From: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org (LuckyTown Digest) To: luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Subject: LuckyTown Digest V9 #25 Reply-To: luckytown@luckytown.org Sender: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Errors-To: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Precedence: bulk LuckyTown Digest Saturday, June 29 2002 Volume 09 : Number 025 NOTE: Sale/trade posts should be emailed to luckytown-ads, *NOT* to luckytown. That includes tix wanted/tix grovels, post them to luckytown-ads, please. Contents: The Rising CD single info ["Kevin Kinder" ] Today show info ["Kevin Kinder" ] Canadian Web Site ["DANIMA Technologies Inc." ] Re: Bruce's "The Rising" [DuoStudio@aol.com] The Rising and September 11. [Cheryl McIntosh ] new album cover ["Eric Douglas" ] 'the rising' [bernie moynihan ] The Rising [JZellers@dhhs.state.nh.us] [none] [Bruce Levine ] Old Website Links [Mike Anderson ] Garden of a thousand sighs ["John Fix 3rd" ] Re: LuckyTown Digest V9 #24 [TicCR@aol.com] RE: LuckyTown Digest V9 #24 ["O'Hearn, Chris" ] OFF TOPIC A Jazz Great Needs Help OFF TOPIC [records999@aol.com] More composers!! [OmanIV@aol.com] Contests and Covers [OmanIV@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 13:10:48 -0500 From: "Kevin Kinder" Subject: The Rising CD single info From http://www.brucespringsteen.net: The CD single for "The Rising" will be released on July 16, 2002, and available only for a limited time. The track listing is as follows: 1. The Rising (Album Version) (4:47) 2. Land of Hope and Dreams (Live at Madison Square Garden) (9:30)* Written by Bruce Springsteen Produced and Mixed by Brendan O'Brien Taken from the Columbia release The Rising *Produced by Bruce Springsteen and Chuck Plotkin Mixed by Bob Clearmountain Taken from the Columbia release Live In New York City [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 13:10:48 -0500 From: "Kevin Kinder" Subject: Today show info From the press release: IN A RARE LIVE TV APPEARANCE, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND JOIN THE "TODAY" SUMMER CONCERT LINEUP "Today" hits the beach for a complete broadcast live from Asbury Park, NJ, on Tuesday, July 30 On Tuesday, July 30, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will make their first appearance on a major television network morning show with a live performance on NBC's "Today." Springsteen will perform several songs from 'The Rising,' his first studio album with the E Street Band since 1984, set for release that day. "Today" will broadcast in its entirety from the boardwalk in Asbury Park, highlighted by Springsteen's "Today Summer Concert Series" performance from the adjacent Convention Hall. Katie Couric and Matt Lauer will co-anchor the broadcast direct from the beach and take a tour of Springsteen's adopted "hometown." For more information about this one-time event, please check the "Today" show website. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 10:06:30 -0400 From: "DANIMA Technologies Inc." Subject: Canadian Web Site Beginning July 1st I will finally be building www.brucespringsteen.ca . I have a web design company, therefore, hosting and other web services are at my disposal. I mentioned on ESTC that I was going to build it and had some great ideas. I was damn surprised when I heard that the .net site was his official site. I'm not the best designer....but, I can honestly say we can do better than that. So, if anyone has any ideas on site content, contributions, expertise...send them my way and we'll get this thing going soon. Obviously, tour info, discography, links, trader info, latest news and some good ole Canadian content will be present...but I'm open to any suggestions. I've got a pretty good team and we can do most anything. All of our sites are built with html, java, php and mysql running on Apache. I could even use help with a good title. here's to a great summer of Bruce! Dave Rotella Jr. DANIMA Technologies Inc. "For all of your E-business needs" www.danima.com [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 03:03:41 EDT From: DuoStudio@aol.com Subject: Re: Bruce's "The Rising" Once again, Tom Bernardo has proven himself to be one of the most thoughtful, articulate and insightful writers about Bruce Springsteen and his music that we are lucky to be able to read in the Digest with his latest, heartfelt reading of "The Rising" (LuckyTown Digest V9 #24). I was sincerely moved as I read it, it was that inspiring. Kudos to you, Tom! The lyrics of the song are the state of Bruce Springsteen's art. Wish I could say the same thing about the music. Unfortunately, the increased expectations I had for Bruce's new music--fueled especially by the addition of Brendan O'Brien (finally! A new producer with the right cred!), but recently hyped since the Sony preview in May--were dashed by the end of my first listening (albeit through standard Mac G4 speakers). The structure of the song itself is the culprit, the same how-many-times-have-we-heard-this, I-could-diagram-it-on-a-blackboard, standard