From: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org (LuckyTown Digest) To: luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Subject: LuckyTown Digest V9 #95 Reply-To: luckytown@luckytown.org Sender: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Errors-To: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Precedence: bulk LuckyTown Digest Wednesday, October 16 2002 Volume 09 : Number 095 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: Mary's Place ["Brian Rice" ] Buffalo thoughts (lots of 'em, long) [Dale Stevens ] Bruce in Vanity Fair Magazine [Sharon Dynek ] Re:Interpretations without depth [ESTJUKES@aol.com] PARIS - Oct. 14th, 2002 ["Clement Schvartz" ] Charity Begins At Home [jsavage@concentric.net (Johnny Saulovich)] Re: LuckyTown Digest V9 #93 ["TJ Jones" ] More on the Boston Globe review [Steve Leibowitz ] "The Promised Land" covered ["Dave Miller" ] RS 2002 POLL ["CS" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2002 22:13:04 -0400 From: "Brian Rice" Subject: Mary's Place Hello all! - I'm a long time reader, first time poster to the digest. In response to Bob Handlin's take on Mary's Place. My interpretation of MP came into focus during the Chicago show. Going into the night, I knew that there was more to the song then simply "Rosy Part II", but I could not put my finger on what it was. That changed when I heard the song live. To me, the song is about someone suddenly, and without warning, losing a soul mate and trying to somehow "get on" with their life. "My heart's dark but it's risin', I'm pullin' all the faith I can see." In the process, the character in the song imagines that if the lost soul mate could talk, the mate would say "grieve and grieve hard, but then let go and get on with your life". "From that black hole on the horizon, I hear your voice calling to me. Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain" The next verse talks about the mates first "party" since the loss. This is an actual party. However, this may not necessarily be a college type party, but rather a birthday party, or a New Years Eve party, or some other party that the character is "forcing" him/herself to go to as part of the healing process. Regardless, the "party" reminds the character of the good times/feelings from past parties that the two have attended. While reminiscing, the character ".dream of you in my arms". This long lost comfort helps the character eventually "lose myself in the crowd". For a long time prior to the party, the character has spent every waking moment remembering the past, but at this "party" long lost feelings of comfort return and the character becomes engaged and for the first time forgets about the loss, albeit for a brief rock-and-roll moment. Throughout it all, the character begins to realize that the mourning CAN come to an end. If the soul mate could talk, he/she would say to the song's character that he/she has "let it rain" long enough. "Let it rain" - Remember me, "let it rain" - We had great times, "let it rain" - We had incredible dreams, "let it rain" - We were soul mates, "let it rain" - We will never kiss again, "let it rain" - We never got to say goodbye, "LET IT RAIN" - But, enough rain, now it is time to get on with your life! "Tell me how do you live broken hearted?". You don't. You get on with your life. The lost soul mate seems to be saying don't break my heart by spending the rest of your life broken hearted because of what we had and lost. I had the same "drop the needle" interpretation as Bob. In this midst of this unbearable, indescribable, unprecedented loss, the character turns to R&R for healing. While most of us on this list have not had this type of loss, I offer that all of us have turned to R&R to "heal what ails us". In concert, this song (like most every live song from The Rising) really moved me. Going into the show, I thought this song was going to be the good-feeling R&R point of the show. Boy was I wrong. When I hear this song now, I envision a widow trying to somehow pickup the pieces, and with the soul mates blessing, trying to get on with life. In concert, Bruce clearly goes out of his way to announce that we are all part of a "loud house party". That is true, and we become the crowd that the character "loses" him/herself in. Additionally, Bruce assumes the song's character is sitting in the tenth row and it is the job of the ESB to create an atmosphere that is conducive to "losing yourself in the crowd". And nobody can do that better then Bruce and the ESB! Stepping back and looking at the big picture, I can only imagine what this feeling is like for the thousands of people who are actually living "Mary's Place". I imagine how I would feel if my wife was suddenly taken from me. While I realize I can never even imagine what the people living MP are feeling, I do realize that this song, and the entire CD, is telling me to cherish every moment with my family because "good things got a way of