The Seeger Sessions Debate Continues at Blogcritics
The following is a comment I posted On Blogcritics.org earlier tonight in response to an article by DJ Radiohead on the upcoming Bruce Springsteen release We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, which will be released by Columbia Records on April 25.
You can find the original article, along with comments (including my own, reprinted here) at http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/04/04/152417.php
Hey Mr. DJ,
So you know I've gotta weigh in on this one.
As you already noted in your piece, I'm less than thrilled about The Seeger Sessions.
The main reason for this is a point you actually make very well.
Springsteen himself has set the bar very high primarily as a songwriter. To a slightly lesser, but no less significant degree to many of us fans, he has also made his reputation as a live performer...which is where his gifts as a master storyteller really come alive.
I agree with Lisa's observations about the Devils and Dust tour. Those we're wonde
rful shows that revealed a whole other side of Bruce.
But what really made them special was how night after night the setlists would change, and Bruce would reach deep into his considerable catalog and reinvent his work.
For the crowds fortunate enough to witness some of those shows, they we're often rewarded with the rediscovery of obscure and long forgotten gems like "The Promise" or "Janey Dont You Lose Heart" (I heard both on a single night last year in Vancouver).
Again, that's HIS WORK I'm talking about.
Not someone else's...even if it is a folk icon like Seeger.
While I also concur with Lisa that, at least in some ways, Bruce's muse leading him back towards the folk side of his roots represents a full circle of sorts...I'd also suggest that Springsteen's original roots in folk come more by way of Seeger and Woody Guthrie coming through Bob Dylan than by way of the original artists directly.
I don't claim to speak for all Bruce Springsteen fans. Some may find this new album a wonderful diversion.
But based on what I've heard so far (snippets of every track by the way), I can tell you I'm not exactly salivating for this the same way I would for an album of new, original material.
I've seen Bruce some 31 times since 1975...sometimes travelling as far as Orlando and New Jersey to do so. This may prove only that I'm in desperate need of a life.
But like many who share my, umm..."devotion", I first came to the party with "Born To Run".
Bruce set the bar very high with that record. Watch the documentary DVD from the 30th Anniversary Box if you have any doubt of this. Bruce takes his guys through take after take after take of even the smallest parts to get it right. It was a process, and a labor of love, that nearly killed the guys in the band...but it resulted in what is surely one of the greatest records ever made.
It hasn't always been easy to be a fan in the thirty years since. When Bruce fired the E Street band and hooked up with a bunch of non-descript studio musicians for two simultaneously released albums and a tour in 1992, that was a tough one for a lot of us.
Someone here made the point that those shows we're still better than most other performers could produce.
True enough.
But there was also a forced and unnatural quality about them. There just wasn't that same chemistry and camraderie with Shayne Fontaine and Randy Jackson playing the roles of Bruce's onstage foils.
Like I said, Springsteen set the bar very high from day one. Which means that the expectations of his biggest fans are also set pretty far up there.
But those fans (guys like me) have always been there. And for the most part at least, we have enjoyed every bit of the the ride.
Artists of Br
uce's stature are always going to have a sort of love/hate relationship with their biggest fans. Because of the high standard set by records like Born To Run, as fans we likewise have very high expectations (which some artists, including Springsteen I'm sure, may come to see more as "demands").
Fair enough.
The truth is nobody begrudges Springsteen his need to follow his muse. At least not when that muse produces such revealing, personal, and amazing work as Nebraska, Tunnel of Love, and Devils and Dust.
As a fan, I understand and I even expect that from the truly great artists. Which is why I s
tayed with Elvis Costello when he did his record with The Brodsky Quartet and with Neil Young through vanity projects like Trans and The Shocking Pinks.
But that is exactly what an album of covers by Pete Seeger feels like to me.
It feels like a vanity project.
When the standard...set by Springsteen himself...is Born To
Run on one end of the artsistic spectrum, and Nebraska on the other...well, let's just say that it's doubtful that this particular record is going to remembered in the same way as either.
In an ideal world, as a fan, what I'd most like right now is another album and tour with the E Street Band while the window for that remains open...and the clock on that is ticking rapidly.
What I would settle for at this point is a new album of original material in whatever style Springsteen sees fit to record.
As I've said, I've heard most of the new record in the snippets available out there on the web. There's lots of fiddles, violins, and a "docey-doe" sort of folk swing vibe to it.
If Springsteen feels, as an artist, he needs to sing "Froggy Came A Courting" and the like right now...well, then God bless him. I guess anyway.
But as you more or less put it DJ, that doesn't mean I have to like it.
For my mind, it's a vanity project and it will be remembered as a vanity project.
I'm still hopeful for one more E Street Band album and tour. But given the often meth
odical way Springsteen records...not to mention things like Clarence's health issues and the rumors of Max Weinberg taking a gig as the Tonight Show's next bandleader...I'm not as optimistic as I'd like to be.
I don't begrudge Springsteen for following his muse with The Seeger Sessions.
I just think the timing could have been better.
Here is the track listing and running times for
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
1. Old Dan Tucker - 2:31
2. Jesse James - 3:46
3. Mrs. McGrath - 4:20
4. O, Mary, Don't You Weep - 6:05
5. John Henry - 5:04
6. Erie Canal - 4:03
7. Jacob's Ladder - 4:25
8. My Oklahoma Home - 6:02
9. Eyes on the Prize - 5:14
10. Shenandoah - 4:53
11. Pay Me My Money Down - 4:30
12. We Shall Overcome - 4:51
13. Froggie Went a Courtin' - 4:33
Total Running Time - 60:17
DualDisc Bonus Tracks
Buffalo Gals - 3:11
How Can I Keep From Singing - 2:20
The following is a comment I posted On Blogcritics.org earlier tonight in response to an article by DJ Radiohead on the upcoming Bruce Springsteen release We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, which will be released by Columbia Records on April 25.
