I just opened up the Paris show Setlistvision thread on GL and read something I had forgotten about. But the resident chronicler of all things live Bruce @Mario Brega is attending only his second ever Bruce show in person in Paris. Have a fantastic evening you champion, and don't sweat the writing of the post show review. Don't worry about nuance, language, flow, or any of the normal editing principles you would apply to your writing... just let the pure emotion flow. I can't wait to read it.

Does anyone here have one or more songs that are really critically and / or commercially successful but which you personally just can't understand what all the fuss is about? For me, by far and away the best example is Wonderwall by Oasis. I just don't get it. It's musically and melodically dull. The lyrics are terrible ('Maybe... you're gonna be the one that saves me'. Sheesh, primary school level bad). And the vocal itself... 'And after awwhhll... you're my wonder wahhll'... it actually grates on me. And what the fuck is a 'Wonderwall', anyway? This song often appears high on best of the 90's lists... indeed, even on best of all time lists. I can't fathom why. You don't even need to go through the rest of the best of the 90's to find vastly superior songs... you just need to go to the very album this song appears on. Don't Look Back In Anger and Champagne Supernova aren't particularly great in the whole scheme of things, but for mine they are both superior to Wonderwall on any criteria I care to apply. So could someone tell me what I'm missing with this song? And what other similarly 'big' songs are there that people just can't understand the popularity of?

I've just watched the first episode and really enjoyed it. I have great (new?) hopes for this after being relatively disappointed with The Book Of Boba Fett. Without giving anything away hopefully, about a third of the way through Episode 1 the action shifts from Tatooine to another location, and I sheepishly admit to getting Star Wars nerd goosebumps when I realised what was up. And this part of the story did not disappoint... so, so perfect. I was grinning like a loon.

Ok, so I've built a Bruce time travelling DeLorean. Thank you Dr Emmett Brown for your proprietary intellectual property. (Actually, I've done nothing of the sort, I'm just seeing if Fox News would report someone has created a Bruce time machine). Nevertheless, imagine if one of us did create a Bruce time machine? Where (or, more precisely, when) would you go? For me, number one is a no brainer. LA 1981, straight to the Veterans show. For me, the ultimate moment as a Bruce fan. After that, some really weird and funny thoughts came into my head. Perhaps Makers Mark and 25 years of marriage (plus children) is messing with my cognitive functionality. But my immediate second thought was going to New York on about 5th November 2009, enjoying some sightseeing for two days, before hitting the Garden for the full album WIESS and River double. Then, in a desperate search to find what I'm missing, landing in St Louis 2008 for that show to try and understand what the hell was in the air that night which never translated to a recording I still find to be 'meh, it's OK, but what's the big deal?' Sonething is seriously missing between the reputation of that show and how it sounds on tape, and I need to find out what the hell it is. Hopefully I don't get struck by lightning trying...

Some of the discussion on the thread for the new Archive release inspired me to start this... it may die a quick death, who knows, but I thought it worth separating from other Archive Series discussions. What are some of your favourite song sequences from the live Archive series shows? Let's keep it to officially released Archive stuff as opposed to bootlegs etc. Anything from a two song sequence to a multi song run. It could just be two or more great song performances linked from a particular show, or a sequence that really works narratively. To get the ball rolling... Jack Of All Trades -> Downbound Train (this is what set me off on this idea). From Helsinki 2012. Masterwerk of thematic setlist construction pairing these two, and performances of both songs are tremendous to boot. The Leeds 2013 "sign collection" wildcard sequence. Local Hero / Gotta Get That Feeling / Bad Moon Rising / Thundercrack. Just amazing performances of all four songs, engaging between song banter, just a segment that captures for me the fun of a top Bruce performance. Spare Parts / War / BITUSA. Could be pretty much any TOL show, but my favourite is the MSG release. The TOL tour BITUSA performances are for mine the gold standard for full E Street band versions, but somehow listening to that three song sequence together makes the eventual BITUSA even more powerful in context. Bruce's genius as not just a performer but as a master sequencer of a set list has never been better presented. Who'll Stop The Rain / Rocky Ground (Fenway 2012). What, The. Actual. Fuck. Just when I was seeking one of those mind blowing moments that just makes me want to climb on my roof and shout my Bruce love to the universe, the Archive series delivers again. The entire Stockholm 88 encore. This is just mind blowingly awesome. And it feels like it will never end. He's heading off after Raise Your Hand, surely he's done... hell no, here's a loose as a goose Quarter To Three. Done now? Nah, how about some Twist And Shout. Starting with acoustic BTR, stopping at a unique horns driven Caddy Ranch, the best full band Bobby Jean I've ever heard... just nugget after top shelf nugget. I could go on, but I want to hear from the rest of you...

