Are there any NJ residents who don’t have at least some allocated space in their hearts for The Boss and his gang of musicians? There are always a few curmudgeons out there, but if you’re a baby boomer or younger, chances are Springsteen’s epic fourth album, Darkness on the Edge of Town left its mark (was anyone at the Capital Theater show in ’78?).
This Friday night, April 29, at 8 p.m., the Outpost in the Burbs will screen The Promise: The Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town (2011), the acclaimed documentary starring the Boss and directed by Grammy- and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Thom Zimny. For Baristaville, the screening has a special hyperlocal connection. Montclair-based photographer Mark Wyville’s images of Springsteen are included in the boxed set of CDs and the DVD. Wyville’s images will be shown as part of Friday’s Outpost film screening event.
The event is a benefit for the Outpost in the Burbs. “Neither Bruce Springsteen, nor Sony Music, nor Emerging Pictures will collect a dime from ticket sales,” said Outpost President Gina Auriemma. The film will be a Blu Ray disk projection at maximum resolution, and the popcorn’s on the house!
April 29, 8 p.m.
Unitarian Universalist Congregation
67 Church St., Montclair
Tickets ($10 each) are bing sold at Keil’s Pharmacy (cash or check only), 732 Valley Rd., Upper Montclair, and Ruthie’s BBQ & Pizza, 64-1/2 Chestnut St., Montclair.
I was at the Capital for Springsteen 2 nights back in ’78. The second show I ever went to, the first was Queen @ MSG. The 3rd was The Stones at the Capital. Nice way to start off.
I saw the Dead at the Capital (drove all the way down from Monsey, NY) in 1977. My second concert ever, as a teen. The first was Jackson Browne at Radio City. Also an excellent beginning.
cathar to swoop in and tell everyone that this item is not newsworthy, Sprigsteen’s politics are stupid, and his music is derivative in six, five, four….
Croiag, I’ll step in for cathar here… The Boss (as if) doesn’t do it for me, never did. He’s an act, not a real musician. He’s a performer, not an artist. Doesn’t compare with Peter Gabrielle, Clapton, Winwood, Mick, Keef, The Dead, YES, Genesis, Heart, Joni, Dylan, Plant, Page, Petty, etc, etc. He’s just a guy who figured out a good rock formula and stuck with it. He pumps out the sound out brashly, sawing at his axe with an arrogant pomposity that just doesn’t resonate with me in the least. People dig it for whatever reason. New Jersey, especially. He’s probably the only rock musician I feel strongly about not liking. Like lima beans are the only veggie I feel strongly about disliking. Sprinsteen is like lima beans. Promising at first, but disappointing at first bite. Plus, that smarmy smirk doesn’t help, either.
Whew, pretty harsh post from someone who, from her avatar, I assume has something to do with music, but who I never heard of.
I’m merely a fan of good music, HB. It’s only one opinion, anyway, but it’s mine.
I suggest that you maybe watch that documentary before you comment on something you know nothing about. The Promise shows what a true musician Bruce really is and to say otherwise is a totally ignorant statement. You really think the Dead and Zeppelin are better true musicians than Springsteen you are crazy. You also think that Mick Jagger is a musician he is a singer and a front man nothing more and not that good of one at that.
megbeattiepatrick,
I beg to differ.
The interesting thing about Bruce, particularly in NJ, is how many middle white suburban midele aged guys identify with him, or did, yet can’t make sense out of the fact that a multi multi millionaire still cares about poor people scraping to get by and other silly liberal causes (poverty, womens’ rights, people starving in other countries). I’ve been to Bruce shows at Giants Stadium where meat heads start booing when he talks about hunger in NJ, kids going to bed hungry, and how we need to donate food. I guess to the average Blue Collar Joe the fact that he lives in an estate in Rumson and professes sympathy for the struggling makes him a phony (because if I had all his money I sure as hell wouldn’t be worried about anyone else!).
In the immortal words of Thelonious Monk, writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
Really, croiagusanam, such an attemopt at peremptory bullragging was uncalled for. (Though not at all beneath you.) Ah well, you can only play (as you often do) the “stage” Irish nationalist complaining about the upcoming royal nuptials for so long, and this time out on a previous thread you didn’t gather unto your skirts as many stooges there as you usually do. (Spiro T., for instance, was conspicuously absent on that one.)
