From: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org (LuckyTown Digest) To: luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Subject: LuckyTown Digest V9 #55 Reply-To: luckytown@luckytown.org Sender: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Errors-To: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Precedence: bulk LuckyTown Digest Sunday, August 4 2002 Volume 09 : Number 055 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: Musicians On Call Springsteen Ticket Auction! [Keroz3@aol.com] What an amazing week ["Jon Greer" ] Countin' on a Miracle [Bill McSteen ] The Rising (and the promotion) -- a huge disappointment [ed ] Paradise ["bossfan" ] Re: LuckyTown Digest V9 #54 [TTrulis510@aol.com] Re: Bruce stamp [MikeRocker@aol.com] Thoughts on Mary's Place from infrequent poster [ChrissyP@att.net] For those going to Cleveland and RRHOF... [Nancy K Humphreys ] Shane Fontayne [Dale Stevens ] Dream of Songsss, take 2 [OmanIV@aol.com] Letterman, 8/2 ["pjaco7@earthlink.net" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 21:50:45 -0500 From: Keroz3@aol.com Subject: Musicians On Call Springsteen Ticket Auction! Bid on two tickets and hospitality passes for Bruce Springsteen's sold out "The Rising" Tour and benefit two great causes! Musicians On Call (MOC) and The Kristen Ann Carr Fund (KACF) have secured 2 tickets and backstage passes for every show on Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band's U.S. Tour and this is your chance to win them starting with the first date on August 7th and running through December 13th! Winners can choose between two General Admission Seats or two great seats in the lower sections on the side. Hospitality passes will come with all tickets. All winning bids will be tax deductible above the face value of the tickets. In order to bid on these tickets, please send your bid to: bruce.bids@musiciansoncall.org . Musicians On Call will update its homepage regularly throughout the day with the current bids, so please visit http://www.musiciansoncall.org prior to bidding. When bidding, please be sure to send: . Your full name . Your daytime phone number . Address to send the tickets . Your bid amount . Which concert (Date and City) . Your preference of great seats on the side in the lower section of the arena or General Admission tickets (there are no front row tickets for this tour) The winning bid above the face value of the tickets will be tax deductible. The bidding starts at $500 per pair and the bidding will increase in increments of $10.00. In the end, the winning bid will be determined by the time stamp as shown on Musicians On Call's Outlook -- an example is shown below: From: Joe Smith {joesmith@aol.com} Sent: Wed. 7/24/02 2:45 PM To: bruce.bids@musiciansoncall.org CC: Subject: Tickets and Backstage Passes for the Springsteen Auction Bid on the first three dates in August: Date City Auction Starts All Auctions End at 3PM 8/7 East Rutherford, NJ 8/1 8/5 8/10 Washington, DC 8/1 8/8 8/12 New York, NY 8/1 8/9 [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 22:00:40 -0700 From: "Jon Greer" Subject: What an amazing week It's still 3 hours until the second Letterman show and I am so exhausted I could drop. Even with all the hype overload of previous Springsteen incarnations (namely BTR and BITUSA), there's never been a seven day stretch like this one. To whit: - -- the release of the The Rising - -- the Today show appearance and broadcast from Asbury Park - -- the Time and Rolling Stone covers - -- the 3 Nightline/UpClose segments over 2 nights - -- the 2 Letterman appearances - -- the 3 rehearsal shows in Convention Hall, only one of which was planned more than a few hours in advance On top of that, the constant flow of reports out of Asbury Park on message boards like Live Daily have provided a blow-by-blow account of everything from the setlists to the drop lines to the activities of local merchants. Of course, I've also listened to the album as much as possible, though unfortunately not once all the way through -- I guess that's how it is with 74 minute CDs. I think it is incredible, an excellent album, at least as good as All That You Can't Leave Behind and probably better (to compare it to a modern release as opposed to another Bruce record). It's been a relief to read the thoughtful reviews by real rock critics as opposed to some of the early reviews that came out from writers who may be on the rock beat now but were covering city hall or writing for their college paper a few years ago. I think the line that has resonated the most for me came from Kurt Loder's review in Rolling Stone: "Like Born in the U.S.A. before it, The Rising sounds unlike any other record of its time." I think