Bryan: Bruce and the gang followed up their reunion tour and Live in the New York City with The Rising in 2002. The record is cited as one of the first and foremost responses to the events of September 11th from the previous year, as well as the band's first collaboration with Brendan O'Brien.
With me as always is Bryant, a man Kahliss Himself described as "a warrior scribe chronicling a narrow isthmus of ephemera in fiery yet laconic manner." Bryant! What say you on this Rising business?
Bryant: This is an album I've had a hard time embracing over the years, although I like a few of the songs - "My City of Ruins" and "The Rising" - more than you do. There are others that I like even less, though. And the lack of Clarence is befuddling, or at least that's how I remember it.
Bryan: Let's pit your memory against your 2017 ears!
DISC ONE
"Lonesome Day"
Bryant: Right off the bat, I’ll say that what this album reminds me of more than anything else is U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind. They don’t share much musically, but in terms of what they mean to me personally, they seem to occupy very similar places. Both are full of songs that I can’t honestly say are bad. They’re catchy, good songs … that mostly do nothing whatsoever for me emotionally. There are some exceptions on both albums, though. “Lonesome Day” – 2/5 – is not one of them. “It’s alright, it’s alright,” indeed, and that’s the best I can say for it. But at the same time, if some other major Springsteen fan told me it was more like a 4/5 for them, I’d have no real argument.
Bryan: 2.25/5 It's fine and all, just kinda meh to me, too. All That You Can't Leave Behind is the perfect analogy for this.
"Into the Fire"
Bryan: 2.75/5 This one's a bit more interesting, especially when everyone kicks in. Not a fave, though.
Bryant: I want this song to be raw and shattering, and it never gets there. It’s at least got some emotion that it’s able to impart to me, though. 2.25/5 I’d have gone a quarter-point higher if not for that opening section, which sounds like country music, and not good country.
"Waitin' on a Sunny Day"
Bryan: 4.25/5 Nice and simple. I'm surprised this wasn't the lead-off single/ one of Bruce's better-known hits. Though, perhaps it is/ was, I don't know. It's tough to read that stuff. I certainly never heard it or hear it on the radio, but that's true for a lot of big songs, and big Bruce songs at that.
Bryant: I like this song – 3.5/5 – but I’ve got some major complaints about the arrangement. Why so much violin when you’ve got Clarence fucking Clemmons at your disposal?!? If I remember correctly, he’d had hip-replacement surgery or something, so his involvement was necessarily limited. Okay, fine, so that explains why he doesn’t rescue some of these songs; but he comes in at the end of this one, so why isn’t he in there in the place of Soozie Tyrell earlier? Or if not him, give those parts to Steve. I don’t know. Great song; but it needed a better production.
Bryan: Fun version here - you ever hear this? Little Steven's time to shine!
Bryant: Nope, I'd never seen that. Awesome! That's what it looks like when you really, really love your job, I think.
And, for the record, I'd say that's better than the studio version. That's less challenging with most of the modern stuff than with the classics.
Bryan: This is one of those tunes, too, where the musical mood and lyrics clash - or are supposed to. In reality, the melody of the lyrics is so happy and everything's major-key and uncomplicated, just hits the ears like a happy love song or something. And when you see how happy everyone is performing this one, it also paves over some of the sadness I hear in the lyrics. I know there are some songs where we disagree on the efficacy of Bruce's efforts in this regard ("Magic" comes to mind) but when he's on, he's on. And few get it this right.
"Nothing Man"
Bryant: This is fine, but, again, doesn’t move me. I wish it did. 2.25/5 I think it wanted to be an angry rocker, and Bruce wouldn’t let it.
Bryan: 4.3/5 I kinda love this one, me! Really sweet, simple little tune. I'm glad he resurrected it from his back pages. (All the way back to 1994!)
