Boiling Frogs - Tenth Avenue Sell-Out

[Luis Gonzalez]

Boiling Frogs - Tenth Avenue Sell-Out
Bruce Springsteen and the price of abandoning the audience that built him

Boiling Frogs

The Boss, The Myth, and the Slow Sellout

There was a time when Springsteen stood for something real—working class grit, resistance, and cultural honesty.

But over time, something shifted.

Was it him… or the system that absorbed him?

A new piece explores how “authenticity” gets redefined once culture is fully monetized.

Did Springsteen change—or did the industry?

— Gonzo

Read at: Boiling Frogs Blog

[Cyber Liberty]

You know more about the dynamics of the E Street Band than I ever did.  I didn't like Springsteen from the get-go, because the Time Magazine hype left me cold as a young teenager.  But with the DJs I worked with calling him "The Boss" it was clear that something I was not a part of was going on.

That he would take a sharp left turn was not surprising, and his major loss of fan base even less surprising and was totally predictable.  I don't feel the least bit sad for him, I only feel bad for the folks that believed in the image the hype built of him and the E Street Band.

He is The Boss no more!  And he did it to himself by becoming the musical equivalent of Jimmy Kimmel.  He failed his most important task: Reading the Room.

[Hoodat]

Can't sing.  Can't compose.  Can't play guitar.  Bruce Springsteen sucks.  Always has regardless of politics.

[DB]

He and his music always sucked.

[andy58-in-nh]

Over time, I have found that politics has roughly the same effect on artists that oxygen does on iron. It erodes their essential qualities and turns them to rust.

Art though, still endures.

When Bruce Springsteen first burst onto the stage in the late 70's, he was a fresh (if sand-graveled) voice fueled by youthful energy, surrounded by superior musicians, and aided by the craftsmanship of studio production wizards.

I saw two of his concerts, one in 1978 and the other in 1980. They still stand among the greatest shows I have ever seen, owing in no small measure to the kinetic force of the crowds that fed on the E Street Band's own power to move audiences to emotional heights and crashing depths.   

In truth: I thought that Springsteen's acoustic album Nebraska was the last great work that he created, with his songwriting and effort declining slowly from that point, becoming formulaic, trite and commercially-focused.

The political infusion that followed, gradually but perhaps inevitably, began to eat away at the body and soul of his efforts, corroding his work's value even as the artist himself grew fabulously wealthy.

Sadly, that is a very old story that an old man on the Boardwalk might be overheard to tell. 

But great lyrics endure, even if their progenitor loses his way along the street:

The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey, that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again 

[Idiot]

Can't sing.  Can't compose.  Can't play guitar.  Bruce Springsteen sucks.  Always has regardless of politics.

[Luis Gonzalez]

 

Over time, I have found that politics has roughly the same effect on artists that oxygen does on iron. It erodes their essential qualities and turns them to rust.

Art though, still endures.

When Bruce Springsteen first burst onto the stage in the late 70's, he was a fresh (if sand-graveled) voice fueled by youthful energy, surrounded by superior musicians, and aided by the craftsmanship of studio production wizards.

I saw two of his concerts, one in 1978 and the other in 1980. They still stand among the greatest shows I have ever seen, owing in no small measure to the kinetic force of the crowds that fed on the E Street Band's own power to move audiences to emotional heights and crashing depths.   

In truth: I thought that Springsteen's acoustic album Nebraska was the last great work that he created, with his songwriting and effort declining slowly from that point, becoming formulaic, trite and commercially-focused.

The political infusion that followed, gradually but perhaps inevitably, began to eat away at the body and soul of his efforts, corroding his work's value even as the artist himself grew fabulously wealthy.

Sadly, that is a very old story that an old man on the Boardwalk might be overheard to tell. 

But great lyrics endure, even if their progenitor loses his way along the street:

The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey, that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again

 

[Bigun]

Can't sing.  Can't compose.  Can't play guitar.  Bruce Springsteen sucks.  Always has regardless of politics.

 

[Bigun]

Over time, I have found that politics has roughly the same effect on artists that oxygen does on iron. It erodes their essential qualities and turns them to rust.

Art though, still endures.

When Bruce Springsteen first burst onto the stage in the late 70's, he was a fresh (if sand-graveled) voice fueled by youthful energy, surrounded by superior musicians, and aided by the craftsmanship of studio production wizards.

I saw two of his concerts, one in 1978 and the other in 1980. They still stand among the greatest shows I have ever seen, owing in no small measure to the kinetic force of the crowds that fed on the E Street Band's own power to move audiences to emotional heights and crashing depths.   

In truth: I thought that Springsteen's acoustic album Nebraska was the last great work that he created, with his songwriting and effort declining slowly from that point, becoming formulaic, trite and commercially-focused.

The political infusion that followed, gradually but perhaps inevitably, began to eat away at the body and soul of his efforts, corroding his work's value even as the artist himself grew fabulously wealthy.

Sadly, that is a very old story that an old man on the Boardwalk might be overheard to tell. 

But great lyrics endure, even if their progenitor loses his way along the street:

The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey, that's me and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again

I'm sure everyone knows that Springsteen got his start singing backup in Roy Orbison's band.

[andy58-in-nh]

I'm sure everyone knows that Springsteen got his start singing backup in Roy Orbison's band.

He did not, actually.

Bruce did play guitar as an accompanying musician on Roy’s 1987 concert film, Roy Orbison & Friends: A Black & White Night. He was clearly influenced though by Orbison's other-worldly voice, style and compositions while growing up in New Jersey. Hence his tribute to the great Orbison in the song Thunder Road.

I myself have played guitar for over half a century, and both men have influenced my style and my musical tastes in different respects. 

I was in high school when Springsteen first emerged as an artist (1974-76), and although I knew of and had heard Roy Orbison, his heyday was about ten years before that time. It was Bruce's casual reference that caused me to actively seek out Orbison's music, but quite a bit later in the 1980's, at a time when I was lost, uncertain, lonely and vulnerable.

Which, as it happens almost perfectly describes the mood of so many of Roy's wonderful songs.  Orbison's music was at that moment, a virtual map of my own heart, which Springsteen - in some measure - had also touched. 

And that is why I refuse to reflexively reject artists simply because I don't like their politics, even if they piss me off. Politics is not the point. Art is.

[Bigun]

He did not, actually.

Bruce did play guitar as an accompanying musician on Roy’s 1987 concert film, Roy Orbison & Friends: A Black & White Night. He was clearly influenced though by Orbison's other-worldly voice, style and compositions while growing up in New Jersey. Hence his tribute to the great Orbison in the song Thunder Road.

I myself have played guitar for over half a century, and both men have influenced my style and my musical tastes in different respects. 

I was in high school when Springsteen first emerged as an artist (1974-76), and although I knew of and had heard Roy Orbison, his heyday was about ten years before that time. It was Bruce's casual reference that caused me to actively seek out Orbison's music, but quite a bit later in the 1980's, at a time when I was lost, uncertain, lonely and vulnerable.

Which, as it happens almost perfectly describes the mood of so many of Roy's wonderful songs.  Orbison's music was at that moment, a virtual map of my own heart, which Springsteen - in some measure - had also touched. 

And that is why I refuse to reflexively reject artists simply because I don't like their politics, even if they piss me off. Politics is not the point. Art is.

OK @andy58-in-nh I stand corrected. Never heard of Springsteen before he appeared with Orbison as you describe above and just so you know, I have every piece of music Orbison ever recorded and a few that never were.

I agree with Elvis!

"Roy Orbison is the greatest singer who ever lived!"
Elvis Pressley

Edit to add; To this day I have no idea as to Orbison's political views.