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Springsteen Born to Run (press for the book)

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    #76
    Originally posted by danielmak View Post
    Springsteen did an acoustic version of "The River" on Colbert (a US talk show). I think I have posted this before, but I am hard-pressed to find a song that is basically a novella that is as good as this one. There are better songs, for sure, but I don't know if there are fully formed stories in a song that is as good as "The River."
    Steve Earle's 'Taneytown' from El Corazon might also qualify as a short novella - indeed, it also appeared in his Doghouse Roses collection of short stories.

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      #77
      Springsteen's live series has mostly been good. He has just released another from his Brendan Byrne Arena 1984 10-night stand:

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        #78
        This is as good a place as any to note the astounding damage Springsteen has done to his fanbase with this Ticketmaster 'surge pricing' debacle. My lovely wife, a lifelong fan, and I (her obliging +1) were pre-registered with Ticketmaster Verified Fan for both the Buffalo and Detroit shows. After enduring absurdly long waits, we were greeted by tickets nearly sold old, but priced into the high hundreds / low thousands of dollars. These are tickets we'd normally pay $125 US for. Upper level, but happily in the room.

        We refused to pay so we won't be going. She's seriously fucked off, as are many, many of his die-hard fans. And there's no absolving him through claims of ignorance about what TM was doing; Springsteen is highly involved in his tour planning, as is his management. This is greed...a cash grab...a last, long gouge of the fans. As has been pointed out, he's 72...so....I mean.

        Anyway, fuck him. This is tone-deaf and off-brand and really bad form for him. This is the guy who, like Pearl Jam, cancelled shows in the past when it looked like a scalper's bonanza. Now he just wants in on the action.

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          #79
          That is disappointing. Was the idea to claw back some of the money that was just going to scalpers anyway?

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            #80
            Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
            That is disappointing. Was the idea to claw back some of the money that was just going to scalpers anyway?
            Correct. Though he is the first high-profile artist to try Ticketmaster's thing and it was vocally opposed to weeks ago when the initial access went on sale. Yet it seems like they have decided to stick with it.

            This might be interesting as I have a tin-foil hat theory that it is the same 300k who are always seeing Bruce live. Like a cleaning roster, except you get Bruce.

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              #81
              I read a bit more.
              Lots of people are pissed, but some people reportedly did get in at the $60-$400 level before prices spiked.
              Not sure why WOM and L got left out of that.

              He’s coming here in March 2023 and the TM site shows plenty of seats available in the $350 neighborhood. That’s about $300 more than I would spend, but you’re welcome to stay here if you want to come to that.

              I guess everyone is thinking this might be one of the last tours.

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                #82
                I posted something about this in another thread (two links to a blog posts/email newsletter). His tickets have historically lagged in price compared to other artists of his stature and as HP noted, he has always been hurt by scalpers.

                With that said, c'mon a tour like this isn't some small fry thing. Be smart. Even though I read the articles I posted to the other thread, I didn't spend any time thinking about solutions until I started typing this response. Here is one: register your name, credit card with ticketmaster/live nation. The day tickets go on sale, you can't buy more than 4. The tickets are attached to you. When you arrive at the arena, you scan your ticket and credit card. You can only re-sell through stub hub (also owned by live nation/ticketmaster) and you can't sell at a mark-up. Basically you would re-sell because you can't make the event. Ticketmaster would do their part and remove their fees for re-sell (i.e., these bastards make money again whenever someone re-sells). They waive these fees because they want a massive tour like Springsteen's.

                I'm sure there are problems with what I just typed. As I said, I just thought of this on the spot. I don't have a team of people thinking through this stuff like Springsteen's managements and Live Nation execs.

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                  #83
                  Dude just needed to use data he probably has to sell to the repeat fans he has attending gigs before going open.

                  i could be explain to a data guy how to get that set.

                  <suddenly gets quiet and then thinks about a biz plan>

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                    #84
                    Originally posted by caja-dglh View Post
                    Dude just needed to use data he probably has to sell to the repeat fans he has attending gigs before going open.

                    i could be explain to a data guy how to get that set.

                    <suddenly gets quiet and then thinks about a biz plan>
                    Yeah, this is a good shout, but here's the problem the more I think about it: his team has no sense of how to deal with tickets in general. My wife was up for a trip to NYC before COVID either mid-week or weekend to spend a few days hanging out, seeing friends and family, and going to one of Bruce's broadway storytelling and music shows. I got on the list and received a text that my general number in the queue came up. Then when I used the link that was sent to me, I was dumped into the portal with all of the dates. There was no differentiation among dates that had sold out or that had available tickets. It was the ticket buying equivalent of being in the worst shopping mall parking garage at Christmas time. I said, f**k it and bailed. Seriously? One of the biggest rock stars left and his team can't remove dates that are already sold out and only show dates that have tickets that match the request?

                    I am a regular poster in this thread and post other stuff about him. I'm a big fan, but the more I type this out, I start to wonder how stupid can you be? Every other rock band of his stature (Metallica, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam) would be way more organized than this.

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                      #85
                      Good solutions, but mostly already in place. Verified Fan pre-registration is intended to algorithmically separate real attendees from scalpers. The process worked fine for Springsteen on Broadway. The problem here is the surge pricing.

                      To L's point, if you want $250 a ticket, put that price on the ticket and give me the option to buy it. At least a dozen times, we'd select a pair of $125 seats only to have them turned into $800 seats by the time they hit the cart.

                      This was a gouge, plain and simple.

                      Thanks for the very kind offer, HP.

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                        #86
                        From what was going to be the last show of the Darkness tour.

                        https://www.nugs.net/10-07-2022-bruc...10-1-1978.html

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                          #87
                          A new Springsteen album seems to be on the way. I think it's covers. The second song appeared on YouTube: a cover of the Commodores' "Night Shift" and it is absolutely horrible. Sounds like the kind of song that would soundtrack a guy walking down the street who broke up with his girlfriend and now regrets that choice in a completely forgettable 80s movie. I can never fault a musician for wanting to make new music and avoid living on their legacy, but this kind of garbage shouldn't be made period and certainly not by someone with his historical talent. But I could be alone in my assessment and others will suggest that he has reimagined the song in powerful ways. I have linked it here, but don't say that you weren't warned. haha.



                          Last edited by danielmak; 20-10-2022, 05:37.

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                            #88
                            That is quite a dreadful "your voice is distinctive, you can sing anything and make it your own" idea. He looks like he just got a big tax bill or something.

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                              #89
                              I think it's perfectly ok. It's not going to trouble my top 10 of Springsteen's best tracks, but even getting into the top 100 would be a difficult task. The video, however, he should be ashamed of.

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                                #90
                                His version of 'Nighshift' is far superior to his version of 'Only the Strong Survive'. I shan't be buying the record and i'll assume he won't be singing these covers live next summer (tho' he has a long history of playing soul covers live)

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                                  #91
                                  Springsteen has a rich catalogue of covers well executed on stage -- I love his live versions of "Chimes Of Freedom" and "Trapped" -- but most of those are good because he and the band are having fun.The cover of "Nightshift" is not objectionable, but it is entirely unnecessary. He has very little to work with on that song. I reckon he'd have been better off covering Al Green. Or Eddie Floyd's "Knock On Wood" or somesuch soul growler. Unlike "Nightshift", that stuff can be interpreted.

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                                    #92
                                    Over his entire career, 'soul classics' have been a staple of his lives shows. His commitment is real. But fuck me, this is going to be on constant rotation around ours for the next three months. And I generally can't stand the 'soul classics' genre, regardless of how well executed. And I'm also on the books as being 'anti-cover' wherever possible. And this was certainly possible But if his last outing (Letter To You) was any indication, maybe covers are his best new direction.

                                    Don't mind me...I've well gone off the man after this summer's "Hey, bid against your fellow fans!" surge-pricing ticket fiasco. Which he continues to be dead silent about. (Fuck him,)

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                                      #93
                                      Another live archive release. Here is the essay about the performance. And here is one of the songs:

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                                        #94
                                        Springsteen fan-site Backstreets effectively shut down today in large part because they're so disillusioned by the ticket gouge fiasco and Springsteen's 'fuck you' response to it in a Rolling Stone interview.

                                        https://backstreets.com/news.html

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                                          #95
                                          That’s a sad turn of events.

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                                            #96
                                            Yeah. But it was maybe inevitable. Since the mid-70s Springsteen has been very open with the press and public. He never shirks interviews and always gives, as far as his public can judge, honest open, answers. His candor is part of his public persona and has much to do with his success in building a devoted fan-base. Now, because he's not playing nicely, or saying the "right thing" suddenly being candid doesn't matter. TBH I think the published fanbase reaction is a bit OTT. It's an "he's our hero, how dare he!" attitude which is both unrealistic and unfair based on his history. If he's gotten things wrong then he'll pay the price at the box office. Fair enough. It reminds me of Neil Young's comment about voting for Ronald Reagan back in the 80s. Suddenly based on a single question in an interview he went from counter-cultural hero to the anti-Christ. Human beings aren't perfect. Even the good ones.

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                                              #97
                                              I posted upthread that he could have buffered against ticket brokers without doing this dynamic pricing move. I paid less attention on the whole, though, because the time for me to see him would have been 20 years ago. But I will say that his business model on the whole has shifted during the last year. In addition to this fiasco, his deal for his live CDs has also changed. They've done two sales in the last year through Nugs and both times the sales only kick-in for subscribers to Nugs' streaming service. Why would I need to buy a CD if I subscribed to a premium service? Although I was annoyed by this, I figured he just saved me from myself. I'm not subscribing to the streaming service and now I can limit the new clutter in my apartment by buying less CDs. It's all good.

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                                                #98
                                                WOM is obviously a good bellweather on this. I sense that the NY Broadway Bruce shows and the ticket shenanigans were the start of this. Now it doubles down.

                                                it is all rather sad - he was wealthy enough as it was, then he sold his catalog for half a billion. He has no reason to do this other than poor advice or greed. He so easily could have coasted, making a shit ton of money and maintaining his Everyman status. But he chose to try and grab the extra quarters in front of the steamroller.

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                                                  #99
                                                  He mentions his age a couple of times in his response to Rolling Stone. That may be a factor, but quite how is more obscure. Looked at generously he's responsible for a band and crew which is pretty big these days, perhaps he wanted to give them a significant payday. I dunno, but it doesn't seem at all Bruce-like to just do a cash-grab to line his own pocket. If that's what it turns out to be it's a pity, but I'm not going to piss on the guy. He's got way too much credit in my bank.

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                                                    COVID opened a lot of eyes among bigger touring artists. They realized that they were fine but their crews and any touring musicians were not as comfortable or struggling. I doubt that was true for the E Street Band, but the rest of the road crew might be on Springsteen's mind.

                                                    Still, he could have taken care of them by doing fan club sales at a price that is high but wasn't excessive, transferable tickets at no increased price to keep scalpers out of the income flow.

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