In which our heroes talk nonsense about our favourite songs from Bruce Springsteen
As usual you can find the show over on Mixcloud where we get to play some of our selections
As Born in the USA reaches 40 this year and we look to similar big birthdays for Born to Run (50), The Ghost of Tom Joad (30) and Devils & Dust (20) next year it seemed like a good idea to grab a hold of a Springsteen superfan and make a list of our favourite tracks.
Spoiler Alert...Deep Cuts and Hipster Picks IncomingWe chat about how we came to finally get into Springsteen, touch on experiences of seeing him live and compare our selections to those from the music press.
We had a special contribution from
so please check out his piece on Skateboarding On Their AltarGet involved and add your favourite Bruce Springsteen below this post and have a look at some of the Springsteen physical media in my collection over on Instagram
A few of my contributions to the show…make sure you listen to get both sides!
On my introduction to Springsteen…
So I think I thought I had him (Springsteen) pegged as a stadium anthem merchant, and even though Born to Run and Thunder Road were around on the radio it didn't really click with me until he did the We Shall Overcome record with the Seeger Sessions band, and I guess Devils and Dust wasn't far before that so they were my entry point...and its weird because while I wrote him off because of the anthems, quite a few of the songs I nearly picked for my Top 5 were those with big hooky choruses so I'm completely on board now, like I am with Neil Young or Pearl Jam or Ben Folds, you know where there might be some records that don't land but thats ok because the next one probably will.
Some Honourable Mentions…
Personally I could have picked half of the songs on Wrecking Ball, The Rising or Devils and Dust so Empty Sky, Further On Up The Road, Black Cowboys, Leah, Death to My Home Town.... I really love all those albums, if I look at more classic stuff then it'll be Thunder Road, Dancing in the Dark, Atlantic City and I do have a soft spot for Candys Room off Darkness on the Edge of Town
And I’m not going to spoil it here but I will leave a couple of excerpts on a couple of my picks….all the rest and all of Sam’s are on the podcast.
On The Rising….
it’s another of his big anthemic sing along tunes but the lyrics and the subject matter are pretty devastating and the delicate way he works through the collective grief of a nation on that album is something else. I know we're talking songs not albums but I think it's up there with Born to Run, Darkness and The River as a definitive Springsteen album
On Shenandoah…
It's from the album that opened Springsteen up for me, I don't think I would have got there without this record and there's loads I could have picked from We Shall Overcome…… this has is a really simple arrangement and the backing choir is beautiful and theres a a delicateness to the whole thing.… I used to sing it to the girl when she was a baby….. it conjures up images of frontier life and pioneering and while a lot of Springsteen’s work is all about grabbing a girl, a pack of smokes, half a tank gas and hitting the road, this is more like a yearning to get back to the girl he left behind.
Like I said, there’s 8 more selection on the podcast, as well as some from other listeners and friends so we’ve put together a nice little overview of Springsteen’s work, there’s a few hits, some covers and a few deep cuts which probably makes it pretty good.
Anything you want to add, drop a comment below
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