U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - U Springin' Springsteen On My Bean? - Darkness on the Edge of Town

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

Adam Scott Aukerman go track-by-track through Da Boss's morose fourth studio album, Darkness on the Edge of Town. They also surgically alter Adam's hand to look like a left-footed converse shoe, reminisce about old Mr. Show sketches, and ask unanswerable questions like, "Was Little Steven's character on the Sopranos named Fisher Stevens?"

from born in the usa to death to my hometown this is you springing springsteen on my bean on my bean the comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things da boss this is good rock and roll. Music. Da Boss. Is that what you said? Da Boss. Da Boss. Da Boss.

Welcome. Welcome, welcome. If this is your first episode of You Spring in Springsteen on my beam, welcome to our new listeners. My name is Scott Aukerman. I'm the host. I'm in pole position for You Spring and Springsteen on my beam. bean and uh coming up uh just slightly behind me to my left uh is a man who uh is uh fan of uh the boss and uh and uh a fan of a lot of things actually in life you know what i'm not a fan of what i'm looking at the back of the box set of the uh album we'll be talking about today and down at the bottom of the page it says bruce springsteen.net.net yeah you couldn't get.com couldn't get.com

i know i wonder what here let me let me look up what happens when i if this is 13 years old but it still is bruce springsteen.net it is really yeah so let me look up dot com what happens um branded merch it's just like some some squatters site where uh bruce springsteen concert tickets it's just the most they couldn't outbid them, huh? Yeah. I don't know. I wonder what they were asking for. They must be real dicks asking for way too much money.

Yeah. I bet Bruce Springsteen was trying to make all of his Mike Appel settlement money back. That's right. With the website. We'll talk about that a little later. But please welcome my co-host. You know him from television and movies. No stage work, I don't think.

You haven't been on stage in a long time, have you? Not for a while. You want to get back to Broadway? You want to tread the boards? You know, there's something I've always said about being on stage, which is, you know, being on stage and being in a production of a play it's like walking a tight rope being in a film or a tv show it's also like walking a tight rope except the tight ropes been laid out on the floor wonderful you know so there's no pressure and it's actually very easy

yeah but it the middle the very middle of your foot starts hurting after a while yeah if you if you act long enough the middle of your foot starts aches yeah just aches very and and no no one's foot has ached more than this guy right right here he's been in so many things over the past middle of my feet are worn out but i do love movies and television shows that's the thing why would you ever want to go to broadway and be on a broadway show when it's like you can get paid way more and work way less just being in a tv show in a movie and get to do it over and over again until it's not shitty uh you know him as the formerly known i thought you were gonna say as the fawns as the fawns you

know him as the bronze fawns he's the statue who came to life please welcome adam quadrero aka adam scott hello hello hello hello hello hello hi hi hi hi um adam uh you went to new york Hello. Hello. Hello. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Adam, you went to New York over the week. New York City. Oh, was it New York City? Oh, I didn't even know that part of it, really. I thought you went to Albany. No, I went to New York City, but I always try and make time for Albany.

Always. You got to make a trip up there. Just because of NXIVM. I always want to get a seat. I missed the whole NXIVM. I always want to get a seat. I missed the whole NXIVM stuff, so I know the barest. Well, their headquarters were in Albany, and so I try and go up there and just- Check in with everyone? Check in and pay respect. See if they still have their branding.

That's right. I try and visit the old office park where they had their gross headquarters. I don't know anything about that. And where they played volleyball. They played volleyball. See, this sounds fun. Every night. Every night, though. Every night. I don't know anything about that. And where they played volleyball. They played volleyball. See, this sounds fun. Every night. Volleyball. Every night, though. Every night.

I don't know about that. And you told me you saw a band while you were there? Could you be a little more specific? Musical band, not a wedding band. Well, no, wedding band. Oh, wedding band, like a ring band. Well, wouldn't a wedding band be? Oh, a wedding band, like a ring. Like a ring, yeah. Well, I saw it.

Is that funny that you get a wedding band? It's so weird. When you get married, but you also pay a wedding band? I mean, without that distinction, the wedding singer as a film wouldn't work. Doesn't work at all. And how many times is it? I'm sorry. Oh.

Is this an episode of I Love Films? I guess it is. Hey, everyone. Welcome to I Love Films. This is Scott. And this is Scott. And we're talking about the art of celluloid. Film making. Film making. The aperture. Not.

The aspect rate show. Not movies. Not flicks. Although, every once in a while. Listen. I like to kick my shoes off. Sure.

And enjoy a good Hollywood blockbuster every once in a while. What kind of shoes are you wearing these days, by the way? They kick off super fast. Those are kickoffs? These are, you've never seen a kickoff? I've never seen a kickoff shoe.

Okay, check this out. It's off. Ow! Are you okay? Why do that right in my face? That was timed really well. Are you all right? Oh my God, you already have a black eye.

I have a black eye. I have the imprint of a shoe on my face forever i hope not no these kickoffs they leave permanent marks no the the bot the souls are covered in sharpie ink oh no why would you do that to me i'm so sorry how am i gonna ever pick up my acting career after the strike well we can cover it with makeup okay all right let's try it makeup does not work for for sharpie ink well i guess i could find my niche is like the guy who is always kicked in the face with a shoe in every role or punched you can be the guy that gets punched there are tons of punched roles so wait so how does this work like

i have my back to the camera and then someone punches me in your first scene so you have it for the whole film my back to the camera someone punches me and then people are like you have the imprint of a shoe on your face you're like you were just punched did you but well that's the thing is you have to adjust it so the guy that punches you has his hand. Well, his hand looks like a shoe. His hand looks like. So now I need to find another actor who had a similar accident where his hand looks like a shoe. It's not because I think we, our paths are inexorably linked at this point. Listen, I've been in show business a while and I'm going to be honest with you. You have a big problem. My career's over.

But no, it's not over. It's never over, Scott. It's never over. It's going to be tough. I'm just playing it straight. Because this is your fault, would you do me a favor and would you surgically alter your hand to look like a foot? Absolutely.

I will do that for you. Thank you. Let's do it. And not just a foot. Oh, wait, let's do it now? Yeah. Okay. I just have a general anesthesia.

Is that all right? Yeah, that's fine. Okay. But the thing is. Okay, let me just fix away at his hand here. Oh, I think he's out. Okay, do you feel this? I wonder if he feels this.

I think he's okay. All right, a little snip here. A little tie this off. Smell it, Seltz. Wake up. Anyway, as I... Wait, what happened? Notice anything different? And it smells like a anyway. As a way. What?

What? Notice anything different? Oh, yeah. Looks. Why does my hand look like a left footed converse? You don't remember what we discussed, what we agreed upon before? Who are you? Oh, shit.

You see my face? Yeah, I see your face. Who are you? We're an acting team now. My name's Scott Aukerman. We're a team. I'm going to be in Severance. Oh, and we act together.

We act together. You're the guy who punches me in the face. Okay. Every episode. Okay, so you're going to be alongside me for everything I do everything i do every scene yeah what about when i go home at night oh i'll be there okay great bye bye so wait that was called i love films i guess okay i don't know i don't know um why were we even talking about films i don't know anyway uh new york city oh oh it's the the uh the fifth character of the movie manhattan fifth character oh yeah well oh i mean there's so many movies where new

york city is sure the lead character as far as i'm concerned yeah above the title sometimes new york city in yeah new york new york city starring in sex in the city for one that's one example yeah manhattan sure yeah uh what are other new york movies i can't think of any other one that's one example. Yeah. Manhattan. Sure. Yeah. What are other New York movies? I can't think of any other one that's set in New York. The Little Island That Could. Oh, yeah. The Little Island That Could is good.

Oh, wait. Oklahoma? Yeah. Okay. We can say. Yeah, that's New York. A lot of those people probably at least visited.

Yeah, sure. They've been there i mean they they talk about kansas city everything's up to date there so it's not too much of a stretch to think they went to new york that's right i'm sure they dream about new york city sure i mean who doesn't yeah exactly oh what a great town ah the big apple i don't know what that is why you would ever mention a piece it's a nickname that i like to use sometimes. It's kind of weird. But I guess my point was before we heard that episode of I Love Films, how many times does it ever happen

where the officiant is up there at the altar marrying two people and he says, can I have the wedding band, please? And suddenly eight people stand up and go, is it time? Yeah. What song is that? That is Dixieland jazz.

It sounded a little like you were doing the dun, dun the traditional wedding i love when that's played in a wedding i'm trying to get everyone in the mood for love it's time for the father of the bride's first dance um i saw yeah you know what i went to a party and the strokes played in new york city wow what kind of party is this that the strokes played a party was this like a backyard party by the way talk about a new york band right oh my god These guys just, they reek of New York. They sure do. You look at them,

you look at those guys and you just think, New York City. Oh my God. They smell like the alleys of New York City. Yeah. The streets.

The streets. They smell like the vomit on the sidewalks of the Lower East Side. Yeah. And they look like skyscrapers. They look so much like the Empire State Building.

They do. There's, in fact, Tom Hanks is on the top of one of their heads kissing meg ryan it's so crazy it's so cool um yeah so it's like watching like five five five empire state buildings walk out on stage and just rip it up. Incredible. To watch five buildings play music. Five buildings. That's the dream. Have you ever even seen a building try to pick up a guitar?

I've never even seen one building play music. Right. Let alone five Empire State buildings playing simultaneously. It was really cool. That's so nuts. Did they play your favorite Stroke song stroke song they played uh yeah they did which one well currently it's you only live once and they played it you think they'll do a sequel to that you only live twice i hope so i hope so what's the sequel to that though you only live three times rice i like three times i like i like how it's like thrice

rhymes with twice but then let's keep it going you know yeah all right course quinice twice you know and then size feist feist six ice six ice bud ice bud ice that's where they got the name for bud ice yeah you ever drink bud ice oh man love it you stopped drinking budweiser though you were telling me about uh somewhere around a few months ago for some reason what you stopped drinking bud light yeah you had some issue with the company i don't know exactly what it was. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They really upset me. Yeah, we don't have to talk about it.

