Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball

When times are tough, Bruce Springsteen seems to be at his best.

On his 17th studio album, Springsteen has turned his back on the more personal offerings of the last decade and focuses his attention to the Big Picture themes currently dominating our national debate. The subjects of marriage, friendship, and fidelity have been replaced by meditations on war, the economy, and grass-roots revolution.

For anyone who has any doubt, most of the material on "Wrecking Ball" does seem inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement. If not inspired by, the songs certainly do address some of the same concerns of the men and women who took to the streets in towns across America in 2011-2012.

The album actually feels very similar to "Nebraska" in theme and "The Seeger Sessions" in execution. It has a rollicking "open-letter" feel to it that sees Springsteen blend folk guitar and gospel choirs with Celtic influences and hip-hop drum loops. The result is an album that surprises and pleases the ear.

Produced by Ron Aniello "Wrecking Ball" is a clarion call. Despite its billing, the album is big, loud, and fierce in tone. Although the E Street Band is not necessarily credited, they do make fine contributions when called upon.

Opening with "We Take Care of Our Own", Springsteen sets a surprisingly apolitical tone that evenly points a finger at the leaders that have failed the American people and abandoned them in their hour of greatest need. Admittedly, the song does not necessarily stand well on its own. However, it is a more striking moment when heard in the context and framework of the other songs on the album.

The album's title song is, at this point, well-known to fans of the band as the song Springsteen penned for the condemned Giants Stadium on the eve of its demolition. He also performed "Wrecking Ball" in Philadelphia weeks before The Philadelphia Spectrum met a similar fate. At first blush, the song remains a rousing anthem for the ill-fated sports arenas. Further listening reveals that, once again, in the context of the album the song takes on new life as a battle-cry for the walking wounded of a double-recession that has seen many people have to pick themselves up after being blindsided personally, professionally, and economically.

In a moment that would make Woody Guthrie proud, "Shackled and Drawn" is a depression era barn-burner that seems to borrow heavily from the sonic-palette of "The Seeger Sessions." In similar fashion, "Death To My Hometown" seems to rip the nostalgia out of the already battered-heart of "My Hometown." It's a sentiment served scalding-hot with a ferocious Irish-wake rhythm and a group of musicians that sound ready for a fight.

Tom Morello shows up to lend his guitar to two of the tracks on "Wrecking Ball." Most notably, his work on the somber "Jack Of All Trades" gives 'voice to the voiceless' in some of the most beautiful, understated work of his career. The song is a slow-boiling stunner that articulates the desperation of a working-class man who struggles to find odd-jobs while he is unemployed, taking "...what God will provide."

The most emotional contribution to the album is saved for last, as Clarence Clemons provides two beautiful solo turns on the stunning "Land of Hopes and Dreams." As Springsteen intones over a gospel choir "This train, carries souls departed. This train, dreams will not be thwarted. This train, faith will be rewarded," Clemons' saxophone provides the exclamation point. It's the emotional high-point of the album and it is a fitting legacy for Clemons and the love story that existed between the two men over the last forty years of their lives. It is a breathtaking moment that allows Clemens to rise and walk with Springsteen one final time.

It is tempting to measure "Wrecking Ball" against the breadth and scope of Springsteen's legendary canon. I found myself doing this in conversation with friends over the course of the last week. "Wrecking Ball" is actually the sound of the 62 year-old icon boldly moving towards reinvention. It speaks well of him that he is not fading gently into the easy trappings of adult-contemporary music. In fact, Springsteen has never sounded more angry than he does throughout "Wrecking Ball."

This is not the sound of a man who is content to mellow with age.

Perhaps, this is what the world needs from Bruce Springsteen in 2012. He has always been very good at writing songs that articulate the hopes and fears of his audience in the face of whatever adversity they face. From growing up, hitting the road, the struggles of adulthood and divorce, and the dark cloud of national tragedy, Bruce Springsteen has always had something to say that is clear, well-intentioned, and worth listening to at high-volume.

As "Wrecking Ball" ends, Springsteen invokes Curtis Mayfield when he calls on his audience to get on the "train a-comin." It is safe to say that wherever he goes, his fans will follow. This speaks volumes about any artist in today's world. Let's face it...most "leaders" make promises, very few actually deliver.

People get ready.

Bruce Springsteen delivers.

An Album You Should Own - 7/2/10

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Damn The Torpedoes

As Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers set out to make their third album, their world was being turned upside down. Their record label, Shelter, was being sold to MCA Records. To free himself from his partnership with MCA, Petty sent himself into bankruptcy. His feud with MCA is the stuff of legend. Each night he had to box up the tapes of the day's recording sessions for fear that MCA would come in and seize the tapes. Petty insisted that the tapes be hidden without him knowing where they were, so that if he were ever asked to tell a courtroom where they were, he would not know.

