bruce's top ten

[Ken Gargett]

accidently found this - was not even looking, i swear.

personally, some great songs but this is the anorak-wearing bruce-tosser's top ten. this is some bloke who seems to think he is incredibly clever for having listened to the 'tracks' compilation. seriously tugging. he has never played seven angels in concert. how does that make the list, good or not? some of the others he has hardly ever played. played the wish in the hunter (only ever played it a dozen or so times, i gather) - great stuff but hardly even in the top ten of the night. unless you are looking for really obscure songs to impress yourself.

anyway, here they are.

do like thundercrack but none would be in my 20. most not in my top 100. hard to beat the old classics!

10 of the best: Bruce Springsteen

It’s deep cuts only for our survey of the Boss’s catalogue: no hit singles, nothing with ‘Born’ in the title. You get the picture …

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Bruce Springsteen … his love will not let you down. Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

1. Thundercrack

Back in the early days of Bruce Springsteen’s career, when he played to audiences who didn’t know him or his music, his plan of attack involved hitting the audience with a large, loud, long showstopper at the end of the set, one that would make them pay attention and remember the band after they had finished. Thundercrack is the grandaddy of Springsteen’s epic journeys and would only be replaced when he wrote Rosalita (Come Out Tonight). The vocals are loose and playful, while behind Springsteen the band are absolutely airtight, a glorious swirl of organ, piano and vocals, plenty of sha-las and whoa-ohs, backed by the unmistakable feel of Vini Lopez on the drums. By the time you get to the guitar solo and Clarence Clemons’s sax interlude, you’re sure the song is ending any minute now … only for it to start up again. By the end of Thundercrack’s almost nine minutes you feel like you’ve been a private guest at a raucous and unpredictable house party, somewhere on the Jersey Shore, standing there barefoot with a cold beer in your hand, all night (as the song says).

2. So Young and in Love

Springsteen’s core sound is based on the music he loved when growing up, but on this track he wears his heart visibly and proudly on his sleeve. He makes no bones about channelling his idols here: he is Wilson Pickett, Sam Moore and Jackie Wilson, strutting his stuff along the edge of a stage in a dark nightclub, jacket slung over his shoulder as he works the adoring crowd. This song swings, pure and simple, thanks to the rhythm section, all solid bass and hi-hat; it’s a delightful melange of sax and keyboards and hearty backing vocals, from when all the members of the E Street Band had microphones. (It’s believed this track was recorded just after Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan joined the band in August 1974, answering a Village Voice ad for musicians that specified: “All must sing.”) There are rat traps and soul crusaders (predating the ones we’d meet later on Night, from Born to Run), and more than anything else, the performance captures the emotions implied by the song’s title.

3. Roulette

Springsteen was in the studio for over a year across 1979 and 1980 while recording The River, and as a result there were piles of outtakes left over, some of which might have been better than the songs that made it on to the album. Inspired by the Three Mile Island nuclear power-plant incident (it was recorded three days afterwards and was the first song cut during the River sessions), this absolute piledriver of a song is Springsteen at his most dramatic. The full-speed-ahead drum roll at the start of the track is accompanied by an excited, driving voc

3al; the lyrics and phrasing parachute the listener directly into heart of the action; you aren’t allowed to be a casual observer. “We left the toys out in the yard,” he begins, setting a vivid, intense scene that never diminishes. At the end of the last verse, Max Weinberg rides the hi-hat, cueing an almost-breathless Springsteen to lead you through the maze of action to the song’s close. And then that drum roll, reprised from the beginning, slows down like a pulse and fades out at the end. If it sounds insane, that’s because it is. “It would have been one of the best things on the record,” Springsteen told Mojo in 1998.

4. Be True

Another River-era outtake, this track would surface on the B-side of the 1980 single Fade Away, a perfect antidote to that song’s plaintive sadness. On the surface it’s a delightful little love song – the narrator telling his girl he’s just as good as the stars she daydreams about – but there’s a deeper theme of not selling yourself short and of getting what you deserve, all tied together with movie metaphors. Musically it’s got the E Street Band at their best in that era, bouncing along with organ and piano at the forefront and Clarence Clemons on the tambourine, before he comes in with a crisp, perfect sax solo at the end. This is another track Springsteen would later say should have been on the album: “I’m sure they [be True and Roulette] would’ve been better than a couple other things that we threw on there,” he told Rolling Stone in 1988. Like many of Springsteen’s love songs, live – as in the version on our Spotify playlist – he often turns the sentiment around on the audience, exhorting “Is it a deal?” at the end of the last chorus.

5. This Hard Land

The country influence that began to appear in Springsteen’s songs as he moved into the 80s should not have been surprising, as his interests, tastes and influences expanded. This Hard Land is a Western movie in five minutes, a story of friendship and brotherhood told through the life of a brother and a sister in the south-west of the US; you can see the dust, feel the saddle, hear the floorboards creaking underfoot. It was written for Born in the USA, wouldn’t have been out of place on Nebraska, and finally emerged live onstage in 1993. It’s almost country but not quite; it’s almost rock but not quite that either. No matter how you want to label it, it’s an absolutely beautiful, rollicking, wide-open song with a gorgeously narrated story. It’s become a special moment in the live show, whether performed with the band or as a solo acoustic encore. When Springsteen closed his 2013 European tour in Kilkenny, Ireland, he was visibly emotional as he sang the last verse: “If you can’t make it — stay hard! Stay hungry! Stay alive! If you can / And meet me in a dream of this hard land.”

Reading on mobile? Listen to this playlist on Spotify here

6. My Love Will Not Let You Down

If you’re ever at a Springsteen concert and this is the first number, you’re in for a barnburner of a night. On its face this is a love song, a pledge of passion and dedication, but it’s also become a symbol of Springsteen’s promise to the fans, and a thank you for their devotion and commitment. “I got me a promise that I ain’t afraid to make,” he pledges, holding the guitar up against his heart, strumming extra hard for emphasis, underscoring his words. It’s a rhythmic, powerful anthem that’s all guitars, except for Roy Bitttan’s elegant underpinning, and it should be the theme song for the latter-day E Street Band. Manager Jon Landau originally favoured it to open side two of Born in the USA, for which it was originally recorded, before the album took another direction entirely.

7. Seeds

As Springsteen’s cultural frame of reference expanded, so did his political and social consciousness, and this was his first attempt to catalyse the latter in his songwriting. Seeds came out of the Born in the USA sessions and is a specific exploration of a specific poverty: another tale of trying to follow the American dream, this time chasing after the oil boom just as it went bust. You feel the anger in the delivery of the lyrics and the rock-solid rhythm, underscored by crunchy and highly satisfying guitar chords courtesy of Nils Lofgren. When it’s in the setlist, it’s for a reason, especially during the Reagan years, where it would feature in a run including Johnny 99, Atlantic City andThe River, or in the aftermath of the first Bush presidency where it would stand alongside Youngstown and The Ghost of Tom Joad. It sadly remains as relevant today as it was when he wrote it, but at least that means we’ll get to hear it live for years to come.

8. The Wish

After years of Springsteen writing about his stormy relationship with his father, this track about his mother, Adele, emerged during the Tunnel of Lovesessions. While the melody is simple, the song’s strength is in its lyrics — the images are bright, beautiful and vivid. You can picture the Christmas tree and the scene during the holidays at the Springsteen household, and that stays with you as the story brings you to the later days of success, wealth and Springsteen’s own start to building a family. It’s the bright flipside to the story told in The Promise, and one he has admitted was about as directly autobiographical as he’s ever been.

9. Seven Angels

Even though Springsteen moved into the 90s without the E Street Band, his predilection for a great soul shouter didn’t diminish, despite all the synthesisers. This exploration of the dilemma of a man in love — is this true love? What if I’m wrong? What if I’m right? — is a straight-ahead stomper with a good old-fashioned rock’n’roll rhythm section. Springsteen screams, he sings, he growls, he hollers, he whispers, and makes you feel the various flavours of inner turmoil being voiced in the lyrics. It’s absolutely glorious from beginning to end and a shame it’s never come out in the live show.

10. Back in Your Arms

This is the quintessential Springsteen soul ballad, which made its first appearance in the Blood Brothers documentary in 1996. When Back in Your Arms appears in performance it makes the women scream, but it also makes the men in the house turn just a little misty. It’s a heartbreaker, plain and simple, and it’s all about Springsteen’s vocal performance: if it doesn’t make your bottom lip tremble just a little bit, I’m not sure you’re human. There’s some lovely keyboard work from Roy Bittan, which adds the right mood and colour, and Clarence Clemons’s soul sax is the cherry on top.

[Vetteman]

Yeah, maybe a selection for top 10 obscure songs but not best. On the other hand, some of my top 10 like Youngstown, Gypsy Biker, and Incident on 57th Street rarely make anybody's list either

[Ken Gargett]

Yeah, maybe a selection for top 10 obscure songs but not best. On the other hand, some of my top 10 like Youngstown, Gypsy Biker, and Incident on 57th Street rarely make anybody's list either

he played incident in brizzy. brilliant. agree with some of the early songs - and he played heaps of them here (set list below), and while they might not be his best known any longer, they are a heap less obscure than some of those top ten.

songs like trapped and for you in my top list.

sandy, kitty's back, growin up - as good as anything i've ever seen him do.

1. Stayin' Alive
   (Bee Gees cover) (Live premiere)
2. It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City
   (Tour premiere)
3. Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?
   (Tour premiere)
4. Growin' Up
5. Spirit in the Night
6. High Hopes
   (The Havalinas cover)
7. Just Like Fire Would
   (The Saints cover)
8. You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
   (Tour premiere, Sign request)
9. Sherry Darling
   (Sign request)
10. Save My Love
    (Sign request)
11. Fade Away
    (Tour premiere, Sign request)
12. The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle
13. The E Street Shuffle
14. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
15. Kitty's Back
16. Wild Billy's Circus Story
    (Tour premiere)
17. Incident on 57th Street
    (Tour premiere)
18. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
19. New York City Serenade
    (Tour premiere, w/ additional strings)
21. Darlington County
22. Waitin' on a Sunny Day
23. The Rising
24. The Ghost of Tom Joad
    (w/ Tom Morello on shared vocals)
25. Badlands
26. Encore:
27. Glory Days
28. Born to Run
29. Bobby Jean
30. Dancing in the Dark
31. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
32. Highway to Hell
    (AC/DC cover) (with Eddie Vedder)
33. Encore 2:
34. Thunder Road
    (Solo acoustic)

[louh]

Don't know where that top 10 list came from, and any list would be personal, but that guy seems to be really reaching. None of those songs is bad, and Thundercrack is somewhere in my top list, but there are so many others. Every time I see Bruce another song to two breaks into my list. What impresses me is that some of his post-2000 stuff is so strong.

That Stayin' Alive he did was wonderful. Who knew the Bee Gees could sound so good...

[Philski]

Signs that you might be spending too much time on FoH #2,523

You see a picture in the window of an art gallery, and your first thought goes to some guy in Australia who you've never met:

[Webbo]

Notice he played Save my Love. Hope you enjoyed that one Ken. A fave of mine that I saw him perform at Man City ground a couple of years ago and then followed up with The Promise. What a double. Different class.

[OZCUBAN]

I think we should start up a permanent bruce thread all things bruce as to speak