Springsteen tomorrow...
Mar. 28th, 2008 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jenkGoing to the Seattle show with a few folks who haven't seen Bruce live before. I got them copies of Magic, since it's the new CD and is well-represented in the less-changing parts of the recent setlists. The rest of this is mostly for them, but hey, when do I skip a chance to 'splain Bruce?
(FYI for those who don't know Bruce: No, the tour doesn't have a firm setlist. There's some songs played every night. There's some songs that show up frequently. And there's songs that get played once or twice a tour - or even once or twice a decade. Remember the man's released 15 albums IF you only count the full-length new-material CDs. Toss in the 4-CD "Tracks" set of mostly unreleased material and the live sets and compilations and we are talking a seriously DEEP pile of song that could possibly be played.)
So I looked through the recent setlists, and there's a few non-Magic songs that caught my eye as, "Gee, I think that's there for a REASON."
The first is Badlands. The opening track from 78's Darkness on the Edge of Town, this song has closed the first set each night this tour, following The Rising (about 9/11), Last to Die (Iraq) and Long Walk Home (Iraq / rebuilding). Badlands didn't crack top 40, but it's been highlighted in most of the the E Street Band tours, it's on the 3 live releases E Street made after Badlands was written, and it actually started the thinking that led to me quitting Microsoft. Ok, that part's personal. But it's a song that will have most people jumping and pumping fists. (Don't worry, they mean no harm.)
Lyrics are here. There's also a wikipedia article (that I did not write). This YouTube is from 95:
Second is Reason to Believe, the closing song of the 1982 album Nebraska (which a former co-worker described as "music to commit suicide to"). The song is a series of hard-luck stories about people who are betrayed or dealing with death, with the refrain:
And...okay, I'm including a few others, but I'll be nice and do a cut tag.
From The Rising, aka the 9/11 album:
If there's any song Bruce feels obligated to sing, it's Born to Run. Everyone will sing along. Reportedly was under consideration to be made "youth anthem of New Jersey" until some legislator realized the song was about running away from New Jersey. Ahem. :) YouTube, lyrics.
The River is a song that many people connect with strongly. Bruce has been quoted as saying it was inspired partly by talking with his sister after she'd married and had a kid. "I asked her what she does for fun and she said, 'I don't have any fun.' She wasn't kidding." All I know is the line "Is a dream a lie if it don't come true / Or is it something worse?" has made me cry more than once... YouTube, lyrics.
The final song for most of the tour is American Land, a relatively new song from the Seeger Sessions tour. My initial impression was that Bruce got stuck listening to Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" in an Irish pub or something. I don't mean I don't like it, I mean ... it's different. But I doubt it closes the tour by accident; it's about how this country was founded and why. Hello. YouTube is here, lyrics are here, some other notes on it are here.
(FYI for those who don't know Bruce: No, the tour doesn't have a firm setlist. There's some songs played every night. There's some songs that show up frequently. And there's songs that get played once or twice a tour - or even once or twice a decade. Remember the man's released 15 albums IF you only count the full-length new-material CDs. Toss in the 4-CD "Tracks" set of mostly unreleased material and the live sets and compilations and we are talking a seriously DEEP pile of song that could possibly be played.)
So I looked through the recent setlists, and there's a few non-Magic songs that caught my eye as, "Gee, I think that's there for a REASON."
The first is Badlands. The opening track from 78's Darkness on the Edge of Town, this song has closed the first set each night this tour, following The Rising (about 9/11), Last to Die (Iraq) and Long Walk Home (Iraq / rebuilding). Badlands didn't crack top 40, but it's been highlighted in most of the the E Street Band tours, it's on the 3 live releases E Street made after Badlands was written, and it actually started the thinking that led to me quitting Microsoft. Ok, that part's personal. But it's a song that will have most people jumping and pumping fists. (Don't worry, they mean no harm.)
Lyrics are here. There's also a wikipedia article (that I did not write). This YouTube is from 95:
Second is Reason to Believe, the closing song of the 1982 album Nebraska (which a former co-worker described as "music to commit suicide to"). The song is a series of hard-luck stories about people who are betrayed or dealing with death, with the refrain:
Struck me kinda funny seem kinda funny sir to meSome reviewers saw it as a sign of hope and human spirit; others saw it as a baffled reaction to how people just don't know when they've lost. (Gee, I don't think there's a political statement in choosing that song for this tour, do you?) Lyrics are here. A recent YouTube is here.
Still at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe
And...okay, I'm including a few others, but I'll be nice and do a cut tag.
From The Rising, aka the 9/11 album:
If there's any song Bruce feels obligated to sing, it's Born to Run. Everyone will sing along. Reportedly was under consideration to be made "youth anthem of New Jersey" until some legislator realized the song was about running away from New Jersey. Ahem. :) YouTube, lyrics.
The River is a song that many people connect with strongly. Bruce has been quoted as saying it was inspired partly by talking with his sister after she'd married and had a kid. "I asked her what she does for fun and she said, 'I don't have any fun.' She wasn't kidding." All I know is the line "Is a dream a lie if it don't come true / Or is it something worse?" has made me cry more than once... YouTube, lyrics.
The final song for most of the tour is American Land, a relatively new song from the Seeger Sessions tour. My initial impression was that Bruce got stuck listening to Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" in an Irish pub or something. I don't mean I don't like it, I mean ... it's different. But I doubt it closes the tour by accident; it's about how this country was founded and why. Hello. YouTube is here, lyrics are here, some other notes on it are here.