slippin' a-way." I have this feeling that 50 years from now I'll view the Chicago show as the high point of my concert experiences. From nearly missing the show due to my son getting sick at the last minute, from meeting some new tramps, from leaving work with critical deadlines looming, from getting sick myself hours before the show, from seeing my little nieces first apartment, from arriving 40 minutes after the announced start time (but still 15 minutes before the start of the show), from getting scammed $10 in a full parking lot, from leaving the show mentally and physically spent, from driving thru Indiana in the middle of the night articulating to my wife my new found interpretation of MP, from finding a hotel at 2 in the morning because I'm too tired to drive any more - this entire Bruce experience was incredible. To confirm what someone else has already reported here, if you have not yet seen this show, do whatever you have to do to make it happen. This tour is what rock and roll is all about! Brian ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 09:08:12 -0400 (EDT) From: Dale Stevens Subject: Buffalo thoughts (lots of 'em, long) I thought I'd relay a few of my thoughts on last night's Buffalo show, my 22nd (but first of this tour), dating back to January 1981. It was interesting crossing the border, both going to Buffalo, and coming back into Canada. Both times, the customs officer asked where we were going (or coming from), and when I told them it was seeing Bruce, they both commented on how much they wished they weren't working, so they could have gone. Arrived about 6:15, and was a bit surprised that the doors weren't open. In fact, it was about 6:45 until anyone was let in (although, I think the GA's were let in a bit earlier). Wonder if it was a late soundcheck. Got in, checked out the merchandise, and bought a T-shirt for a friend's daughter, who's 9 years old, and will be going to her first concert in December, when Bruce plays Toronto. We made our way to our seats, in the upper section, but right side stage, so they weren't bad for upper level. Had a chance to look over the pit. Man, that looked like it'd be a blast!! Gotta get down them sometime, somehow, at a future show. Some comments on the show ... 1. The Rising 2. Lonesome Day - - As usual solid performances to open up the show. First thing I noticed was how crisp the sound was, much better, imho, than any previous Bruce show. Also, to me, it didn't seem very loud at all. Don't know if that was because of where I was sitting, but I'd be interested in hearing from those who have seen other shows, to get a comparison. 3. Darkness On the Edge of Town - - Was hoping for Night in this slot. I like Darkness, but Night was the first Bruce song I ever saw live, and I wanted to see it again. 4. Further On Up the Road - - Very nice. One of my favourites from The Rising, and very well done. 5. Empty Sky - - As others have said, Bruce asked for quiet, and a few obviously didn't hear him. 6. You're Missing - - This one did it for me. Everyone interprets songs their own way. While You're Missing is obviously very 9/11-themed, I have a personal take as well. As I listened to the words, I thought of my son Liam, who passed away in February 2001. A wonderful child who went though more in his 22 months that anyone deserves to go through in a lifetime, but despite it all, was the happiest kid in the world. I've thought of him while listening to this song many times, but last night, hearing it live, it really hit home, and I just hugged my wife the whole song. Beautiful verson. Thanks Bruce. 7. Waitin' on a Sunny Day - - Livens things up, with a Buffalo sing-a-long. 8. YOU CAN LOOK - - First real surprise, and very much appreciated. Bruce started the "Hey Steve" part, near the end, and started mumbling something that no one could understand. I don't think he actually said anything, it was just jibberish, getting a very appropriate "That's easy for you to say" response from Steve. 9. No Surrender - - Excellent. I've been lucky to hear a few different versions of this song over the years. 10. World's Apart - - No intro, solid job. Not just on this song, but man, Soozie really adds something to the band! 11. Badlands - - Yes, it was played, although many on-line accounts seemed to miss it. 12. She's the One - - I think Bruce messed up the lyrics a bit, but still, a nice version. 13. Mary's Place - - Buffalo-style house party, with short intros. Best intro was for Danny, "Newly divorced, and ladies, he hates to be alone!" 14. Countin on a Miracle - - This song has taken some heat, but I didn't mind it live. 15. TOUGHER THAN THE REST 16. LOST IN THE FLOOD - - Both deserve a big "WOW". The highlight for me was hearing these two. As an aside, my wife is not that big a fan, but has now seen Bruce more than any other artist (last night was her 5th). She just let me sit there with my jaw on the floor, asking me on the way home about the significance of hearing those 2 songs. At the end of LitF, someone in my section said simply, "Thanks Bruce". My feelings exactly. 