High Hopes.
Have you heard the news, Scott?
It's all over town.
It's out all over town.
Jinx!
Kings!
So. It seems Frankie has taken a lady.
Is this true? Why has no one told me this before? Someone should write a song about that.
They should! Only they should be more succinct about it. Like, say, "Frankie Seems Quite Happy in His Amorous New State." Yeah? Yeah? Pretty good, huh?
Frankie's in an Amorous New State o' Mind.
Are you bringing Sir William of Joel to a Bruce Springsteen discussion?
I am! The late Sir William Joel of Long Islandington. Hey, what's your feeling about the packaging? You miss jewel cases?
You know, I was thinking about the packaging. And while I like how easily the jewel cases always stacked, I always hated that super-adhesive they put on the side of them.
Worst thing in the history of ever, and I do not exaggerate.
Also, my rate of breaking jewel cases of CDs like somewhere around 108%. So I'm OK with cheaper packaging. Just not cheaper packages.
Yup. And there was only so large you could make the booklet, 'cuz of those lil tabs inside the front cover.
(And I totally ignored the fact that you just killed Billy Joel there. My bad.)
I wonder how well these thin cardboard covers/cases are going to hold up after 10 years. But I guess we'll find out.
Yes! Hated that about the booklet — it always used to get torn. (Nothing's right, it's torn).
Oh, we will find out. WE WILL FIND OUT INDEED!!!!!!
Shall we point and laugh at love-besotted Francis?
Yes, we shall. I guess the point is Frankie fell in love, huh?
Opening guitar sounds a tiny bit like "Long Time Comin'" somehow mixed with "Surprise Surprise."
NOW we're talking. I am loving this from the word go!
Cowbell! Woodblock? Country yelps.
This sounds like an outtake from The Promise years.
Those harmonies make me so happy.
I think those are known as the Darkness on the Edge of Town years.
But more like Born in the USA or The River, no?
Reminds me somehow or "Ricky Wants a Man of Her Own," although I guess that's all lyrically.
Hmm. I hear more "Outside Looking In" kinda stuff. Hmmmmm.
What I really dig here is it sounds like an outtake. Like something he never intended to be on an album. Yet is quite damn good and he knows it.
It does have that thing he does, where melodically it sounds like a girl group from the 60s.
Shakespeare and Einstein talking. Love that.
Love the Shakespeare explaining the difference between math and poetry to Einstein.
Yeah, this sounds like it should have been the greatest b-side he ever released. Well, that's too bold a statement, given some of his b-sides. But one hell of a b-side.
Now I'm hearing The River (album, not song). It has that joyful noise to it.
Einstein trying to figure out the number that adds up to this
Shakespeare said, "Man it all starts with a kiss"
Well, that was short.
Hey! Don't stop playing! Want more!!!
That's how he meant to leave you.
That was one fun as heck ride, man. Easily my favorite song on the record so far. Even though it's too short.
Sparse band, man. Just him, Roy and Max.
Why no Garry? That's the second time. I object, your honor.
No, I think Garry was there, no?
Nope
Someone was playing bass. And I don't see anyone else credited.
Ron Aniello
RON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are you shaking your fist at him? Or offering him a fist-bump?
(To be shouted like "KHAN!!!!")
Ah. Shaking.
With a sneer.
With a snarl. Followed shortly by a short snort.
So. I thought that song kicked ass. More characters, more raucousness that sounds like Young Bruce.
When's the last time he recorded (as far as we know) a straightforward fun love song like that?
Man, I'm not sure..."Surprise Surprise?" That count?
Yeah, I guess so. Otherwise, maybe "Leah."
Funny, he has some amazing lyrics (like the Einstein/Shakespeare stuff) followed by some remarkably silly ones. "World peace's gonna break out—from here on in we're eating take out."
Yeah, and the opening and closing lines, that keep making me think of "Froggie' Went a-Courtin'."
But in terms of flat out goofed up party-time feel? Man, I think it goes back to something like "Better Days" or even "Stand On It."
I"m gonna say no to the "Better Days" comparison. Or even "Stand On It," since that's more in his "Dear Alex and Annie" list of songs. It's a short list, thankfully.
That too. "The church mouse is sleepin'." Because "sleepin'" rhymes with "evenin'." :-)
So again, for me this is my fave so far. You?
Hm.
No.
(GASPY INHALE)
I like it a lot, maybe even love it. But I have to admit...I'm having a hard time accepting this LP on its own terms.
That's entirely my problem, mind you.
I think it took me a while to accept Working on a Dream, as well, so maybe it's just a matter of time.
Well, look. This is not a "major" piece of work from him. I think even he would acknowledge that. It's odds and sods, scraps. But that in itself lends itself to a warm, loosey-goosey feel, no?
But it's the weird hybridization of these songs that's roadblocking me. If it was a dozen songs just like that, all groovy outtakes? I think I'd be there. All covers? Fine. All studio versions of live staples? You bet.
It's the mishmash that's throwing me, even though that's pretty much what the advance press about the album said it was going to be.
