It was stark, heartfelt, very moving…
He left the stage with a simple “Bring Em Home”
A class act. No BS, no grandstanding, just sing a powerful song. I really admire Bruce.
I wasn’t home to watch, but as a lifelong Springsteen fan, I’m not surprised. These days he’s giving stellar performances, IMHO.
Were you watching the same thing others were? He sounded like a drunk Bob Dylan.
I sure hope you’ve seen the current tour. Awesome.
I miss the raggedy kid on the front of Thunder Road. What happened to him?
Bruce is fantastic, and he has every right to experiment and indulge his musical passions. But his Woody/Arlo Guthrie phase is getting tiring for me. I hated the whole Ghost of Tom Joad CD.
I want the old Bruce back. I didn’t see the grammys, or this performance, but I’ve had my fill of him doing the Arlo Guthrie meets Tom Waits thing.
I’ll take a spirited rendition of Badlands any day.
I concur on Tom Joad, with a few exceptions (the title track and “Youngstown” are really good songs; the latter is particularly good in its live performance). But it sounds like you never checked out The Rising. It was specifically because I was so disappointed with TGOTJ that I wasn’t expecting much from The Rising, and then I was totally blown away. There’s still a lot of experimentation on that disc, but a lot of The Rising is very much in line with Bruce’s earlier output. Give it a listen.
And while *Devils & Dust *is kind of hit or miss, as far as the Guthrie/Waits thing goes, it does have some really good songs. “Leah” for one is one of my all-time favorite Springsteen tunes, and it’s not in that “I Ain’t Got No Home” vein.
Bottom line: even if Springsteen is fixed on doing honor to his musical heritage, he’s still producing quite a few gems.
I thought he sounded like Dylan too, and sort of looked like him on that dark stage with the black hair everywhere.
However, Dylan-sounding or not, he was the best act of the night. Why do we have to have these incredibly gimcrack performances where 4 or 5 different acts combine for some super rendition of a song? Bruce came out with a guitar and harmonica as his backup and blew the rest of those jokers away.
I like the new Springstein just fine.
I’ll take your advice and pick up The Rising. You’re right, I hadn’t listened to it—partly because I was disappointed in TGOTJ, and the stuff I was seeing on TV led me to believe that he was in a kind of dark and brooding Folk kind of phase. I haven’t heard D&D either. Don’t get me wrong—Bruce is fantastic and he remains one of my favorite, if not my favorite, performer. And, I like his darker, brooding stuff. But there are times I really miss the earlier, high energy stuff.
Definitely give both the last two discs a listen. There really is a lot of good stuff there. I like The Rising better, and that has more high energy songs on it, so you may like that one better too. (But let’s give the man a break–he’s over 50 now! He’s lucky he can get out of bed.)
**Worlds Apart ** and **Further on Up the Road ** (both from The Rising) are two of Springsteen’s best songs ever, IMO.
I concur. I also agree that the material from TGoTJ is better live, “Youngstown” especially.
I also agree. I like The Ghost of Tom Joad album, but I saw him live on the tour at the Beacon Theater in New York and thought it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. Just him on stage in a small theater with a guitar and harmonica. Amazing.