The Gaslight Anthem's The '59 Sound - 10 Years Later

This week, the Ringer published an oral history on Gaslight Anthem's seminal album The '59 Sound, which you can read by clicking here.  It is long, but definitely worth the read, featuring quotes by our website's namesake.  I've written about the Gaslight Anthem many times on this website, and the article addresses the elephant in the room: their connection to Springsteen.  Being soulful rockers from Central Jersey, the comparisons were frequent.  But, it was both a blessing and a curse: while it helped expand their audience, it brought an avalanche of hype and expectations from the group going forward.  While I consider their albums American Slang and Handwritten to be classics, you could see how they were still under pressure to deliver a more mainstream, crossover success.  Anyway, the Gaslight Anthem are currently reunited and on tour, celebrating the 10 year anniversary of this album, and, yes, I do have my tickets for later this summer.

Links: Springsteen Songs Covered By Women

With March being Women's History Month, it is fitting that today we spotlight Springsteen songs that have been covered by women.  Compiled by Jay Lustig on NJArts.net, there are two parts: click here for part one, and click here for part two.  These links contain over 30 Springsteen songs covered by women in nearly every cover style imaginable.  You've got country Springsteen, disco Springsteen, gospel Springsteen, 80s synth Springsteen, folk Springsteen, covers-that-sound-like-the-original-Springsteen-version-that-you-almost-wonder-why-they-bothered-covering-it Springsteen, and, of course, tons and tons of acoustic Springsteen.  It's hard to pick a favorite, but if you don't have time to listen to all 30, I'll spotlight the Sleater-Kinney version of "The Promised Land", which I've been digging:

But hey, take your time going through the list.  Remember, this is a month-long celebration!

Springsteen Links: Rolling Stone's 15 Insanely Great Bruce Springsteen Songs You've Never Heard

If you're ready to stop what you’re doing and put everything on hold for two hours, I strongly encourage you to visit Rolling Stone's list of 15 Insanely Great Springsteen Songs You’ve Never Heard. Rolling Stone has written several great Springsteen articles lately and this piece is no exception.

We've previously covered a few of the songs listed here – "The Klansman," "Lonely Night in the Park," "Child Bride" – but there are some real gems here that I had never heard before. I'm particularly enamored of “Janey Needs a Shooter” and “Tokyo.”

This list goes to show, just when you think you’ve heard every Springsteen song, the man can still surprise you.

How many of these have you heard before? And what’s your favorite?

The Top 100 Springsteen Songs

Last Thursday, two Springsteen fans released their crowd-sourced list of the top 100 Springsteen songs.  Now, mind you, analyzing "best of" lists on the Internet is tired and pointless, but I can't help myself from sharing a few thoughts.

Firstly, when looking at such a long list, it is important not to get hung up on the rankings of each song.  Whether "Long Time Comin'" is better than "Blood Brothers" does not matter.  I'm grading this list for its comprehensiveness.  Does this list accurately represent Bruce's career?  Can a Springsteen novice use this as a launching pad for exploring Springsteen's music?  On these aspects, the list is very successful.  Nearly every album and landmark single from Bruce's career is represented here.  While Working on a Dream is snubbed, the list still has numerous songs from recent albums such as Magic (4 songs!), The Promise, and Wrecking Ball.  This list is so thorough that even a Springsteen die-hard like myself had to go back and listen to a few songs that I had forgotten about.

Only two downsides pop to mind regarding this list.  One is that it doesn't look like Bruce is anywhere near retirement - I expect him to keep chugging out more albums in the near future (dozens of songs were scrapped in the writing process for Wrecking Ball, so if nothing else, I'd expect another B-sides album).  Therefore, this list will probably  have to be constantly updated.  The other negative of this list probably only bugs me: it is in an image format!  Why not list it out in text?  It makes it easier to search and find specific songs in the list!

With that being said, I've taken a few minutes to type up the list for you, dear reader.  I've also added links to the times we've discussed these songs on the blog, so if you want to know our thoughts on each song, including live performances and analysis of the lyrics, make sure to click away.