In short, he risked everything.

In the midst of it all, he still found the time to record an album that basically revitalized FM radio in the late 70's.

Make no mistake about it, "Damn The Torpedoes" is a KILLER album. There are nine songs on the album and four of them have become classic-rock staples. Before they were classic-rock songs, they were songs that helped Petty and his band go from being rising-stars to legitimate superstars.

"Damn The Torpedoes" delivers on the promise of Petty's first two albums by streamlining Petty's vision of classic Stones and Byrds riffs. Jimmy Iovine's production makes the songs sparkle and pop. In fact, the songs have a timeless feel about them that make them sound as modern now as they did when they were released.

It didn't hurt that the Heartbreakers matured into a band that has since become one of the greatest rock bands the United States has ever produced. They were powerful, even muscular, without losing the ability to be subtle. This is no small accomplishment, either. Left in the wrong hands, songs like "Here Comes My Girl" would not find the dynamic that helps it achieve its slow-burn.

In the end, its Petty's songwriting that triumphs. Songs like "American Girl", "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Even The Losers" are triumphant rock songs that are built on a foundation of quiet melancholy. "Refugee" is a blistering rock song that still achieves lift-off because Petty weaves a sense of rebellion tightly through its pop-hooks.

Its also a perfect summer record. Throw it in your CD player and roll down your windows. It doesn't disappoint and only grows stronger with each listen. My respect for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers grows with each passing year.

If you don't own this album, explain yourself.
It is one of the best albums of the rock era.

Period.

Further listening: "Hard Promises", "Full Moon Fever", "Wildflowers"
Further viewing: Peter Bogdanovich's excellent documentary "Runnin' Down a Dream"

Trying To Get Organized (Or, Getting Some Things Done Before I Turn 40)

As the summer begins to unfold, a few things are constant:

1) It will get hot.
2) I will get "back-to-school" circulars in my Sunday paper, this weekend.
3) Lots of time will go by before I really decide to do anything.

Last summer, I wrote about how quickly times goes by. In fact, I think that was posted on August 11th. Lots of people wrote to me and said they really enjoyed that particular post. I imagine its because it struck a nerve with many of you.

Time can slide by quickly even as it seems to crawl. The simple truth is...time is time. The days are no faster than they were last year, etc.

With that in mind, I have made a decision to make a list of some things I want to accomplish before summer ends. Usually, I try to make lists that are day-to-day. Let's face it, its not exactly easy to accomplish long term goals unless you organize your time. Now that summer is here, I barely wear a watch. Organize my time?

Forget it. I do that 9.5 months of the year. The other 2.5 are mine. I keep track of time for almost no one between late June and early September.

Having said that, if I am going to get some of these things done, I need to at least make a time-table. With October right around the corner, I am staring down the big 4-0. Mind you, age does not bother me. I can't stop time, so I really don't care about how old I am or will become. It's life. I try not to get too worked up about things like this. The simple fact is, its unavoidable. I worry about what I can change.

So far, I have made a list of goals that looks like this:



1) Read a few books by J.D. Salinger - Many of the students in my school were reading "The Catcher In The Rye", this past year. I have already read this book. The other day, I was struck with the urge to read "Franny and Zooey". I am going to do that this summer. In fact, I am going to try and plow through a few of the books that have been collecting dust on my nightstand.

2) Good rid of clutter - Those who know me will tell you I am a pack-rat. Now, its not to the point where I need an intervention because I cant move around my house. I just get absent-minded. I read several magazines a month. In fact, I get them delivered. Once in a while, I have to go through the process of throwing out several months of magazines that sit in piles next to my nightstand. This summer, I am going to clear the floor.

3) Paint and redesign my powder-room - If you have ever been to my home, you know my basement walls are lined with music memorabilia. Some of if it is really cool stuff. Then, there are things that just take up space. This summer, I am going to finish the basement. Partly because I know that means I will find another house. That's the way it works. I also just have some things hanging in my first floor bathroom, right behind my toilet that I no longer want to look at while I am taking a piss. Its time for the images of a few people to come down from the walls of my house. The only reason they don't go in the trash is because someone took great care to make them for me.

4) Get back into fighting shape - Nothing makes you feel older...like well, feeling older. Nothing makes you feel better than reshaping your body with sweat and hard work. I like the feeling of working out hard and really sweating, coming home, taking a good shower and falling asleep relaxed. Mind you, I am not one of these people that weighs himself as I go, either. I know that pounds fall off better if you don't watch. I just like feeling comfortable in my own skin.

