Springsteen Does Seeger
When I first heard that Bruce Springsteen was releasing an album of Pete Seeger-identified folk covers, I naturally assumed it would be one of his dreary, tuneless all-acoustic affairs in which the actual record is secondary to the lyric sheet – à la Devils & Dust, The Ghost of Tom Joad, and (someone’s gotta say it) a third or so of Nebraska.
Looks like I wasn’t alone in that assumption. A common theme in the thrilled reviews I’ve read is relief (for example this one and this one) – mainly relief that We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions is a full-band album with plenty of uptempo content. (For the dissenting view, check out this bit of knowing, too-cool-for-school snark from Tim Perlich in Now. But hey, what do you expect?)
I share the relief, and no Perlich am I, but I’m still disappointed in the record so far. It’s fine and all, pleasant for sure, but I guess I was hoping for revelatory. I wish there was more sense of Springsteen’s personality, corner of the world, whatever mixing it up with the material & the band. (Not the E Street Band, by the way – but you can read the real reviews for the background info.) Or failing that, I wish the performances had more of the rollicking urgency that Springsteen promises in the liner notes. I love the instruments, especially the banjo & horns, but they never interact in interesting ways, just vaguely goodtimey ones, & somehow the sound always feels bloated to me, slow on its feet.
On the other hand, these are the firstest of first impressions, so perhaps there are some hidden charms in there. If you want to hear for yourself, buy it here. (And for some past stuff about Springsteen, go here.)
No music today, but thanks for coming.
Looks like I wasn’t alone in that assumption. A common theme in the thrilled reviews I’ve read is relief (for example this one and this one) – mainly relief that We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions is a full-band album with plenty of uptempo content. (For the dissenting view, check out this bit of knowing, too-cool-for-school snark from Tim Perlich in Now. But hey, what do you expect?)
I share the relief, and no Perlich am I, but I’m still disappointed in the record so far. It’s fine and all, pleasant for sure, but I guess I was hoping for revelatory. I wish there was more sense of Springsteen’s personality, corner of the world, whatever mixing it up with the material & the band. (Not the E Street Band, by the way – but you can read the real reviews for the background info.) Or failing that, I wish the performances had more of the rollicking urgency that Springsteen promises in the liner notes. I love the instruments, especially the banjo & horns, but they never interact in interesting ways, just vaguely goodtimey ones, & somehow the sound always feels bloated to me, slow on its feet.
On the other hand, these are the firstest of first impressions, so perhaps there are some hidden charms in there. If you want to hear for yourself, buy it here. (And for some past stuff about Springsteen, go here.)
No music today, but thanks for coming.
posted by DW | 29.4.06
2 Comments:
Devils & Dust is dreary and tuneless? Dude. That's just not....
[shakes head]
Dude.
Listen to it again. This is not a "recorded-on-a-four-track-in-a-New-Jersey-kitchen" lo-fi recording. The CD features a greater variety of instrumental arrangements than many of his old Telecaster-and-saxophone albums. Seriously. An all-acoustic affair? No.
Dreary? The melodies are mostly bright and catchy. In "All I'm Thinkin' About" he sings a bittersweet song in a gleefully crazy falsetto. That's not just non-dreary, it's fun.
It was the best CD of whatever year it came out. It made me a fan again.
And when you claim that Nebraska is dreary and tuneless, you seem to be suggesting that those are bad things. I discovered the album while it was still Springsteen's most recent release, and it changed my whole world. In 1983, when it seemed inevitable that everything would soon be made out of neon, mesh, and videotape, and that all music would come out of a Yamaha DX-7, I was in, I dunno, Grade 8 maybe. And then I heard Atlantic City and instantly understood how totally false and insincere everything else I was hearing had been. I still remember that day.
I've listened to the CD of Seeger covers only once, so I haven't yet formed an opinion on it. I kinda wish, though, that he'd done instead a CD of covers of crazy shit that you wouldn't expect him to even know about, much less record. Or at least some Captain Beefheart.
Hey Robert,
I may have dismissed Devils & Dust a little cavalierly, having listened to it only a few times. But my overwhelming feeling walking away from it was "Not quite as boring as Tom Joad, but still pretty boring."
But hey, you;'ve convinced me to give it another listen.
> And when you claim that Nebraska is dreary and tuneless,
"A third or so" of Nebraska, I believe I said. No argument on "Atlantic City," that's a stone classic. Lots of other stuff on Nebraska is, too.
> I kinda wish, though, that he'd done instead a CD of covers of crazy shit that you wouldn't expect him to even know about, much less record. Or at least some Captain Beefheart.
I'd like to hear that record, too. But at this point I think it could only exist in some alternate reality.
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