Bruce Springsteen Band • Page 80

Yeah, "Waiting on the End of the World" is absolutely one of the best songs here.

 

this new collection got me on a huge Bruce kick, and I went back and listened to Human Touch & Lucky Town

I do think something like this would have been better overall -->

if he recorded them differently as one big project, but I actually think Lucky Town is a pretty solid album on it's own, and Human Touch has a handful of really good songs plus a handful of incredible outtakes

 

Lucky Town is pretty solid. It just doesn't have the magic for me of anything that came before it.

 

yeah, I think the years and years of hearing how bad they were / are had me expecting something much worse. weak by Bruce's standards is still better than a lot of other people.

I do vaguely remember 57 Channels as a kid and not liking the song at all then, and that really hasn't changed

 

Magic came out 15 years after Lucky Town actually im so sorry

 

Been my least favorite Bruce song since pretty much the moment I heard it.

 

I know it's already been discussed to death, but the thing I really can't get over is how strong a lot of the Human Touch outtakes are. It is clear that he never lost his touch as a songwriter, even if he did struggle with what type of album he wanted to put out at times.

with all of the album rankings a few pages back, is everyone going with the actual albums how they are released, or are we counting outtakes from those periods...? because I can say pretty confidently that Human Touch as released is a pretty weak album, especially by Bruce's standards, but he made so many great songs during those sessions.

 

yeah, I have a solid 12-track Human Touch that is made up of album tracks and outtakes that I think stands up as a pretty good Springsteen album, and Lucky Town is already a really good album (although I do think "Happy" should've made the cut)

 

Pretty much agree, I like those albums fine in retrospect aside from a few tracks. The biggest sin was simply not having the E Street Band play on those tunes. I notice the same thing on Perfect World - which feels a lot like Human Touch/Lucky Town era to me

 

have you decided where the title track and "Missing" should go in the tracklist...?

 

Here’s where I got. honestly that minute long beat at the beginning of “Missing” isn’t my favorite and I might just drop it. Thematically it works great between “The Little Things” and “We Fell Down” though, where he’s found a haphazard love that left him and he doesn’t understand why.

The title track is so important as a dark night of the soul, thought it might work well as the last bleary searching before “One Beautiful Morning” and that last run of more resolved tracks. The other spot where I seriously thought about it was as the first song, setting everything off. But I really like how “Blind Spot” starts the record.

curious for your thoughts!

 

I’m a little lukewarm on “Blind Spot” as the opener, actually. I might have dropped the title track right up top.

 

out of curiosity, just as the opener or as a song altogether?? because I think it's a great song

I'm still digesting it all, but I think that tracklist looks good. I wasn't familiar with any of these songs aside from Streets of Philadelphia being in the soundtrack to the movie way back in the day as a kid.

 

today's 5:15am thought about the Streets of Philadelphia disc:

Phoebe Bridgers would do a killer cover of "Something in the Well"

 

yeah, this disc for me was the major revelation of this Tracks II set. I cannot believe how good this album would have been if he had released these songs together with the title track and "Missing".

also, I've been listening to my version of Human Touch every day on my ride into work for a while now, and I would say its a damn solid album even if it is a slightly disappointing one coming from him. for me it's more a testament to how incredible the rest of his output is rather than an indictment of the album itself.

THIS!

I was on a Bruce fansite that writes about his various songs, and they played a YouTube video of the E Street Band playing "Trouble River" live and pointed out how Bruce looks like he is having the time of his life and the rest of the band look less enthused / miserable, and the writer sorta mentioned maybe they don't like the song, but to me it seems pretty obvious that it was more about the awkwardness of the period that song came from. they're only human after all

 

did you post the playlist to your Human Touch?

 

I didn't cuz I don't have Spotify, but it's:

Human Touch
Soul Driver
Sad Eyes
Trouble In Paradise
Gloria's Eyes
With Every Wish
Roll of the Dice
Real World
Trouble River
I Wish I Were Blind
Loose Change
Over The Rise

 

I'm not crazy about "Sad Eyes" & "Trouble In Paradise" being back-to-back like that, and I really struggled with where to place the two 'Trouble' songs, but I think both of them are so good and absolutely essential, and I didn't want to close the album out with 4 'slow' songs in a row

 

I'm slowly getting thru Tracks 2

Somewhere North of Nashville is excellent, by far my favorite so far (with LA 83 still to go). This Bruce, stylistically, makes a ton of sense. Very much in his wheelhouse here.

 

I like the song fine, but it feels like a classic track 2 to me.