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Certain Songs #148: Bruce Springsteen – “Land of Hope and Dreams”

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Album: Wrecking Ball.

Year: 2012.

The centerpiece of the best Springsteen album since Tunnel of Love, “Land of Hope and Dreams” was a bit of a ringer, having been written in the late 1990s, and debuting on 2000?s Live in NYC.  And as much as I loved that version, this one moves me even more.

By taking the conceit of universal salvation from “People Get Ready” and making it even bigger by mixing it with the themes of America as melting pot, as America as a place to find your redemption and America as a place that would fuel an artist as improbable as Bruce Springsteen, “Land of Hope and Dreams” fuses Curtis Mayfield and Woody Guthrie while sounding totally like Bruce Springsteen.

And make no mistake: “Land of Hope and Dreams” is peak 21st century Bruce Springsteen, mixing a drum machine with a his over-expanded band, and featuring Clarence Clemons sax solo from beyond the grave. Big and universal and detailed and personal all at the same time. With of course, yet another killer Roy Bittan piano hook as the centerpiece.

For me, Wrecking Ball was the best Bruce Springsteen album since Tunnel of Love  (though I was shocked it took him 40 years to write a song called “Jack of All Trades”) – and showed that – like Bob Dylan or Neil Young – Bruce is one of the rare legacy artists who could still pull out a great album this deep into his recording career.

And yes, he followed it up with the abysmal High Hopes – probably the worst album of his entire career –  but then he followed High Hopes almost with the pretty great American Beauty EP, so all I know for sure is that whatever Bruce Springsteen does next, I’ll be onboard.

“Land of Hope and Dreams” performed live in NYC in 2000

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Certain Songs # 147: Bruce Springsteen – “Radio Nowhere”

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Album: Magic

Year: 2007

One of the most guitar-centric songs in Bruce’s entire catalog, “Radio Nowhere” was the type of high-energy song that you would figure to come from Springsteen disciples like The Hold Steady, as opposed to the man himself, who was now pushing 60. (And, actually, its circular main riff isn’t so far off from what The Hold Steady did on several Teeth Dreams tracks).

On one hand, while I guess it could be slotted into the genre of “old man yells at cloud” anti-radio songs like “The Last DJ,” “Around The Dial” and even “Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?”  it somehow transcends the genre. Maybe because we know that Bruce knows that all he needs to do is tune into Little Steven’s Underground Garage for some great radio.

And unlike any of Bruce’s songs since the party tunes of The River, “Radio Nowhere” seemed designed to fit right in the the Underground Garage aesthetic, a fact that certainly pleased his consigliere, since – in a bit of no-doubt winking nepotism – Little Steven named Magic one of the coolest albums of the 2000s.  

Me personally, I wouldn’t go that far, as “Radio Nowhere” is far and away the best song on Magic, which is actually a pretty good record, but also a complete casualty of the Loudness War. It sounds terrible. Excited by the “Radio Nowhere” single, I was really looking forward to digging into it, but I found the album hard to listen to in a single setting.

Of course live, that wasn’t really a problem. And when Tim & Tyson and I went to see Bruce on the Magic tour, “Radio Nowhere” was the opener.  And if he or I’d had aged any in the nearly two decades since I last saw him in 1988, it was instantly wiped out by the first chorus, which led directly into another terrific show.

“Radio Nowhere” performed live in London in 2009

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Certain Songs #146: Bruce Springsteen – “Two Hearts (Live in NYC 2000)”

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Album: Live in New York City.

Year: 2000.

Two hearts? More like two chords, amiright? And it may have been the simplicity of this song – located on The River between “Sherry Darling” and “Independence Day” – that caused me to overlook it until it just totally exploded out of the reunion tour live album.

After over a decade wandering in the wilderness, releasing a few bland, boring records (though Lucky Town is pretty good), Bruce reconvened the E Street Band, including – most importantly for this song – newly minted TV star Steven Van Zant, always a more dynamic personality than Nils Lofgren.

The difference: Nils was a middle manager, but Little Steven was at least the CTO. And he was exactly what Bruce needed to rejuvenate, well, everything.

