The Top 10 Of The First Half: 2009 Edition.

Ah, so here we are. The magical mid-way point. Alright, admittedly, I'm a bit late, and I take full blame for that. I've been filling my time watching NBA summer league games, mostly ones in which Steph Curry is playing, simply because I've been intrigued by the pure volume of shots he has missed. I've got to get over to the Inside Handshake before next week is out. Boy, do I have some material, fellas.

On with it, though. It's so far been a pretty slow first half for music releases. With the more anticipated releases being pushed to the 4th quarter of the year (Jay-Z, Lupe Fiasco, Brand New, etc.) Still, there was music made, and a list to be made discussing said music. Before I dive in, some notes:

-No. No, I have not listened to Dave Matthews' new album. Nor will I. I haven't listened to Dave Matthews since I put "Lover Lay Down" on a mix CD to try to score a makeout session with a girl my senior year of high school (didn't work....thanks, Dave.) I was living in Charlottesville, VA when the recording of the album was going on, and the insanity surrounding it...like most Dave "stuff"...I just didn't get it. I can respect that it's one of the more critically acclaimed albums of the year. But, I can't take any glorified Jam Band seriously. Not even Phish, and Trey Anastasio is the shit.

-I thought the new Animal Collective record was decent, but not top 10. Just getting that out of the way now, so that my music snob friends won't send me hate email and texts. It was a solid album, probably deserving of everything you've read about it....but I thought their previous works were better.

-My friend Justin and I were discussing this, and talked about giving out gold stars to the best contributor to each album, much like grade school, where I never got the number of gold stars that I felt I had coming to me. (Though it's not too late to cough them up, 5th Avenue elementary.)

-Oh, Taking Back Sunday released another sub-par album early last month. So, if you're keeping count.....let's see...how many good albums have they made since their debut?? oh, no, wait....still at Zero.

And, off we go.

10.) Yeah Yeah Yeahs- It's Blitz!: I have an easier time accepting this album than I did Show Your Bones. I think I hated Bones so much simply because it wasn't (Debut album) Fever To Tell. Well, Blitz! isn't either, and though it's not a drastic leap forward, it's not exactly the band tripping over itself, either. I'm admittedly a bit of a Karen O apologist, meaning that I'm one of about 10 people who don't think she's just gone tastelessly too far with the Siouxsie Sioux-esque antics. But, I do feel like she's lost a step in her usually flawless album presence. The tough, self centered, arrogant lyrics still remain, but the bite is a bit more dull. On Fever, when she yelps, "I'll take you out, boy...", you believe it. On Bones, when her cry is, "I'm bigger than the sound", you DEFINITELY believe it. But here, when she lags out, "Off with your head/Dance 'til you're dead"....well....you think about a million other things you'd rather be doing. (Not to mention, what's with all of the artists now demanding us to dance until there's bodily harm? eh, I digress.) I'm not much of a producer name-drop geek, but I think the thing that holds Blitz! together so flawlessly is Nick Launay, who used to produce Talking Heads and PiL....so, you've got to imagine if you can work with David Byrne AND John Lydon...Karen O's got to be a breeze. On one hand, we've heard better from these guys, and this album is just like, ok, we get it....The Y's are critical darlings who simply made another album for critics to make love to in between their pages. But, at the core, 3 full length albums in, who's to say that the Y's aren't this decade's most exciting band?

GOLD STAR GOES TO: Well, I'd like to say Nick Zinner, as he was the straw that stirred the drink on Bones....but, it has to go to Launay. This album, for better or worse, is cleaner sounding, and less jumbled than their previous effort, thanks to the work of Launay.

9.) Fall Out Boy- Folie De Deux: Don't be shocked. Here's the thing that Chi-town's favorite sons have figured out: If your first album is a CLASSIC....don't try to top it. You hear that Bloc Party? Taking Back Sunday? you guys listening in? Folie is FOB's most....comfortable record to date. It doesn't have the pressure of "Major label debut hype" that Cork Tree had thrust upon it. And most importantly, it doesn't have that feel that Infinity on High had, which felt like the guys were just trying to prove they belonged at the toppermost of the poppermost, and pulling out all the stops in the process (Though, Infinity could open the album with one of the better lines of all time, "Last summer we took 3's across the board/but by fall we were a cover story now in stores"....nothing like sticking it to critics on the first line of a new album, covering resentment from the old, eh?). Jay-Z intro? (on a song shamelessly titled "Thriller", no less), Babyface's slick overproduction? Leonard Cohen rip-offs? Nope. Not on this record. Folie is so dialed down in fact, that if it wasn't for Patrick Stump's distinctive vocals, you'd forget it was a FOB album. Lyrically, Pete Wentz spends the whole of the album answering the ever burning question, "Will this kid ever grow the fuck up???"

The answer? A resounding "kind of". He makes a concentrated effort to steer away from his contemporaries' haphazard metaphorical overuse (though I could do without lines such as "The only thing suicidal here is the doors"....I smiled the first time I heard it, and then it got annoying), and really takes on the responsibility of toning himself down for the greater good. I know he'll always be hard to be taken seriously, and I can respect that. But if we're under some grand illusion that he's a poor lyricist, I can't buy it. Will his lyrics ever peak like they did on (Debut) Take This To Your Grave? probably not. But here, it's not Wentz taking aim at his critics, his paparazzi, his lost loves, or his own band....it's Wentz taking aim at Wentz. And that has to be appreciated. The album's highlight, and what will probably go down as the band's finest single is the Hey Jude-esque "What A Catch, Donnie", which features Elvis Costello among a host of others. And it works. And that's all you can ask out of any band who has a dominant egomaniac at the helm, and a shy, nervy, vocalist singing lyrics he doesn't even believe. Just keep working. This record won't hold up like Grave, but it's not supposed to.

GOLD STAR: Well, I want to say drummer Andy Hurley, because he's truly not bad, and NEVER gets credit. But, this was Patrick Stump's album, from the co-production duties, to the simple fact that he gets vocally better. Every. Single. Album. Oh, and if you missed his acoustic cover of Prince's damn near impossible "I Wanna Be UR Lover"....do yourself a favor.

8.) Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream: Shut up. Look, I'm biased. And this album wasn't bad. So, whatever. I don't have to explain myself.

GOLD STAR: Goes to me. Because I put up with Bruce's shitty 90's music just to get to this point where he's cementing his late career legacy by making good music, and I can rub everyone's face in it. Ummm. Moving on.

7.) Mos Def- The Ecstatic: Now, for years, Mos Def has been an enigma. I mean, raw talent-wise, he's almost peerless. I'm not joking. The problem is, it's hard to be peerless when your peers are making albums that have surpassed every attempt. Yeah, Black on Both Sides was decent, but hip-hop, can we stop acting like that was something that it wasn't? yeah, it was a decent album, but if anyone else has THAT record as their best, we don't take it seriously. Thankfully, Ecstatic came along, before Mos was relegated to the "Well, he's a better actor than rapper..." discussion. And just in time....to say that it's been a bad showing for Rap this year would be an understatement. And it took 4 albums to get him there, but you understand that Mos has the understanding now. This is an album of someone finally grasping what they're capable of, and never trying to go over it, which is admirable. Madlib's production is a treat, which isn't surprising. The fact that it's a 16 track album that clocks in at just around 45 minutes is also refreshing. Each track is to the point, the longest track, "Auditorium" is 4:34, and that's likely because it features Slick Rick, who never found a short way to express himself. Honestly, I can say, and this might sound off, that I've gotten musically all I know I can get out of Mos Def. Young Hollywood can now do with him what they must. He won't top this album.

