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Post by Kapitan on Feb 6, 2023 18:17:24 GMT
I definitely prefer the Manfred Mann's Earth Band's cover to the original. It still isn't exactly among my Top 10 songs or anything, but I do think it's more successful. Obviously it was more successful on the charts, having hit #1, but I also think overall it's just a better record.
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Post by kds on Feb 6, 2023 18:53:40 GMT
I definitely prefer the Manfred Mann's Earth Band's cover to the original. It still isn't exactly among my Top 10 songs or anything, but I do think it's more successful. Obviously it was more successful on the charts, having hit #1, but I also think overall it's just a better record. It's definitely a better production than Bruce's. But, just speaking for me, I don't think the extra bells and whistles really makes it a better song.
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Post by kds on Feb 7, 2023 14:25:42 GMT
I was waffling between a high 6 or a low 7 for Greetings from Asbury Park, but after a fresh listen this morning, I'm giving Bruce's debut a high six.
As I posted before, I feel like Bruce and the E Street Band are a little out of synch, and Bruce hasn't really found his voice yet. There are some highlights. I think Growin Up is an early classic, with Spirit in the Night close behind. Lost in the Flood is better than I remembered.
But, overall, the album is fairly patchy. Better to come.
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Post by jk on Feb 7, 2023 20:31:41 GMT
I was waffling between a high 6 or a low 7 for Greetings from Asbury Park, but after a fresh listen this morning, I'm giving Bruce's debut a high six.It's time for me to chime in and encourage others to vote. Five is pretty low by my standards but it's one below the lowest vote so far -- and the music on this album simply doesn't register with me. I'd wondered why The Boss was being booed during Macca's Glastonbury show but I now understand there's a tradition to intone "Bruuuuuuuuuuuuce" almost in a whisper as a sign of appreciation!
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 8, 2023 15:59:34 GMT
I'm going to surprise myself a little and go with a 6. At first, I felt like I'd be generous with a 5, but honestly this album has been growing on me. I've owned it for years--maybe decades (and at least one decade)--but never really gave it any attention. As someone who was (and is) mostly a fan of Nebraska and Born to Run, this quite simply didn't compete, and so didn't seem to warrant many listens. My first listen this week didn't really change that impression much. It struck me as a decent effort by someone imitating Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. And it still does strike me as that ... but basically now it strikes me as a better imitation. The flaws are things B.E. already mentioned, the overly imitative and not especially strong verbose, Dylanesque lyrics and some busy arrangements besides. For me, the production is OK, but not great. The best known song is arguably not even the best version of the song. But all that said, the only song I actually dislike is "Mary Queen of Arkansas." Those dramatic, hard strums of the acoustic guitar after delicate picking remind me of something you might see in a comedy mocking beat poets. That alone turns me off the song, and what follows doesn't really ever draw me in. There are some further, similar interruptions that just destroy any flow and the drama I assume they're meant to introduce just strike me as caricatures. He's taking himself too seriously. Otherwise, though, these are pretty good songs. Pretty good. I quite like "Growin Up"--maybe best of all among these. I like "Spirit in the Night." "For You." "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?" He'd top them, of course. And his band would get better, and the productions would get better. But hey, this was a debut record. It's pretty good. And so I landed on 6.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 11, 2023 0:23:22 GMT
OK, I'm listening to Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and I'll comment as I go:
1. Blinded By The Light - It's a little busy and Bruce sounds like he's rushing the vocals or trying to get too much in. But, he does sound enthused and like...a young Bruce Springsteen. Upon first listen, I kind of like this arrangement over Manfred Mann's Earth Band.
2. Growin' Up - Good piano but other than that, a rather undistinguished track. Man, Bruce is really unleashing the lyrics!
3. Mary Queen Of Arkansas - Don't care for the lyrics. Decent singing in places. Sounds like Bruce of later years. The loud acoustic guitar is distracting. Meh.
4. Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street? - An OK song. Starts out good but doesn't really go anywhere. Is Bruce channeling Dylan on this one?
5. Lost In The Flood - So, a Bruce "story song". His first? Ha ha... He's really trying. He's singing well, but...
Look, I'm stopping here. I'm bored. This music does nothing for me. I have no desire to hear these songs again. Sorry.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 11, 2023 15:47:29 GMT
Bruce Springsteen's debut, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, finishes with an average rating of 5.8 on four votes.
If anyone did not vote but would like to, please just let me know and I'll update the ratings to include your vote.