That's right. Took me a second. I forgot about that wonderful controversy. That dumb, stupid shit. And now you're back. We're back in the same room, and we're rubbing elbows again, talking about the boss,

the boss. Um, and I'm going to stop doing that. And our, uh, uh, our episodes have come out, uh,

since, uh, we last did an episode and, uh, people are raving about it. They're so happy we're back and we're talking about a fellow podcaster, uh, Bruce Springsteen, of course his podcast with obama oh you're right are they they're not still doing that i hope i i i hope i i wish it was a weekly thing me too where they're just like

they ran out of stuff to talk about in their first six that they did yeah you know where they were like all you know where it was like heavily edited and heavily scripted and all that kind of stuff then they were like let's just bro out every week and then that's what i mean i listened to it and it was but they were talking about like america and work and family it'd be so funny if they just did what we do where it's like catching up with hey what'd you do this week yeah like that's the podcast i want to hear obama i feel like everyone would listen to that oh no that would i mean it's so funny when these these guys they they go like oh what do people want to hear what do we you know and the thing people would listen to is the thing they don't want to do the most which is just like chit chat yeah but speaking of chit chat, our episodes have come out and we're sitting here twiddling our thumbs.

Sure. As we are want to do. Yeah. Listen, they're there. We've got thumbs. Phones on. Phones on. Not on vibrate either.

No. No. Full blast. Full blast. And we're going to so many movies and they're just ringing and ringing. Oh, yeah. But you know what we're going to so many movies. And they're just ringing and ringing. Oh, yeah. But you know what? There's a strike going on.

So any call that comes in is going to be super important. That's right. And also, we're disrupting these studios. That's right. Disruptors. During the strike, we go to so many movies, keep our phones on. Yep. And just play loud games.

That's how you get them. Oh, man. Well, it's a pleasure to have you back, and we're here talking about Bruce, but we're twiddling our thumbs, and he has not contacted us. Wait a second. Are you serious?

I'm totally serious. And you know what? What the fuck? It's just like the strike. The longer the AMPTP takes, our demands start going up. There's a price to pay for your not getting back to us, Bruce. We have no choice but to takes our demands start going up i mean there's a price to pay for your uh not getting

back to us bruce we have no choice but to up our demands what do you want out of bruce this time i mean honestly i'm running low on topo chico yeah you have half a bottle in front of you yeah but i'd rather have that than a frontal lobotomy. Oh, man. Shit, bro. When I was doing a draft on Mr. Show, Dino had, I think it was Dino's idea. He had the idea for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Jekyll. Yeah. Which was he drinks a potion and falls down behind the desk and suddenly his diploma disappears off the wall and he just loses his doctorate.

And we went through a bunch of drafts and then I was trying to draft a musical version of it for one draft. And I just remember one of my lyrics was, and I, it was in regards to the potion that he was about to drink. He was singing and I'd rather have this bottle in front of me than perform a frontal lobotomy did that sketch end up making it no i don't think so didn't sound familiar one of the classic ones along with officer lady guts that never got

what was officer lady lady guts that was uh I think that was based, that was the only sketch based on a costume that we had, which was Conan, I think, had a sketch that they wrote. Conan Jenkins? Conan Jenkins, yeah. Incredible sketch performer from the Midwest. um had a sketch that that he wrote and they were gonna film where it was like uh what's the doll where you could see the insides of a person um chucky yeah no that's when i say the insides of a person i don't mean the the person that the doll is murdered oh um the oh like the the actual doll itself you mean you could see like the stomach and yes yes i don't know what those are called uh for some reason i want to say slim good good body but that was the the guy with

the the suit on that right with curly hair okay so that so that was that was the character that they had okay and then they they made a they made a female version of it because they were going to have him get together with a female and it was pregnant. And you could see everything inside her body. Yeah, sure. And including the fetus and all that. And they tested it out on camera and they were like, this is too disgusting to do this sketch. So they nixed the sketch, but then they gave us the costume. Yeah.

And so everyone was trying to write a sketch to the costume. Yeah, of course. You can't waste this incredible costume. Incredible costume. So I just, and this is before my time on the show, there was a draft of something

called Officer Lady Guts, which was a motorcycle cop who had this body. And they could never find like it was never saying anything you know like this it was just silliness so they never ended up uh being happy with it and just oh my god i would love to read a draft of that i wonder if i could get it from david i don't know and i wonder if uh if that costume is still around somewhere i wonder it's so funny because when when we were writing on that show we did every everything was on floppy disc you'd save so i have all these floppy discs from back then but with no way how do you how do you read them you know you don't use floppy discs anymore no No, I basically, I use floppier disks.

Oh, yeah, they're way floppier. And you have to get them damp. Yeah. Just to get them really floppy. By the way, speaking of making flippy floppy, the new Talking Heads, the new Stop Making Sense. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Is this an episode of you talking talking heads to my

talking head? I believe it is. From something to something else I don't remember. This is you talking talking heads to my talking head the comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things talking heads this is good rock and roll music hey this is scott and this is scott i think it was like from once in a lifetime to

oh yeah to something else i don't remember, I actually have no idea. Yeah. God, I wish I could remember though. I don't. I mean, why? Why do you wish that? It's my greatest regret. Okay. So anyway, Stop Making Sense is being re-released into good old. Good old IMAX theaters.

You know what, movie theaters. Finally. It's like church. Okay. I feel like this is an episode of I Love Films. I think it might be. Hey, everyone. Welcome to I Love Films. This is Scott. And this is Scott.

And, okay, so your hand looks like a sneaker. Yeah, and you know what? I'm learning to live with it, for one thing. So, I mean, can you call your agent and get me represented, and we're going to be a duo act now. Absolutely. We're going to make this work. Okay, call your agent right now. Okay, hold on.

Okay, it's ringing. Hello? Yeah, is Debbie there? Who's the person I asked is talking? This is your client, Adam Scott. Adam Scott? Yeah. From?

From Boy Meets World. Boy Meets World? Were you the boy in Boy Meets World? No, I played a character named Griff Hawkins. Griff Hawkins. He sounds really cool and handsome. He was super cool. Girls really like, you know, you'd be followed around by.

Oh. Never mind. My panties are dropping just thinking about this. Christ. Okay. Debbie, we're getting off track. Wait'm not debbie i'm debbie's assistant oh uh what's your name again my name is marlifula i'm sorry marlifula marlifula you gotta say it like that marlifula like you're singing mar Marlifula. Yeah, you got it, honey. Oh, my pants are just dropping.

Oh, God. Listening to you sing my name. Can I please speak to Debbie? No. Really? Yeah, sorry, no. I'm not wearing any pants or panties now. I can't go into the other room and talk to her?

Marlifula, I'm hanging up. You don't have to tell me. I feel like I'm going to be liable for something if I stay up. I would hear the click. You don't need to tell me. I feel like I'm going to be liable for something. I would hear the click. You don't need to tell me. Are you hanging up? Okay, click. What happened?

I couldn't hear. Well, you know what? I feel like it's going to have, it's not going to be a problem. Okay. I just have to find another way to get to my agent. Okay. I don't think over the phone works. You don't need to call like a PR crisis person. You're not

going to be me too'd from that phone call. If that phone call was recorded, there's going to be an issue. Okay. It won't be released, I'm sure. Oh yeah, no, absolutely not. Okay. Anyway, hopefully you get a hold of her and we can get back to work. I feel like we

will. I feel like it's going to work out. Okay. Well, we'll see you next time. Thanks. Okay. Bye. Anyway. Yeah. So yeah, movie theaters are churches. By the time we,

this comes out, we'll have gone to the event. Yeah. Seeing Stop Making Sense in 4K on IMAX screens. And we'll report back is it an imax screen i think i believe it is that's exciting very exciting and uh yeah so we'll report back next time okay bye bye weird app where they just talk about they're gonna talk about something next time yeah it was it's almost like why even bring it up i wonder it's to fill time maybe um we're uh yeah do you

have another do you have another request of the boss because we can ask for anything oh uh no i i'm just honestly i'm just running low just topo chico did you want to ask him for some uh yeah i feel like that's what i'm doing by mentioning it right like adding it to our list of demands it seems very passive aggressive to me like you bring it up hoping that i'll go well okay we can ask him for some, like, well, isn't that what we're doing is we're listing.

I want, um, let's say, um, seven, 12 packs of, uh, Topo Chico delivered.

You want 84 bottles of Topo Chico? 84 bottles delivered, uh, to my front doorstep. Okay. Right. By, by Bruce, uh, by. Okay. By Bruce. By Bruce himself.

Or an associate. If he's busy. I don't think he's going to be busy. Really? Yeah, just make it be by Bruce himself. But I feel like that's kind of shitty just because he's a busy person and he's older than I am

and he doesn't live in Los Angeles. Everyone in the world is older than you or younger than you. There's hardly anyone. Wait a second. Say that one more time. Everyone in the world is either older than you or younger than you. Somebody write that down, because that is incredible. Sorry.

All right, so 84 bottles of Topo Chico. Is incredible. Sorry. All right. So 84 bottles of Topo Chico delivered right to your door. It can't be to your neighbor's door. No, no, no, no, no. And it has to be on, let's see, Tuesday. Tuesday would be good. You're at home on Tuesdays?

If I'm not, someone will be there. Someone's always there at home on tuesdays what's going on on tuesdays that someone's always at i can't disclose what's going on on tuesdays but i i will say can deliver between 9 30 a.m and midnight two days later okay so really anytime tuesday wednesday or i. I don't like saying, I don't. But Tuesday, we'll just say Tuesday or two days later. Tuesday plus 48 hours or so. Okay, don't worry about those other days. It's Tuesday or two days later. Okay, so Topo Chico, what do I want?

Yeah, what do you want? You know what I really want is, I want autographed pictures. You know what? Like 8x10 I want autographed pictures. You know what? Like eight by 10 glossies. That's really nice. You know, like, and would it kill you to make out a personal message? Hmm. You know, to us?

Yeah. On both of them. One a piece. What kind of message are you looking for? You know, something substantive, you know? Yeah. Something substantial. Substantive?

Substantive. I think I was caught in the middle of both of those words. I mean, listen, it happens to the best of us. Yeah. Okay, so something. That has meaning. Has meaning. I want, you know, like maybe talk to my family about what I'm like.

Yeah. You know, like what, you know, just none of this like tossed off bullshit that you probably do on all the eight by 10 glossies that you sign every day of like yours in boss hood. Yeah. Bruce. Love ya. Love ya. Mean it. Bruce.

