NEW 9/28: Springsteen on Today
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You can't judge a book by its cover.
You can't judge a song by its beat.
According to Springsteen fan Roger Friedman, the latest from Sony's $100 million man rocks, but darkly.
Friedman writes:
Bruce Springsteen has already made his political feelings clear in the last couple of years. Remember his Ted Koppel interview? The series of concerts — Vote for Change — he did to support John Kerry?
On his new album, "Magic," Springsteen jumps right into the fray again. In a dramatic new REM-ish anthem called "Last to Die," he sings: "Who'll be the last to die for a mistake/The last to die for a mistake/Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break/Who'll be the last to die for a mistake."
The mistake is clearly the Iraq war. "We don't measure the blood we've drawn anymore," he sings. "We just stack the bodies outside the door."
"Magic," which hits stores Tuesday but is already widely available on the Internet, seems like a party album at first. But it has a dark underside: blood and dead bodies wend their way through the songs.
Even when things are looking up at least musically — the songs are strong rockers — the lyrics suggest dire, dark things are happening.
In one song, “Seven drops of blood fall” as a woman smooths the front of her dress. In another, a kiss produces “the taste of blood on your tongue.” There’s a “bloody red horizon.”
...You can dance to “Radio Nowhere,” the lead single from “Magic,” and sing along, too. The whole album, made with the E Street Band, is designed for pleasure. There’s nothing here as poignant as “You’re Missing” from “The Rising.”
In concert, “Magic” is going to work like … magic. It doesn’t miss a beat; there are no good stadium bathroom breaks. The whole thing sounds like hit singles, if they still had hit singles.
Fans are going to love “Livin’ in the Future,” with its throwback arrangement to Springsteen’s real “Glory Days.” Clarence Clemons blows his horn, the band swings into action and it’s the Bruce everyone loves. There’s even a sing-along na-na-na chorus at the end.
But don’t be deceived. The lyrics show Bruce’s maturation and his love of stark images:
“Woke up election day/Skies gunpowder and shades of grey/Beneath a dirty sun, I whistle my time away … I opened up my heart to you/It got all damaged and undone.”
You gotta take the bitter with the sweet.
Yes. Bitter with the sweet.
Will “Magic” be a hit? Even with the downloads, I think so. Springsteen plays the "Today" show Friday morning for the first time ever. He undoubtedly knows things have changed dramatically in the music biz.
(Note: This is this first time Springsteen is playing on "Today" from Rockefeller Center. Springsteen did a live concert from Asbury Park, N.J. on "Today" in 2002 during his media blitz to launch "The Rising.")
...[T]he Boss has never sold multimillions of records. But he’s sold the right records to the right people. “Magic” can only bring him new fans to add to the old, and some more Grammys besides.
Blood and dead bodies.
Politics and love.
I miss the romanticism of early Springsteen songs.
Maturation blows.
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