We will move on to a new album later today.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 11, 2023 22:53:31 GMT
The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle (1973)Bruce Springsteen and the not-yet-E Street Band were back in the studio in May 1973, just about five months after the release of their debut album. The group had been touring primarily the northeast consistently all year, though they had gotten to Illinois and even to Los Angeles for one show. They actually canceled a show in the college town of Mankato, Minnesota, because of their commitments to begin recording the sophomore album. Overall, the group kept performing straight through May and June, eventually canceling some shows in July to take 10 days in the studio to continue work. Unlike the first album, this time around Springsteen, bassist Garry Tallent drummer Vini Lopez, keyboardist David Sancious, and keyboardist Danny Federici were a real band. What’s more, they played nearly every song on the album, and most of them more than half a dozen (and as many as 19) times. Most of the recording—done under the production supervision of Springsteen’s co-managers Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos (the latter having co-produced his debut with Springsteen)—was completed by late summer, and the entirety of the album was done by late September 1973. This time around, there was no compromise between a full-band and a solo artist format. This album was the work of Springsteen backed by the soon-to-be-named E Street Band from top to bottom. The work comprises just seven songs, though its running time of just under 47 minutes does not skimp. The shortest of the three songs on Side Two clocks in at 7:04. Fewer, longer songs presaged what would come on his subsequent album a couple years later. The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle (named in part for the late ‘50s Sandra Dee movie The Wild and the Innocent, was released on November 5, 1973, with virtually no publicity or promotion whatsoever. The people who brought Springsteen to Capitol Records, John Hammond and Clive Davis, had left Columbia, with Davis founding Arista Records. The new disconnect between artist and label nearly resulted in the termination of his contract in 1974. The album outperformed its predecessor by precisely one spot on the charts, reaching #59 instead of #60, although (also like its predecessor) it eventually went double platinum as Springsteen’s career skyrocketed. Typical for Springsteen, the album was generally praised by critics. Retrospective reviews from later decades were even more kind, with Goldmine and Rolling Stone calling it a masterpiece. The latter placed it in the low 130s in two of their occasional Top 500 Albums of All Time lists. Please listen to, comment on, and rate Bruce Springsteen’s The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle.www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX66jEixZe1xSgBpHL1OWKoGs_S7AKJU_
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Post by kds on Feb 12, 2023 1:35:47 GMT
Having just listened again a day or two ago, it is an improvement, but hardly a masterpiece.
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Post by kds on Feb 14, 2023 14:10:10 GMT
I'm giving Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle another listen now as it's the Springsteen album from the 70s with which I'm least familiar, and it's the only one I don't own.
My rating will come later. Sonically, it's an improvement over the debut. Bruce's voice is coming around, and he and his band seem to be on the same page. However, it still seems a little unclear exactly what direction he wants the band to take. The opening E Street Shuffle sounds like something The Grateful Dead might've tried. And, some of the longer songs have a touch of prog to them at times.
The one song on the album I've always been familiar with is Rosalita, which seems like a preview of things to come.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 14, 2023 15:18:32 GMT
I'm pretty sure I had never listened to it before my initial listen the other day, but I definitely thought it was an improvement over the debut. I need to give it a few more spins (well, streams) to say anything more than that.
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Post by kds on Feb 14, 2023 17:14:40 GMT
Speaking of Bruce, he just announced a second Baltimore date for 2023, this one for September 9 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. I'm hoping tickets might be a little cheaper than his April stop at the newly renovated Baltimore Arena.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 14, 2023 17:54:57 GMT
I think my first (substantive) comment on this album is, it delivers a lot more energy than the first one did ... but I can't entirely put my finger on how or why! After all, "Blinded By the Light," "Growing Up" and "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?" for example, all were very lively. It could be something as simple as the lack of songs like "Mary Queen of Arkansas." Or it could be that the arrangements are tighter, the production stronger. Or it could even just be better songs that were also road-tested by a cohesive unit, which is my gut feeling. But it seems to me that the group is tight and having a ball.
Another comment is, I like the way this band swings. That's not just a comment on this album, I suppose, it's the whole E Street Experience. But between being funky and swinging, they really have some of that energy referenced above, a real bounce to their music. And really that goes hand in hand with the entirety of their reputation, especially live: it really lends itself to those marathon shows, where it's on the border between rock and roll, soul, and gospel. It's almost religious in its exertions. But it is really how I think you can separate Springsteen from rock music, if that makes sense. It's not blues-based rock and roll (that became rock, or hard rock), but it's from that swinging side of the fence. More '50s than '60s, in a way (Dylan influence notwithstanding).
What I don't like so much is that his voice sometimes has such affectations, these overly dramatic whisper-sung lines, as in "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)." I guess criticizing Springsteen for being dramatic is a little like criticizing Eddie Van Halen for finger-tapping guitar solos, though. It's just one particular aspect of his work here that I don't like so much.
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Post by jk on Feb 14, 2023 22:40:35 GMT
I gave it a spin last night but if anything it made even less of an impression than its predecessor! It sounds nothing like what I would label the "Springsteen style" that comes to mind whenever his name gets mentioned. (It also sounds like he was trying too hard.) I can only assume he still has a long way to go... I see no one has voted yet. I'll throw in a five and see what happens.
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Post by B.E. on Feb 15, 2023 0:42:03 GMT
I gave it a spin last night but if anything it made even less of an impression than its predecessor! It sounds nothing like what I would label the "Springsteen style" that comes to mind whenever his name gets mentioned. (It also sounds like he was trying too hard.) I can only assume he still has a long way to go...That may be, but he gets there very quickly. (Next album up is the iconic Born to Run!)
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