Quick Takes: High Hopes (Steve)

It’s fitting that the album cover of High Hopes features two images of Bruce Springsteen. His 18th studio album feels like an auditory journey through the uncanny. At once, this album is unlike any of his other albums and also unmistakably the work of Bruce Springsteen. The Los Angeles Times recently described Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine as “both different and the same.” That’s an apt description for High Hopes.

The opening minute of “Harry’s Place” is the type that makes you sit bolt upright in surprise and yet “High Hopes” – a song that he didn’t even write – seems like the kind of song he could have composed in his sleep.

A collection of covers, cuts, and remakes, the album is a curio in Springsteen’s oeuvre. I doubt that it will ever be treasured by anyone as one of his best. And I wouldn’t argue with the detractors who feel that the album is overproduced, but I would say that there are a couple of gems here and a lot of fun to be had.

When you look at an album like this – or a song like “Rocky Ground” – some might regard it as a desperate attempt by Bruce to connect with an audience that doesn’t care about him anymore. But I see it as the work of a tireless creative who isn’t afraid to experiment at a point in his career when he could so easily sit back and rest on his laurels.

I look forward to digesting the album further over the coming weeks but in the meantime, here are a few thoughts track-by-track…

“High Hopes” – I really enjoy listening to the song, but will it have any pop culture relevance?

“Harry’s Place” – The unexpected, Dire Straights-esque sound reminds me of the shock of hearing “Ain’t Got You” for the first time. It’s also notable for adding another two f-bombs to the Springsteen catalogue.

“41 Shots” – I was completely caught off guard when this song began. I greatly prefer the live version, not just for nostalgic reasons but also for its raw power. On this studio version, the emotion feels too removed.

“Just Like Fire Would” – So far, this is my favorite song on the album. I loved his live version and love this, even though it’s weird to hear a song go from live to studio rather than vice versa. Is the studio version overproduced? Probably. But I really like it. It may be a guilty pleasure but it’s great for toe tapping and air guitar in the privacy of your own home.

“Down in the Hole” – A great, quiet song. It strikes me as the best song on the album, but I need to listen to it more to be certain.

“Heaven’s Wall” – I find it very catchy and one of the clearest examples of a song that sounds so different and yet so similar to his past songs.

“Frankie Fell in Love” – One of Bruce’s shortest songs, it sounds old fashioned and reminiscent of The Everly Brothers.

“This is Your Sword” – I find this to be the least remarkable song on the album. Each time I’ve listened to the album, I have no recollection of this song by the end.

“Hunter of Invisible Game” – I’ve been singing the chorus in my head a lot the past few days and I really like the melody. It might become a favorite over time.

“Ghost of Tom Joad” – The one true “remake” on the album. Have any other artists ever remade their own song to this degree before? It’s the smoothest of the live-to-studio transitions in my opinion.

“The Wall” – Along with “Down in the Hole”, this is quiet and understated, but undoubtedly significant.

“Dream Baby Dream” – I’m undecided on this song. I feel like I should love it but it hasn’t caught on with me yet.

Bruce Springsteen by the Decades

In so many ways, Springsteen’s music is timeless. Without prior knowledge of a song’s release date, it can be difficult to pinpoint what decade it was produced. While Bruce’s songs may be instantly recognizable as his own, they are rarely defined by the decade in which they were released. Even with the massive popularity of the Born in the U.S.A. album, you’re less likely to find his songs on a “Best of the 80s” compilation than you are to find the work of the Go-Gos or Tears for Fears. However, Springsteen does have a few songs that are a bit easier to characterize. What follows is a list of songs that scream the decade they were created. Decade by decade, I’d argue these are his “most 70s” or “most 90s” sounding songs. Disagree? Let us know in the comments!

1970s – “The E Street Shuffle”

Lengthy instrumentals, background chatter and abrupt changes in pace. This is easily the grooviest song on Bruce’s grooviest album.



