Trying out a music post
Growing up, I didn’t care much for the Boss. Indiana was John Cougar country, so we didn’t have any need or desire to hear songs about the working man from New Jersey. We had our own guy singing about heartland charm and the virtues of coming from a “small town.” Sure, when I was little I thought “Born in the USA” was cool until I found out it wasn’t a little diddy about how awesome America is.
I have obviously come around since then, but it was enough for me to sleep on Bruce for years. I was too busy groovin’ to Wild Night on VH1 and R.O.C.K.’in out in the USA to explore Springsteen’s back catalog (in my defense, he wasn’t doing himself any favors in the 90’s either, hi Lucky Town and Human Touch).
When I moved to NYC and joined a band with a couple idiots from D.C. who were Boss die-hards, I couldn’t really freeze out the E. Street Band any longer (9 hour road-trips), so I asked for some recommendations to see if there was something there that I was missing. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, right?
Admittedly, it was slow-going, but when they suggested I give “Nebraska” a listen I was hooked. Hell, I was born in Nebraska, maybe I could be born to run too. (I wasn’t going to let myself get burned again for being born in the USA, that’s for damn sure)
Atlantic City on that album really stood out. Even from far-away Indiana, we knew Atlantic City, NJ was a terrible place (45 was really just pouring gasoline on that fire in the ’90s), but Bruce was coming from a point of view where his only escape to a better life was a stroke of luck, and the sadness in the melody and lyrics revealed that even he knew he was screwed for relying on AC. I loved it.
Eventually, I would come around on Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band. My favorite cover to play in the band was “It’s Hard to Be A Saint in the City” and the Hammersmith Odeon 1975 concert is still one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. I don’t revere him the same way my friends do, but I admire their passion and, good lord, that band could cook.
Moving on, because this post is already too long. I like the Band and they covered Atlantic City too. Here we’ve got Levon Helm singing with a driving back-beat along with three-part harmonies and a lovely sounding mandolin. Just amazing. When the squeeze-box plays the interludes it really shines.
It’s still full of sadness, but probably a song Bruce and his date would have danced to when they finally got to where the sand turns to gold.
COVID-19 has created some strange situations. Instead of happy hours, we have Zoom meetings. In June, I was invited to play some songs over the world-wide-web for just such an occasion with some college classmates. I had to sound good, and I’m not a strong singer…ruh-roh. I opted for a ukulele rendition of a half-and-half Bruce/Band cover of Atlantic City (for the record, I never considered playing any Melly jams…prob cause he’s way out of my range, but still). I like to think that, in the spirit of making the best of a bad situation, a cover of Atlantic City is a reasonable choice.
It might be a fact that everything dies, but not everything necessarily bombs. So put your make-up on and fix your hair up pretty, cause here’s a video of me covering Bruce recorded over Zoom.
Thanks Kaethe for the recording and Amanda for hosting.
