When it comes to heavy metal, metal so heavy it could withstand a Cylon attack while housing an equally hellacious Satanic smackdown, you can't do any better than the Birmingham foursome. Has there ever been a better protest song than "War Pigs"? A better song about metal monsters killing everybody than "Iron Man"? Not in my world.
Whenever I listen to Big Drill Car I always find myself wondering how it happened that they didn't end up being the biggest band in the world. Their songs are beyond catchy, they rock but aren't so heavy as to scare off the masses, and their live shows are a steamroller of rock and roll.
Following up our Beatles countdown, JamsBio presents "No Retreat, No Surrender," a worst-to-first countdown of every album cut in Springsteen history, plus a few choice outtakes, live classics, and soundtrack songs - that's 200 tunes ranked and defended.
The Ragamuffin Gunner. Jimmy The Saint. Bronx's best apostle. Upon a glance at these names, you might expect one of Springsteen's ramshackle, benevolent tales of harmless spirits in the night. Instead, in "Lost In The Flood," you get Bruce's version of "Desolation Row," a place from which few escape and ever fewer emerge unscathed.
It was more than just jazz for Sun Ra. The pianist and band leader created a total, collaborative artwork that comprised his music, his album covers and iconography, his band and its costumes, his record label, and even his public and private persona.
Marriage and children have always been a big part of the American Dream, but Bruce Springsteen subverts that with the title track to his 1980 double album. In "The River," the interlinked momentous occasions of having child and getting married are boiled down to one terse line that doesn't even pretend to be romantic: "Then I got married, and man that was all she wrote."
"The screen door slams/Mary's dress sways." It doesn't get much more iconic than that, does it? Actually you can close your eyes, put your finger down on the lyric sheet of "Thunder Road," and you'd probably land on a line that has resonated through rock and roll history.
Imagine a song with words by The Left Banke and lyrics by Warren Zevon and you'll get an idea of the sensibility behind this brilliant Magic track. Has there ever been a production quite so lush that's been employed in the service of such a psychologically dark song?
When Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs released the original Under the Covers compilation back in 2006, they stuck faithfully to songs that had influenced them from the 1960s. The record was successful enough to reunite the pair once again, transforming for a second time into their alter egos of "Sid and Susie," to take a stab at some of their favorite tunes from the '70s.
In "No Surrender", the dreams and promises of which Springsteen had been suspect of for so long are welcome friends once again.
In an unabashed throwback to his own glory days, Bruce went all-out on this firecracker track which kicked off Side 2 of Born In The U.S.A. He was actually ambivalent about including it on the album for its fearlessly big-hearted attitude, but, ever the silent contributor, Steve Van Zandt insisted that it belonged.
The emotional centerpiece of The Ghost Of Tom Joad , "The Line" is a stunning tale of what happens when the call of duty conflicts with the necessities of the heart.
Somehow, recently ended up hearing an entire Billy Joel and Elton John concert for free, which would have been an amazing experience, if I didn't find the music of both keyboard-pounding crooners as nauseating as that time my dog rolled in horse poo, or the fact that my hometown Buffalo Bills lost four Super Bowls in a row. But never fear! I think Elton John comparisons are just swell. Billy Joel comparisons are another story...
It's become such a party song over the years that it's easy to miss just how much Bruce Springsteen gets right in "Glory Days." As the resident of a small town for just about all of my 37 years on this earth, I know the people in this song. The characterizations are so spot-on that I recognize the faded athlete who still commands respect (and free drinks) even after he's long since lost his mojo.
The railroad still enjoys a storied place in our society despite the fact that its heyday has long since passed. This can largely be attributed to its continued presence in popular culture, especially in film and music.
No instrument conjures nostalgia quite like a saxophone, so it's fitting that this Born In The U.S.A. outtake, which in many ways concerns the way the past has a way of sneaking up on you, is bookended by Clarence Clemons mirroring the main melody and imbuing the notes with just the right touch of grandeur and heartbreak.
To me eMusic always seemed like the digital music store for the underdogs. It was the online equivalent of your local hole in the wall record shop. The place where you'd find bins overflowing with obscure punk CD's and out of print LP's. Visiting eMusic now seems a bit too much like browsing the racks at the local Best Buy or Wal-Mart.
Would you believe that this was recorded in 1977, right around the time that Bruce was putting together Darkness On The Edge Of Town ? Could you imagine this happy-go-lucky tune nestling cozily in between say, "Adam Raised A Cain" and "Streets Of Fire"? People would have thought that The Boss had developed multiple personalities.
For all of Bruce Springsteen's love for obscure pop chestnuts that had little on their mind other than to get people's heads bobbing and backsides swaying, he often couldn't see the value in similar songs that he wrote himself. Hence, he very nearly gave this top 10 smash away to Donna Summer, only to hold onto it at the last minute at the persistent urging of Jon Landau.
JamsBio Magazine
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