From: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org (LuckyTown Digest) To: luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Subject: LuckyTown Digest V9 #96 Reply-To: luckytown@luckytown.org Sender: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Errors-To: owner-luckytown-digest@luckytown.org Precedence: bulk LuckyTown Digest Saturday, October 19 2002 Volume 09 : Number 096 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: Paris show [Roberto Sasso ] PARIS_14-oct-2002 ["=?iso-8859-1?Q?Alain?=" ] Barcelona [vcarol@rockworld.u-net.com] RE: LuckyTown Digest V9 #95 ["David Rakowski" ] Bruce Springsteen: Vapid Sellout or Communist Sympathizer? ["Jordan Marsh] re: Bruce Politik LTD V9.94 [cltelazo@carolina.rr.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 18:57:34 +0200 From: Roberto Sasso Subject: Paris show Here are some impressions about the Paris show. I was in the pit area, together with at least 600 people from various European countries. Sound was very good, as in the 2000 leg of last tour (much better than in 1999). The show lasted approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes. Bruce and the band were in great shape, and Bruce voice was fine, although I felt it dropped during the second set of encores. During the slow songs (Empty Sky, You're Missing) the audience was very quiet, and Bruce rendition really stood out (also, Patti's vocals were very effective). After these two slow songs, Waitin' On A Sunny Day brought a radical change of mood, and everybody was singing the chorus. Soozie was a pleasant surprise, her contribution to the Rising songs was noteworthy. I also appreciated Elliott Murphy appearance on Born To Run, which added even more thickness to the "wall of sound" (4 electric guitars!). My only complaint is that Nils would deserve more room to show his talent: for instance, I'd love to see him play the main solo in Worlds apart, which is currently being shared by Bruce and Steve. Backstreets was not in the setlist, but Bruce called for it after Countin' On A Miracle. When Bruce sat at the piano, everybody knew that something special was going to happen. Before starting, Bruce realized he had forgotten the harmonica, and stopped one moment to wear it around his neck. A heartfelt rendition of My Hometown followed. Born In The USA was very powerful: Bruce introduced it (in French) as a song about the Vietnam war, and added that he was going to sing it as a symbol of peace. At the end of the song, he repeated "peace" two or three times. Ramrod was pure fun, with Bruce and the band clowning around the stage (Clarence even took a sax solo while lying down on his back!). People get ready... a train is coming... Ciao! Roberto Sasso "Faith will be rewarded" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 16:43:40 +0200 From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Alain?=" Subject: PARIS_14-oct-2002 Folks, First of all please excuse my bad english. On Monday night I was in Paris for the show. We arrived "only" about 2h 45mn before the show, so I didn't manage to get my hands & elbows on the stage like Clement did (lucky man). However we made our way nicely and ended up about 7 meters from Bruce, with a nice view. I'm saying "we", because for the 1st time I took my girlfriend to a Bruce show. For 6 years I've been telling her about Bruce, she likes him but she's not a big fan. Now she dug it, this memorable show is another step toward our mutual understanding. The whole thing went not only right through me, but also right through her, and I'm so happy about it :) Like Clement, who's probably gonna get flamed big time for his strong stance against the "stupid" reviews coming from the US, I was tired of reading negative things about the shows. I actually *almost* believed that the man turned bad or something. I was very worried about not having a great show for the one time I managed to take my girlfriend along. Since she's a musician and I'm not, I was also worried about the technical part, would she *again* have something to say about "how they missed this note after the third chorus in the 5th song at 8.45 pm?" :) Well, the show was far from perfect on the technical standpoint. There were a few times when the sound was bad. I also remember one particular moment when the band did not play together, I forgot on which song, but there was the violin coming in and they sorta screwed it (even I noticed, so it was bad). Also my GF said she could hear the overtones - it wasn't feedback because it changed according to the notes played and was definitely their overtones. They were amazingly present and interfered with the music. It was something wrong with the speakers, overtones shouldn't be so present. I could hear that at times too, but she heard it all the time; it would be nice to hear about that aspect from real musicians, the ones who have a near-perfect ear... But, HEY, the guys played with their guts the