From: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org (LuckyTown Digest) To: luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Subject: LuckyTown Digest V9 #44 Reply-To: luckytown@luckytown.org Sender: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Errors-To: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Precedence: bulk LuckyTown Digest Thursday, July 25 2002 Volume 09 : Number 044 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: Springsteen to Appear Twice on 'Letterman' [jp ] Cover shot ["Douglas W. Corkhill"] New York Mag, NewsWeek Reviews Of 'The Rising' [Barry Kaplovitz ] Drop Lines.... [cindy yale ] The Rising - Unbelievable ["Cavaliere, Peter" ] Tour hunches ["Brian Hedden" ] Rising in Irish shops this fri [=?iso-8859-1?q?Donal Lillis?= ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 18:33:55 -0400 From: jp Subject: Springsteen to Appear Twice on 'Letterman' LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Viewers of "The Late Show With David Letterman" will be getting a double dose of Grammy and Academy Award-winning musician, Bruce Springsteen and his E Street band in August. Springsteen will be returning to the show as a guest musical act for the first time since 1995. Making up for lost time, he will be performing on consecutive nights: Thursday, August 1, and Friday, August 2. Incidentally, Springsteen was the last musical guest on David Letterman's NBC show, "Late Night," on June 25, 1993. Springsteen will be kicking off his international tour shortly afterward, beginning on August 7 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. He and the E Street Band are promoting their latest release, The Rising, their first all-new studio recording since 1984. http://tv.zap2it.com/news/tvnewsdaily.html?27141 - -- jp AOL IM "Plunkman99" ICQ # 7157610 "Hell's brewing, dark sun's on the rise This storm will blow through, by and by House is on fire, vipers in the grass Little revenge and this too shall pass" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 16:14:39 -0400 From: "Douglas W. Corkhill" Subject: Cover shot I learned from a friend today that the cover picture of The Rising was taken on the roof of an apartment called Ponce de Leon somewhere in Atlanta. Apparently the location was used for an early promo shot for an Atlanta based band called the Swimming Pool Q's. Someone saw the picture, liked the locale, and Bruce used it. The shot was taken during the time he was down there recording. Doug ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 22:05:00 -0500 From: Barry Kaplovitz Subject: New York Mag, NewsWeek Reviews Of 'The Rising' From New York Magazine JULY 29, 2002 pop music I Shall Be Redeemed On his new album, Bruce Springsteen finds hope, even salvation, in everything from the aftermath of 9/11 to a block party; will the Chili Peppers please get over themselves? BY ETHAN BROWN Redemption is the glue that binds all of Bruce Springsteen's music together. Springsteen seeks out redemption everywhere, from the promise of an escape to a better life ("All the redemption I can offer, girl" -- he memorably sang on "Thunder Road" -- "is beneath this dirty hood") to a lifelong romance on "If I Should Fall Behind," which, performed on his last tour, he expanded to include the salvation found in his E Street bandmates. Finding meaning and purpose in not just love and sex but baseball, street life, and even politics, Springsteen is rock's most enduring optimist. His redemption obsession finds its fullest expression on his twelfth album, The Rising, much of which is about the most unsparingly grim of historical moments: September 11. Springsteen conveys the day's almost apocalyptic horror on songs like "Empty Sky" and "You're Missing": Skies are "streaked with blood," lives vanish in a "misty cloud of pink vapor." But Springsteen refuses to allow himself either vengefulness or excessive pride, and he avoids too-literal musings on the tragedy that ultimately undermined songs like Neil Young's "Let's Roll." Springsteen even has conciliatory words for those on the other side of the conflict: On "Worlds Apart," Springsteen, backed by qawwali singer Asif Ali Khan, sings hopefully that "we'll let blood build a bridge, over mountains draped in stars." Such high-minded stuff is smartly balanced with less weighty musings on love and rock and roll. One of the album's best songs, "Mary's Place" (which respectfully echoes Sam Cooke's "Meet Me at Mary's Place"), is light-years from the 9/11-oriented material, but it seems just as transcendent as Springsteen sings of the joys of a block party: a favorite record on the turntable, the floor rumbling to the beat, shouts of approval from the