Hey, did anyone else's ears start bleeding as soon as they walked into Starbucks today? How about we get to some much different new music from a much different old guy?
Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band Live in Dublin Woo! Yeah! Springsteen live! The Boss! Brooooooce!
Well, not quite. Following the release of his Pete Seeger-inspired romp through American folk history, We Shall Overcome: the Seeger Sessions, the Boss took the show on the road. Folks were warned not to expect the usual Bruce concert - instead of Clarence and Little Stevie there would be banjos and fiddles.
Since the Seeger Sessions disc already sounded like a one-take hootenanny, you had to wonder if hearing it live was even necessary. But as much fun as Springsteen sounded like he was having on the studio album, he sounds like he's having even more fun here. And as good as the old folk songs sound live, I have to admit that what I like most about this live disc are Springsteen's own old songs.
Bruce has always seemed to try take at least a few of his songs into new directions in concert, but I doubt he's ever gotten this far away from the originals. "Atlantic City" drops the original's despondent mood and replaces it with a lively, matter-of-fact, Johnny Cash-like freight train beat. Rather than remaining a rebellious anthem, "Growing Up" has a much older Springsteen sounding like he had a lot of fun sticking it to the man all those years ago.
The disc is full of transformations like these. Springsteen even updates the Depression-era "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live" and turns it into Katrina-era blues.
A companion DVD is also being released today, and Amazon has full clips of both "Atlantic City" and "Growing Up." They don't make the clip embeddable like youtube does, but if you click on the image below you should be taken to video's page.
This week's list:
- WILCO Sky Blue Sky
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Live in Dublin
- THE NATIONAL Boxer
- VOXTROT Voxtrot
- AU REVOIR SIMONE The Bird of Music
- PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block
- THE CLIENTELE God Save the Clientele
- FEIST The Reminder
- RUFUS WAINWRIGHT Release the Stars
- GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara
- THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
- ROSIE THOMAS These Friends of Mine
- LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III Strange Weirdos
- TRAVIS The Boy With No Name
- THE ROSEBUDS Night of the Furies
- WARREN ZEVON Preludes
- BRIGHT EYES Cassadaga
- MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
- BJORK Volta
- FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE Traffic and Weather
- RICHARD THOMPSON Sweet Warrior
- WHEAT Everyday I Said a Prayer for Kathy and Made a One Inch Square
- JOE STRUMMER The Future Is Unwritten
- ANDREW BIRD Armchair Apocrypha
- PATTI SMITH Twelve
- SON VOLT Search
- GOLDEN SMOG Blood on the Slacks
- THE AUTUMN DEFENSE The Autumn Defense
- ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. Yours To Keep
- THE DECEMBERISTS The Crane Wife
Dropping off the list this week:
- ERIN McKEOWN Sing You Sinners
>>Hey, did anyone else's ears start bleeding as soon as they walked into Starbucks today?
Is it that bad? I only heard one song. Didn't hate it, didn't particularly like it.
Posted by: The Velvet Blog | 2007.06.07 at 09:04 AM