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Classic Album Discussion Thread: The Kinks-Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Pt. 1 (2 Viewers)

Dr. Octopus said:
Odd. I was born in Queens and raised on Long Island and Bruce was not very big there at all. Billy Joel (naturally) was huge among the older people and Led Zepplin seemed to be the most popular band among teens.

Anyway I went to college in NJ (Seton Hall) and Springsteen was played everywhere - people had song lyric quotes hanging on their walls. He was god-like among the Jersey people (which was most of the SHU population). I started hated him. My sophomore year Tunnel of Love was released that summer and I dreaded going back to school. People got annoyed when I said I couldn't stand Bruce.

Anyway, years went by and in my late 20s / early 30s I really started liking the guy. I finally broke down and went to see him. It was at Giants Stadium a huge venue, yet it almost felt like that small bar wikkid was describing a few posts up. It was like a giant party where everyone was best friends. I even bumped into my sister randomly.

I now think pretty highly of him as a man and as an artist. His voice can be grating perhaps, but he's one of the great American songwriters and his band (which to his credit he has kept mostly intact) is top notch. My favorite record is Darkness at the Edge of Town and I really love the Rising as well. Heck I love Tunnel of Love now as well. Born to Run is a classic of course with some epic songs including my favorite song by him "Thunder Road".
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When we pay our property taxes we have to sign a check, kidney donor card, and affidavit of our continued worship of Bruce and Bon Jovi.

 
Oh, I also saw Bruce come out for Neil Young's encore at the Jones Beach venue to sing "Down By the River" with him.

The live acoustic version of "Rockin' in the Free World" on the Freedom album was recorded at that show as well.

 
Eephus said:
It was a poor choice of words. 

My point was the lyrics weren't autobiographical of course, but his fans came to associate Springsteen with the Billys, Sandys and Wendys that populated his songs.  Their stories amplified his status as an everyman hero.
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The song The River is a true story about his sister and her husband, although he sings it like it was about him. It's my favorite song by him. It was only released as a single in Europe. I never hear it on regular radio. 

 
Bull Dozier said:
I was in grade school (early 80s) when some concert album, or multi album collection of Bruce's came out (too lazy to look it up).  I was at a neighbors house where a bunch of us neighborhood kids were hanging out.  One of the kids, two years older than me, made us all listen to it and was raving about how awesome it was.
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Had to be Live 1975-85 -- does this cover look familiar?

...

One of the better CR stations I used to listen to played the live version of "Fire" in their rotation  :thumbup:

 
simey said:
The song The River is a true story about his sister and her husband, although he sings it like it was about him. It's my favorite song by him. It was only released as a single in Europe. I never hear it on regular radio. 
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The River is my favorite, and its not even close.  The first time I heard it I was at a point in my life where the lyrics struck me very personally, and it brings out those emotions again whenever I hear it.  It was probably a timing thing, had I heard it first at a different time, it might have been just another song.  But the greatest songs, to me, are those that stir those types of emotions.

Doug B said:
Had to be Live 1975-85 -- does this cover look familiar?

...

One of the better CR stations I used to listen to played the live version of "Fire" in their rotation  :thumbup:
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Must have been, It being a live compilation rings a bell. :thumbup:  

 
One more point about Born to Run before timmy starts his day & changes the subject - i dont remember a rock album dominating a year like it did, except maybe Appetite for Destruction. '75 was kind of an ebb year, Stones were transitioning, prog was dying, McCartney was being cute, Lennon was wearing a Kotex on his head, everything was getting discofied, it was a lively year on the top 40, but rock - which had had waaaay too many albums each year for us to embrace just one - was flat until August, those Jerseyish Dog Days, when this voice came into its own, dripping with romantic drama, fulfilling the critics' hope, filling our ears & hearts. It really rang out and had big legs the rest of the year.

 
Doug B said:
Had to be Live 1975-85 -- does this cover look familiar?

...