Bruce: the slow open acoustic buildup to band kick-in to unoriginal chorus (how many songs has Bruce done now with "Li-li-li" choruses?) to instrumental break back to solo vocal verse to band buildup to ending chorus...sigh! The only band sound that seemed somewhat "new" was the high, hollow, kettle-drum sound of Max's--and I didn't even like that! Everything else in the song was been-there, done-that. I was honestly hoping to hear something NEW from Bruce this time around, but alas, if this and "Further on Up the Road"--a pretty derivative, undistinguished bit of Bruce's ongoing British Invasion homage--are indicative of the new material, I certainly have had my balloon punctured. Again, it's not about the lyrics. I have never had a problem with Bruce's lyrics; for me, it's always Bruce's music (in the studio; not in performance) I've been most critical of. "The Rising" is just way too predictable; for all of its "inspiring" literary attributes, it's actually pretty uninspired musically. I have missed the element in Bruce's music that used to surprise me, from even the tiniest vocal fillip (when his voice drops down low in the final verse of "Cross My Heart" or breaks out into a howl in "Preacher's Daughter") to any instrumental burst (Max's drums in BITUSA). But by and large, the past ten years have been a studio drought--musically--with very few exceptions, like "Philadelphia;" that one song did more to raise the earlobes of a wide cross-section of people primarily because it didn't SOUND like anything we had heard before from Bruce. From "Human Touch" to "The Rising" it's been pretty much same-old same-old from Bruce; even the songs on "Tom Joad" are so musically similar to one another they make "Nebraska" sound like "Born to Run"! Speaking of "Human Touch" (and I don't like to speak of it too much), the anticipation buildup to the first hearing of "The Rising" reminded me so much of the awaiting of the debut of HT in April of '92--and carried with it the same disappointment afterwards. I remember thinking HT sounded like one of Bruce's many imitators doing a takeoff of a "typical" Bruce song--because of the same rote stylistic musical song structure. And it was deja vu all over again with "The Rising." I had absolutely no desire to want to hear it again--because i heard it all the first time. Now, in keeping with Bruce's modus operandi since "Darkness," he'll no doubt take these musically sluggish, stock-in-trade studio constructions and explode them on stage, in performance--which is part of what makes him and the Band so great in concert. And why I'll of course be there for as many shows as possible, much like I was for the HT and Joad tours, politely paying attention and even enjoying some of the new songs, but really only there for his reinterpretations of his older material; are we really any different from fans of any of the "classic" rock artists like The Stones, who put up with relatively weak new material just so they can indulge their greatest hits? Isn't that what made the last tour so great? C'mon, for all of the lip service that Bruce and the Band were not an oldies act--and they're not--it was still the Greatest Oldies Show on Earth! And there's nothing inherently wrong with that when you've got the catalog Bruce has. But I expected more from him in the studio this time around; I wanted to hear how a producer like O'Brien might break bruce from a lot of his bad studio habits--the relatively quick release after entering the studio was an encouraging sign, I thought; maybe we'd get something a little wilder and reckless from Bruce instead of the clenched-teeth vocal monotone and the hoary, by-the-numbers song structure. So I was stunned for all the wrong reasons by "The Rising." I only hope that maybe this, the title song, is not the strongest cut on the album, much like the rest of Bruce's albums with title cuts; with the possible exception of "Born to Run," you'd be hard pressed to claim the title cuts on any of Bruce's albums since to be the best cuts on their repective albums. So, unless Bruce surprises me on July 30th with something--anything!--that's a little fresh or different or startling or exciting or wild or innocent or...or...well, I probably won't be listening much to "The Rising"--the song or the album--later this summer. But I'll still see you at the shows. --Arlen Schumer ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 10:48:14 +1000 From: Cheryl McIntosh Subject: The Rising and September 11. I'd like to know where it is carved in stone that this new song is ABSOLUTELY and EXCLUSIVELY about 9/11. The beauty of Bruce's songs is that they're up to the listener to interpret. This notion seems to be lost on the Americans, who, are SO UNEQUIVOCALLY CONVINCED that "The Rising" is purely about 9/11, there's no room for compromise. Granted, the influence is so close to him that it must've affected his thinking, but, I think with a little less analysis and a bit more imagination "The Rising" can be about more [and possibly even different things] than just