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Much ado is being made today about the simultaneous release of the newly-remastered Beatles catalog, and the interactive video game, Beatles Rock Band.  I am intrigued by the former, and ambivalent about the latter.

One one hand, Rock Band strikes me as the height of poserdom – another example of the artificial replacing the real in our society.  We don’t play tennis or go bowling anymore; we play Wii Fit.  We don’t play guitar; we play Guitar Hero.  John Lennon and Paul McCartney were introduced to one another on the afternoon of July 6, 1957.  Had the two merely played guitar-shaped pieces of plastic in their bedrooms instead of real guitars, popular music would be quite different today.  When the Beatles played the Ed Sullivan Show seven years later, an army of American boys were inspired to pick up their own guitars, start rock bands, and write the rock songs that defined an era.  What if today’s kids are picking up game controllers instead of real instruments?  Wither music?

On the other hand, a segment I heard on the radio last night raised a point I might have otherwise never considered.  A caller to On Point said that he treasures the quality time he has spent playing Rock Band with his children, and that it has helped him feel more connected with them.  They get to know his music, and he gets to know their music.  This got me thinking: what if the millions of parents who felt so upset by rock music in 1964 had instead been able to share the experience with their children?  After all, shaggy hair and suggestive hand-holding talk wasn’t really what bothered parents about the Beatles.  The Beatles were the physical embodiment of the growing divide separating the World War II generation from their kids.

The Beatles are popular enough, and certainly not at risk of being forgotten, even by kids today.  So I don’t think all this hoopla is about introducing a new generation to Lennon-McCartney.  I think, rather, that it might actually be about bonding.  Video games have divided parents and children for more than twenty years.  If Beatles Rock Band can bring them together, things really will have come full circle.

Filed under: Musings, Popular Music, Technology on September 9th, 2009 | No Comments »

As much as I would like to go to the E Street Band show in Tampa on September 12, the only tickets left are for the lawn at the top of the amphitheater, or are good seats, but priced at $98.  Seeing as I’d need two or three, the latter seems out of the question.

Filed under: Popular Music on August 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »

The miracle of our modern age is video on demand.

Filed under: Popular Music, Technology on July 27th, 2009 | No Comments »

The latest post on backstreets.com begins: “You gotta be there.  Every time.  Every time Bruce Springsteen is in town, you gotta be there”.

I know that, and I do my best.  I just learned that the E Street Band has added a Tampa date this fall, and I will be there no matter what.  But, even if the band played six straight days in Tampa, I’d have to go to each show, because you don’t know when it’s going to happen.  What do I mean by “it”?   Let’s review some history.

During the 1978 Darkness tour, Springsteen began inserting a long, improvised interlude into “Backstreets” following the last verse.  The sequence generally featured Bruce singing over Roy Bittan’s piano, telling a story about a girl he used to meet in an abandoned car in an open field on the edge of town.  “Baby, I remember you”, was how he generally began the interlude which came to be known as “Sad Eyes”.  As the Darkness tour progressed, the “Sad Eyes” interlude became more elaborate, until one night he sang, “back then I swore I’d drive all night”.  Roy Bittan, at that point, was playing a I-IV-V progression.  When The River appeared two years later, “Drive All Night” was the second to last track on the Side Two of the second disc, just before “Wreck on the Highway”.  “Drive All Night” is over eight minutes long, and was played at only a handful of shows on the River tour, and seldom heard after.  That brings us to July 21, 2009 in Torino.

From backstreets.com:

When the band broke into “Raise Your Hand” to let Bruce collect signs for requests, three identical, sealed and numbered envelopes reached the stage. Inside, the first one says “Drive All Night.” Bruce shakes his head; “naah, too difficult and long,” he seems to say, while the crowd dives into visible desperation. Envelope 2, the paper inside says “Drive All Night” once again. The trick is almost revealed, so when Bruce opens envelope 3 everybody is screaming—and needless to say, marked in black is “Drive All Night”—and a collective dream comes true. In a show really close to perfection (every musical ingredient is there, almost every Bruce topic woven through the setlist), “Drive All Night” is a brilliant example of how the art and magic of Bruce Springsteen not only lies in what the audience usually gets, but resides as well in what it may not get. A majestic song like that might stay unrevealed in an envelope that Bruce may not pluck nor open. This is why you should always be there, every time he plays, if you can.

At the show I saw in 2008, a handwritten poster requesting “Drive All Night” went unfulfilled.  I can’t complain, since I got “Jungleland” instead (in a show which also included “Turn, Turn, Turn” with Roger McGuinn).  But if I could hear “Drive All Night” live this fall, I’d be a happy man.

Filed under: Musings, Popular Music on July 22nd, 2009 | No Comments »

The Working on a Dream tour has been going strong for more than six months.  The E Street Band has been in Europe since May, and just like he did during the Magic tour, Bruce Springsteen is taking requests.  The procedure is simple: bring a handwritten sign into the pit, hold it aloft, and, if you’re lucky, the band will play your tune.  Obviously, savvy fans don’t request “Born to Run” or “Badlands”; those are going to be played anyway.  Rather, you see signs for “The Price You Pay”, “Candy’s Room”, and “E Street Shuffle”.  At the last show I attended, I was sad that he ignored the sign that read “Drive All Night”, but thrilled when he grabbed one requesting “Jungleland”.

As you can see on the autograph setlists, Springsteen leaves a few open slots for audience requests.  The most recent trend has been to request covers.  The E Street Band is as good as any bar band, and it’s fascinating to see what kind of tunes people ask for.  Yes, there are some unusual ones, like “London Calling”, “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide”, and “My Generation”.  But there are others that make a lot of sense, like “Pretty Woman”, “Louie, Louie”, and “Mountain of Love”.  Last week in Bern, he grabbed a fan’s sign, and played “I Fought the Law”.  Watch the video, and notice how well the band pulls this one out.  Bruce takes the sign, calls out a key, and continues to give cues (“Bridge!” or “I think there’s a solo!”) when appropriate.  Max even remembers the “six gun” fill.  It’s pretty good for being a request.

Filed under: Popular Music on July 10th, 2009 | No Comments »