HeroOfVirtue

Mixed by.......

Hot take: Reunion tour's is the best version.

Honestly not pumped about this release because I have the boot and it's damn good as is, but I'm thrilled to see so many people psyched about it! I'll definitely get it eventually but I'm saving up all my nickels and dimes for the real deal live and in person. Enjoy, everyone!!! Give my favorite version of Streets of Fire a few listens.

HEYO I'm not the only one voting for The River anymore!!!

Haven't seen them do it live (yet) but I have heard it...thought I had fallen asleep and woken up in 1978.

Racing in the Street from 1984-11-19 Kansas City. "Summer's gone and the time is right..." Back to work tomorrow.

Have you heard his collaborations with Dropkick Murphys?

This song is the musical version of the inverted American flag. We are adrift, we have lost our way, we are in danger of sinking. We are facing dire emergency and it's time to change course. It's time to rally. Fantastic song.

And I think that's exactly what Bruce was going for.

That's awesome.

"You know what would be great? If Bruce made albums and played concerts with random one-off musicians who do the same things that the ESB can do but are just different people!"

My thoughts on the Racing lyrics: I connect a lot of his lyrics to literary and film moments - it is a weird way for me to keep track of things by making connections. So while this is not Bruce's intent I connect this line to Paradise Lost and Frankenstein. In Paradise Lost, Adam laments: "Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould Me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?" This segment is used as the epigraph for Frankenstein, the monster having been brought into a world that fears him, who should have been Frankenstein's Adam but was instead his Lucifer. When Bruce sings "with the eyes of one who hates for just being born" I hear a connection. Just saying that her eyes hate doesn't build the bridge. "One who hates for just being born," well, that's Frankenstein's monster. That's a being brought into a world where it is unwanted and neglected, where its very existence is given no respect and no meaning. The woman in Racing is looking at the singer in that way. She has the eyes of one who hates for just being born - the eyes of Frankenstein's monster - because the racing guy "stole that little girl away" probably with sweet promises now undelivered. Her existence means nothing in his world.

I have a love/hate relationship with the (appropriately-initialized) SoB project. Watching the video and listening to the soul he poured into that show, I was completely gripped. There were times I cried so much I had to stop watching, times where my chest got tight and I couldn't breathe. It was magnificent and moving. But on the other hand...I never got to go! New York isn't even that far away for me, and I couldn't go. Because SoB was a RICH MAN'S GAME. Power to you if you had the cash to burn on attending a show or two or three, as well as the time to waste on actually procuring a ticket and scheduling a trip. That or good luck, I suppose. But it was the first time since my traveling fandom began in 2008 that I was utterly and completely shut out of attending. And maybe this sounds petulant but to extend that one step further - Bruce shut me, a young working man trying to lead a life exactly like the folk he writes about in his songs, out, because for the first time in his career he demanded ridiculous rockstar celebrity-worshipping prices. If it was truly a thank you to the fans, he could have negotiated fairer prices and/or taken the show on the road a bit. What a far cry from "we don't play no private parties." But of course, better he had done the show and created that amazing masterpiece of a performance than not done it at all.

No way! Check it out. Listen to the first two verses. In isolation...well, yeah. They're bad. Embarrassing? Maybe so! I certainly disregarded this song the first few dozen times I heard it. It's cheesy, meaningless, boring bravado. Throwaway pop garbage the likes of which we all know Bruce is typically superior to. The exact opposite of the endearingly vulnerable honesty we see in a song like Tougher Than The Rest. But that's the point and it's really necessary to set up the rest of the song, which in my opinion is a great payoff. "You're dancing with him, he's holding you tight I'm standing here waiting to catch your eye Your hand's on his neck as the music sways All my illusions slip away" Ah hah. This is it. This is the indictment. The facade fails and all that meaningless macho rubbish falls apart. This guy isn't the suave player he's making himself sound like in the first half of the song. He's a phony. He's a goof, just like anyone who has ever stood in the shadows waiting for that guy or girl to finally notice them and thinking "this is fine I'm doing great" while actually dying inside. "Now if you're looking for a hero, someone to save the day Well darling my feet they're made of clay But I've got something in my soul I wanna give it up But getting up the nerve, getting up the nerve Hmm getting up the nerve is a man's man's job" And this is the person who is embarrassed by the first two verses, who has had the realization that they're nothing special. Instead of cheap swagger, they are now choosing the vulnerable honesty we typically expect in Bruce's lyrics. They're ready to grow and have learned something from the pain. I love it.

Haha great question. Of the songs remaining, I only regularly listen to The Ties That Bind, Independence Day, and The Price You Pay. Stolen Car and Wreck on the Highway are infinitely better from Nassau Coliseum 1980.