Adam Handpicks Boss Songs to Learn Mal What He's Missin'

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

And . . . GO!

[Mal Shot First]

I swear, I read the title as "Adam Handpicks Boss Hogg to Learn Mal What He's Missin'."

[Adam54]

Ha! I should've read this before I posted in that other thread. Give me some time to think on this. I like a good challenge.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Mal likes a melody with some teeth. He likes a song to change it up. He likes a well-placed diminished chord. He's a sucker for loud-quiet-loud dynamics.

[Mal Shot First]

This is true.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

He also likes to quote my former roommates.

[Adam54]

So in order of importance for Mal's music tastes, are they ranked as follows?

1. Melody
2. Lyrics
3. Goiter's former roommates

[Mal Shot First]

I mean, it's hard to say what will make me like a song. I listen to music from a variety of genres, which is why I find it difficult to narrow down what it is that I enjoy. Goiter's assessment above isn't that far off the mark. In the end, I think what I like is variety, even within a single artist's output. The worst thing for me is to listen to several songs by the same artist and to feel as if I'm hearing the same structures and themes over and over again.

For example, when Green Day's American Idiot was released, my college roommate was disappointed in the direction the band had taken. He was a big fan of their '90s stuff when he was in middle school and high school and felt like they had given up their sound in order to follow current trends in music. I didn't know what he was talking about because I wasn't that familiar with Green Day, so he lent his copy of Dookie to me.

I thought it started out pretty good; there was a great energy to their songs and a pop-punk sound that was on the verge of sounding bland, but somehow wasn't... until I kept listening to the album and almost every song ended up sounding sort of the same, which then gave me an overall impression of blandness. I told this to my roommate, who thought I was just being a pretentious douche. So then I told him he should listen to it again and really pay attention without his nostalgia ears on. In the end, he agreed, somewhat reluctantly.

Another example: I was really blown away by the first Nick Cave song I heard. Then I heard other Nick Cave songs and realized that there's one thing he does, and it gets kind of old pretty fast.

Somehow, Nirvana gets a lot of mileage out of a three-piece rock ensemble. When you listen to Nevermind and In Utero, you find that almost every song has something unique to itself, both musically and lyrically - and that's a rare find. Okay, sometimes I mix up "Aneurysm" and "Tourette's," but those are the two exceptions.

Long story short: It's difficult for me to like an artist if I perceive them as doing the same thing over and over again.

[Adam54]

So here's what I'm thinking.

In the world of Springsteen nuts like me (collectively known as E Street Nation) there's pretty much universal consensus that his three best albums are Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town and Tunnel of Love. Some would try to make a case for The River or Born in the USA but like you, I think there's too much repetitive synth going on in his early 1980s stuff to make it appear anywhere in the top 3. There is healthy disagreement amongst fans about how to rank the top 3, but I'd go like this:

1. Born to Run
2. Tunnel of Love
3. Darkness on the Edge of Town

(with the caveat that 2 and 3 are completely flippable depending on your mood at the time. Tunnel is a lot darker, for example, but probably his best lyrical work.)

So what I'm going to do is give you two tracks off each of the top 3 which are must listens, plus one honorable mention track if you're so inclined. Please note, I'd strongly encourage anybody who hasn't to check out the entire Born to Run album. It's a masterpiece. A short, beautiful masterpiece. Ironically, it's also perfect to listen to if ever you want to head out on a 45 minute run. Here we go.

Born To Run

Again, the whole thing is fantastic, but since I'm making myself narrow it down to just two tracks, go with "Thunder Road" and "Born to Run." The first will give you a taste of his ability to tell a story, the second (so long as you find the album version) will show you how musically good that band can be.

Honorable Mention: Jesus....why did I limit myself here? I...arghhhh......"Backstreets." NARROWLY edges out "Jungleland."

Next...

Darkness on the Edge of Town

"Badlands" is mandatory here, and will hopefully remind you that it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.
"Racing in the Street" is beautiful, melodic, lyrically golden and segues perfectly into the upbeat honorable mention that is "The Promised Land."

And the bronze medalist...

Tunnel of Love

This is tougher for me to choose as it's only very recently grown on me, but it grew on me in a hurry. Lyrically, like I said, probably his best work. It came out in 1987, so I'll warn you that it does have a fair amount of synth flavor to it, but it's also got his failing/failed marriage inspiring it, hence the powerful lyrics about falling in love and losing it. It's also solo Bruce, which is vastly different than E Street Band Bruce. ANYWAY...

"One Step Up" is a powerfully sad, beautiful song about the end of a relationship. Best song on the album.
"Tougher Than The Rest" is the flip side of that, a track about falling in love in the first place.

Honorable mention: "Brilliant Disguise" was a single from this record about the lengths to which people reach to try to save failing relationships. Depending on your relationship with your father, however, "Walk Like a Man" may be a better choice, and is definitely less synthy. I'll let Goiter pick here.

For the best thing he's done in the last ten years, just find "Gypsy Biker." If you wanna go back 15, check out "The Rising" or "My City of Ruins."

Thank you, that is all, good night and good luck.

[Scotia]

I don't know. I watched Bruce perform I'm On Fire in Ottawa back in mid 2000's and it changed my life. Spectacular. Its absolutely my favourite song ever. The man is a god in my eyes. I was four rows from the stage I swear he sweated on me. Such emotion poured out on stage, most of the crowd was weeping. Just a beautiful experience.

[Adam54]

Live Bruce is a whole other world. We're on Boss 101 here. You're talking Boss 400 or so. Couldn't agree more, by the way. I still haven't washed my hands since he body surfed over me.

[Dalty]

How many Boss tunes do you have in your car Adam? Is every commute a boss commute?

[Adam54]

Not exclusively, no, but almost always manage to sprinkle in a song or two. I've been using the commute of late to catch up on Wittertainment. I'd guess only 100 or so Springsteen songs are on the phone, but that's in no small part due to that I'm stuck with just a 16 GB iPhone until next year.

[Dalty]

Stop wasting space on pics of Little Adam to send to the laydeez then!

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

I'd guess only 100 or so Springsteen songs are on the phone, but that's in no small part due to that I'm stuck with just a 16 GB iPhone until next year.

Apple had gotten the iPod up to 160 GB before they stopped developing it. I'm still bummed that they abandoned it. I know why they abandoned it, but I'm still bummed.

[Dalty]

Why did they abandon it?

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

They chose to focus on aggressive development and marketing of their phones and tablets. They also claimed there was a sharp drop in iPod sales, but it's difficult to tell to what degree they brought this drop on themselves with their shifted focus.

[Dalty]

Why carry an iPod and a phone when you can have an iPhone and have both..... I s'pose.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

I'd rather have an iPod with a long-lasting battery that allows me to carry around my 20,000+ song library, 100+ movies, a decent number of TV shows, and a couple hundred audiobooks than an iPhone with a battery that doesn't last very long and only allows me to carry around a handful of songs, movies, and audiobooks.

[Dalty]

And therein are the two biggest issues with the iPhone. The 64Gb is way too expensive (ditto the 128GB 6 Plus) and the battery life is atrocious. Would help if it auto terminated apps if they have been running in background mode for hours with zero usage.

Would people really complain about just a teensy bit bigger and teensy bit heavier if it helped nail that battery problem?

[Adam54]

I wouldn't complain, and I complain about everything!

Goiter nailed it, for my reasoning anyway. I held out for a long time, but my iPod was starting to have issues, my phone started having issues, Verizon offered me a *very* good price on both an iPhone and a service plan, so I figured I may as well give it a shot. The battery has been as poor as advertised and I absolutely should've paid $50 extra for a 32 GB, but other than that it's been nice carrying just one device around instead of two as people were even starting to question the random bulges in my pockets.

[Dalty]

So are Android and Windows phones as bad on battery life? If not, what are they doing right that Apple are doing wrong?

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

And therein are the two biggest issues with the iPhone. The 64Gb is way too expensive (ditto the 128GB 6 Plus) and the battery life is atrocious. Would help if it auto terminated apps if they have been running in background mode for hours with zero usage.

That's still shy of the iPod Classic's 160 GB.

Man, was that iPod Classic somethin'. It could have been way more, too. If they'd continued developing it, I'm sure they would have gotten it up to 1 TB.

[Dalty]

And the last incarnation was..... what..... five years ago? Could get a common iPhone up to at least 160GB, I'd wager.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Sure, but it'll cost way, way more than the iPod classic ever cost. Good luck getting a battery with a decent life, too.

And good luck with the Apple folk not dumping the iPhone the second they think they have a better piece of tech--which tech will cost more and will almost certainly offer you less space.