Bruce Springsteen is making appearances with Bill Clinton this week at rallies for President Obama.
Here is part of Bruce’s performance from one of those appearances today. It is a great acoustic version of Blood Brothers. See what you think.
No retreat, baby no surrender! Thanks for supporting the cause Bruce!
Continuing with our October focus on dreams, we have this wonderful song from Bruce Springsteen. Take a look at the lyrics and then we will listen to a great live performance of the song….
Grab your ticket and your suitcase
Thunder’s rolling down the tracks
You don’t know where you’re goin’
But you know you won’t be back
Darlin’ if you’re weary
Lay your head upon my chest
We’ll take what we can carry
And we’ll leave the restBig Wheels rolling through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreamsI will provide for you
And I’ll stand by your side
You’ll need a good companion for
This part of the ride
Leave behind your sorrows
Let this day be the last
Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine
And all this darkness pastBig wheels roll through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreamsThis train
Carries saints and sinners
This train
Carries losers and winners
This Train
Carries whores and gamblers
This Train
Carries lost souls
This Train
Dreams will not be thwarted
This Train
Faith will be rewarded
This Train
Hear the steel wheels singin’
This Train
Bells of freedom ringin’
This Train
Carries broken-hearted
This Train
Thieves and sweet souls departed
This Train
Carries fools and kings
This Train
All aboardThis Train
Dreams will not be thwarted
This Train
Faith will be rewarded
This Train
Hear the steel wheels singin’
This Train
Bells of freedom ringin’
Why do I love Bruce so much? It’s simple…..Bruce’s lyrics speak the words that are in my heart. The following lyrics perfectly capture the way I feel about my country.
This train
Carries saints and sinners
This train
Carries losers and winners
This Train
Carries whores and gamblers
This Train
Carries lost souls
This Train
Dreams will not be thwarted
This Train
Faith will be rewarded
This Train
Hear the steel wheels singin’
This Train
Bells of freedom ringin’
As always, let me know what you think.
Bruce Springsteen wrote this song as a tribute to keyboardist Danny Federici who died in 2008.
Sundown, sundown
They’re taking all the tents down
Where have you gone my handsome Billy?Sundown, sundown
The carnival train’s leaving town
Where are you now darling Billy?We won’t be dancing together on the high wire
Facing the lions with you at my side anymore
We won’t be breathin’ the smoke and the fire
On a midwayHanging from the trapeze
My wrists waiting for your wrists
Two daredevils high up on the wall of death
You throwin’ the knife that lands inches from my heart
SundownMoonrise, moonrise
The light that was in your eyes has gone away
Daybreak, daybreak
The thing in you that made me ache has gone to stayWe’ll be riding the train without you tonight
The train that keeps on movin’
Its black smoke scorching the evening sky
A millions stars shining above us like every soul livin’ and dead
Has been gathered together by a God to sing a hymn over your bonesSun down, sun down
Empty are the fairgrounds
Where are you now handsome Billy?
I am totally captivated by the song’s carnival metaphor. Let’s give it a listen…..
Although the song is about a band, I think it is equally applicable to anyone that has ever had a job. Let’s face it, in the workplace we are all “performers”. Anyone that has ever ventured into a new Customer’s office to make a pitch with a co-worker can understand a comparison of that experience to “dancing together on the high wire”, “facing the lions”, and “breathing the smoke and fire”.
The part of the song that really tugs at my emotions is the train metaphor. All of us are riding on that same carnival train and at some point we get off and don’t get back on. The train has a schedule to keep and it is programmed to leave the station whether you are on it or not. Life is truly “The train that keeps on movin'”.
I haven’t quite figured out how to work this one into “My Final Playlist” but it is too good to not give it a shot.
As always, let me know what you think.
How about one more tribute song before we end the post?
In a word that is full of BS, the tears running down my face are real…… RIP Clarence and Danny!
In the States this is Labor Day Weekend and most of us get a holiday on Monday. So……. this week we honor working men and women that make this county what is today by focusing on songs about the life of working class people. I hope you enjoy these songs.
As always, let me know what you think and let me know what your favorite “working” songs are.
Millworker – James Taylor
Factory – Bruce Springsteen
Story Behind Factory – Bruce Springsteen
Working at the Carwash Blues – Jim Croce
16 Tons – Tennessee Ernie Ford
Take This Job and Shove It – Johnny Paycheck
When I started this blog one of my big challenges was figuring out how to provide you with access to the music that I wanted to write about. After a lot of research into different options, and legal ramifications of those options, I settled on using embedded YouTube videos. I was amazed at the music that was available on YouTube and have been able to find existing videos for much, but not all, of the music that I have shared so far.
As noted in the title to this post, I hate videos with ads! I have spent an incredible amount of time locating the right ad-free music videos for posts. When this has proved to be impossible, I have created the needed videos myself in my private YouTube site that I have set up as ad-free. Unfortunately, I have run into a problem while working on the next post in the California Sound series. I have been unable to find ad-free versions of the songs I plan to highlight in the post so I have been busily creating my own. I uploaded these videos to YouTube last night and when I tested them they had ads. As I researched why the ads appeared I found bad news, good news, and then more bad news. Let me explain.
I discovered that the videos I created were flagged by YouTube as copyrighted material (bad news). There was some good news; however, because YouTube indicated that this material was allowed on YouTube with one provision. The provision was that the videos would be displayed with ads (bad news). I assume that the ad revenue goes to the copyright holder (which seems fair) but have I mention how much I hate ads???
