By Steve Rhodes
I spent some time on YouTube this Christmas Eve and ended up watching the following.
1. Thunder Road/Bruce Springsteen. Live 1976. Greatest rock song ever. The piano is hope; the harmonica despair.
2. Thunder Road/Shannnnon lip synching in her backyard. “I guess bruce springsteen is all i think about.” The comments are priceless.
3. The River/Bruce Springsteen. Live 2003, Milan. The economy with which Bruce tells this story is breathtaking. Each line is more haunting than the last.
4. Badlands/Bruce Springsteen. Live 1980, Landover. Lights out tonight, trouble in the Heartland.
5. Backstreets/Bruce Springsteen. Live 1984, Toronto. Dreams, promises, faith, love, desperation, and betrayal. Tying faith between our teeth, sleeping in that old abandoned beach house, getting wasted in the heat. We swore forever friends.
6. The River/Bruce Springsteen. Live 1980. It’s about his sister and brother-in-law. Man, that was all she wrote.
7. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)/Bruce Springsteen. Live 1978, Largo. Oh love me tonight, and I promise I’ll love you forever.
8. Growin’ Up/Bruce Springsteen. Live 2005, Madison. The flag of piracy flew from my mast, my sails were set wing to wing; I had a jukebox graduate for first mate, she couldn’t sail but she sure could sing. Done here the way Dylan would do it.
9. London Calling/Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl & Co. This one’s for Joe. And none of them channel him better than Bruce.
10. Youngstown/Bruce Springsteen. Live 1996, Stambaugh Theatre in Youngstown. Them big boys did what Hitler couldn’t do.
11. Spirit in the Night/Bruce Springsteen. Live 1978, Landover. The worst part is when it’s time to go. The good times never last; they just turn into bitter nostalgia.
12. Atlantic City/Bruce Springsteen. Video, 1982. The DA can’t get no relief.
13. Desert Moon/Dennis DeYoung. Video, 1984. I’m a sucker for this kind of sentimentality. And I’m not ashamed. Because it’s true.
14. Lawyers in Love/Jackson Browne. Video, 1983. Even lawyers fall in love. Just like humans.
15. 5:01 a.m. (The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking)/Roger Waters. Video, 1984. Did you understand the music, Yoko, or was it all in vain?
16. Sunglasses at Night/Corey Hart. Video, 1983. Don’t switch the blade on the guy in shades. Oh no.
17. Call It a Loan/Johnny Cardinale doing Jackson Browne. Can we call it a loan, and a debt that I owe, on a bet that I lost. If I’d only known what your heart cost.
18. The Gunner’s Dream/Pink Floyd. Video, 1983. In the space between the heavens, and the corner of some foreign field, I had a dream.
19. When the Tigers Broke Free/Pink Floyd. Video, 1982. Left off The Wall and The Final Cut. The story of how Roger Waters’ father was killed at Anzio in World War II.
20. The Final Cut/Pink Floyd. Video, 1983. A vastly underrated album.
21. Not Now John/Pink Floyd. Video, 1983. Could be re-usable shows.
22. The Fletcher Memorial Home/Pink Floyd. Video, 1983. Now admitting new residents George W. Bush and Tony Blair.
23. Southampton Dock/Roger Waters. Live 1999. They disembarked in ’45, and no one spoke and no smiled. There were too many spaces in the line.
24. 5:06 a.m. (Every Stranger’s Eyes)/Roger Waters. Video, 1984. In truck stops and hamburger joints/In Cadillac limousines/In the company of has-beens/And bent-backs and sleeping forms/On pavement steps/In libraries and railway stations/In books and banks/In the pages of history/In suicidal cavalry attacks/I recognize/Myself in every stranger’s eyes.
25. The Tide is Turning (After Live Aid)/Roger Waters. Video, 1987. Satellite buzzing through the endless night/Exclusive to moonshots and world title fights/Jesus Christ imagine what it must be earning.
26. 4:41 a.m. (Sexual Revolution)/Roger Waters. Video, 1984. As I’ve always said/I prefer your lips red/Not what the good Lord made/but what He intended.
27. Ah, Leah/Donnie Iris. Video, 1980. I can touch you but I don’t know how to love you.
28. Some dude playing the bass part to Red Barchetta. I mean, how great is this?
Posted on December 26, 2006