This will become a bit of a labour of love I suspect.
This is a thread of the songs that I have rated as pretty much perfect (100 / 100). The labour of love part comes in as I do a write up on each track. I'm also not sure how many tracks there are going to be. Could be never ending.
I'm not including live tracks. I'm including the occasional track which appears on a compilation if that is the only place that I can find the track as I need to own the song to include it
Please bear with me as I work my way through these. There are going to be quite a few.
"Tonight tonight the strips just right, I wanna blow 'em all out of their seats, so come out now everyone And we'll go racing in the street,"
Not just Bruce’s greatest ballad but his greatest song with the most beautiful piano intro from Roy Bittan.
The song, with its narrative about a guy in a dead-end job whose outlet is racing his car and winning money gambling on the outcome, fits seamlessly into the Springsteen narrative of the people that he grew up with. He writes and sings from the heart and about things that he understands.
Springsteen has said that this song commemorates the racing in the street that occurred outside Asbury Park, New Jersey. Springsteen songs from the 1970s often celebrated the car, another great track being Thunder Road, There seems to be something in the American male psyche that celebrate the car or the freedom that having a car affords you.
What can get lost on the narrative of this song is the part played by the girlfriend. There’s a lot of sympathy and understanding for the protagonists girlfriend in this song, which again, is a trait of Springsteen in his writing.
I love this song because it sounds “true”. It’s authentic and real and brilliantly, understatedly performed. The perfect Springsteen song. Hell, just a perfect song.
NB - I tried to post a YouTube of the track, but failed (yet again). Will try again later[/img]
"Tonight tonight the strips just right, I wanna blow 'em all out of their seats, so come out now everyone And we'll go racing in the street,"
Not just Bruce’s greatest ballad but his greatest song with the most beautiful piano intro from Roy Bittan.
The song, with its narrative about a guy in a dead-end job whose outlet is racing his car and winning money gambling on the outcome, fits seamlessly into the Springsteen narrative of the people that he grew up with. He writes and sings from the heart and about things that he understands.
Springsteen has said that this song commemorates the racing in the street that occurred outside Asbury Park, New Jersey. Springsteen songs from the 1970s often celebrated the car, another great track being Thunder Road, There seems to be something in the American male psyche that celebrate the car or the freedom that having a car affords you.
What can get lost on the narrative of this song is the part played by the girlfriend. There’s a lot of sympathy and understanding for the protagonists girlfriend in this song, which again, is a trait of Springsteen in his writing.
I love this song because it sounds “true”. It’s authentic and real and brilliantly, understatedly performed. The perfect Springsteen song. Hell, just a perfect song.
NB - I tried to post a YouTube of the track, but failed (yet again). Will try again later[/img]
Agreed. It's a fabulous song. The centrepiece from DOTEOT.
"Tonight tonight the strips just right, I wanna blow 'em all out of their seats, so come out now everyone And we'll go racing in the street,"
Not just Bruce’s greatest ballad but his greatest song with the most beautiful piano intro from Roy Bittan.
The song, with its narrative about a guy in a dead-end job whose outlet is racing his car and winning money gambling on the outcome, fits seamlessly into the Springsteen narrative of the people that he grew up with. He writes and sings from the heart and about things that he understands.
Springsteen has said that this song commemorates the racing in the street that occurred outside Asbury Park, New Jersey. Springsteen songs from the 1970s often celebrated the car, another great track being Thunder Road, There seems to be something in the American male psyche that celebrate the car or the freedom that having a car affords you.
What can get lost on the narrative of this song is the part played by the girlfriend. There’s a lot of sympathy and understanding for the protagonists girlfriend in this song, which again, is a trait of Springsteen in his writing.
I love this song because it sounds “true”. It’s authentic and real and brilliantly, understatedly performed. The perfect Springsteen song. Hell, just a perfect song.
NB - I tried to post a YouTube of the track, but failed (yet again). Will try again later[/img]
Agreed. It's a fabulous song. The centrepiece from DOTEOT.
It is. the whole album flows seamlessly and has probably the best narrative of any album that I own. It's literally a perfect album. I think that the album contains three or four perfect songs. I'm not going to write about the others from DOTEOT now, I'm going somewhere else next but will be returning to DOTEOT from time to time
While were on the subject of Racing In The Street...it's important to remember that Springsteen writes songs that tend to work in a country setting. It's also important that his lyrical themes that might sound like male bravado work quite well in the hands of female singers. Racing In The Street is one of those songs. Emmylou Harris is one of the very best at interpreting songs by others, and she's never been shy about taking on Bruce ( Tougher Than The Rest, Mansion On The Hill, My Hometown). This is from her 1982 live album Last Date. She takes on the role not of the girlfriend, but of the street racer, making the hero of the song even more dynamic.
