% pure patriotism.

oh and don't forget one of the absolute, top five greatest riffs in rock history courtesy of Roy Bittan and lets not forget the rest of the band who could match bruce all the way for passion. American music needed a golden whiteboy and Poison, Ratt, let's see, Eddie Monday etc.., would never make the cut.

MickyDolenz said:

Gunsnhalen said:

And i forget Columbia was big in the 70's so i guess independent would be a stretch

Columbia was never "independent". That's the label Johnny Mathis started on in the 1950's.

And Sinatra, in the '40s.

Ace said:

MickyDolenz said:

Columbia was never "independent". That's the label Johnny Mathis started on in the 1950's.

And Sinatra, in the '40s.

Right.

Gunsnhalen said:

aardvark15 said:

?

Me think's he could be reffering to the infamous album cover?

black folks so scared mighty whitey going to get them if they talk shit. Don't worry, say that shit, no one will come through the door.

What Titty thought was probably much ado about nothing...

sexton said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

I wanna hear it from his mouth...or fingers. Or keyboard.

These guys are now silent because they know it's nonsense.

Uh...no. I'm silent, because I'm not getting into it any further. I have my reasons for not saying things, so you can stop "assuming" things to be nonsense. I should have never commented on this thread, I had no clue people would be wondering what I have to say about this, or anything else.

Ace said:

By the way, did you know that Bruce guested with Prince on the Purple Rain tour? Played guitar on Baby, I'm a Star, in L.A.:

Timmy84 said:

What Titty thought was probably much ado about nothing...

I'm still brought up on this thread, huh? God Damn....

Tittypants said:

Timmy84 said:

What Titty thought was probably much ado about nothing...

I'm still brought up on this thread, huh? God Damn....

Then you shouldn't have said nothing, then we wouldn't be talking about it four pages earlier, hmm?

Gunsnhalen said:

Ace said:

By the way, did you know that Bruce guested with Prince on the Purple Rain tour? Played guitar on Baby, I'm a Star, in L.A.:

WHAT!!!! i had no idea.

I've seen that picture eons ago. Prince & Bruce, last I checked, respected each other.

Timmy84 said:

Tittypants said:

I'm still brought up on this thread, huh? God Damn....

Then you shouldn't have said nothing, then we wouldn't be talking about it four pages earlier, hmm?

See reply #112.

[Edited 10/10/12 15:56pm]

Tittypants said:

Timmy84 said:

What Titty thought was probably much ado about nothing...

I'm still brought up on this thread, huh? God Damn....

Was it or was it not a racial thing

Timmy84 said:

Gunsnhalen said:

WHAT!!!! i had no idea.

I've seen that picture eons ago. Prince & Bruce, last I checked, respected each other.

We nknow Prince didn't really care for Bruce's music, but has Bruce ever said anything Prince?