Well, dang, even I like Springsteen!

And I can't be alone-there's a satellite radio station that plays nothing BUT the Boss. I bought my shoes at a shoe outlet that was tuned to it.

I put my two cents in.

TPS did us proud upstream, early on in that thread. Way to go Pink!

I added my own, not-nearly-as-compelling-as-anything-jonmc-writes testimonial as a Springsteen fan to the thread.

Actually, I think you did better than me. I was too tired to really argue so I just sort of rambled. Good on you for defending Billy Joel, too. I did my own defense of Billy a while back.

"I've never met a Springsteen fan" is a pretty weird statement. His reach is pretty broad, or is it just a United States thing? I'm not really a fan of his whole catalog, but he seems like a good guy and he does have some pretty great songs.

But there's still part of me that feels compelled to criticize the guy and I'm not sure why. Maybe the excessive fan adulation makes me look for the stuff to knock. I go through phases where I think I'm finally done slagging him and then one day I'm back to wanting hate him. Although songs like "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City", "Born to Run", "Prove it All Night", and "For You" are pretty hard to hate.

See? I did it again. Now I'm starting to think I like him again. As I was thinking of the songs I liked I suddenly found myself able to name more songs than I thought I would. Damn, maybe I like Dylan again too.

And Billy Joel is the one I've taken the most hits on. Especially when I was so vocal about my love of punk and indie bands in the 80s. I fucking love Billy Joel - even the cheeseball Billy Joel. In fact, I think I like the cheeseball Billy Joel the most. It's hard to credibly dismiss someone like Springsteen when you've got a love of Billy Joel, and I've been reminded about that by friends many times during heated music discussions. But that's part of the fun of being a music nut.

Wow - I just read more of that MeTa post and billyfleetwood really nails it!

My dander got up a little more after LordSludge's latest statement so I added a few more cents.

jonmc.... I added you as a MeFi contact. I clicked on "muse" because I didn't see "god" as a choice.

Thanks for the compliment. When I said in MeTa that "Springsteen's Born to Run and Joel's Turnstiles are yin and yang to each other, and 2 of my all-time favorite albums" it was because back in the days before CDs, I had those two albums on opposite sides of a 90-minute cassette tape, so I rarely listened to one without the other. They represent, on an almost sublime level, two stereotypical New Yorkers. Springsteen from outside of the City on the Jersey side, and Billy Joel from outside the citty on the 'GIsland side... the tough city against the suburbs. Springteen lived the adventures I craved while Billy Joel more accurately described who I was at that time.

The best thing I ever did was follow the trend and drop both as being overplayed and trite for a while, then... picked them up again. There is nothing better than discovering a favorite album all over again (unless it was a Styx album. Ew. But I digress.)

Springsteen is GOD!

I can't believe how much Springsteen is idolized on these sites. Bah. As a friend of mine says, he could learn a thing or two about musical intensity from Magma.

I'm shocked! I'm almost afraid to head to this thread because I'll get sucked in. I'm an enormous fan, just about to put a couple of bootlegs in the mail to the next people on my vine. Hellbient, I am obligated to ask you: Have you seen him live?

I've always been unmoved by Springsteen's music, as well, but I think he probably means to a lot of folks in the northeastern U.S. sort of what Lynyrd Skynyrd means to a lot of folks in the southeastern U.S.

With that perspective, I can appreciate what he means to some people, even while not personally liking his music.

but I think he probably means to a lot of folks in the northeastern U.S. sort of what Lynyrd Skynyrd means to a lot of folks in the southeastern U.S.

Or what The Kingsmen mean the the Northwest?

BP: although as your spiritual advisor I'd ask you to give him a re-evaluation, I have to say that's a very perceptive analysis. I don't think anyone captures the spirit and atmosphere of prosaic Eastern Seaboard America better than the Boss.

(I also have a dream that Kevin Smith will direct an adaptation of a Tom Perrotta novel and use Springsteen music for the soundtrack thus resulting in the most Jersey movie ever.)

I was totally unmoved by Springsteen always (I was a teenager in the 80's--the sort who owned Hyaena and PiL records and wore black tights in the Inland Empire, so that would explain that) and then I heard the Cowboy Junkies perform some Springsteen (Margo Timmins' story about meeting Springsteen is both hilarious and warm). I'll probably never be a Springsteen fan--that sort of manly guy who rocks while ordinary folk bang their beer bottles on the bar is not my thing in life--but I get now what moves people there.

manly guy who rocks while ordinary folk bang their beer bottles on the bar

Aw crush! He's not like that at all. His songs are emotionally mushy, and he himself is a sensitive dude.

You can't help the other fans; some of them are meatheads, it's true, but they generally have hearts of gold.

Seconding Miko. While Bruce is definitely a man with a 'regular guy' streak, he's a total sesnitive soul, just listen to 'Growing Up.'

(and I can appreciate a lot of more 'artsy' music, even love some of it and still be a total Bruce groupie. These two positions are not mutually exclusive. And if you encountered him in the '80's, I advise checking out his seventies work, which is a whole other ballgame.)

You can't help the other fans; some of them are meatheads, it's true

Another similarity between Springsteen and Skynyrd.

to be fair, BoPo, both the Boss and Skynyrd knew that they had the ear of a lot of people and tried to use that to good effect. Ronnie Van Zant wrote songs like 'Saturday Night Special' 'That Smell' and 'The Ballad of Curtis Lowe,' decrying gun violence, drug and alcohol abuse and racism repectively which was a ballsy move for a self-described good ol' boy.

Oh, absolutely, jon... I just meant, you can't really judge either by an impression of their fans, because the fans include both good and bad.

Miko-- no doubt! "You're Missing" (albeit, again, as performed by the Cowboy Junkies) can move me to a whiskey- and tear-soaked bender. I'm sure the man himself handles it no less well.

Well, that certainly was a refreshing thread! I'm glad this thread alerted me to it. That thread was like wrestling with a pig. You both get muddy, but the pig likes it.

In this case, *I* was the pig! ;-D

I can't really afford it this year, but I bought tickets to see Springsteen this spring in Vancouver. There is only one performer that I will book a day off work for (at the end of the month, no less!), get on an overpriced ferry for, and stay in a hotel for. And that person is BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN.

I'm 42 now, and I'm not sure I would have made it past 19 without being able to hear his music and listen to his lyrics. I think I would have been a small-town suicide without him.

Bruce is god.