I was expecting to see a dedicated thread here after the few titbits Bruce let slip on E Street Radio. I didn't hear it as I can't get it, but here is the real juicy bits as quoted on Backstreets "Vault projects There are things we're working on. We have something that's going to come out in the fall; I don't know if it's been announced yet [It has not. —Ed.]… I've got projects I've been working on, basically, that are slated for release either next year or in the fall. Not new records, but things that fans I think are really going to be interested in.… I think these are things that the fans will have fun with, coming up. We've worked on a lot of things from the vault… well, I'll let it be a surprise." So possibly Tracks 2, either sooner or later. Who knows? TBH, at this stage I think Bruce has thrown these types of little quotes in many interviews in the last decade without it coming to much. So, for mine until there is an official press release from JLM the speculation should be fun but nothing is certain. "Killers in the sun I did a nice thing with Brandon Flowers, with The Killers… they're a terrific band, and we did something together that I think is going to come out soon. Like, in a week or so! So I've been staying busy." This is pretty funny now. As a Killers fan I follow them on Facebook, they started a whole 'guess the artist who joined us' marketing build up dropping clues about this new song and offering prizes to fans who could guess. After Bruce's quote, they just posted the following... "Looks like the cat’s out of the bag. When The Boss decides it’s time to make an announcement, it’s time to make an announcement." Gold.

Here's something I posted about a year ago on the old site. I received a few responses then, thought I'd let it fly here to see what people think. The post starts with quoting the song lyrics... In the tall grass we held hands Down by the river we made plans Of what would and would not be It was impossible to see Their black boots shone in the sun They were waiting on the Annandale train when my baby come Little girl with the long black hair Do you know what lies 'neath the long coats that they wear Once I swore you'd ride with me (to some far and distant shore) Down where this river meets the sea (I'll make you mine forevermore) Over these dark hills I'd walk along (just to hold you in my arms) To lie with you on a bed of stone River blood red with the years You can flood this valley with a thousand tears Wash away all that's been found But you'll never wash away the sound Of the stray bullet that shot my baby down, (stray bullet shot my baby down) Of the stray bullet that shot my baby down, (stray bullet shot my baby down) Of the stray bullet that shot my baby down, (stray bullet shot my baby down) Of the stray bullet that shot my baby down When Stray Bullet first came out, there were threads here discussing the meaning of the song. One theory I proposed at the time was that it is written from the point of view of woman widowed by war. This interpretation was based on reading the second verse as referring to government or army officials coming to advise the news that the narrator's lover had been killed in war. But I couldn't reconcile the rest of the song with this interpretation. A few months ago, I read Ron Kovic's Born On The Fourth Of July for the first time. An incredible, powerful book for the few here who may not have read it. But it lead me back to this song. In particular, the guilt and anguish Ron felt about shooting a fellow American accidentally in a friendly fire incident. The torment of thinking about that soldier's beloved other expressed by Ron in the book was disturbing and moving. And it made everything in this song fit into that scenario for me. It perfectly expresses lyrically and emotionally Ron's writing on the effect his stray bullet killing a fellow soldier potentially had. Remember, at the stage this song was written and recorded Bruce's exposure to the Vietnam Vet experience was limited to reading Ron's book and subsequently meeting Ron. Vietnam Vets show was still 12 to 18 months away, his more explicit writing on the subject even later. I might still have it wrong, but the way this song lyrically and emotionally perfectly evokes Ron's musings on the effect his tragic accidental shooting potentially had on a third party and the potentially had on a third party and the potential future once shared but now lost just seems so close to the bone for me.