we will look back in a few years and have an even greater appreciation of the impact of this release. For now, I'm just so happy to have new, fresh, great Bruce music to listen to and absorb, and to look forward to the start of the tour and Aug. 18, when I've got a GA ticket for Las Vegas. One more point: I totally agree with Al in LTD #53: Let's Be Friends is a great tune, it's my second-favorite cut right now (after Lonesome Day) and it's got serious potential to turn a whole new crowd on to Bruce. I'm a little puzzled by the fact that he hasn't played it yet in the rehearsals (along with Nothing Man and Further On) and I'm hoping he hasn't had a change of heart since recording it. Oh yeah, and one last point: it's possible that Bruce has not yet really established the tour set list, but based on the rehearsal sets, I'm guessing that Living Proof is not going to be in the regular set. Too bad. It's the granddaddy of the cuts on The Rising, the first song he wrote after becoming a parent and, in my opinion, one of the two best hard rock songs he wrote in the early 90s (the other being Lucky Town). In fact, I'm hoping Bruce realizes that much of the Lucky Town album would work with The Rising material (I'm thinking of Living Proof, Lucky Town, Leap of Faith, My Beautiful Reward and Souls of the Departed in particular). He doesn't have to skip over that part of his career just because he didn't record that stuff with the E Streeters. Jon Greer "It take a leap of faith to get things going, it takes a leap of faith, you gotta show some guts..." [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 21:09:30 EDT From: Bill McSteen Subject: Countin' on a Miracle I love the opening classical interlude to "Countin' on a Miracle." It reminds me of Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle." Not only is it just a cool production choice, but I think that it's there for another reason. My guess? To connect that song to another one later in the CD. I've listened to the opening seconds of the songs; and to my ear and sensibility, this interlude seems to foreshadow "You're Missing." "You're Missing" segues into the same kind of classical interlude (a minuet?) at Children are asking if it's alright Will you be in our arms tonight? and again right before God's drifting in heaven, devil's in the mailbox I got dust on my shoes, nothing but teardrops Thematically, the protagonist of "Countin' on a Miracle" has come to the hard realization in "You're Missing" that the miracle isn't going to happen. The hope has been deflated; the arms of the author and children are as empty as paradise. That's why "God's drifting in heaven, devil's in the mailbox." Back to Countin': The frenzied, feedbacky guitar sounds like a gobbling turkey, who's "runnin' through the forest, with the wolf at [its] heels." ;-) The first few times that I listened to the CD, the song didn't stand out, and now it's one of my favorites on the CD. Bruce sounds so committed, so impassioned; I can just picture the veins in his neck. His intensity is so palpable, I have little choice but to love this song. Bill McSteen wkm@sei.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA P.S. Pittsburghers Unite!: Onsale date for Pgh show is August 17. Email me offlist if you're in Pittsburgh. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 08:45:29 -0400 From: ed Subject: The Rising (and the promotion) -- a huge disappointment This is my first post to LTD. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy, and I spent last weekend listening to the whole CD. A lot of people who unthinkingly worship Bruce will not like my view on this album. Frankly, this is easily the most disappointing Springsteen album yet. The anticipation that surrounded it, coupled with the shameless hyping that Landau and Sony have done, makes the disappointment that much greater. I wouldn't be surprised if this was rushed onto the market, against Bruce's better instincts and under pressure from management, to capitalize on 9/11. (It will probably hit its stride just before the 1st anniversary and all the attention that will generate will undoubtedly help sales). First, I am not happy with the production. In several cases it seems like they started with a finished Bruce song, and tried to throw things on top of it to make it "different" or "fresh", and in some cases it feels fake. "Into the Fire" is an example; the country feel to the song feels contrived, (even with Bruce's historical use of such influences), especially when the song shifts into the string arrangement. In fact, the whole song feels contrived, as if he tried to fit a round peg into a square whole. Some of the songs are just plain embarrassing, and one wonders