First posted on Mark Is Cranky:
Every true music fan has in their pocket a short list: the artists who hold special meaning. Our relationships to those artists are different from the rest. Each release means something. They're not just records, they're events, they're signposts...repositories of all related memories: past, present and future.
Shortly after I cracked open Bruce Springsteen's Devils and Dust, before a single note was heard, a couple of very important memories fell out. The older of the two happened back in 1982. On a routine trip to the University of Maine bookstore I found an astounding and pleasant surprise: Nebraska. This was back before the internet or magazines such as Ice, so there was no advance warning. Here I was on my usual path, attempting to quench the music thirst and I'd been handed an ocean of relief. I remember the feel of the shrink wrapped cover, maybe even a little of that plastic smell. Back at the dorm, when I waved the album in the air so as to tease my friend Ed, his jaw dropped open in awe (we had recently become so anamoured of the Springsteen bootlegs "Live at the Agora" and "Fire From The Fingertips" that we'd been listening to them to the exclusion of most other music).
To be honest, I can't quite remember my initial reaction to the music. Thematically, the material followed Springsteen's penchant for following characters through their bad and good. Musically, this was not The River. Instead, things were all stripped down. I liked what I heard and instinctively knew that it was great....but at the same time...I just wasn't ready for it and didn't know what to think.
A more recent memory was again of a solo Springsteen release. I brought my new copy of The Ghost of Tom Joad over to my fiance's house to give it a first listen. With the "Nebraska incident" fresh in my mind, me & Linda sat on the couch and listened to the record straight though while reading from the lyric sheet. It's easy for me to tear up thinking about this now, because I remember being just so happy at being able to share my discovery of the music with her in this way (something I was never able to do in my first marriage).
Now it's time for Devils and Dust to make its own way. Here I sit very late at night, in a hotel room on the coast of Maine. Linda (you know her as "The Wife") is sleeping soundly, swallowed by the enormous king size bed. In the quiet, I find that it's tough to put the old memories aside to make room for the new ones.
- You have to constantly be writing from your own inner core in some fashion I find y'know?...
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Al Barger
OK, so he's got a lot of deep meaningful narratives about people struggling with fate and blah, blah, blah. Does he have any actual interesting MELODY going on? Are there any real SONGS here?
2 - Dave Nalle
I like the picture on the cover...not enough for the $4 more I'd have to pay to buy the actual CD instead of getting it from iTunes tho.
Dave
3 - Mark Saleski
so is there some rule somewhere that the only way you can evaluate music is if it's got a melody? it's gotta have "real songs"? whatever that means.
in fact, yes...there's some great songs on it. not that you'd be able to recognize 'em.
carry on, oh self-appointed arbitors
of all things aesthetic.
4 - ClubhouseCancer
Woah, Mark.
You're a self-appointed arbitor, too. We all are; Blogcritics, you know!
In the other D&D thread, I listed a bunch of reasons why I didn't like the album. I'm glad to hear the reasons you liked it, and I'm glad you did. You seem to concentrate on the stories and the characters, and I on the music and the songs, which I find lacking. After your review, I'll sure pay more attention to the narratives.
But, c'mon, Mark, that falsetto? Ugh.
5 - guest
Just came across this board and have to say that along with the Pat Metheny Group "The Way Up" and now "Devils and Dust" we have two great albums. The methods that Bruce and Pat use to communicate may be different, but the strength of what they are trying to communicate from within is so strong and powerful, that its a real treat to hear these guys both in there 50's still making great artistic statements.
I think its real easy to slag off bruces vocals, "lack" of melody that some people complain about, but thats when you know Bruce has won. If he wanted to he could hire the Berlin Philaharmonic as backing band, but this rough diamond is a diamond nonethless.
6 - Mark Saleski
hey, cc...there's a bit on the dvd where bruce talks about why he uses varying voices including that falsetto.
i'm not saying that you should like it but there is a reason for it.
dang, commenting before coffee....not good.
7 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
mark, that was a beautiful piece of writing.
motherfucker.
im listenin to the record now. i have to say its one of the very, very, VERY few Springsteen records i've fallen in love with immediately.