1980s – “Tougher than the Rest”

Synth-heavy with a lot of deep organ sounds. Is this Bruce Springsteen or an outtake from the Top Gun soundtrack?



1990s – “Man’s Job”

Every time the background vocals come in on “Loving you is a man’s job, baby” (see 0:50 for the first instance) I just picture ripped jeans, mullets and old school VH1 logos.



2000s – “Worlds Apart”

Bruce’s most clear attempt at “world music” boasts a Middle Eastern influence and a distinct vocal styling that denotes a time when global consciousness received heightened awareness.



2010s - ???

It’s too soon to tell – both due to the newness of the decade and the prospect of more albums to come down the road (fingers crossed!). But if I had to speculate, “Wrecking Ball” sounds like an old school barn burner, “Rocky Ground” feels more like early 2000s and “Death to my Hometown” just feels like it exists in its own time and place. For now, my money is on “We Take Care of Our Own.”

Lyrics Spotlight - Springsteen's Hard Times

This past Wednesday, I was listening to some live Springsteen on Youtube, as a Springsteen blogger is wont to do.  During this binge session, I came upon Springsteen's cover of the smash hit of 1854, Stephen Foster's "Hard Times Come Again No More".  It's just one of many highlights from his 2009 Hyde Park show, a performance spotlighted by a great solo from Clarence and Bruce's voice digging into new gravelly depths to sound like it was actually from the 1850s.

It is also a song that clearly inspired Springsteen, as he has often described the E Street Band as a band built for "hard times".  That phrase, "hard times", seems like it appears in numerous Springsteen songs.  So I began to research, and found that "hard times" appears in a whopping....three Springsteen songs.  There are songs where he is working hard, trying hard, looking so hard, having hard earned days, searching for things hard to find, and is in a hard land, but not a ton where Bruce specifically points out the hard times.  However, in these songs, as in most of his work, there is always a glimmer of hope at the other side of the dark tunnel.  Let's take a look:

"Rocky Ground"

You raise your children and you teach 'them to walk straight and sure 
You pray that hard times, hard times, come no more 



This is a bit of a cheat, since Michelle Moore is singing this part, but rumor has it that Bruce was originally going to do the rapping, so I'll assume the lyrics here were all penned by the Boss.  "Rocky Ground" really does have some great lyrics, but the song is a bit too over-produced (a problem with a lot of Wrecking Ball, as too many instruments are crammed on the tracks), and the rapping makes it feel more like a novelty Springsteen song.  It's a solid tune that I've enjoyed seeing live, but one I rarely listen to on the album.

"Waitin' On A Sunny Day"

Hard times baby, well they come to tell us all
Sure as the tickin' of the clock on the wall
Sure as the turnin' of the night into day



This, too, is another novelty-esque Springsteen song, moreso when performed live - as Bruce always finds an adorable eight-year-old girl to sing on stage with him, while I just stew in my seat, angrily thinking, "SHE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW THE WORDS!  SHE WILL PROBABLY END UP HATING YOUR MUSIC IN FIVE YEARS WHEN SHE STARTS REBELLING FROM HER PARENTS!  THAT SHOULD BE ME ON STAGE!"  Phew.

Anyway, I do love the lyrics above, as this particular "hard times" is delivered with such passion, both by Bruce, and by me singing along, trying to prove that I would've been the right choice to sing up there.  Sigh.  Perhaps I'll have better luck if I show up next time wearing my Elvis costume.

"Wrecking Ball"

And hard times come, hard times go
Hard times come, hard times go
And hard times come, hard times go
Hard times come, hard times go
Hard times come, hard times go
Yeah just to come again



First of all, it is a shame that when I search for "Wrecking Ball lyrics", Miley Cyrus's song is the top result.  Get your act together, Earth.  Anyway, fellow writer Steve is not a huge fan of the song, describing it as "overly repetitive and yet all over the place".  I completely agree, it is overly repetitive and yet all over the place - which is why I love it, because that's exactly what the process of living is like.  As Bruce repeats "Hard times come, hard times go", it invokes images of the difficulties you've had in your life and, simultaneously, your triumphs.  As you get older, you begin to see the events in your life and the world around you repeating, and you realize that these cycles have been happening way before you entered the game (to borrow from "Jack Of All Trades": It’s all happened before and it’ll happen again).  While much of "Wrecking Ball" works as a tribute to the Meadowlands, the "hard times" part here escalates the meaning of the song into another echelon, more universal for non-Jersey listeners.

