Showing posts with label Bruce Springsteen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bruce Springsteen. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The 50 Biggest Disappointments of the 00's


1. Bud Selig letting baseball become unwatchable (Big Head Barry becoming the home run king, A-Roid getting a ring, letting the Red Sox roid themselves up to break The Curse, the All-Star Game tie, etc.)

2. The death of Napster

3. The CW thinking shows like Farmer Takes a Wife, 90210, Melrose Place, Life Is Wild, The Pussycat Dolls, High Society, and Fly Girls were better alternatives that Veronica Mars

4. The football team formerly known as the Browns winning a Super Bowl in the second year of The real Browns expansion, who only won three games that year

5. Kanye West going emo

6. The rise of Ringtone Rappers and auto-tune

7. Here is something I could not understand: how Landry Clarke could just kill a man

8. The Writer’s Strike

9. Dave Chappelle going crazy; ending Chappelle's Show after only two seasons

10. Bill Belichicken cheating his way to multiple Super Bowls wins

11. Fox canceling The Lone Gunmen, Undeclared, Firefly, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Keen Eddie, The Jury, The Inside, Point Pleasant, and Reunion after (and sometime before) just one season

12. Having to constantly hear about American Karaoke

13. The entire Heroes series, and having Kristen Bell slum it on such a horribly written / acted show

14. The Steelers winning two ref assisted Super Bowl

15. TV Guide going bigger

16. Basically everything after the season one finale of Lost

17. 50 Cent deciding to make music for suburban white teenage girls

18. The Jay Leno Hour

19. Fergie joining the Black Eyed Peas

20. Having to wait fifteen years for the mediocre Chinese Democracy (and Dr. Pepper not delivering on their promise of a free can)

21. MTV deciding to cater to teenage girls who were too busy texting to care about their crappy shows

22. The Democrats unable to nominate someone competent enough to even beat George Bush

23. Superman Return

24. X & Y - Coldplay

25. The shrinking Rolling Stone

26. The Pirates of the Caribbean sequels

27. Y2K

28. Hollywood ruining my childhood (Transformers, Dukes of Hazard, etc.)

29. Trapped in the Closet; Chapters 13-22

30. Kate Bosworth Going Skelator

31. No Detox from Dr. Dre

32. U.S. Basketball Nightmare teams

33. Sam's Town - The Killers

34. Christina Aguilera starting to look like drag queen version of her Genie in a Bottle self

35. Bionic Woman reboot

36. Jay-Z’s Un-retirement song

37. Survivor All Stars

38. Smashing Pumpkins reunion

39. The Hockey lock out

40. The Shins not changing my life like Natalie Portman promised

41. Janet Jackson’s nipple

42. Working On a Dream - Bruce Springsteen

43. Joe Rogan version of The Man Show

44. Any celebrity documentary style reality show after The Osbornes first season

45. The XFL

46. Brett Favre in a Jets Vikings uniform

47. Jerry Springer banning fighting

48. Lindsay Lohan

49. Austin Powers in Goldmember

50. Tara Reid somehow being able to ruin Wild On

Monday, January 25, 2010

Recasting We Are the World


When Michael Jackson passed away, like most people I went back and listened to the music of his on my iPod which included We Are the World. That got me to thinking it that there was still plenty of poverty in Africa and it may be time to remake the song for a newer generation (especially considering Do They Know it's Christmas? is already on it'd third version). While doing research, I realized the twenty-fifth anniversary was this year so I sat on the suggestions I made at the time so I could release it to coincide with the anniversary. Then new came out last week that the co-writers of the song Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones (along with Jackson) were planning on doing so after the Grammy’s next week to benefit Haitian relief (so I guess they will be renaming the group USA for Haiti). So here are my suggestions next to those that did the original part. And as a point of reference, here is the original song:




Lionel Richie – Ne-Yo

Stevie Wonder – Maxwell

Paul Simon – John Mayer

Kenny Rogers – Taylor Swift

James Ingram – John Legend

Tina Turner - Beyoncé

Billy Joel – Norah Jones

Michael Jackson – Michael Jackson

Diana Ross – Christina Aguilera

Dionne Warwick – Alicia Keys

Willie Nelson – Keith Urban

Al Jarreau – Justin Timberlake

Bruce Springsteen – dude from Green Day

Kenny Loggins – dude from Fall Out Boy

Steve Perry – dude from Maroon 5

Daryl Hall – Robin Thicke

Michael Jackson – Michael Jackson

Huey Lewis – dude from The Fray

Cyndi Lauper – Lady Gaga

Kim Carnes – Kelly Clarkson

Bob Dylan – Dave Matthews

Ray Charles – Jamie Foxx

Stevie Wonder – Stevie Wonder

Bruce Springsteen – Bruce Springsteen

Dan Akroyd – Adam Sandler

Jackson Family Chorus – Jonas Brothers and other Disney stars Chorus


Naturally the hardest singer to recast was Michael Jackson himself and came I up with three alternatives; Bono, who technically is not American; Prince, who was actually supposed to duet with Jackson in the original but didn’t show up the first time; or have a chorus do all his part. But maybe it would be best to just pipe in his original vocals. And even though I recast their earlier parts, I still have to bring back Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder to recreate their duet which was the highlight the orginal. Not bringing them back would have been like not asking Bono to sing "Tonight thank God it's them instead of you" for the new Do They Know it's Christmas? versions.



Sunday, December 20, 2009

Christmas Just Isn't Christmas Without...


They say Christmas is the most wonderful time of year and it is hard to argue with them (aside from the freezing temperatures) and that is thanks in part to the soundtrack of the season because you really have to try to make a horrible Christmas song especially if you pick from the ten songs below which is just not Christmas if I don’t hear these songs multiple times. I have also listed the definitive versions of the song if you are downloading them for yourself:


1. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (Definitive version: U2)


2. O Holy Night (Definitive version - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip)



3. Santa Clause Is Coming to Town (Definitive version: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band)


4. Christmas in Hollis (definitive version: Run-DMC)
5. All I Want for Christmas Is You (Definitive version Mariah Carey)
6. The Christmas Song (definitive version: Nat King Cole)
7. Silent Night (Definitive version - Boyz II Men)
8. Children Go Where I Send Thee (definite version: Natalie Merchant)
9. Let it Snow! Let it Snow Let it Snow! (Definitive version: Harry Connick Jr.)
10. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Definitive version: Coldplay and Conan O’Brien)

Honorable Mention: Do They Know it’s Christmas because Christmas just isn’t Christmas without Bono telling me to “Thank God tonight it’s them instead of you.”

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Have You Ever Seen a One-Legged Man Trying to Dance His Way Free?


Working on a Dream - Bruce Springsteen

Just when you thought Obama inspired music couldn’t stoop any lower than Ashford and Simpson reworking their classic to go Solid as Barack, Bruce Springsteen, voice of a the working class writes the worst song of his career, the overtly sappy Working on a Dream in honor of the man who would be president. Here is a guy that once sang, “Wherever somebody's strugglin’ to be free, look in their eyes Mom you'll see me,” and now he palling around with the machine instead of raging against it.

At least I thought Working on a Dream was the worst song Springsteen ever record, and then I listen to the whole album of the same name and found Queen of the Supermarket which is as cheesy as the title of the song would suggest and sounds like The Boss was trying to make a more serious verion of Lunchlady Land. And the explicitly cheery tone of the title track overspills into My Lucky Day (which is almost saved by a Clarence Clemmons sax solo) This Life, Tomorrow Never Knows, and Surprise, Surprise.

Thankfully it isn’t all happy, happy, joy, joy on Working on a Dream. The eight minute opener Outlaw Pete manages to merge the folk of The Ghost of Tom Joad with the arena rock of Born to Run effortlessly. The result is an opus about a baby already with a rap sheet whose life intertwines among mustangs (of the horse variety), Irish bounty hunters and young Navajo girls. Many artists have written this type of song before, even Bruce, but it still sounds fresh here in 2009. Good Eye, with its harmonica and scratchy vocals also has that down home feel to it and these songs may have made for a better template for a full album.

