I’ve always heard what an amazing live performer Bruce Springsteen is (particularly when backed by the E-Street Band) but last night’s Super Bowl halftime show was the first time I got to experience it… televised, at least. And the rumors of his greatness were not exaggerated.
Alex, never a huge fan of The Boss, turned to me after the show and said “We have to see Bruce Springsteen live the next time he comes down here” and I was right with her.
I’m using this space today for a rant.
I had written a nice long post on a Josh Rouse song called ‘My Love Has Gone,’ which appears on his outstanding Nashville album. It’s one of my very favorite songs by anybody, and I gave it the royal treatment. But when I previewed the post I saw that the YouTube video was no longer valid due to a copyright infringement.
The same thing happened yesterday with my David Byrne post, forcing me to feature a video of him in a skirt — nobody needs that!
David Byrne is one of the most talented and eccentric artists in my collection, and I own about 15 of his albums by now (including his work with Talking Heads). And yet I can’t say that I love his music the way I love stuff by, say, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, and on and on.
I certainly appreciate his music, and when I listen to it I enjoy just about every minute. But I don’t find myself reaching for his CDs when loading up my car stereo.
So you’re probably wondering… why do you own 15 albums by somebody whose music you aren’t compelled to listen to very often? And that’s a fair question for which I don’t have a great answer.
I’m not a U2 fanatic by any means, but I completely understand why they’ve been dubbed the world’s greatest rock band. They exude unparalleled star power and their music is grand and powerful in a way that belongs totally to them. You always hear about other bands mimicking U2 but you never catch them being anything but themselves.
They are also the masters of the song intro. The best example is ‘Where the Streets Have No Name,’ which kicks off The Joshua Tree so effectively that the rest of the album seems almost like an afterthought. ‘Zooropa,’ the opening track of the underrated album of the same name, is another great one.
I’m capping off Belle and Sebastian week with another song from one of their EPs — this one an extra track on the ‘Books’ EP.
‘Your Cover’s Blown’ is one of the oddest things Belle and Sebastian has ever recorded, and one of the most exciting. It’s a funk jam about a jilted lover hitting the clubs for a little revenge sex and realizing he’s in over his head.