whole night, for *more* than 2h 30mn! Who does that nowadays in popular concerts? They have nothing to prove anymore, HE has nothing to prove anymore, on the contrary, he could live off past glory. I know it's a cliche, it's been said 3 million times before, but it's really like if he'd play for the last time of his life! You don't know what it means until you witness it. It's such a pleasure to share his songs with him. Like I was telling my GF, he plays them all with all of his heart, and then, everyone relates more to such or such song(s). On monday night I really was in communion with Bruce when he played "no surrender" (1s time I see this one live) and "badlands" (this one I saw each time, but for some reason it felt soooooo good on monday). My GF got really hit by "born in the usa". It was the 1st time I saw BITUSA full-band, full-power, full-put- whatever-u-want-here, and actually it didn't hit me as much as I thought it would. I still think many people don't understand it, maybe that's why somehow I couldn't really sing along on that one; altough Bruce made a point explaining he wrote this song for the vietnam veterans and it now stands for peace (in french!). Yesterday, I read a pretty bad review of the concert in "Le Monde". It sounded very much like the "stupid" reviews, as Clement put it, coming from the US. It's OK if you have something to say about the not-so-perfect sound. It's OK if you hear the overtones from the instruments and complain about it. It's OK if you think we don't hear the piano enough, we hear Mighty Max too loud... BUT I don't think anyone has the right to criticize the setlist. It's his choice. It's his artistic stand. I don't think anyone has the right to criticize Bruces commitment. He gives his all. It's HIM onstage, not some character he built (BTW that's why you cannot compare Bruce's performances to Bowie's). He plays with his soul. He believes in what he sings; word after word. Thanks for reading this far, Alain. Accedez au courrier electronique de La Poste : www.laposte.net ; 3615 LAPOSTENET (0,13 €/mn) ; tel : 08 92 68 13 50 (0,34€/mn)" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 10:51:25 GMT From: vcarol@rockworld.u-net.com Subject: Barcelona Well, where do I start? I couldn't be in Paris, and I'm happy I didn't go, because Barcelona is the best! I've been here since Saturday, in summer weather, kicking myself for not bringing my bikini!! And the Spanish audience, now that's what I call a rock n'roll crowd!!! First, when we got in (I queued since 11am for GA), there was no moving slowly, politely, and showing our tickets. No. The Spanish way - the Lating way I must say - is to RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!! So, we "stampeded" into the Palau Sant Jordi. You should have seen the security guys!! There was nothing stopping us!! How I miss that (I'm a South American for those who don't know, which must be all of you coz I never post!). The stampede worked for me as I ended up at the front, with the only little problem that I was right next to the camera that was shooting for the screens, and we kept being moved and pushed. The securty guy protecting the equipment and the cameraman (a dead cute american bloke) was a really nice guy that kept being distracted by a very sweaty 53 year old New Jersey man that was leaving his life on the stage, sliding on his knees right in front of us, goofing about, speaking Catalan (Barcelona is in the Cataluña provice, and even though Spanish is spoken as in the rest of Spain, the traditional language is Catalan - which I thought it was very sweet and respectful of Bruce to give it a try!), and a bit of Spanish, telling us to shut up with a "sssshhhhhhh" before Thunder Road, as we were screaming the place down asking for the song. He was having a laugh. And the gems - at least for me: Spirit in the Night and Incident on piano. And in Spirit, he forgot the words, and he started laughing so much, with that goofy sweet smile of his (OK, I'm a girl, right!??). But this is a man that can afford to do this; any other artist would have pissed off the audience probably. The big surprise: I've never seen the rock version of Dancing, and it totally blew my mind. I wish he had recorded it like that, but then, maybe it wouldn't have been the number 1 hit that it was. Who knows. The beautiful moments: Empty Sky and Into the Fire. Why? You'd have to be hard pressed to find a Spaniard that doesn't smoke, so when Bruce was playing those two songs, the whole place lit up. Awesome, emotional, beautiful. What I wish he left out: Land of Hope and Dreams (I never liked it anyway)and Born in the USA, specially the latter. It just doesn't work for me in full band, specially now with the times that we are living in. Many people here are blaming Bush indirectly for what happened in Bali (so do I to be honest), but I don't want to start a political debate here - we'll go to RMAS for that! :-) It