r/CuratedTumblr • u/Hummerous https://tinyurl.com/4ccdpy76 • Oct 24 '22
History Side of Tumblr Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons
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u/CaulkEnthusiast sentient caulkussy tumor Oct 24 '22
Damn, hummerous is trying to solo carry the hell-sub again
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u/CocoaCali the actual Spider-Man Oct 24 '22
Again? It's always been humm and friends. Honorable mentions to lith and departed aura.
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u/CaulkEnthusiast sentient caulkussy tumor Oct 24 '22
Str8 got pp slapped by the mods for their posts being too good
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u/CocoaCali the actual Spider-Man Oct 24 '22
I always thought st8 humm and lith we're the mods
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u/CaulkEnthusiast sentient caulkussy tumor Oct 24 '22
I'm not even sure this sub has mods, but I'd still say the asexual canadian would make a good mod
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Oct 24 '22
The mods are AnGenericAccount, FlashSparkles2, MC_Cookies, Simplyjustaman, vexedsatan, Stormtide_Leviathan, Questionably_Human, and Faenix_Wright, although I'm not certain how active all of them are.
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u/CocoaCali the actual Spider-Man Oct 24 '22
Of those I know generic, flash, levi, qhuman.i appreciate all the mods but they don't post a lot levi does on occasion q human too but it's always been humm lith and st8
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u/UwUthinization Creator of a femboy cult Oct 24 '22
I hallucinated turtle in there and I nearly shat myself. I thought they got their greasy cheeto covered fingers into another sub.
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Oct 24 '22
Who?
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u/UwUthinization Creator of a femboy cult Oct 24 '22 edited Oct 24 '22
Awkward the turtle is a Reddit power mod who is also just completely on a power trip. A sign they are in control is when a sub has a rule like "be kind to turtles"
Also, they mod like 1,000 subs(not even an exaggeration. Might be more.)
A ton of people want them banned for a ton of shit. They are getting kicked out of some subs so that's good.
Some of the shit they've done- Sexist towards men Bans for any reason
Also, they're rumored to get paid for being a sub mod which is against Reddit's terms.
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u/SabreLunatic hippity hoppity your name is my fæ property Oct 24 '22
- I think the proper pronoun is she. She’s a bitch, yes, but we should still avoid misgendering
- Last I heard was over 2000 subs
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u/captain_zavec Keep the monkey chilled. Oct 25 '22
The mods on this sub exist and they do a hell of a job.
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u/CaulkEnthusiast sentient caulkussy tumor Oct 25 '22
That's what happens when you sort by new, you don't really witness any mod pp slapping
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u/Hummerous https://tinyurl.com/4ccdpy76 Oct 24 '22
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u/TheUndyingRhino Oct 24 '22
Man I love American music history. Springsteen is for sure an icon of rock.
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u/BarovianNights Omg a fox :0 Oct 24 '22
Sounds based, they got any good songs?
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u/hesitant--alien Oct 24 '22
Lots, but I especially like:
Born to Run
Thunder Road
The River
Dancing in the Dark
Hungry Heart
Rosalita
Jungleland
The Ties That Bind
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u/Hummerous https://tinyurl.com/4ccdpy76 Oct 24 '22
I'm not what I'd classify as a fan -
but i like: Johnny B. Goode, Dancing In The Dark and I'm On Fire,
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u/AlmostDeadPlants Oct 24 '22
The Ties That Bind is one of my personal favorites, but honestly most of his music is amazing. If you want to get the lay of the land and also learn more about what his music means to people, Blinded by the Light (2019) is a great movie
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u/I_EAT_POOP_AMA Oct 24 '22
So fair warning, i'm about to slap you with a massive wall of text about Bruce Springsteen's discography, so get ready for it. But just know it's kinda hard to break down just songs from Springsteen and the E Street Band because there are so many (that hilariously, have never made it to #1 on the charts, except the two times other artists have covered his songs). But regardless, he is a very important person in the musical landscape for a myriad of reasons, mainly as one of the most prominent and celebrated songwriters of the last 50 years, alongside the likes of Bob Dylan or Brian Wilson. At this point i'm just going to focus on the front half of his catalog, give a few songs from each album to get a feel for how it goes, and highlight a lot of themes that surface in these albums time and time again. So with that out of the way, i'll finally get started.
Greetings from Ashbury Park, N.J.: This is his first album, technically as a solo artist. He's really trying to find himself as a songwriter here so it's kind of all over the place, but almost right out of the gate you start getting some story driven political hard hitters. Lost In The Flood is a slow burn ballad about the state of the NY Metro area in the mid 70s, paired against imagery of the "heroic western" style story telling, where unfortunately there are no good guys to save the day. Most people know Blinded By The Light as it was covered by Manfred Mann a few years later, but the song was basically just a middle finger to his label, who heard what he presented as the album and told him he needed two singles for them to print it. He grabbed a rhyming dictionary that was laying around and dropped a massive tongue twister of a song, submitted it as a lead single, and the label took it no question. Overall though, this album is a pretty good look at where his career "started" more or less, and it sets the groundwork for things to come really well.
The Wild, the Innocent, & the E Street Shuffle: His second album and his first album fully utilizing what would become the E Street Band (his backing band from this point forward). Similar to the last album, this one is pretty light on a lot of political and social commentary, but you get glimpses of it here or there. This record is more focused on storytelling, where Springsteen and the rest of the band start borrowing from the massive pool of the music that came before it. Paired with songs about love, relationships, and finding your place in the world, it's a record most people don't really look to for it's impact, but it was pivotal for how the band continued to grow more cohesive as time went on. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) is the most stand out track IMO.
Born To Run: This album is considered by most to be Springsteen's Magnum Opus. It's a perfect record through and through. Relatively short, it sees Springsteen hit his stride as a storyteller, and paints a more complex look at life in the NY Metro area at the time. From hopeless romantic youths putting themselves against the world, (and a big emphasis on the "get out of this dead end town" mindset, in sort of a proto-Pop Punk thematic take) to the broken and downtrodden fighting for survival, this record is a spectrum where Springsteen mixes social commentary with his "middle American" storytelling. Almost impossible to recommend a single track. Instead just listen to the entire album front to back if you can. It's worth the time.
Darkness on the Edge of Town: Hands down my favorite album of his. While not nearly as polished or complete as the previous, it's an emotionally raw and honest album. It mainly focuses on the duality of living a dead end life in a dead end town. Watching your parents die one day at a time while they slave away at the local factory, turning themselves into bitter and broken people, and fighting to avoid that fate yourself. It's a very real album if you grew up in those kinds of circumstances. There's a constant push and pull between hopeful optimism and nihilistic defeat. Ultimately it's an album about inheriting the generational trauma of growing up poor and utterly defeated. Standout songs include Adam Raised a Cain and Racing in the Street.
The River: For those who argue that Born To Run wasn't his highest point, The River is often the record they gravitate to. Similar to Darkness, The River is an album that can be best summerized as a dichotomy of young, reckless love and broken dreams. This record is a lot more polished than Darkness, and tends to ease the transition between it's highs and lows. But Springsteen's writing is as sharp as it will ever be here. Thematically, he casts a wider net, instead of focusing exclusively on life in a dying town, it's a love letter to the history of Rock and Roll, for it's good and it's bad. Standout tracks include Hungry Heart (which Springsteen initially wrote for The Ramones of all people, but his manager convinced him to keep the track instead), The Ties that Bind, and The River
Nebraska: officially his second solo record, Nebraska see's Springsteen at his most bare. Recorded almost exclusively by himself with a 4 track recorder, this album started out as demos, but after dissatisfaction with how the full band sessions were turning out, Springsteen decided to polish the songs as they were and release the record. And this record is dark. If Darkness on the Edge of Town was a record about life in a dying town, Nebraska is a profile of it's supporting characters. This record primarily follows the story of a serial killer and his 14 year old girlfriend, and spotlights crooked cops, the burden of familial bonds, and just an omnipresent sense of dread that haunts every part of this record. Standout tracks include Highway Patrolman, Johnny 99, and Mansion On The Hill
Born In The U.S.A: This is the record that everyone knows, because the title track is the only Springsteen song that people tend to gravitate towards. We all know the story, some shitheel nationalist hears the coda, and decides that it's the perfect anthem to "Make America Great Again" not realizing what the song is actually saying between those moments. And truth be told that's a pretty apt summation of what this record really hits at. Quite a few of these songs initially came from the same demos that became Nebraska, but ultimately they didn't do much to fit the context of that record, and they came out pretty decent with a full band arrangement, so Springsteen ran with them. Ultimately, this record is the peak definition of "Arena Rock". Big bombastic instrumentation, cheesy 80s tinged gated drums, and shimmering synth lines all permiate this album in the most cliche ways, but Springsteen's songwriting makes those fade into the background. The best way to present this album is a direct answer to Reaganomics, the era of Neoliberal Conservatism dismantling the crumbling support structure of the country they claim to love so much. A record of how whitewashed and rose colored nostalgia cloud the minds of those who saw their parents break themselves on the foundation of Capitalism, racism, and economic inequality to give their kids a better life. For how much of a "boomer" album this record is at face value, it's all biting parody, a staunch middle finger to the generation that sought to undo all of the work that the previous generations killed themselves to establish. Similar to Born to Run, every song on this record is a hit. It's lowest points (IMO) are tracks like Dancing in the Dark which are just straightforward pop-oriented cliche songs. An earworm sure, but it's still pretty lacking on a lot of the bite that this record is capable of delivering.
