Thursday 26th January

Well I have never thought so.  Bruce is good at what he does, but he has been hailed as the new Dylan, the new Elvis even – I would place him in the second tier of Rock and Rollers, but the hype has never been missing from Bruce.  He burst onto the scene in 1973 with “Greetings from Asbury Park N.J.” and has released albums regularly ever since.  His biggest successes were “Born to Run” (1975) and “Born in the USA”  (1984).  I really love the latter where every song is brilliant; the anti-war title track, the rousing ‘Darlington County’ and the wonderful ‘Dancing in the Dark’.  It was a massive hit worldwide and Bruce has never looked back since.

I have never seen Bruce live but apparently with the E-street band he does phenomenal concerts.  But rather than the great rocker I prefer the quieter Bruce.  Every so often he confounds fans and critics alike by releasing a quite slow album; “Nebraska” (1982), “The Ghost of Tom Joad” (1995) and “Devils and Dust” (2005).  These tend to be more Social Concern records, and Bruce has always sung about ordinary working Americans, sung often in little more than a whisper over subtle backings.  My very favourite being “Ghost”, where he sings of miners and immigrants and ‘Sinaloa Cowboys’, these records are so different but they seem more heartfelt, more honest to me.

Anyway I have bought quite a few of Bruce’s records, but he remains just second tier for me…