And guardian.co.uk devoting three screen-columns of pretensioso-flackery to the Big Boss Man's oeuvre of pseudo-rock is all the condemnation needed. Indeed, it is central to our point, & for once that tired phrase has non-ironic meaning.
General mumbling: Music & its markets; the re-cycling of 30+ yr. old product w/ every available scrap of actuality or documentation in a hugely expensive box for Bourgeois Bohemians:
Directed by Thom Zimny, the 85-minute documentary forms part of the deluxe edition of the Darkness reissue, along with a film of a marvellous concert from Houston, Texas in 1978, a stirring performance of the entire album by Springsteen and the E Street Band shot last year in a small Asbury Park theatre, and two CDs compiling 21 of the best of the 60 songs Springsteen rejected while spending three years on the project that would occupy a special place in his canon. That process is further illuminated by the documentary's extensive use of 8mm monochrome footage shot in the studio while the album was being prepared.What the kids are calling it today:
Springsteen's distinctive compositional method involves the permutation and re-examination of familiar phrases, shuffling sequences of notes or words from one song to another until they find their place.Enough, we can't go on. A veritable Bill Burroughs cutting it up good, that Brooooooooce.
Expensive? £73.93 Whatever that is in "real" money. (As it turns out, $120.00 or so.)
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| A bargain at twice the price. |
2 comments:
Discovered Bruce while a bored and impatient co-ed in Columbus Ohio, just after "The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle" came out; learned to my amazement that he came from the crappy beach towns my own brother was cycling in. Moved to NYC in time for the Rolling Stone cover and the great show at the Bottom Line.
Disillusioned and betrayed when he crossed a union picket line I was walking at the Tacoma Dome in 1992 - rumors had it he was hiding beneath a blanket in the foot well of the limo.
Reluctantly started listening to him again with the 9/11 album, and some others. "Matamoros Banks" from "Devils & Dust" is a beautiful heartbreaking song.
Still not sure I forgive him for crossing that picket line.
Musical Culture & Pretension Editor Demurs:
B.S. was pretty much crammed down our throat by the media, which made us immediately suspicious, having read (while living in Yurp) that Crosby, Stills & Nash were both a "super-group," & "good," & then returned to the U.S. only to discover they were limp acoustic harmonizers, not The Rock&Roll.
Many of our Golden Idols have been tarnished before our very eyes too; that's a tough one, considering fans & their ticket purchases, but hiding on the floor of a limo? No forgiveness there.
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