Springsteen kicked off his 1980 River tour in Pittsburgh last night, opening the encore with a tribute to David Bowie, one of his earliest supporters. Unsurprisingly he manages to make Rebel Rebel sound like just another foot-stomping Bruce Springsteen bar song. Nice try, I suppose, but there’s an air of ‘will this do?’ about it.
Incidentally, new tour, same old stage wardrobe for Bruce and the E Streeters. He truly is not the chameleon of rock. On the plus side he seems to have dropped about 8 non-essential members from the band. Just the 10 (ten) of them now.
This is the problem with Bruce, for non-fanboys at any rate.
Everything he does sounds typical of what he always does. There’s not a great deal of variation.
Having said that, can you imagine Bruce & the E Street Band trying out “Sons of the Silent Age”?
No. Neither can I.
An essential member for this song for this band would be another drummer. Why does he have 5 guitarists and just one drummer? I saw them with Weinberg jr on drums about 5 years ago and he gave the band a bit of swing/swagger that his dad does not provide.
I’m not getting “Will this do?” at all. I’m getting “Everyone knows this one, at least the chorus, so let’s bang it out so they can bellow their throats raw singing along.” It’s magnificent.
I’m with you VV. It’s just a hate thread about Bruce. Zzzzzzz
Not a fan, but his heart always seems to be in the right place.
That said, I have as much inclination to listen to Bruce doing ‘Rebel Rebel’ as I have to buy a Chelsea season ticket!
My own tribute today is to play the five Tyrannosaurus Rex 45s over and over again.
It’s what The Dame would have wanted.
Horrible.
Leaden.
Ploddy.
Stodge.
(l-r)
Bowie does Springsteen, is rather good though i think…
Its pretty good. Wish he’d done All the Young Dudes though