So…I want to apologize in advance for the fact that you are going to see some ads in the videos I will use for my next post. Trust me when I tell you that I will do everything in my power to provide you with ad-free music in future posts, and if you do see ads in a post, it is because I have no other options. Thanks in advance for your patience on this issue.
As a reward for that patience, please enjoy this Bruce Springsteen video for Death To My Hometown which happens to be completely ad-free. Thanks Bruce!
I moved to Houston in June of 1978 to work on the Space Shuttle simulator. Unbeknownst to me, Houston had been a hotbed of Bruce Springsteen support for many years so Bruce made two stops in Houston that year on the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour. I was fortunate enough to go to both shows! To this day, these two concerts are the best that I have ever seen.
The first concert was in July at the Sam Houston Coliseum, an aging 9,000 seat arena near downtown. The show was unbelievable! Bruce was on fire and the show seemed to go on forever. He told more stories that night than at any of his concerts I have seen since and to be honest I love his stories as much as I love his music. I was Bruce fan before that night but I was a Bruce fanatic from that point forward.
I could not believe my luck when the tour, which continued to pickup up steam through the last part of 1978, made a second 1978 stop in Houston in December. This second show was at the much bigger and newer Summit Arena which seated almost 17000. It was another amazing show although it lacked the intimacy of the July concert at the smaller Sam Houston Coliseum. Luckily for you, video tape of the Summit concert was uncovered and released as part of the Darkness on the Edge of Town box set released a couple of years back. So…travel back with me to that December evening in 1978 and relive the incredible Detroit Medley which is today’s long song.
I hope you enjoyed that as much as I continue to enjoy it to this day! As always, let me know what you think.
RIP Clarence and Danny…..you will always be in our hearts
So today we have something a little different for you. Last weekend we previewed a few of the groups scheduled to perform at South by Southwest. Today we are going to check in on one of the most week’s most anticipated events at the festival…..no not a concert but the keynote address by Bruce Springsteen. Watch the video and I guarantee you will be entertained and, if you aren’t careful, you might actually learn something about rock history. Enjoy!
My favorite part of Bruce’s address was his comments about the Animals. In his words the Animals produced the first records with class consciousness that he had heard. After playing a little bit of We Got To Get Out of This Place during the Keynote Bruce states that it is every song he has ever written. Considering the source, this is the highest musical praise anyone could ever receive. To let you see exactly what Bruce was talking about, here is a 1965 live performance of that song by the Animals.
During the past week Bruce announced that he would be releasing a new album called Wrecking Ball this spring. As part of that announcement he released a video for one of the songs on that album called We Take Care Of Our Own. Take a listen:
During this same time period the presumptive Republican Nominee for President, Mitt Romney, stated that he is not concerned about the poor. In case you missed it here is an excerpt from that interview (along with a short commentary):
Maybe it’s just me but I think these two events provide us with a pretty concise summary of the decision that we will be making this fall. The United States that I believe in takes care of it’s own and is concerned about every American. If you have a similar vision of what our country is all about, your choice is clear. Vote for Obama!
Since you have been nice enough to let me rant, here is a Bruce bonus as your reward.
So…hold tight to your anger but don’t fall to your fear and as Bruce says at the end, “Bring it on!”
To lighten the mood click the link below to watch a video called Hitler’s First Springsteen Show. I laughed until I cried…literally.
Hitler’s First Springsteen Show
As always, let me know what you think.
I have always been interested in understanding how great songs, or more generally great ideas, come about. There is a tendency to believe that great songs and ideas spring to life, fully formed, but I know that this is not true.
For those that might be interested there are a number of great business books on this topic. I highly recommend:
The latter, one of my favorite books ever, captures the story of how most of the computer innovations that we take for granted today (Graphical User Interfaces, the mouse, and Ethernet among others) came about as part of the Xerox PARC project.
Bringing this post back to topic of music lets travel back in time to the mid-1970s. Bruce Springsteen is hard at work on a follow-up to Born to Run. He has lots of ideas, all at different stages of development. Some don’t have real lyrics yet or even titles. Even so, he and the E-Street band are putting them all on tape. Lets take a listen to a couple of them.
Candy’s Boy
The Fast Song
The second of these songs immediately catches everyone’s attention in the studio. It doesn’t have a real title yet but everyone calls it The Fast Song. The bones of the song are strong but Bruce is not happy with the lyrics other than some towards the end:
“She has men who’ll bring her anything she wants but they don’t know that what she wants is me”
Unfortunately there isn’t a story to support these lyrics. Who is this girl?
The first song is slow, some might say plodding, but it appears to have some personal meaning for Bruce so he keeps working on it. It is tentatively called Candy’s Boy. The lyrics hint at a back-story that is left untold but everyone fills in the gaps with their own interpretation:
“To get to Candy’s room you have to walk the darkness of Candy’s hall. Strange men from the city call Candy’s number and bring Candy toys but when I come knocking she smiles pretty…”
At some point Bruce has a peanut butter and chocolate moment, if you will, with these two songs. “Hey…lets take the beginning lyric from the slow Candy’s Boy and make it work in that Fast Song that everyone likes.” Boom! The magic happens and an incredible new song called Candy’s Room is born. Take a listen
Now..lets be truthful. I don’t have any idea if this is the way things actually happened but I do have some evidence in the form of the demos provided above. I think my interpretation of the evidence might be the way it really happened but, as always, let me know what you think.
thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard 