Monday, November 30, 2009

Reason To Believe


We've recently re-discovered Bruce Springsteen's magnum opus Nebraska. The album was recorded by Springsteen and the E Street Band but it was deemed that Bruce's original demo tapes; folk music with little more than guitar and harmonica, loads of passion and a fine voice was better. What an inspired choice. The Boss, irrespective of his hanky pants and bad dance moves can write a tune or two, and on this album virtually every track's a winner in a gentle, folksy-rock way. A twist in the tale is that during the recording of the demos Springsteen heard the seminal electronica of Martin Rev and Alan Vega's Suicide who, alongside Kraftwerk are the underground Godfathers of the genre, and State Trouper is an obvious homage to Frankie Teardrop. Country fans will love the eponymous Nebraska, Atlantic City and Reason To Believe. Nebraska was recorded on a Portastudio which made a small recording apparatus renaissance in the early eighties and it lends an intimacy that most modern folk bards would die for. Pure song writing at its best.