GOLD STAR: J Dilla. Even though he only produced one track, that track was a strong, firm reminder of how much he is missed in the hip-hop community, and at a time like this, when his presence is needed more than ever.

6.) Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers: First off, this album is going to age well. This is the first Manic's album since 1994's Holy Bible to use the lyrics of missing since 1995/presumed dead guitarist and lyricst Richey James. If you're asking me, personally, who my maybe top 5 lyricists of all time are, it'd be hard for me to NOT include Richey James. When he went missing under odd circumstances (want an interesting story? do some research on the Manics, and Richey), and years later was presumed dead, I just assumed that the Manics would pack it up, since vocalist James Dean Bradfield is a bit of a joke, and Nicky Wire is terrible. Either you find this album somber, and touching, or just plain boring. There's no middle ground with this record, which is exactly why it's worth a listen. If you can feel strongly un-divided about anything, let it be the music of this band, who is about as divided as it gets. Critics scoffed at the fact that Wire and Bradfield went back through Richey's old journals to piece together lyrics for this record, which, I admit....I'm on the fence about. But, what else do you do with left behind lyrics of a deceased bandmate?? And there's some classic Richey stuff in here. The chorus to "All is Vanity" eeks out, "'it's not what's wrong it's what's right/that makes me feel like I'm talking a foreign language sometimes". Plus, Steve Albini takes over production duties, which makes the sound much more haunting, dense, and just flat out brilliant. This album does in it's first four tracks what no album this year will ever do. Take my word there. The only gripe is Nicky Wire's tinny guitar playing. Fuck, how does a guy with as little musical skill as Wire LAST in a band like the Manics?

GOLD STAR: Ummm....Richey James. Without his lyrics, this album is as worthless as the previous two Manics albums. And we lyricists are reminded that the lyrical evolution of Costello-to Morrisey-to Wentz has another pillar.

5.) Silversun Pickups - Swoon: I find myself just waiting for the Pickups to mess up. Not because I don't like them. But, because they seem to be too good to be true. They're not original, make no mistake about it. They've copped their style from My Bloody Valentine, and early Pumpkins. But they've done right by expanding on what those two bands were aiming for, and really, what Billy Corgan WISHES he could have gotten to. The melodic quality of Swoon, much like it's predecessor, Carnavas, leans on Corgan, and the Pumpkins. But the sheer VOLUME of the music is comparable to MBV, but far surpasses anything the Valentine's ever did. And, again, it works. I can accept that the lyrics are a bit....well, bad. But, who ever had allusions of the Pickups being great lyricists? Not I. You'll get complaints of "boring", "unoriginal", and "pretentious"...but, looking at the state of alt-rock in this modern era, a band like the Pickups, to me, are a breath of fresh air. A great shoegaze album, at a time where shoegaze was supposed to be long gone. That alone gets high marks from me.

An aside/rant on this record: Where are all the indie purists screaming "RIPOFF!" at the Pickups for this record, when the aforementioned Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion is a vicious rip off of Brain Wilson's Pet Sounds efforts. Are we to say that "ripping off" Billy Corgan is a worse offense than ripping off Brian Wilson? or is the Collective just a more credible indie "name-drop" band than the Pickups?

Oh, or, is it that you so-called indie purists have no idea what Pet Sounds is? Either way, it's a long fall from the high horses, my friends. Load up the iPods with all of the trends.

GOLD STAR: Nikki Monninger, because my rant on women playing bass in indie rock bands got me into a lot of trouble. And she had a much better musical showing on this record than on the previous.

4.) Prince - Lotusflow3r: Ok, I have to tread carefully here, because I already had my one, "biased/fanboy" pick. But, no. I genuinely feel like this album belongs here. Prince at his most average still blows his peers out of the water. Period. And, ok, a triple album, seemingly just for the sake of exposing Bria Valente to the world? maybe not the greatest. Bria's portion isn't bad, but I feel like it's what holds this record back from topping this list. It's not exciting, it's simple, boring, formulaish R&B. Prince's proteges often come arcoss as forced, and puppet-like, and Valente is no different, but her stuff isn't ALL forgettable, she gives us "Elixer", which is mostly good because it's the last song on her portion of the triple album. This album is a lot to take in, two discs of just prince, Lotusflow3r, and MPLSound, but it never gets dry, or boring, like RCHP's Stadium Arcadium, which by the end of, I wanted to go on some sort of chocolate binge. Prince has been back since Musicology, people have just been sleeping on it. Don't make the mistake.

GOLD STAR: Bria Valente. Just because if Prince likes her, I like her.

3.) Sonic Youth - The Eternal: Finally. FINALLY. When SY announced that they were ending their long-standing relationship with Geffen after 2005's Rather Ripped, I bowed my head a bit. Oh, what ever will David Geffen do now for credibility. You can only be "the guy that signed Nirvana" for so long, right? I mean, no disrespect Dave, but Kurt's been gone for well over a decade. Anyway, the Youth made the expected move to Matador records, and recorded this album in Hoboken, New Jersey over a hectic month-long period in Hoboken, New Jersey. And it sounds like it. Kim Gordon has always been free of my rants against women playing bass in indie rock bands. Because, well, she's the QUEEN of female indie-ism. Before the indie heartthrobs of Jenny Lewis, the aforementioned Nikki Monninger, Ani DiFranco, and so on, Kim Gordon was the love of the 80's garage scene. And her singing has gotten so much cleaner, more honest, and more pure. She sings all of the best stuff on Eternal, and Thurston Moore proudly fades into the background to do what he does best. Dominate from within. I don't know what else can be said. The Yeah Yeah Yeah's might be more exciting, but Sonic Youth may easily be the most important band of my lifetime. This album was dedicated to Ron Asheton of the Stooges, who died during it's recording. Which is pretty awesome.

GOLD STAR: Gordon. She's never been one for presence, gladly deferring to Moore and Lee Ranaldo, but you get the sense that she finally got the album that she deserved. Bravo. I'll still take her over Jenny Lewis, any day.

2.) The Decemberists - The Hazards Of Love: This is one of those "everything you've read about it is true" albums. It's gotten massive acclaim heaped upon it, and it's all dead on. The thing that most music fans appreciate about a band like the Decemberists is the willingness to progress. Colin Meloy always makes the effort to challenge himself, and he ventures into dark territory here, covering well, mostly songs about lost love, and murder. Unlike their previous effort, The Crane Wife, the musical potential finally outshines the lyrics. Actually, if I can be honest, the lyrics have gotten worse a bit ("She being full of charity/a credit to her sex"? Seriously?). The sludge guitars are reminiscent of early Sabbath, which coupled with the themes of this album seem just about right. And it doesn't come off gimmicky, as one might think, although Meloy has flaunted the fact that this album was INDEED a gimmick. Now, could I do without Rock Operas? yeah, probably. I mean, Green Day's attempt to re-create American Idiot, this year's 20th Century Breakdown, was a bitter failure. So, I really wasn't invested too much in whatever storyline Meloy and his mates were trying to get across. I mean, I know there's something about a forest-dwelling fawn somewhere in there. Otherwise, I get lost. But, much like My Chemical Romance's Black Parade, the music is so good, that it overshadows whatever story there is to be told. Stop making concepts. Start making fantastic music. Hmmmm..... We're onto something, indie scene.