1. Thunder Road
2. Jungleland
3. Backstreets
4. Born To Run
5. Incident On 57th Street
6. Racing In The Street
7. Badlands
8. The River
9. The Promised Land
10. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
11. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
12. Land Of Hope & Dreams
13. Prove It All Night
14. Drive All Night
15. Lost In The Flood
16. New York City Serenade
17. Atlantic City
18. No Surrender
19. Long Walk Home
20. 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
21. The Promise
22. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
23. The Rising
24. Something In The Night
25. For You
26. Kitty's Back
27. Growin' Up
28. Brilliant Disguise
29. Downbound Train
30. Spirit In The Night
31. Because The Night
32. She's The One
33. Born In The USA
34. Tougher Than The Rest
35. My City Of Ruins
36. Candy's Room
37. One Step Up
38. If I Should Fall Behind
39. Point Blank
40. Independence Day
41. Youngstown
42. Stolen Car
43. Out In The Street
44. The Price You Pay
45. Adam Raised A Cain
46. Sherry Darling
47. Loose Ends
48. This Hard Land
49. The Ghost of Tom Joad
50. Thundercrack
51. Tunnel of Love
52. Bobby Jean
53. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City
54. Meeting Across the River
55. Reason To Believe
56. My Love Will Not Let You Down
57. Human Touch
58. Frankie
59. The Ties That Bind
60. Ramrod
61. Dancing In The Dark
62. Back In Your Arms
63. Living Proof
64. You're Missing
65. Long Time Comin'
66. Blood Brothers
67. Streets Of Fire
68. Girls In Their Summer Clothes
69. Glory Days
70. Night
71. Better Days
72. Highway Patrolman
73. Wrecking Ball
74. American Skin (41 Shots)
75. Cadillac Ranch
76. The E Street Shuffle
77. Fade Away
78. I'm Goin' Down
79. Be True
80. Hungry Heart
81. The Fever
82. Death To My Hometown
83. Roulette
84. Radio Nowhere
85. Walk Like A Man
86. Janey Don't You Lose Heart
87. Jackson Cage
88. Lucky Town
89. Take 'Em As They Come
90. Valentine's Day
91. Streets Of Philadelphia
92. I'm On Fire
93. My Hometown
94. None But The Brave
95. Blinded By The Light
96. Across the Border
97. Murder Incorporated
98. Devil's Arcade
99. Happy
100. Open All Night

Springsteen Links - The New Yorker

David Remnick's profile of Bruce Springsteen in The New Yorker is a must read. It could take about an hour to get through it but it's well worth the time.

The piece offers a more frank description of Bruce's relationship with his father, Doug Springsteen, than we're used to reading and this aspect of the piece has grabbed a lot of headlines - along with Bruce's battles with depression.

But there's a lot more to the piece, including candid insights to the band's dynamic (Max Weinberg refers to himself and the band members as 'employees' and Patti Scialfa says her place in the band is more figurative than musical) as well as a transcendental description of Bruce's stage performances that brings you about as close to the real thing as possible. There's also the less told story of original drummer Vini Lopez along with more familiar tales of Bruce's original manager Mike Appel and Bruce writing "Dancing in the Dark."

I was happy to see that the piece bolsters two of my long standing suspicions: that Bruce has had cosmetic surgery and that he's never done drugs. But more than anything, Remnick articulates my appreciation for Bruce in a way that I've never been able to...

Thousands of fans, many of whom had been waiting outside since morning, were allowed to enter the stadium grounds at six o’clock for a show that would not begin until ten. I noticed a few young Spaniards carrying a sign, in English, reading, “Bruce, Thanks for Making Our Lives Better.” I tried to imagine a sign like that for—whom? Lou Reed? AC/DC? Bon Jovi? (“Richie Sambora, Thanks for making our lives better.” Doubtful.) The ultra-sincere interchange between Springsteen and his fans, which looks treacly to the uninitiated and the uninterested, is what distinguishes him and his performances.

Springsteen Links - Dancing in the Dark Analysis

Thanks to a faithful reader for passing on this link from Grantland analyzing the "Dancing in the Dark" music video; one in a series of close analyses of popular music videos from the 1980s on the website.

"Dancing in the Dark" is regarded as Bruce's most pop music friendly song which can be a burden. It's easy to dismiss it as pop 40 froth but that's a disservice to the rich lyrics -- some of his best in my opinion. Fortunately, Bruce has embraced the song's popularity and turned it into a signature closer at his live performances that is even better than the studio version but still satisfying in its familiarity.

The music video is often maligned, parodied or dismissed as a 1980s curio. This Grantland writer does all of the above while simultaneously praising the video. Even though much of it is tongue-in-cheek, there is some genuine affection for what Bruce accomplishes in the video. Giving close attention to the way Bruce rolls his sleeves to the way Courtney Cox fixes her hair, this is a very entertaining read:

Grantland: Rembert Explains the 80's: Bruce Springsteen's 'Dancing in the Dark' Video