For example, on the DVD of Live in NYC 2000, you can tell just how fun they’re having singing this song together. Not only is it fun to watch, it’s thematically appropriate for the song:

Once I spent my time playing tough guy scenes
But I was living in a world of childish dreams
Someday these childish dreams must end
To become a man and grow up to dream again
Now I believe in the end
Two hearts girl get the job done
Two hearts are better than one
Two hearts are better than one

And in fact, this is yet another one that is put over for me by Van Zant’s backing vocals (so much Keef there!), and clearly Bruce recognizes that. So much so that they stops the song at the end so they can sing a Marvin Gaye song nearly acapella:

It takes two, baby
It takes two
Me and you, baby
It just takes two

before slamming back into the song again.

It’s not epic or nothing, but the love and respect in this performance makes this one of my very favorite Springsteen performances.

“Two Hearts” performed live in NYC in 2000 on Spotify

“Two Hearts” performed live (NOT IN NYC) in 2000

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Certain Songs #145: Bruce Springsteen – “Local Hero”

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Album: Lucky Town.

Year: 1992.

It’s such a truism that even the greatest artists have a “down” period that Steven Hyden just did a bracket article (”brackticle”) in Grantland about it. And naturally one of the artist periods he chose was Springsteen in the 1990s, where – without the E Street Band to ground him – he suddenly felt like a man out of time.

And, of course, it didn’t help that he started the period out with a grand gesture that utterly backfired: releasing two albums on the same day.  Not only had this been done the year before with Guns n’ Roses unleashing the Illusion twins on the same day, it was done better. Basically, Gun n’ Roses gave us nearly four albums worth of stellar hard rock (especially Use Your Illusion II, which … well, don’t you worry, you’re gonna hear about that record soon enough), while Bruce gave us two records of overproduced mush.

Well, that’s not entirely true: there were good songs on both records, and Lucky Town gets the nod over Human Touch because clearly Bruce didn’t overthink it as much. 

(Speaking of Human Touch, while the title track is an OK song that goes on way too long, I’m not sure any human being has looked as awesome doing their thing as Bruce looks playing the guitar in the video for the title track. Maybe Michael Jordan.)

For example, “Local Hero,” a tune à clef as witty as anything in his catalog, full of smartly-strummed guitars and wailing harmonicas, but slightly overburdened by an absolutely unnecessary gospel choir.  That said, I’ve always loved the chorus, and in the bridge: there was no doubt that Bruce had foreseen his ‘90s doom:

Well I learned my job I learned it well
Fit myself with religion and a story to tell
First they made me the king then they made me pope
Then they brought the rope

It’s a pretty great song, but in the spring of 1992, one of the most fertile musical periods of my lifetime, a few great songs spread across two albums just wasn’t gonna cut it.

“Local Hero” performed live in 2013.

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Certain Songs #143: Bruce Springsteen – “Glory Days”

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Album: Born in the U.S.A.

Year: 1984

Oh no no no no no no no. Fuck this song. Just fuck this song. Fuck this song for its dumbass keyboard part. Fuck this song for its video that proves that as a pitcher, Bruce Springsteen is a great guitar player. Fuck this song for that chorus that sticks in your head forever. But most of all, fuck this song for being right.

The official song of Throwback Thursday, “Glory Days” boozy depiction of getting older was of course lost on me as a dumbass 21-year-old, but three decades down the line I’m just oh fuck you, Bruce for nailing it so much.

Back in 1993, Bruce played this song during the very last episode of one of my all-time favorite TV shows, Late Night With David Letterman.  Of course, even during my glory days, I almost never watched Dave live, relying on the magic of videotape to get my daily fix. My theory was that if I was awake at 12:35AM, it was because I had much better things to do than to watch TV.

Anyways, I came home after a long night of drinking at Livingstones the night of Dave’s very last show – which I knew would feature Bruce – only to find out that something had happened and it didn’t record. Either the cable went out or the VCR didn’t record or something. In any event, I was so pissed I threw the VCR remote against the wall, smashing it to pieces. Because I was a fucking idiot.

Anyways, I never did see that performance until I started looking for a video to out at the end of this post in addition to the famous video.

“Glory Days” live on Late Night With David Letterman, 1993

“Glory Days” official music video

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Certain Songs #142: Bruce Springsteen – “Born in the U.S.A”

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Album: Born in the U.S.A.

Year: 1984.

