BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: LIVE IN DUBLIN (2007)
1) Atlantic City; 2) Old Dan
Tucker; 3) Eye On The Prize; 4) Jesse James; 5) Further On (Up The Road); 6) O
Mary Don't You Weep; 7) Erie Canal; 8) If I Should Fall Behind; 9) My Oklahoma
Home; 10) Highway Patrolman; 11) Mrs. McGrath; 12) How Can A Poor Man Stand
Such Times And Live; 13) Jacob's Ladder; 14) Long Time Comin'; 15) Open All
Night; 16) Pay Me My Money Down; 17) Growin' Up; 18) When The Saints Go
Marching In; 19) This Little Light Of Mine; 20) American Land; 21) Blinded By
The Light*; 22) Love Of The Common People*; 23) We Shall Overcome*.
Apparently pleased with the vibes, results (and
sales?) of We Shall Overcome, Bruce
took The Seeger Sessions Band on tour — and not just anywhere on tour, but all
the way to The Point Theatre in Dublin, to show these Irish sissies what a real
man's reel really sounds like. The Irish sissies did not mind, and gave The
Boss a truly international welcome. Probably feeling sanctified about getting
to sing tura-lura-lura-lay smack dab in the heart of tura-lura-lay country and
getting away with this, Bruce released the proceedings as a live DVD and a live
album — not just «another live album», but a special one.
The obvious problem here is that The Seeger
Sessions Band, as you might have guessed, mainly plays songs from The Seeger
Sessions — all of that album is
reproduced here with the exception of ʽJohn Henryʼ (too political?),
ʽShenandoahʼ (too intimate and dirge-y?), and ʽFroggie Went A-Courtin'ʼ (now
THAT I consider the crime of the century — depriving worthy Dubliners of a
passionate, rabble-rousing, ball-breaking ʽFroggie Went A-Courtin'ʼ? What were they thinking?). Naturally, with
the exception of a few extended jam bits, these songs sound mostly identical to
the studio versions, which were produced less than a year ago, and it's not
even a question of adding «live spirit», because The Seeger Sessions were themselves imbued with live spirit. So the
enthusiastic roar of the Irish crowd may add a little adrenaline, but on the
whole, when it comes to «paying me my money down», most people will think twice before paying twice for more or less the same thing.
The gimmick of the record is that, in addition
to all the traditional songs, Bruce sneaks in some of his own material,
rearranged... nay, rewritten in the same
format, and then it all depends on what you think of the idea. Personally, I
think it sucks. Perhaps he thought that he had no choice — the people wanted to
hear at least some of his own songs, yet they would obviously sound strange
wedged in between the old folk classics, so he just had to reinvent them as
«pseudo-old folk classics». But who needs an ʽAtlantic Cityʼ shorn of its
hooks and recast as a speedy, but utterly generic bluegrass romp? Or ʽBlinded
By The Lightʼ losing the verse-chorus contrast and reduced to a mumbled vocal
delivery set to a relentless ska beat? Or ʽFurther On Up The Roadʼ turned from
a dark, grizzly blues-rock number into a happy highlander anthem, with flutes
and accordions and bagpipes (okay, no bagpipes... but there should have been bagpipes)?..
As a one-time experiment, this may be amusing,
but artistically, this is a dead end: Bruce may have succeeded as an interpreter of traditional old-school
songwriting, but as an imitator, he
does poorly even when compared to Woody Guthrie, let alone all those nameless
ballad writers whose legacy has outlived their identities just because the
legacy meant so much more to people than the identities. Likewise, he does not
fare that well when he takes old songs with well-established forms and tries to
recast them into something completely
different — his multi-vocalist take on ʽWhen The Saints Go Marching Inʼ, remade
as a soulful acoustic ballad, is plain boring. Besides, what's up with having a
fully formed brass section, capable of hitting up that New Orleans sound in no
time, and not doing ʽSaintsʼ the way
it should be done? Shouldn't he be old and wise enough now to stop with these
«confound-all-expectations» childish games? Come on out and decide, Mr.
Springsteen — is it «give the people what they want», or is it «the artist bows
down to no public pressure»? You've been having it both ways at the same time
for so long now, it's become downright irritating at times.
Anyway, it's not as if I did not enjoy Live In Dublin — it's just that, on the
larger scale of things, it feels like a conjectural appendix to The Seeger Sessions. Or you might turn
it around and say that the Springsteen vibe really only shines to its brightest
extent in the context of an arena, in which case The Seeger Sessions will be merely a warm-up prelude to the mass
epiphany of Live In Dublin. But
viewing both as equally important would be quite illogical, and I, personally,
choose the former — it's more concise and compact and it lacks any failed
self-experiments. The only track I'd gladly salvage from here is ʽOpen All
Nightʼ, which I didn't even recognize at first, an old Nebraska number completely redone as a rollickin' / rip-roarin'
honky-tonk number with a bedazzling piano part. Put it as a bonus track onto The Seeger Sessions and that's all we
need.
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