might work in the US, and I totally understand why, but not in Europe. IMHO. What I wish he played: THE FUSE!!! PLEASE BRUCE, OR JON, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, PUT IT BACK IN THE SETLIST!! I GOT GA IN LONDON, AND I'LL BE AT THE FRONT. PLAY IT!!!!!! PLEEEEEAAASSEEEEE!!!! After 8 years living in London, with all the strict rules, where a rock concert is treated more like a mass than a rock concert, where you can't do this, you can't do that, it's nice to come to a country, where the silly rules are written somewhere, but if you light up a cigarette in the venue, nothing happens, everything is fine. I was on 2nd row and took lots of pictures with one of those "happy snappy" cameras, thinking that if I had it taken away, at least it wouldn't be my other expensive one. Damn! I wish I had taken the expensive one! I could have gone there with a huge Nikon and a lens of 20 metres, and it would have been OK. I'm just praying that the pics come out OK!! Ladies and gents, next time Bruce plays in Spain, I urge you to come. And if Bruce is not playing, come to Spain for your holidays. You'll love it! See ya all down the road. Vivian - ---- "We learned more from a 3 minute record than we ever learned in school". No Surrender ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 11:27:42 -0400 From: "David Rakowski" Subject: RE: LuckyTown Digest V9 #95 Hi Kevin: From Friday's Wall Street Journal: In Europe, Uncle Sam Has Lost Popularity, but the Boss Rocks By PHIL KUNTZ Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL BARCELONA, Spain -- Bruce Springsteen altered the course of Graziano Romani's life one night in 1975 in Mr. Romani's hometown of Casalgrande, Italy. "I was listening to my dad's car stereo, and I heard the song 'Born To Run,' " he recalls. "From that moment on, my life changed. Suddenly I got into Bruce. It gave me a lot of faith, a sense of strength and emotion. I ended up trying to strum a broke-down guitar and playing an out-of-tune upright piano my parents had at home. Bruce gave me the will to start singing." That's why Mr. Romani ended up performing gravelly voiced Springsteen renditions at a cafe in Paris last Sunday night, leading hundreds of Bruce fans from across Europe in foot-stomping, fist-saluting homage to the American icon. With all of Washington's saber-rattling about Iraq, the U.S. isn't very popular in Europe these days. But Mr. "Born in the USA" himself is taking it by storm. Mr. Springsteen sold out seven 15,000-seat-or-so concerts in seven countries, most of them in minutes, and his new CD has sold a million copies in Europe. It immediately shot to No. 1 in 10 nations. Thousands of Bruce fanatics are crisscrossing the Continent to see him perform the songs of loss and redemption he wrote for his album "The Rising" in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. Joan Colet, head of a fan club based near here, arranged travel, accommodations and tickets for 80 Spaniards to see Monday's Paris show before they returned here for Wednesday's performance, much of which was broadcast live on cable TV. Steven Jump, a U.K. fan-club founder, did the same for another 500 fans in Paris and 200 in Barcelona. Lots of Springsteen-T-shirted Bruce trekkers were on the overnight train from Paris. Mr. Springsteen's current popularity is especially striking given the disdain many Europeans have for U.S. foreign policy. Sympathy over 9/11 has dissipated amid revulsion over what many consider unilateralist warmongering. President Bush is routinely ridiculed as stupid -- "like a cartoon stereotype" representing "the worst side of the U.S. culture," says Jordi Beleta, 45 years old, sitting outside Barcelona's Palau Sant Jordi before the show. "Bruce is real. He's a street man." About 300 Bruce fans attended the night-before party at L'Autre Cafe in Paris that featured Mr. Romani on Sunday. "I'm proud to be Italian [and] I love everything about my country's culture, but in my early teens, I fell in love with rock 'n' roll," says Mr. Romani, who is 42 and sports a shaved head and a thin goatee. Now he has recorded eight albums, including one exclusively of Bruce tunes. "Without his music," Mr. Romani says, "I probably would be doing a different job right now." ON TOUR Bruce Springsteen is scheduled to play Bologna, Italy, Friday, Berlin on Sunday, Rotterdam on Tuesday, Stockholm on Thursday and London on Sunday, Oct. 27. He then returns to the U.S. for shows in 18 cities in November and December. All are officially sold out, but there were tickets available from scalpers outside the shows in Paris and Barcelona for face value or slightly below, and authorized retailers sometimes put extra tickets on sale in the days and hours beforehand. For details, the best English-language fan Web site is www.backstreets.com1. The Springsteen phenomenon here is part of a long tradition. "European fascination with American music goes all the way back