if TGA covered Springsteen

I didn't really like I'm on Fire tbh. Was too soft for them.

I don't understand the comparisons to bruce tbh

bruce sounds like a country singer with cheesy synth lines. i heard born in the usa and it sounds just like everything wrong about the 1980s. bruce has that annoying twang in his voice. all u need to hear is born in the usa and u get what im saying

so where's the comparison?!? and why do we want gaslight to do these cheesy songs

59swim wrote:

I don't understand the comparisons to bruce tbh

bruce sounds like a country singer with cheesy synth lines. i heard born in the usa and it sounds just like everything wrong about the 1980s. bruce has that annoying twang in his voice. all u need to hear is born in the usa and u get what im saying

so where's the comparison?!? and why do we want gaslight to do these cheesy songs

hahaha is this for real?
Check out Greetings From Ashbury Park and The Wild, The Innocent and the E street Shuffle and Born To Run

To quote Brian in a video where he talks about a kid who thought Born in the USA was all there was to Springsteen, "the first three records will change your life".

Therefore, listen to non overproduced '80s Bruce.

As for covers... No Surrender. There's a reason why that's what Brian sang with Bruce. Perfect choice.

Edit: Awww, shucks, someone beat me to it. But I stand by my point.

Jlblue wrote:

To quote Brian in a video where he talks about a kid who thought Born in the USA was all there was to Springsteen, "the first three records will change your life".

Therefore, listen to non overproduced '80s Bruce.

As for covers... No Surrender. There's a reason why that's what Brian sang with Bruce. Perfect choice.

Edit: Awww, shucks, someone beat me to it. But I stand by my point.

Haha I can see where he is coming from though. Born In The USA is still kinda cheesey and the whole image that went with it. But he must have heard the song Born To Run or the River or something?

59swim wrote:

I don't understand the comparisons to bruce tbh

bruce sounds like a country singer with cheesy synth lines. i heard born in the usa and it sounds just like everything wrong about the 1980s. bruce has that annoying twang in his voice. all u need to hear is born in the usa and u get what im saying

so where's the comparison?!? and why do we want gaslight to do these cheesy songs

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. And to be fair, that's the period around when Bruce was really getting at his biggest (I think?) so like.. you know.. marketing and shiiiiit.

Pretty much all of the above sound like pretty good suggestions, in particular Radio Nowhere, Better Days and Tougher Than The Rest. Personally, I'd like to hear either One Step Up or Long Walk Home done by them, although the idea of them covering anything Bruce-related is jizz-worthy. Don't know how 4 guys would go about doing a song usually done by a band the size of E Street, but I'm sure it can be done.

59swim wrote:

I don't understand the comparisons to bruce tbh

bruce sounds like a country singer with cheesy synth lines. i heard born in the usa and it sounds just like everything wrong about the 1980s. bruce has that annoying twang in his voice. all u need to hear is born in the usa and u get what im saying

so where's the comparison?!? and why do we want gaslight to do these cheesy songs

First of all, forget the 'you need to listen to his old albums' usual response. Born in the USA is a phenomenal album. And Born in the USA the song is a 100% masterpiece, the likes of which Gaslight Anthem have yet to write and maybe never will write. Not many artist achieve the level of brilliance that Born in the USA was.

As an album it's incredibly strong. Is it as timeless as Born to Run? Maybe not, but what you don't get is what you said about the album. Everything that's wrong with the 80s. That's not what the album is, but it is what the album is about.

From the title track you get the juxtaposition of the fist pumping anthem and the underlying suffering of the 80s. Everyone's so busy having a good time they don't see what's really going on.

Cover Me uses the same war analogies and mixes it with the battle of looking for love. The character in this song may also be a Vietnam vet. In fact they all might be. We then go to Darlington County which is a sha na na, doo wop inspired country mix of a couple of trouble makers buying hookers and getting arrested. We then up the ante of crime to a dude that gets put away for statutory rape and singing about it on Workin on the Highway like he's at a party.

Then we get a couple somber numbers where Bruce makes a couple of silly mundane things seem more serious then they are. Downbound Train isn't about much more than a down and out dead beat who can't hold a job and loses his girl, and can't get over it. The last reference to working on the railroad is first an obvious metaphor for him adding to his own destruction by the laying the tracks that the train he dreads runs on, but it also may allude to him being a musician laying down tracks that way. And I'm on Fire is simply the greatest masturbation song of all time. Both songs sound like the world is ending because of their problem, but they just need to wake up a little and get moving in life.

We then get thrown back into the anthems and the war analogies with No Surrender. This Springsteen lends the battle imagery to life long friendship, which carries over to friends having to part in Bobby Jean. The two songs work together very well. Two friends who grew up together like brothers first stuck in their pasts and trying not to let go but realizing that it's their time to move on, and in the next song it shows that they have moved on with out any warning, into separate lives but keep the unconditional love of family strong.

And then we get some comic relief and present the silly stuff, that was taken overly serious and tongue and cheek in the first half, and give it some fun. The calm before the storm if you will. I'm Going Down is pure rock and roll. And I mean real rock and roll, not the art of rock with hard guitars and screaming. It could be on Jerry Lee Lewis's debut album in the 50s. Content wise it's as simple and goofy as a dude trying to get the excitement back in his relationship, and stressing about the only way to do it is by giving in to a little cunnilingus. He's going down down down and he doesn't want to.