whether, given the time Bruce usually takes, he would have included them after some careful thought. "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" stands out: it's incredible how hackneyed some of the lyrics are. A fifth grader could have written these lyrics, although they would have received a B-. Worse is "Let's Be Friends." This *is* embarrassing, it's so bad. Any power of "The Fuse" is lost in the overproduction (did they find a drum machine in Atlanta and want to play with it like a toy??). The songs that work (and that's about half of them) do so because they are so genuine; it's Bruce writing what is natural to him. "You're missing" is one: This would have been a great lost love song a year ago, now is a great metaphor of loss for someone affected by 9/11. "Lonesome Day" is another strong song, reminding me of material from LT/HT days. "Nothing Man" seems like one of the more genuine songs on the album. Countin' on a Miracle: great, with the emotional power of a "Light of Day" or "Murder Inc." Empty Sky works well, although I think the chorus could have used some more thought and editing (surely something more than "empty sky, empty sky, I woke up this morning to an empty sky" repeated over and over would have worked). What works best is that the song alternates the object of loss between a woman and the physical loss of 9/11, finally melding the two. One of my favorites is "Worlds Apart" successfully melding different genres, paradoxically reaching its height when two genres collide: when the drum track builds to a crescendo, letting Max take over and carry the song to its climax. That point is a highlight of the album. Except for the music on "Paradise" (a blatant rip-off of Simon & Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence"), the song works well; the lyrics carry a lot of weight -- lyrically, a classic Bruce song. Some people complain about the LT/HT combo, but they far exceed this album. For me, this is his most disappointing studio album, bar none. I wish Bruce had taken a few months and reconsidered this one, dropped a couple of the bad songs, re-produced a couple others. It leaves me asking, "when do you think the next studio album will be out?" Ed ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 13:16:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Jerry White Subject: Bruce from the fans' POV Here's a link to an article in the Sacramento Bee that talks about the fans' connection to Bruce. It contains many quotes from real live Bruce followers. I think it reflects a lot of my feelings about being a longtime fan. Maybe it'll resonate with you too. http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/story/3780037p-4805505c.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 22:48:03 -0400 From: "bossfan" Subject: Paradise "Paradise," the best song on "The Rising," indeed echoes Paul Simon's "The Sound of Silence," as well as Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms." The melody is haunting, the lyrics chilling and sorrowful yet somehow redeeming. I believe the parallels with The Sound of Silence" are more than musical. There is a connection lyrically as well. Springsteen begins with the blackness of the river, Simon with the welcoming of darkness, "my old friend." The images come pouring emotionally forth, Springsteen's "crowded marketplace," the setting sun, the touch and scent of a loved one, the cool, clear water; Simon's "narrow streets of cobblestone," the streetlamp halo, the collar upturned to the "cold and damp." Springsteen's suicide bomber finds the awaited arrival in paradise "empty" much like the 10,000 people (maybe more) praying to Simon's "neon god." But at the end, Springsteen's protagonist breaks above the waves and feels the sun (an ascent to heaven?) while Simon asks the ignorant to "hear my words that I might teach you/Take my arms that I might reach you.." And Mark Knopfler's lyrics seem to ring out here too: "There's so many different worlds So many different suns And we have just one world But we live in different ones Now the sun's gone to hell And the moon's riding high Let me bid you farewell Every man has to die But it's written in the starlight And every line on your palm We're fools to make war on our brothers in arms." Eric Eisenstein Albany, NY [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 21:28:37 EDT From: TTrulis510@aol.com Subject: Re: LuckyTown Digest V9 #54 Just some miscellaneous observations regarding the reviews, Letterman, Nightline, Time Mag and the band. For all those who criticized the cd as too repetitive, I think Bruce proved that live he could take the simple lyrics "Li Li Li" and make it the passionate lyrics imaginable. I have followed and