One of the better CR stations I used to listen to played the live version of "Fire" in their rotation  :thumbup:
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His live version of Tom Waits’ “Jersey Girl” used to get a lot of play in the NYC area  for obvious reasons - also recorded at the Meadowlands in 1981.

https://youtu.be/aWoTfcaqZU4

As an aside, it’s amazing what people are paying to see his current Springsteen on Broadway shows.

 
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wikkidpissah said:
One more point about Born to Run before timmy starts his day & changes the subject - i dont remember a rock album dominating a year like it did, except maybe Appetite for Destruction. '75 was kind of an ebb year, Stones were transitioning, prog was dying, McCartney was being cute, Lennon was wearing a Kotex on his head, everything was getting discofied, it was a lively year on the top 40, but rock - which had had waaaay too many albums each year for us to embrace just one - was flat until August, those Jerseyish Dog Days, when this voice came into its own, dripping with romantic drama, fulfilling the critics' hope, filling our ears & hearts. It really rang out and had big legs the rest of the year.
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Love hearing things like this because for me all these albums exist outside of time and place. I can point to when I discovered them or periods where I leaned on them more than others, but I don't have the first hand contextual understanding. I can totally see this album cutting through what was mostly going on in 75. No make-up, no dancing, long songs but not long like how prog songs are long and ovely indulgent. Gritty rock music but with a saxophone. And ofcourse a frontman that could rival Mick. 

 
Ilov80s said:
Love hearing things like this because for me all these albums exist outside of time and place. I can point to when I discovered them or periods where I leaned on them more than others, but I don't have the first hand contextual understanding. I can totally see this album cutting through what was mostly going on in 75. No make-up, no dancing, long songs but not long like how prog songs are long and ovely indulgent. Gritty rock music but with a saxophone. And ofcourse a frontman that could rival Mick. 
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eggs ackly!

 
wikkidpissah said:
One more point about Born to Run before timmy starts his day & changes the subject - i dont remember a rock album dominating a year like it did, except maybe Appetite for Destruction. '75 was kind of an ebb year, Stones were transitioning, prog was dying, McCartney was being cute, Lennon was wearing a Kotex on his head, everything was getting discofied, it was a lively year on the top 40, but rock - which had had waaaay too many albums each year for us to embrace just one - was flat until August, those Jerseyish Dog Days, when this voice came into its own, dripping with romantic drama, fulfilling the critics' hope, filling our ears & hearts. It really rang out and had big legs the rest of the year.
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This gets to what Bull Dozier was asking above: Why Springsteen? 'Songcraft' plus 'timing' were a lot of it. 'Adoption by huge radio markets' and 'live-show word-of-mouth buzz' were also huge.

 
Doug B said:
This gets to what Bull Dozier was asking above: Why Springsteen? 'Songcraft' plus 'timing' were a lot of it. 'Adoption by huge radio markets' and 'live-show word-of-mouth buzz' were also huge.
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And the Landau factor. Lester Bangs came out of the post-Invasion era as the leading critical voice of rock but, while he was clanging around making noise about the harder stuff, Rolling Stone's Jon Landau was being damn near the perfect music critic - letting us know what was new, what was played, understanding & explaining our collective aspirations for music as life without losing the common touch. So, when he went all-in behind this semi-clever Asbury Park mooyuk to the point of throwing in with him as his producer, we stood up and took notice. That was big.

 
Doug B said:
This gets to what Bull Dozier was asking above: Why Springsteen? 'Songcraft' plus 'timing' were a lot of it. 'Adoption by huge radio markets' and 'live-show word-of-mouth buzz' were also huge.
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The adoption by radio came later for Springsteen.  The mid 70s was an inflection point in rock radio formatting.  The freeform playlists of earlier progressive stations were being replaced by more tightly formatted AOR stations.  The days of DJs playing deep cuts or breaking new artists was coming to an end.  Progressive stations helped launch "Born to Run" in a way that would have been much tougher a few years later but AOR didn't really pick up on Springsteen in a big way until "Born in the USA".

 
MAC_32 said:
Meeting into Jungleland. 12 of the best minutes of music I've ever heard. And the perfect ending to one of the best albums I've ever listened to. 
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I hate to be "that guy", but I really liked his first 3 albums a lot more than the ones after. Better songs with a less commercial edge.