GOLD STAR: Two of them go to Becky Stark from the band Lavender Diamond, and Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond. Their guest vocals lent to whatever the story was, but again, I wasn't paying attention. I just thought they held up well, and both of their bands have diamond in the title.

AND FINALLY.

1.) The Dream - Love Vs. Money: Most will scoff at the notion that a true modern R&B album can hold this much acclaim. I would naturally scoff at it. Dream's first record, 2007's Love/Hate held my attention for all of about 2 minutes. Sure, I'd heard about the genius hit-maker who penned Rihanna's "Umbrella", and Mary J. Blige's "Just Fine", but when I heard his first album, it just sounded like a guy who wrote all of his best songs for other people. Love Vs. Money first caught my attention when someone slid it to me after it leaked a week early. I didn't even consider listening to it. I had heard the first single, "Rockin' That Thang/Shit", and was more impressed than normal, but figured it was the squirrel with unattractive glasses getting better looking with contacts. Then something odd happened. Rolling Stone magazine influenced me. Has it been a worthless rag for some time? yes. But here's the interesting turn of events. Love Vs. Money secured a 4.5 star rating in RS. No, and I mean NO R&B album has been rated that high since Marvin Gaye. Rolling Stone gives R&B albums good ratings about as often as OSU wins a bowl game. But, it wasn't just RS alone, the album got universal acclaim, which, again, in today's mainstream R&B climate, is just unreal. So, I finally gave it a listen. See, here's the thing. It's not that Dream is THAT much further ahead of the curve than his peers. This album isn't great because of what he does do, it's more great because of what he DOESN'T do. In a genre where everything is overblown, dance moves are placed higher than vocal abilities, and almost everyone is considered a hit-maker, Dream stands out. He dances very little, almost in a natural sense. Not in the frantic, urgent, trying to prove himself way that Chris Brown and co. do. He's toned down the production this time around to make way for his nearly flawless falsetto. Dream is the new R. Kelly. But, seemingly better. I mean, yeah, this album is sex, sex, bravado, sex. But not in the tasteless, clobber you over the head way. Some of it's even funny, on the track "Sweat it out", the topic is post-sex hair grooming. "I Luv Your Girl" shamelessley discusses, well, an unfortunate attraction to your girlfriend. Dream's not a lyricist, by any regard, but he is a master craftsman of song. And this time around, he's seemed to save the best for himself. Which makes Love vs. Money more than just a boastful genre piece.

GOLD STAR: Tricky Stewart. Dream's production partner needs to get more work. Really, this record can't be fully appreciated until it's listened to on headphones. The multi-layered production is risky, and amazing all at once.

And there you have it. While these 10 are solid, by year's end, I would venture to guess that only 3-4 of them stick around.

99.5 Problems (Or, Jay-Z, Please Don't Do This To Me.)

Hey, Jay. Hove. Jig-....look, can I call you Shawn for the purpose of this? I want to be clear on something. I'm a big fan. Me and everyone I know? yeah, we're excited about Blueprint 3, damn near too excited. Just the other day, I checked the release date again, just to check to make sure that it isn't actually coming out THIS Tuesday. If you notice, Shawn, last year...on THIS very site, I wrote a borderline absurd piece arguing you, yes....you, as the greatest songwriter of the past 20 years. That said, can I ask one thing of you, Shawn? just one small favor?

Don't become "that" musician. Not that guy. You know what I'm talking about. The "Oh, I'm getting older and insecure in my legacy" musician. Is that too much to ask? That I don't want you to become hip-hop's version of Van Morrison, putting out shitty live greatest hits albums for 10 years straight just to validate your once-greatness?

I understand 40 is right around the corner. Congrats on that, by the way. I mean, you're still at the top of the heap, and in rap's young lifespan, I don't think any one's made it to 40 without fizzling out, or becoming insane, and beefing with Nelly. A little KRS-One humor there, Shawn. I'm quick. You've even gotten so much larger than life, that rap fans, myself included, have tended to ignore some of your less favorable moments. I mean, going after Nas, admittedly was a bad idea, Shawn, no? I mean, what was that REALLY about? Yeah, after it was over, you made it as though it was just to promote records, but really. We hip hop fans saw through that. We know it's always stuck in your craw that Reasonable Doubt wasn't Illmatic. That by 2001, when the most scholarly of hip-hop scholars discussed the greatest albums of all time in the genre, with Illmatic on the highest horse, and Reasonable Doubt somewhere, anywhere below it. I appreciate that in 2001, you really felt that you had Nas on his heels, and struck accordingly. Nothing like a little payback for some long brewing animosity, right? ha, indeed I am right. But you didn't think "Ether" was going to be THAT intense, did you? I mean, damn, that takes the top spot of any diss track ever. I hate to say it, but you lost, Shawn. You lost, because Nas did in one track what you couldn't do in THREE. And the less said about the low blow in "Super Ugly", the better. Not only that, you lost residually. Yeah, Shawn...I'm all for making nice with the guy that just lyrically ate you alive. Good for hip hop and bla bla bla. But you SIGN the guy to the label you're PRESIDENT of?? And then spend two albums kissing his ass on guest tracks? Great career move for Nas, not so hot for you.

I can ignore that, the fact that in true, pure MC battles, you're 0-1. But you've scared off some MC's that should know better. Prodigy, 50 Cent, and at one point even Lil Wayne, Artists who out of respect, or just plain fear, have backed away. I respected your decision to retire in 2004, despite not understanding it. What I did understand was that The Black Album was the finest work you'd had since your first album, so it made sense to leave on that note. I even ignored your, well, awkward come back. Let's face it, man, I treated "Kingdom Come" like Harry Potter fans treat Voldemort. There was no need to jump on the kill your idols bandwagon there. You probably knew that wasn't your best effort, and I knew you'd be back. Why ruin a chance to say I told you so? (which I did, when American Gangster dropped). Shawn, you're one of about 3 current artists who are bigger than their genre, and since Johnny Cash died, you're one of about 2 that's actually living. It stopped being about "like" long ago, and just increasingly became about "respect"....Yeah, Oasis might not have respected you before Glastonbury in 2007, but I'll be damned if you didn't shut our friends across the ocean's mouths. Hip-hop appreciated your tasteful support of Barack Obama, not just making all hip-hop supports of Obama look maniacal. Hip Hop appreciates it when you go on talk shows, to defend the genre, speaking cooly, evenly, articulating, and shattering another stereotype each time. You've aged gracefully, in a genre that isn't supposed to age well, Shawn, again....well done.

But lately, there's been a change. I mean, did I LIKE "D.O.A." why, yes. I suppose I did. I LOVED it, on first listen. I think I loved the novelty of it, you know? sitting by the radio, waiting for that world premiere from an artist you enjoy? Pat Flex and the guys at Hot 97 on the back one time for all rap fans out there, by the way, Shawn. And hey, I hate autotune as much as the next guy who liked Wayne better 3 years ago, but there was something a bit bullyish about it, Mr. Carter. Far be it for me to come across as the old schoolhouse teacher, wagging my finger, and telling you to sit in a corner...but, really. I mean, go a little easier on those who have really helped your career. You pretty much spat on Kanye West without REALLY saying his name, likely because you knew he admires you far too much to say, or do anything, except for continue to hand you all of his best beats, and make 8-10 minute songs about you. And again, do I think it was necessary for SOMEONE to say what you said?....probably. But to think that "D.O.A." is going to go down as some kind of historical landmark of hip-hop is a bit skewed, even if NO I.D. did sample some of the cleanest sounding dirty horns I've ever heard. And now Game's picking on you again. He's calling you old, man. And boy, does that have to suck. Because let's face it, you're getting older. Yeah, 40's the new 30, but in rap years, you're fucking 72. But that shouldn't even matter, because again, you're still at the top of your game. You're hip-hop's first legend that's lived through the early-mid 90's, and still thrives now. I mean Nas does well for himself, but you're racing to a billion. You're our Bob Dylan. Minus the mumbling, and creepy shit. Remember what you said on 'Ye's first album? "Hove's a living legend and I'll tell you why/Everybody wanna be Hove, and Hove's still alive?" EXACTLY. It's lonely dodging bullets (literal and figurative) at the top, and you've been unscathed. So, why even respond to Game? why even do him the honor of putting his name in a song? to scare him off, like you did with Prodigy? no dice, Shawn. See, Game's not bad. And he's a bit tenacious, like most west coast MCs are. He's not going to quit. I'm not saying that you can't take him out, but man.... all I know is, Ice Cube is from the West. And that dude wrote "No Vaseline", which, until "Ether" (ahem, which was the track that slayed you, if we recall), was the best diss track ever recorded. Look, what do you really have to prove? to anyone?? you're certified, every respected person in hip hop, from KRS to Rick Rubin, respects you. I mean, LL Cool J doesn't, but he hasn't counted since....well, probably since he destroyed Canibus' career (but, between us, Shawn...really, that probably wasn't THAT hard to do, am I right?) Point is, you've lately been going into full on, "I've got to protect my aging legacy" mode. Lobbing random threats at Lil' Wayne ("He knows I can come for his head whenever I want"???), poking at Jim Jones more than you should, since he should have stopped being on your radar a while ago, and still. STILL defending your spotty tenure as Def Jam's president (I mean, it wasn't exactly bad.....but it wasn't good, and I'm pretty sure Russell Simmons is still pissed at you.), as though you have to do those things to validate yourself.

We fans always knew this time would come along, Shawn. The point where you got older, and the talent became younger, more diverse. Maybe this is just a brief phase. Maybe you're just a little jittery from the anticipation of BP3. But don't do it, man. Wynton Marsalis begs you...have you read an interview with that dude lately?? I mean, at what age, and stage of career mediocrity do you stop being the future of your genre? Oh, not you, I'm talking about Marsalis. I hope you continue making music in some capacity, well into your 40's, Shawn. Maybe even your 50's, if time allows. That's not the point I'm making. The point I'm making, and listen to me....is that no one is doubting your greatness anymore. This isn't 1998 for you, or even 2001, pre-Blueprint 1. We know you're great. Just because another, younger artist is being appreciated, doesn't mean that you can't be. You're amazing when it comes to fostering the careers of young artists in other genres. You've been great with Rihanna! sure, she's got a mediocre voice, but hey! ummm....... well, I forgot the upside I was going to shoot for there. And Patrick Stump? you let a 24 year old suburban kid, who looks like a dairy farmhand, from a pop punk band...and let him produce for you, and your artists, and now he's on his way to being a great young producer. Why can't you be that open to your own genre? I'm not saying it's all bad, but there's times when you come across like the kid with a magnifying glass, standing over a hill of ants. Yeah, you're bigger than rap. But you're not ABOVE it. "Swagga Like Us" was fun, but so forced it hurt to watch, and I mean, I'll say it if you won't....I think it's quite obvious at this point that Kanye West likes you a lot more than you like him. And there's nothing wrong with that. Stop trying to live up to your legacy, Shawn. Because it's already cemented, even if BP3 isn't perfect, we'll all ignore it's flaws, and still hail your presence anyway. And that's not sarcasm, it's true.

Oh, and one last thing....like, is Beyonce overrated?? like, well....you know....oh, you know what? never mind. We'lll talk about it some other time.

Plugging In: Dylan Goes Electric

In this writer's humble opinion, perhaps the single most important performance that shaped the evolution of rock & roll music was Bob Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Certainly, not on a national media scale like Elvis or The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, but more important as to how music would evolve. The songwriter was about to take center stage, and with him bring the album & FM radio.

Now, in 1965 Bob Dylan was no unknown. He was perhaps the biggest star of the folk scene, and was already being hailed as the "Poet of His Generation." He wrote & sang for a cause, most importantly the Civil Rights Movement. He idolized Woody Guthrie & Pete Seeger. He was a contemporary of Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary, Richie Havens, and Judy Collins. He was the voice of the Bohemian movement from Greenwich Village. Young folkies came to stay at The Earle Hotel like Dylan, & to play alongside at clubs like The Gaslight. However, by 1965 the weight had become enormous. Dylan felt used, manipulated, and constrained by those in the folk scene. After meeting The Beatles after a show in NYC in which the music was virtually inaudible over the crowd (which assuredly DID NOT go down like this -or did it?), Dylan decided the best way to reach a new audience, fresh clay to mold if you will, was to buy a Fender Stratocaster which he did right away.

Dylan released Bringing It All Back Home in March of 1965, which one side was all acoustic and included "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and "Mr. Tambourine Man." The other side, however, was all electric & featured the classics "Maggie's Farm" & "Subterranean Homesick Blues." The album signaled the dawn of a new era and was noticed by all, but the trick was to break from the Greenwich scene. That would come on July 25th, 1965.

Now, Dylan was no novice when it came to rock & roll. He idolized Chuck Berry, he had sat face to face with Howlin' Wolf & Muddy Waters, and The Beatles had become fast friends & mutual admirers. Dylan had been a good folkie the previous day at Newport by playing all acoustic at a workshop, yet the master plan was to unfold on a rainy July 25th. Accompanied by a pickup band that would gone to fame as The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, as well as legendary organist Al Kooper, Dylan threw together a set that kicked off with "Maggie's Farm." You would have thought hell had just frozen over though....

Boos cascaded from the crowd (and from backstage). Their folk hero whose integrity they admired had just sold out to the man. Pete Seeger, Dylan's hero was furious & went to a car to sit with his hands over his ears. The band launched into "Like A Rolling Stone" next. More boos & heckling. A flustered Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul & Mary) - the show's MC and Dylan's former roommate, coaxed Dylan back onto the stage after Dylan & his band had walked off after the third song (they had only rehearsed three). After making his statement & going electric, Dylan returned with an acoustic for an impromptu set. "Anybody got an E harmonica?" Dylan asked the crowd, still stung over their Messiahs turn. Harmonica's showered the stage in a surreal statement of stubbornness by the folk faithful. He finished with "Mr. Tambourine Man," a somewhat wry kiss-off to what he had become to the unbending folk scene. Dylan would not appear at Newport for another 37 years, when he played in a wig & fake beard.

Dylan continued to tour with his half-acoustic, half-electric show in 1965. One of the most famous lines ever in the history of rock music was uttered at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in England the following May, when a heckler screamed, "Judas!" Dylan responded, "I don't believe you, you're a liar," and turned to his band exclaiming to the world, "Play it fucking loud!" as they ripped into "..Rolling Stone."