I'm sure that's, that's probably what he writes. Probably. you mean it, Bruce. I'm sure that's probably what he writes. Probably, but no, I just want, I want something nice, something nice that I can put up on my wall. I probably won't frame it. I'll probably just put a thumbtack into my wall. Yeah. But, so that's our new demands, Bruce.

84 bottles of Topo Chico. On the wall. And- Why are all these bottles on the wall? Bottles of beer on the wall? Yeah, that's where you put them. That's where you put your bottles of beer. What's wrong? Put them in the fridge. No, you these bottles on the wall bottles of beer on the wall yeah that's where you put them that's where you put your bottles of beer what's wrong in the fridge no you put them on the wall uh this fucking song is weird also hey speaking of that though i i know the song is weird but i love the song 99 bottles of beer on the wall would you would you maybe do an album

where it's just you counting down from 99 to one bottle of beer on the wall? I was going to say, he should cover that song. It's one of the great songs. One of the great songs. So that's another demand we have. Okay. We want 84 bottles of Chico. We want one signed, autographed, 8x10 glossy picture apiece that we won't frame.

We'll just put thumbtacks on the wall. Thumbtack, yeah. Do we need a thumbtack as well? We need thumbtacks, yeah. Give us a box in case any of them don't work. Okay. You ever have a thumbtack

that just bends when you try to put it into the wall? It's a real bummer. It's the worst. So give us a whole box just in case that happens. And then we want you

to make a whole album where you cover 99 bottles of beer on the wall and you count, it's just one song, one track all the way through and you count down to one.

Yeah. Those are our demands. how long does that usually take usually a bus ride so i would say 25 minutes yeah usually anywhere you're taking you're going on the bus it's like 20 so maybe it's an ep okay so well then let's fill it out maybe he also covers louis louis for 20 minutes yeah okay what other songs wheels on the bus yeah wheels on the bus is good yeah just bus songs another one rides the bus yeah okay one rides the bus we want you to sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall which you traditionally sing on a field trip while you're on a bus that's right we want you to sing wheels on the bus yep another one rides the bus which is of course weird al's parody that's right another one bites the dust yeah magic bus by the who uh not are we getting rid of louis louis anything by the bus boys like cleaning up the town which is written

for the the the movie Ghostbusters. Yeah. No, it's not Cleaning Up the Town. It's The Boys Are Back in Town. No, that's a different song that they did. Oh. Cleaning Up the Town was, those Ghostbusters came in, cleaning up the town. Was Boys Are Back in Town in 48 Hours?

I believe it was, yes. Okay. Okay, so. But either of those songs are fair game because they're by the Busboys. Great, because it was, yes. Okay. But either of those songs are fair game because they're by the Busboys. But if you want to sing, I would love to hear Bruce Springsteen sing the word Ghostbusters.

I remember listening to Eddie Murphy's, Eddie Murphy Comedian, which was the album of Delirious as a kid. And he always said, hey, how about a hand for the Busboys, everybody? And as a kid, always thinking like, wow, he's really giving it up for all the bus boys that work at the... Oh, that's funny. Yeah.

But I do, I would like, you know what, I'm scrapping the bus idea. Okay. I just really want to hear Bruce sing the word Ghostbusters. So any song that has the word Ghostbusters in it. So primarily Ghostbusters so any song that has the word ghostbusters in it so primarily ghostbusters yeah bobby brown's on my own we're the ghostbusters and we're in control whoa he mentions the ghostbusters because it was for ghostbusters too yeah theme yeah wow busboys cleaning up the town okay i think l king did a song for one of the newer Ghostbusters ones, the Paul Feig one. Okay. And then our buddy Paul Rudd, he's in those new Ghostbusters films.

Was there a song for those? I think there was, but what I'm getting to is, Bruce, you record this EP of songs, all Ghostbusters songs, and then give it to Paul. You probably can get some of the songs in the new movie. Oh, that's such a good idea. And you get a sync license. Oh, that's a great idea. The money just starts fucking rolling in, bro. If Bruce Springsteen made an EP

of all Ghostbusters songs. This is one of our demands. It's a great idea. We need it, Bruce. We need it and we need,'m i'm expecting that our next episode will be the two-on-one interview six hours all chit chat with bruce so you know don't be surprised i'm so i know you were disappointed when you clicked on this one and it's for darkness on the edge of town but uh and it's not the interview but um hopefully bruce will get back to us and then we'll also we'll tack on the ghostbusters ep as like a bonus at the end of the episode yeah we'll play the entire thing yep all right we need to take a

break when we come back we are going to be talking about the album darkness on the edge of town very exciting um you excited for this one oh yes all right let's take a break when we come back we're going to be doing that on you springing springsteen on my bean we'll be right back hey there mister can you tell me what happened Hey there, mister. Can you tell me what happened? The seeds are... Welcome back.

You springing Springsteen on my bean and bruce did not get a hold of us during the break no no no call no text uh no he is incommunicado huh well whatever whatever bruce um all right buddy you're ready to do this? We're talking about the album called Darkness on the Edge of Town by Bruce Springsteen. Yeah. Let's go through some stats. Released June 2, 1978.

Beginning of summer yeah like i would imagine school let out probably i mean memorial day was probably a few days earlier yeah probably well let's run the numbers on that i wonder what day june it was probably a Tuesday because. Yeah. So June 1 would have been a Monday. Which means then Memorial Day would have been on the. Oh man, that must have been a great weekend. It was on Friday. Wasn't Memorial Day, isn't it Memorial Day the 31st or the 30th? It's always the last Monday of.

Oh, it is? Yeah. So it would have been the 24th. Or no, the 25th. Perfect. 25th. So this is like just eight days after Memorial Day. So Memorial Day weekend would have been the weekend before this album came out. Yeah.

That's when the holiday would have fallen. So you can listen to this album and probably, unless people had an advance copy, not played at a lot of Memorial Day barbecues in 1978. Yeah, probably not. Probably zero. Sure, maybe John Lando. He probably had one. He was cooking up some baby back ribs.

Hot dogs. Hot dogs, burgers. Bruce Springsteen was probably at John Lando's barbecue. Do you think he would have wanted to hear it? I don't know. lando's barbecue do you think you would have wanted to hear it i don't know hey bruce do you mind if we put on your new album darkness on the edge of town in this backyard barbecue but john it's memorial day time to remember the troops and all that well that some of the album is kind of looking back at the ramifications of the vietnam say no more put it on put it on rip it up meanwhile everyone in it all around

everyone else at all their parties are like what's that sound yeah we haven't heard this album because it hasn't come out for another eight days um i wonder if marvin barry was there i hope so i've got a new sound for you you don't hear a lot about marvin barry you know such an unsung hero in the chuck barry history and the whole history of rock and roll well he's responsible for rock and roll he's responsible and yet you don't hear he was never inducted into the hall of fame nope they should do a fake induction for marvin barry and get the actor who played him just to liven this shit up,

man. It's like, you ever go to one of those rock and roll hall of fame things? Never. I've never been invited. No. I've had friends. I went to the actual rock and roll hall of fame.

Oh, I went to the rock and roll, uh, when we were on tour last year and had, had a fun time. And I would go if they invited us. Yeah. Have they,

I mean, we've been doing this show for now nine years. Yeah. Have they, has the rock hall of fame at first of all they should induct us i think it would make sense i think it would be only appropriate look you you want to you want to get some younger viewers it's all these fucking boomers are dying off and everything induct scott and scott into the rock and roll hall of fame in your podcasting arm. The thing is, is that they would have to put up some sort of display in the permanent museum.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. And not one that gets taken out after three months or whatever. We want a permanent display. So they may have to build a new wing or something. Probably. That's fine. fine sure we'll pay for it yeah we can raise the money yeah i mean we're not going to pay for it ourselves but we have some wealthy donors we can fleece i mean ask for careful there uh what did you think of the

rock and roll hall of fame i thought it was cool i don't know um i liked it yeah um i mean i don't know. I liked it. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to go quite on record saying what I thought because we're about to be inducted next year. Yeah, maybe we just hold our thoughts. In the podcasting arm, which, by the way, it'll be the first year they induct podcasters. And yes, they'll have to induct Springsteen and Obama next to us. Yeah, that's right. And that'll be fine. You know what? We can have Springsteen and Obama induct us. Yes, and we'll do the same thing for them. This makes us. Yeah, that's right. And that'll be fine. You know what? We can have Springsteen and Obama induct us

and then we induct them. Yes, and we'll do the same thing for them. This makes sense. Yeah. I bet Obama gets Hillary to go up and induct him. Yeah, probably.

But, you know, she can also join us on stage. She can bring her emails. Jesus. She's just flipping through emails. The entire ceremony. I found them um okay so june 2 1978 um recorded uh at first uh atlantic studios and then they went back to and produced by John Lando and

it's by Bruce Springsteen, of course. Yeah. So what do we know about, oh, by the way, running time, somewhere between 42.29 seconds and 42.30 seconds. Hmm. Somewhere in there.

About 42 minutes. And 29 seconds. Give or take a half a second. So wait, what, before this album was even recorded, there, was there a dispute of some sort?

Okay. So if you'll recall, the last record we did was born to Run, and that came out in 1975. Yeah. Three years. Three years. Has gone by. That's a long time for someone who just broke out.

Yeah. Nowadays, it's not that weird for a band or an artist to take three years in between albums because the publicity machine is somehow different and you can just squeeze out three years worth of hype on one album, you know, and keep touring and all that kind of stuff. But at the time, if you didn't put out another record the next year,

you were kind of viewed as like, what the fuck is going on with this guy? Because you want to constantly have product out there. The Beatles were putting out like three records a year um and bruce springsteen his first two were in one year yeah and suddenly it's three years and he doesn't have any product out well remember in the beatles documentary the get back where they had like three weeks scheduled to record their album right it's just nuts It was basically albums were just like, take a little bit of time.

Yeah. They talk about it in the, uh, the documentary about darkness on the edge of town, where it's just like, usually when you record an album, you write, you know,

15 songs, you pick your 10 best and you just record them and put it out. And, uh, this album was not like that. So what's going on? So we talked in the last episode about how Micah Pell, Springsteen's manager,

they start kind of not seeing eye to eye during the Born to Run sessions. And it comes to a head after Born to Run comes out. Essentially, Micah Pell is like, okay, here's what we do next we put out a live album and springsteen's like uh no yeah he's like i want to put out a regular album and also my capel is just very opinionated he even talks about this himself where he's like i have very strong ideas on on he said, songwriting, instrumentation, and riffs.