Whatever I make or do not make of Springsteen, including his politics (which are? does anyone really know, other than that they’re vaguely liberal-ish?), I’ve also learned that it’s useless to go against his many devotees in this state, who see him as the “Saint Bruce” figure he was once titled in a skeptical “Esquire” article and only as that. Still, I wonder where on earth this product of Freehold and Brookdale Community College ever acquired that nasally lone prairi-ee twang he affects so often, he sure didn’t learn that one down on the coastal plain of Asbury Park. And I think his very public humiliation of his first spouse was terrible – surely even a libertinish, worldly sort like you paint yourself as, croiagusanam, can’t endorse this one – is something his admirers simply prefer to sweep under the rug. (But then, they also forgive, or just conveniently ignore, that one of his children is so into equestrianship, despite that this hardly sounds like a proper blue collar pursuit for the spawn of such a claimed hero to the working and drinking classes; she really should be out instead scouring junkyards for old Playmouth Road Runners, it seems.)
I will only add, as someone who the last several years has become fascinated with the genuine craft of songwriting, that the duo known in their early years as “Nanker Phelge” are head and shoulders above “the Boss” in terms of their composing skills. The guy is dangerous to the point of boredom, yes: he read a little John Steinbeck and then the rest of us had to sit through “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” So I suppose we should all just be grateful he hasn’t yet poked his head into “Das Kapital.” But there are many, many much better songwriters out there, many of whom seem clustered in country music. And Chuck Berry is not at all even very remotely threatened in his solitary greatness as both a writer and performer of supernally great rock and roll songs.
Meg, I got your back. Agree with you 110 per cent.
“we should all just be grateful he hasn’t yet poked his head into “Das Kapital.” Hilarious!
Hail Hail Rock and Roll!
I’m not crazy about him either. I guess we all have our own individual taste in music….
I go hot and cold on Bruce, but I think it speaks volumes about where he is today as a songwriter that he had to reach back nearly 40 years – for discarded material no less – to finally give us another Bruce-worthy album. Because that drek he’s been giving us since “Tunnel of Love” is (mostly) borderline awful.
I’ve probably seen him 15+ times over the years. Back in ’78 I actually liked him. Ever since I’ll listen to an occasional track from Greetings and be dragged there by my friends that still act like they’re in HS when it comes to him. After leaving Rutts on the way to the show they sing on the top of their lungs for that awful 10 minute stretch to the parking lot. I wanna cry. He puts out an album and in 2 days they know all the words. I mean who the heck has time to remember lyrics of a song at our age?
A few years ago I brought my son to the Meadows so he can experience the show, good show , he liked it and BS was far less preachy then he’s been over the years. Good enough for me, I just find him boring nowadays. The preaching at the concerts never really bugged me because it was usually about the food bank which is a good cause, beyond that I’d go take ‘p’ and get another beer.
Doesn’t it bother you cathar, how predictable you are? Croiag ran the bell, and you salivated.
and megbeattiepatrick, not as good as YES? Interesting.
Definitely not as good as Yes. Not even as good as Yes without Jon Anderson.
Add cathar to death and taxes as things which, alas, cannot be avoided.
I’ll leave aside your predictable musical meanderings as they are as always tiresome. I would though like you to find those posts wherein I grumbled about the royal wedding. It might take you a bit of time, as I did not do so then or now. I find the whole thing fascinating, and I’ll watch it with great interest and I’ll toast the newlyweds with anyone willing to share a glass. I DID grumble that I’d not been invited, but that’s the extent of it.
One can be forgiven for wondering if you are not at times a stranger to sanity.
Boys boys boys. Play nicely, now.
I have to admit that the Boss never took with me. I haven’t spent a lot of time trying, and don’t feel particularly passionate either way. But I also know people who, inexplicably, don’t like Bob Dylan, so go figure.
YES was a great band, though I haven’t listened to them since I played my vinyls, when I was minus 10 years old.
“… The road is dark
and it’s a thin thin line
But I want you to know I’ll walk it for you any time…”
I’m a fan. I quote Bruce often, in some way. His lyrics speak to me. And I like that.
But to say he’s no artist is dumb. The Rising is THE definitive 9/11 artistic vision (save for that great moment in “25th Hour” when the characters are in a hotel overlooking ground zero).
Likewise, any guy who can write this, which makes me cry (true!) is a genius:
“… Someday girl I don’t know when
we’re gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go
and we’ll walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us
baby we were born to run”
If you hate him or don’t like him, who cares?
That’s the beauty of art.
“The screen door slams
Mary’s dress waves…”
Meg, your ignorance is showing.
