Can somebody explain to me the Springsteen popularity?

In my experience the worst place to see a Springsteen concert is in NJ- filled with fist pumpers who grew up on the Irish Riviera and think they invented Springsteen.

 

Irish Riviera. Nice.

 

Finally admitted to Costas? Please!!!! He's been upfront about this all along. Did you watch the NFL press conference on Thursday? Someone asked him that probing question of why do it now: Bruce's response? "Because we have an album coming out DUMMY." It's not like he was trying to hide it. He's a rock star and in the biz to sell CDs and concert tickets.

 

But if ticket sales are any indication, why would he need to stoop so low?

 

Your avatar is disturbing, Pallister.

 

I don't consider it stooping low. Look at how many people watched that thing. I thought it was great. And Bruce thought it was fun, too. I could tell he looked like he enjoyed the whole experience. As he says in "Happy," "Born in this world, darlin' with few days, and trouble's never far behind." Which goes along nicely with another warning from "Badlands," "Live it everyday." I think he's seeing the world differently as the pirate looks at 60. It's like, why not, enjoy everything that's offered. Grab that brass ring and don't let go.

 

To good to let 21's outstanding work slip away:

I had a friend was a big Wall Street trader
After grad school
He could throw stock options by you
Make you look like a fool, boy
Saw him the other night at the WalMart store
I was walking in, he was hiding out
Had to give up the Mercedes and the house in Vail
When Lehman Brothers threw him out…

Glory Days, well they’ll pass you by
Glory Days, when Madoff was the guy
Glory Days, glory days

Well, there’s a girl that lives up the block
Back in school she’d give all the boys head
Married a hedge fund guy and got a big house,
By being really good in bed
Then Merrill Lynch folded, he lost all their cash
And she told her poor husband goodbye now,
Now she and the kids are with her parents down in Boca
She says when she feels like spending
she starts crying thinking about

Glory Days, can't afford to buy,
Glory Days, everyone in a yellow tie,
Glory Days, glory days

Think I’m going down to the bank today
And I’m going to pray til I pay my bills
And I hope when I get done I have a little cash left over
But I doubt that I will
Yeah, just sitting back, trying to recapture
A little of my 401K
Well, the Dow slips away and leaves you with nothing mister but
Boring stories of…

Glory days, private planes to fly
Glory days, driving my 740i
Glory days, glory days...

 

Magic would pump his fist to My City of Ruins

 

I've always been hit or miss with Bruce. Some of his stuff I really do like (Born to Run, The Rising, Darkness On the Edge of Town), a lot of it I don't. There is no denying that musically, he's pretty ordinary. The sound is usually boilerplate R&B, his voice is average at best and the folksy stuff usually doesn't work for me.

Still, the man does have charisma on stage, he understands and appreciates a wide range of musical styles and he's never afraid to fail while trying to do something different. He also has a poetic way of writing songs that seems to connect with people on multiple levels.

I really came to appreciate his integrity as an artist and performer when I saw him play the New Orleans Jazzfest in 2006 with the Seeger Sessions Band. It was a few months after Katrina and just to get to the Fair Grounds you had to pass through block after block of derelict houses and abandoned neighborhoods. Bruce came out with this 23-piece band (I counted them) and played an unbelieveable set of old traditional songs, finishing with a cover of "When the Saints Go Marching In," as the sun was setting that had 70,000 people crying in their beer.

So while I'm not the biggest Springsteen fan out there, I certainly do get IT, and I thought his show Sunday was awfully good, considering the limitations that were there in terms of the setting and the time he had available to perform. It was certainly light years better than the halftime shows Tom Petty and the Stones put on.

 

You're perfectly entitled to have your own musical tastes. I wouldn't expect you to get Springsteen. He's from the New York area and supports the Democrats, after all.

But your "facts" once again couldn't be any more wrong. The events of the last seven days prove Springsteen HAS reached the Zeppelin/Who/U2/etc stratosphere you describe. To wonder how that happened is perfectly fine. To deny it has happened is hilariously and blindly incorrect.

 

Oh and Scott Smith is smiling in heaven and getting ready to jam with Dennis Wilson (too soon?).