Bruce Springsteen

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Ran
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Bruce Springsteen

Post by Ran »

If there already is a Bruce Springsteen topic, I can't find it. Anyway...

I just watched the MusiCares Bruce Springsteen concert. There were a bunch of random musicians play a tribute concert to Bruce. Some of them were really good. Then there was Neil Young. He sang "Born in the USA". Now, this generated a few thoughts. It sounded terrible, like they were all singing out tune. Then he had two women dressed in some pseudo-cheerleader outfits. They were probably too old to be dressed as cheerleaders. They didn't have microphones, and didn't really dance. They more or less acted out the lyrics. Very odd.

The other thing is that either I or the general public really doesn't get what "Born in the USA" is about. I know there have been many politicians try to use this song during their campaigns, but we know they are all idiots. The general public seems to focus on the "Born in the USA" part that makes it some sort of anthem. I focus more on the words in between that are about the Vietnam War. You can see everyone singing along, but its like they ignore what is coming out of their own mouths.

Oh, and his daughter looks a lot like his wife, except with dark hair instead of red.
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Re: Bruce Springsteen

Post by anarky »

Unfortunate. Neil Young can be really hit or miss; he possibly topped John Lennon on "Imagine," even, so I'd hope he'd do "Born in the USA" better. It fits with the sort of song he typically does. Maybe the ugly cheerleader thing was a spoof of how people think it's this wonderful patriotic anthem, and the whole thing was failed performance art?

And it's definitely not a happy song. Not exactly a Vietnam protest song, more of his "slice of a life that sucks" sort of storytelling about a guy who joins the military to get out of some unspecified trouble, winds up in Vietnam, and basically his life and the lives of everyone around him are shit when he gets back.

This is my personal favorite, though (as you can tell) I prefer Johnny Cash's voice and arrangement on it. (The arrangement's actually just about the same, but Bruce slurs a lot of the words and it benefits from Cash being coherent the whole way through.)
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Ran
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Re: Bruce Springsteen

Post by Ran »

Here is the only video I can find of Neil Young from that Springsteen tribute. It looks like someone in the back of the audience pointed their phone at the big screen. You'll be able to see the "cheerleaders". I think the part that started to bother me was about a minute in. Some chick in the crowd is rockin' out during the "go and kill the yellow man" part.

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