seen Bruce in every decade. I don't know if I can remember the band sounding better. While I think they sound great, I don't think this is Bruce's best work. How can it compare to BTR or Darkness? The subject matter just does not make for songs as interesting as rebellion or hangin with your buddies at "Greasy Lake". I do hear the Beatles, The Beach Boys and U2. As great as Bruce is in the studio, he is still infinately better live. The songs from the new cd are plain and simply more powerful live. It's great to have a new cd, I can't wait to add the live shows from this tour to my collection. Where will this rank in his incredible body of work? If I were a critic, I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars. It reminds me of the River. I think for now I'd put it in his top 5. For your consideration, my top 6 discs of his work are; 1. Darkness 2. BTR 3. TOL 4. Ghost Of Tom Joad 5. The Rising 6. Live In NYC As great as these are, If I'm on a deserted Island, my choice over any of them is still You Can Trust your Car or Winterlands. Plain and simply just better live. Cheers. Tom T. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 20:17:02 EDT From: MikeRocker@aol.com Subject: Re: Bruce stamp Let's hope the USPS does not issue a Bruce stamp for a long long time.....you have to be dead ten years to be eligible to be commemorated as a stamp in the USA. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 23:10:40 +0000 From: ChrissyP@att.net Subject: Thoughts on Mary's Place from infrequent poster To all, Hi. I usually don't post but I had not yet seem a song idea discussed. Does anyone else think that Mary's Place might be a song about Bruce's idea of heaven? And since Bruce sings very positively about women (alot!), it would seem that Bruce would choose to name his song after the main female deity in catholicism. On Nightline, Ted Koppel "peeked" in Bruce's idea book and latched onto an early song, resembling Mary's place but with a male name (heaven vs. hell?).It seems that Bruce was trying to think about life after death and came up with a "heaven as one big party place". What Bruce fan would not want to die and go to that great big "Stone Pony in the sky" where the beer flows and the band(s) never stop playing! Take care all, Chris "The screen door slams/Chrissie's dress waves" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 19:38:07 -0700 From: Nancy K Humphreys Subject: For those going to Cleveland and RRHOF... In the Fall 2001 issue of Reconstruction (http://www.reconstruction.ws/home2.htm), Stewart Varner has an article called "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum: The Construction of Memories and the Sanitation of Threats" Skip the jargon-laden abstract at the top and go right to the article. I think this is his main thesis "Furthermore, as Robert Santelli -- the former assistant curator at the Rock Hall -- has stated, "[t]he curatorial team attempted to build a rock 'n' roll historiography where none had existed previously (239). Given rock music's potential to inspire and empower, the creation and maintenance of its history is not a job to be taken lightly. However, it is my contention that what the Rock Hall has done is sanitized the legacy of rock into little more than an glitzy and entertaining pastime. In the next two sections, I will describe how it does this." It's an interesting read...Nancy Humphreys ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 11:09:57 +1000 From: Cheryl McIntosh Subject: Yes, I was wrong. I'm the person who canned the people who said "The Rising" couldn't be about something other than 9/11. However, having listened to, and read reviews about, "The Rising" album, I'm sure there's absolutely no question that "The Rising" and most of her offspring were written while the events of 9/11 were seriously running around in Bruce's head. BUT, as somebody pointed out if we weren't aware of this blatent reference matter it COULD'VE been about those 9 miners. [Yep, I'm still hanging by my fingernails, though!] Indeed I think the song will remain relevant for as long as disasters reign. There was a write up in a paper here that said, basically, that the album will become irrelevant as the memories of September 11 fade. I thank Bruce for putting this album out there so that the memories/relevence of this tragedy will never fade. "The scars we carry remain, but the pain slips away, it seems." Special thanks to Magnus for some stimulating debate. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 19:21:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Dale Stevens Subject: Shane Fontayne > From: "Michael Rainnie" > Since it's coming up to my 10th anniversary (11/6/92 in Toronto) of > seeing Bruce with the Imposters (as one Rising reviewer put it) does > anybody know what the band members do now? (Excluding Roy) Shane Fontayne has been playing with Marc Cohn since 1998 (and maybe a bit earlier). He and Marc work very well together on stage, and I understand Marc is (finally) recording again, and Shane is recording with him. If you've never listened to Marc, I strongly suggest you do so. =======================================================Úle Stevens stevensd@mcmaster.ca TotalCaster, Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) Moderator, Canadian University Basketball Discussion List ======================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 10:23:27 EDT From: OmanIV@aol.com Subject: Dream of Songsss, take 2 I thought the second night was much better. Only got to see the second song (someone taped it for me) but on "Lonesome Day" it was like night and Day. (Really like the song too) Bruce actually remembered how to smile, I discovered he has a great black sax player (he must have joined the band yesterday, I don't remember him the first night) and that other guitar player who I don't think was there yesterday either. Gary (or the stagehand? whoever) unfortunately had his "on-air tiny speck in the back" time reduced to .874-.878 of a second (it's hard to get precise timings under a second) And unfortunately the director, who just saw "Hard Day's Night" for the first time the other day, still thinks "behnd the drums" shots are cool. But the band seemed to remember "fun". (wish I could :º) ) Gosharootie, I wish I'd know he was going to do an incredible banquet of 2 songs, and actually seemed to be a person who gave his soul to rock 'n roll. Watch the first night again. He does not smile once (well, mebbe at the very end where he shakes hands with Dave) His body is tense and rigid, and as I said, all his face conveys is anger and intensity. We are supposed to be coming "up" for the "Rising" (add "rising" to "train" and other overused Bruce metaphors) Of course, I'd be mad too if I was upstaged by 3 audience twits of no discernable talent (at least the first woman seemed to be having a good time...unlike Bruce, or the "missing" band members) and a bad imitation of Sir Paulie (who is probably a bad imatation of himself at $130 a pop) and Patti looked Great Again in the 3 way, while Bruce barely changed his shirt, and looked just as scruffy as the night before. It would have been great if he'd blown off Paul Schaeffer, and showed him how to do a James Brown routine with a little soul. "well, she walked in looking dyna-mite, to-night!" Here's Mud in your eye, Patti! (an in-joke for people people who appreciate mindless but lots of fun British 70's Pop. Sometimes the best, if not socially approved, way of dealing with tragedy is get a serious dose of fun. If only temporarily, it returns a sense of balance to your life in the face of despair and isolation. Sure helped when my father died.) Johnno in NJ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 02:11:39 -0400 From: "pjaco7@earthlink.net" Subject: Letterman, 8/2 Kroike!!!.... The interview... David didn't go low-brow...I was SO happy for that! The questions were good...about the process of writing. Pretty incredible for late night TV. Questions I WANT TO ASK! - -Do you write songs thinking in terms of the band? Who to include? - -I'm wondering what Dylan thinks of the new record...any reaction? When he wrote about about "pain pourin' down" on Love and Theft (released 9/11) it stopped me dead in my tracks. Could there have been a better depiction of that day? Bruce hits hit hard and fast...Empty Sky...I woke up this morning to an empty sky...that's what I feel when I see the skyline... - -Whenever I look at the Manhatten skyline now in a film, a video, a documentary...I STILL want to see the WTC. Don't let them take it away in our memory. I hate when films erase it with computer image...a real testimony is to let it them stand tall in our minds! - -PLEASE vary the set list this time...emphasizing the new record obviously, and with the rawness of DOTEOT material, The River, and Tunnel of Love...OKAY pretty much my pipe dreams...but as with the WHO, the STONES, MCCARTNEY.. the catalog is SO deep...MIX IT UP! Bruce looks healthy, happy, and ready to rock! Let's set something up DENVER FOR 9/22!!!! the last show before his B'day! It's going to be a night to remember! Let's organize now! Paul Denver, CO - -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . ------------------------------ End of LuckyTown Digest V9 #55 ****************************** ********************************************************************* ** 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.