Badlands

David Jimerson said:
Hmmm. Not so sure the movie inspired Nebraska. The Starkweather murder spree inspired at least one of the songs, but that was big news well before the movie. Didn't need the movie to be inspired.
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I recall reading an interview somewhere in which Springsteen states that he had watched the movie just before or around the time he set out to write the song. Wikipedia also says as much, and points out the first lines of the song being drawn from the film. I can't remember if the Starkweather killing spree was already on his mind, or if the film drew his attention to it, but I do remember him mentioning Badlands (the film, not his song) as having to do with writing the song, if not the whole album. I think he said something about seeing it, and being take with the imagery, and Sheen's performance, and that got him going on the song. Might have been from one of his biographies.

"Highway Patrolman" always fascinated me, because the lyrics suggest it was set very near where I grew up (outside Toledo), even though there's no Perrineville or Michigan County in Ohio. (Nor is there a Michigan County in any other state, but Perrineville, NJ is near the Boss's hometown.)
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Wherever it was, it had to be reasonably close to the Canadian border.

Nebraska is an amazing piece of work, and when you consider he recorded it as a demo on a four-track machine in his bedroom, it becomes that much more impressive. When he presented it to the band, it had a few songs that would end up on Born In The USA (including the title song), and he wanted to record it in the studio.

They told him he already had an entire album right there, and to just release it pretty much as is, so he separated the material according to theme, and ended up with a high achievement in lo-fidelity. The other songs were reworked and became the backbone for Born In The USA.

You might want to check out Badlands: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska. Johnny Cash, Raul Malo, Hank Williams III, Chrissie Hynde, Ani DiFranco...an album that shares it's name with the movie that inspired the album that this album was inspired by. Make sense?
 
DeSica said:
I recall reading an interview somewhere in which Springsteen states that he had watched the movie just before or around the time he set out to write the song. Wikipedia also says as much, and points out the first lines of the song being drawn from the film. I can't remember if the Starkweather killing spree was already on his mind, or if the film drew his attention to it, but I do remember him mentioning Badlands (the film, not his song) as having to do with writing the song, if not the whole album. I think he said something about seeing it, and being take with the imagery, and Sheen's performance, and that got him going on the song. Might have been from one of his biographies.
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Fair enough.


Wherever it was, it had to be reasonably close to the Canadian border.
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Right, which is why it had to be near Toledo; Frankie would've crossed at Detroit.
You might want to check out Badlands: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska. Johnny Cash, Raul Malo, Hank Williams III, Chrissie Hynde, Ani DiFranco...an album that shares it's name with the movie that inspired the album that this album was inspired by. Make sense?
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I've heard it, though I rather dislike covers. But why would that not "make sense"?
 
Springsteen

I have come to really appreciate his work. It has only been as an adult that I 'discovered' him personally
 
Still haven't gotten the hang of Springsteen, at least, until that folk album he released a year or two ago. That was great.
 
Same's true for Bob Dylan; I'm much more of a Dylan fan. Maybe it has to do with how the words are put together, too.
 
Well, it's true that a number of Dylan's songs are far more palatable when sung by someone else. But they're still Dylan's songs.
 
Great voices have never been requisite for musical success. Tom Waits is a great example. He's a favorite but certainly doesn't have a good voice...and it's getting worse with age.
 
I worked with an Art Director who did a fantastic Dylan impression. He'd go through whole production meetings, in character.
 
Sad Max said:
Same's true for Bob Dylan; I'm much more of a Dylan fan. Maybe it has to do with how the words are put together, too.
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Springsteen is a huge Dylan fan, and his early stuff really shows this. Greetings From Asbury Park, and The Wild, The Innocent, & The E street Shuffle are very wordy and poetic, and reveal a heavy Dylan influence, as well as some Van Morrison (though maybe not as much as Van Morrison thinks.)

I never liked Dylan much growing up, but since Time Out Of Mind, I have been a huge fan, and have gone back through his material and bought much of it. His last three albums have been great, maybe his best stuff in decades. He had a spell in the 80's where he toured too much, and his studio stuff wasn't great, but it was prolific as usual, and it did yield some gems (Jokerman, Most Of The Time, Ring Them Bells.)

I saw him a few years back, with some older friends, and it was a good show. They told me about how hit and miss it can be with the guy, as they had seen him a few times before, and he had sometimes been so out of it that the show would suffer and he would only play for maybe 45 minutes.

On our way out, they mentioned the best show they had ever seen was an intimate thing with Tom Waits in NYC. They paid 75 bucks and sat in a tiny venue (like a small club or bar) and listened to him do his thing.
 
Artists not a par with the legendary status of a Dylan or Waits not-withstanding ...

I once worked for the Port of San Diego and one day after work, myself and a fellow employee (Forgot her name) went onto one of the charter boats to drink beer from the bar keg; she was the bartender and I was the Tour Guide

ANyways, the Summer Pops was in full swing and we were treated to about 3 hours of The B-52's and The Fixx doing their pre-show sound checks.

They ran through their sets, conversed and joked with each other over the mics and seemed to be really just having fun without a pretense of a thousand people watching them

Anyways, speaking from the intimate side of seeing musicians at work. I believe they were about 50 yards away on stage and from our vantage atop the boat, it was perfect.
 
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