Two significant things happened as a result of Bob Dylan plugging in. First, his influence over John Lennon was immediately apparent with the release of Rubber Soul in December of 1965. Dylan had met with Lennon, and basically told him "you're music is great but you've got nothing to say." Gone from Lennon's repertoire were the poppy numbers, although Paul McCartney continued to write "granny music" like "Drive My Car" much to Lennon's chagrin. Lennon moved beyond romantic themes with songs like "Nowhere Man" & "Norwegian Wood" and The Beatles to evolved as the most iconic group ever.

Second, Dylan killed the stranglehold the elitist, traditionalist Greenwich Village had on the whole Bohemian movement. Songwriters like John Phillips, John Sebastian, Roger McGuinn, & David Crosby set sail from The Earle and moved west to California where it was safe to be free and experiment...both musically & chemically. As groups like The Byrds, The Lovin' Spoonful, & The Mamas & The Papas flourished in the California sun, Brian Wilson & his Beach Boys took notice and were suddenly motivated to write better songs...resulting in Pet Sounds. Up north, San Francisco way, the Bohemian counter-culture from Greenwich & Cambridge came together with their counterparts from Berkeley and found a home on the corner of Haight-Ashbury...except now they were being labeled "hippies" (short for "hipsters" which the Beatniks had also been referred to in NY). Former Greenwich singer/songwriters like Richie Havens were now holding court on their own terms (meaning there were no rules) & kids followed from all walks of life & all parts of the world with dreams to start a band and get something off their chests.

Bob Dylan literally shocked the world in 1965 when he plugged in an electric guitar. Ever since, however, the literary & thematic boundaries in rock & roll song writing have been pushed to no end. Anything is fair game - any subject, any style...anything. You've just got to be true to yourself and your own beliefs. That is why Bob Dylan was successful then on July 25, 1965 even though he was nearly booed off stage. The youth of the world already had a sound, they just needed a voice. He beat it into our brains and we're all better for it. Thanks, Bob.

Come And Get These Memories: Analyzing 50 Years Of Motown.

"Into the '60s, I was still not of a frame of mind that we were not only making music, we were making history"

-Smokey Robinson

I can't remember my first Motown moment, my first dose. I kind of recall one of my parents having the Temptation's record Gettin' Ready when I was younger, but who could forget the visual of that cover? (It took me until just about 3-5 years ago to realize that while the record cover was great, the songs were slightly better..."Lonely, Lonely Man Am I"? top 10 Motown songs ever recorded.) The point is, Motown Records, founded by Berry Gordy (as Tamla for it's first year) in 1959, had about a 17 year run that no record label has ever had. There's both overwhelming good, and damning bad about this.

First off, Berry Gordy Jr. is a genius. Not in the same sense that Brian Wilson, Phil Spector, and other producers were genius. Here's a man who dropped out of high school, had a record store fold, and worked at a car plant, when one random night at a talent club, he met Jackie Wilson. Now, if you listen to them, the 5 songs that Gordy penned for Wilson are really nothing spectacular (with the exception of maybe "Lonely Teardrops"), but I think the genius of Gordy lies in this: He is nothing if not a man that has always known his limits. Why can't Sean "Diddy" Combs be the next great black record man? he doesn't have that simple trait. When Gordy couldn't make it as a consistent hitmaker from a songwriting standpoint, did he try to force it? hardly. He grabbed an $800.00 loan from his family, and started a label (by the way, how about the return on that? I mean, I don't know how much MCA/UMG paid Gordy for Motown at the end of it's golden era, but I would think....just THINK...that it was just a notch more than 8 bills....) Another indication of Gordy's genius: his mentality of "It works in car factories, why cant it work in music?" There's never been mass produced music, all in house (VERY key), that sounded like this. It was General Motors, it was McDonalds, it was Disney. Look, I'll take 1961-1968 over any other era of black music. Period....even for someone of my undying loyalty to hip-hop will have to chalk up 1982-1992 as a distant second. You get Lamont Dozier and the Holland brothers in house? how does that happen? Studios would KILL for an in house production and songwriting team that was that mechanical. Forget well oiled, they were possibly getting the best oil of any machine, ever. Eddie Holland, probably the most brilliant of the three, naturally got the lyrical and vocal arrangement duties, while the other two handled production. "Production" is a term I use loosely, because, oh....yeah...there was also a flawless in house band. The Funk Brothers, at one time or another (it could be argued, but let's not, OK?) had one of the greatest bassists (James Jamerson), Pianists (Earl Van Dyke), and Drummers ("Pistol" Allen) of all time. My favorite Motown stuff is the stuff like Jr. Walkers "Shotgun", where it's very limited on vocals, and you get the feel that Gordy and Walker were just in the studio, looked at the Funk Bros. and said, "Alright....play something", it's brilliance (if you've never heard the aforementioned "Shotgun", it goes without saying that it's a must-listen. Do yourself a favor. Avoid the horrific Joss Stone cover. Speaking of Stone, what on Earth happened to her?? she was good like 3 years ago. When did she become a disaster?), there's never been a tighter sounding band in soul music (though, Al Green, picking up on Gordy's style, employed the Memphis Rhythm band, led by Teenie Hodges, which wasn't too shabby either...)

It was a perfect storm. Motown didn't have the lyrical wizardry that I think a lot of people would like to think, but what Eddie Holland DID do, that I always find impressive was completely eliminate gender roles through music. Look at pop today, what would we think if a MAN came out with a song admitting to being a gold-digger? admittedly tongue in cheek, but The Contours were singing "First I Look At The Purse" in 1961 (With the classic, classic line of, "Your kisses might be sweet as honey/But I just want me some money") I remember reading an interview after HDH got inducted into the songwriting hall of fame, where Eddie Holland talked about how he didn't write for male artist, or female artists....he just wrote for emotion. What does that breed? Those who think Beyonce is a symbol of "strong" female "Independence" should get some Martha Reeves in their lives. And let's be clear, if you thought people went nuts when Kanye got emotionally ummmm....honest.....with 808's & Heartbreak, imagine what folk would do to Smokey Robinson these days. Smoke's got like 8 songs with the word "Tears" in the title in some capacity. More important that what Motown did for race, was what they did for breaking down gender roles in music. Before you strongly disagree, listen. Yeah, a Motown artist can go to a segregated gym, and for those two hours, the ropes come down, and we can all dance and have a good time. But once that show is over, the ropes go back up, the artists themselves have to eat separately from their white counterparts, and really, that HAD to lead to some of the emotional and mental instability of some of the bigger artists (i.e. Gaye, Wonder, Ruffin). On the flipside, they made it alright, through writing and music, to nix the whole macho front that (some of) Sun records, and males of the 50's put on through music. And they put strong women out front, not just some meek background singers chirping lightly in the background.

That's a sample of the good. I try to be objective, and up until recently was on the "Motown can do no wrong" bandwagon. The biggest issue with Motown really boils down to egos, and royalties. At around 1968, there came a point where there was just too much talent on one label, and healthy competition turned much more bitter than it should have. From a recording standpoint, by 1970, they had at the very least 3 certified musical geniuses recording for them (Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gate, Smokey Robinson)...Rolling Stone's Immortals, of course tracking the 100 greatest artists of all time, lists EIGHT acts that were on Motown, at one point or another. (Wonder at 15, Gaye at 18, Smoke at 32, Michael Jackson at 35 (though mostly recognized for his post-Motown exploits, to be fair....which should honestly have him topping Mr. Robinson, at LEAST.), Temptations at 67, The Four Tops at 78, Reeves and the Vandellas at 96, and The Supremes at 97.) Sure, that talent works for a while, but for how long? You can't give artists of that caliber all of the attention they need, and once they got big, boy, did they need attention.