'cuz, see, the seriousness of things like "American Skin" is what keeps me from being able to just embrace the entire thing. You know?
Fair point. As well as the hyper-seriousness of songs to come too.
Exactly.
Although...to be an advocate for Satan himself...
And yet things like "Frankie Fell in Love" don't feel, to me, like the way "Sherry Darling" was a counterweight to "Independence Day" on The River. It just feels haphazard. And that's one thing he's never been.
I'm not saying it's not a fine way to go. I'm just saying that I'm having a problem with it.
...Magic, widely considered his overt slap at Bush-Cheney, still had "I'll Work For Your Love" and "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" alongside heady stuff like "Devil's Arcade" and "Last to Die" and "Long Walk Home."
Absolutely true. But the lyrics in those two songs are so much more sophisticated.
It didn't make them feel so different from the rest of the Magic album.
Yes they are. Just not quite as fun and free.
Again, I know that's not what he was going for here. I get that. It's me.
("ya damn right, it's me!")
And "Girls" is an outright masterpiece. I admit "Frankie Fell in Love" isn't. I just love it.
Pour me a drink Theresa
In one of those glasses you dust off
And I'll watch the bones in your back
Like the stations of the cross
'Round your hair the sun lifts a halo
At your lips a crown of thorns
Whatever other deals goin' down
To this one I'm sworn
That is some fine writing, huh?
"I'll watch the bones in your back like the stations of the cross."
I MEAN.
And that's the closest on the record to a light love song.
So, again, I think "Frankie Fell in Love" would have made a phenomenal b-side.
Very fair. Again, I just love "Frankie Fell in Love" for itself. I think the way I love "Sherry Darling" for itself.
(And keep in mind, I'm the only "57 Channels" apologist I know.)
Lord knows I ain't one.
Because you're afraid of not being the same as everyone else in the world.
I'm a rebel, Dottie.
I very much like and could maybe love this song. It's the context that's throwing me.
No no, I get what you say. That's a fair point. Context can mean a ton.
Which DOES makes this a perfect B-side.
Hmph.
To a large extent, it's something you and I have talked about before, something I think maybe Dave Marsh wrote, a bit about something like, "from now on, Bruce Springsteen would never be judged by whether something was good or bad—from here on out, it was a masterpiece or it was a disappointment." I butchered the quote, but that was the jist.
I mean, for pete's sake, I think Lucky Town and Working on a Dream are at least 4-star records, so it's not like I'm a guy who rips everything post-Darkness, you know?
That is so right. As we have said, how can anyone possibly look at Lucky Town as a failure? Only when they hold it up against, I guess, Darkness on the Edge of Town. Right?
Having said that, I don't remember how long it took me to really turn around on Working. It may have been a year, even. So who knows?
It's, again, context: Lucky Town is seen as a twin of Human Touch.
WHICH IS REALLY NOT A GOOD RECORD.
Hells bells, hold Lucky Town up against Darkness and, objectively, I personally find it hard to see how someone couldn't say, "wow...okay. Yeah. I can see how the young guy who made Darkness in 1978 would grow and change and get married and have a kid and make Lucky Town in 1992. That's cool."
My opinion of Working has dipped in the last couple of years. Mostly because of those pretty little songs that just after a while seemed empty(ish) to me. Like "Surprise" (why do we keep bringing that song up???) —
I know! I realized I keep using "Surprise" as a touchstone as well.
— and "Life Itself" and "Tomorrow Never Knows." Also, the title track is A.W.F.U.L.
The title track is so goddamn bad. It's kinda shocking how terrible it is. And he played it at the damn Super Bowl, in front of by far the largest audience of his entire career. Oy.
But the number of people who feel that way about Lucky Town can be counted on one hand. And are both having this discussion right now.
Ha!
And I like "Life Itself" and "Tomorrow Never knows" because the words are more than adequate—I wish they were a bit better, sure—but melodically it's the most sumptuous thing he's ever done.
"Working on a Dream" is the only Bruce song I can think of that strives to sound like Roy Orbison and instead sounds like...
Ruh-roh.
...Billy Joel.
[gaspy inhale]
I was gonna say Goo Goo Dolls.
Which isn't true, but where I thought you might be going.
No. It sounds like Earnest Bill the Long Island Prophet.
The late Earnest Bill.
Why do you keep saying that?
Earnest Bill's a prophet and I think you oughtta listen to.
I'm not sure? It was in a movie or TV show in the past few weeks, where one of the characters called him "the late Sir William Joel," and the other one was like, yeah, I'm pretty sure he's not a knight and I'm positive he's not dead. Parks and Rec, maybe? New Girl?
"Billy Joel, no longer good or young, dies."
So sad.
Hey, what'd Billy Joel die of, anyhow?
I think it was that working too hard gave him a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack..
<<takes deep operatic bow>>
Wow. We just spent 25 minutes on a three minute song.
You want to play, you have to pay.
Hey, great line! You make that up?
