Brooooooooce - Updated

By: Lowell
Published On: 5/28/2006 3:59:46 PM

I'm going to see Bruce Springsteen tonight (Sunday) at Nissan Pavilion.  I thought I'd take this opportunity to print the lyrics from a Woody Guthrie song that Springsteen covers brilliantly.  To me, this is why we should be voting for Jim Webb...because this country was made for you and me (not the special interests and lobbyists)!

Well I rode that ribbon highway
I saw above me the endless sky
I saw below me the golden valley
This land was made for you and me

I've roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps
Through the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was calling
This land was made for you and me
This land is your land
This land is my land
From California
To the New York island
From the Redwood Forest
To the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me
Well the sun came shining and I was strolling
Through wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling
And a voice was sounding
As the fog was lifting
Saying this land was made for you and me
This land is your land
This land is my land
From California
To the New York island
From the Redwood Forest
To the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me

Remember, this is OUR land, not the special interests' or lobbyists' land.  That's the land that Jim Webb was "born fighting" to defend.

[UPDATE:  Set list and liner notes in the comments section]

[UPDATE #2: The Washington Post's music critic says this was "the best live show I've seen in at least five years."]


Comments



several suggestions (teacherken - 5/28/2006 4:15:49 PM)
1) make sure you ha\ve Webb signs in both front and back windshields

2) have Webb literature with you, keeping it visible.  You don't have to be pushy, but visibility is the name of the game, and you never know when  you will get questions.

Realistically, since passing out political literature is normally a protected action, it seems to me that the campaign ought to have people there with literature, but what do I know?



Good ideas. I was actually thinking of just... (Lowell - 5/28/2006 4:35:00 PM)
enjoying myself.  What, am I NUTS?!? :)  Ha.


Dude (phriendlyjaime - 5/28/2006 4:27:26 PM)
I am totally jealous of you.  Being from the dirty Jerz :), I cannot help but love Bruce.  The man can sell out his entire stay in NJ in record time, and then add about a weeks worth of shows which also sell out fast.

Have a great time!

Make sure you have a good report for the parade tomorrow!

And wear a Webb sticker...  :)



He's Always Been a Working Class Hero (AnonymousIsAWoman - 5/28/2006 4:28:58 PM)
Lowell, enjoy the concert. Springsteen is always one of the most inspiring and deeply moral performers around. And he's recorded a bunch of Woody Gutherie material for his newest album. I think he consulted with Pete Seeger, who was a long time friend of Woody's, on the material.


Bruce Springsteen is an American treasure (Lowell - 5/28/2006 4:35:58 PM)
I truly hope to see him at some point before November standing side by side with another American working class hero, Jim Webb.


Speaking of Woody Guthrie (Ingrid - 5/28/2006 6:09:08 PM)
Here are the suppressed verses that Guthrie wrote:

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "Private Property"
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

----------

Bush Sr. used this song as his campaign song.  I am sure he did not realize that it is the leftist answer to "God Bless America".  Guthrie was a genius and a true populist.



You Rock Ingrid! n/t (Alicia - 5/28/2006 7:46:31 PM)


Bravo Ingrid (AnonymousIsAWoman - 5/29/2006 1:00:54 PM)
I used to live in the Hudson Valley region of New York and attended many of Pete Seeger's concerts and I've heard him sing those lost verses many times. Bruce Springsteen also sang them, even years ago, when I heard him in concert at the Orange Bowl in Miami. I hope he still keeps them in when he performs now.


LOVE IT when he sings that song (Alicia - 5/28/2006 4:55:08 PM)
it always brings tears to my eyes...


Yeah, it is VERY powerful (Lowell - 5/28/2006 5:03:53 PM)
Especially considering what Bush, DeLay, Hastert, and their Democratic enablers/servants/corporate shills like Harris Miller have done to our country.


Have load of fun - tell us how it was n/t (Alicia - 5/28/2006 7:46:48 PM)


I just got home...absolutely amazing concert (Lowell - 5/29/2006 12:10:16 AM)
I'll try to write more tomorrow.  But for now, I'd have to say that this ranks with the greatest concerts I've ever heard in my life.  Absolutely incredible.  Wow. :)


Unofficial set list/liner notes (Lowell - 5/29/2006 6:58:51 AM)
Set list courtesy of the website Point Blank." Liner notes are mainly from Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions website.  Others are either my own notes or linked to other sites.