It's also notable that the recording includes banjo, guitar and the vocal harmonies of Barry Tashian, who was once the frontman of the American sixties band The Remains, known for having been an opening act for The Beatles.
One of the comments about this video says it all:
"When Bruce sings this song I want to cry. When Emmylou sings it I want to curl up in a fetal position and never come out."
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
While were on the subject of Racing In The Street...it's important to remember that Springsteen writes songs that tend to work in a country setting. It's also important that his lyrical themes that might sound like male bravado work quite well in the hands of female singers. Racing In The Street is one of those songs. Emmylou Harris is one of the very best at interpreting songs by others, and she's never been shy about taking on Bruce ( Tougher Than The Rest, Mansion On The Hill, My Hometown). This is from her 1982 live album Last Date. She takes on the role not of the girlfriend, but of the street racer, making the hero of the song even more dynamic.
It's also notable that the recording includes banjo, guitar and the vocal harmonies of Barry Tashian, who was once the frontman of the American sixties band The Remains, known for having been an opening act for The Beatles.
One of the comments about this video says it all:
"When Bruce sings this song I want to cry. When Emmylou sings it I want to curl up in a fetal position and never come out."
Thanks for sharing Romanelli. I hadn't heard Emmylou's version before and it's just lovely. Gave me goosebumps.
I think what is apparent from both live versions posted here is the respect from the audience for the song. No noise can be heard from them whilst it is being performed. I love that. So pleased to have heard Emmylou's version. Going to need to check out other tracks from the album. Might well end up on my Wishlist.
Come As You Are - A commercial success, certainly in the US and the UK, this is an outstanding track.
It would be reasonable to assume that this is a song about drug addition, with a fair few oblique, and not so oblique, references scattered amongst the lyrics although, an alternative explanation for the title, which I read recently was put forward by Kurt, is that you will be accepted, “Come As You Are”. Who knows!
Anway, it boasts, some of Kurts best guitar playing and one of his best solos, and the driving energy of the song is infection. It’s almost impossible not to get into the groove right from the start.
Finally, did Nirvana “steal the intro” from Killing Jokes song Eighties? The similarity is rather uncanny. Do I care? Not at all. Do Killing Joke care? Probably a lot more than I do
Finally, did Nirvana “steal the intro” from Killing Jokes song Eighties? The similarity is rather uncanny. Do I care? Not at all. Do Killing Joke care? Probably a lot more than I do
They knew it was similar, but released the song as a single anyway. Killing Joke did get upset about it, and they kinda wanted to sue, but when Kurt Cobain died that kind of put the kibosh on the whole idea. They actually should have gotten more upset over Foo Fighters' cover of "Requiem," since they essentially took all the anger and power out of it, but there was probably money involved since Foo Fighters were selling a lot of records at that point. (That might even have been Dave Grohl's way of making up for it — I think he also played drums on one of KJ's albums.)
Frankly, when you consider the way guitars are tuned and how your hand-shape naturally fits over the fretboard, it's surprising there haven't been more bands using this riff — it's only two chords and it's extremely simple to play. And as many Damned fans have pointed out, "Life Goes On" from Strawberries (1982) predates both tracks. You could probably find some similar riff-usage from 70's-era boogie bands too, but nobody wants to subject themselves to that much boogie just to find them in order to make this particular point.
Finally, did Nirvana “steal the intro” from Killing Jokes song Eighties? The similarity is rather uncanny. Do I care? Not at all. Do Killing Joke care? Probably a lot more than I do
They knew it was similar, but released the song as a single anyway. Killing Joke did get upset about it, and they kinda wanted to sue, but when Kurt Cobain died that kind of put the kibosh on the whole idea. They actually should have gotten more upset over Foo Fighters' cover of "Requiem," since they essentially took all the anger and power out of it, but there was probably money involved since Foo Fighters were selling a lot of records at that point. (That might even have been Dave Grohl's way of making up for it — I think he also played drums on one of KJ's albums.)
Frankly, when you consider the way guitars are tuned and how your hand-shape naturally fits over the fretboard, it's surprising there haven't been more bands using this riff — it's only two chords and it's extremely simple to play. And as many Damned fans have pointed out, "Life Goes On" from Strawberries (1982) predates both tracks. You could probably find some similar riff-usage from 70's-era boogie bands too, but nobody wants to subject themselves to that much boogie just to find them in order to make this particular point.
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