Springsteen has noted of 2007 album Magic that this was the first time he wanted to continue writing which was what spawned Working on a Dream. The result was his most scattershot album of his sixteen studio records. Even though it resulted in one of his best work in Outlaw Pete, the rest of the album just playes like and B-side or outtake compilation rather than a proper Springsteen disk. Hopefully for the next album, Bruce tears everything down and starts anew because it worked well on the previous fourteen times.

Song to Download - Outlaw Pete

Working on a Dream gets a Terror Alert Level: Elevated [YELLOW] on my Terror Alert Scale.



Bruce Springsteen on iTunes


Wednesday, January 21, 2009

2009 Winter Music Preview


This is a somber music preview, no not because of a lack of music (well fairly abundant compared to previous first quarters) but this will be the first music preview with out the obligatory “maybe this is the season when we actually get Chinese Democracy” on account that it came out last November to surprisingly little fanfare. At least we still have Detox to wait for. But here are the albums that you may expect to be released while you are waiting for the weather to turn warm, many of which will be reviewed on the 9th Green. You can pre-order the album through Amazon (where available) or download currently available music by clicking on the artist name. (Release dates subject to change)


January 20
Noble Beast - Andrew Bird


January 27
Working on a Dream - Bruce Springsteen (iTunes pre-order)
Tonight:Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand (iTunes pre-order)
Whisper House - Duncan Sheik
Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future - The Bird and the Bee (iTunes pre-order)


February 3
The Fray - The Fray (iTunes pre-order)
Before I Self Destruct - 50 Cent
Willie and the Wheel - Willie Nelson
Sea Sew - Lisa Hannigan
Changing Horses - Ben Kweller
I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat - The BPA


February 10
It’s Not Me, It’s You - Lily Allen (iTunes pre-order)
Everything Comes and Goes - Michelle Branch
Keep It Hid - Dan Auerbach
Paul's Boutique (20th Anniversary Edition) - Beastie Boys


February 17
Just Go - Lionel Richie
Hold Time - M. Ward
Spirit of Apollo - N.A.S.A.
Uncle Charlie - Charlie Wilson


February 24
Padded Room - Joe Budden
The Ecstatic - Mos Def
Roll On - J.J. Cale
Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972 - Neil Young


March 3
No Line on the Horizon - U2 (iTunes pre-order)


March 10
Scream - Chris Cornell


March 17
All I Ever Wanted - Kelly Clarkson


March 24
Back On My B.S. - Busta Rhymes
Ten (Deluxe Edition) - Pearl Jam


April 14
TBA - Dave Matthews Band


April 20
Sounds of the Universe - Depeche Mode


You may also expect albums something new by Beastie Boys, Green Day, Eminem, Jay-Z, Gorillaz, Big Boi, and at least one of the three albums Prince promises in 2009 by Spring. If there is anything I left off, feel free to let me know in the comments.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

25 Best Live Performances of 2008


Last year I started a Best Performances of the year list mostly because of the overabundance of great performances at Live Earth. Despite the lack of any major cultural event, I thought I would continue the list for at one more year. Here the live performances that caught my ear this year. I have links to YouTube for those that have yet been pulled and there are even a couple that are sold on iTunes so check out the button for those.


1. Stronger/Hey Mama - Kanye West and Daft Punk (Grammy Awards)




2. Just Stand Up - Carrie Underwood, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Nicole Scherzinger , Natasha Bedingfield, Miley Cyrus, Leona Lewis, Keyshia Cole, Ashanti and Ciara (Stand Up 2 Cancer)



3. Burning Up/Ray of Light - The Stooges (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony)



4. Slow Dancing in a Burning Room - John Mayer (Where the Light Is)



5. Jungle Boogie/Umbrella/Don’t Stop the Music - The Time and Rihanna (Grammy Awards)

6. Learnin’ the Blues - Alicia Keys and Frank Sinatra (Grammy Awards)

7. Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (The Oscars)

8. Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood (Grammy Awards)

9. Always a Friend - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and Alejandro Escovedo (Magic Highlights)

10. Children’s Story - Slick Rick (Hip Hop Honors)

11. The Pretender - Foo Fighters and the My Grammy Night Orchestra (Grammy Awards)

12. Let it Roll - B.B. King and John Mayer (Grammy Nomination Special)

13. Praying for Time - Carrie Underwood (Idol Gives Back)

14. No One - Alicia Keys and John Mayer (Grammy Awards)

15. Ghost of Tom Joad - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band with Tom Morello (Magic Highlights)

16. Viva la Vida - Coldplay (MTV Movie Awards)

17. Love Lockdown - Kanye West (MTV Video Music Awards)

18. Just a Dream - Carrie Underwood (Country Music Award)

19. Free Fallin’ - John Mayer (Where the Light Is)

20. God Put a Smile on Your Face/Stop Me/Valerie - Mark Ronson, Adele, Daniel Merryweather, and Amy Winehouse (The Brit Awards)

21. Photograph - Taylor Swift and Def Leopard (CMT Crossroads)

22. Pink Houses - John Mellencamp (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony)

23. Love Bug - Jonas Brothers (MTV Video Music Awards)

24. You’re So Vain - Foo Fighters (Grammy Nomination Special)

25. Love Story - Taylor Swift (Country Music Award)

Monday, December 08, 2008

I Want My Music Television vol. XL


There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I though I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form so here they are courtesy of YouTube. I advise you to watch them before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available, if not the link goes to YouTube where you can watch the video in full screen). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


I Believe in Father Christmas - U2



Christmas just doesn’t feel like Christmas until I have Bono tell me, “Well thank God tonight it’s them instead of you.” Much like Do They Know its Christmas, proceeds to this song goes to a good cause as it is part of the new (Red)Wire music service where you get exclusic music with the money going to buy medicine for people in need.


My Lucky Day - Bruce Springsteen



Remember the days when new music videos were such an event that Michael Jackson’s Black or White was simulcast on Fox, MTV, VH1, and BET? To put in perspective how far the music industry has fallen, the latest Bruce Springsteen video debuted this on Amazon.com. Oh, and if this is any indication, music is gonna suck under an Obama administration. Huckabee 2012!


Listen Up - EPMD and Teddy Riley



It took me a while to figure out this wasn’t a long lost video from the nineties. EPMD featuring Teddy Riley with Max Headroom-quality graphics and references to Andre Rison and Jim Carey. Really if it weren’t for the E-Bama mention I probably would have continued to think that.


Mixed Up S.O.B. - Presidents of the United States of America



The Presidents of the United States of America is one of those bands you feel bad for because they should be remembered as a One Hit Wonders but actually scored a second hit and sadly VH1 doesn’t run Two Hit Wonders specials. But on the bright side one of those two hits was actually parodied by “Weird Al” Yankovic who coincidentally directed their latest video. Speaking of Al, he has finally discover he can release songs as singles on iTunes right after writing them instead of waiting to have enough to fill an album. So if you haven’t already checked out his version of T.I.’s Whatever You Like do so ASAP. Now if you excuss me, I am going to move to the country and eat me some peaches.

Monday, October 13, 2008

The More You Love Music, the More Music Loves You


1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die

For any music fan, you know a title of the 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die is worth a look. For novice fans, the book makes good suggestions ranging every musical genre you can think off. For the music fanatic you can read it to pick it apart, because even with a thousand entries, certainly everyone can come up with a least of a hundred recordings that should have been included in the list and a few that you make you scratch your head at their inclusion.

From his picture on the back of the book, it should be noted that author Tom Moon is of the Baby Boomer generation so naturally there is an overabundance of music from the sixties while Bob Dylan and the Beatles are more than represented. Okay old people, we get it, you really loved the Beatles, but really eight albums featuring the band members? Dylan landed four while a few ranked twice. Keep in mind Bruce Springsteen (Born to Run) and Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon) and U2 (The Joshua Tree) only made the list once. I would really like Moon to justify just how Usher’s Confessions, Britney Spears’ Toxic and No Doubt’s Rock Steady (which isn’t even the band’s best work) rank higher than Born in the USA, Wish You Were Here and Achtung Baby.