September 11. I always thought that "Badlands" was a state of mind rather than a real place in Dakota. I'm still not entirely convinced that it can't be both. I'm generalising, now, and I KNOW that's wrong, but to make an already selfish situation worse the Americans won't even attempt to understand the lyrics as they're sung and they take the lazy way out and READ the lyrics. Where's the challenge in that? The appeal of Bruce's work is to make us THINK, think about the lyrics and at least TRY and work them out. THINK about their content as he SINGS them. Only out of utter desperation would I be tempted to peruse the lyrics ... not that I'd need to because I've just about got it figured. Just one person's take. Dismiss me as a yokel Aussie if you like. But let's not forget that "My City of Ruins" wasn't intended for 9/11 in the first place, either. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 17:51:26 -0700 From: "Eric Douglas" Subject: new album cover I haven't seen any comments about the artwork so far, and I'm wondering what people think of it. I like the photo - it's very Nebraska meets Joad. And I think there's some definite significance to the fact that the words "The Rising" are read in a downward direction. And the translucent orangy color of the title, brighter at the bottom, fainter at the top, is definitely a flame motif of some sort. Cool stuff. As for the song, I'm not sure Bruce is making DIRECT references to 9/11, as has been suggested. He has said that many of the songs were written after that day, and were written in that context. But that's to be expected, as many of Bruce's songs exist in a world larger than ours. To make specific references, like 41 shots, is unusual in his songs. But the great thing about these lyrics is that they can be interpreted in that way, if one chooses - or can be seen without that specific reference. For me, the cemetery scene was inspired directly by 9/11, but not most of the rest of the song. Enough from me, I'll let more articulate folks discuss this stuff! Eric ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 18:31:07 +0100 (BST) From: bernie moynihan Subject: 'the rising' 1) does amybody think the line 'On my back's a sixty pound stone' has any significance? to me this might indicate that the narrator is dying crushed under the 60 Lb stone. The rest of the song is abount him clinging to life and the thoughts going through his head. 2) Does the song remind anybody of 'Human Touch' both in general sound and in the use of religeous imagery? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 13:48:04 -0400 From: JZellers@dhhs.state.nh.us Subject: The Rising I love this song; and I appreciated the very insightful views from Tom, Richard, and Kevin (V9 #24). I've only heard the song 5 or 6 times, mind you; so I say the following with some trepidation, tentativeness, and (certainly) humility: I think had I been the producer I would have left off the "la la, la-la-la-la-la-la's". Maybe they are meant to contribute to the feeling of celebration and triumph of life, as Tom says about the arrangement toward the end of the song. My problem is that, for me, they somehow "cheapen" the power of the song. I don't think "cheapen" is exactly the word I want here, but it will have to do for now. My other problem with them is that I'm afraid many casual listeners (which is many of the people who will hear it) - or even just people who don't think about the lyrics very deeply - will respond to this song as (just) another catchy sing-along Bruce tune. I agree with the poster(s) who said Bruce may be challenging us to think more deeply with this album. That remains to be seen, but I hope so. By the way, I'm not sure what I would have done (as the producer) if the "la la's..." had been omitted. I imagine I would have had to hear several alternatives. By the way, please...no flames. None of what I've said is meant to be a criticism of Bruce or Brendan O'Brien. By the way, to the fellow who was disappointed in The Rising because he imagined Bruce screaming the lyrics passionately as he did on Born in the USA: I think the passion in this song is more subtle and of a different kind. Certainly not an angry passion. For what it's worth, my feeling is that the song would have been far less powerful if Bruce had sung it with more "passion". Also, I can't help but wonder: maybe there will be a "screaming song" or two on this album. In any case, though - I can understand your disappointment and I hope when you hear the song on a better sound system that you will like it better. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 13:18:58 -0400 From: Bruce Levine Subject: [none] At least at Amazon.com, Springsteen is hot. Even though The Rising won't be released for more than a month, the standard version of the CD is ranked #20 in sales there (a bit ahead of Disney's Lilo & Stitch soundtrack) and the special packaging version is ranked #3 in sales. One suspects that Bruce would be at #1 if the two versions of the CD counted as one. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/538588/ref=m_mh_mn_ct/104-8193 859-4242323 Bruce Levine Ashburn, VA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 07:59:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike Anderson Subject: Old Website Links Bill Daverne wrote: There are some hidden links at the website and some are "under construction". Try this one: http://www.brucespringsteen.net/lyrics.html and check out the other links. It's a start.>>> I don't know how long you've been on the net, Bill, but the link you're directing people to is actually a page from one of the first incarnations of the brucespringsteen.net website -- it's not something new that's being built. I would guess that it's from 1997-1998...it's just never been deleted. Here's another page from the long defunct website: http://brucespringsteen.net/disco.html It's a shame they don't do more with the website -- even from an asthetic standpoint. Jazz it up a little guys! The one page site that scrolls and scrolls went out in 1996. Also, can Bruce attempt to gain control of his .com address again since his claim was previously denied. The .com site is horrid. Mike __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 14:47:55 -0400 From: "John Fix 3rd" Subject: Garden of a thousand sighs For those looking for the Shakespeare "garden of a thousand sighs" in context, check out this scene from Twelfth Night. http://www.eamesharlan.org/tptt/t_night24.html "Not a flower, not a flower sweet On my black coffin let there be strown; Not a friend, not a friend greet My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown: A thousand thousand sighs to save, Lay me, O, where Sad true lover never find my grave, To weep there!" Interesting to note that there is a parallel to the victims of the WTC attack since many of their bodies were never located ("never find my grave"). As far a my "two cents" about Mary, I think she's the wife of the deceased firefighter. Someone suggested that the "cross of my calling" referred to a Chaplain's cross, but I think it refers to a firefighter's helmet. That would be the symbol or cross of a fireman's calling....it's the most identifiable part of a fireman's uniform. John www.cornells.com/bruce.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 12:17:13 EDT From: TicCR@aol.com Subject: Re: LuckyTown Digest V9 #24 In a message dated 6/26/02 7:24:45 AM, owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org writes: << ...I imagined Bruce's voice... screaming with an intensity that would rival the screams of Born in the USA... not a LA LA LA... >> Antonia The way I hear it is Bruce's gentler voice as a comforting thing. We've been put through a lot and we can all need a little comfort right now. Have you seen the lyrics? Email me if you haven't and I will send them to you. There's a lot of wonderful imagery going on there. Btw, I LOVE the voice Bruce is singing in. You don't always have to scream to be intense. Hope it's growing on you. :-) Phyllis ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 23:30:56 +0100 From: "O'Hearn, Chris" Subject: RE: LuckyTown Digest V9 #24 Hi Has anyone heard anything about the video for 'The Rising' ?? For the record i kinda agree with Richard & Kevin with their takes on the new song. I think it is a very powerful track and just imagine it with the E St band in full flight ???? I think i may be coming back to Boston !! Cheers Chris ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 14:04:25 EDT From: records999@aol.com Subject: OFF TOPIC A Jazz Great Needs Help OFF TOPIC As we unfortunately and sadly say good-bye to Ox, there is still good that we can do for the living. The below is copied word for word from Goldmine #572, June 28, 2002, page 66. Without blues and jazz we would not have rock & roll in any way, shape or form. There is just no way. So here's something that people can do for a forerunner to John. Barney Kessel battling brain cancer Barney Kessel is a legend in the history of jazz and is one of the most original jazz guitarists. During a 1991 engagement at New York's venerable Village Vanguard, The New York Post wrote that he is "one of the finest guitarists in jazz," and The New York Times referred to him as "a master of guitar." Due to a massive stroke, Kessel has not worked in more than 10 years. He was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in November 2001. He had surgery, Gamma-knife radiation and therapy to rehabilitate him enough so he could come home in late January 2002. The radiation slowed the growth of the very aggressive non-operable tumor (anaplastic astrocytoma). Kessel requires 24-hour home care and therapy. He is almost blind, but he is able to still talk a little on the phone and receives visitors and enjoys listening to music. He has no health insurance. His Social Security covers his rent. His wife Phyllis works full time and her entire salary goes toward Barney's care. If any Goldmine readers are interested in donating to his health care (all monies go directly to the Kessels), please send checks to: Mrs. Phyllis Kessel 4445 