Bruce Springsteen Sings the Alphabet

JB Clark
  • 4.5 (124)
  • Music Commentary
  • Biweekly

Bruce Springsteen Sings the Alphabet is a podcast that explores every Bruce Springsteen song in alphabetical order. alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com

  1. 3d ago

    Episode 11 | No Surrender

    Leave your rating and see more show notes at alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com. Today on Bruce Springsteen Sings the Alphabet, we flip the record. Side two, track one, and the song Bruce fought hardest to keep off the album. Click here for a subscribers-only video version of this podcast. No Surrender took three days at the Hit Factory in October 1983 and still never made it as a single. In fact, it almost never made it on the record. Bruce thought it was too naive for a record full of people whose lives weren’t working out. Steven Van Zandt, already backing out of the E Street Band, told him he was wrong and more or less bullied it onto the album. Fourteen years later Bruce still wasn’t sure, but we are. It’s an all-timer for Rob, it opened the show we saw together in Dallas in 2023, and JB thinks it might be the first pop punk song. We talk about why this song and Bobby Jean are really about Bruce and Steven and why you could hand every person in the arena a guitar and this song still wouldn’t be too big. Watch the Flores brothers sing No Surrender with Bruce and have more fun at a Bruce show than anyone before or since, Houston 2014: https://youtu.be/53g8PQCnr-c Here is our episode of Set Lusting Bruce with Jesse Jackson: https://youtu.be/bj3BypdWMCw?si=8KyPVVanSY9sagYg  How many drums and guitars do you give No Surrender? Leave your rating in the episode comments at alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com. Upgrade your subscription for video and the latest bonus ep (usually a week early!): https://alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/subscribe Chapters 02:14 Basic Facts! 17:23 The music 27:23 The lyrics 36:01 Ratings This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/subscribe

  2. Oct 19

    Episode 10 | I’m On Fire

    Today on Bruce Springsteen Sings the Alphabet, the sexy song that everybody covers and neither of us wants to sing. Click here for a subscribers-only video version of this podcast. I’m On Fire closes side one with three notes on a synthesizer, some brushes on a snare, a palm-muted guitar and those ghostly hoo-hoos. Two minutes and change. It sounds like fall, it sounds a little haunted, it sounds like it wandered over from Nebraska, and it went to number one in the Netherlands, where for three weeks in 1985 Bruce was basically the Beatles. We talk about why the most stripped-down song on an arena-rock record is the one that gets covered by everybody from Johnny Cash to Bats for Lashes, why Rob only likes it on vinyl, and what the last two lines do that the first one doesn’t. We also talk about the first verse, but only because we have to. We don’t make the rules. How many freight trains do you give this song? Leave your rating in the episode comments at alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com. Upgrade your subscription for video and the latest bonus ep (usually a week early!). https://alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/subscribe Chapters 02:24 Basic Facts 11:10 The Music 17:54 The Lyrics 29:15 The Ratings 33:38 Next time: No Surrender, and how to find us This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Oct 12

    Episode 9 | Downbound Train

    Today on Bruce Springsteen Sings the Alphabet: the one that almost went to Nebraska and didn’t. He had a job, he had a girl. Then it all went to hell. You know, the rain and the car wash of it all. Downbound Train is a short song about a guy who isn’t in the driver’s seat, and it’s certainly an album favorite for the fellas (or the weakest thing Bruce released since the second album, if you ask Dave Marsh). We also have thoughts about Dave Marsh. We talk about the three versions of this song that exist and why Rob hates one of them, how Roy Bittan carted a 200-pound synthesizer into the studio, and why Max’s snare drum is the piece of tape holding this whole record together. How many whining whistles do you give Downbound Train? Tell us in the comments below. We’ve also dropped our first bonus episode of the new run, the 2023 All Media Underload. We hit the high points of our 2023 lists since we never dropped an episode that year. It’s a subscriber only episode, but everyone gets a free preview episode (I think?). https://alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/p/bonus-ep-all-media-underload Chapters 04:04 Basic Facts! 10:00 The music 19:27 The lyrics 26:14 Ratings This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Oct 5

    Episode 8 | “Working on the Highway”

    Today on Bruce Springsteen Sings the Alphabet, we’re somehow in the Bs and in the Ws with “Working on the Highway,” the jangly rocker off Born in the USA. We dig into what makes it move, what it’s really saying about love and work, and why the union hall matters more than you’d think. We also talk about what makes for good songwriting, which Jon Favreau movies this is exactly like, and some personal stories along the way. Plus, as usual, we talk about making records and other silly stuff with your friends. Head over to alphabeticalspringstee.substack.com to leave your own song rating. Check out the video episode here: https://alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/p/working-on-the-highway Leave your own rating in the comments, please! Chapters 02:59 Exploring the Song’s Musical Elements 05:54 Lyrics Analysis and Themes 08:55 Discussion on Songwriting and Recording Process 12:01 Character and Story Development in Lyrics 15:00 Cultural References and Context 18:10 Final Thoughts and Ratings This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/subscribe

    Episode 8 | “Working on the Highway”

  5. Sep 28

    Episode 7 | “Darlington County”

    Driving into Darlington County with two hundred dollars in your pocket. What a feeling!? Two fellas drive into a new town looking for a good time. How does it end for our two protagonists this time? It’s fun. It’s raucous. It’s rock’n’roll. Is it good? Certainly. But is it important? We’re not giving away the ending in the show notes. We ask the real questions this week. And we honor Dolly because this episode was recorded weeks ago. Leave your rating in the episode comments at https://alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/p/episode-7-darlington-county Upgrade your subscription for video episodes (usually a week early!). https://alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/subscribe Chapters 01:04 — Bruce’s birthday 03:06 — Meeting famous people without making things awkward 07:20 — Remembering Dolly Parton 10:01 — Could Dolly have covered “Darlington County”? 11:08 — Basic Facts! 13:23 — The music 18:11 — The album’s characters, insecurity, and disappointment 20:25 — Breaking down the lyrics 29:32 — Ratings and final thoughts 32:13 — How to follow and support the show This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Sep 21

    Episode 6 | “Cover Me”

    This week on Bruce Springsteen Sings the Alphabet, Rob and JB talk about Donna Summer’s almost disco hit, Cover Me. Believe it or not, Bruce originally wrote this song at Quincy Jones request, but you’ll have to listen to the ep for all the details. This Billboard top 10 single sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and definitely put Bruce on the pop fan’s radar (but there’s still plenty of muscular rock’n’roll guitar, don’t worry, fellas). We decide if the lyrics are deep, shallow, or if that even matters. Talk about what a Donna cover would sound like, and hand out disco balls. For more from Rob and JB (including video episodes) head over to alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com. 00:00 Opening banter—and some thoughts about choreography 01:08 The origins of “Cover Me” 06:55 How the song developed and was recorded 12:56 Chart performance and reception 17:19 Rock, disco, and the song’s musical influences 23:03 Bruce’s guitar work 26:00 Moving from political themes to personal ones 27:10 Mood, vibe, and emotional impact 29:54 Whether simple lyrics can still have depth 34:01 The subversive history of disco 37:00 Final thoughts and ratings This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/subscribe

    Episode 6 | “Cover Me”

  7. Sep 14

    Episode 5 | "Born in the USA"

    Today on Bruce Springsteen Sings the Alphabet: We kick things off with a world-wide unanimous banger from the boss. The song is as famous for its perceived patriotism as it is for its cease and desist letters to presidential campaigns. It’s somehow patriotic and ironically patriotic all at once. A satire packaged inside a genuine, heart-felt, sing along of a pop rock song. While this song feels like a case of, “What hasn’t been said about this song,” it turns out we found plenty to say. We’d also be interested in hearing what you have to say. Please shoot us a line or drop your rating in one of the feeds. As always, if you think a friend would enjoy this, pass it along: https://alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/p/born-in-the-usa?r=44wa19&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Sep 10

    Episode 4 | "Hey Blue Eyes"

    Some people hear this one and file it away as a slow, sexy love song. It is not a love song. It is about Abu Ghraib. Side two, track two. The last song on the EP and the last day of American Beauty Week. We get into: The trick Bruce is pulling: pedal steel, twinkly piano, a whisper in your ear, before he walks you straight into the worst thing we’ve ever done.  Genesis chapter three.  One of the few times Bruce swears on a record and exactly why it hits.  JB coins the phrase "sexy doubt.”  And the decade old rumor that Tom Morello is going to cover this someday. Heads up, this one has the explicit tag, and we spend a good while on what the song was about then and what it is about now. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com/subscribe

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Bruce Springsteen Sings the Alphabet is a podcast that explores every Bruce Springsteen song in alphabetical order. alphabeticalspringsteen.substack.com

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