Magic = Mediocre (official version only, please)

Buddhabone! Hello! Do you know Richard Gere? Jolly good chap.

i see this site has not changed. some of the posts still make me laugh. people being at odds with each other. life is more serious than this.

ep trevino

The great thing about these threads is that I don't even have to waste the time reading the posts to know I disagree with btf and dt, and mostly agree with bhl. Long live the repetition!

I was asking about an example from Magic, you Doofus McGoofus.

That's what you inferred; it's not what you asked.

I like the album, for what it's worth. 'Heroes are needed, so heroes get made'. That's pretty much gonna end it for me.

Wordy? Can't see that at all. Age has made Mr. S. a much better, more economical writer, and a much-improved singer.

To me, this record gets better with every spin.

Mr. S? We already have a Fonz.

shouldn't we just be grateful he isn't doing another folk singers work?

I really enjoy the folk singer stuff. I also really like the E Street stuff too.

Our Bruce has a depth of understanding in a wide variety of colors and shapes. We're all the better for it.

Album production, sorry to say, has never been a Springsteen strong point. Born to Run is particularly a mess--there's a part in "She's the One" just before the guitars kick in where you can hear the volume raise in the mix and the title track, for all its glory (and don't get me wrong, I love it too) is muddy and overblown production-wise. Darkness was so overthought it nearly made the album sound sanitized. The River was the first CD I ever listened to, and I remember being let down that it still sounded like it was recorded in a garage.

And these are the great, all-time classics.

My point, I guess, is that we've had to overcome production drawbacks in every Springsteen album because he is not, fundamentally, a studio artist. If you doubt this, I would cite the redone version of "This Hard Land" on Greatest Hits as exhibit A. Throw in the piano version of "The Promise" for B. As a general rule, I would say his studio style for full band albums swings back and forth between polar opposites: on one hand, trying to spare everything down to try to capture the immediacy of a live performance and on the other trying to recreate Spector's wall of sound by overlaying instrument upon instrument. Shit, the Stones only needed two guitars--who the hell can even hear three?

All that being said, I like the new album despite its production faults. It's absolutely true that the vocals are buried and that there's a point in nearly every song where a solo is so far down in the mix that it is nearly unrecognizable. But then I get to the "She went away..." line from "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" and it just kicks my ass.

Just posting to get a reaction is pointless and makes this site a joke .
1975 & 1978 are not coming back!! get use to it grow up
and move on like adults ,dont like the Rising dont like Magic ?
just moved on to a new Musician as this is Bruce in 2007 it appears some people JUST go to a show to hear something from 78 or 75 how pointless and a complete waste of a ticket that is .
Thank god Bruce has moved on as Musician pity some fans never will . Bruce is touching 60! not 21 ! and the songs he writes
are about a man around that age looking at life if people cant see that or feel it in his songs just move on folks! as he's not for you no shame in that but no need to stay around at the same time please !

I really hope English isn't your first language mr jimlincoln.

Holy shit! This thread'll teach me for ignoring OAN for a month or six.

Nothing like a couple of SPL heavyweights dropping the gloves for a page or two.

Anyway, to answer BHL's question, an example from "Magic" where Bruce is too wordy: try geting all of the syllables to all of the words of this line from You'll Be Comin' Down to fit the music:

"You'll be fine as long as your pretty face holds out"

One too many syllables in there....

I think Bruce actually tries to be quite economical with lyrics, but it backfire every now and again on him, occasionally making his writing come off as nothing more than an itemized list of vivid descriptions. You'll Be Coming Down being a prime example.

But, this track is my favorite on the album. Maybe it hits home on some unconscious level, I don't know, but the emotional delivery of the lyrics, combined with the music, makes something out of almost nothing for me.

A magic trick, I guess

I like the song too. But it took me about a minute to figure out that "You're fine as long as your pretty face holds out" says exactly the same thing, but flows immensely better than the actual lrics.

Which leads me to question just how much thought/effort has really gone into some of this stuff.

I always heard "You'll be fine long as your pretty face holds out."

A cursory look at dot net yields the following lyric:


...which is one fewer syllable, eh Peanut? How much effort are you putting into this?

He's gotcha there, Snoopy.

Have a cursory look at your lyric book that comes with the CD.

Why? "Your Missing" your own copy?

It's at home...I'm at work.

Regardless of what the lyrics book says (and they're famously flawed all the time), a cursory listen to the song reveals the line to be "You'll be fine long as your pretty face holds out."

It's exactly the same lyric as dot net, and that's the way it's sung. Thanks for coming out.

Where has Bill been?