June 5, 2009

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    Lights out tonight - trouble in the heartland
    Got a head-on collision - smashing in my guts, man
    I'm caught in a crossfire...that I don't understand...

    But there's one thing I know for sure - girl,
    I don't give a damn - for the same old played out scenes
    Baby, I don't give a damn - for just the inbetweens

    Honey, I want the heart, I want the soul,
    I want control right now -
    You better listen to me baby

    Talk about a dream - try to make it real
    You wake up in the night - with a fear, so real
    You spend your life waiting for a moment - that just don't come

    Well, don't waste your time waiting!

    Badlands!
    You gotta live them everyday
    Let the broken heart stand as the price you gotta pay...
    Keep - pushin' 'til it's understood
    And these Badlands start treating us good...

    Working in the field - 'til you get your back burned...
    Workin' 'neath the wheels...'til you get your facts learned...
    Baby, I got my facts - learned real good right now...

    You better get it straight, darlin'!
    Poor man wanna be rich - rich man wanna be king
    And the king ain't satisfied 'til he rules everything
    I wanna go out tonight - I wanna find out what I've got

    Well, I believe in the love - that you gave me
    I believe in the faith - that can save me
    I believe in the hope and I pray - that someday
    It - may - raise me - above these -

    Badlands!
    You gotta live them everyday
    Let the broken heart stand as the price you gotta pay...
    Keep - pushin' 'til it's understood
    And these Badlands start treating us good...
    Woah, woah, woah!

    Hmmm...hmmm, hmm...
    Hmmmmmhmmmhmmhm...
    Hmmmmmhmmmhmm...
    Hmmmhmhmmhmhmhmm...
    This is for the ones who have a notion...a notion deep inside
    That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
    I wanna find one face - that ain't looking through me
    I wanna find one place - I wanna - spit - in the face of these -

    Badlands!
    You gotta live them everyday
    Let the broken heart stand as the price you gotta pay...
    Keep - pushin' 'til it's understood
    And these Badlands start treating us good...
    -Bruce Springsteen

    I remember, some years back, I "apparently" left the browser open with my xanga in it and my dad just "happened" to find and read it. Clearly I still don't entirely trust the sincerity of his claim. Nonetheless, he read parts of it. As he was telling me about this, he mentioned that a lot of it was lyrics, "lots and lots of lyrics".

    Well, yes, this is true. In fact, some posts are nothing but lyrics (or a song, in the case of the last entry). But so what? Those lyrics are just as important. Even if it only gives you a vague sense of what was going on for me at the time, they certainly say a deal about, the person, me.

    I've been re-listening to (read as: rediscovering the beauty of) Darkness On the Edge of Town. Really, the second to forth albums I'm rediscovering. I've gotten used to just picking out favorite songs knowing that classic albums were there that I'd not listened to the albums themselves anymore.

    It's absolutely fantastic. I forgot how much of a more conventional rock album it really is (I so would love to see a heavy metal version of Adam Raised a Cain someday). At the same time, while one of the highlights of Born to Run was being able to hear the guitar, piano, and Sax beautifully featured, Darkness gives us the pleasure of the harmonica as well.

    It's not the epic that Born to Run was, that's definitely true. You won't get utter genius gems like Jungleland. But you do get treated to an album that doesn't deserve a skip through all its 10 tracks (granted, even more so than Born to Run). And one that definitely makes you relate and you feel like can be pertinent to your life.

    Besides, the album has Promised Land - a rousing track that (I admit) I like more than even Badlands. Badlands beats at lyrics just a bit more but the instrumentation and delivery on Promised Land totally just win it over.

    I remember I read somewhere that The River was meant to capture both the good in life and the bad. I would argue that Darkness does this far better. My biggest issue with River is that there are a good deal of filler tracks. You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) sounds fantastic as a rock 'n' roll song (the live version is downright fantastic), but the lyrics (and overall message) could use more specificity and clarity. Other songs lack the sound to reel you in as well as similar lyrics.

    Meanwhile, Darkness has uplifting songs and downright depressing. But it also has those which strike some kind of medium. I wouldn't be one to label Candy's Room as necessarily utterly uplifting. Yet the overall message is an escape. It's utterly fantastic, really.

    Plus, even the possibly weak (lyrically) track, Streets of Fire, uses the lack of clarity and specificity in its lyrics to its total advantage - the people it's talking about "don't really exist".

    Forgive me, but these albums are far more substantial and hard hitting than most of anything he's been releasing these days (harsh, but c'mon - he's set a precedence by now, I'm allowed to hold him to it).

    On another note, I really want to learn For You for the piano this summer. I'll have to do it by ear, since I can't seem to find any sheet music (I've had enough piano lessons to technically know how to figure it out by guitar tabs, but I'm just terrible at retaining some information). Ought to be fun.

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