This is the part where I put in my two cents. The official press release mentioned eleven new songs....well not exactly, it's more like nine new songs (plus one new bonus track) and two not so new -- Wrecking Ball was written in response to the tearing down of Giants Stadium and the Philly Spectrum during the '09 tour, but I think Bruce has probably reworked the lyrics to suit the theme of this album. It's a decent song, but here I hope it gets a 'major revamp', musically. Besides, the title has a nice ring to it: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Wrecking Ball World Tour -- sounds pretty kick-ass!
The other 'recycled' tune is Land Of Hope And Dreams, which was written way back in '98, performed heavily during the Reunion and Rising tours, and made a comeback during the last tour. No doubt it's one of the most significant Springsteen songs of the past twenty years, up there with Streets Of Philadelphia, The Rising, My City Of Ruins and Long Walk Home. It first appeared on Live In New York City, my gateway album into the world of Bruce (exactly ten years and counting!!) This upcoming studio version has been rumored to be the tribute to Clarence Clemons. I couldn't be happier by its inclusion, and if there's one show-closer I'm looking forward to hearing live this summer, it's this.
And finally, the first single, We Take Care Of Our Own. Somehow it reminds me of Working On A Dream (the song), but it's light years better. You still got that classic E Street melody, but at the same time it sounds fresh. Bruce sings in a low key, but you can feel something stirring up in him. There's a lotta stuff happening, lotta layers, quite expansive, like Born To Run expansive. Since it's the opening song I guess it'll set the tone for the rest of the record, and judging from the song titles and the sequence, we can expect it to get darker and then move back towards the light at the end.
So this song is good, not great, but will be in concert, and I have a feeling there will be better ones, more experimental ones, and more 'wow' moments. As for the lyrics, you have the American references, but the line "We take care of our own/Wherever this flag's flown" could possibly be applied universally. We Take Care Of Our Own explicitly highlights the importance of community. But then it can also be viewed as a negative, ironic statement i.e. politicians only protecting their own interests. That's the genius of Bruce as a songwriter. One look at the album cover and you can tell Wrecking Ball is gonna be a very edgy album, and I like that Bruce is still posing with his old Fender Esquire! So eleven songs, just the right number. Only seven more weeks!
CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER...
Friday, January 20, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
It's Official
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN TO RELEASE NEW STUDIO ALBUM 'WRECKING BALL' ON MARCH 6Bruce Springsteen's new album 'Wrecking Ball' has been set for March 6 release on Columbia Records. Marking his 17th studio album, 'Wrecking Ball' features 11 new Springsteen songs and was produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen and executive producer Jon Landau. A special edition of 'Wrecking Ball' will also be available and include two bonus tracks and exclusive artwork and photography.
'Wrecking Ball' Song Titles:
- We Take Care of Our Own
- Easy Money
- Shackled and Drawn
- Jack of All Trades
- Death to My Hometown
- This Depression
- Wrecking Ball
- You've Got It
- Rocky Ground
- Land of Hope and Dreams
- We Are Alive
- Swallowed Up (Bonus Track)
- American Land (Bonus Track)
Bruce Springsteen will make an appearance as the keynote speaker at SXSW 2012. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be touring extensively in the US and Europe in 2012.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Occupy E Street
Another week and no official announcement about Springsteen's new album. The only news we got, from the Hollywood Reporter, a fairly reliable source, is that the upcoming album is described as his angriest yet.
“He gets into economic justice quite a bit,” says an earwitness who’s heard some of the music. “It’s very rock ’n’ roll. He feels it's the angriest album he's ever made. Bear in mind, though, that [Springsteen] wrote and recorded the majority of the album before the Occupy movements started, so he's not just setting headlines to music.”
Produced by Ron Aniello (Patti Scialfa, Jars of Clay), the album, which was recently played for label execs, is described as veering into “unexpected textures -- loops, electronic percussion … an amazing sweep of influences and rhythms, from hip-hop to Irish folk rhythms.” The still-untitled effort is said to be “terrific.”
And history has proven that Bruce is at his best when he's pissed off. Also I'm really fascinated by the part about 'unexpected textures'. In other rumors, the album is said to be released March 5 and 6. If this is correct, then the press release should come by this week, along with the first string of U.S. tour dates, running from March to May.
Finally, over the weekend, Bruce dropped by the annual Light Of Day benefit show at Asbury Park's Paramount Theatre, and jammed with New Jersey rock & roll royalty for two hours. CLICK HERE for the full report and videos. From the looks of it, the man's definitely ready to do some killing on the road!
UPDATE: Jon Landau has something to say about the new album. CLICK HERE...
“He gets into economic justice quite a bit,” says an earwitness who’s heard some of the music. “It’s very rock ’n’ roll. He feels it's the angriest album he's ever made. Bear in mind, though, that [Springsteen] wrote and recorded the majority of the album before the Occupy movements started, so he's not just setting headlines to music.”
Produced by Ron Aniello (Patti Scialfa, Jars of Clay), the album, which was recently played for label execs, is described as veering into “unexpected textures -- loops, electronic percussion … an amazing sweep of influences and rhythms, from hip-hop to Irish folk rhythms.” The still-untitled effort is said to be “terrific.”
And history has proven that Bruce is at his best when he's pissed off. Also I'm really fascinated by the part about 'unexpected textures'. In other rumors, the album is said to be released March 5 and 6. If this is correct, then the press release should come by this week, along with the first string of U.S. tour dates, running from March to May.
Finally, over the weekend, Bruce dropped by the annual Light Of Day benefit show at Asbury Park's Paramount Theatre, and jammed with New Jersey rock & roll royalty for two hours. CLICK HERE for the full report and videos. From the looks of it, the man's definitely ready to do some killing on the road!