And Glory days is a fun little romp that adds a bit to the No Surrender theme of letting go of the past by telling you it wasn't quite what you think it was and only remembering the good times and forgetting the bad isn't healthy.

And then we have the greatest song of the decade; Dancing in the Dark. If only people knew what it was about and what inspired it. The album was supposed to end by going from Glory days to My Hometown, which I guess was to play off the difference in looking back to the meaningless things in an effort to hold on what isn't real, and remembering what really matters in order to shape the future. But Jon Landau said the album didn't have a sure fire hit and Bruce needed to write one asap. A frustrated Bruce Springsteen returned home and picked up his guitar, and all he could think about was losing his integrity as an artist by making his album lose it's focus for the sake of commercial success.

But this gun was for hire, and the hit he was hired for had nothing to do with the mob, or even the silly mob reference the character in the song sings. The hit he was hired to do was a top 10 hit for the charts. He was tired, losing sleep, bored with himself. He did want to face what he had become by agreeing to do it in the first place and wished he could change his clothes, his hair, his face. But the joke was that the hit he needed was right in front of him and the irony was laughable. Through out it all he kept his integrity and his hunger by writing a hit song about being forced to write a hit song. This gun is his guitar and his pen, it was for hire in this case, for Dancing in the Dark.

Shame on you for dragging a masterpiece album into the mud with the likes of Madonna, Lionel, George Michaels, and MJ. Those artists symbolized what was wrong about the 80s. Bruce simply documented it and packaged it in a way that hid the true theme of the album perfectly; the album isn't what you think it's about and every song says that.

So if the last thousand words didn't spell it out for you. Born in the USA is about 1980s America not understanding what's going on in the world around them, and he said that by recording an album that 1980s America doesn't understand, because they cannot see past the surface; of the world or the album.

And you my friend are the reason he wrote it.

I love you.

DaveSavedTheDay wrote:

I love you.

I love you too.

And I thought it'd be too long a post for anyone to actually read. But I spent so long writing it I didn't want to just delete it. So I posted.

i love you more

the following would be great:

streets of fire
the ghost of tom joad
mary queen of arkansas (i could see this being extremely good)
one step up (great song off a not so great album)

Angry Johnny wrote:

the following would be great:

streets of fire
the ghost of tom joad
mary queen of arkansas (i could see this being extremely good)
one step up (great song off a not so great album)

C'mon. Don't make me write another 1000 words about how great Tunnel is.

Mary Queen of Arkansas would be nice to see if the band completely redid it.

shallow:
C'mon. Don't make me write another 1000 words about how great Tunnel is (not sure how to make that blue)

to me the album was ok. i just wasnt nearly as into it as i was the earlier albums. but one step up is one of my favorite bruce songs. eddie vedder does a great cover btw.

lost in the flood.

i think that would be THE cover for TGA to do.

johnny99:
lost in the flood.

thats another great song and i thought of that myself, just dont know if i could see them doin that. wouldnt mind hearin them give it a try tho.

all this bruce talk making me have a bruce marathon through all his albums

Shallow wrote:

DaveSavedTheDay wrote:

I love you.

I love you too.

And I thought it'd be too long a post for anyone to actually read. But I spent so long writing it I didn't want to just delete it. So I posted.

hahaha. Your not as shallow as your username suggest are you?

Angry Johnny wrote:

shallow:
C'mon. Don't make me write another 1000 words about how great Tunnel is (not sure how to make that blue)

to me the album was ok. i just wasnt nearly as into it as i was the earlier albums. but one step up is one of my favorite bruce songs. eddie vedder does a great cover btw.

I know, it was from his Bad Radio days in the late 80s. Eddie's had some solid Bruce covers over the years.

As for Tunnel; while it's Bruce's first full departure from Rock and Roll (Nebraska was demos intended to be Rock and Roll songs), it's still a very solid piece of art. It takes the same characters (type of people not same individuals perse) and shows you the aftermath. If the characters of Bruce Springsteen started with Born to Run (though some might argue it was on WIESS) they ended with Tunnel, and it was a painfully sad ending. More sad than the River had them end in the direct trilogy.

I hear it's an album that makes a lot more sense and means a lot more to people in those shoes; around 40, married with kids, thinking about straying or worrying about their husband of wife straying. But I have yet to experience any of that and still find so much with in these songs.

Prisoner; the name Shallow was actually derived in my post adolescent, I'm smarter than you and let me show you years, and I used it for a hip hop forum trying to argue the idea that Tupac was a much superior artist to Biggie. Since then I've joined many forums and keeping the same name and password just makes it easier to log on every where. The original meaning of the name went away when I became old enough to stop trying to be clever all the time, and that was many years ago. So I became Shallow to make 18 and 19 year old hip hop fans say "he's Shallow but he's really very deep", but kept it only for convenience. I was so much old then, I'm younger than that now.

Real name is Peter Kosmas. You can find me on facebook. I have an afro in the pic and I'm wearing big sun glasses.