The biggest, and I repeat, BIGGEST mistake Berry Gordy ever made was giving in to Diana Ross. Once The Supremes were changed to "Diana Ross and The Supremes", at Ross' begging, it was all downhill. Reeves wanted her name to highlight the Vandellas (and got her wish), David Ruffin demanded the same treatment, was turned down, blew up, and blew out on the Tempts (and let's be honest...do people REALLY like their 70's/Dennis Edwards era stuff?), Gordy put Gaye's seminal "I Want You" on hold so that Gaye could record a stress filled, forced duets album with Ross (which leads to the now famous story of Gaye smoking marijuana in the studio, Smoke Robinson informing him that Ross was allergic to the herb, and Gaye giving the classic response of, "Fuck Diana Ross". Ahhh....studio stories are the best.) Look, I'm not saying that Diana Ross destroyed Motown. I'm admittedly not a Supremes, OR Ross fan. In their Immortals write up, L.A. Reid states, "My entire career, I've been looking for a singer as great as Diana Ross..." Oh, really, L.A.? You missed one. Her name was Florence Ballard. She was better than Ross, but relegated to a backup role. All that said, it was a domino effect. Once Gordy allowed Ross to become a monster, she ate her own group alive, Ruffin ate the Temptations, Reeves ate the Vandellas (my favorite group....oh, and don't let this imagery get to you, for those of you getting visuals of David Ruffin literally devouring Melvin Franklin.), and by 1972, it was a noticeable shift, as the top producers on Motown were two solo acts, Gaye and Wonder.

Holland Dozier Holland left in 1969 over royalty issues, and started a trend. Mary Wells, The Funk Brothers, eventually Reeves, Jr. Walker, and various other artists left due to the same disputes. One would think Gordy believed so much in love for music in it's purest form that he just expected every other artist to share his love, and limit their compensation. No dice there. After Hitsville, in Detroit, shut down in 1973, and relocated to Los Angeles, it was full musical "jump the shark" mode for Gordy and Motown.

Really, what killed Motown more than anything was the great music that Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye made. Gordy fought tooth and nail every time Stevie Wonder went into the studio. Wonder might have started out as a precocious 12 year old with loads of talent, but by 1971, he was tired of writing songs about well, in his words, "nothing". And he wanted to take a more conscious stand, which is to be respected, but on Motown? Motown was popular, to that point for snappy rhythm, catchy tunes, and lyrics about love, lost love, dancing, and other general soft topics for a black artist at the time. You know, it's almost like when Jimi Hendrix came out at Monterey in '67 and stated, before playing his legendary set, "This is the end of surfin' music", and you could almost hear Brian Wilson's mental stability go ALL the way out the window. Wonder and Gaye blazed paths of music that meant something, against the will of Gordy, who upon hearing "What's Goin' On" called it the "Worst record I've ever heard". Easily challenging each other, the run of 70's albums for both (namely, Songs In The Key Of Life, Innervisions, Talking Book, What's Goin' On, Let's Get It On, I Want You) But really, all Motown had to show for it's old true pop roots was little Michael Jackson and his brothers. And by the 80's they had been long gone, taking any hopes of a Motown revival with them. Gordy eventually sold Motown in 1988.

The thing people often forget, is that outside of Motown, most artists that left had very limited success. Sure, Mike Jackson was Mike Jackson, but think about this: Did he ever write, or produce a GREAT record without leaning heavily on someone else? Be fair, now. Thriller was the first record in which his writing was featured, and yes, I know he wrote "Billie Jean"....but did he ever write another aesthetically important song? He got credited for co-writing "We Are The World" because, well....he was in the studio while Lionel Richie wrote it. Michael was hampered by the Motown machine as well, because he never learned how to be anything but a performer, and not a pure musician. Yes, he was the BEST performer, but when he lost first Motown, and then Quincy Jones (and THEN, on a lesser scale, Teddy Riley...), he had no career left.

But, I remember this, as I watched a spry looking Gordy, a healthy looking Smoke, and other Motown acts sprinkled about Jackson's funeral this past week. Gordy might not have done it perfectly, brushing over contract details for the sake of musical joy, and catering to his libido a bit too much every now and then...but what he set the stage for was right. Artists being marketed better than ever. Artists owning their masters. Jay-Z just got the rights to his masters last month, and that wouldn't be possible without the industry standards set to black artists by Berry Gordy. The impact that he has had on music can't be ignored, even if you take in the bad parts of Motown's legacy. Not the worst $800.00 ever spent.

Motown has died out now. Sylvia Rhone, and other label heads (But, umm....mostly Rhone) have sucked the life out of it, as it's just another mess under UMG's umbrella these days. Stevie Wonder remains, for what reason, we'll never know. Can't really call it loyalty, maybe desperation? Soul music, I miss you. I'm not asking for another Motown, but I have a hard time settling for what's there now, knowing what the possibilities once were. Soul, R&B, and Blues singers now, for the most part, have forgotten the roots of the genre. And that's sad.

"....And sometimes when it would get bad- and boy it could get bad- we’d be in them fields just a-singing, you know. ‘Cause them songs, them songs could get you right.’”

-Bebe Moore Campbell, "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine"

From The Big Sandbar, Some Deep Cuts

Yeah, I see that every morning when I walk my dog on the beach. I'm just sayin' . . .

You know, we all have personal favorites of a particular artist or band, songs that may have never been a hit or played on the radio. Songs that weren’t critically acclaimed but just struck a chord with you. Struck a chord, get it? Musical reference. That, my friends, is writing. Take notes. Anyway, it’s something that can’t be explained, that chord, that something that can bring tears to your eyes or make you want to listen to the song over and over again. Sometimes the song can be something you’re afraid to admit you like. Full disclosure: If Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson comes on the radio, I always sing along. Feel free to admit your own guilty pleasures in the comments section. Guilty Pleasures . . . now there’s a blog idea for somebody. Hey, it’s OK to like Clay Aiken, Vesey. Admit it. Get that weight off your chest.

So here we go. These are songs that aren’t guilty pleasures, but rather tunes that I’ve always loved but have never been recognized as their artists’ best work.

Enjoy . . .

Alice Cooper – Guilty

Sure, Alice is better known for songs like School’s Out or Eighteen, but my favorite has always been Guilty. It has a great guitar riff to open, then Alice growls out these lines:

Just tried to have fun,
Raised Hell and then some,
I'm a dirt talking , beer drinking, woman chasing minister's son.

When I was a high school AD I used to include this song in my pre-game song mix. I still don’t know how I got away with it. Highly recommended. Note: I couldn't find a video of Guilty, so here's a bonus vid of Alice singing No More Mr. Nice Guy. You're welcome.

The Band – Acadian Driftwood

The Band has a ton of good songs, including The Weight and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, but I love Acadian Driftwood, in particular the live version on The Last Waltz. Originally recorded in 1975, it describes the forcible displacement of the Acadian people after the war between the French and the English over what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and part of Maine. Robbie Robertson's lyrics were influenced by Longfellow's poem Evangeline, which describes the deportation of the Acadians. Just a beautiful, haunting, intelligently written song. Here's a link.