 
Leroy Hoard said:
I hate to be "that guy", but I really liked his first 3 albums a lot more than the ones after. Better songs with a less commercial edge.
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For 20some years of my life I didn't think I liked him.  Then I met my wife, who comes from a family that was raised on Bruce.  Before then I think I had only heard Born To Run, Dancing in the Dark, Glory Days, Hungry Heart, and Born in the USA.  I never got the appeal - Born To Run was great, but the rest?  Blegh, no interest in anything else.  So she made a mix and played it basically non stop for I don't remember how long.  Growin Up...Spirit In The Night...E St Shuffle...Incident on 57th St...Rosalita...Candy's Room...Racing in the Street...Atlantic City...etc.  Then she made me listen to The River beginning to end.  Then this.  I hadn't told her, but I was sold long before getting to the Meeting into Jungleland finish.  I thought The River-Point Blank-Cadillac Ranch-The Rocker sequence was going to be the peak - and that was a tough call over the Incident/Rosalita back-to-back.  You can't listen to Incident then not listen to Rosalita she says (she's right).  But then I heard that.  I dunno, maybe I just heard it at the right time.  It was just the perfect ending to my weeks long intro to real Bruce music.

But looking back, I'm more embarrassed with myself that I never gave him a chance before then than anything.

 
Eephus said:
It was a poor choice of words. 

My point was the lyrics weren't autobiographical of course, but his fans came to associate Springsteen with the Billys, Sandys and Wendys that populated his songs.  Their stories amplified his status as an everyman hero.
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Much if not most of Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. gives a vibe of being autobiographical.  I'm sure much of it is fictional, but the stories he's telling all seem to revolve around growing up in New Jersey.

 
Boston

I love this album and everything about it.

Heart- Dreamboat Annie

Never really a fan.

Queen- A Night At the Opera

Huge fan of this group, Freddie Mercury is, to me, the greatest front man in the history of music, and this is a phenomenal album from start to finish.

Rush- 2112

I will admit - never been a fan.

Led Zeppelin II

If you don't like Zeppelin we can't be ifriends.

Ted Nugent- “Stranglehold” (Song)

I guess it was ok.  Not a huge fan of his though.

The Beatles (The White Album)

Love this one.

The Steve Miller Band- Greatest Hits 1974-1978

Still have the CD in my car.

The Rolling Stones- Sticky Fingers

I'd have to think about whether or not this is my favorite Stones offering.

Meat Loaf- Bat Out of Hell

Might be a top 10 for me.

Van Halen

Solid.

David Bowie- The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Solid as well.

The Who- Who’s Next

More solid.

The Eagles- Hotel California

I personally enjoy Desperado more, but I have no complaints about this one.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers- Damn the Torpedoes

I like a lot of Tom Petty's stuff, but I don't know if I have ever consumed an entire album.

Bruce Springsteen- Born to Run

My joking about New Jersey aside, I actually have never been a huge Bruce fan.  I enjoy several songs - my DNA requires me to - but we've had this discussion before and I am of the opinion that Billy Joel is better than him, and I will never change my mind on that.  Still, a little Bruce every now and then isn't a bad thing.

 
wikkidpissah said:
And the Landau factor. Lester Bangs came out of the post-Invasion era as the leading critical voice of rock but, while he was clanging around making noise about the harder stuff, Rolling Stone's Jon Landau was being damn near the perfect music critic - letting us know what was new, what was played, understanding & explaining our collective aspirations for music as life without losing the common touch. So, when he went all-in behind this semi-clever Asbury Park mooyuk to the point of throwing in with him as his producer, we stood up and took notice. That was big.
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I'm in the middle of watching the HBO doc Rolling Stone: Stories From The Edge. Has some good stuff about Landau, Bangs and the whole crew. Regardless of what one thinks about Wenner & Co, I highly recommend it.