17. Into The fire - - Good version, but imho, a bit of a strange way to end the main set. 18. Dancin' in the Dark 19. Ramrod 20. Born to Run - - First encore was a collective blast!! Love the new Dancin', and prefer it to the original very much. Ramrod was great as always, and the crowd loved BtR as much as ever. 21. My City of Ruins 22. Born in the USA 23. Land of Hope and Dreams - - The usual second encore, sounding very much like a couple of the shows I've heard on CD. I continue to like Land as the closer. 24. Workin' on the Highway - - Figured we might get a little extra at the end. When Bruce started talking about heading out to Europe, I thought we might get Rockin' All Over the World, as someone had predicted, but this was a great way to end it. After the show, as someone mentioned, one of the Buffalo stations was doing a "Concert Replay". Listened to it as long as I could, until I was too far away, and the station faded. I too was perplexed as to where the new songs came from. The were definitely live, though not from Buffalo. Anyone know how this happens? Has it happened in other cities? Will the station still be on the air? :-) Anyway, sorry for the length, if you're still reading! :-) Looking forward to Toronto in December. Dale ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 20:18:02 -0700 From: Rona Hampton Subject: More Bruce in Rolling Stone In the Women in Rock issue (out now) there is a couple of Springsteen items/photos. An article on the Chicago show (with pic of Bruce w/Vedder) & the 2nd leg of this tour with hints from Little Steven et al about upcoming shows. And a blurb re the closing of the Stone Pony. On pages 29, 37 & 38 if you just want to tumb through it at the newstand. Check it out! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 21:26:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Sharon Dynek Subject: Bruce in Vanity Fair Magazine Bruce gets a small but significant mention in the November 2002 issue of Vanity Fair magazine. VF's annual Music Issue spotlights artists who have distinguished themselves in some way in the past year. Bruce gets the first mention of the feature and is dubbed "Singer, Songwriter, Superhero". Page 308, for those of you who don't want to bother sifting through the issue's nearly 400 pages. SD __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More http://faith.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 11:37:54 EDT From: ESTJUKES@aol.com Subject: Re:Interpretations without depth After a haitus from reading the LTD I'm slowly getting back into the habit of reading it and maybe my interpretation of Mary's Place oversimplifies things. I think that Mary's Place is about a house party in the context of 9/11 (or any other death). Someone is grieving the loss of a loved one, but wants to put that pain behind them, even if it's only for an evening. So having a huge house party with family and friends to celebrate the loved one's memory (playing their favorite records, dreaming of dancing with them), instead of mourning the loss, is the way to accomplish that goal. Joe [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 17:27:03 +0200 (Heure d'ete Paris Madrid) From: "Clement Schvartz" Subject: PARIS - Oct. 14th, 2002 Dear Tramps, I love America and Americans. But I (and you) have to admit that you guys reviews of the tour were stupid, non-sense, nostalgic and brainless pieces of crap! (I know, I'm dead already ;-) ...) "Too short, too soft, too Rising, too blah blah... Not enough Nils, not enough oldies, not enough blah blah..." Last night in Paris absolutely kicked ass! 1) the best Bruce voice ever for me (versus my other 12 shows), stunning! 2) the smartest GA regulations (no security zone, hands and elbows on the stage, sir!) 3) the strongest impact ever (2h30 make it, man, much higher average level of energy than the 3 h.-shows!) 4) the most unexpected set-list (I kept my self out of memorizing previous set-lists so I could get surprised, and damn Backstreets, She's the One and No Surrender got me!) 5) the wildest energy (Bruce got loose, so did the all-European crowd) Bruce solo on piano on My Hometown, Patti amazing at the start of Into the Fire, Nils with 12 hands during Worlds Apart, Mighty Max clearer & stronger than ever, Garry so much more into it than in '99-00 etc. And Clarence, the new born Clarence alone, made the the Reunion Tour lose its title of best tour since The River Tour. Waou, this tour is different, and this tour is great. The message is here, the fun is all-around here, the focus and consistency are great. I saw David Bowie the other day, the show was great, but wasn't he once in competition with Bruce as the greatest living rock star.... ??? It must have been a long long time ago... 