Oh, boy. He's like, you have strong opinions on riffs? Wow. So they basically start kind of not seeing eye to eye. And Bruce Springsteen says, well, I want out of my contract. With you specifically. With you specifically. And he had signed, as a a young guy he'd signed one

of these just ironclad you know shitty contracts that you have with a manager where essentially he cannot record anything uh without the permission of his manager mike appell like uh signing off on like who's gonna be there there who's going to produce it like you know he has a total control over what bruce springsteen is going to do and so bruce springsteen essentially says like well i'm not going to record then and um i'm going to sue you for to get out of this contract and uh to have total control over what i'm doing yes i can't i can't do this anymore if i don't have total control so not only did he have that in the contract my capel was actually trying to enforce those rules that he had in the deal i don't know try to control the sessions i

don't know that he was trying to control as much as it was in the the contract and bruce springsteen was sort of like instead of just going like hey is it okay if we keep recording he just was like you're not gonna have any control over me so i'm just not gonna record and i'm gonna sit on this contract just wait it out just wait it out yeah so that takes a full calendar year and not a fiscal year like a calendar year um to get settled and what's a fiscal year april a calendar year, to get settled. What's a fiscal year? April to April? April 15 to April 15, I would imagine.

I still don't really know. Or is it... Isn't it shorter than a year? Isn't it like a... No, I just think the months are different. Oh, I see. That's interesting. Let me look it up.

I could be totally off on this. Fiscal year... Because there's quarters, right? Sure. A fiscal year or a financial year or sometimes budget year is used in government accounting

which varies between countries and for budget purposes. It's also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. I don't see when. Oh,

it's the fiscal year is the so it's like December 31 to December 31 sometimes. It's just like, I think it's whatever you decide it to be. Got it. So rather than January 1 to January 1, it's December 31st to December. That's so stupid. That's the example they gave the minute I read it out loud.

I'm like, this is. Point is it's 365 days. I believe, yes. And I believe you can decide when those are. I'm deciding that it's Halloween. It's October 31 to October 30. That is so scary. I know it's going to be the scariest fiscal year.

I mean, it's already when you have to pay your taxes. It's like that April 15. That may as well be Halloween. I know. Talk about ghosts and goblins. I'm going to dress as an IRS auditor this year yeah oh man oh my god okay yeah so it takes a full year for this to get settled and and uh essentially springsteen buys out his contract and i think he's millions of dollars in the hole wow so he pays my capel yeah all this money yeah fuck that sucks that sucks yeah and my capel he he basically

gets a cut of the first three records as well as this lump sum that bruce springsteen pays him and i don't know the the details of of how much money it was but i think like springsteen alludes to it in the documentary of like if this didn't out, he's going to be millions of dollars in the hole instead of the opposite. Um, and so this next record, and by the way, we talked born to run like, you know,

semi hit, like well-respected, but not like a smash or anything like that. I thought it was a total hit. That's just so weird. It wasn't. It's, uh,

it's not like he had a top 10 single or anything on that record. So this is kind of a make or break thing, but Springsteen decides to wait it out. And they're playing every day at his house. The whole band would come over every single day. And Springsteen essentially is just making them rehearse all day every day without recording without recording and just like so he writes there are 12 songs on this record he ends up writing by his account 70 or 80 songs for this wow and they've only released um there's 12 on the record.

They released the Outtakes record, The Promise, which had 22, I believe. They did another four on tracks. So, you know, you're in the realm of 40. There's still like probably 30 songs floating around out there that have never been released. It's crazy. And then he chooses only, what, nine to be on the album? He picks 10 on the record. And the 10 he picks are, you know, the band,

the Edible Street band that we've talked about, they come in expecting like, okay, we're going to lay down Born to Run 2, you know? Right. Like a big wall of sound. Yeah. They basically, I think Roy Bitton talks about like, we found our sound, which is hard for a band sometimes to do.

You try a bunch of things and you're like, I don't know what our signature sound is. I remember Benfold's Five when they came out with their first record, they were like, we found our sound and we're never going to change it because unlike billy joel who like had this incredible sound on his first you know five albums or whatever and then started experimenting with rock and changing his sound like we know what works and we're not going to be like billy joel and ever change our sound and then their third record they started experimenting and then they broke up so it's like um i think it's

hard when you find your sounds because it's like okay this is the signature edible street band sound right let's keep it going and springsteen's like hey guess what uh we're gonna do something totally different this record that's so cool that's so hard to do i mean just it's a risky thing to do and especially after going for so long and finally getting to this place that he that he got to with born to run changing it up is really i'm sure so many people were telling him not to do it well i also think what was going on with him was he had all that hype he was on the cover of time and Newsweek. And his record company was calling him the savior and future of rock and roll and all that kind of stuff. And he was rebelling against it. And in fact, we'll talk about it a little later.

He wrote so many what could be hit singles for the record. Yeah. And he turned all of them down and was like, no, that's not going on. And he would say, that's not going on the record because i can see if we put that on the record the record company will make it the single and it'll be a hit single and it'll be annoying and it'll be annoying yes but then like wasn't because the night one of those fuck man yeah so he's such a great song. And what I'm getting from everything I've read is that this is basically his undiagnosed depression album. Yeah, it certainly feels that way. He figured out later in life that he has depression.

And when he listens to this, he goes, oh yeah, you can hear my depression all over this record. Now, not just depression because he was in this lawsuit that was unending um but just as a guy i'm sure that's part of it i'm sure that that would make you feel all sorts of things about yourself right and but also i think you know uh i was talking to gary goldman on comedy bang bang recently and he has talked about this with his special, The Great Depress, where it's like, you feel as if, okay, well, I'm depressed, but if I can get really good at something and get success at something, then I won't be depressed anymore. That's right.

And then you find that success and you go, but I'm still depressed. What's going on? It doesn't do anything yeah so this album is not born to run to the sound is harder the sound has more guitars less saxophone yeah it's more compressed and the subject matter is maybe less compressed how would that it's it's one of the two i'll tell you that it's not exactly the same amount of compression. No, it's not. Is it wall of sound? Is that what it is? It's just a compressed wall of just... Wall of sound, as I have heard it described,

is a lot of sounds layered on top of each other. But there's a lot of bleed in between the mics. That's right. Where you can hear... If you just isolate the guitar, you can hear... The drums. The drums a little bit because everything's sort of leading together yeah yeah yeah which i really really like i love that sound

but i also see the the appeal of something more studio-ish or what we think of as studio-ish which is what this album is they also talk about springsteen uh deboss of course talks about how he and john lando neither of them knew how to make a record. And so they're sitting around like they have ideas, but they're sitting around. They go into that first studio and the drum sounds are a big issue for them all the time. And so they just take months with Max Weinberg, like hitting the snare drum and Springsteen sitting there going stick stick stick and he because he could hear the stick on the drum and so this is like he doesn't want to hear this he doesn't want to hear the stick I guess he's getting upset at the muffled drum sound

that he's hearing because he wants the drums to sound huge and he doesn't want to hear the stick like he wants it to feel like it's coming from it's booming like it's just the drum is but he can hear the stick on that he's going crazy i think wow that's amazing and he now in retrospect he's like okay what i didn't know is you turn the drums up really loud that's going to make the guitar sound small right and vice versa you turn the guitars up really loud, that's going to make the guitar sound small. Right. And vice versa, you turn the guitars up really loud, it makes the, like,

we wanted everything to sound as big as they could be. Yeah. And so they just spend a long time trying, like, making Max Weinberg hit drums. So they wanted, on this album, for everything to feel huge and in the foreground.

They wanted it to have, like, a live sound. Yeah. That they just couldn't figure out how to get. And so they're just. But they wanted each instrument to have its own like texture and place in the music. And yet all of them sounding them big.

All of them sounding equally as big. Yeah. Which is like. And not knowing how to. Not knowing how to do it. Deal with equipment and yeah. So they spend two years recording this and recording song after song after song. They do something called the Star Wars demo tape, which is called the Star Wars demo tape because they cut it two days after Star Wars came out in 1977.

And also you can hear in the background C-3PO. Choo, choo, choo, choo. C-3PO is going, oh my. Yeah. And people are like, 3PO, calm down. You're too much of a fuss budget. May the force be with you. And look, Bruce, you've already said may the force be with you on this demo tape.

Would it kill you to talk about Ghostbusters? Yeah, just slip a couple Ghostbusties in there. So they spend two years and and they record from by all accounts 70 songs or so and that's all and bruce springsteen keeps going like they they'll record one and go oh my god this is a hit and you go yeah i'm not interested toss it because he what he wants to talk about on the record is he doesn't want to do what he did on Born to Run, which is these people trapped in small towns and longing to get out and finally breaking free. He wants to cut to three years later where they're still trapped and they're never going to get out. Oh, that's so nice.

So sweet. It's, again, depressing things. Darkness on the edge of town. That's what it's again depressing thing darkness on the edge of town that's what it's about so he wants the sound to reflect that um and they just keep recording these songs and jimmy iovine is there and he's like it's a hit bruce it's a hit and he's like get rid of it that's why later when patty smith is looking for a song jimmy iving's like hey i got something for you patty um so basically what happens is they they finally come up with the songs that they want to include and they all sound like shit and they've recorded them and all

the pieces are there but they they've mixed it and it sounds like shit. And so they're like, I don't know what we're going to fucking do. So they bring in this guy, uh, Chuck Plotkin. And, um,

Chuck Plotkin is not a, a mixer. He's like a producer. And they go, can you just plotty? Come hey kinkins get your plots together get over here oh the plot thickens i wonder if anyone ever says that when he walks in the room i would imagine love it and he's like are you saying i'm fat yeah they're like no no it's just it's an idiom expression um talk about depression plackins and they're going

like why are they all making fun of my weight every day i'm thick um so that he comes in he's just to produce he goes well i'm not a mixer and but he listens to all of it and i uh i forget which song he started with but he kind of goes like oh okay and he like turns the drums way up and the bass way up and they're like whoa yeah and everything everything else down and they're like this sounds awesome oh my god and he goes like yeah yeah but you know like just get a real mixer in here you'll be fine i mean it is 1978 but we can do this yeah and he goes get a real mixer they go no no plotty you're it baby otskers keep going man keep going keep that plot thick he's like come on guys i'm not that bad hey um i i he does in the documentary

have a really interesting viewpoint on how to mix vocals which i had never heard before which i think is really sorry so he did end up mixing the whole thing yeah and they're like this sounds great wow um but his his theory on vocals is he goes and and it's interesting because i i recorded when i used to be in bands i would record record songs, you know, if a friend had a four track or whatever. And you always think like, oh, the vocals are supposed to be front and center all the way, as louder than anything else, right? And which is bad. No, the drums are supposed to be the loudest. Yeah.