 
Black Sabbath- Paranoid (1970)

Side One

War Pigs

Paranoid

Planet Caravan

Iron Man

Side Two

Electric Funeral

Hands of Doom

Rat Salad

Fairies Wear Boots

What can one say, except :headbang: (and maybe :stirspot: )

I love Bill Ward's drums.

 
Seems to be a very narrow middle ground with Springsteen. Mostly a love or hate kinda musician. 

I remember wearing the big 80's style headphones reading the lyrics and listening to Thunder Road when I was about 13. I was instantly hooked. 

 
Love Paranoid. Sinister yet approachable. An absolute pioneer of the hard rock/heavy metal genre. To me, Geezer Butler has always been the underrated glue of the band. "Hand Of Doom" is a killer track that doesn't get nearly as much play as Iron/Paranoid/Pigs.

 
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zamboni said:
Love Paranoid. Sinister yet approachable. An absolute pioneer of the hard rock/heavy metal genre. To me, Geezer Butler has always been the underrated glue of the band. "Hand Of Doom" is a killer track that doesn't get nearly as much play as Iron/Paranoid/Pigs.
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Great great song. 

You know, before my post this morning I listened to the entire album, which I hadn’t done in years. It’s a great album. Because Sabbath is famous as the start of the Heavy Metal movement I don’t always associate them in my mind with the classic blues rock of the early 70s that is among my favorite genres of music- or it might be that Ozzy’s vocals are so different from Winwood, Cocker, Anderson, Stewart, Rodgers, Plant, etc- all the blues vocalists that I love so much. But this album really does belong. 

 
I couldn't say much for The Eagles, Petty or Bruce. Not that I hate any of them but was never drawn to feel good or sentimental type music, preferring dark, heavy and depressing.

Paranoid is a Top 10 for me from the undisputed godfathers of metal. It's as good as it gets in current times, much less while pioneering a genre in 1970. Outside of Hendrix and maybe Alice Cooper, Sabbath is a band I would have loved to be able to have witnessed bursting onto the scene. Alice took a little while so it's not really the same.

:headbang:  indeed!

 
Was never a Black Sabbath fan in terms of going out of my way to listen to them or buy anything, but if a song comes on I'm entertained. I understand any love this selection gets.

 
Yankee23Fan said:
Was never a Black Sabbath fan in terms of going out of my way to listen to them or buy anything, but if a song comes on I'm entertained. I understand any love this selection gets.
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Pretty much sums it up for me, too, with the added caveat that, having noticed how much respect Black Sabbath gets from others, I might listen a bit more closely when I hear them than I would just some other random music.

 
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zamboni said:
I'm in the middle of watching the HBO doc Rolling Stone: Stories From The Edge. Has some good stuff about Landau, Bangs and the whole crew. Regardless of what one thinks about Wenner & Co, I highly recommend it.
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I bust on Wenner and Rolling Stone every chance I get because they shaped a false narrative about what "real" rock and roll was by marginalizing (or segregating) music that didn't come straight from the Beatles or the hippies. By accident or dumb luck, they got to be the curators of this ####. I'll give Wenner this - he saw that opportunity and rode it to glory. For decades, RS - and RS alone - wrote the history of rock and roll.

That said, he stabled an incredibly talented group of writers (some of them still my favorites) and the world would be a sadder place for me if those folks hadn't had the chance Wenner gave them

 
I think Paranoid might have been the first album I owned that I actually spent my own capital on (I traded comic books for it). "Planet Caravan" is my favorite cut.

 
Ilov80s said:
Billy Joel is better than Bruce Springsteen?  That is a scorching hot take. 
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Pie is better than cake? Cake is better than pie? Nothing controversial about preferring one over the other here :shrug:  

Would be an interesting musical exercise for each of Joel and Springsteen to put out a tribute covers album of the other's material. Joel has a much nimbler voice than Springsteen, though, so many Joel tunes would need thoughtful down-tempo arrangements for Springsteen to credibly pull them off. Joel doing Springsteen's work straight, on the other hand, could sound fluffy and unsubstantial. Could envision a great Billy Joel cover of "Glory Days" with Joel's organ work stealing the show.