I also am not sure if I should complain about the exclusion of any Eric Clapton album (seriously, no Slowhand), he does show up with Derek and the Dominos, Cream, John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, The Yardbirds, and Blind Faith. Where the sixties is well populated, looking at this book it is as the nineties didn’t exist unless you were a grunge band or a dead rapper. That did lead to possibly the best write up in the book for Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chamber) where Moon bizarrely starts up the review quoting poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. But enough with the complaints of the selections because if I continued to nit-pick I would write a review that rivals the book’s 1007 pages.

116 of those pages are just indexes. But with indexes for Genre, Occasions (like Parties, Romance), Composers, and Performers. Although it would have been nice if they would have thrown in an extra five pages to list the recording chronologically. But each write up is well done even if Moon doesn’t seem to really understand any the music he included that release after 1980. Each recording also include Key Tracks, Catalog Choice, other works by the artist worth listening to, as well as Next Stop and After That, two recording that are related musically to selection worth checking out.

Easily the most interesting inclusion has to be The Grey Album by Danger Mouse considering that to listen to it you are technically breaking the law. For those unfamiliar, The Grey Album a mash up between The White Album by The Beatles (which of course is also listed) and The Black Album from Jay-Z (which is conspicuously missing from the list) that launched Danger Mouse into a succesful producer and one half of Gnarls Barkley.

But whatever type a music fan you are, there is plenty of gems to find in the book. And the short segment are perfect to have laying around when you only have short spurts of time to kill, as it is currently taking up space in my bathroom. Just keep in mind the 1007 page thick frame is a little cumbersome to hold at time, so the short spurts of reading is really ideal.

1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die gets a Terror Alert Level: High [ORANGE] on my Terror Alert Scale.



Friday, July 18, 2008

Musings From the Back 9 vol. IX


Bruce Sprinsteen charity EP on iTunes- Today was the funeral of former White House press secretary Tony Snow who lost his battle with colon cancer this past weekend. This year one out of four deaths in America will be cancer related, earlier this year E Street Band member Danny Federici also lost a battle with melanoma. Bruce Springsteen was released a charity EP featuring live songs from the latest Magic tour. The set features Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine on The Ghost of Tom Joad (a song Rage has covered), Alejandro Escovedo on Always Be a Friend and Danny’s very last concert on 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy). The EP is available on Amazon MP3 (see widget below) and iTunes (see banner to the right) where you can also buy the video for each song. For this EP the artists, songwriters, and music publishers are waiving all of their royalties and Columbia Records is donating all of its net profits to the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund.



- People with HD computer screens rejoice, CBS.com is offering most of their streaming episodes in HD now including The Big Bang Theory, The Late Show with David Letterman, and How I Met Your Mother (one would assume Survivor will be added to this list next fall when its first season ever in HD premieres). New summer shows Swingtown and Flashpoint are also available in the format. Now if only I had a computer that played regular definition shows. But anyways. Interesting choose in promo pictures for The Big Bang Theory (click to enlarge):

The Big Bang Theory in HD


- Some news out of FX including the return of show The Shield in its seventh and final season premiering Tuesday September 2nd at 10:00 and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia returning for it fourth season Thursday September 18th at 10:00. There is also a new show on the lineup, Sons of Anarchy which is set to premiere Wednesday September 3rd at 10:00. Check out a promo below.



- Earlier this week I implemented a new comment system where the comment form is embedded in the individual post page. This currently part of Blogger in Draft so there may be some kinks to be worked out before it becomes official. The only drawback is that you currently cannot subscribe to individual comment pages like before where it would e-mail you anyone that comments after you. But if you look at the sidebar on the right, you can subscribe to all my comments. Hopefully this new method will encourage some of you to comment more. (hint, hint)