Usually. But his thing was like, okay, so you want the vocals, you want them loud loud but you don't want them as loud as like the drums or anything you you don't want them loud enough so you can understand what the person's saying you want them just loud enough where you think you could understand what the person's saying if you really tried hard enough but any louder than that where you can understand what they're saying and it sounds bad and weird so you want them just like slightly lower than that which i thought was really and now when i listen to these songs i'm sort of like oh yeah it is kind of a jumble the voice is that's what bruce wanted no that's what he did that's that's what plotty wanted i say and that's

his theory of like how to mix a record. And now when you listen to songs, it's interesting because that's. I think that's a good kind of guide for vocals. It's interesting. Yeah. So remember when REM was talking about like the first album, they all wanted to be mixed lower. Yeah. And they kept asking to go lower and lower.

Meanwhile, the Edible edible street band they talk on the documentary like plotty comes in and every single member of the band is like looking at their number on the faders yeah and kind of going like boost me yeah yeah yeah boost me up plotty you remember beat me up scotty plotters come on boost it boost me up plotty so he comes in and basically like saves the album and they're like awesome yeah thanks good job he's like like anyone could have done this you fucking weirdos but all right sure two years you've been working on this okay um but more importantly than that i think is that it's just i think the album is a triumph of editing where uh just bruce springsteen knew what he wanted out of it he talks about how

the two main influences were uh uh who'd he play on sopranos big pussy uh the guy uh who's in the edible street band um oh little steve little steven yeah he played uh what is his name um joey fat lips um i just watched the whole thing last summer you watched the whole thing last summer this the the sirenos yeah you know what i did last summer? The Sopranos? Yeah, you know what I did last summer now. Oh, by the way, I'm going to murder you now that I know what you did last summer. Anytime anyone hears about what someone did the previous summer, you have to murder. Anytime anyone hears what you did the previous summer, you must murder them. Yeah, I watched The Sopranos.

So Joey Fat Lips or whatever. Yeah, I watched The Sopranos. So Joey Fatlips or whatever. Yeah. That's one of the big influences where he wants everything to sound rough and garagey. Right. Little Stevens Underground Garage. Underground Garage, great show. And a great station. We should talk to Little Steven.

I mean, if he has to come with Bruce, sure. Yeah. And he should deliver the Topo Chico's. That's a good job for Little Steven. He'll be like, hey to come with Bruce, sure. Yeah. And he should deliver the Topo Chico's. That's a good job for little Steven. He'll be like, hey, these fell off a truck. Yeah. Don't ask too many questions. That was a cool impression.

What the hell was his name? It was the character's name. I wonder if there's a way we could find out. I don't think so. Fisher Stevens. Yeah, that was his name. Yeah. So he wants that john lando wants everything to be clean and like the radio yeah cleanly recorded

hits yep and so they're arguing all the time and springsteen's like basically pleasing both of them and does something in the middle he's like i like it in the middle yeah i like it rough a little bit rough but not as rough as little steven i like it you know yeah radio-y so um but he just knows what he wants out of this record which is a certain point of view about a certain point of a certain type of person who is silvio silvio isn't it? Am I right? I don't know. Okay. Keep going. A certain type of person who's trapped. In town. In town and is never going to get out. Right.

And their life sucks. Yeah. Great. And this is his big follow-up to Born to Run. To this huge hit. Yeah. And I'll be damned if it doesn't work. Yeah.

Maybe. I mean, at least when I say it doesn't work yeah maybe i mean i mean at least when i say it it doesn't work it worked out for him yeah i can only imagine like he puts out born to run to the following year and he becomes like eddie and the cruisers or something like that where it's just like oh that's what he does and then people this is three years later it's completely different doesn't end up selling quite as much, but it's still huge, right? Still pretty big. At least is another step forward in people saying like, like, wow, oh, wow, he's really great.

Although some of the critics were like, this is kind of a bummer record. We don't like it as much. But a lot of people are like, oh, no, this is an artistic statement. It's great. And then as people reassess it over time, they're like, oh, it's one of the great albums. Yeah yeah as long as you have like that critical support you can keep going yeah yeah

yeah i mean springsteen i think at a certain point he forgot to put a guitar part in and he stopped the whole record and delayed the release again and to record a guitar part not to even record it because he forgot to mix it in and so he did like turn the fader up on literally one part uh before a sax solo oh jesus on one song so um must be nice to have that kind of budget yeah yeah uh yeah all right so uh we have to take a break that's the story of the record when we come come back, though, we're going to listen to the songs on the record and talk about what we think about them. Adam, are you ready for this?

Yeah. Well, you should sit on your little butt for a little longer because I know you're ready for it, but we have to take a break. So when we come back, we're going to hear Darkness on the Edge of Town on you springing Springsteen on my bean.

We'll be right back you spring and springsteen on my bean welcome back and we're talking about darkness on the edge of town by the way the micapel uh coda to micapel is um so he got this huge payout yeah and then goes and sells his stake in all of springsteen songs back to him back to spring back to springsteen like in was it in the 80s or the 90s i don't know but uh so it gets paid twice for it wow but springsteen wanted it back off and have the money at that point is like well i want control over all my music so but is he like just for those three albums he bought back yeah i wonder if they were like still friends at all so they talk about it they they say that essentially springsteen was like we were probably never going to work together anymore but i really missed the

friendship yeah um so my capel called up john landau and was like okay it's over now can we like you know i know we're not going to work together but can can me and bruce still be friends i really and so they set up a dinner and they had like a three-hour dinner which was really nice and so they're on good terms now and my capel keeps popping up in these documentaries talking about oh that's about his role in it. So I don't think there are any like bad blood necessarily. And Bruce is like, I still am very entertained by his friendship. Which is such a weird way to put it.

And how much did he buy back his stake in those first three albums? I don't know the terms. Somewhere between zero dollars and 100 million i bet it's like for the first three bruce springsteen albums so it's not born to run or it is no it is born to run to run it's asbury park uh the wild the wild the innocent and then born to run yeah must be like 30 million dollars know. I'm sure he's doing fine. I'm not worried about him. Mike Appel.

Hit a couple of podcasters up. Yeah, come on, bro. We've said some nice things about you on this show. Give us a little walking around. We've heard your entertaining friendship to have. Let us wet our beaks, at the very least. We want some of his money for some reason. We think we're entitled to it.

Well, we just want to win our weeks. Just give us some of your money. Okay, so we're going to listen to these tracks. And again, this is a darker, more morose album, and it's reflected in the sound. more morose album and it's reflected in the sound um but uh the first track we're gonna hear side one track one big uh bruce springsteen song this is um a song called badlands shit this song man uh of course also there is the, uh, the movie Badlands. Did that come up before or after? That's a really good question.

I think before, but let's check. We can check on that, but not on little Steven's name. I think it's Silvio. Bandlands? Is that how you spell it? Uh, 1973. Yeah. Is that how you spell it? 1973, yeah. So again, Springsteen is taking titles and imagery from kind of Western movies and Heartland movies and stuff like that in order to make his record.

But this is a song called Badlands, and it's by Bruce Springsteen. Well, what's up tonight? Trouble in the heartland Got a hit on collision Smashing in my guts Made a party on a crossfire That I don't understand But there's one thing I know for sure Girl, I don't give a damn You're the same old played out scenes

Baby, I don't give a damn For just the in-betweens Honey, I want the heart. I want the soul. I want control right now. You better listen to me, baby. Talk about a dream. Try to make it real.

You wake up in the night with a fear so real. You spend your life waiting for a moment that just don't come. Don't waste your time waiting. Bad lads, you got a little or a day. Let the growth in our stands, the price you gotta pay. Keep us till it's understood and these bad lads start treating us good. We're up here in the field, daddy. So. So... This song very nearly did not have the saxophone on it.

Oh, is that right? Why? Because... And also, this is Max Weinberg's first full album. Yes, that's right. Welcome, Max. The E3 band is now a tight, cohesive unit at this point. They've been playing live, by the way, this entire three-year period to make money.

So they almost didn't have the sax on this song because Springsteen started feeling like the saxophone in general, the instrument itself, was the sound of an urban sound, the sound of the city. And he wanted to make a Heartland album. And so he was kind of like, let's get all the sax off of here. Yeah. Was Clarence Clemons like, what the fuck, man? Bro, I'm right here. Yeah.

You've already been insulting Plotty this entire time. Yeah. But, oh, so here's, so it was just going to be this, essentially. God. What a bad move that would have been yeah well everyone thought it was going to be a bad move and so they finally talked him into it and of course it's great it's great but he was just kind of like in this headspace where he's rebelling against this because you know the saxophone is like new york state of mind yeah yeah yeah you know uh but but clarence clemens i guess is like

cool with it because and he has this sort of well rehearsed line where he's like you don't want too much sax on the album because anything more than what you got makes you a sax addict oh boy well he can say whatever he wants well r.i.p to the big man of course yeah fucking best yeah um so yeah he by the way the main riff is sort of a take on the animals don't let me be misunderstood oh interesting yeah do you want to hear uh i sure do that song and we we can uh uh sort of figure out exactly how the riff differs. But don't let me be misunderstood

by the animals is right here. And let's hear it on this show. Yeah. They don't get a writing credit no no because it's like a

yeah it's like it's either a minor turned into a major or vice versa what a great song ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding

um he had the title and he didn't have a song to that fit the title so he just wrote and rewrote and rewrote and rewrote until finally he had something that he's song to that fit the title so he just wrote and rewrote and rewrote and

rewrote until finally he had something that he's like okay that fits the title um what do we think of badlands it's i love it so much it's such a great song it's fucking rad for a for a depressing kind of album it's a great like sort of hopeful moment to start on although the lyrics kind of are like a little depressing yeah yeah for sure but it's a it's a it's such a great catchy bruce pops on i love it um a classic definitely and so fun when they play it live yeah and i doubt there's a show where he doesn't play badlands and it's fun too because of like what they're doing when they do play live, they all get out hula hoops and they all start, start just even the guys with guitars.

