Topic: Everything dies baby, that's a fact..
...but maybe everything that dies some day comes back.
Possibly my all time favorite line from my all time favorite Boss song, though of course many others have also given me great joy, pleasure and comfort. I've been meaning to start this topic for ages already, so here goes.
Bruce has been my main man for most of the last 30 years or so. I vividly remember the Rolling Stone cover announcing "I have seen the future of rock n' roll and his name is Bruce Springsteen", which must have been somewhere around '74/'75. I liked enough from his early albums to 'have to be' present at his first European gig, the truly legendary Hammersmith Odeon show in '75. I was totally blown away, as was everyone lucky enough to be there. I can only compare the degree to which I was knocked out and instantly 'sold' on him with my reaction to first seeing Joe!
Exhibit one, with possibly the finest piano intro ever - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwBGSS63B2o
I was also a Nils Lofgren fan right from the early days of Grin, so you can easily imagine how deeply impressed I was by the fact that he was willing to give up what I thought was a very promising career, to be Bruce's lead guitarist!
I've been lucky enough to see him about six times since then, the majority of which were in the 70's and 80's. The gap between the last two times I saw him was 19 years - between 1988 and last year, when I saw him here in the Gelredome stadium in Arnhem - the ticket cost more than what I've paid to see Joe three times!
Here's the point I'm coming to - the vast majority of what he played was, not surprisingly, from his latest cd, Magic. As much as I enjoyed the experience, as good as both he and the E St. Band still are, I nevertheless came away slightly disappointed. My question to others who have been into his music for a long time is, has the final decline set in? Do others feel, like I do, that his greatest songs are ones from decades ago? Nothing from Magic features among my personal favorites.
I'll start the ball rolling with three of my top favorites, all of which I have loved since I first heard them, though I can now also connect parts of each to events in my life during the past year, making them even more meaningful to me.
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=vhQKhlpE7XE - Atlantic City
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn6-KDZpFt8 - Tougher than the rest
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=mHjPL-X5p … re=related - If I should fall behind
Rock On and keep the Faith
:D:D