crowd. As the song reaches its climax, Springsteen trades verses call-and-response-like with a gospel choir called the Alliance Singers, signaling that even in escapism there is a sense of redemption. Yet the nobility of The Rising -- which was recorded quickly in the weeks after 9/11 -- seems sadly out of step with the current moment, when the shared sense of purpose from last fall has been all but squandered by a wave of corporate scandals and a remote war run by a president who asks very little of his citizenry. If The Rising were recorded now, it might have resembled the bleak landscape of Nebraska rather than the goodness-through-sacrifice of Born in the USA. Instead, Springsteen is simply doing what he does best: seeing the light at the end of even the darkest of tunnels. Bruce Springsteen The Rising (Columbia) From the July 29, 2002 issue of New York Magazine. =============================================From NEWSWEEK July 29, 2002 Music: Report From a City of Ruins A review of Bruce Springsteen's latest album, 'The Rising' July 29 issue $ After such pieces of jingo cheerleading as Neil Young's "Let's Roll" and Paul McCartney's "Freedom," the idea of rock-and-rollers "responding" to September 11 seems like opportunistic kitsch. BUT IF ANYBODY could lend it credibility, it would be the rock populist Bruce Springsteen, who's spent 30 years channeling Woody Guthrie by way of Phil Spector. The office workers, firefighters and cops who died at the World Trade Center$many from his native New Jersey$were his people, the regular folks he writes about, sometimes with grating righteousness, sometimes with heart on fire. On his new album, "The Rising," he has the good sense and good taste never to get specific about The Events. These songs of death and transcendence, love and loss, are at worst elliptical, at best universal. "You're Missing" could be a broken-home country song like "Four Walls"; what seems the least subtly allusive song, "My City of Ruins," was written before September 11. But with the "empty sky," the "blood on the streets" and the "dust on my shoes," you can't help but know just what he's talking around. Now, if only it were a great record. Springsteen hadn't cut an album of new songs with his E Street Band since 1987; the band sounds like the same well-oiled machine with that saving touch of grit. Unhappily, the songs sound the same too: the doo-wop chord changes, the simple melodic hooks blared out in unison. The few surprises$a looped drum track, a Pakistani qwwali ensemble$are trendy decorations; there's not much you didn't hear back when it was fresher. We get wonderful bits of Dylanesque mysticism ("Eleven angels of mercy / Sighin' over that black hole in the sun") and non sequitur ("Red sheets snappin' on the line / With this ring will you be mine?"), and Springsteen's own woeful wit ("I'm half a party in a one-dog town"). But he settles for too many lazy choruses ("Come on, rise up! / Come on, rise up!") repeated too many times, too many doo-doo-doos and li-li-li's. Maybe he's writing down to all those regular folks. Still, shouldn't a working guy take more pride in his craft? And don't his people deserve better? $-David Gates 2002 Newsweek, Inc. ===================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 09:43:56 -0300 From: "Tom Bedell" Subject: Halifax, Nova Scotia Listening Party Just returned from the final Canadian listening party, here in Halifax at Park Lane Cinemas. Not a huge crowd, by any means, but comfortable. Lots of Alexander Keith's Pale Ale and free cheese. As my Dad always said, it ain't a party unless there's lots of free cheese. The tracks played were...The Rising, Lonesome Day, Nothing Man, Into the Fire, Worlds Apart, Mary's Place, You're Missing and The Rising again to finish off the presentation. During the presentation my friend leans over and whispers " Jeez, with all the money Bruce makes, you'd think he'd be able to afford more elaborate videos". The songs were well-received; you could see heads bobbing, Wayne's World style during The Rising, which has been in heavy rotation on Q104 (not to be confused with New York's Q104, although it's a rock station, and it's frequency, too, is 104.3) You can't mistake the E Street Band for anybody else, especially Max's drum sound. There wasn't a whole lotta Clarence, on the tracks I heard, anyway. He was very present on Mary's Place, and I can see this maybe taking the place of 'Out in the Street' in the live shows. 