Alan K. Stout is a music journalist who helped cover rock and pop music for The Times Leader and The Weekender for more than 20 years. He was voted NEPA's "Favorite Newspaper Columnist' seven times and earned a Keystone Press Award for Excellence in Journalism for his music coverage. Though his interviews include conversations with Billy Joel, Steven Tyler, David Bowie, Don Henley and Eddie Van Halen, he's also spent much of his career in music journalism focusing on local talent. He was the founder of the former "Concert For A Cause" and continues to host the monthly "Weekender/Mountaingrown Original Music Series." His radio show, "Music On The Menu Live," features some of the best music from regional artists and airs every Sunday from 8-9 p.m. Alan can be reached at astout@102themountain.com
It's been a Bruce Springsteen kind of week up here at The Mountain and across the U.S.A. And I've enjoyed being a small part of it here on the Mountain website. First, I wrote a blog about "Death To My Hometown," one of the best tracks on Springsteen's new album, "Wrecking Ball." And then a few days later, I blogged a review of the entire CD. That review also appeared in The Weekender. Since then, we've learned that "Wrecking Ball" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and at No. 1 on the local Gallery of Sound chart. Also this week, Springsteen - as its keynote speaker - gave a colorful address at the SXSW conference in Texas. His lengthy interview with Rolling Stone also hit newsstands.
(If you are a fan, which I assume you are if you decided to read this blog, I highly suggest you read the Rolling Stone piece and listen to the SXSW speech. I have posted it here: http://www.facebook.com/musiconthemenu
Amid it all, we were giving away some copies of "Wrecking Ball," and since Jimmy Fallon dedicated an entire week of his show to Springsteen, I thought I might offer one more blog about The Boss. It's a pretty simple one and it involves my iPod. I have just about everything Springsteen has ever released on CD, but rather than just upload every album to my iPod, I enjoy making "playlists" that include just my very favorite songs from those albums. I do this with a lot of my favorite artists. It's like one of those old "Best Of" cassettes you might have made for your car stereo or your walkman, but it's digital and it's actually a bit easier to assemble. My style has always been to mix up the eras on a playlist. Rather than put the songs in the chronology of their release, I like each playlist to weave throughout the artist's career.
When I did this for Springsteen a few years back, I decided to make five playlists, as if each was its own CD in a five-disc "Best Of" set. When I was done, there were 82 songs in total. They are my favorite songs from his catalog, though this was done before the release of "Wrecking Ball." When I update it, I'll need to add at least a few more. I am posting the songs here. If there is a rare tune here that you never heard of, let me know, and I'll be glad to tell you a little about it and where you can find it. And if you've got a favorite that I didn't include, let me know. And tell me why you like it. I enjoy talkin' some Bruce with people.
Playlist Vol. 1:
1. Born To Run
2. Growin' Up
3. Soul Driver
4. Streets Of Fire
5. Lonesome Day
6. New York City Serenade
7. Sad Eyes
8. I'm Going Down
9. Worlds Apart
10. Fade Away
11. Thundercrack
12. Lost In The Flood
13. Tenth Avenue Freezeout
14. Life Itself
15. For You
16. Racing In The Streets
Playlist Vol. 2:
1. Blinded By The Light
2. Human Touch
3. Something In The Night
4. Mary's Place
5. Frankie
6. Born In The U.S.A.
7. Fire
8. One Step Up
9. Happy
10. Leap Of Faith
11. My Love Will Not Let You Down
12. Glory Days
13. My City of Ruins
14. American Skin
15. The Promise
Playlist Vol. 3:
1. The River
2. Spirit In The Night
3. Nothing Man
4. Adam Raised The Cain
5. 57 Channels (And Nothin' On)
6. Brilliant Disguise
7. Because The Night
8. Dancing In The Dark
9. Candy's Room
10. Streets Of Philadelphia
11. Devils & Dust
12. Murder Incorporated
13. Hungry Heart
14. The Fever
15. I'm On Fire
16. The Promised Land
17. Light of Day
Playlist Vol. 4:
1. Rosalita
2. Radio Nowhere
3. Bobby Jean
4. Youngstown
5. War
6. Night
7. Point Blank
8. Darkness On The Edge of Town
9. Jersey Girl
10. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
11. Independence Day
12. She's The One
13. Outlaw Pete
14. Downbound Train
15. Livin' In The Future
16. If I Should Fall Behind
17. This Land Is Your Land
Playlist Vol. 5:
1. Thunder Road
2. Tunnel Of Love
3. My Hometown
4. Prove It All Night
5. Secret Garden
6. Atlantic City
7. The Ghost of Tom Joad
8.. Trapped
9.. The Big Muddy
10. The Rising
11. Out In The Street
12. Backstreets
13. Lucky Town
14. Badlands
15. What Love Can Do
16. Jungleland
17. Born To Run (acoustic)
There you have it. My 82 favorite Bruce Springsteen songs, prior to 2012. I've been fortunate enough to have seen him in concert nine times, but when I meet people that don't know much about his music, I give them this list. It's where they need to start. And if I worked at Columbia Records and we were putting out a Springsteen boxed-set, this would be it. Are some of these tunes better than others? Certainly. But they're all great and it is - for my money - "The Best of Bruce Springsteen."
Bruce Springsteen has described his new album, "Wrecking Ball," as the "most direct" record he's ever made. That's a big statement from the man who is arguably the most analyzed lyricist of our time. It's also what made some of the early interpretations of the first single, "We Take Care of Our Own," so interesting. Was it a patriotic American anthem, or was it a biting social commentary on a broken America? Well, for those that still think that "Born In The U.S.A” was Springsteen’s attempt at writing a flag-waving rocker that could be marched along to on the Fourth of July - and think that "We Take Care of Our Own" is his attempt at another – there is some news:
You're wrong. Again.