It's up there with Nebraska, and whilst my initial thoughts when hearing it in a record store were "Tom Joad", this feels nowhere near as bleak. Much as i love the Tom Joad record, the melodies on this Devils & Dust malarkey are just infinately more appealing and memorable.
great post, man.
8 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
unlike Pat, who was a great Postman.
9 - Mark Saleski
glad you liked it duke (the writing too, thanks!)
it's still on my daily pile 'o cds to listen to.
10 - Deborah
Personally I'm worried about Bruce's own soul. Is no one concerned about the extremely graphic (what could be consider pornography, but I know that is up to eveyone's own personal tastes) song Reno? It is a cheap shot from a man I have admired and respected for years. It is a cheap shot at women in general and one of my friends said she saw him saying in an interview, it was for his wife!!!! I hope she got that wrong. It serves no musical purpose and seems to me to be what a shock jock would sing about if he could but, since he can't, he just talks about it. Please explain why he put that on this album. Okay so we all think these things and some of us write them down but with all of the choices he had, why did he feel compelled to go Eminem on us at this stage of his life. Every thing about him has become so dark and yes there is darkness in the world but one need not wallow in it or raise it up and celebrate it by including it in a work of this magnitude amoung some other very important songs. He seems personally conflicted on some sort of spiritual level, more so than ever before. I think he is personally at a very critical juncture in his life. Maybe it's because he has never been 55 before and death is closer but it's that way for all of us who have grown up with him, so to speak. Something is going on with him and I pray he makes the right choices for himself and for his family. Something's just not right with him.
11 - Linda
In case you haven't noticed it, we are all closer to death these days. And if you arn't all 'conflicted on some sort of spiritual level', then God help you!
12 - Mark Saleski
Reno 'celebrates' darkness.
no. dealing with an issue does not equate to celebrating it.
the character in Reno is clearing attempting to deal with a lost partner/lover/wife/whatever. the grittiness of the language reflects the ugliness goin on in the character's head.
one of the most depressing songs ever written with so much relatively explicit sex.
13 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
if bruce says Reno is written for his wife, i would imagine the sentiment is along the lines of "I can go get it on with all these hookers and get up to all sorts, but the only encounter ever meant a damn thing was with you"
which is a pretty shitty response in general, ie, "it meant nothing, honey". surely that makes it even worse?? you put our lives in jeopardy an it didnt even MEAN anything?
But i think Bruce maybe means somethin else. Somethin a bit deeper than that. who knows? im no springsteen expert. this is the only record of his i can remember ever gettin on the week of release and fallin in love with the damn thing immediately. The others i love (tom joad and nebraska) were all after-the-fact purchases. Long after the fact, most likely.
14 - Mark Saleski
and starbucks has banned the cd from their stores.
another reason to avoid corporate food/drink.
15 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
what higher reccomendation for the album can there be??
16 - Mark Saleski
aside from al & dave hatin' it, none!
17 - Jaime Nichols
Mark, I love this review. This is the only kind if review I really enjoy, and the only kind that I think actually conveys the power of certain things - the one that acknowledges how deep the experience goes. TS Eliot said that the critical moment can only come when you have surrendered yourself to the work, and recovered a self that's been changed by it. I love reading a review that give me the sense that the reviewer's been on the journey.
Thanks so much!
18 - Mark Saleski
thanks for the kind words.
the CD is still on my heavy rotation list.
19 - Al Barger
For the record Mark, I do not hate this album. Granted, I'm skeptical, but I have not yet heard it. Perhaps it will turn out to have some catchy songs that I just can't get out of my head. Don't know till I hear it.
20 - Cerulean
If you're my age Bruce was The Man. I haven't heard the album yet, but I was shocked to hear about that song that is supposed to be so graphic. Maybe I don't remember right but he always seemed to be non-misogynist, which is unsual for someone so masculine in the rock world. Ugh! Or is it not that way? Anyone have the lyrics?