Tunnel of Love: This is where i'm going to stop, mostly because from this point it starts going down hill a bit. Tunnel of Love is a tough record, because it was Springsteen's personal life reeling. At this point, he was going through a bad divorce, stepped away from the E Street Band (who had been prominent fixtures of his career up to this point), and went on to cut this as a solo record. Critically, this is a great record, because for the first time it's a look inward at Springsteen himself, but from the musical aspect, this record tends to repeat the sins of Born in the USA, without enough of that drive to hold it together. The album is kind of hard to listen to if you aren't a fan of every 80s music cliche, but lyrically he's still there. A big focus on the dissatisfaction of romantic relationships, toxic or unrequited love, and just stories of couples who either burn out or carry themselves into darkness and resentment.
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u/VacationHot833 Oct 25 '22
My friend, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your wall of text. This is exactly what I need right now- my mom just gave me her tour T-shirt from the 84-85 Born in the USA tour, and I have been hyper fixating on his music for the past five days. I absolutely love when people break down an artist’s body of work, especially how it relates to their own personal life. If you wanna info dump more about Bruce Springsteen, please feel free to do so in a reply or PM to me- I am a captive audience.
As for opinions formed of my own hyperfixation on Bruce Springsteen’s body of work- Born to Run is one of the best songs that was ever written and recorded. Hands down. I feel so heartbroken and hopeful at the lyrics “Together Wendy we can live with the sadness/ I’ll love you with all of the madness in my soul”. WHAT A FUCKIN LINE. I have to scream out “I wanna know if love is wild/ Babe I wanna know if love is real” every time I listen to it. Also, it will never get more romantic than “Wendy let me in, I wanna be your friend/ I wanna guard your dreams and visions/ Just wrap your legs round these velvet rims/ AND STRAP YOUR HANDS CROSS MY ENGINES”. If someone said that to me in all earnestness I would propose on the spot.
I listened to the Born to Run album a bunch and I thought it was my favorite, but then listened to the Born in the USA album over and over and every track on that album is such a banger. I hear what you’re saying about “I’m on Fire” but I can’t stop thinking about how beautifully constructed that song is. (Other than the first line- it’s a bit creepy to say the least. But other than that.) I mean, at the end, his little vocal embellishments that sound like a train whistle? While the drums sound like a train going over tracks? Harkening back to the lyrics “At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet/ and a freight train running through the middle of my head”? AND HIS DELIVERY of “Only you can cool my desire”? Incredible. And that’s definitely not even my favorite song of his.
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u/propagandads1 Oct 24 '22
I'm surprised noone else has mentioned "The Ghost of Tom Joad"
My favorite version is the one from the Magic Tour with Tom Morello
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u/Hummerous https://tinyurl.com/4ccdpy76 Oct 27 '22
Tbh i still prefer the rage against the machine version
the instrumental is incredible but the vocals fall short imo
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u/CocoaCali the actual Spider-Man Oct 24 '22
Not my kinda music, but that may be because the mentioned "fuck yeah America" people co-opting and as I was growing up so my mind immediately flashes back up racist homophobic jokes and domestic violence.
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u/pterrorgrine sayonara you weeaboo shits Oct 24 '22
I never quite connected with Springsteen (maybe because he's the kind of music my dad would play loudly while I went :-| "k"), but it was perhaps because of that bias that I found Elysian Fields' cover of "Dancing in the Dark" easier to get into than the originals of the even more popular stuff, to the extent that it made me like the original. Unfortunately I can only find that live version, which seems kinda rough from a quick preview on my phone speaker, but the broader lesson is, if you aren't into the original, it may still be worth trying a good cover.
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u/xamthe3rd Oct 24 '22
Good post but does anyone else find it really annoying when people Post! Like this! Putting exclamation points! After every sentence fragment! For emphasis!
Minor nitpick but god the house style guide of tumblr dot com really undermines otherwise poignant and informative posts.
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u/CocoaCali the actual Spider-Man Oct 24 '22 edited Oct 24 '22
Most of us do it for EMPHASIS. or setting a tone. < See how I purposefully undercased the first word? It makes a softer tone. So while sometimes people use ! aggressively sometimes we're making a point.
Edit: I usually talk generic because irl I talk very generic unless I'm very excited. For example: I just watched Black Adam, with my parents. HONESTLY it was a lot better than I expected! it was Pretty good!
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u/xamthe3rd Oct 24 '22
See for me it doesn't do that so much as make things difficult to follow and understand. It's an ease of reading thing. I have no problem with exclamation points but when there's multiple per sentence it really breaks the flow and makes things hard to follow. 95% of the time, style shouldn't come before comprehension.
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u/RobLives4Love Oct 24 '22
hmm. would you say The Essential Bruce Springsteen is a good place to start getting into his music?
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u/killer8bit Oct 24 '22
THIS IS THE CULTURE THEY TOOK FROM US!