It was weird, loving this album and loving Bruce Springsteen in the mid-1980s. At that time, of course, I was fully ensconced with the alt/indie-rock aesthetic of KFSR, which automatically looked upon anything as massively popular as Springsteen (or Prince) (or Madonna) (or Michael Jackson) as suspicious. I got that: a lot of time what was popular was crap.

On the other hand, it was impossible for me to hate somebody simply because they were popular. That made no fucking sense: quality and popularity are not diametrically opposed. Not everything that is popular is crap. Never has been, never will be. It would be insane to ignore somebody simply because a lot of other folks whom maybe aren’t as snobby as I am like them.

I mean, the fact that The Kinks weren’t as popular as The Rolling Stones in 1969 didn’t mean that The Kinks were great and the Stones sucked, it meant that circumstances and market forces beyond either band’s control meant that Let it Bleed resonated while Arthur didn’t. In an ideal world, of course, both albums (to say nothing of The Velvet Underground) would have been massively popular.

In my ideal word, as a matter of fact, quality and popularity aren’t so much diametrically opposed as they are in lockstep.  Which is, of course, equally insane. But I truly want as many people to hear as much great music as I can foist at them. What I consider great music, of course, heh-heh. Your mileage will vary.

Of course, in the mid-1980s, there was no need whatsoever for me to play Bruce Springsteen on the radio as a DJ at KFSR. At least not anything from Born in the U.S.A., which had seven Top Ten singles, and certainly didn’t need my help. Clearly Bruce had figured out how to take his music to the next level commercially while not sacrificing his artistic soul.

Which was fine: as far as I was concerned, it meant that I could instead play Husker Du and R.E.M. and The Replacements etc. while still totally enjoying Springsteen’s success.  In fact, I even saw him in concert for the second time on that tour – at the Oakland Coliseum with Tim & Larry & Debbie (Tim & I also saw The Church put on a performance for the ages at Wolfgang’s in SF on that road trip) – where he always added extra heft to “Born in the U.S.A. by adding a killer guitar solo at the end.

Not that “Born in the U.S.A.” needed that extra heft. It sounded amazing. I have a simple rule: if a song sounds good enough, I really don’t give a fuck what the lyrics are. So even if the folks who have been willfully mishearing this song for 30 years happened to be correct – and they’re not, as even a cursory look at the verses would confirm – I’d still love it. I’d love it that big dumb beat. I’d love it for the even bigger and dumber keyboard hook. I’d love it for the utter passion that Bruce invests every single shout-sung “Born in the U.S.A.” 

“Born in the U.S.A”. performed live in Paris, 1985

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Certain Songs #138: Bruce Springsteen – “Candy’s Room”

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Album: Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Year: 1978.

It seems ridiculous nowadays since bands like The Arcade Fire waste their youth and influence by taking three years between albums, but the three-year gap between Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town felt like a big deal. So much time! Especially as the scruffy bohemian dude grinning holding his guitar on the former album was replaced by the clean-shaven dude staring you down.

When I first saw the magazine ads for Darkness, I couldn’t even believe it was the same guy. Which made thematic sense: if: Born to Run often felt like a huge party, then Darkness on the Edge of Town felt like the reason that people needed that party. And as such, it took a long time for me – a couple of decades, really – to fully grok how great it was.

The one Darkness song that I loved unreservedly from the start is easily the most unconventional song on the entire album. Neither a straight-out anthemic rocker nor a slowly-burning ballad, “Candy’s Room” starts quietly, and then suddenly explodes into a big Max Weinberg snare drum hook. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, it gets ripped in half by one of Bruce’s most out-front guitar solos, stopping the whole thing dead.

After that, everybody’s jostling each other trying to get to Candy’s room first. In the end,  Max Weinberg wins by virtue of sliding on his snare drum hook while Bruce slows himself down by bouncing back-and-forth between the speakers.

“Candy’s Room” performed live circa 2010

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Certain Songs #137: Bruce Springsteen – “She’s The One”

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Album: Born to Run.

Year: 1975.

Wiih its killer organ and secret basslines and big-ass drum fills, the Phil Spector-by-way-of Bo Diddley “She’s The One” packs a universe of epic grandness into just four-and-a-half minutes. And if the Born to Run version was all that we ever got, dayneu. 

