Singer's calling up daylight, waiting for the shout from the crowd
This is how I found out I loved Bruce Springsteen's music. I knew lots of Springsteen songs, you see. I come from a household where the radio was always on, where Ken Bruce and Johnny Walker of BBC Radio 2 are as gods. I knew the songs. But I didn't know the guy that sang them was a lanky being with unfortunate hair and more charisma than should probably be allowed. Didn't know about his band either.
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, turn it up
Meet me at Mary's place, we're gonna have a party
Meet me at Mary's place, we're gonna have a party
Tell me how do we get this thing started
Meet me at Mary's place
Then in the second semester of second year at university, Niall and I had a module called Moderns and Modernism at two on Tuesday afternoons. The reading was awesome, the lectures were painful. And we'd walk there and back together, consuming ridiculous amounts of tea to try to stay awake, and Niall would sing the chorus of 'Mary's Place' at me. And then be scandalized that I didn't know it was Springsteen. And after I redeemed myself by proving that I knew all the important songs, just not who it was singing them, and because he is wonderful, he made me a tape of The Rising (2003, folks, and we still made tapes). And come Easter of third year my boyfriend broke up with me, and all I had at home with me was a tape deck, and all the other music I had on tape was music he'd given me, that I wasn't really in the mood to listen to, so I spent Easter studying for my Finals and listening to The Rising. And The Boss and The E Street Band stole my soul. Heartbreaking songs about loss and destruction and love tangled up with this amazingly joyous music, when I was feeling pretty heartbroken myself. Sometimes you just need the songs that say 'this too shall pass'.
Got on my dead man's suit and my smilin' skull ring
My lucky graveyard boots and song to sing
I got a song to sing, keep me out of the cold
And I'll meet you further on up the road.
And then I went and had a good look round, and discovered that all these songs that I'd loved for years were by the same person, by the same band. And I jumped in headfirst. Because if you get to like one of his songs, it drags you in and you come to like most of the rest. I will never love Nebraska, because it is depressing and I first listened to it all the way through on the way home on the bus the day my aunt died, which, on reflection, was not among my best ideas. But the others. The others. I love something off pretty much every album the man has made. Its hard not to. This is the man that wrote the glorious conglomeration of crazy that is 'Blinded by the light', after all. It honestly makes no sense. But he definitely has fun singing it.
Madman drummers bummers and Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder feelin' kinda older I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing the calliope crashed to the ground
Some all-hot half-shot was headin' for the hot spot snappin' his fingers clappin' his hands
And some fleshpot mascot was tied into a lover's knot with a whatnot in her hand
And now young Scott with a slingshot finally found a tender spot and throws his lover in the sand
And some bloodshot forget-me-not whispers daddy's within earshot save the buckshot turn up the band
I have weakness for people who sing their songs like they really mean it. And The Boss is one of the best. He writes stories about the world he grew up in and then he sings them like they're true. I think more and more of the stories are true ones as time goes on. And these songs that are so definitively about being from urban East Coast America somehow work all over the world. I defy you to watch the first live performance of 'The River' and not be stunned into silence at the sheer weight of feeling behind it. And its one of those songs that everyone knows - one night in Dublin Josh Ritter sang it and every single person in the audience sang along.
Now those memories come back to haunt me
they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse
that sends me down to the river
though I know the river is dry
That sends me down to the river tonight
Down to the river
my baby and I
Oh down to the river we ride
It isn't my experience, it isn't my world, I come from a smallish country town that thinks its a city, I went to convent schools, I played netball and watch rugby, I can competently catch horses and chase cows out of the garden, I'm scared of motorbikes but can start an outboard first try, I get antsy if I can't see mountains and know when to close gates behind me. I live in a city where you can see fields from the city centre and only know what an industrial heartland looks like when its already gone. And yet all these songs make sense, deep down where the mind switches off and the music kicks you in the heart. But then, everyone's been in love. Everyone's had that one person that things went wrong with, everyone's lost someone, everybody's been utterly frustrated with where they are and what's going on in the world around them. Everyone's been a contrary wee bugger. Everyone has a story. You don't have to have grown up in New Jersey to understand the essence of growing up.
I stood stone-like at midnight suspended in my masquerade
I combed my hair till it was just right and commanded the night brigade
I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch
I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said "Sit down" I stood up.