It's hard to hula hoop when you have a guitar. Super fun. What do you think of this song? I think it's great. It's one of the classic Bruce Springsteen songs. I have no quibbles with it. It's my second favorite song on this album. Really?

Oh, interesting. Okay. We'll find out what the first is. Nope. Not going to tell. Okay, interesting. Okay, we'll find out what the first is. Nope. Not gonna tell. Okay, weird. All right, so the next song,

track two, Adam Raised a Cane. Of course, using biblical imagery. We all know that fig-leafed fucker, Adam. Jesus. And his son. Harsh.

The first murderer. Oh, my God. By Bruce Springsteen, and his son harsh the first murderer oh my god by bruce springsteen adam In the summer that I was by blood My father held me to his side As they put me into the water He said how on'll only do your cross. We're prisoners of love, of love and chains. We're sliding through the door of a standing rain. The same hot blood burning in our veins.

I don't raise the cage. I don't raise the cage. I don't raise the cage. So definitely more brutal sounding. This is where we start to get into just the harshness. Just the guitar really hard. Yeah. Yeah. The plotty, when he was brought in to mix the whole record, when they go, come back tomorrow and do the whole thing.

Yeah. He said he's never had this experience before, but instead of Bruce Springsteen going like, okay, I want the guitars to be louder than the other stuff, Bruce Springsteen says like, well, I want this song to be like, you know, you're watching a movie and a couple is having a picnic and it's a nice bright day and suddenly you cut to a dead body under a tree and it's like a shocking image, you know?

He goes, that's what I want coming from the previous song. I want this to sound like. Oh, God. And he's like, I've never had anyone use imagery of what they want the feeling to be like when someone listens to this before. That makes sense. Yeah. I'm listening to this dead body. Wow, you can just see it under a tree.

Chucky's just killed him. And you can see see it under a tree. Chucky's just killed him. And you can see his insides. Because Chucky found out what he did the previous summer. Yeah. Yeah, it's a sharp left turn from the previous song. Also, what's interesting is Plotty, he used one of the first sort of early digital pieces of equipment called a harmonizer.

To do what? You hear Roy Bitton's piano parts, right? The dinks and all the kind of stuff. He put them slightly out of tune because they sounded too, like... Good. Good. So he's like, let's fuck this up a little bit.

Yeah, rough it up. And so he makes them slightly out of tune and he turned it in, like, he lets everyone hear it, expecting them to go like, what's it do to the piano? Everyone goes, sounds good. Interesting. like he lets everyone hear it expecting them to go like what's it do the piano everyone goes sounds good interesting yeah so it's just like ever so slightly out of tune and it was one of the first ever pieces of equipment that could do something like that and take rather than him have him play slightly this is because it was all done so it was all done already yeah so he just like fucked it up a little bit and made it a little more ragged.

Interesting, don't you think? What I just said is interesting. Very, very interesting. How do we feel about Adam Raises a Cane? I mean, obviously your name is in it, so. Yeah, so I'm going to have certain feelings about it. Like, was this written about you? Right, that's my first inclination when I hear something like this.

I've never really liked this song very much, and I still kind of don't. It just sounds like, to me, it doesn't sound like Dead Body. To me, it sounds like being under really hot sunshine at a barbecue that's on concrete, and there's nowhere to get shade, and I'm holding a warm beer. You like your beer and the music is way too loud and i just want to go and find somewhere to go so as a song you don't like it as a sort of mission statement of like hey this album is going to be different do you respect it at least yeah and i i do respect the way it sounds i I do like how it sounds. I think it's cool. I just never really loved the song. It's like, it's definitely a hard rock. Oh, that's the other thing is Springsteen punk rock was happening at the time.

And he was influenced by that. And you can hear it in some of the songs where he's like, especially the subject matter. But occasionally you'll hear a song that's like him going like, no, make it harder. Certainly went there with this one yeah i like it i i especially like it live yeah um but yeah i don't wait i actually don't love like interesting when they play it live i'm always just like okay time to take my third shit of the night that's right that's when i go and take my third shit you love taking shits in like uh arena bathrooms the best the best um no but yeah i do you know respect it it's just not my fave all right and i like hard loud music i just don't love the song that That's all. All right. This is track three.

This is Something in the Night. guitar solo Oh, I'm riding down Kingsbury Figuring I'll get a drive Well, I turn the radio blind So I don't have to think And I take her to the floor Looking for a moment when the world seems right And I tell her to the best Cynhyrchu'r cwbl i'r llawr Cynhyrchu'r cwbl i'r llawr Cynhyrchu'r cwbl i'r llawr Cynhyrchu'r cwbl i'r llawr Cynhyrchu'r cwbl i'r llawr

Cynhyrchu'r cwbl i'r llawr Cynhyrchu'r cwbl i'r llawr The song's half over. I feel like it hasn't really started yet. Yeah, it hasn't really hit. I mean, he kind of hit the chorus, but not like a huge change. This is sort of like a live take. I think they recorded it the very first night they were recording, and then they did a few overdubs on it.

Not anyone in the band's favorite, think here's the okay here we go that's pretty great i like that we are three minutes and 14 seconds into it, though. How long is the song? 5.14. But again, this is like him saying, anything too poppy, I don't want it on here. Like he doesn't put Because of the Night on the album, but he puts this on puts this he puts this on which is like everyone in the band is sort of like uh yeah it's a little slow it's sort of hard to fill up all the space and i think he was sort of directing the band during it too because max weinberg talks about how there's a part where he just

springsteen like cuts him off and so he stops playing and it like skips a beat a little bit that was all just like with this song in particular at the very end of it I'll see if we can hear it when it comes in there it is or it might be even a little bit later or something but he's he's sort of directing the

drums as they're doing it it's funny because that documentary on letter to you that their last album that on apple yeah you know amp tp oh fuck anyway, on that documentary, on the new album, you see him still doing that same thing. Yeah. With the band. Yeah, yeah. It's cool. And you still see little Steven coming in and going like,

no, cut this part, cut that part, and bossing them around, which I think is very funny. What do you think of Something in the Night? I really like this song. Do you? Interesting. It's never grabbed me all that much. Yeah, I totally get that. Um, what do you think of something in the night? I really like this song. Do you? Interesting. It's never grabbed me all that. Yeah.

I totally get that, but it's an ending here. I think it's really cool. And it has that big epic Bruce feeling to it. That's the thing is, is like, I respect it. Yeah.

It's kind of like the whole album. I respect what he's going for. And he's like saying like, no, you can't pigeonhole me as you know, this kind of artist. I'm going to do this thing with it. Yet.

Do I listen to that for pleasure all that much? I'm not, I'm not really sure. I, I, I agree. Like, I wish there were a couple more pop songs on it.

It's the, the two of the big singles are the last two, uh, songs. No, no, not the, not the very last two but i was surprised that what is it prove it all night is the second last song that was the first single that was the first single yeah it's so crazy all right well let's keep going on the first side this is track four this is candy's room by bruce springsteen this is my favorite part right here. I love that.

This reminds you of being a robot. There are pictures of heroes on the wall. They get to Candy's room. They walk in darkness at Candy's hall. Strangers from the city call my baby's number. And they bring her toys. When I come knocking, she smiles pretty. She knows it might be Candy's boy. That part is inspired by Barry White.

Really? Yeah, the hi-hat part. Because of the spoken... Oh, it's not... The spoken thing reminded them of a Barry White song, so they'd start doing this sort of disco. Oh, interesting. It's not trying to remind them of being a robot. She says, baby, if you want to be wild You've got a lot to learn

Close your eyes, let them out Let them fire Let them burn Cause in the darkness There'll be hidden worlds that'll shine And when I look at the books She makes those hidden worlds mine And then suddenly this. What do we think?

This is awesome. It's an incredible song. So cool. And just when you're thinking like, oh, it's a pop song, suddenly it goes into that part. I know. It's, again, him rebelling against it being too poppy, but listen to the guitars.

It's so great. And the harmonizing is incredible too did they play this live very much yeah they a good amount yeah it's it must be fun to play yeah i would imagine so wait max weinberg was sick for a lot of the recording of this oh i didn't know that i just read that i just wondered how sick he was like what says he's suffering from an illness during most of the sessions diarrhea yeah who knows wait there's a source on here okay oh never mind was it diarrhea.com just pictures of diarrhea okay so uh let's go to the last track on side one by the way when they put together the running orders they they talk and this will be close to our hearts they they say bruce got very into sequencing oh the best we love it love it glad to

hear he's finally getting into it but he went finally he had them put together so many sequences and listened to them over and over the same way that we've done with R.E.M. albums and stuff. And they talk about the four corners, how first song and last song on side one and first song and last song on side two were always the important ones. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The four corners, yeah. That they would make sure they're telling a story with and then fill in the blanks in between. I remember when I would make mixtapes in high school, the final song of Side 1 was so important. Because it's got to be dramatic,

but you also have to want to flip over the tape. That's right. So this is the last song on Side 1. This is Racing in the Street by Bruce Springsteen. I got a 69 Chevy with a 396 Fuley heads and a hearse on the floor She's waiting tonight down in the parking lot Outside the 7-Eleven store Me and my partner's son

he built her straight out of scratch and he rides with me from town to town We only run for the money got no strings attached We shut him up and attached we shut em up

and then we shut em down tonight tonight the strips just dried I wanna blow em off in my first heat summer's here

and the time is right racing in the stream we take all the action we can this is a kind of a longer song now i would imagine this is the last song on side one right yeah what i. What I said right before we played it? Yeah. Oh, is that what you said? Sure. Nice to hear exactly how much you're listening to me. No, I knew we were talking about the Four Corners, but...