I wasn't sure whether to go serious with this and post on the Politics board or look at the more light hearted side. I chose the latter due to the Bruce connection. Short version of the story is the Australian parliament have just voted through legislation dictating that internet search engines and social media companies sharing, or allowing the sharing, of news are to pay compensation to the news / media outlets. (Note, the legislation is not in effect yet). Google initially protested and said it would remove all news content and companies from it's searches in Australia, then blinked and started negotiating with media outlets. Facebook, on the other hand, overnight on Thursday blocked all news pages and links to those pages. Australians cannot currently access any news media page content on FB, local or international, and anyone overseas cannot access the pages or links to any Aussie news sites. However, I have no idea what hell kind of algorithm FB ran to do this, because a bunch of completely non news media related pages have been blocked. Most seriously, government sites like the Departments of Health around the country which provide COVID updates and info were blocked, as was the Bureau of Meteorology. Charity pages have been blocked. Those pages have since been restored after reviews by FB to do so were requested. Less seriously, but equally perplexingly, is the array of other seemingly random pages caught up by this. Including those of some major musical artists. That's right, Bruce Springsteen's official FB page is currently blocked in Australia. As is that of U2. John Fogarty's page is still accessible, George Thorogood's page is blocked. No rhyme or reason as to why. I can only surmise the word 'news' appears somewhere or there is a link to something on some sites that FB has decided Aussies can't access any more. There you have it. Banned In The AUS.

http://brucebase.wikidot.com/stats:letter-to-you-studio-sessions This has come up on both BTX and our old home... the above link is to Brucebase for the Letter To You sessions and contains some interesting info. I'm not sure where / how Brucebase gets this information, but there is some intriguing stuff here. Namely, One Minute You're Here having been demoed back in 2004. Rainmaker originally demoed / recorded in 2003. And, most interestingly, Burnin Train originally being worked on in 1993. So on those other boards, there is a lot of negative discussion about what this means. If you haven't read it, you can probably guess... consternation that Bruce asserting he wrote a whole album on a fan provided guitar when he actually only wrote 6 songs maybe, Bruce being washed up as a writer as the last three albums (HH, Western Stars, LTY) all have large parts written years ago rather than contemporaneously. Yada yada yada. My question is, do folks here care that unheard newly released Bruce music is not necessarily 'new' in the sense that Bruce specifically wrote it all in the months preceding it's release? Because I certainly don't. I have no issue with Bruce releasing decades old music as part of a new project. If he's releasing it, he believes in it. If he believes in it, based on the track record so far I'm most likely going to find something good in some or all of it. Knowing a song is decades old has no impact on how my ears hear it nor how my brain and heart react to it. I get some fans want to hear where Bruce is 'now', what he thinks about the world (within himself and outside himself) 'now'. But I don't think that necessarily has to be through newly composed music. It's entirely possible something he wrote 10 or 15 years ago may suddenly make more sense to him today than back when he wrote it. I also get fans being concerned (or at least pointing out) that the well of new inspiration may be drying, Bruce as a writer is now a shadow prolifically to what he was. Again, I don't really mind. If anything, it makes sense. I don't know how a musical artist in any format works... should they have an endless well of lyrics, riffs, melodies they can draw on? Or do they have a finite source of them? Between 1978 and 1984, Bruce officially released 5 single vinyl albums worth of material. Since then, from that same period we have a double CD of 1978 material (so another 2 if not 3 single vinyl albums worth), 20 or so 1980 out-takes (at least 2 more single albums), from 1982-84 we have at least a single vinyl album of out-takes on Tracks with at least the same amount still unreleased. So that's somewhere in the range of a dozen single vinyl albums worth of amazing songs in a six year period. The dude fired a lot of shots in that time, if he only has a finite source of ammo is it any wonder things have slowed down now? Anyway, interested to know where others stand on this. Upshot for me is I'm happy and glad to hear any Bruce tune I've never heard before, regardless of whether he just wrote it or if he's sat on it for a while and is now choosing to share it.