Beach Boys – ‘Til I Die

Quite simply one of the most beautiful, sad, and heartwrenching songs ever recorded. I feel it’s one of the rock eras most underappreciated songs. It was released off the legendary Pet Sounds album and is all about Brian Wilson and his slow descent into mental illness. How can you not be touched by these lyrics?

I'm a cork on the ocean
Floating over the raging sea
How deep is the ocean?
How deep is the ocean?
I lost my way.
I'm a rock in a landslide
Rolling over the mountainside
How deep is the valley?
How deep is the valley?
It kills my soul.
I'm a leaf on a windy day
Pretty soon I'll be blown away
How long will the wind blow?
How long will the wind blow?

These things I'll be until I die.

Talk about a cry for help. In 43-years I have never grown tired of this song, and I’m always touched by the lyrics. Here's the original mix. Be sure and listen all the way through.

Brian Wilson – Lay Down Burden

Another Brian Wilson tune, this is a song from his great Imagination comeback album in 1999. It’s another sad one about the death of his brother Carl, and again he lets us in on his innermost feelings:

So many years spent running away
How many times I wished I could stay
Too much emotion a hole in my heart
Feeling alone since we've been apart
And if I had the chance
I'd never let you go
Just want you to know.

Lay, lay me down, lay me down
Lay down burden.

Gorgeous melody and classic Wilson harmonies as well. Sigh. Here 'tis.

Bruce Springsteen – One Step Up

Like Hanif I’m a big Springsteen guy. If you ever see him live you’ll never forget it. Born to Run, Jungleland, Thunder Road, he has so many great songs. Still, One Step Up hits me the hardest:

Bird on a wire outside my motel room
But he ain't singin'.
Girl in white outside a church in June
But the church bells they ain't ringing.
I'm sittin' here in this bar tonight
But all I'm thinkin' is . . .
I'm the same old story, same old act
One step up and two steps back.

Who can't relate to that? Here's the video.

The Eagles – Ol’ 55

I know this may seem like an odd choice, what with all the classic Eagles songs out there. But, if I had one Eagles song to listen to on a deserted island, this Tom Waits written release from 1973 would be my pick. It was on The Eagles 1974 album entitled On the Border, and although it isn’t an original Eagles song I still think it’s one of their best songs. It also happens to be the song that first introduced me to The Eagles. Check out this vintage clip.

Paul McCartney & Wings– Junior’s Farm

This song is NEVER mentioned among Sir Paul’s greatest, but in my opinion it ranks right up there with Band On the Run, Live and Let Die, and Maybe I’m Amazed. It’s a rocker and features a searing guitar solo by Jimmy McCullough. Recorded on a farm in none other than Nashville, TN, I dare you to listen to this song without tapping your foot.

Pearl Jam – Nothingman

From 1994’s Vitology, Nothingman is one of Eddie Vedder's best songs. Here’s his take on the lyrics. “The idea is about if you love someone and they love you, don't fuck up...'cause you are left with less than nothing.”

Amen to that brother. Of all Pearl Jam’s tunes, this is my favorite. Close second? Alive.

Pink Floyd – Paranoid Eyes

Big Pink Floyd fan here, and I think the album this song came from, The Final Cut, is one of their most underappreciated and underrated albums ever. It was Floyd’s last album before Roger Waters vamoosed, and it’s basically all Waters all the time, which is fine by me. Check out these lyrics:

Button your lip don't let the shield slip
Take a fresh grip on your bullet proof mask
And if they try to break down your disguise with their questions
You can hide hide hide
Behind paranoid eyes.

You put on your brave face and slip over the road for a jar
Fixing your grin as you casually lean on the bar
Laughing too loud at the rest of the world
With the boys in the crowd
You hide hide hide
Behind petrified eyes.

You believed in their stories of fame fortune and glory
Now you're lost in a haze of alchohol soft middle age
The pie in the sky turned out to be miles too high
And you hide hide hide
Behind brown and mild eyes.

True dat, no? Trust me, when you’re 50 you’ll get it. Here 'tis.

I’m out. I’m in the middle of my annual OBX getaway, and we’re off to The Black Pelican for some fun and frivolity. Tomorrow? Tuna Steaks on the grill here at the cottage, along with some spiced steamed shrimp. Tough, I know, but somehow I’ll struggle through. Now excuse me while I throw on some Marley and relax with a toddy on the front porch before we depart.

Later on down the road, Jack.

PS - By the by, my beard is nearing Billy Gibbons' spectacular proportions. Again, just sayin'.

Pull .38s And Kiss The Girls Goodnight: The Quest Of Understanding Bruce.

This is the first, and likely last time I'll ever write anything on Bruce Springsteen. It's nothing short of a little unfair, and a lot irresponsible of me to do so. I mean, we all have artists who we just enjoy so much that we have trouble looking at them with any objectivity. But, I'm making an exception in this case, because tomorrow is the 4th of July. And I swear to God, if anyone plays "Born In The U.S.A." at any point between now, and Sunday night, I'm going to lose my mind.

We can skip any kind of career recap, mostly because it's all to well known, and I'm not interested in insulting anyone's intelligence.

It's this writer's opinion that Bruce Springsteen is one of the greatest writers of this century. Not just songwriters....writers. His style transcends just the art of song. What makes a Springsteen song so great? He's not equipped with Dylan's wit, he's not exactly a beacon of emotional honesty within himself, like a Joni Mitchell, he rarely uses Wentz-like metaphorical wizardry... so what is it?

Overall, it's the fact that he doesn't NEED to do any of that. He's as straightforward as it gets. Who needs to analyze themselves through song, when in your mind, figuring yourself out isn't worth it? (sorry, Joni....), who needs metaphors when all you have to do to inspire thought is tell a story? (sorry, Mr. Wentz....), and lastly who needs Bob Dylan's wit, when....well, ok, I won't touch that. Springsteen in a storyteller in the greatest, most challenging sense. Because he has to find away to fit it in. To tell the best possible story, over music, from 3 to 12 minutes. He's grown stylistically, early on...in the Greetings, and The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle days, it was really about fitting as many characters into the song as early as possible. Look at "Incident On 57th Street", before you even get to 10 bars, you're introduced to Spanish Johnny, Those hard girls over on Easy Street, Puerto Rican Jane, and The Pimps...swinging their axes. His character development at this early stage wasn't the best, and he mainly only tackled one theme, love....and the choices made in losing it, but he did it well. He dabbled in regret as well....in "Incident", Spanish Johnny longingly looks down at the kids playing in the street, and shouts down, "Hey little heroes, summer's long, but I guess it ain't very sweet around here anymore"....Johnny realized that as he's in this fight to survive, and keep his one true love against all odds, these kids are having the time of their lives, carefree, out in the street. Maybe he's jealous, but I think he's regretting the fact that he can't feel as free, and love like these kids will one day. And we end up seeing him fail, essentially, when he chooses those Romantic Young Boys over Jane, as they sit outside of his window, asking if he wants to make some easy money that night. Sure, he says he'll meet Jane on Lover's Lane the next day, but that doesn't inspire much hope. "Incident" is like Romeo and Juliet on steroids. Shakespeare for cynics, as if dear old William wasn't cynical enough as is. Springsteen's first two albums are about communicating REAL feelings using the most heightened romantic tools. It's the Boss shrugging off literal reality of situations, just for the sake of creating something that felt more real than mundane reporting. As an aside, the best part of Wild, Innocent is that it upon it's release in September, 1973, it came without a lyric sheet, due to financial reasons. Best because it allowed it's listeners to sit back, and create their own reality through those lyrics, instead of reading along in a mundane sense. Those two albums identify most with Springsteen's Jersey roots. Fighting, clawing, loving, losing....all in continued failed efforts to get out of that Godforsaken state. All throughout his career, the environment is very Jersey inspired, and the ultimate goal is to get out. I don't know what this says about Bruce's feelings for him home State, but it's there.