'Youre Missing' seemed to be the favourite of those I talked with afterwards. The guitar work on 'World's Apart' was fantastic. Is that Nils? We also got to see the 'Limited Edition' package, with the 40-page booklet with the hand-written lyrics. Sweet. Everybody present agreed that nobody is making this kind of music anymore. Good rock songs for adults are hard to come by these days, on major labels, especially. Although, we did have nice things to say about Pete Yorn and John Mayer (Sony were paying the the grub, after all!) I haven't been overly impressed with the 9/11-inspired 'Freedom' by McCartney, or 'Let's Roll' by Neil Young, but I like what Bruce has done here. The stories about him going door-to-door in his neighbourhood looking for stories on how 9/11 affected families would seem like BS if it was another major artist, but with Bruce, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch. The national Sony guy mentioned that it's an 18-month tour, and after the December Toronto show, Bruce will be back to Canada in 2003, for more dates. That's DATES...plural. He wouldn't elaborate on whether he'll hit somewhere other than Toronto, but he wouldn't rule it out. Personally, I'd love to see a show in Montreal. In a place as remote as Halifax (12 hours to Boston or Montreal), I'm amazed at the number of people that I've met who, like myself, have travelled great lengths to see Bruce...If you live in Boston, Toronto, Jersey or Philly, you don't know how easy you've got it! We got t-shirts, too. Did anybody else get these at the listening parties? Nice shirts...Navy blue , with 'Bruce Springsteen 2002' on the breast, and 'I Came Up For The Rising' across the back. All in all, a great night. Good music, good beer, and a few folks hanging around, talkin' Bruce. What's not to like? Later... Tom [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 12:15:49 -0400 From: "Barnett, Karen" Subject: random thoughts / responses More than one person has questioned the long term validity of the new album. This question is based on the fact that the songs directly relate to 09/11/01. In published interviews Bruce himself has said that interpretation is up to the listener and that while he was influenced by 09/11/01 the album is not only about that. Someone from CA also mentioned that the events of that day did not have too much impact on their direct, daily lives. Being in NJ I feel that I can testify to the fact that that is not the case around here. For most people in this area, and I'm sure that this includes the Springsteen family (although I'm obviously guessing), it has effected our daily lives. If you didn't loose someone directly chances are you know someone who has not had a job since the 11th. Every day when you look across the water there is something missing from the skyline. If you are a commuter there is probably someone that is no longer on your train everyday. I personally cannot stand for hours on end in GA due to a physical ailment. I don't fault anyone who opts for that though. No one has officially been able to state the difference in the number of tickets between seats on the floor and the number of GA tickets. Since I would imagine that there are more tickets available overall isn't this a good thing? To get more people into the show? $75. a ticket in today's market is actually a cheap ticket. Particularly for the show that you get for your money. A lot of lesser acts are charging that and more at outdoor theaters this summer. It is a lot of money when you consider what concerts cost not that long ago, but at the same time the cost of putting the show on has increased greatly also. karen [application/ms-tnef attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 09:06:26 -0700 (PDT) From: cindy yale Subject: Drop Lines.... I'm wondering what the tour will bring in regards to the drop line? Obviously the demand for tickets will be greater and I'm wondering if there is any info out there on if there will be tickets dropped the night of the shows and if so then how many? The memory of Philly and the FU center is still pretty fresh in my mind seeing that I was in that line and didn't get tickets that night. It was my only experience with the drop line so I'm leary. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 11:46:54 -0400 From: "Cavaliere, Peter" Subject: The Rising - Unbelievable As a long-time lurker, I have never been compelled to publicly share my viewpoints, but after hearing the entire Rising CD, I wanted to share my point of view. For background, I am a 50+ tramp, having relocated to sunny Florida from Long Island in 1989, and have been a Bruce fan since Born to Run was released. I feel very fortunate to have not only attended 5 concerts during 1999 - 2000, but to also have shared these experiences with my wife, son, brother (and his family) and many friends along the way. I wasn't sure if musically, these experiences could be topped...but man was I wrong. For those of you that have not heard the entire CD, you are in for an amazing ride. The quality, emotions, genius of this body of work, in my opinion, makes this the BEST he has ever done. Bruce takes you on an emotional ride that begins with Lonesome Day and ends with My City of Ruins. I have never listened to an album, by anyone, where I absolutely loved so many cuts with just the first play. I was almost in tears upon first hearing Into the Fire and Paradise, and especially You're Missing. Upon hearing Waitin' On a Sunny Day and Mary's Place for the first time, I was flat-out amazed. These five songs represent only the tip of the iceberg. Worlds Apart, Countin' on a Miracle, Nothing Man, Empty Sky and The Rising are outstanding, and of course, the two 'old' songs Further On (Up the Road) and My City of Ruins are great. This album is uniquely Bruce, at his finest, yet the sound and feel is so distinctly different than any of his others. I am not sophisticated enough or knowledgeable enough to determine what impact Brendan O'Brien, September 11th, or any other factors) that contributed to Bruce's thought process, but frankly, I really don't care. All I know is, we may have waited since the 80's for a studio album with the E Street Band, but I think the wait was worth it. I can not wait until November when he makes his Florida stops to hear these songs live and in person with the Bruce community. I know the experience will be well worth the wait. Thank you for letting me share my point of view ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 16:01:14 -0230 From: "tjryan" Subject: angry over the Rising CD Just finished listening to The Rising CD for the third time. Above all I'm angry. I knew something was up when "Further On Up The Road" bored me. This is an awesome and inspiring song as many of the live boots prove. Here it is tepid and sounds like warmed over garage rock. While there are songs that rank with his best -"Waitin on a Sunny Day", "Nothing Man" [WOW! to this one], "Mary's Place", "The Rising", "Paradise" and "My City of Ruins" [brilliant here] - most just don't "sound" good. The choice of instrumentation (cloying strings and synth? sounds) weakens some otherwise strong tunes. As for the production, give me the clarity, spark and jump of Human Touch any day over this "wall of mud". This sound may be fine for bands like Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine where a wall of dirt and distortion masks ordinary playing. Turn up the volume and the distortion on their guitars and kids won't realize these guys don't play as well as most of the 70's punk bands. But to do that to a band with the power of the E Street Band and to a singer with the soulfulness and grit of Springsteen is a crime. I think the reviews in the U.S. will be positive anyway because it's about 9/11 and it's Bruce doing it. That's an injustice because, musically, with too many bland melodies (and even lyrically with the much overused religious imagery), this album is a B grade outtake album except for the above mentioned half dozen. Give me "Roll of the Dice", "I Wish I Were Blind", "Gloria's Eyes", "Man's Job" and "Human Touch" any day. Springsteen should have let this album sit for another six months and then listened to it again. He would have reached the inevitable conclusion, "Gee, these melodies and this sound just doesn't cut it". As it is, he has released the worst album of his career. The time was ripe for Springsteen. Bland radio, the absence of great rock 'n roll bands on ther airwaves and a topic not really addressed by rock 'n roll to date left a void Springsteen was the chosen one to fill. Unfortunately, he has dropped the ball. There are a ton of other things I'd like to say about individual tracks but I just don't give enough of a shit about this album to spend that much time thinking or talking about it. He is the greatest pure singer, performer and writer rock has ever produced but this album proves that, while there are traces of that brilliance, Bruce has lost it. Tony ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 17:03:10 -0400 From: "Brian Hedden" Subject: Tour hunches Okay, I'll jump in for the first time in Lord knows how long and give out a list of what I think we're bound to see for this first leg of this tour (aside from pissed off GA people)... The last tour saw very little of Bruce addressing the crowd the way he used to (now now now...don't count those "Tenth Ave..."riffs or "Light of Day" deals..they were routines and not those stories from the Joad tour or takes like what you would hear before "Born to Run" a la "Tunnel of Love" tour :-)). I have the