Listening Party 17 // Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run // Weds 29 March, 8pm UK

Fuengi

TTony said:

Excellent choice Sticky.

Yep, thanks for reviving @stickyfiddle ;

markv

OK well firstly I have no idea why I have never listened to that all the way through before

Secondly it's definitely one of those albums that takes more than one listen. So other than a tentative conclusion of I can see what people see in it, I can only say I'm going to have a listen again a few times.

Nice choice though, thanks @stickyfiddle!

MagicPigDetective

Here's the Thunder Road cover I mentioned earlier, de-constructed and given a darker mood, I think it's rather brilliant

Neilybob

Well I popped my “listening party” cherry on wonderful album.  Thank you @stickyfiddle ;

Will be spinning that album again over the next few days. 

Jonathangus

markv said:

Secondly it's definitely one of those albums that takes more than one listen. So other than a tentative conclusion of I can see what people see in it, I can only say I'm going to have a listen again a few times.

Seconded.  First time I've listened to a Springsteen album, and only really know the title track (which is epic).  I think I feel about Springsteen the way I feel about Bowie - while it's worth listening to, I don't really get the god-like status he's afforded.  But an excellen way to spend an evening - cheers, @stickyfiddle !

Fuengi

I do think there are some excellent tracks on both Springsteen's two earlier albums, I don't necessarily buy that this was a significant step up. 

I think it had a more radio friendly style and the title track was something else. 

markv

Jonathangus said:

markv said:

Secondly it's definitely one of those albums that takes more than one listen. So other than a tentative conclusion of I can see what people see in it, I can only say I'm going to have a listen again a few times.

Seconded.  First time I've listened to a Springsteen album, and only really know the title track (which is epic).  I think I feel about Springsteen the way I feel about Bowie - while it's worth listening to, I don't really get the god-like status he's afforded.  But an excellen way to spend an evening - cheers, @stickyfiddle !

Ah now that's interesting. I love Bowie (well, his 70s albums anyway), but I was introduced to his music while I was in my teens, whereas I never really listened to Springsteen

And I was thinking earlier, I wonder how much difference it makes how old you were - or what stage in your life you were - when you first heard something? I think it probably makes a huge difference. Nothing's going to hit me like Diamond Dogs or Young Americans did when I was 15, and I'm never going to define myself by an album or an artist in the same way. That's my loss, I think.

Those of you who love the album - how old were you when you first heard it?

TTony

markv said:

 Nothing's going to hit me like Diamond Dogs or Young Americans did when I was 15, and I'm never going to define myself by an album or an artist in the same way. That's my loss, I think.

I think that's pretty much the way it works for many of us @markv ;

Whether it's because of the way our brains develop, or just because of how music plays a role in our development (for those of us interested in music), seems that it has peak effect in those teenage / early 20s years.

I put together a list (actually a canvas of album covers - it's on my wall) of the 25 albums that "meant most" to me.  Not my view of the best albums, or my favourite albums, but the ones that had most emotional impact.

Probably 20 of the 25 I would have heard before I finished Uni.

JezWynd

Apologies for missing the party after saying I'd attend - completely slipped my mind. It's one of the all time great Rock Albums and has the feel of a soundtrack or maybe a rock ballet. Although there's no coherent story running through it, it has the feel of a tale being told and it builds to the climatic Jungleland, which could be a movie all on its own. One of the most cinematic records I've ever heard - Springsteen's lyrics paint detailed pictures with just a few lyrical strokes. It's amazing that Springsteen was 25 when he wrote Born To Run, it has the maturity of vision of someone much older but I guess it's that standing on the shoulders of giants thing; the giants being Phil Spector and Bernstein/Sondheim but Springsteen makes it his own. Fabulous music that still sounds fresh today.

Fuengi

markv said:

Jonathangus said:

markv said:

Secondly it's definitely one of those albums that takes more than one listen. So other than a tentative conclusion of I can see what people see in it, I can only say I'm going to have a listen again a few times.

Seconded.  First time I've listened to a Springsteen album, and only really know the title track (which is epic).  I think I feel about Springsteen the way I feel about Bowie - while it's worth listening to, I don't really get the god-like status he's afforded.  But an excellen way to spend an evening - cheers, @stickyfiddle !

Ah now that's interesting. I love Bowie (well, his 70s albums anyway), but I was introduced to his music while I was in my teens, whereas I never really listened to Springsteen

Those of you who love the album - how old were you when you first heard it?

I'm not really sure.

I got into Springsteen when I was 17 in the late eighties, but as mentioned earlier, that was his magnum opus live album (that also lead me into Tom Waits and Nils Lofgren). I remember having Springsteen's first two albums on tape (probably because they were super cheap) and playing them to death in my car in my late teens. The next album I really got into was Tunnel of Love, which is still my favourite album of his. 

I then started to fill in the gaps with Nebraska, The River and Born to Run, so probably early to mid twenties? However, many of those songs are on the live album so I sort of knew them. 

TTony

TTony said:

Probably 20 of the 25 I would have heard before I finished Uni.

I actually checked this morning.

Of my 25 "most significant" albums, I would have heard 21 *before* I left Uni (at 21). 

Of the 4 remaining, 1 is a John Peel compilation / tribute album containing a lot of tracks that I would have heard before l was 21, and the newest release on there is about 25 years old.

Not saying that I don't like or enjoy or listen to newer stuff - I still buy a lot of new release albums - but that they don't have the same impact on my life/memory as all that earlier stuff.

stickyfiddle

I reckon I'd be about 50/50 pre and post graduation. It's an interesting question

TTony

@Fuengi - do you fancy nominating the next album to keep this new iteration of the Listening Party going?

markv

I thought I'd check my stats as well - I keep a number of "top 10" lists (in case anyone ever asks me - which happens occasionally).

Of my top 10 albums, I heard seven before I I graduated at 22. Of the last three, one was released before but I didn't listen to it until my mid-20s and one was released when I was in my mid-20s and I heard it a year or two later. The last one and outlier is an album released over a decade after that and which I didn't hear until a few years after that, when I was about 40. (Cole's Corner by Richard Hawley, thank you for asking)

Have you read David Hepworth's book "1971 – Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year"? It's basically him trying to claim (very entertainingly) that 1971 was some magic moment for music when in fact it was when he was 21 and therefore experiencing precisely this phenomenon.

TTony

markv said:

Have you read David Hepworth's book "1971 – Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year"?

Not yet, but it's just done into my basket, thanks for the tip.


My "top 10" albums would be different.  I've got a few "top10" playlists; top-10 rock, top-10 punk, top-10 live, top-10 indie, etc. 

Looking at my 25 significant albums, there's only 5-6 of them that would make any of the top-10s.

Fuengi

TTony said:

@Fuengi - do you fancy nominating the next album to keep this new iteration of the Listening Party going?

Yep, more than happy to!

I have something in mind, but I'll sleep on it (hint, hint). 

Jonathangus

Fuengi said:

TTony said:

@Fuengi - do you fancy nominating the next album to keep this new iteration of the Listening Party going?

Yep, more than happy to!

I have something in mind, but I'll sleep on it (hint, hint). 

Will you give us an answer in the morning?

Fuengi

Jonathangus said:

Fuengi said:

TTony said:

@Fuengi - do you fancy nominating the next album to keep this new iteration of the Listening Party going?

Yep, more than happy to!

I have something in mind, but I'll sleep on it (hint, hint). 

Will you give us an answer in the morning?

I'll set up the thread tomorrow. 

Vintage65

A different perspective



And live in London 1975



Definitely one of my favourite songs