5) Eat right - It feels good to eat right. Besides, accomplishing #4 goes hand-in-hand with doing #5.

Along with all of this, I am still going to do as much as I can to become a master of the fine art of doing nothing. I plan on watching movies, taking walks, listening to music...making some music? It would be nice to find one band that I never heard of to fall in love with this summer. I am listening to a band called "The Young Veins", right now. I like their stuff. I have also been listening to a great deal of jazz. You can't go wrong with the masters. If anyone has any music suggestions, I am always open to hearing them. Drop me a note.

I am going to ride my bike into Valley Green and swim in that damn waterfall near the 2.5 mile marker. I also want to climb the trail and see the Toleration Statue up close, again. It's been too long since I have seen it.



By the time October comes, I want to have a favorite drink. Every man should have one. I have been experimenting with some. So far, I like the Orange Aperol Fizz. You fill a large glass with ice, mix equal parts orange juice and Aperol (good luck finding it - Campari makes a good substitute) and top it off with prosecco.

Well, that's all for today.
As you can see, I have quite a list.

But, the most important thing - spending time with family and friends. I like doing that just about as much as I like doing anything else. I am going to start, this weekend. I hope I get to see as many of you as possible, this summer.

Let's have some fun.

Memories Of The Spectrum - Bryen O'Boyle

I remember when "Purple Rain" came out. We were in 8th grade and we had a half-day in school. My buddy Carlo and I wanted to see the flick badly. I knew my mom would not let me because it was rated 'R' and it was rock n' roll ( my mom thought rock n roll was the devil at the time )

So, we lied to our parents and said we were doing something else that afternoon. We got a ride to the theater and snuck in to watch it.

It was worth the risk of getting caught. And, to be 14...seeing Appollonia's apples... 'nuff said.

Later that school year, they announced the "Purple Rain" tour. Carlo and I had never been to a concert, at this point. We begged our parents, but neither would take us. So, we bribed our music teacher...yes...our junior-high music teacher, to take us (to the Spectrum) if we bought her a ticket. And that was my first music rock-concert experience. Everything, from that point on, got compared to Prince live.

How could it not???

I still have the program downstairs sitting on my piano....

Bryen

Jeff Buckley Disappeared One Night In Tennessee....

As I sit here on the last day of this decade, I look back at all the talent we lost and think about Jeff Buckley.

I know he died in 1997.

Somehow, his death still sounds a low tone in the hollows of me.

Why?

I think about how much more I wanted from him every time I hear his voice. I realize that there is a big difference between what I want and what I am going to receive.

I suppose I just think about the fate of such a young man - with so much to give - dying so suddenly and carelessly.

For the uninitiated, Buckley waded, fully clothed, into the Wolf River Harbor (a channel of the Mississippi River) on the evening of May 29, 1997. He was 31 years old and enjoying the success that his brilliant singing and guitar-playing had earned him. As he sang the chorus to Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love", his friend and roadie Keith Foti turned his attention away from Buckley for a moment to move a guitar and a radio out of the wake of a passing tugboat. When he turned around, Buckley was gone.

His body was spotted by a tourist on a riverboat on June 4th.

For some reason, Buckley's death really saddened me and still gives me pause to this day. A young man, in the absolute prime of his life - at the height of his powers - gone.



The other day, I saw this raw video of him performing at Sin-e and I was moved by the casual nature of it. The people standing only inches from him - the way they casually turn their backs on him, from time to time. It makes me wonder, "Would they have stared more closely if they knew what fate this man would suffer? Would they have savored this moment if they realized this man would become a legend the moment his body disappeared from view that fateful night in Tennessee?"

It's ironic that during the video, someone tries to take a picture of Buckley and he asks her to put her camera down. He asks the crowd to just "be together". Now that I think about it, I wish I had a dime for every concert I attended where I look around and saw people watching the entire event through the lens of their cellphone or some mini recording device. They paid their money for a seat and then missed "the happening". Instead of being one with the performer and the people around them, they remove themselves from the moment and squeeze themselves into the narrow gaze of a viewfinder.

Splendid isolation?

Pretty sterile, if you ask me.

Because of this, I learned to fix my eyes more closely on things others find innocuous. I guess I just don't want to take those things for granted. There is always a chance I might never see those things, again.

I am sure I will never see Jeff Buckley, again.
In fact, its a certainty.

But, that doesn't mean I have to stop looking.

Have a great year, everyone.
Keep your eyes open to the possibility of the beauty that is all around you.

Hallelujah...

Jesse Winchester - Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding

I caught this performance on Elvis Costello's fantastic show "Elvis Costello - Spectacle".