There you have it, folks.  The first comprehensive look at the times Bruce has sang about, literally, "hard times".  Are there any other classic Bruce phrases that you've noticed in several songs that you'd like us to break down?  Let us know in the comments.

Springsteen Video of the Week - Girls in their Summer Clothes Music Video

Remember watching MTV and VH1 for hours on end waiting for the three minutes of bliss when you could see the music video you loved? The iTunes generation and beyond may never appreciate this pastime. And I can’t blame them. Hours of watching TRL and Morning Buzz could be maddening. You might come across a song you’ve never heard before but in return you’d have the lyrics to “The Thong Song” seared into your memory for all eternity.

The downside of living in an era of instant gratification and music video channels that refuse to play music videos is that we don’t experience the visual impact of pop music anymore. With the release of the “Rocky Ground” music video the other week, I realized that I couldn’t recall that many Bruce Springsteen music videos that vividly. Of course there are the iconic “Dancing in the Dark” and “I’m on Fire” videos but neither were in heavy rotation when I was doing the majority of my music video watching. The only music video I remember seeing on heavy rotation was “The Rising” – and that was a concert video from the MTV Music Video Awards. There was also the “Secret Garden” music video which I saw a few times but more prevalent than that video was the radio version of the song that Z100 used to play with dialogue from Jerry Maguire interspersed through the instrumental sections.

Should an artist with Bruce’s popularity even bother making music videos anymore? Is anyone discovering his music through this format? I’m not certain, but sparked by “Rocky Ground” I started looking through his VEVO channel on YouTube and found this beautiful video for “Girls in their Summer Clothes.” This video could have easily been a parade of bikini-clad supermodels to appeal to teenage boys but instead it’s something much more emotional and lyrical, with girls young and old accompanied by heartfelt imagery. While most fans would have been aware of this song already, seeing the visuals does add another layer for interpretation. In this case, it reiterates the melancholy of the lyrics and suggests that ‘summer clothes’ could be more of an emotional state than a physical appearance.

Rocky Ground Music Video Released

The second single from Wrecking Ball now has a music video. Check out the "Rocky Ground" video below for some soulful imagery and dramatic handwriting.

Springsteen Lyrics of the Week - Rocky Ground

"Jesus said the money changers in this temple will not stand"
- Rocky Ground, Wrecking Ball

In a song chock full of powerful religious iconography, these lyrics speak to me the most. I like that they are emphatic and forceful without suggesting violence, unlike so much else on the Wrecking Ball album.

Quick Take - "Rocky Ground"

On first listen to “Rocky Gound” it sounds like a song that was leftover from The Rising.  And it was left off for good reason.  It just leaves a lot to be desired.  There isn’t much to speak of musically as it’s mostly drum and piano.  The lyrics are almost too “Bruce-esque”  if that makes sense.  The clear struggle of the working class, religious imagery, and social unbalance have been commonplace in Bruce’s past songs, especially on this album.  There’s just nothing that sets this apart from other songs.

Then comes the ending of the song, with a “hip-hop influenced” verse, as it was described in the previews.  I absolutely hate it.  I respect that Bruce is trying to branch off and try new influences but this was a big swing and a miss.  I hope that he doesn’t try it again.

The best part about Wrecking Ball, as an album, it seems like most of the songs will go over big as part of a live show.  Even a song like “Rocky Ground”, that I’m not too crazy about, I can definitely see being sang along with in packed arenas on the upcoming tour.

By the way, does anyone know who the female singer is in the chorus to the sound?  Definitely does not sound like Soozie Tyrell or Patti.