 
Doug B said:
Pie is better than cake? Cake is better than pie? Nothing controversial about preferring one over the other here :shrug:  

Would be an interesting musical exercise for each of Joel and Springsteen to put out a tribute covers album of the other's material. Joel has a much nimbler voice than Springsteen, though, so many Joel tunes would need thoughtful down-tempo arrangements for Springsteen to credibly pull them off. Joel doing Springsteen's work straight, on the other hand, could sound fluffy and unsubstantial. Could envision a great Billy Joel cover of "Glory Days" with Joel's organ work stealing the show.
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We Didn't Start the Streets of Fire

 
zamboni said:
Love Paranoid. Sinister yet approachable. An absolute pioneer of the hard rock/heavy metal genre. To me, Geezer Butler has always been the underrated glue of the band. "Hand Of Doom" is a killer track that doesn't get nearly as much play as Iron/Paranoid/Pigs.
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The cool thing about Paranoid (the album) is that when you turn it on, you're standing on the bridge between blues and metal ... and from Paranoid's vantage point, you can see both banks. Us kids listening to hair metal in the 80s didn't know enough to pick up the musical thread and follow it back through Sabbath, early Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Vanilla Fudge, "Inna Gadda Da Vida", etc. back to Muddy Waters and points beyond.

 
Ilov80s said:
Billy Joel is better than Bruce Springsteen?  That is a scorching hot take. 
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I'm not the biggest Bruce fan, but my God......

The final nail in the coffin for AOR radio was when I heard them playing freaking "Allentown" (the "Sugar Shack" of its generation). Kept finding reasons not to play Prince, though....

 
Doug B said:
Pie is better than cake? Cake is better than pie? Nothing controversial about preferring one over the other here :shrug:  

Would be an interesting musical exercise for each of Joel and Springsteen to put out a tribute covers album of the other's material. Joel has a much nimbler voice than Springsteen, though, so many Joel tunes would need thoughtful down-tempo arrangements for Springsteen to credibly pull them off. Joel doing Springsteen's work straight, on the other hand, could sound fluffy and unsubstantial. Could envision a great Billy Joel cover of "Glory Days" with Joel's organ work stealing the show.
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I am trying to think of a good song of Billy's for Bruce. I think Movin' Out might be the right choice.

 
Uruk-Hai said:
I bust on Wenner and Rolling Stone every chance I get because they shaped a false narrative about what "real" rock and roll was by marginalizing (or segregating) music that didn't come straight from the Beatles or the hippies. By accident or dumb luck, they got to be the curators of this ####. I'll give Wenner this - he saw that opportunity and rode it to glory. For decades, RS - and RS alone - wrote the history of rock and roll.

That said, he stabled an incredibly talented group of writers (some of them still my favorites) and the world would be a sadder place for me if those folks hadn't had the chance Wenner gave them
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I agree with this post and want to add Creem Magazine as one of the two mags I grew up on. Later on I added Trouser Press for the more alternative POV, but I used to have a stack of both in my room.

 
Uruk-Hai said:
I'm not the biggest Bruce fan, but my God......

The final nail in the coffin for AOR radio was when I heard them playing freaking "Allentown" (the "Sugar Shack" of its generation). Kept finding reasons not to play Prince, though....
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Yeah Billy isn't really rock and roll IMO. He missed his calling in life, he should have been writing musicals. His songs have a showy musical theater quality to them. It's not an insult, just a comment on his style. 

 
Ilov80s said:
I am trying to think of a good song of Billy's for Bruce. I think Movin' Out might be the right choice.
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The sax is already there in "Movin' Out", so it fits the E-Street's motif pretty well. Bruce would make that song his own with his delivery.

Didn't write them up, but I think Bruce could muster up more gravitas on the "serious" Joel tracks like "Allentown" and "Goodnight Saigon". I would also be interested in an acoustic Springsteen cover of "It's Still Rock & Roll to Me".

The two do have some stylistic overlap in their catalogs, though. For instance, "Hungry Heart" would've fit in perfectly as a track on Joel's An Innocent Man.

 
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