Jesse is a great musician who fled to Canada during the Vietnam War. His career really suffered for it. However, he is considered a real heavyweight in the world of singer-songwriters. Prior to the show, I had no real experience with his music.

When he performed this song, I found myself hanging on every word. I think the moment that really got me was when I saw Neko Case begin to cry towards the end of the song. To see an artist of her caliber be that open and moved by another musician's work was breathtaking. I actually hit rewind just to see her reaction a second time.

The audience roars and Costello gushes.
I almost stood on my couch and cheered.

So, thanks to Elvis Costello for inviting a real artist into my living-room and giving me a great new body of work to explore.

Jesse Winchester deserves your attention. His new album is called "Love Filling Station" and it is worth a listen.

Top 20 Albums of 2009

Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
U2 - No Line On The Horizon
Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg
Mastodon - Crack The Skye
The Dead Weather - Horehound
Mos Def - The Ecstatic
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
Monsters Of Folk - Monsters Of Folk
Bob Dylan - Together Through Life
Pearl Jam - Backspacer
Sonic Youth - The Eternal
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3
Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream
Maxwell - Blacksummers'Night
Arctic Monkeys - Humbug

If you have any music fans on your Christmas list, you might want to grab one of these CDs to put in their stocking. The music business might be going to hell, but each year produces a crop of at least 20 CDs that are worth a close listen.

Wilco resurfaced with a terrific album that could easily be mistaken as tongue-in-cheek. A closer listen shows a band carefully examining its legacy as it moves forward. Its also the first time in many years the band was able to maintain the same line-up of musicians for consecutive albums. Monsters Of Folk and Grizzly Bear also lead the charge for musicians with an ear for harmonies and catchy melodies. Representing the ladies, Neko Case released one more album that should make her a genuine star, if there was any justice in the world.

Jay-Z returned with a dense, pulsing effort that earned him a spot in the top twenty. But, it was Mos Def who released the year's best rap-album. Not only is the music great, you can almost hear him smiling at the mic. While all that happened, Maxwell quietly released the best R&B album of the last year. Supposedly, it is the first in a series of three albums with a similar theme.

Bring the noise, you say?

Wolfmother sounded the call for the Aussies and Arctic Monkeys turned it up loud in the name of The Queen. Some bands might rock harder, but they don't rock much smarter than Mastodon. Don't believe me?

"When asked in multiple interviews Dailor (Brann Dailor - the group's drummer) said the record would tell a story dealing variously with the art aesthetics of Tsarist Russia, astral travel, out of body experiences and Stephen Hawking's theories on wormholes."

Your favorite metal band didn't do that...ever.

If you like records with a theme, Green Day came back with its second "rock-opera". "21st Century Breakdown" shows the band in great form as it does what few bands have managed to do since The Who - release consistently great records revolving around a central theme that begins and ends an album. Its refreshing that a great rock band can still become famous and keep their eyes on whats happening in the real world.

Sonic Youth served notice that they were still the godfathers of the alternative-rock world. "The Eternal" is one of the best albums they have released in several years. At the same time, Yeah Yeah Yeahs did the unthinkable by putting down their guitars and picking up the synths. It makes sense that they would draw on a rich tradition of New York dance rock that started with Talking Heads and continues to this day with TV On The Radio.

The Dead Weather made me wonder if everyone in the music business who believes they have real talent is just kidding themselves. Jack White has all the talent, alright? The Dead Weather is a better record than it has any right to be. It is spooky, well-imagined and played with enough Zeppelin-esque stomp to make me think Jack White could actually ditch Meg and just continue to make up other projects to occupy his time. Don't laugh. He hasn't failed yet.

Speaking of Zeppelin, 2009 saw the return of John Paul Jones in the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures. Teaming with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme, Jones' thundering bass lines were the cornerstone for one of the year's most surprising releases. Check out a song like "Elephants" and witness three of the best musicians at their respective instruments attempting to cram all of Led Zeppelin II into one blazing track.

Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan released albums that solidified their places as the best songwriters of the last half-century. Both men release consistently great albums and remain relevant long after other acts go stale. Speaking of a good time, Pearl Jam recaptured the punky spark that endeared them to music fans in the early nineties.

Phoenix pumped out a joyous mix of guitar rock and electronics, releasing "Lisztomania," one of the year's best singles and the catchiest song ever about Franz Liszt.

Finally, U2 returned with an album that was full of dramatic moments as it attempted to explore the dark places. The album did not receive overwhelming support from critics or fans. However, U2 proved that a band must evolve in order to stay true to itself and its fan base. It is also living proof that a band that isn't busy being born is busy dying.

There is something on this list for every kind of music lover you know. Alright, there is no classical or country. But, that won't hurt anyone.

Trust me.