'Cause last night, 4 days after my 29th birthday, Bruce made me feel like I was young again, like he was young again and that he was still the future of rock 'n roll !!!! ;-) Long live the Boss! Rock on, Clement Nancy (Lorraine), France PS : see ya in Rotterdam ! PS2 : why wasn't Dancing in the Dark ever played like this before ? We would all love the song if so! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 14:22:43 +0200 From: "Paris" Subject: Pictures from show in Paris With thanks to the security man who let me take my camera inside: http://www.nltommy.com/paris/index.html [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 13:05:50 -0700 From: jsavage@concentric.net (Johnny Saulovich) Subject: Charity Begins At Home Both the fantastic Tacoma and San Jose Springsteen shows -- which I was fortunate enough to attend -- are seven weeks past, and many have made astute observations about both. Beyond the brilliant performances, I trust everyone willing to commit time, money and effort to see the tour and wait in long lines to acquire various bits of "The Rising 2002" merchandise also takes five minutes to locate -- and donate to -- the charity Bruce sets up for each venue. In Tacoma it was the Food Lifeline -- they gather surplus but expendable food in the western Washington area and gets it to low-income, hungry families. At San Jose the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties was available to accept funds and offer information on their services -- which involves the same type of surplus food recovery and redistribution to hundreds of agencies and sites. Since Springsteen first presented charity options on his tours, I've never missed a visit or a donation. I hope that many of you can and will do the same. It's not always easy to find their lone table in a sea of drunken fans looking for the "perfect" t-shirt to take home, but they are there, waiting and hoping for your support. I'd be ashamed of myself if I failed to make the effort to offer my support. As Bruce said in San Jose, these people "do what we're singing about." Food for thought. Johnny Albany, CA ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 19:51:16 -0400 From: "TJ Jones" Subject: Re: LuckyTown Digest V9 #93 Regarding the post about the awesome Buffalo show in the Digest #93. Bruce did not play piano on Tougher Than The Rest. However, from my seats behind the stage, I saw Bruce say something to Nils who then ran to his side of the stage to switch guitars and tell Danny about what I assume is an audible in the setlist. Did anyone else catch this? Or does anyone know what the original setlist looked like? One more mildly interesting tidbit from behind the stage. Right before Bruce ran and slid across the front of the stage to Clarence (at the end of Waitin' I think), he came to the side of Max and grabbed a sponge and soaked his knees with water to help him slide a little easier. TJ > ------------------------------ > > Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2002 16:41:09 -0400 > From: GBPianoMan@aol.com > Subject: Buffalo show > > What an amazing show in Buffalo last night to close out this leg of the tour! In three hours they squeezed in a majority of the songs from the new album, plus a number of rarities which to my knowledge appeared for the first time this tour--most notable, Bruce took to the piano for a rendition of "Lost In The Flood", "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch), and "Tougher Than The Rest". If I recall correctly Bruce also played piano for "Tougher." ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 03:42:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Steve Leibowitz Subject: More on the Boston Globe review I sent a feedback form from their Arts and Entertainment site on Boston.com, basically stating that it was outrageous to print a review of a show, that clearly wasn't the entire show. I can't imagine any other form of entertainment that one would seriously print a review on part of the show. I got a response indicating they may print the letter in the Sunday paper, not sure, since I did say in there at least the Boston Herald got it right . Steve - --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos, & more faith.yahoo.com [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 10:25:00 -0500 From: "Dave Miller" Subject: "The Promised Land" covered I just read Sleater-Kinney covered "The Promised Land" Thursday at Metro in Chicago. Drummer Janet Weiss donned a harmonica harness to start the song and Corin Tucker sang, according to the review in Saturday's Chicago Tribune. Rave on, Dave _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 23:59:53 +0200 From: "CS" Subject: RS 2002 POLL 2002 readers' poll: VOTE NOW FOR BRUCE & THE BAND !!!! http://www.rollingstone.com/home/default.asp [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ End of LuckyTown Digest V9 #95 ****************************** ********************************************************************* ** 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.