I didn't even know that Starbucks sold albums. I hate their coffee; the cold drinks all taste like those plastic cups; it's a ten part saga to order a cup of tea which is then too hot to drink. It's a perfect passive/aggressive thwarting of every impulse anyone ever had to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee or tea. Now they sell albums too.
21 - SFC SKI
Alright, another cranky old man makes his appearance, welcome Cerulean! Why , back in my day, if you wanted coffee you had to rub the beans together with rocks to grind 'em down, then gnaw ice off a glacier for water, hold the beans and ice chips in your hand and plunge them into a lava flow to boil it up, and we liked it!
22 - Deborah
To the lovely Linda (comment 11) I addressed your first point in my first writing and to the second God is all good with me. I'm not conflicted. I know who I am and what I'm doing and one of the many things I do is work with teens through music. You want to see a conflicted group of people I hope you spend time with young people. Some of them are already at the low point that Bruce seems to be and it's taken him 57 years to get there. I try to get them to see decency in relationships and mutual respect...then an adult, one who's face adorns the walls in my home pulls this on me (I have a 4'x4' oil painting of Born to Run on my living room wall). My 16 year old son bought this cd for me for Mother's Day. I had a lot of explaining to do and I don't think it's my place to try to cover for this man. The song is porn, it serves no purpose on the album. Bruce is more than capable of writing about lost love without depicting illict, illegal, graphic sex acts to get one through that loss. Come on call it what it is. It was unnecessary. To Mark you are correct, celebrate was probably not the best choice of words but what I was saying is that it raises it up to a point where we can't help but notice it. I guess glorifying the darkness might be a better way to put it. But I chose celebrate because that's what I have always felt listening to new Bruce songs was for me...a celebration of his talents his writing and the insights he gives us about ourselves on a spritual level. I know and most adults know how base we can become, that doesn't need to be pointed out to me in song. That's what Hip Hop does and I try to avoid that at all costs again as it serves no purpose, to me, at least.
23 - Mark Saleski
it's 'unnecessary' because it might offend somebody? sorry, i don't agree.
this is one of the most emotionlly raw songs he's ever recorded, and fits right in with the only 'theme' of the record, people dealing with the good and bad in their lives.
24 - Deborah
I am not offended by the song, I am appalled. What I find offensive are the sycophants who will defend it because it came from Bruce. I love this man's work more than you will ever know and because of that "relationship" I am truly concerned about him as I stated before because, though I don't really know him on a personal level, this seems to be a statement about him on an entirely new level. I have thought and been telling folks that because the right tried to claim him for so long and he denounced strongly having any ties what so ever there that this was maybe his way of saying "here, in your face conservatives. If my teaming up with Kerry wasn't statement enough let this be a clear message, because I wrote Born In the USA and sing about my home town, doesn't make me a midwestern Bible thumper"...and it really is a song directed politically under the gise of this steamy illict encounter. It doesn't make the imagery any easier to explain to my teens but I understand his motivation behind writing it...if that were the case, otherwise, I am at a loss...and so is he...and those who defend the song. Adult accountability. Our country needs it. When we see or hear of adults doing something illegal we need to speak up about it stop it,not write a song about it. What is Bruce saying to us about his relationship to women? What about womens rights here and in other countries? Women being bought and sold? Is that acceptable? It seems that way to a teen when we sing along with the words. So much for being a Human Rights activist also. It sends too many conflicting messages. The song is about a weak pathetic human being who when scorned, or has his feeling hurt, doesn't do the work necessary intellectually and spiritually to get through it but rather goes out and like an adolescent would inflicts further pain on society through actions that are selfish and self serving. Now there's something to sing about. Bruce has brought us songs that shed light on the human condition in the past without sinking this low.
25 - Mark Saleski
why is this song a statement about bruce's relationship to women?
from what i've read (and from what Springsteen has said in the dvd), most of the songs are from the characters' points of view...how they are dealing with what life or their current circumstances has dealt to them.
this is no different than in the tradition of country music, where songs were written from the point of view of the criminal (was Cash's 'Folsom Prison Blues' glorifying murder? 'i shot a man in reno, just to watch him die').
signed,
bruce-defending sycophant