.. great true rocker. What's a true rocker? Well, let's put it this way. I am a first generation rock 'n' roller. Bruce Springsteen is second-generation. Hence, even his best album -- Nebraska -- is in fact mannerist. My buddies and I in high school laughed our asses off about Charlie Starkweather. Hey, give us a break. We were only teenagers. Bruce was 9 when Charlie and Caril went on their spree.
Thank you, Mr. Wilson. Although I am a second generation rock 'n' roller (I vaguely remember watching "Ozzie and Harriet" on TV, and waiting for Ricky to sing at the end of the show) you are exactly right about the difference between Ricky and Bruce. After all, Ricky's lead guitarist in his early days was James Burton - you can't beat that!
ReplyDeleteFrank, you and Stephen sound like such old-timers .... "ah, you'ze kids an yer music!" ... "Whatta ya know 'bout anything?" ... "Lemme tell ya what it was really like."
ReplyDeleteI regret Nelson's untimely end - I don't think we'd heard the last of him. And, in a way, we haven't ... his influence on Springsteen and so many others can't be denied.
I can admire Nelson WITHOUT putting down another great rocker such as Springsteen.
I didn't mean to put Springsteen down -- though I've always had problems with himI like him enough to have seen him, though, and he puts one one hell of a show. And I love "Dancing in the Dark." But notice -- there was already a song by that name. Just as Born to Run immediately brings to my mind "Born to Be Wild" -- and I saw Steppenwolf do that at the original Electric Factory. Bruce can be very good. But his music is grounded in other music -- as if he had gone to the musical equivalent of the Iowa Writers Workshop -- not in direct experience of life.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I think it's great that we can debate this on a lit blog. Don't you?
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