But it was just a fucking trailer compared to the live version. On that 1978 tour, over Max Weinberg’s kick drum, Bruce would reference other classic songs with the Bo Diddley beat: “Not Fade Away,” “Mona,” “Gloria” – whatever came to mind – setting up what was always an absolutely monster version of “She’s The One”

The the density of the sound of the E Street Band is absolutely breathtaking: how Roy Bittan’s piano & Danny Federici’s organ intertwine, how Garry Tallent’s bass and Max Weinberg’s drums drive everything, and oh yeah, here comes Clarence Clemons kicking out a  sax solo while everybody is joyfully shouting “Whoa, she’s the one!”

And after that, they’re off to the races, pretty much leaving every other band ever in the dust. 

The last two minutes of any live 1978 version of “She’s The One,” with all of the building and building and stopping and starting and crashing and moving ever forward with ever single member of the band playing within an inch of their lives, ranks with the greatest rock ‘n’ roll music by anybody in any context. It’s utterly thrilling every single time.

“She’s the One” performed live in Landover, MD, 1978

“She’s The One” performed live in Passiac, NJ, 1978

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Certain Songs #135: Bruce Springsteen – “Backstreets”

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Album: Born to Run.

Year: 1975.

I know that Bruce posed with Clarence Clemons for the famous cover of what is probably the greatest transition record ever made, but it shoulda been Roy Bittan. I mean, of course it wouldn’t have worked visually in a nice gatefold cover, but let’s face it: Roy Bittan owns Born to Run. 

There isn’t a single song on this record without a perfect, memorable piano part. Roy’s piano is practically the first thing you hear in “Thunder Road” and the last thing you hear on “Jungleland.”  

And of course, Bittan is all over “Backstreets,” which may not be the greatest Bruce Springsteen song, but is definitely the most Bruce Springsteen song. 

One soft infested summer
Me and Terry became friends
Trying in vain to breathe
The fire we born in
Catching rides to the outskirts
Tying faith between our teeth
Sleeping in that old abandoned beach house
Getting wasted in the heat 
And hiding on the backstreets 
Hiding on the backstreets

It may not profound, but you can see it in your mind’s eye. More than that, you want to live it: that summer where everything changes. That summer which has since become so mythologized in your mind that you replay it for the rest of your life. You know, your glory days. 

And, besides, over the hard-rocking Blonde on Blonde sound of of the E Street Band, it becomes profound, because they make hiding on the backstreets sound like simultaneously the beginning and end of the world.

So in the end, when Bruce sings:

Hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets

approximately 568,921,364 times, it becomes a catharsis, a cry for help, and a prayer to a god that had long since abandoned him and Terry. In the end, it feels like a cleansing, and everybody involved is pretty much exhausted. Which means it’s time to flip the album over and get reinvigorated all over again.

“Backstreets” performed live in Passiac, New Jersey, 1978

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Certain Songs #134: Bruce Springsteen – “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”

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Album: The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle.

Year: 1973.

I honestly don’t even know what to do about Bruce Springsteen. I’m positive that all my favorite Bruce songs are the ones that you’re all sick of, and given that he’s been one of the most over-analyzed artists in history, I’m not sure I’ve got a whole lot to say about him. So I’ve been looking at these next few songs with more than a little bet of dread.

That said: for decades I’ve known where I want to be if World War III ever broke out – wherever it is that Bruce Springsteen is performing “Rosalita.” There may not be a song in recorded history with more forward momentum, especially live. Check any of the bootlegs from 1978, where the song just builds and builds and builds, where even the band introductions (often during the section where they dropped into an lightspeed instrumental of “I Can’t Turn You Loose”) somehow kept the momentum going.

Back in 1979, ABC ran a “Heroes of Rock ‘n’ Roll" special (narrated by Jeff Bridges!), and they showed just a couple of minutes from the below clip of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band playing “Rosalita” live in Phoenix in 1978. It just killed me.  Eventually, the whole thing showed up on MTV. It killed me even more.

During this clip – from that insanely great 1978 tour – you get the impression that they’re not only the tightest rock ‘n’ roll band that anyone’s ever seen, but that anything could happen at any time. Usually it’s one or the other, but almost never both. It’s a perfect combination of rock and roll spirit, musicianly chops and masterful showmanship. It remains in the top 5 live performances I’ve ever seen on video.

“Rosalita” performed liver than you’ll ever be in Phoenix, 1978

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever