Spectacle season 2

[charliestumpy]

Thanks for Springsteen-Spectacle links.

Setlistings:
http://www.bumpershine.com/2009/09/26/s ... s.html#ep5

The FLACS from torrent are nice, and the 7 with Costello singing or backing instrumentally are as mp3 on SoulSeek sometimes it is said.

[sweetest punch]

From the episode with Ray Lamontagne, John Prine and Lyle Lovett:
Jolene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdCtwY420g8
Natural Forces: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8qQncDY9P4
Lake Marie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFF-Sv7eOgI
I'm Ahead If I Can't Quit While I'm Behind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECMrfAcgJGE
Loretta: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vbdg4NxvRU
Henry Nearly Killed Me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36-zFmtYdNw
Thanks to Deerfried!

[charliestumpy]

... thanks for links, and to deerfried.

[Neil.]

Pophead, Chris...

Can either of you explain in more detail about this 'third party' idea that Springsteen was talking about? We don't get the show in the UK, so I haven't seen it!

It sounds fascinating, so I'd be really interested to hear more.

Nx

[wardo68]

From the episode with Ray Lamontagne, John Prine and Lyle Lovett:
I'm Ahead If I Can't Quit While I'm Behind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECMrfAcgJGE

That's me in the glasses at 1:22!

[chickendinna]

The Springsteen episode was absolutely stunning. The interviews were both insightful and captivating. And then you get the performances on top of that. The duet on " I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" was nothing short of amazing. I can't wait for part two.

[johnfoyle]

wardo68 -

sweetest punch wrote:From the episode with Ray Lamontagne, John Prine and Lyle Lovett:
I'm Ahead If I Can't Quit While I'm Behind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECMrfAcgJGE

That's me in the glasses at 1:22!

And mighty fine you look -

[Jack of All Parades]

Neil, I take the 'third' thing to be an honest narrative viewpoint in a song. As he says "one plus one equals three". I think what Springsteen was getting at was the power he gained in his song writing, beginning with the songs on the "Darkness on the Edge of Town" album, by restricting the narrative within a song to a single point of view and then loading that point of view with very specific images or feelings. In essence to get into the voice of a person. Springsteen reinforced this thought by playing some of "The River". As Springsteen says in the interview, songwriting for him is about 'identity, identity, identity'-who am I?, what am I am feeling?, what am I thinking at this moment? When Springsteen started to mean something for me was when his songs began to be anchored in real emotion, people, incidents, voices and moved away from the 'romantic' bombast that weighed down too many of the songs on his first three albums. The deluge of words and musical theatrics that encumbered those records has not stood the test of time for me-I much prefer the more intelligent 'vignettes' he has produced in later years.

When I watched EC the other night I really thought he was pondering somewhat the same notion-do my songs have that same 'third' party? Too often I think his songs are exercises in songcraft and lack that 'third' party that does more often 'ground' a good Springsteen song.

[sweetest punch]

From the first Bruce Springsteen episode:
She's The One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQABSZxjkBE
American Skin (41 Shots): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WalZfJJyUsI
I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwiNHX5Qc80
Wild Billy's Circus Story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBgzP3Wa ... re=channel

[Jack of All Parades]

Neil, I wanted to elaborate upon my earlier comments, as they are only mine and do not represent Pophead 2k{though his earlier comment got me thinking about all of this} and as all day at work my brain has been racing with the energy generated from a newly discovered essay by Mary Karr, poet and essayist, added as an afterword to her most recent poetry collection, Viper Rum, which I found in a clearance bin in a book store in Boston while in that city visiting with my daughters this weekend titled "Against Decoration".

The gist of this essay is her argument that contemporary poetry from the mid '70s on has been devastated by what she terms neo-formalism, a school of poetry that makes use of a "mix of strict form and free verse with the new formalist poems juggling rhyme, meter, and various syllabic and stanzaic strategies" for ill effect, leaving a lifeless, sterile poetry. Karr is most put off by the linguistic intricacy for its own sake that is championed by this school. The usual suspects are cited: James Merrill, John Hollander, Brad Leithauser, Amy Clampitt and the critic, Helen Vendler. She builds the argument against 'decoration' citing the ancients- Aristotle, Cicero and Horace and argues for 'everyday words', 'seasoning and substance', and decrys the fact that clarity no longer resides in 'everday words' with honest emotions. This instead has been replaced in contemporary poems by a fixation "on the poem's minute needlework" that the poet "fails to notice, like a blind man with the elephant in the old fable, that the work involves only one square inch of a tapestry draped across an enormous beast, and that the beast is moving."

Karr sees two sins in poetry today, thanks to neo-formalism, "starving poems of value". They are an absence of emotion and a lack of clarity. She states that to "pay so little attention to the essentially human elements of a poem, like real feeling, makes a monster of poetry's primary emotional self, its very reason for being, so that art becomes exclusively decorative and at times grotesque". She is particularly disgusted with the following in contemporary poetry" obscurity of character, a foggy physical world, overusage of meaningless references, metaphors that obscure rather than illuminate and linguistic excess for no good reason. Her summary judgement is that "somehow, the poetry that made our pulses race, that could flood us with conviction and alter our lives, has been replaced by decoration, which can only leave us nodding smugly to one another, as if privy to some inside joke."

Now I can hear sniggering and puzzlement-what does this have to do with the songwriting of EC and Springsteen? I do not think it a great leap to treat the writing of these two artists as poetry. As such, I would argue that when comparing the two, EC is the neo-formalist and Springsteen is that artist more attuned to his real feelings, a writer who can provide a "clear rendering of primal human experiences: fear of death, desire, loss of love, celebration of being." That he possesses a simple clarity. As Karr says "decoration cuts a great gulf between form and meaning, with form favored over an attempt to communicate, word divorced from world, a kind of brittle cleverness supplanting emotion, wit elevated above clarity."

Though not necessarily what Springsteen was talking about when he mentioned a 'third' party in his songwriting, I think this encapsulates a plausible way to look at the songs of both men. This is the grounding that I think is all too often lacking in an EC song and that empowers and makes me respond in an elemental way to a good Springsteen song.

[bronxapostle]

dear sweetest punch:

please add last nights clips ASAP!! very much appreciated.

thanks, ba

[Bitchardo's Buddy]

Here are a few. Seeds was the best song of the night and also the loudest! Unfortunately, the sound is a little dull regarding the attached.

SEEDS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLPxOdWXZ_w

Radio Silence - Radio Nowhere - Radio Radio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4xayEk1rjE

[bronxapostle]

thanks VERY much bb!!! how VERY cool to see both STEVE and PETE actually phased/impressed/honored to be playing behind THE BOSS! and to see NILS in the IMPOSTERS! you gotta understand folks: i was a NILS fan for ten years before he joined E STREET! those three (EC, BRUCE and NILS) are the only singers i've seen fifty or more times. in fact' MSG 11-7 was my 50th NILS appearance: pretty good celebration with EC jumping out. still, sad i was not at the Apollo! glad to see these vids. hope LIKE RAIN & POINT BLANK show too.

[Who Shot Sam?]

EC really should have had Jeff Tweedy on. Missed opportunity now that it seems we will not see a season 3.

[Jeremy Dylan]

From the first Bruce Springsteen episode:
She's The One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQABSZxjkBE
American Skin (41 Shots): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WalZfJJyUsI
I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwiNHX5Qc80
Wild Billy's Circus Story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBgzP3Wa ... re=channel

Man, the Boss looks good for 60. He and Roger Daltrey must be drinking from the same elixir.

[the_platypus]

EC really should have had Jeff Tweedy on. Missed opportunity now that it seems we will not see a season 3.

Absolutely. Jeff Tweedy and Tom Waits were in my wishlist :-/

[blureu]

Audio tracks of the Bruce appearance:

http://burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com/2010 ... tacle.html

[Who Shot Sam?]

Here are a few. Seeds was the best song of the night and also the loudest! Unfortunately, the sound is a little dull regarding the attached.

SEEDS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLPxOdWXZ_w

Radio Silence - Radio Nowhere - Radio Radio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4xayEk1rjE

Wow, that version of "Seeds" is really good. Fantastic!

[deerfried]

From the episode with Ray Lamontagne, John Prine and Lyle Lovett:
Henry Nearly Killed Me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36-zFmtYdNw
Thanks to Deerfried!

I have to say that "Henry Nearly Killed Me" is possibly my single favorite moment from all the Spectacle episodes. I was actually kinda scared by this performance.

[deerfried]

I thought this might be of interest in a trivia sense. I have posted every music clip from Spectacle on my YouTube account, and here is the top 10 list for clips with the most hits:

1. Tony Bennett: The Way You Look Tonight (257,669)
2. Herbie Hancock: Watermelon Man (52,314)
3. Elvis & Lou Reed: Perfect Day (43,611)
4. Elvis, Elton & Diana: Makin Whoopee (38,946)
5. Elvis & Bill Frissell: If I Only Had a Brain (30,641)
6. Elvis & Sting: Alison (27,202)
7. Elvis & Bono: Pump It Up + Get on Your Boots (25,708)
8. Elvis, Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash: April 5th (25,195)
9. Elvis, Jenny Lewis, Zooey D: Carpetbaggers (22,302)
10. Tony Bennett & Diana: I’ve Got the World on a String (20, 962)

Obviously this is heavily weighted to Season 1 clips because they've been available longer. The U2 and Bruce clips are getting the most hits from Season 2, but the most pleasing surprise is that Jesse Winchester's "Sham-a-Ling-Dong-Ding" has had more than 17,000 views in just a few weeks.

-DeerFried

[Jack of All Parades]

Way to go, Jesse!!!!!!! And thank you again EC for inviting him.

[johnfoyle]

Welcome Deerfried. You've no idea how great it is for us not in North America to be able to see extracts from these shows - thanks a million!

[Ypsilanti]

Yes, welcome Deerfried! You're something of a folk hero around here!

[jmm]

Deerfried![/quote]


I have to say that "Henry Nearly Killed Me" is possibly my single favorite moment from all the Spectacle episodes. I was actually kinda scared by this performance.[/quote]

Having been there at the taping the excitment visible on EC after the song ended makes me think he would agree. It was really something to see live!!

[deerfried]

Yes, welcome Deerfried! You're something of a folk hero around here!

Thanks. Just a result of noodling around with getting Elvis clips onto my iPod and it turned into kind of an obsession. From the beginning it was clear that "Spectacle" was something special--the very best music show on television in a long time, maybe ever. The fact that it sprang from Elvis, whom I've idolized since 1978, makes it even more special.

About 20 years ago David Sanborn had a show called "Night Music" that was somewhat similar: all about the music, not about celebrity. I still have a few VHS tapes with precious clips from that show (Stevie Ray Vaughn, Modern Jazz Quartet, Al Green, the unforgettable Artis the Spoon Man), and I'm kicking myself that I didn't tape every episode. So these days I'm constantly downloading shows from Tivo and saving clips as keepsakes.