You can find the original article, along with comments (including my own, reprinted here) at http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/04/04/152417.php
Hey Mr. DJ,
So you know I've gotta weigh in on this one.
As you already noted in your piece, I'm less than thrilled about The Seeger Sessions.
The main reason for this is a point you actually make very well.
Springsteen himself has set the bar very high primarily as a songwriter. To a slightly lesser, but no less significant degree to many of us fans, he has also made his reputation as a live performer...which is where his gifts as a master storyteller really come alive.
I agree with Lisa's observations about the Devils and Dust tour. Those we're wonde
rful shows that revealed a whole other side of Bruce.But what really made them special was how night after night the setlists would change, and Bruce would reach deep into his considerable catalog and reinvent his work.
For the crowds fortunate enough to witness some of those shows, they we're often rewarded with the rediscovery of obscure and long forgotten gems like "The Promise" or "Janey Dont You Lose Heart" (I heard both on a single night last year in Vancouver).
Again, that's HIS WORK I'm talking about.
Not someone else's...even if it is a folk icon like Seeger.
While I also concur with Lisa that, at least in some ways, Bruce's muse leading him back towards the folk side of his roots represents a full circle of sorts...I'd also suggest that Springsteen's original roots in folk come more by way of Seeger and Woody Guthrie coming through Bob Dylan than by way of the original artists directly.
I don't claim to speak for all Bruce Springsteen fans. Some may find this new album a wonderful diversion.
But based on what I've heard so far (snippets of every track by the way), I can tell you I'm not exactly salivating for this the same way I would for an album of new, original material.
I've seen Bruce some 31 times since 1975...sometimes travelling as far as Orlando and New Jersey to do so. This may prove only that I'm in desperate need of a life.
But like many who share my, umm..."devotion", I first came to the party with "Born To Run".
Bruce set the bar very high with that record. Watch the documentary DVD from the 30th Anniversary Box if you have any doubt of this. Bruce takes his guys through take after take after take of even the smallest parts to get it right. It was a process, and a labor of love, that nearly killed the guys in the band...but it resulted in what is surely one of the greatest records ever made.
It hasn't always been easy to be a fan in the thirty years since. When Bruce fired the E Street band and hooked up with a bunch of non-descript studio musicians for two simultaneously released albums and a tour in 1992, that was a tough one for a lot of us.
Someone here made the point that those shows we're still better than most other performers could produce.
True enough.
But there was also a forced and unnatural quality about them. There just wasn't that same chemistry and camraderie with Shayne Fontaine and Randy Jackson playing the roles of Bruce's onstage foils.
Like I said, Springsteen set the bar very high from day one. Which means that the expectations of his biggest fans are also set pretty far up there.
But those fans (guys like me) have always been there. And for the most part at least, we have enjoyed every bit of the the ride.
Artists of Br
uce's stature are always going to have a sort of love/hate relationship with their biggest fans. Because of the high standard set by records like Born To Run, as fans we likewise have very high expectations (which some artists, including Springsteen I'm sure, may come to see more as "demands").Fair enough.
The truth is nobody begrudges Springsteen his need to follow his muse. At least not when that muse produces such revealing, personal, and amazing work as Nebraska, Tunnel of Love, and Devils and Dust.
As a fan, I understand and I even expect that from the truly great artists. Which is why I s
tayed with Elvis Costello when he did his record with The Brodsky Quartet and with Neil Young through vanity projects like Trans and The Shocking Pinks.But that is exactly what an album of covers by Pete Seeger feels like to me.
It feels like a vanity project.
When the standard...set by Springsteen himself...is Born To
Run on one end of the artsistic spectrum, and Nebraska on the other...well, let's just say that it's doubtful that this particular record is going to remembered in the same way as either.In an ideal world, as a fan, what I'd most like right now is another album and tour with the E Street Band while the window for that remains open...and the clock on that is ticking rapidly.
What I would settle for at this point is a new album of original material in whatever style Springsteen sees fit to record.
As I've said, I've heard most of the new record in the snippets available out there on the web. There's lots of fiddles, violins, and a "docey-doe" sort of folk swing vibe to it.
If Springsteen feels, as an artist, he needs to sing "Froggy Came A Courting" and the like right now...well, then God bless him. I guess anyway.
But as you more or less put it DJ, that doesn't mean I have to like it.
For my mind, it's a vanity project and it will be remembered as a vanity project.
I'm still hopeful for one more E Street Band album and tour. But given the often meth
odical way Springsteen records...not to mention things like Clarence's health issues and the rumors of Max Weinberg taking a gig as the Tonight Show's next bandleader...I'm not as optimistic as I'd like to be.I don't begrudge Springsteen for following his muse with The Seeger Sessions.
I just think the timing could have been better.
Here is the track listing and running times for
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
1. Old Dan Tucker - 2:31
2. Jesse James - 3:46
3. Mrs. McGrath - 4:20
4. O, Mary, Don't You Weep - 6:05
5. John Henry - 5:04
6. Erie Canal - 4:03
7. Jacob's Ladder - 4:25
8. My Oklahoma Home - 6:02
9. Eyes on the Prize - 5:14
10. Shenandoah - 4:53
11. Pay Me My Money Down - 4:30
12. We Shall Overcome - 4:51
13. Froggie Went a Courtin' - 4:33
Total Running Time - 60:17
DualDisc Bonus Tracks
Buffalo Gals - 3:11
How Can I Keep From Singing - 2:20
posted by Glen Boyd at 1:31 AM
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