Ooh-ooh growin' up
And he has that way of looking at people that I like. The women in his songs are for real, and the songs have respect and humour and love. They're ordinary and they're perfect because of it, 'you ain't a beauty but hey you're alright'. And they're not necessarily young, 'we laugh beneath the covers and count the wrinkles and the grays', because you don't just stop loving and being loved when you get older, and the man's been married for twenty-odd years. And even when he's singing as a complete chancer- 'hello beautiful thing, maybe you could save my life - it works. And it doesn't hurt that the realism works both ways 'yeah, I know I ain't nobody's bargain'. There's nothing quite as effective as a people-watcher writing songs about people.
Pour me a drink Theresa
In one of those glasses you dust off
And I'll watch the bones in your back
Like the stations of the cross
'Round your hair the sun lifts a halo
At your lips a crown of thorns
Whatever other deals goin' down
To this one I'm sworn
Another thing. He enjoys himself. He's a raging showman. He does handstands off the mike stand because it seems like a good idea at the time. He has a reinforced mike stand because his road crew know he abuses the mike stand. He knows he's not the coolest person on the stage because he's on stage with Clarence Clemens and Steve Van Zandt. He steals people's hats. People steal his hat. There is ridiculous noodling and flailing about and standing on one leg. He says things on stage that make his wife go *facepalm*. Its hard not to like the man. Its hard not to like the Band. I can't believe anyone could watch them do this and not love them all like pie. I love that when he was asked about his career he said his proudest moment was knowing he could still get up on stage with the same people he did twenty and thirty years ago and they're all still standing, still enjoying it. And they aren't all still standing now, so he wrote a song about Terry McGovern and tells stories about Danny Frederici and their mis-spent youth. He knows how lucky he is.
Now I think I'm going down to the well tonight
and I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
but I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days
And he did 'Broken Radio' with Jesse Malin. I love it. He has Hanging on E Street, apparently on the basis that if people are going to cite you as an influence you might as well get a record of why. And get them to do a cover or two, while they're at it. Its interesting. Some of it is amazing. He knows that music is a community thing, and he uses it. He's turned into an elder statesman by accident and if it means he keeps doing random duets and encouraging the most unlikely people to do covers, I'm all for it. Lots of it. For quite some time. Although, if he doesn't do any more things like Nebraska I'll be very happy.
(Apologies to anybody I just spammed, oh man, I hate cuts. With a fiery passion.)
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, turn it up
Meet me at Mary's place, we're gonna have a party
Meet me at Mary's place, we're gonna have a party
Tell me how do we get this thing started
Meet me at Mary's place
Then in the second semester of second year at university, Niall and I had a module called Moderns and Modernism at two on Tuesday afternoons. The reading was awesome, the lectures were painful. And we'd walk there and back together, consuming ridiculous amounts of tea to try to stay awake, and Niall would sing the chorus of 'Mary's Place' at me. And then be scandalized that I didn't know it was Springsteen. And after I redeemed myself by proving that I knew all the important songs, just not who it was singing them, and because he is wonderful, he made me a tape of The Rising (2003, folks, and we still made tapes). And come Easter of third year my boyfriend broke up with me, and all I had at home with me was a tape deck, and all the other music I had on tape was music he'd given me, that I wasn't really in the mood to listen to, so I spent Easter studying for my Finals and listening to The Rising. And The Boss and The E Street Band stole my soul. Heartbreaking songs about loss and destruction and love tangled up with this amazingly joyous music, when I was feeling pretty heartbroken myself. Sometimes you just need the songs that say 'this too shall pass'.
Got on my dead man's suit and my smilin' skull ring
My lucky graveyard boots and song to sing
I got a song to sing, keep me out of the cold
And I'll meet you further on up the road.
And then I went and had a good look round, and discovered that all these songs that I'd loved for years were by the same person, by the same band. And I jumped in headfirst. Because if you get to like one of his songs, it drags you in and you come to like most of the rest. I will never love Nebraska, because it is depressing and I first listened to it all the way through on the way home on the bus the day my aunt died, which, on reflection, was not among my best ideas. But the others. The others. I love something off pretty much every album the man has made. Its hard not to. This is the man that wrote the glorious conglomeration of crazy that is 'Blinded by the light', after all. It honestly makes no sense. But he definitely has fun singing it.
Madman drummers bummers and Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder feelin' kinda older I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing the calliope crashed to the ground
Some all-hot half-shot was headin' for the hot spot snappin' his fingers clappin' his hands
And some fleshpot mascot was tied into a lover's knot with a whatnot in her hand
And now young Scott with a slingshot finally found a tender spot and throws his lover in the sand
And some bloodshot forget-me-not whispers daddy's within earshot save the buckshot turn up the band
I have weakness for people who sing their songs like they really mean it. And The Boss is one of the best. He writes stories about the world he grew up in and then he sings them like they're true. I think more and more of the stories are true ones as time goes on. And these songs that are so definitively about being from urban East Coast America somehow work all over the world. I defy you to watch the first live performance of 'The River' and not be stunned into silence at the sheer weight of feeling behind it. And its one of those songs that everyone knows - one night in Dublin Josh Ritter sang it and every single person in the audience sang along.
Now those memories come back to haunt me
they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse
that sends me down to the river
though I know the river is dry
That sends me down to the river tonight
Down to the river
my baby and I
Oh down to the river we ride
It isn't my experience, it isn't my world, I come from a smallish country town that thinks its a city, I went to convent schools, I played netball and watch rugby, I can competently catch horses and chase cows out of the garden, I'm scared of motorbikes but can start an outboard first try, I get antsy if I can't see mountains and know when to close gates behind me. I live in a city where you can see fields from the city centre and only know what an industrial heartland looks like when its already gone. And yet all these songs make sense, deep down where the mind switches off and the music kicks you in the heart. But then, everyone's been in love. Everyone's had that one person that things went wrong with, everyone's lost someone, everybody's been utterly frustrated with where they are and what's going on in the world around them. Everyone's been a contrary wee bugger. Everyone has a story. You don't have to have grown up in New Jersey to understand the essence of growing up.
I stood stone-like at midnight suspended in my masquerade
I combed my hair till it was just right and commanded the night brigade
I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch
I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said "Sit down" I stood up.
Ooh-ooh growin' up
And he has that way of looking at people that I like. The women in his songs are for real, and the songs have respect and humour and love. They're ordinary and they're perfect because of it, 'you ain't a beauty but hey you're alright'. And they're not necessarily young, 'we laugh beneath the covers and count the wrinkles and the grays', because you don't just stop loving and being loved when you get older, and the man's been married for twenty-odd years. And even when he's singing as a complete chancer- 'hello beautiful thing, maybe you could save my life - it works. And it doesn't hurt that the realism works both ways 'yeah, I know I ain't nobody's bargain'. There's nothing quite as effective as a people-watcher writing songs about people.
Pour me a drink Theresa
In one of those glasses you dust off
And I'll watch the bones in your back
Like the stations of the cross
'Round your hair the sun lifts a halo
At your lips a crown of thorns
Whatever other deals goin' down
To this one I'm sworn
Another thing. He enjoys himself. He's a raging showman. He does handstands off the mike stand because it seems like a good idea at the time. He has a reinforced mike stand because his road crew know he abuses the mike stand. He knows he's not the coolest person on the stage because he's on stage with Clarence Clemens and Steve Van Zandt. He steals people's hats. People steal his hat. There is ridiculous noodling and flailing about and standing on one leg. He says things on stage that make his wife go *facepalm*. Its hard not to like the man. Its hard not to like the Band. I can't believe anyone could watch them do this and not love them all like pie. I love that when he was asked about his career he said his proudest moment was knowing he could still get up on stage with the same people he did twenty and thirty years ago and they're all still standing, still enjoying it. And they aren't all still standing now, so he wrote a song about Terry McGovern and tells stories about Danny Frederici and their mis-spent youth. He knows how lucky he is.
Now I think I'm going down to the well tonight
and I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
but I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days
And he did 'Broken Radio' with Jesse Malin. I love it. He has Hanging on E Street, apparently on the basis that if people are going to cite you as an influence you might as well get a record of why. And get them to do a cover or two, while they're at it. Its interesting. Some of it is amazing. He knows that music is a community thing, and he uses it. He's turned into an elder statesman by accident and if it means he keeps doing random duets and encouraging the most unlikely people to do covers, I'm all for it. Lots of it. For quite some time. Although, if he doesn't do any more things like Nebraska I'll be very happy.
(Apologies to anybody I just spammed, oh man, I hate cuts. With a fiery passion.)