Thankfully, in his next era of works, starting with of course, Born To Run, Bruce found his next theme, and the one that would prevail most prominently in his career: decency in the face of defeat. Overcoming intense unhappiness with the promise of being able to do something about it. Most of Born To Run goes for the mythic, as opposed to the actual, or specific, but that's never stopped a writer like Springsteen. He started to write more all-encompassing, hoping for community, hoping for people to back him up. He didn't sing, "I sweat it out in hopes of a runaway American dream"...he sung "WE sweat it out in hopes of a runaway American dream"...because no one should have to fight that fight alone. That line alone is fighting against itself. Sure, there's a dream, there's hope...but it's run loose, and God knows how WE'RE going to catch it. Admittedly, some of it is hilariously overblown. "Jungleland" opens with the line, 'The Rangers had a homecoming/In Harlem late last night...', now, the New York Rangers would likely not have a hockey celebration in the middle of summer. At night. In Harlem. In the 70's. This shows nothing if not the fact that Springsteen is not a hockey fan, and at that point in his life, had likely never been to Harlem. But as you get deeper into the song, you see growth. He's not shoving as many characters down your throat as he was early on. Here, the Magic Rat drives into town, and takes one last shot at love with the barefoot girl. But, hell...it's a Jungle out there (no pun, I'm not THAT bad....), and the law is after the Rat, which makes this romance thing a bit tricky, right? And he not only builds the characters, but now he builds their environment. So you can see how fucked up, but beautiful the world that they're searching for love in really is. Over there! Man, there's an opera out on the Turnpike! There! there's a ballet being fought in the alley! And these kids are wielding guitars like switchblades? hustling for the record machine?? Jungleland, when painted in that light, is not for the faint of heart (and for listeners, not for those short of appreciation of overblown drama). Of course, the greatest part of Jungleland, musically, from a composition standpoint, is that Springsteen makes you wait for the ending. You sit to find out what happened to the lonely hearted lovers that vanished in the night, as Clarence plays his infamous sax solo, only to come back to Earth to hear the terrible news that (ummm....spoiler alert? if you're one of the two people who have never heard Jungleland...) the Magic Rat was finally caught and gunned down, and by his own dreams, no less. And no one even cared, especially the barefoot girl, who doesn't even watch the ambulance pull away, but just shuts off that pesky bedroom light.

It's at the end of "Jungleland" where Springsteen , for my money, lets out his greatest written line. After the Magic Rat is carted off, and the streets go insane, with flesh fighting fantasy, a regretful sounding Bruce shouts angrily, "And man, the poets down here don't write nothin' at all. They just stand back and let it all be". This could mean a lot of things. I see it as him saying, Look! look at all of these great talents, with this great responsibility, and they're failing us!! They're failing humanity, which is a greater injustice than anything that the Magic Rat could have done to deserve his fiery fate. How great is an artist, if they're detached so violently from the world in which they live in the first place? Jungleland's so-called poets were getting a harsh reality shoved in their faces, and had the ability to deal with it, but chose not to.

Often, his themes are mocked as just girls named Mary, cars, and heartbreak. I can't see that as entirely true. The next wave of albums just conveyed the simplest aspects of life, in the most dramatic way, which I understand people getting tired of, but it still rings important. He attacked the responsibilities of growing up, and becoming a family man, It runs all through his work, the idea of finding that one person and making a life together. Look at The River....he gets Mary (oh, ha ha ha....I know...) pregnant, and for his 19th birthday, he gets a wedding ring, and a union coat, and they go down to the river, and start their lives together. In "Hungry Heart", the character, fresh off leaving his wife and kids, "takes a wrong turn, and keeps going"....before he realizes the errors of his ways. His characters, no matter what else goes on around them, always come out better than the world that tries to tear them down. And, you know what? I, like most of Bruce's purest fans, kind of despise Born In The U.S.A. the song, and the album...but really, it's mostly because of the context. If you were alive in the 70's, especially in Jersey, Bruce was YOURS....and "Born" was his "Thriller"....that turned him into EVERYONE'S, and you feel a little cheated. At it's core, the songs are the same themeatically, but the music is louder, the muscles bigger, the jeans tighter (sadly, the Band's sound was not...), and what hurt the most was the departure of Steve Van Zandt. Despite all of Springsteen's wild, grand motions, Miami Steve was always able to reel the Boss in, no matter how bad it got. Imagine how great that album could have been if Steve was there. More stripped down, probably not titled "Born In The U.S.A."....I mean, whatever. But, for what it's worth, "Glory Days" was one of the few songs that seemed to find Springsteen self examining himself for the first time, looking back with longing and regret. Essentially, "Born" could be the first time that we realized that Bruce was not an emotional robot.

The 90's were tough, because he had to find himself without his band, but he took on the challenges associated with writing from a standpoint of his own life, as opposed to building characters around this world. "Secret Garden" is a ballad. A ballad! about HIM finding love with a beautiful woman. "Murder Incorporated" is an angry story about the violent Jersey streets, opening with the lines "Bobby's got a gun that he keeps beneath his pillow/out in the streets your chances are zero" (and later has the classic Bruce line, "The only comfort that you keep is chrome plated"). "High Hopes" is a song that he wrote for his father. "Radio Nowhere"? taking vicious aim at the sad state of mainstream radio. I mean, I'm talking true, pure musical growth here. No two albums have ever been the same, even to this day, even to "Working On A Dream".
You get the sense that Springsteen was NEVER an idealist. Yeah, he's got an idealistic image of rock music, and what it CAN be....like Pete Townshend, but anything else?? His songs, while inspiring the quest to find hope, never really resolve with much. My favorite, "Atlantic City", is so fantastic because it ends just as fucked as it starts. The Chicken Man's house explodes to open the song, and you're given this image of a torn down environment, that's only getting worse. The racket boys are gearing up for a fight, there's trouble coming from out of state, the D.A. is losing his mind, and even the gambling commission has nothing left. And this guy is trying to make something pure in this impure world. The second verse explains that this character tried to put money away, but he's "Got debts that no honest man can pay", and your heart drops a bit. He's just a guy. Just a good, hard working guy, that can't afford anything to make himself, or his gal happy. So, they get out of that disaster of a town, but there's no luck anywhere else. "Everything dies, baby, and that's a fact", right? And at the end, it doesn't lift you up, it crushes you. See, this guy's been looking for a job, with no luck. And when Springsteen sings "Down here it's just winners and losers, and don't get caught on the wrong side of that line"...you know that this guy he's singing about, well he's on the wrong side. And the only way out is to do a "little favor" for this guy he meets.

And the song ends. That's it. You feel defeated and fulfilled all at once. Defeated because this guy lost, right? he lost the battle of decency in an indecent world. But, fulfilled because, well....isn't that reality? Bruce's writing has always planted itself between white rockabilly and black gospel. Between rebellion, and redemption. Who else can say that?

Happy 4th of July, Gents. Be safe, and make sure no one around you plays "Born In The U.S.A."