For the record, exactly what’s your definition of musician ?
I’ve seen ‘Bruuuuuuuce’ a few times. He’s a great performer and always gives 110% at his shows.
I saw ‘Yes’ – Fragile tour – in NYC in 1972. It was a ‘midnight’ show. It was February and the day of the show we got about a foot of snow. Somehow we made it in anyway.
Saying that Yes is better than Springsteen or visa versa is like comparing a Rolls Royce to a Ford Mustang.
My first show was ‘Jefferson Airplane’ and ‘Iron Butterfly’ at Upsalla college in May 1967. Yes, we heard ‘Innagaddadavida’ in it’s entirety and I was thrilled. Grace Slick sang ‘Somebody to Love’ and it was great. As for the Capitol theatre, I must have been to at least 50 shows there and don’t remember many of them, too many pre-concert beers at the Heidleberg I guess. I do remember seeing ‘The Who’ there. Who would have thought.
Look at the picture of Mellon, and the picture of Bruce… very, very similar, if you ask me. Hmmmm.
Oh, Mellon, I remember hearing Innagadadavida for the first time, those dark sounds coming from the record player. It made a very deep impression on me (probably not for the better). I also remember, round about the same time, discovering Hendrix, particularly Castles Made of Sand, and the Abbey Road medley.
Despite my “ignorance”, johnpq, many posters seem to support my expressed opinion of Springsteen. Does that make us all ignorant? Do people have to agree with your view in order to be deemed intelligent? As for a definition of “musician” I can only say that there are many who are skilled at playing an instrument, but skill doesn’t make you an artist. Skill doesn’t separate the mechanics from the musician. Bruce Springsteen is a mechanic, in my opinion. None of this is to say the documentary at Outpost won’t be good. It might be excellent. Art can be made from virtually anything. The film may very well be a masterpiece. That won’t help BS. He’ll still be BS. Mellonbrush’s automobile analogy is good. Bruce Springsteen = Mack Truck. Not a Jaguar.
Go re-read your own pretty predictable, preening posts about the royal wedding, croiagusanam. I’ve already slogged through them once. Which proved quite enough.
I do note, however, that you reliably tend to impugn the intelligence of those who dare oublicly disagree with you. Does this tendency make you feel proud of yourself?
Oh well, you also picked up another stooge today, lovably tedious Mike91 who always posts as if through clenched teeth and right after an attack of dysentery. Enjoy him whle you’ve got him, croiagusanam.
There are no posts, preening or otherwise, of mine that are negative vis a vis the royal wedding. That you cannot cite one is yet one more example of your nonsense.
To talk about impugning the intelligence of others — you who has and continues to insult spiro, jersey girl, mike (who even now you call a “stooge” while decrying my “insults”, the late lamented lasermike, walleroo, the moderators of the site, etc. etc. etc. is, again, indicative of your disconnect from reality. You really are a rather sad little spectacle, I’m afraid.
Ms Patrick : I’m still having a good chuckle over your whopper of a line about Springsteen being an performer and not a real musician, (or an artist for that matter)
And then you further trip over yourself by immediately bring up Peter Gabriel as a example – one of the most prominent “performers” ever. It was Hackett, Rutherford, Banks, and Collins who were kept busy doing all the extended heavy instumental lifting (and contributing mightly to the writing process) while Gabriel was prancing around on stage wearing silly masks and costumes, occasionally playing the stray note on tambourine and/or flute, and spouting obtuse lyrics. Performer ? Artist ? You tell me.
Secondly, Tom Petty and Heart ( Heart ???) over Springsteen ?? Really ??? Enlighten us as to one real example of either coming close to matching Springteen’s overall depth of work. Petty is nothing more than a Roger Mcguinn wannabee, period. Even one of Petty’s first hits was a Byrds cover. How original.
Springsteen is an amazing performer, musician, poet, and above all, an artist who has stood the test of time.
You need to eat more lima beans, sister, they’re good for the brain.
Geeze, The first thing I remember besides some very bad 70′s music is the first Ramones album, Slade, Talking Heads ’77 (a classic), I cant believe its 34 years since that album. Not a classic rock fan for most part, my intro to good music was Joe Jackson, Clash, B-52′s Talking Heads, Zevon. All whom I saw at the Capitol at various points and listen to today.