North Ave. San Diego, CA 92116-3940 Rest In Peace Ox. Man, you WILL be missed. But it is excellent "coincidence" that Goldmine ran this story now to tell their readers that there is something we can do to help hurting musicians. Thanks for reading. Jesus bless. Peace to your soul :) Ron Barlotta records999@aol.com No Jesus No Peace...Know Jesus Know Peace <:))))><< [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 12:12:51 EDT From: OmanIV@aol.com Subject: More composers!! In a message dated 6/26/02 9:25:27 AM, JSchle9336@cs.com writes: << They were a group with three composers who could write as well as Bruce (Or Berry,Spector,Dylan, >> More great three comoposer groups: Buffalo Springfield (Young, Stills, Furay) Byrds (McGuinn, Gene Clark, Crosby, Parsons) Procol Harum (Brooker, Reid, Trower, Fisher) And hey, ain't nobody that admires Phil's musical genius more, and the truly magic things he could do in that Gold Star studio in LA (which, depressingly is now either a laundry or a Chinese restaurant) I can almost hear Bruce doing the Checkmates' "Love Is All I Have To Give" and nailing it and thensome. But you gotta give the absolutely dynamite team of Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich (and Barry Mann/Cynthia Wild) for most of the great ones - "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" "River Deep, Mtn. High", to which Phil would add his name for songwriting royalties. Sort of like the notorious Morris Levy of Roulette (records, that is). He DID write "Too know him is to Love Him" from the inscription on his father's gravestone. Carol Connors (aka Annette Kleinbard) must have felt a little weird singing that, mebbe. And how could you forget the Kinky Raymond Douglas Davies. "Waterloo Sunset" is true genius (I just read that Julie Christie, of the "Terry & Julie" fame, is having memory problems, and won't be acting anymore......) And Leonard Cohen, the "master of erotic depair" , who did an album with Spector ( a strange pairing, if ever there was one. Well, Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson on "The Spirit of Rock and Roll" from Sweet Insanity also comes to mind.) Arthur Lee (Love) and his friend, some guy named Hendrix :-) Andy McKlusky of OMD, and Ian Wolfe of the Lightning Seeds (just for fun, and to confuse people.) Johnno ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 13:29:01 EDT From: OmanIV@aol.com Subject: Contests and Covers In a message dated 6/26/02 9:25:27 AM, Kevin Kinder writes: << Sony is having a contest to distribute tickets to 19 listening parties for "The Rising" nationwide. >> Thank you, Kevin!!!! The Star Ledger told us to go to << www.brucespringsteen.com >> I don't know if it would have gotten me there, but this did. Yay Kevin, keep it up, I have a feeling the torrent may be beginning.. The bad news: I had a hard time registering. If you were born before 1910, there is no year you can select for registering. :-( the sort of good news There's a picture of the cover. Think of it as the "Return of Tom Joad (possibly the worst album cover of all time. I keep the picture on the highway up instead. Did Bruce ever say what that atrocious buncha blobs was supposed to be? Couldn't he hire E-St. or Crystal Cat? They get it right!) Another bad blurred picture, this time in black&white with right angled artist/title lettering. I will defend to the death Bruce's right to record the Red Bank phone book if he wants, but somebody please take his cover privileges away. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!! To paraphrase Milton Berle's friend, when "Uncle Miltie" was "challenged" by someone in a men's room somewhere, just show half your cool on the cover, Bruce. It'll blow everyone else away. You'll be interested to know that, according to CDNot, there is a new "entity" in the world: the "B Street Band" I couldn't make that up........ They also list "Procol Harum" and more albums by Harum Procol. Bring back CDWorld!! Johnno ------------------------------ End of LuckyTown Digest V9 #25 ****************************** ********************************************************************* ** LuckyTown WWW URL ** The LuckyTown FAQ, back issues, web-based subscription/unsubscription, and many other things can be found on the LuckyTown WWW Page: http://www.luckytown.org ** LuckyTown mailing list addresses ** You can send email to go into the next LuckyTown Digest to: luckytown@luckytown.org You can send email to go into the next LuckyTown-Ads Digest to: luckytown-ads@luckytown.org Any questions for the list admin should be emailed to: owner-luckytown@luckytown.org To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@luckytown.org with message body: unsubscribe luckytown-digest To get further information on how to subscribe/unsubscribe/change your subscription address, as well as the other available commands, send email to majordomo@luckytown.org with message body: help ********************************************************************* The contents of this digest are not necessarily approved by the list admin.