to the turn of the century, from the early days of jazz," says Robert Santelli, head of the Experience Music Project museum in Seattle. Jerry Lee Lewis was huge in France. In England, Muddy Waters and other blues greats inspired the Rolling Stones. The Ramones helped launch the 1970s punk movement. When bluesman Memphis Slim couldn't find work in the U.S., he moved to Paris. So did Elliot Murphy, an American singer-songwriter who had moderate success in the U.S. in the 1970s but now makes his living here. A longtime friend of Mr. Springsteen, he has seen many Bruce shows on both continents. "I've never seen a concert event like his concerts in Italy and Spain," Mr. Murphy says before joining Mr. Springsteen on stage in Paris for "Born to Run." Indeed, Mr. Springsteen's U.S. shows are inevitably exhilarating, but the Wednesday concert was pandemonium, with fans exhibiting soccer-like hysteria. They didn't just wave or clap their hands over their heads for nearly three hours -- they did that while jumping up and down in unison, a rhythmic, undulating sea of arms. Few speak English, but most sang all the words. Between songs, they chanted "oh, eh, oh, eh," prompting a comical jig from the star. Bare-chested men brandished their shirts in raised fists. On the floor, a woman egged everyone on -- standing on top of the shoulders of a man on top of the shoulders of another man. Greetings in Catalan Bruce charmed the fans with greetings in Catalan, their native tongue. When he requested quiet before "Empty Sky," a chorus of polite shushes preceded near-absolute silence, and then hundreds held up lighters, giving the World Trade Center-inspired dirge an even more spiritual texture. During the rarely performed West Side Story-esque ballad "Incident on 57th Street" ("Especial para Barcelona," he said), fan-club founder Mr. Colet, 36, shook his head, awestruck. He began to rub his eyes. His wife, Pilar Gallego, brushed his hair comfortingly as Mr. Springsteen, alone on piano, led an 18,000-strong chorus: "Good night, it's all right, Jane/I'm gonna meet you tomorrow night on Lover's Lane." Eyes now brimming red, Mr. Colet grasped the hand of fellow fan-club founder Xavier Agut, 33, whose other hand held that of his wife, Anna Alonso, 31. Mr. Agut's mother Montserrat Forcada, 61, sat nearby enjoying her fifth Bruce show. Mr. Springsteen changed their lives, too. During his 1992 tour here, Ms. Alonso was riding her scooter when she noticed Mr. Springsteen in a car alongside, snapping her picture. A huge fan, she begged him to stop for a joint photo. He complied. Mr. Agut heard about the photo and wanted to publish it in the fan club's magazine, so he called to ask her about it. That's how they met. The day after this past Fourth of July, they were wed, playing Mr. Springsteen's "I Wanna Marry You" during the church service before flying to America to visit the Bruce mecca Asbury Park, N.J., on their honeymoon. In the U.S., a promotional extravaganza accompanied the release of "The Rising" and Mr. Springsteen's tour. Here, he had to do little more than prime the pump with a few interviews for selected countries. Translations were included with the CD, prompting debate among aficionados over the line, "Come on up to the rising." Is it a religious resurrection, a revolutionary uprising or simply the act of getting up and going upstairs, as the firefighter does in the song? American literature professor Alessandro Portelli of the University of Rome, 60 years old and a longtime fan, couldn't decide when he wrote the Italian lyrics for Sony Records, "so I used a different translation for each verse," he says. 'Patriotism Trap' To be sure, some Europeans lump Mr. Springsteen with everything they hate about America. The CD "falls into a patriotism trap," the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel commented. "Is it brilliant or embarrassing? Tasteless kitsch or heartwarming?" But many fans find Mr. Springsteen an antidote to American conservatism. The U.K. fan club's Mr. Jump calls him "the voice of intelligent liberal America -- Clinton, as opposed to Bush." Mr. Springsteen himself is injecting a note of politics into his shows. "I wrote this song for the Vietnam War," Mr. Springsteen said in French on Monday and in Catalan on Wednesday, introducing "Born in the USA," his blistering if often misunderstood indictment of the indifference shown returning Vietnam vets. "I want to do it for you tonight for peace." Although Mr. Springsteen didn't mention the president in the concert, a front-page photo of Mr. Springsteen in Thursday's La Vanguardia was headlined, "The Boss sings for peace in the Palau [arena] - -- Springsteen presents 'The Rising' and criticizes George Bush." Tonight, Mr. Springsteen is scheduled to play in Bologna, where the Italian fans insist they're crazier than the Spanish ones. "Italy loves Bruce," says Mr. Romani. "He's got Italian blood running in his veins." - -- Almut Schoenfeld in Berlin contributed to this article. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 00:59:14 -0500 From: "Jordan Marsh" Subject: Bruce Springsteen: Vapid Sellout or Communist Sympathizer? I enjoyed the reading the posts in LTD V9 #94 defending Bruce from charges that he deliberately avoids the explicitly political songs of Steve Earle in order to sell more albums. I enjoyed them even more after reading the Jon Mendez post telling Bruce to stick to domestic affairs and keep his nose out of foreign policy, unless he's praising the U.S. Great juxtaposition, Kevin. Notwithstanding Mendez's bizarre proposition that "The Boss" should keep his mouth shut unless he's saying something that Mendez agrees with, it bears noting that Bruce Springsteen is being attacked for 1) not being political enough, and, at the same time, 2) being too political. The kid must be doing something right. Jordan Marsh [text/html attachment deleted] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 12:59:48 GMT From: cltelazo@carolina.rr.com Subject: re: Bruce Politik LTD V9.94 I have to respond to Jon Mendez who feels Bruce is "out of line" for his "negativity" regarding America. It would appear that his argument is "(My) America, Love it or Leave it" ... hmmmm, sounds familiar Mr. Nixon. According to Mr. Mendez, apparently the best (read as ONLY) way to express our Freedom of Speech is to do so in a positive manner by toeing the Bush company line (we are at War you know ... 3000 people dead .... shut your eyes and follow me or the terrorists have won). We can debate so long as we do not disagree. While Mr. Mendez feels compelled to remind us that "Bruce would be wise to remember that in Iraq and all of the other dictatorships and communist countries he would have been throw in jail (or worse) a long time ago for not only espousing his political viewpoints but just for singing his songs!", I would point out to Mr. Mendez the following consequences of the Bush/Ashcroft "Patriot" act: FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation. (This is necessary because the Taliban was an evil Theocracy which does not accept Jesus as its one and true personal savior). FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests. (The government, after all, has the best interests of the individual as its primary concern). FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation. (Government can handle its own oversight afterall, that "checks and balances" bullshit just gets in the way, we are at War you know ... 3000 people dead .... shut your eyes and follow me or the terrorists have won). RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes. (If they weren't guilty, why would the government have arrested them). FREEDOM FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES: Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation. (If you've got nothing to hide, what are you worried about?) RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial. (We are at War you know ... 3000 people dead .... shut your eyes and follow me or the terrorists have won). RIGHT TO LIBERTY: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them. (I mean, its not like citizens that dare speak out against the regime would be targeted). Mr. Mendez then points out "No one is attending a Bruce show for a political lesson. They are concerts not political rallies. Talking about poverty, hunger, people being out of work and rebuilding run down cities and towns is one thing. But when you start talking from the concert stage about issues concerning a War that our country is currently involved due to the murder of 3,000 American's in a single day you are walking on a dangerous line and you better have your facts straight." So apparently, the facts are that "Talking about poverty, hunger, people being out of work and rebuilding run down cities and towns" (and how to go about doing so and the effects that government policies have in that regard) is NOT politically based but "the need to talk about the War on Terror from the stage(using less than) positive comments about what makes America great and how we should preserve those liberties for all generations" IS political. Thanks for straightening me out on that. The deal here is that the gravest danger to America is not terrorists who blow themselves up per se but rather Americans who blow up the Constitution in an effort to protect themselves from those terrorists. If Bruce is "out of line" speaking out against this pratice, then those 3000 dead did die in vain and the integrity he has shown over the years talking about poverty, hunger, people being out of work and rebuilding run down cities and towns was all an exorbitant lie. ------------------------------ End of LuckyTown Digest V9 #96 ****************************** ********************************************************************* ** 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.