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| Tonight! |
Welcome back to Bryant's and my listen-through to the Boss-man's catalog. Technically, Odeon came out on the last day of February 2006, which is before the last one we covered (The Seeger Sessions, released April 2006.) But I figured it made sense to cover the two live releases in the same weekend. We'll be back on track chronologically after tomorrow's entry. The subject line refers to the posters plastered around London that Bruce, upon seeing them, tore down in a pique.
Tonight's entry got me thinking about all of the other live albums recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon. The venue's undergone some name changes, but the Odeon period (1962-1992) includes key live albums in my collection from Queen, Black Sabbath, and Iron Maiden. What would be your top 5 or 10, either favorites or wish-list acquisitions?
Bryant: I don't know that I would have a top-5 wanted list. It's probably a case by case thing, or a have-every-one-ever-made-lined-up-in-a-shelf thing. I do love the allure of a whopping big collection.
Bryan: Myself as well. It's never occurred to me to choose a venue and collect everything recorded there. Not that I need a new project. Ah well - we've got one right in front of us so let's have at it.
DISC ONE
"Thunder Road"
Bryant: Is there a live version of this song that ISN’T a stripped-down, no-frills take? I mean, I love this, but I kinda want to hear the E Street fellas take a run at it, too. That said, this IS undeniably great. I’m going to give it a very slightly lower score than the similar version from the live box set. 4.40/5
Bryan: 3.5/5 I'm kind of getting sick of this tune. I think this is a pretty good version, but yeah, I don't need to hear this one again for a long while. That's not the case with -
"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"
Bryan: which I always enjoy. Same score, though: 3.5/5
Bryant: Bruce’s vocals seem off here, but otherwise this is glorious. Weird to hear a short version of it live! 2.75/5
Bryant: 2.25/5 A (mostly) well-played version of a good song. Things get a bit over-dramatic toward the end; it helps if you’re watching as opposed to just listening, but still, I don’t know what the hell Bruce is doing for a while there.
Bryan: Definitely. I still like it pretty well. I like the Live Set version more, I guess, but not by much. 3.5/5
"Lost in the Flood"
Bryant: Is Bruce just high as fuck here, or what’s going on? About to have a heart attack? The vocals toward the beginning really bring this down for me. 2/5
Bryan: 3/5 I like it about the same as the studio version I guess. A little less. I'm not having the reaction to Bruce's vocals as you are on this one. They seem fine to me, or fine for live, I mean. Hell, he sounds worse on each of the first 3 studio albums to me.
Bryan: As you know, I really love the studio version. This is a decent job of it live. The band's pretty tight; the guitar here reminds me of The Edge from "All I Want Is You," with that hyperbolic strumming. 4/5 Fucking great ending. Rock and roll, baby!
Bryant: The chugging harmonica at the beginning of this is a different sound for the E Street Band, but it plays well against the shimmery guitar. 2.5/5
"Born to Run"
Bryant: A perfunctory and uninspiring runthrough of a newly-minted classic. 1/5 I’m not sure Bruce’s head was in the game this night in London 42 years ago.
Bryan: You may be onto something, though - when Bruce and the gang arrived in London he tore down every poster he saw because he thought they were misrepresenting (and overhyping) him, and he probably reacted to that in some way by performing differently. I don't dislike it, but I agree it's not a great version of this. Compared to the Live Set version, hell, it's not even the same song. But, it's still pretty good. 3.25/5
Bryan: Now this is interesting. All in all this concert is a lot better than I expected - interesting contrast to your own reaction to it. 3.5/5
Bryant: This is a very different take on this particular song, and it mostly works for me…except, again, for Bruce’s vocals. He’s coming to us from the moon tonight. 1.5/5
"It's Hard To Be a Saint in the City"
Bryant: Ditto. 1.5/5
Bryan: Just not a big fan of this tune, live or otherwise. I do like the sustained sax and other crescendos right after the chorus but everything else bugs me. I always wonder why Bruce is doing a 20 minute version of the SNL theme whenever I hear this. Unfair but there it is. 1.25/5
"Backstreets"
Bryan: Yeah, not the best version of this for sure. Pulls it together for the big finish tho IMO. 3/5
Bryant: 2/5 Bruce seems to have sobered up a little, so that helps.
Bryan: Maybe he's not just performing a little differently on account of the London hype/ his nervousness/ whatever: maybe he WAS just high as fuck.
DISC TWO
Bryant: Do I really need seventeen minutes’ worth of “Kitty’s Back”? Probably not. But hey, it’s an opportunity for the Band to shine, which makes it a-ok in my book. In theory. In practice, this is fairly tedious for me. 1/5
Bryan: It's probably the Dead fan (or maybe the prog rock fan) in me, but long tedious let-the-band-shine versions of studio classics are fairly agreeable to me. And this one I kind of love. 4.15/5
"Jungleland"
Bryan: 3/5 Not this one though. For the record you do seem a little grumpier than usual in your remarks! But: you're also right and this while a great glimpse of the early band some of these versions aren't so hot. And really when a band gets to the release-the-archives phase, particularly for an artist like Bruce who has such vast amounts of tunes, there's an awful lot of other versions to compare it to. Still, historic show and all, I get it, and I think they do a decent job here.
Bryant: I’m really just not feeling this album. Which is weird, because my memory of it from seeing the videos is that it was terrific. I dunno, maybe I’m just a grump. 2/5
"Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"
Bryan: 2.5/5 Love the band intros. What a potent live force the E Street Band was even in 1975, as all these songs attest to. But, still not a fave for me.
Bryant: This is fine, I guess. 2/5
"4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)"
Bryan: Yeah not so hot. 2/5
Bryant: I’m not feeling it. 1.5/5
Bryant: Everyone seems to be having a blast on this, which counts for something. 2/5 The medley consists of “Devil With a Blue Dress On,” “Jenny Take a Ride,” “GoodGolly, Miss Molly,” and “C.C. Rider.” Here’s a superior version from the Born in the U.S.A. tour that adds several songs and runs over twenty minutes!
Bryan: The version you sent is definitely dynamite, but as with "Kitty's Back" up there, I kind of love this. 4/5 Old time rock and roll getting its due from a 70s band that still knows its power.
"For You"
Bryant: “For You” – This, I like. Quite a bit, actually. Shed of the need to race around the stage like a Tasmanian Devil, Bruce focuses on the song, and gets it for all it’s worth. The approach plays up the lyrics, and if you enjoy those, this might be the definitive version of this particular song. I’m not sure it is that for me; I like the studio version. But I’m going to give this an equivalent score. 2.75/5
Bryan: It's funny this is the one you like (tho you still give it a low score!) This is easily my least favorite on the album. 1.5/5 I'm not a huge fan of the tune itself, though.
"Quarter to Three"
Bryant: This, obviously, is a cover song. Specifically, of a Gary U.S. Bonds song. Springsteen would eventually work with Bonds on a couple of albums in the early eighties. This cover is like most of the Hammersmith Odeon album: ragged as fuck, but played with intensity. 1.5/5
Bryan: 4/5 Another one I kind of really love. I wish they would do a full-on version of "Runaway Sue" or some other Dion and the Belmonts stuff. Maybe they do, I should look it up. Anyway this hits on pretty much all cylinders for me.
~
Bryant: 32.65 overall, 2.04 average. That puts it above only Human Touch for me! Very surprising. I might have to watch the video version again and reassess. Not tonight, though.
Bryan: 49.65 total, 3.1 avg. That ties it with your Human Touch/ Lucky Town mash-up, aka (A Lucky Touch) In Human Town.
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
Hammersmith Odeon, London 3.1
The Rising 3.3
Devils and Dust 3.36
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
We Shall Overcome: The Pete Seeger Sessions 3.67
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
Bryant:
Human Touch 1.7
Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 2.04
Lucky Town 2.15
The Ghost of Tom Joad 2.46
Devils and Dust 2.48
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
We Shall Overcome: The Pete Seeger Sessions 3.37
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
Bryant: What's weird about this is that when I watched the concert -- and this was only maybe a couple of years ago (around the time High Hopes came out, I think) -- I thought it was freakin' fantastic. So I was really surprised to have some of these reactions.
Sometimes I think I might be a schizo, but in really lame ways.
Bryan: (Trailer-guy-voice) "Tonight, after THE JANITOR *, it's Bryant Burnette in... LAME SCHIZO."
Bryant: I think it'd be a split-screen of me, giving a thumbs up and a smile on side of my face/body and a thumbs down and a frown on the other. And cheesy comedy music of some sort.
Oh, the ratings! Eat yer heart out, Walking Dead!
* I don't know exactly what this joke refers to. I suspect the set-up for THE JANITOR was discussed in some Bruce-post to come, and (writing/editing these slightly out of order) the set-up will only be described then. Apparently, though, it's a good lead-in for Lame Schizo on the Dog Star UHF Channel Beyond the Dial.
The reference to "The Janitor" made sense to me when you made it in our emailings, but I will be doggone if I can remember now what it was referring to.
ReplyDeleteWas there something in a "Let's Rap About Cap" installment or something like that...? For some reason, my brain is saying "comics." More than usual, I mean.
Ahh, well-remembered. There's the one panel in this one (http://mcmolo.blogspot.com/2016/10/lets-rap-about-cap-pt-3-what-if.html) where I said its contents ("I may be just a glorified janitor around here, but I know a commie plot when I see one!") was like the Dog Star Omnibus manifesto/ pilot for a show. This may have been in an email? In the comments? I can't recall. From there I think it became "Bryan McMillan is... THE JANITOR." The idea still amuses me though.
DeleteA couple more thoughts:
ReplyDelete(1) That "High As Fuck" song is pretty damn funny. I haven't, personally...but I kind of want to after listening to that, just to have something to talk about. Hmm. Probably shouldn't admit that.
(2) Bruce writes about this show -- including the poster-removal tantrum -- in "Born to Run." Having read that now, I'm even more interested in reappraising this one.
(3) I really DO sound grumpy for most of this!
Glad you enjoyed the Lajoie song. He's got a few others that really crack me up. (Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PsnxDQvQpw)
DeleteHe's got a lot more on YouTube than the last time I looked. Here's a fun sequel to the one just-linked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vofXcC0rj4
DeleteIs any genre of music more parody-worthy than hip-hop?
DeleteOther than hair metal, I mean; that one will NEVER be dethroned as parody material.
Very true - hair metal (all metal, kinda) is the king of parody material. Hip hop is second most def. (Third? Baroque chamber music, naturally.)
DeleteWhen THE LONELY ISLAND - INCREDIBAD came out I thought maybe it would be something of a genre-killer. It felt like an expose almost - like, okay, here's exactly how easy and ridiculous it is to put out an album like this and yet for years lesser talents have been doing it and you've been treating them (ahem, Kanye - I'm convinced the whole Kanye phenom is exactly like the Charlize Theron subplot from ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT s3) like they're geniuses.
But, inevitably I was wrong. (A friend of mine who's about 10 years older said he thought the same thing when SPINAL TAP came out, and I can totally understand it.)
Parody or not, metal (and, I suspect, hip hop) rules.