O Mary Don't You Weep - "One of the most important Negro spirituals, predating the Civil War."
John Henry - "...one of the most recorded of all American folk songs."
Johnny 99 - From the album "Nebraska," this song's about "a man who loses his job at an auto plant, gets drunk, kills a store clerk, and is sentenced to 99 years in jail, earning him the nickname 'Johnny 99.'"
Old Dan Tucker - "the most famous of all blackface songs before the Civil War."
Eyes On The Prize - "...composed well before World War I, the freedom song version done here was written by civil rights activist Alice Wine in 1956."
Jesse James - "An historical ballad written by minstrel Billy Gashade immediately after Robert Ford shot the famous outlaw Jesse James to earn a reward in April 1882."
Cadillac Ranch From the album "The River," the song is based on "a collection of 10 Cadillacs buried hood-first in a wheat field near Amarillo, Texas...considered works of art."
Erie Canal - "Written in 1905 by Thomas S. Allen as 'Low Bridge, Everybody Down'".  Springsteen half-joked last night that this was written as "basically a love song to a mule." 
My Oklamoma Home - "Written with her brother Bill by Agnes 'Sis' Cunningham, organizer for the Southern Tenant Farmers Union..."
If I Should Fall Behind - Beautiful song off of the album "Lucky Town," Springsteen performed it as a waltz last night along with his wife, Patti Scialfa, for whom he wrote it as a love song (personal note:  my sister in law sang this at my wife's and my wedding)
Mrs. McGrath - "...part of a whole stream of anti-recruiting songs that encouraged young men to resist entering the British Army."  Describes "the anguish of a mother whose son has come home legless from the war.
How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live? - "...written by Blind Alfred Reed and recorded a month after the crash of '29 that heralded the Great Depression."
Jacob's Ladder - "A Negro spiritual based on Genesis 28:11-19, best known as a Sunday School tune."
We Shall Overcome - "The most important political protest song of all-time, sung around the world wherever people fight for justice and equality."
Open All Night - Off of the album "Nebraska," about a man who drives all night to see his girl.
Pay Me My Money Down - "...originated as a protest song of the black stevedores in Georgia and South Carolina ports."
Bring Them Home - Powerful Pete Seeger anti-war song.  More here.
Ramrod - Off of "The River."
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) - The last of just a half dozen original Springsteen songs performed last night, also off of "The River."
When the Saints Go Marching In - Dedicated to the city of New Orleans, where Bruce played on April 30 at the Jazz & Heritage Festival.  Obviously, Springsteen has been deeply moved by the plight of New Orleans, a natural disaster he compared to the Dust Bowl (e.g., "My Oklahoma Home" has blown away)
Buffalo Gals - "...sounds like it's a song of the wild west but it is not. It's a song about Buffalo in the days of the Erie Canal..."

By the way, what an amazing band last night.  Saxophone, violin, banjo, trumpet, trombone, drums, piano, guitar, upright bass, accordian, you name it.  It worked magnificently during this amazing 2 1/2-hour concert.



Article in "The Republican" (Lowell - 5/29/2006 7:13:55 AM)
describes the show in Boston as follows:

Seeing Bruce Springsteen with his massive "Seeger Sessions Band" is a little like seeing Bob Dylan back in the days of "The Rolling Thunder Revue."

It's a little unwieldy, it's a little ragged, but it's quite likely a once-in-a-lifetime extravaganza that fans will remember forever. Mixing history with humor, anguished portraits of struggle with uplifting tales of triumph, the Jersey rock legend delivered a stunning show Saturday before an estimated crowd of more than 10,000 fans at The Tweeter Center.

The article continues:

Though the political edge was a bit more subliminal for Springsteen than when he campaigned for John Kerry for president, the singer is still sending out some very passionate messages about the state of the nation. There was a chilling version of what he referred to as "The great Irish anti war song from 1815," "Mrs. McGrath," about a legless soldier returning from battle to his grief-stricken mother; and one of the night's major highlights was "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live," a Blind Alfred Reed song from 1929 that Springsteen rewrote with vivid, disturbing imagery of the bodies floating on the post-Katrina streets of New Orleans.

But nothing could top Springsteen's first encore, which he said was "for Memorial Day." The song was "Bring Them Home (If You Love Your Uncle Sam)," an anti-war ballad that Seeger penned during the height of the Vietnam War.

It had a brand new sense of poignancy Saturday and deserves to be released somehow, perhaps as a single, and soon. The timing's never been more perfect. The crowd was into the music from the start and it seemed like everyone knew what they were going to get when they walked into the venue.

I couldn't agree more with all of these comments.



OK - Now I'm jealous n/t (Alicia - 5/29/2006 2:42:51 PM)


Been There ... Done That!! (Tony Mastalski - 5/29/2006 9:02:08 AM)
Hey Lowell,

I suppose if I lived for blogging I would have seen your post before going to the show last night and we could of had a Webb for Senate Meet Up over a beer or two .... Ask Jessica V. what she thought of the concert .... When we get past this primary we need to to drill down a who knows who list .... so we might approach Bruce (Seager Sessions Band) to do a Webb for Senate fund raiser concert. Yeah that's the ticket!! Boogy on WebbHeads!!!