Springsteen's Seeger Sessions Sertainly iS Stupendous
Bruce Springsteen's new album, "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions" is terrific. Take the drunken, jaunty Sherwood Forest style jams of the Merry Men in Disney's Animated Robin Hood, but with Bruce Springsteen singing instead of that rooster. That's exactly what a good portion of the album sounds like. Many different instruments shine, and each one brings a different kind of exultant joy to the mix. Washboards, accordian, horns, each sometimes called out by name by Bruce when it is thier turn. A Rolling Stone article talks about how long and how many takes each song took, but they did a damn good job of making it seem fresh and energetic as it did on the first take. The album is also balanced out by its fair share of downtempo, balad-esque songs, which makes sense, since a good deal of them originally were the protest songs made popular by Pete Seeger in the early 60s. However, it's hard to even hear the song about the Oklahoma man who loses his entire home without wanting to join in on the call and response "Blown aways" on the chorus. Even some of the slower songs have break outs of banjo or New Orleans funeral-style horn sections. It seems rather ironic that after years of championing the working man, hell, after recording a whole album named after Tom Joad, that Springsteen would let these songs come out in such a raucous, fun style, but it's to all of our benefit that he did. This album may not change the world, but it's really enjoyable to listen to.
I don't know much about Pete Seeger, and that may not change any time soon. The one story I am familiar with is that while Bob Dylan was plugging in and kicking ass at the Newport Folk Festival, Seeger decided this equated the sky falling, and took up the role of Chicken Little (but with an axe) and tried to cut cables backstage to halt the performance. That would be really awesome if it were attempting to halt some other kind of performance. A maniacal man of the people wielding a hatchet and risking electrocution to prevent the Sly Stone tribute at this year's Grammy's would have been pretty cool. Alas, he was instead attempting to interrupt one of the most acclaimed and legendary performances of rock history, and has likely been scorned by future generations because of it. Although, Chicken Little (with an axe) might prove to be a more profitable franchise for Disney.
The albums which spring readily to mind when trying to compare The Seeger Sessions to are Bob Dylan's mid 90's albums "Good As I Been To You" and "World Gone Wrong." Both of these albums contained traditional material, from various sources. Good As I Been To You even ends the Exact same way The Seeger Sessions did, with a cover of Froggie Went a'Courtin'. (The album shares another song with Dylan's first album, Springsteen calls it Eyes on the Prize, and Dylan called it Gospel Plow.) But where Dylan paid tribute to these influential songs with just his voice, guitar and harmonica, (with great results), Springsteen sounded like he wanted to make an album that every baby boomer who bought Born In The USA down to the jaded hipster who owns but doesn't listen to Nebraska could hopefully appreciate. This album has already been the soundtrack to several raucous evenings of outdoor fun since I discovered it, and I feel that the summer months will continue on with a most unlikely soundtrack: the songs of a 80 year old man sung by a 50 year old man, with his drunken crazy jug band in tow for good measure. Actually, that sounds pretty much exactly how a summer soundtrack should....
Buy the album at amazon.com
The hits just keep on coming! Listen to the whole album at AOL Music
Springsteen also discussed the album yesterday on Good Morning America, complete with performance footage. He says he has some Webb Pierce on his ipod. Anybody know who that is? He also performed "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" live today, watch the video here. It pretty much looks like the most fun concert of all time.
Comments
great review, and its probably my favorite springsteen record since the very underrated tunnel of love. it reminds me of a much more upbeat waits record, if thats possible. i, seriously, didnt expect this album to be so great. not to say his most recent records were crap, but this really outshine them all.
Posted by: greg | April 25, 2006 07:23 PM
Bruce and the band also performed "Jacob's Ladder" on GMA this morning. It about knocked my socks off. Very spirited, very moving (I have the mp3 up on my site, ickmusic.com). Not sure why ABC doesn't have that video available. I thought it outshone "Oh Mary Don't You Weep". But yeah, great album. This tour is going to be incredibly special.
Posted by: Pete | April 25, 2006 09:45 PM
can't wait for my delivery...what i have heard so far is fantastic..i am a huge fan and indeed this will be blasting out all summer from my stereo..rockin dawg!!
Posted by: countrygrrl | April 26, 2006 01:01 PM