UPDATE: Jon Landau has something to say about the new album. CLICK HERE...
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
70
Rock & Roll is our religion, and we'll continue to lose disciples as we go, but we pick up the fallen flag and we keep moving forward, bringing forth the good news that our heroes have helped create; their bodies lost, but their spirit and their good work everlasting.-- Steve Van Zandt
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Nebraska 30
All I got is a red guitar, three chords and the truth
All I got is a red guitar, the rest is up to you
Thirty years (and two days) ago, Bruce Springsteen set out to make, perhaps the starkest and most haunting album anyone had ever done at that point in time. As far as most-personal-records go, it was his Blood On The Tracks. He would bring the acoustic four-track demos to the E Street Band and attempt to flesh them out, but it didn't work, so the bare-bones versions were released instead. Those tapes, known as Electric Nebraska, are still highly sought after in the bootleg world.
Obviously Nebraska was a totally unexpected follow-up to his previous mega-hit, The River. Its release resulted in poor sales, but garnered high critical praise. For me, it may not be one of my favorite Springsteen albums, but I can easily say it's his greatest creative achievement after Born To Run and Darkness. Bruce always creates masterpieces when he's pissed off at something, usually at the government.
The characters here are Americans, alienated from their dead-end jobs and social surroundings, some live in isolation, some have no reasons to live, some turn to crime as their only way out. I never thought I'd feel a strong sense of connection to them, but with the ultra-bleakness marriage of the guitar strumming and the heartbreaking poetry, Bruce binds you to these people in ways you'd never expect. This is the kind of record you listen to late at night when you're extremely depressed, and in a weird way it lifts your spirits up.
And when some of these songs are performed live, especially with the band, they become powerhouses:
Atlantic City -- any version from the Reunion tour onwards is probably worth checking out, though I don't particularly dig the '06 Seeger Sessions renditions; a good recent one is from The River show at Madison Square Garden, where it was performed as a sign request
Mansion On The Hill -- Reunion tour version is 'countrified', courtesy of Danny's accordion and Nils' pedal steel, and also some moving harmonization from Bruce and Patti
Johnny 99 -- Working On A Dream tour, always between Seeds and either Youngstown or The Ghost Of Tom Joad, making this set one of the highlights of any '09 show (the Hyde Park blu-ray is a good place to start)
State Trooper -- Devils & Dust tour (the one at Gothenburg is a must-hear); also performed one-off with Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Regine in Ottawa in '07
Open All Night -- Devils & Dust tour (Philly and Jersey '05), Seeger Sessions tour (surprisingly great, New Orleans/ Preservation Hall-inspired); also Eddie Vedder does justice to it during his solo shows
And my personal favorite, and if there's one staple that should be played during every show of the upcoming tour, it's Reason To Believe -- Magic tour; kick-ass blues rendition with bullet-mic (and what's better is that the band plows straight into the next song which is just plain awesome i.e. Because The Night, Candy's Room, Adam Raised A Cain, Night, Jackson Cage) CLICK HERE to watch the best version from '07.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE...
All I got is a red guitar, the rest is up to you
Thirty years (and two days) ago, Bruce Springsteen set out to make, perhaps the starkest and most haunting album anyone had ever done at that point in time. As far as most-personal-records go, it was his Blood On The Tracks. He would bring the acoustic four-track demos to the E Street Band and attempt to flesh them out, but it didn't work, so the bare-bones versions were released instead. Those tapes, known as Electric Nebraska, are still highly sought after in the bootleg world.Obviously Nebraska was a totally unexpected follow-up to his previous mega-hit, The River. Its release resulted in poor sales, but garnered high critical praise. For me, it may not be one of my favorite Springsteen albums, but I can easily say it's his greatest creative achievement after Born To Run and Darkness. Bruce always creates masterpieces when he's pissed off at something, usually at the government.
The characters here are Americans, alienated from their dead-end jobs and social surroundings, some live in isolation, some have no reasons to live, some turn to crime as their only way out. I never thought I'd feel a strong sense of connection to them, but with the ultra-bleakness marriage of the guitar strumming and the heartbreaking poetry, Bruce binds you to these people in ways you'd never expect. This is the kind of record you listen to late at night when you're extremely depressed, and in a weird way it lifts your spirits up.
And when some of these songs are performed live, especially with the band, they become powerhouses:
Atlantic City -- any version from the Reunion tour onwards is probably worth checking out, though I don't particularly dig the '06 Seeger Sessions renditions; a good recent one is from The River show at Madison Square Garden, where it was performed as a sign request
Mansion On The Hill -- Reunion tour version is 'countrified', courtesy of Danny's accordion and Nils' pedal steel, and also some moving harmonization from Bruce and Patti
Johnny 99 -- Working On A Dream tour, always between Seeds and either Youngstown or The Ghost Of Tom Joad, making this set one of the highlights of any '09 show (the Hyde Park blu-ray is a good place to start)
State Trooper -- Devils & Dust tour (the one at Gothenburg is a must-hear); also performed one-off with Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Regine in Ottawa in '07
Open All Night -- Devils & Dust tour (Philly and Jersey '05), Seeger Sessions tour (surprisingly great, New Orleans/ Preservation Hall-inspired); also Eddie Vedder does justice to it during his solo shows
And my personal favorite, and if there's one staple that should be played during every show of the upcoming tour, it's Reason To Believe -- Magic tour; kick-ass blues rendition with bullet-mic (and what's better is that the band plows straight into the next song which is just plain awesome i.e. Because The Night, Candy's Room, Adam Raised A Cain, Night, Jackson Cage) CLICK HERE to watch the best version from '07.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE...
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