So, Promised Land is the first song on side two. Yeah. This song kind of is the whole album to me, in a way. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Like, the subject matter, he's essentially doing what he calls a sequel to Don't Uh-huh. Like the subject matter, he's essentially doing what he calls a sequel to Don't Worry Baby

where like the race car driver, it's three years later and his life sucks. And the girl that he wins in the race, isn't that interesting that like you used to be able to win a girlfriend in a race? race i know it's so crazy if i had known that growing up i would have

gotten all kinds of things yeah but um and what does she do she just stands there and waits to see who wins the race yeah and then who she's gonna get with after the race but um but basically just uh yeah like springsteen talks about how he didn't have a car he had to hitchhike everywhere but guys in new jersey they had cars and he was always fascinated with him so he's writing a song about what it might be like to be as cool as them sort Yeah. And I think they talk about how he, one of the band, one of the Edible Street band members came into his hotel room once and he had like all these car magazines that he bought trying to like study up on

them. And he still got the details wrong in the lyrics of these songs where he like talked about a certain type of engine that wouldn't have been in a certain type of car. And the year after it came or when the album came out, he was like, oh yeah, where he talked about a certain type of engine that wouldn't have been in a certain type of car. That's great. And the year after it came, or when the album came out, he was like,

oh yeah, that's embarrassing. I'm going to change it when I sing it live. And then later on, he's like, ah, fuck that. Yeah, why? It's so great because he does, like we've said a few times in the Broadway show, the first thing he kind of says when he comes out is,

I've never worked a blue collar job my hands are fine they're not they are not the hands of a man who's worked for a living i'm a total poser and so he he's kind of delves into these different lifestyles but he's talking about people he knew i mean a lot of the father this is like adam raise the cane is one of his first father songs where he's talking about his father he does a few of them um you know his father worked in a factory he talks about how he went into the factory to drop off lunch for his father and it was so loud and his father became uh deaf essentially from working there and he was like nowadays you'd have people ear protection with ear protection but back then people were like fuck that and. And he was like, nowadays you'd have people. Ear protection. With ear protection. But back then people were like, fuck that. And so he was like calling for his dad, like dad, dad, dad. And his dad couldn't hear him.

And he finally had to go around and like hold up the lunch. And then he just, his dad just like looked at him and he put the lunch down and then walked away. And so just like, you know, kind of a strained relationship with his father who also had uh uh depression and yeah uh mental health issues yeah um so he's talking about a bunch of people he knows and is experienced including his own family but uh yeah he's not uh speaking from actual experience but this is all about, and you know, people who say like,

oh, Springsteen is all just about like car, like prefab sprout, the band. Yeah. They have a song called cars and girls, which is like, uh,

some things mean more, much more than cars and girls, which is like a slam on Bruce Springsteen songs at the time. This is 1985 after born in the USA. I kind of go like, no, he's talking about cars and girls but he's talking about them in terms of like it's like a way in for these larger themes he's talking about

american yeah i can't iconography iconography yeah oh man i had a i had a stroke in the middle of that sentence you took a big bong rip right before that sentence. Okay, he's talking about iconography. No, he's talking about these images that are part of culture, but he doesn't want to be seen as a revisionist, like a rockabilly, like, you know, Stray Cats guy. He's using them to talk about, he's talking about, like like how after vietnam it felt and and i think

our generation specifically no but everyone now kind of relates to this in terms of covid you know how everyone talks about like oh the past three years it could have been three years or three seconds yeah or an eternity the vietnam was sort of like that for his generation. Yeah. And everyone just like the hangover of Vietnam is happening with people right now. Yeah. And that's what he wants to talk about is just like these American images. He's using all of these images to.

They've always been emblematic of the American dream. Right. And he's taking them and kind of writing about what's underneath it yes and like oh okay yeah the american dream is achievable but everyone's depressed like me right that's right that's right right right everybody and every i mean honestly like yeah most people most people are um what do we think of racing in the street well i kind of agree that it's it feels and it's kind of emblematic of the album um and is sort of a a mood piece more than a song in a lot just for me personally so it's not my favorite but i also i do like it and it's do you like the other version of it that we'll we're

not going to do uh an album about about the pro or an episode about the promise right now all the outtakes that they turned into an album but uh the remake on on the promise is or the different version uh called promise or called racing in the street 78 i think is i don't i don't know how different is it just a completely different it's like a different sound and lyrics. Oh yeah. We should listen to that. I mean, not now,

but maybe when we do the rest of that. Okay. So that's the end of side one. Let's go into side two. This is called the promised land. I'm going to ride on Snake Street where the Utah doesn't. I pick up my money and head back into town. Driving across the Waynesburg County line. I got the radio on, man, I'm just killing time.

Working all day in my daddy's garage Driving all night Chasing some mirage But pretty soon I'm gonna take charge The dogs on the street howl Cause they understand If I could take

One woman into my hands Mister I ain't a boy No I'm a man And I believe The first verse and chorus, The Promised Land. Oh, by the way, the guitar part that Springsteen held up the album is coming up. On this?

Yeah, it's on this. Is it a solo? It's just a little bit of solo before the sax solo. This is another song that has a sax solo, by the way. Sax used very sparingly. Yeah. When it comes up, I'll point it out. What do we think of The Promised Land?

It's my favorite on the album. This is your favorite? You said you weren't going to tell me. Well, you don't know if I'm telling the truth right now. That's true, yeah. For every truth you tell... Four lies. Four lies.

I love this song so much. They say that this is a victim of the muffled snare sound that they were getting, this song. Can't hear it right now, obviously, because it's too muffled. He's not playing. You mean they feel that way? Yeah. Okay, wait, let's hear if the guitar part is this.

This is it. So what was here? Nothing, it just wasn't on there. Oh, shit. I'm glad he went back. here nothing it just wasn't on that shit it's just more of that dinking held up the entire album just to put that back in but it's great so great he knows what he's doing what do you think of this song it's great i mean i i sort of again it's it's knowing what it becomes live it's so anthemic live yeah this studio take is a little like yeah it's good but i mean live it's it's incredible i love the combination of sax into harmonica which is like such a weird combination that you don't really hear in too many songs um and the melody is just incredible yeah it's it's so so good

um i i went and saw bruce and bruce yeah you've talked about it many times um i went and saw him in atlanta when i was working on a movie oh no this is new information i thought you're going to talk about the madison square garden show you just no no uh but i did i saw him in madison square garden just like six months ago what about the culture club uh he uh so we went and saw him i was working on this movie and sarah vowel had a small part in the movie and so i ended up going to see bruce springsteen with sarah vowel wow and promised land is her uh favorite Bruce Springsteen song. Where you guys just high-fiving the shit out of each other this entire time. Holy shit. And you're like, I'm high-fiving Sarah Vowell.

I can't believe it. Okay. Track two on side two. This is a song called Factory. Sort of about his dad as well. puts on his clothes. Man takes his lunch, walks out in the morning light. It's the work, the work, and just the work in life. Through the mansions of fear,

through the mansions of pain, I see my daddy walking through them factory gates in the rain Factory takes his ear, factory gives him life The work, the work, and just the work in life so this song is pretty much about his dad he talks about how this was a way to communicate with his dad like instead of talking to his dad he would write songs about his dad and then he also talks about like his whole stage persona he goes like i would write about people like my dad i would dress like my dad in a in a costume sort of to honor him and everything about what i was doing was sort of to honor him and people like him.

And then suddenly it just became who I was. Yeah. It's interesting. Um, because he talks about, he's kind of a poser, like just an artistic guy who, you know,

sings about this stuff, but it was all because I think he was trying to communicate with his, yeah, with his father. Yeah. What do you think of Factory? I love the song. I think it's beautiful and cool and very,

you know, you can kind of feel the building blocks to what people think of when they think of Bruce Springsteen in these. When you hear about a song called, they talk about like Springsteen refrigerator magnet poetry or like they're like little girl is one and cars and you know this one's called it's called factory yes so this and it's not called the fudge factory which no no no that comes later um but that's what max weinberg this and born to Run are definitely like all the kind of building blocks are there. Yeah.

But, you know, I really like this song a lot. It's, again, it's so slow. I like the melody and it's so slow. It's one of those ones where it's like, oh man, you just really want to put like the slowest non-hits on the record. Because you want to talk about these issues and you want to evoke a mood so it impedes my enjoyment of it a little bit but it but it's obviously a great artistic i love how spare it is yeah um all right this is uh a song called streets of fire another movie title became a movie though, not movie did not come before And you realize you want to let go And the weak lies and cold walls you embrace

You let your insides And baby, I ain't no liar I won't Streets of fire Streets of fire Streets of fire Streets of fire And now I'm running

The news are down the track and I'm lying But babe, I can't go back, cause in the darkness I heard somebody call my name When you realize how the truth is time and it's all lies But I'm strung out

on the wire in these streets of fire Streets of fire Streets of fire Streets of fire Jimmy Iovine talks about how witnessing Bruce Springsteen sing this in, this is like one take, is one of the most incredible things he's ever seen. It's an incredible vocal. Yeah, his performance, just all the different things he's doing you know the different types of singing

he's doing it's amazing as a song what do we think uh i like this song it's funny because if it weren't for a movie being called streets of fire i never would think of this song as being like an iconic bruce springsteen song but but but it was so influenced whoever made the movie yeah so for some reason i always think like oh this is one of the iconic spring it's the same thing with moonlight mile the rolling stones song yeah totally it's like oh that is oh that must be one of their movie must be one of their important songs yeah it's like fun. I think the vocal performance is incredible, but it's not like one of my favorites.

It's another like mid-tempo, slowy as well. I feel like it could have used a little ramp up right here after Factory. Yes. Factory and this next to each other are a little tough to listen to, but like an incredible,

if you're just listening to one song and you put pop on that one, you'll be like shit yeah it's pretty great okay so then second to last song is the first single on the album he's just burying it weird um and this is prove it all night by bruce guitar solo from Mondo to Angelina to buy you a gold and a pretty dress of blue maybe just one kiss we'll get this thing for you I guess the seal I fade tonight

I guess to prove it all night prove it all night girl there's nothing else that we can do so prove it all night prove it all night and girl I'll prove it all night Apparently based on a conversation he had with a cab driver where the cab driver was just like on a monologue the entire 45-minute trip or something and was like... Sounds fun.

This is before they had uh uber uh the quiet setting but um a good song came out of it but it was about where the cab driver was saying like well you know you go to work uh five days a week and you gotta prove it to your boss and then you got at home you gotta prove it to your wife all night and then on the weekends you got to prove it to your kids it just never ends um like the responsibilities i guess that you have to to your your boss your wife your kids anyone but yourself yeah you know like you have no time for yourself or whatever but he was so struck by that he wrote a song sax is back i'm becoming a sax maniac yeah a sax addict yeah um so i don't think this is one of the it's interesting that it's the first single because i think there are two iconic songs badlands and the promised land and this is like oh by the way the great guitarist is that bruce It seems like it.