"We Take Care Of Our Own," a thumping and blistering track, is a biting commentary on social and economic injustice. And when placed within the context of the entire album, it's more than "direct." It's about as subtle as, well ... a wrecking ball.
The entire record is that way. Even the title track, though clearly inspired by the closing of Giants Stadium, also seems to take on a bigger meaning when tucked within the album.
Two tracks that will likely get some attention are "Death to My Hometown" and "Rocky Ground." "Death” is a stopping, swaggering, Irish-inspired, pissed-off mini-masterpiece. It about a town in Anywhere-U.S.A. that's been raped and pillaged by greed and it's a song that too many towns can probably relate to. You might even call Springsteen an "occupier" on this one and it is the album’s most stirring track. “Rocky Ground,” which is moving both musically and lyrically, combines elements of soul and touch of hip-hop, and while its arrangement might surprise many, it is both daring and wonderful.
While the words are always what get the most scrutiny on any Springsteen album, there's also some fine music accompanying those words on this record. And while Springsteen is an angry and/or despondent American on some of it, that doesn’t mean he doesn't love his country. On the contrary, it probably shows how much he does love it, and through his music, he notes the vulnerability and resiliency of its people. There is no defeat on this record, but Springsteen writes songs about a daily struggle, probably hoping they can somehow make a difference, inspire, raise awareness and get people to think a little bit more about their neighbors.
Bruce Springsteen, through his music, still takes care of our own.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (This review also appears in the March 14 issue of The Weekender : http://www.theweekender.com/stories/Bruce-takes-care-of-his-own,122592.)
It seems that not a week goes by without the death of a celebrity grabbing the headlines. Of course, some of those headlines are bigger than others. The recent passing of Whitney Houston garnered so much interest that her funeral was carried live on major news channels. And while the recent death of Davy Jones didn’t garner quite as much attention, I was glad to see that it wasn’t passed off as a simple footnote. Indeed Jones’ passing at age 66 was been treated as a significant loss to the world of pop culture, and though we all would have liked to have seen him around for another 25 years, I’m glad that in death, the ex-Monkee is getting his due.
The Monkees, at least initially, were not an actual band, but were in fact put together for a TV show in order to capitalize on the success of The Beatles and films such as “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help.” But something quite remarkable happened along the way. And it didn't take very long. The Monkees became a very good band.
The Monkees had albums that topped the charts for months. They had singles that hit No. 1. And they did in fact make some terrific pop music. It was the mid-'60s, an incredibly exciting time for rock and roll, and The Monkees were right there in the middle of it all and were doing it just as good, if not better, than most.
Yes, we all know the story …. they used a lot of outside songwriters and they didn’t play most of the instruments on their first few albums. And in a time when acts such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were writing their own material and playing their own music, that cost The Monkees some street credibility and critical acceptance. But having professional songwriters write the hits and having polished studio musicians play on the records has always been pretty common in pop. That’s how Elvis Presley did it. He found good songs, he got great players to record them, and he sang them. Perhaps by the late '50s, with the arrival of Buddy Holly, and later with the arrival of Bob Dylan and The Beatles, people may have thought that pop music might become an art form strictly for songwriters, but it hasn't quite worked out that way. The charts, even today, are still usually sprinkled with a few pop singers.
The Monkees, however, were more, and while recently listening to some of their old hits, I was reminded of how much I used to like them. “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” is a fabulous pop song and tunes that I really hadn’t heard in years such as “Papa Gene's Blues” – written by Monkee Mike Nesmith - are as catchy as hell. And of course there was “Last Train To Clarksville,” “(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone” "I’m A Believer" "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and Jones' signature number, “Daydream Believer.” It’s all good stuff.
By all accounts, when The Monkees went out on the road and toured – and played their own instruments – they did just fine. And when they were able to get more creative control of their recordings, write their own material and play on their albums, they also did just fine. And man, could they sing. Some of them – particularly Jones – sang very well.
It was nice to see some of this discussed last week as people reflected on Davy Jones. Locally, WNEP-TV did a nice segment on how he’d owned a home near Williamsport for decades and how the local people there thought the world of him. The Times Leader did a story about his local connections and was kind enough to ask me to share a few thoughts. Over on our sister station, WILK, Shadoe Steele repeated a lengthy interview that he’d done with Jones just last summer. WNEP-2 ran a two-day “Monkees Marathon” of every TV episode and The Bio Channel ran several very good biographies on The Monkees and Jones. Writers, including the great Mitch Albom, wrote flattering commentaries.
Good for Davy Jones. The man – who genuinely seemed like a nice guy – had earned it.
When The Times Leader asked me for a few thoughts, I told them how much l liked the TV show when I was a kid, how I thought their music was really a terrific brand of '60s pop, and I shared a story of the time I saw The Edge of U2 perform "Daydream Believer" in concert and how the crowd of 70,000 went wild. This was back in 1997, and at the time, I remember wondering if Jones knew that the biggest and most critically acclaimed band in the world was playing his most famous song every night. Well, a quick YouTube search answered my question. At one show on that same tour, Jones was actually in attendance and Edge brought him to the stage to sing it with him. At one point in the clip - which I've posted here - the entire crowd sings along and Edge does an "unworthy" bow towards Jones.
A lot of people showed Davy Jones a lot of love last week, and while that's very kind, I'm glad that U2 and that enormous crowd allowed him to feel it while he was still here. And the fact that he was still touring as late as last summer indicates that he probably still felt that love quite often.
RIP Davy Jones. When some of us hear your songs, we are young kids again, sitting in front of our little record players as your albums spin before us. We are, once again, daydream believers, falling in love with music. And that’s not a bad gift for anyone to have left us.