This site is starting to remind me of New York City under Linsday, when subways were covered with graffiti, the Port Authority was populated by crazy homeless people who talked to themselves, and sex shops were up and down 42nd street. The “featured comment” box gets changed maybe twice a week. Hardly anybody bothers to post these days, least of all the Baristas, who seem to be going through the motions. Why should the rest of us bother? I’m beginning to wonder.
Meg, You lost me with your above post in which you mentioned “Heart” among several worthies. “Heart” was the MUZAK of the freshman dorm dining hall, and my wife still has an uncanny, almost superhuman, reflex to turn the radio station when it comes on. Now about Bruce. The old stuff, which got him noticed as a gifted songwriter and musician is good; moreover, it’s about growing up in NJ and our locals can relate to it. The newer political and preachy “message” tunes are crap. Just a guess here, and maybe wrong, but I”ll give dollars to doughnuts that the formula for this documentary is to pull people in with the promise of good “old Bruce” music, and them lay on the the heavy populist political twaddle once they’ve got a captive audience.
Give me The Grateful Dead any day. Their concerts were about the music and the the atmosphere. Never, ever, did they cross the line in their music, or in front of audiences, to tell people for whom to vote or what causes de jour to support.
Never noticed the Roger McGuinn influence on Tom Petty before. Makes sense.
Petty (to his real credit) has certainly acknowledged and paid tribute to Roger McGuinn over the years. In fact, one of McGuinn’s best solo efforts ( Album Title : Back From Rio) was produced and co-written with Petty. The Rickenbacker 12 really soars on several of the tracks.
look, I sincerely like Tom Petty (and Peter Gabriel too). That said, someone who can breezily dismiss Springsteen as nothing more than an “act” indicates a profound lack of popular musical perspective, in my opinion.
Interesting that you mentioned Roger McGuinn, john qp. He’s not exactly hard to see perform around these parts, and I kind of feel he often just goes through the motions. He’s a “has been,” so to speak, but he knows it and remains beloved because of his great contirbutions.
But I once was lucky enough to see him at Ckub Bene (which was a truly great venue with an eclectic booking policy, I saw everyone from Steeleye Span to Gene Pitney fronting a full orchestra to Kris Kristofferson there) when he’d just produced the debut album of a Florida band, the Headlights. They did the opening set and basically played their album. Then they backed up McGuinn when he basically did his full Byrds music set. He really is much, much better with a full, sympathetic band behind him.
And for those who need a Byrds-like fix quick, need I remind that Chris Hillman, along with longtime pal Herb Pedersen, is playing at the Sanctuary in Chatham this very Saturday night?
His lyrics and arrangements aren’t bad but I never cared for his growly voice. Very few vocalists (men and women) can get by on less than perfect pitch (Bob Dylan is one of them because he’s, uh, Bob Dylan). I find his voice grates on my nerves and I really don’t get the Bruce worship, either.
I don’t care much for Frank Sinatra, either, and it’s definitely not because he doesn’t have a good voice.
On the other hand, The Tallest Man on Earth has no voice to speak of at all, worse than the Boss and even Dylan, but I think he’s absolutely terrific.
I don’t like Frank Sinatra either…Yes, he had a nice voice in his heyday, but I saw him in concert once, and he was so blatantly arrogant that I wrote him off.
I’d like to see The Boss and Tom Waits in concert together.
First of all, regarding Bob Dylan – and you never hear anybody comment on this, but he sings in perfect pitch and hits every single note. Lsten to any Dylan song and you will hear that. Nasally, perhaps annoying to you, ok, but he is never, ever off key.
Regarding Springsteen, he’s got plenty of awful material, but Darkness is an excellent record. It is extremely powerful, dark and the themes are well-developed. Not sure what mbp is saying that Darkness is not a work of art.
I’ve never been a fan…BUT…he’s a major talent. To finish where prof started, it’s not easy to write like this:
The screen door slams
Mary’s dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that’s me and I want you only
Don’t turn me home again
I just can’t face myself alone again
Don’t run back inside
darling you know just what I’m here for
So you’re scared and you’re thinking
That maybe we ain’t that young anymore
Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night
You ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re alright
Oh and that’s alright with me
I saw Roger McGuinn @ the Capitol with McGuinn, Clark and Hillman. The thing that I’ll remember is that Roger did the entire concert on roller skates, seriously.
Not a big Sinatra fan, I always liked Dean Martin and Bobby Darin better. Darin was an incredible talent.
Darin was a great talent, but my favorite voice of the early sixties was Gene Pitney. I heard once that he had a 3 octave range.