...I've had cuts from this LP on me for years on cassette and burned on CDS, when I got my shite digitized I scooped some of it's tunage in that Greatest Hits joint but it was just until a couple of days ago that I realized the import of what this, Bruce Springsteen's 7th LP at that point, meant when it dropped back in the summer of 1984...hard to believe it's been 23 years...
...this was the joint that made me double back and take another look at the earlier stuff a with a clearer lens, er, ear... it was hard for me to grasp a lot of what was being written between the lines of the lyrics on tunes like "Downbound Train" and "Working on the Highway" and "Darlington County"...I wasn't stupid, either and there was a palpable shift in the way earthly things were going, obvious even to a kid...I hadn't been anywhere yet and if I'd started believing what people were telling me (stop writing in your journal so much, listening to that "jungle music", rock, and learn a shop trade), I'd probably still be there doing something less than fulfilling, creatively or otherwise...but I'm not...this was back when you sat down with an album and read all the lyrics/ credits in the jacket as you listened and learned...ain't music grand?... CONTINUED
My Trusted MOGs
...."at night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet and a freight train running through the middle of my head"...this one's still so solid...great lyrics..love those "train whistle" harmonics at the end that hearken back the Appalachian sound he'd shoot for a couple of decades later...when I was old enough to "understand"...it was as if "a knife, edgy and dull, cut a six inch valley through the middle of my soul"...
My Trusted MOGs
...my mom would bump the hell out of this one too, once she got her swerve on after a hard day of being a nurse and taking care of others...then Bruce et al would take care of her for a few minutes...here, the Boss recaptures some of that shite that made his double album, The River, blow up four years prior...sounds good in the speakers, even better live...
My Trusted MOGs
...this is another one of those cuts written decades ago that eerily speaks to the right now....
My Trusted MOGs
Joxley says: this was back when you sat down with an album and read all the lyrics/ credits in the jacket as you listened and learned Wait? There’s a point where you stop doing that? Still, a great album and a great post, my good sir.
@jox: I got your comment here, 'lil bro'...and, yeah, it's harder to read CD covers as closely as, say a fold out album jacket...still, I'm glad to know that people actually still do read the liner material when they can...here
My Trusted MOGs
Crucial album - and still on fire after all these years...
My Trusted MOGs
An American Icon, "Born In The USA" is a snapshot of a time and place, a constant in the shifting winds. An adult portion of anger, heartache and the dizzy confusion of curdled patriotism and shattered hopes. Bruce so perfectly caught the angst of the times, the nervous, brutal indifference of a nation that it still wields the same power today.
My Trusted MOGs
Great choices to remind us what a troubadour Springsteen is. I've always loved the sound of '...Fire' almost like an afterthought to some half formed thoughts.
My Trusted MOGs
I wonder how many people bought Born In The USA not just for the music but to have a picture of Springsteen's ass handy at all times.
My Trusted MOGs
i think his debut, "greetings from asbury park" is one of the most under appreciated springsteen work, it is my absolute favorite