Friday arvo after work here, and I've cracked a Coopers Sparkling Ale and put on the LINYC DVD for the first time in ages. In particular, I've watched the mini doco called New York City Serenade built around the Bob Costas interview. Bob mentions, specifically in reference to what was shown originally on TV I assume, that the show features 'footage from the last two shows at MSG'. What is which has been analysed by people smarter and with more time than me elsewhere, I assume for the TV portion ( I.e. disc one) this is correct. However, in this same doco we get clips of Adam Raised and Back In Your Arms. Neither of these were played at the last two shows. Both were played in the third to last show, so presumably this was recorded also. Then we also have a snippet of GOTJ. This wasn't played at any of the last three shows... it was last played in the fifth show of the ten show stand. So my question is, how many of these last ten shows at MSG were filmed? All of them? Just 5, 8, 9 and 10 based on what I've noted above? Anyone know? In slightly related news, if Bruce Inc wished to issue a 20th anniversary boxset including all the full shows filmed from this stand (even if its all ten), I have as many Australian dollars they care to ask for ready to hand over in appreciation.

As great as the new album is, another E Street Band record in the Reunion era has failed to deliver a studio version of the three pronged Bruce, Nils and Stevie guitar attack. I'm thinking specifically of the sort of thing they deliver live in the outros of My Love Will Not Let You Down and Murder Inc. Three guitars wailing simultaneously. Searching my memory, this has never been done on any studio recording. Given the nature of Letter To You, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try that on a song. And, for me, that song is Burnin Train. As ridiculously cool as Bruce's guitar sounds in the middle and outro solos on that track, I think it would've been even better a minute or so longer. The outro could've had a Bruce solo to start, Stevie then soloing for a passage, then Nils, before all three together take it to the end. I can hear it in my head, it's making my mind vibrate and hair stand on end just thinking about it.

It's here. 7 am in Adelaide, South Australia and it's on Spotify and You Tube. My lunch break at work will involve a trip to JB Hi Fi to purchase the physical product. Then afterwork...a Wild Turkey Rare Breed with lyric book in hand and Letter To You blasting at window rattling volume. Happy New Bruce Album Day all. Share your release day stories if you care to...

Can someone clue me in as to why, in 2020, we are still going through this old school routine? I know the Springsteen demographic may be more partial to buying physical product than, say, Taylor Swift's fan base. Is the six weeks needed to press and package the CD's and vinyl? Or would that already be done by now? If the latter, then why the 6 weeks? I get that they intend to drop at least another single between now and then, but what does this achieve? The average person in 2020, glued to their social media feeds on the phone, has the attention span of a gnat. The first single drops, it gets shared around for a few days, then it's gone. Three weeks later a second single drops, same thing. Then we go through the process a third time a few weeks after with the album. Wouldn't a quick fire two or three week campaign work better these days? First single dropped one Friday, second single the Friday after, the album the Friday after that. Possible three weeks of consistent social media buzz and momentum leading into the big day. Maybe someone who knows more about these things can correct me, (*Disclaimer- this post may be entirely motivated by me wanting to hear the whole album in three weeks time, not six)

A little Internet birdy tells me we have a birthday in our midst. Happy birthday Daisey Jeep, my kiwi cousin. Hope it's a good one, with a few 78 Prove Its and a long Kitty