RobJGolde's Recent Activity

RobJGolde liked DaydreamNation's post in the thread Band Bruce Springsteen.

In other news Joe DePugh, pitcher who inspired Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Glory Days,’ dies at 75 Joe DePugh, pitcher who inspired Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Glory Days,’ dies at 75 Thanks to Bruce Springsteen, Joe DePugh’s glory days never really passed him by. DePugh, who helped inspire “Glory Days” — Springsteen’s rollicking, yet bittersweet ode to youthful memories on his mega-selling 1984 album “Born in the U.S.A.” — died of cancer in Florida this week at 75. “Just a moment to mark the passing of Freehold native and ballplayer Joe DePugh,” Springsteen wrote in a statement posted to Instagram on Sunday. “‘He could throw that speedball by you, make you look like a fool’ …. Glory Days my friend.” DePugh and Springsteen grew up in Freehold, N.J., and played youth baseball together. The two ran into each other in 1973 outside a bar called the Headliner in Neptune City, N.J. Springsteen was walking in and DePugh was, you guessed it, walking out. “There I am going to the car in the parking lot and here comes Bruce. And I hadn’t seen him since we graduated,” DePugh said in a video recorded for an exhibit in Freehold about the history of the song. “It was great to see him again, and so we got talking, and we’re out in the parking lot for a half hour and he said ‘Let’s go in,’ so we went back in and had a drink and then another drink, and all of a sudden the guy’s flashing the lights, it was 1 in the morning almost.” More than a decade later, “Glory Days” hit the airwaves. “I knew right away,” DePugh said in the video about the first time he heard the song. “It’s an incredible compliment.” For years, the true identity of the pitcher turned barroom companion remained unknown to the public. Former Freehold Little Leaguers had theories about who the arm behind the speedball belonged to — there was the former player who ran into Springsteen in a diner and the local pitcher who made it to the minors, among others. “There were several candidates for it, people who thought they were the ‘Glory Days’ pitcher,” said Kevin Coyne, a writer and Freehold historian. “Joe DePugh was sort of a dark horse.” In 2011, Coyne helped organize a 60th reunion for Freehold Little League, one of the older Little Leagues in the country. Springsteen did not attend, but other classmates did, one of whom identified the pitcher as DePugh. The confirmation had come from Springsteen himself. “I said, ‘Well, Bruce, is it true or is it not true?’” said Don Norkus, a friend of DePugh’s who had previously run into Springsteen. “And he said, ‘Yeah, it’s true.’” Later that year, Coyne wrote an article about DePugh for The New York Times, making his connection with “Glory Days” publicly known. It was a distinction DePugh wore lightly. “He was a charming, charming, gracious, modest, lovely human being,” said Coyne, who got to know DePugh in the years since he wrote the article. “He was not some blowhard, you know, ex-athlete who talked all about his past days. He was just a lovely, modest guy.” And he could really play ball. The Freehold Transcript, a local paper, wrote about a standout Babe Ruth League outing from DePugh on May 14, 1964, when he struck out 11 in a losing effort. The newspaper listed Springsteen on that same roster, but at the time, it was DePugh who enjoyed rock star status. “Baseball was the world, and if you were good at it, you were a god,” Coyne said about DePugh’s and Springsteen’s era. Longtime friend Rich Kane recalled his first memory of DePugh at a local home run derby. “We were older than Joe, but this little son of a gun beat us all and never let us hear the end of it,” Kane said. “He was the smallest youngest guy in the area, and he won it over all of these adults. That was my introduction to Joe DePugh. He was just a good guy.” And while some consider the message of “Glory Days” to be melancholy, DePugh was not one of them. “There’s nothing about that song that bothered him,” Coyne said. “There was nothing about it, because he was not that person. He was not a person who was living in those days. He had had those days, he had thrived in them and he had loved them, and then he had a nice life.” At the end of high school, DePugh tried out for the Los Angeles Dodgers before going on to play basketball and earning a degree at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. DePugh lost both his parents at a young age and became the legal guardian for two of his brothers. After college, he worked as a substitute teacher before becoming a contractor. He later moved from New Jersey, splitting his time between Vermont and Florida. He continued to make regular stops in Freehold to see old friends, including, on occasion, Springsteen. “He said to me, ‘Always remember I love you,’” DePugh said in the video about one such reunion. “He kissed me on both cheeks, and then he was out the door.”

RobJGolde attached a file to the thread Band Taking Back Sunday.

RobJGolde liked Greg's post in the thread Band Taking Back Sunday.

Because the song is bad!

RobJGolde replied to the thread Band Taking Back Sunday.

Congrats on becoming a new dad!

RobJGolde liked lenny my age's post in the thread Band Taking Back Sunday.

I've been a little out of the loop the last couple months (new dad! yay!) and haven't really heard much. But I saw that TBS and Say Anything are playing a show together. I wonder if Fred will perform double duty or if he's still quitting Say Anything to play with TBS as was originally the plan. Or maybe the whole TBS thing fell apart and I'll come off like a big fat liar to all you people in which case I will be too embarrassed to ever show my face here again

RobJGolde replied to the thread Band Taking Back Sunday.

Little Devotional is one of their best songs, and I’ll never understand why they never played it before the 20th anniversary tour and why they haven’t played it since.

RobJGolde replied to the thread Band Taking Back Sunday.

No, i genuinely love that album to pieces for personal reasons despite its flaws hah

RobJGolde liked daldalian's post in the thread Band Taking Back Sunday.

I'm quite the TBS stan, but Best Places is probably the only song from Self-Titled that I'd include on a Taking Back Sunday Essentials playlist. It's way overshadowed by everything before and after and I just look at it as a rebuilding album. Also, First of the Century came up on shuffle the other day and wow do I miss Straylight Run and hearing John sing like that.

RobJGolde liked aoftbsten's post in the thread Band Taking Back Sunday.

Valentine has produced some really great records. Third Eye Blind and Songs for the Deaf are two all time albums for me that sound great. But I don’t think his approach worked for TBS. I’m not as critical of how they sound (the drums and the bigger arena tones of the guitars don’t bother me on LN or S/T), it’s more that damn near every demo that came out from those sessions sounds more interesting and more authentic to the band than what ended up on the records themselves.

RobJGolde liked bradsonemanband's post in the thread Band Taking Back Sunday.

watching the 3 hour long video of him and Stephen going through "Semi Charmed Life" was sooo cool and interesting. Eric shares all of his knowledge and tips and everything.

RobJGolde replied to the thread Band Taking Back Sunday.

I also don’t like Eric Valentine’s bass production and some of the guitar tones he uses aren’t great either. Case in point- the opening guitar melody on “Sad Savior” is decent part that sounds terrible imo.

RobJGolde replied to the thread Band Taking Back Sunday.

Self-titled is just Louder Now with the same shitty EV production but worse guitar playing.