"Countin' on a Miracle"
Bryan: How many "praying/ counting/ waiting on a miracle" songs are out there? Do people really think, oh okay, THIS time the sentiment will be expressed the way it should be? I don't know why I get stuck on things like this. At no point do I ever say "oh, great, another "I Love You" song, or "Break-Up" song, like those emotional states are inexhaustible. I guess hope/ waiting-on-a-mircle, same thing. But so soon after waitin' on a sunny day, album-order-wise? Isn't Bruce meticulous about this stuff? I wonder what 5 star song he left off so he could have, for reasons only known to Bruce, 2 songs in 3 about the same sort of vibe. If indeed they are; they actually aren't, I guess, lyricswise. (Give an example). Anyway 2/5 from me.
Bryant: This one works a lot better for me than it does for you. Except for the strings section, which is one of those weird things no rock band needs to do unless that’s what the entirety of the song is going to be. But that’s made up for by the presence of Clarence, coming in for a few seconds and blowing everyone’s hair back. 2.75/5 Not a classic, but very good.
Bryan: 4/5 Kinda surprised this wasn't a single, or the album's signature track. Although, again, maybe it is/ was. I haven't delved into all the reviews of this when it came out. Maybe (typing this on Wednesday morning) by Saturday or Sunday night I will. (Narrator voice: He did not.)
Bryant: Great lyrics, great tune. I’m still not sure the performance got all out of it that was possible, though. 3/5 from me.
Bryan: 3.9/4 So far these scores are fitting for the E-Street's-Back-Baby! occasion. Maybe this one is a little overlong, I don't know - though it's the guitar outro that kinda makes it for me, so maybe not.
Bryant: I like this one a lot. It’s one of the few songs on the album I like unreservedly. 3.75/5
"Let's Be Friends (Skin to Skin)"
Bryan: 4.25/5 Another high-scorer for me. This is a surprising one - almost sounds like a song written for Smokey Robinson or something.
Bryant: This really does have an old Motown feel, doesn’t it? I’m not sure I ever consciously noticed that. It’s a great song that, for me, is kind of ruined by the drums and background vocals. Not even Clarence does much to help. You took a terrific song and made it mediocre, Bruce! Your producer was asleep, I guess. 2.5/5
Bryan: Well dang! 4.5/5 Probably my favorite of the whole album. Bruce's simple brand of country-rock as refined over the years into this tune. I can hear Dylan, the Georgia Satellites, not in a derivative way, just kinfolk. I could probably even go for 5. I hope this plays over The Dark Tower end credits.
Bryant: There is not a single idea in the Dark Tower movie as good as the idea of ending it with this song. It’s not my favorite song on the album, but it’s definitely one of the ones I like most. 3.5/5
"The Fuse"
Bryan: 3.5/5 I'm not really into the "tires on the highway" section, musically, but otherwise this one's pretty good. Maybe a little overlong. I keep bouncing my score for this one between 3 and 4 so it depends on the time of day I guess. Good track no doubt.
Bryant: I hate the production on this one. HATE. There’s a good song buried in there somewhere. They didn’t find it. Not for my tastes, at least. Interestingly, the section you dislike is the only part of the song that I do like! 1.5/5
"Mary's Place"
Bryant: I don’t like this quite as much as I think Bruce and company want me to, but I do like it quite a bit. 3.75/5 There are superior live versions, which is true of most of the songs on this album.
Bryan: 2.75/5 Definitely overlong, but not a bad track or anything. An old-school E Street number - Bruce's restrained older-guys vocals make it sound more Lite Rock than old School E Street, though.
Bryan: 4.25/5 Great tune.
Bryant: One of the few on the album that connects with me emotionally. 3.25/5 Good guitar on this one. Not sure why, but I hear it as a sequel to “I’m on Fire.”
"The Rising"
Bryant: This would have been my album-opener. I like it quite a bit more than you do. 4/5 I’m glad Max gets to do what he’s best at on this one. The backing vocals are good, too, which has not been the case on the entire album. Clarence is just kind of buried in the mix, but that’s my only complaint.
Bryan: 2/5 Another fine-but-meh for me. A little too nowadays-country sounding to me, which is one step away from American Idol or The Voice or something, i.e. music for the mentally challenged. (Sorry/not-sorry)
"Paradise"
Bryan: 2.75/5 I like the ghostly sound of the production and the lyrics/ idea and all, got nothing critical to say, just not a particular fave. I think this might have been a good one to give to someone else (David Gilmour, for one direction, or Natalie Merchant, for another. That's another vote for Bruce writing songs for Natalie Merchant. I hadn't expected there to be any, much less 4 or 5 or however many I've mentioned her for so far.)
Bryant: You know who I’d have given this one to? Patti Scialfa and Nils Lofgren, to do as a duo. They’d have killed it. I’d happily hear Natalie Merchant sing it, too. I like it probably a bit more than you do, but this is kind of similar to some of the Tom Joad songs. I agree that the production here is strong, and I think if Tom Joad had been a bit more adventurous in that regard, it might have helped. 3/5 from me. These days, do you think Bruce would get crucified for doing a song from the bad guys’ perspective (as it would get labeled)? If anything, it was even riskier in 2002.
Bryan: 2/5 It's fine but the mood/lyrics don't match to me. Am I judging it by what it could be and not by what it is? Maybe. As a 9/11 response it resonates with me only as much as McCartney's "Freedom," which is to say not much. Great title, though.
Bryant: You may give up on me after this. 5.5/5 This is one of my absolute favorite Springsteen songs. Among other things, I love how they get close to sneaking a bit of “People Get Ready” into the mix. But I pretty much love everything about this. Bruce’s vocals, the gospel-esque background vocals, the fact that the song was actually written prior to 9/11 (a fact I’d not have remembered if Wikipedia hadn’t reminded me), Max, etc. It’s glorious. I might actually prefer the live version from the Tribute to Heroes show. That was where I heard the song first, and I thought it was going to wreck me. It still almost does. Every time.
~
Bryan: 49.7 Total, 3.3 Average. Got that drum sound that kind of bothers me throughout, but I can't single The Rising out for that; it's an across the board production choice hardly unique to it. (I think we discuss this a little further next time or the time after that - I've got temporal-vertigo from our timeline of writing these vs. when they're being published.) I think some of the numbers that should sound bigger and more personalized to me like the title track and closing/opening tracks weigh against it more heavily in my estimation. Like, the album isn’t bad but the failure to achieve the stellar orbit they should get to makes me downgrade it ever so slightly. Bryant: 46.5 total, 3.1 average. So that puts this behind a lot of stuff for me. Ahead of Asbury Park, though; which feels wrong to me. I actually like that first album a lot, a few tracks excepted. Those few tracks weigh it down, though. Here, there’s a few tracks keeping it aloft. I guess it’s a six-versus-half-a-dozen situation.
RANKINGS
Bryant:
Human Touch 1.7
Lucky Town 2.15
The Ghost of Tom Joad 2.46
Book of Dreams 2.58
Chimes of Freedom 2.69
In Concert / Mtv Plugged 2.75
Greetings from Asbury Park 2.75
Tracks 2.81
Blood Brothers 2.9
The Rising 3.1
Tunnel of Love 3.35
Greatest Hits (New Tracks Only) 3.38
The River 3.39
Live in New York City 3.48
The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle 3.68
Live ’75 - ‘85 3.7
Loose Ends 3.92
Born to Run 4.35
Darkness on the Edge of Town 4.4
Nebraska 4.63
Born in the USA 4.88
Bryan:
Lucky Town 2.15
Greetings from Asbury Park 2.19
The Ghost of Tom Joad 2.44
In Concert / MTV Plugged 2.82
Tracks 2.83
Chimes of Freedom 2.86
Blood Brothers 2.88
Human Touch 2.9
Book of Dreams 3.1
The Rising 3.3
The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle 3.43
Live in New York City 3.5
Loose Ends 3.63
Greatest Hits (New Tracks Only) 3.65
The River 3.71
Tunnel of Love 3.8
Darkness on the Edge of Town 3.82
Live ’75 - ‘85 4
Born to Run 4.41
Nebraska 4.5
Born in the USA 5.4
It's amazing how far you can get into the comments on that "Waiting on a Sunny Day" video without there being a negative comment. (I'm sure one must be there, but I turned back before I got to it.) For YouTube, that's nothing short of astonishing; usually, it's the first thing you see.
ReplyDeleteA Festivus miracle!
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