3 Responses to “Friday Night Cage Match/Fondue Party/Evolving Conversation/Dancing About Architecture Vol. 69”

1. Sans Direction on October 24th, 2009 12:08 am

   I don’t think that John Fogerty has a single lead that’s as vital as that biting one on Springsteen’s “Candy’s Room”. And that’s the tipping point for me. As singers and as frontmen, they can sing a song and move a crowd. They are both solid songwriters with many great solid songs. I think Springsteen, coming up post-Beatles, is more willing to depart from formula, but I’m not really up to trying to decide if I like “Lodi” more than “I’m On Fire”. Call it equal.

   Fogerty has some tasty bits and is well worth studying, but could he stand next to James Burton and come out alive? He can’t even do “Suzie Q” with the dead thumb. Springsteen died, but he died like an aviator.

   So Springsteen.

   Similarly, let’s consider. Bruce’s first album, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, had the Big Man and Garry Tallent. By Born To Run, he had The E Street Band in the classic format together. 1973 to early 90s, and on and off since then, the E Street Band has been together. Meanwhile, if what I have heard is right, Tom Fogerty wouldn’t even see John on his deathbed. As bandleader, Springsteen.

2. Pribek on October 24th, 2009 7:29 am

   Both HIGHLY successful in a commercial sense and well past the peak of that. I can’t really think of any other 3rd gen, Swinging Richards that reverently tapped in to folk-rock-pop-Shindig stylings that were still rooted in the blues, that were HIGHLY successful in a commercial sense.

   Are the respective legacies tainted by family feuds, Super Bowls etc.? Do they buy their own hype? Do they have Jann Wenner on speed dial?

   I was listening to Imus the other day and he played a record they made together. I didn’t know they made a record together. It was a bloated version of “When Will I Be Loved”. Pretty icky.

   I like JF’s guitar playing even though he didn’t get the dead thumb and the bosss carried himself with dignity vs. Burton.

   There was a time when I was pretty jazzed by both these guys and there everyman, Levi wearing, voice of the proletariat poses but, that was long before I became jaded by the lonesome honky tonk highway and truck stop deep fryers. I guess we all got our own snakes to kill, eh?

   I guess I still have a soft spot for both these cats as I do most post mid-life crisis, zillionaire protest singers. Rave on brothers…have a stiff shot of Geritol on me and put the hammer down…drive that Cadillac mister in to the night, under the light of the bad moon.

3. Pat Darnell and Friends on October 24th, 2009 1:47 pm

   give me a minute .. okay?

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