In the documentary, they show Bruce shredding on a bunch of stuff, and he's incredible at it. This might be Nils. Is Nils Lothbrin in the band here? You know, that's a good question. Is Nils here yet? I don't think he is. No, he's not.

Could be Little Steven. It could be Little Steven. It doesn't sound as much like Bruce. Little Steven's a rhythm guitarist. I know. You kind of forget how good of a guitarist Bruce Springsteen is because he talks about how he, in his previous band, he was just going to be a guitarist, he thought. But then he realized he was not as good as other guitarists. So he's like, so I decided i had to start writing songs because

that was something i could be unique at but he's he's an awesome like soloist i love it when he has guitar solos but yeah i don't think this is like as iconic as the other two so it's so strange it's poppy which is good but this is the record company going like well i guess this is probably the most poppy thing on the record, so let's put it out. Weird choice for a first single. You can see why they didn't put Because of the Night on here with this, because they would be a little too similar. Too similar.

How do you think about Prove It All Night? Or what do you think about it? How do I think about it? Well, I first put the song into my head. I think it's awesome. I love the song. It's great. It's not it's not one of the two iconics though no not one of the two icons all right this is the final song on the album this is the titular darkness on the edge of town by bruce Springsteen. Stick. Under her vine Now here she's got a house up in Fairview

In a style she's trying to maintain Well, if she wants to sleep in You can tell her that I'm easy to find Tell her there's a spot I need You can tell that I'm easy to find Telling there's a spot out there You can't even reach and tell There's a darkness on the edge of town There's a darkness on the edge of town Asia town

where everybody's got a secret something that they just can't fix some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it

they carry it with them every step that they take till Sunday They carry it with them every step that they take Till someday they'll just cut it loose Cut it loose and then they drag on down When no one asks any questions Who knows till now men do In the darkness on the edge of town.

You think when you get to the edge of town, there's going to be quite a bit of light. Yeah, I mean, you're like finally out of this shitty-ass dark town. But not on this town. No, it's all around the edge. Well, I mean, it's sort of like when you're baking a pie. Sure. The edge is a little more brown than everything else. Especially if you don't take it out of the oven all the time.

I mean, darkness on the edge of the pie. 99% of pies are burned. Oh, easily. That's why when you get one that's not burned, it tastes so good. I do love a burnt pie, though. Oh, burnt pie. Give me a burnt pie. I think this song is fucking rad.

Yeah. So good. One of my favorites on the record. Oh, it is. Yeah, this is of my favorites um on the record oh it is yeah this is probably my third favorite on the record what's your first i think badlands badlands is so good what's your second i think promised land yeah and then uh then then darkness on the edge of town i love the edge of town i'm speaking of the darkness on the edge of town i've i made i made this joke on twitter candy's room that was edge of town i've i made i made this joke on twitter candy's room that was pretty great candy's room is great i made this joke on twitter about the

album cover if you can look up the album cover uh go ahead and and look it up but um i i was making this joke about like what springsteen was trying to communicate with the photographer like where he's like okay so it's about this town and there's a creeping darkness on the edge of it that kind of permeates and the photographer's like okay so it's about this town and there's a creeping darkness on the edge of it that kind of permeates and the photographer's like yeah yeah just go stand over there next to my grandma's windowsill that's the thing is the photographer says he thinks that the album cover and is indicative of the themes of the album okay so so watching the documentary i see what what they're talking about so essentially like when it's square

by the way you see the flower the floral wallpaper uh-huh that's next to the the window blinds it's essentially just like springsteen standing there in a leather jacket with a dumb look on his like right like a no look on his face in front of these like old ass looking window blinds and and floral wallpaper that looks like it's grandma's house, right? Yeah. And this is from the test shoot. So this is all like test photos he was doing just to get comfortable or whatever and figure out what they were doing. And then when they saw them, they're like,

oh, this is the characters that he's talking about. This is the kind of house they would live in. This is the kind of guy, he's not posing or anything. It's not an album cover. This is just a guy hanging out in a house and the look on his face is so kind of nothing. Yeah. He's not posing for a picture.

This is, this is kind of what the album is, is about the, he looks like a person trapped in this town. Yeah. So that's why it's so, it's just such a great, but to me,

he looks like a rock star well yeah he's bruce springsteen you know he's he is a rock star but back then that looked like a regular guy i guess just because he's bruce springsteen we just think he always looks amazing but it's it's so funny because it could be anything it could be a painting it could be you know a photograph of like you know like the joshua tree or something know, but it's, nope, it's like, hey, go stand over here in my grandma's house. A guy standing in front of some blinds. Yeah. But it, but it worked.

I'll tell you that much. So that is Darkness on the Edge of Town. Before, before we talk about how we feel about it, we do want to talk about two of the outtakes which became major major hits yeah um the first one we've talked about it before because the night so essentially um springsteen writes this song because the night or half writes it um doesn't write some of the lyrics i think um but he knows it's a love song he doesn't feel comfortable writing a love song he says he's too cowardly to like put a love song on a record yeah so he doesn't feel comfortable writing a love song he says he's too cowardly to like put a love song on a record yeah so he doesn't he so like everyone's like this is a hit bruce and he goes like i'm not gonna finish it and jimmy iovine who is trying to make it as a record producer

um starts recording patty smith's record at the same time they're doing this record and he goes well can i give it to patty because she doesn't have a single she doesn't have a hit single on on her record and bruce is like yeah i'm never gonna finish it give it to patty smith so patty smith gets it um meanwhile she is she's in the middle of this burgeoning romance with her, the person who becomes her husband, Sonic, Lenny, Sonic Smith. Is that his name? And he's maybe on tour or something, but she like sits around her apartment in New York waiting for him to call for hours. Yeah. And he's not calling.

And, you know, I mean, you and I have been in this position as well back in the days before cell phones and texts where you're just like sitting by the phone waiting for like this call that's supposed to come. That's right. So she's like not interested in the tape she was sent, but at a certain point hours go by and she's like, fuck, this dude's not calling me. So she pops in the tape and she's like, I didn't want to like it, but I listened to it over and over and over again. And she's like, I didn't want to like it, but I listened to it over and over and over again. And by the time Lenny called hours and hours later, I'd written all the lyrics, all the missing lyrics about him and about waiting for him to call. And thank God this happened because it was my one and only hit single that I've ever had. So wait, she wrote some of the lyrics? Yeah, so they have a co-writing credit on it.

Because he basically was unfinished um and is this version the unfinished the the one he sent her or that he sent her the unfinished version she rewrote the lyrics recorded it with jimmy iovine becomes a hit yeah later when he's doing the outtakes record um he does patty smith's version of the lyrics and anytime he does it live he sings patty smith's version of the lyrics but the the version that's on the promise he he finished it in 2010 or he finished it a lot of the stuff on 20 in the promise they finished in 2010 like they would do vocal they would do just some overdubs sometimes a whole whole new vocal i thought it was just all like outtakes from darkness on the edge of town.

It's songs from darkness on the edge of town that some of the time, some of the time they didn't have a good recording of something, but they had like videotape of them rehearsing it. And so they did a totally new recording of it. So no idea. Yeah. But let's hear a little of, because the night,

um, because this became a major hit for, and when he heard it he's like oh yeah this is a hit you get it get it off the album huge hit for 10 000 maniacs 10 000 maniacs as well even bigger for 10 000 maniacs this is really bigger i think this was number 13 or 16 for patty smith and he was like maybe eight for 10,000 Maniacs. It hurts you now. It hurts you now. Because the night belongs to lover. Because the night belongs to love. Because the night belongs to lover.

Because the night belongs to us. So yeah, I mean, just Bruce Springsteen saying like, nope, don't want anyone to hear me doing that. That would be too popular. And then the other one that happened that had happened with is a song that he wrote for Elvis Presley because he's sitting around going like one day going, Elvis needs a hit. Yeah. He needs another hit single and I'm going to write it. So he writes this song for elvis presley mails it to elvis presley elvis presley dies before he gets it and so then so elvis never heard it elvis never heard it but so he's like well it's too much of a hit i don't want to do it

um because again the record company will make it into a single it'll be a big giant all that thing where they sell albums yeah so he doesn't want to do it so he gives it to uh the pointer sisters and this is fire and it becomes a made i think number three for the pointer sisters huge I'm riding in your car You turn on the radio By the way, when this album came, or when this song was really popular, they never do this anymore, but the part where it goes, I turn on the radio, the Pointer Sisters re-recorded it for every popular radio station. And so they did versions for every radio station,

which were, the one that I heard was, turn on kfi really yeah i would love to hear a compilation of all of those that they did for different radio stations they never do it anymore i i would not be interested in hearing that gonna be honest so that's a giant hit that they turned down for this one of just two of the uh 70 songs or so that they made for this record incredible yeah so what is our final verdict on darkness on the edge of town um i think it's the album that had to happen to get him to the river and then to nebraska and then born in the usa it's like that sort of creative stepping stone he obviously needed to move away from the thing that broke him wide open right and i think that's a really tough thing to do and it's

i think it's an incredible album it's not my favorite i think there are some like you know it's a little lugubrious in places for me where i'm like but at the same time there it's an incredible artistic statement that i respect as well but but there's some some of the great songs on best rock songs ever on it it's amazing so even the parts that are that that we're like oh that's a little kind of slow and not as uh i don't know poppy or interesting for us uh are incredible songs so um i think a necessary step in Bruce's progression did not sell as well as Born in the USA. Born to Run, sorry. But did fine. Again, it was a critical hit.

Let's Bruce Springsteen continue making records, but he may be in a place where he needs a hit at this point and then he his next album is a double album which is a crazy thing to do um okay well that's gonna do it for us we hope you enjoyed um darkness on the edge of town and maybe it's your favorite record of all time because you like how sparse and and depressing and bare bones and harsh it is and i and a lot of times i do like that about it that's the thing is that i like factory i love like so a lot of these like sparse depressing songs i think are really great yeah but it is a lot of people think it's his best album i mean yeah you hear that yeah it is a lot of people's favorite everyone we're talking about

is going to be someone's favorite probably aside from a few that we get to a little later um okay that's going to do it for us we had a good time i had a good time adam did you have a good time um i will you know what let me think about that and i'll just write you an email okay yeah toss me off of an eem okay if you would an eem that's what i'm calling them from now on all right we're gonna into we're gonna we're gonna call it there but until next time we hope that you have found what you're looking for Outro Music