Re: Change Just One Word
- From: "Mike Voss" <mfvossNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 03:37:31 GMT
"William Innes" <billyinnes@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
> I think the line I would change would be the use of "lost my money" when
>it comes to "I lost my wife"...but Springsteen's gone ahead and taken care
>of that.
A case where real life seems to have improved a song :-)
Guess money seemed important when Bruce didn't have
much yet, and seemed less so when losing the other...
> Heck, I've even come to appreciate and embrace the "catfish" line from
>"The Rising"...
Always thought the controversy over this was much ado
about nothing, as I embraced it from the start as a line
grounding the narrator in memories of real physical life
after moving on to a spiritual one :-)
> "Looking for I don't know what for" (from "None But the Brave")
> always struck me as a bit awkward, but that might be the point of that
line.
Probably an intentionally awkwrad line and...
> I think the thing that I find most bothersome is his pronunciation of
> "Orion" in "Long Time Coming"
....*possibly* an intentional mispronunciation, but Bruce's
frequent mistakes in that area make me suspect it's not,
although it doesn't bug me that much despite having a
bit of amateur astronomy background (something alluded
to at one point, I believe, by Matt Orel).
Isn't it on Storytellers that he also mispronounces "ether"
while talking about The Rising? Rather painful to these ears :-)
> I know there's been a lot of criticism hurled about excessive use of
"kiss"
> ~ "lips" ~ "breath" and such from THE RISING albums. Initially, I was
sort > of turned off by the abundance of those words.....now, I'm starting
to find
> a certain charm to the repeated imagery......and am finding that it,
> ultimately, makes for a stronger/more cohesive album by the constant
> repeats.
This I always thought intentional in terms, again, of grounding
the stories of loss in the physicality of the missing loved one,
as well as helping tie the stories together. It can be argued
that the cohesiveness gained by this is too simplistic or
amateurish in comparison with Springsteen's previous
lyrical accomplishments, but I always liked the emphasis
on the physical which the repetition gives.
> Overall, I think the lines that I find most awkward come from the JOAD
> album. In some of the songs, particularly "Balboa Park" and "Sinaloa
> Cowboys", some of those lines sound a bit too stiff & stilted
Hydriotic acid...sheesh. That one just doesn't cut it for me,
and "for everything the north gives, it exacts a price in return"
might have flown if it hadn't been placed in the mouth of
the father warning his sons.
> ... A good example of this in Springsteen's case would be "Murder,
> Inc."...a song that I've always thought was pretty weak lyrically...but,
> given the fury of the music, it more than compensates for what the lyrics
> lack.
> It's that very formula and fire that allows a lot of Little Steven's songs
> to succeed. That said, I think that the flaws of "Murder, Inc." are a bit
> more glaring when one hears the song done solo (as was the case on the
> JOAD tour).
An interesting point, an well taken. I hadn't really paid any
attention to those lyrics until a very nice acoustic solo was
included by a fan in one of the Greetings from Luckytown
series (and I think I nearly preferred that version for some
time to Bruce's own Joad take <g>).
> I guess while on the subject, I'd like Springsteen to change the "pearl
and
> silver" line from "Nothing Man." I hate it when Springsteen is obtuse and
> ambiguous.
Never found the line to carry either quality...
> When he pens lines like the "pearl and silver" line in "Nothing Man" he
> comes off...to my ears, at least...as a cat who's trying to be poetic.
....but I see your point in this. To me, however, the line seems
direct and obvious enough and I'd be hard put to rephrase it.
> Over the years, I've found that the only one who I can whole heartedly
> accept that sort of ambiguity and vagueness is Dylan.
Not Bruce pre-Darkness?
> He's a master at it...so much so, that he creates sense out of his own
> chaos. He's probably the only one who can get away with it...or pull it
off
> in a manner that's convincing.
Not sure he'd have pulled off Blinded :-)
> I suppose the Beatles had their share of vague/obtuse lines...but when
they > made practice of that, it sort of came off as fun and sort of light
hearted.
I always found it a cross between that and laziness/boredom as they
lost their way and eventually went to their separate careers. In
Lennon's case, anything really obtuse was definitely a carryover
from his love of playing with words, I think, but what McCartney
was getting at in Uncle Albert or Junk is pretty much beyond me :-)
> I don't know if I'd ever use "cottonwood" to kick off a song...but I guess
> it's okay if someone really loves to see that kind of tree in the spring
> (early spring).
Bruce's folk/country sensibilities (performance-wise) seem
to range from amateurish to adequate, and given his love
of country music this sort of frustrates me. But when he
has Soozie add to his own songs as on Racing and Two
Hearts in Nashville 96, the results are brilliant. I Wish
You were Blind is a stand out exception to the rule. He's given
Mansion a nice country feel many times from Joad to
Reunion tour, but missed badly trying to give a country
swing feel to others like No Surrender (while nailing
the sound for Working on the Highway and Johnny 99,
oddly enough). As though he thinks adding pedal steel
to a song alone can make it "country" sometimes; but
when the whole arrangement is carefully worked out
the sensibility comes through successfully...
Mike
.
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