feeling that Bruce will wind up taking center stage on his own and addressing the crowd on something, at some point, on every stop. He obviously feels he has something to say, hence this new CD. I think he's gonna have something to say night in and night out this time. "American Skin" doesn't make the cut this time. Even though so many folks in the media, and even fans, got this one wrong, I just think that THIS TIME the nature of the song will not fit this particular show or tour. I think it's as powerful a song as he's written but....well...not this time, at least not this show... "Souls of the Departed" takes the place of "American Skin" before "Promised Land" should there be a six pack like the last tour. Even if there isn't, my bet is that this song gets the E Street treatment night after night for this leg. There could not be a more perfect show for this song. I'm going out on a limb here...."The Rising" itself take the place of "Light of Day" and will not be a show opener (Gave it some thought after an informal njo.com poll asking what they thought the tour opener would be and the consensus seemed to be something from this new one, especially "The Rising"). Given the nature of some of this material I think that song ends the main set on a note of optimism. It seems like an obvious show opener and there's every chance in the world this hunch will be way off base. It may wind up before "Light of Day" on a regular basis should "LoD" become the closer like it has nearly every time Bruce has played with a full band, HT/LT band or E Street. This isn't for a rise or a reaction but here goes..."Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" disappears for band intros. That song on the last tour was perfect for the band intros. It simply fit. Now that the rededication is complete, I think Rosie's comin' back out for band intros this time around. Finally, a show almost as calculated as most of the "Tunnel of Love" shows. This is the first time since that CD that Bruce has released something dealing with "seemingly" a consistent theme the way that "Tunnel..." did. I can see arguments my way about how "Lucky Town" dealt with a theme or some other release dealt with a consistent theme but hear me out....there was enough on that disc that dealth with unhappy relationships, infidelity, etc.. And since there was that theme those shows were mostly "constructed" around that theme to make the rockers work along with the Tunnel songs. I don't see it being much different than that. Flame away or add....I'd love to hear it :-) Brian [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 15:14:54 +0100 (BST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Donal Lillis?= Subject: Rising in Irish shops this fri Virgin record stores will have The Rising in stores this fri...................... __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 22:53:49 EDT From: ALateJuliet@aol.com Subject: Black 47 @ Stone Pony Black 47, a great Celtic band from New York City, is at the Stone Pony on Friday nite, July 26. I've been a fan of this band for some years now, and I highly recommend them. They are not your average Celtic rock band. They blend traditional Celtic rhythms with reggae, rap, and even a little blues-y horns. Here is a quote by Larry Kirwin, leader of the band, from Stone Pony Digest #50: << LK: I always enjoyed coming down to Asbury Park when I first lived in NYC. I recognized it from places like Tramore and Bray in Ireland and, on another level, I felt that I had walked into a Bruce song, so well had he delineated the landscape of his youth. The Stone Pony: Any pointers you'd like to give the Stone Pony crowd about how to behave at a Black 47 show so you'll feel right at home? Should the club's bars stock up on Guinness before you guys arrive? LK: The crowd should just be itself. We'll bring the songs and the party. If there's guinness there, so much the better. But, I've always said: all Black 47 needs is four walls, a PA and a dancefloor. >> Check 'em out! Linda [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 11:24:56 -0400 From: "Daniel Mc Cole" Subject: Hear all of The Rising Ed Sciaky will be playing every track from The Rising on his Sunday with Springsteen show, July 28 at 8 pm, on Philadelphia's WMGK 102.9 FM. Unfortunately for those outside the area, WMGK does not broadcast over the web. Dan _________________________________________________________________ Join the world's largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ End of LuckyTown Digest V9 #44 ****************************** ********************************************************************* ** 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.