U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - U Springin' Springsteen On My Bean? - The Ghost of Tom Joad

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

Adam Scott Aukerman go track-by-track through Da Boss’s eleventh studio album, The Ghost of Tom Joad, in addition to looking back on why Bruce reassembled the Edible Street Band to record new songs for his Greatest Hits album. They also discuss how Bruce came to record Streets of Philadelphia, the invention of valets, flying on Con Air, and the filmography of Richard Benjamin.

From born in the USA to death to my hometown, this is you springing Springsteen on my bean. The comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things the boss. This is good rock and roll music. Boss! What if people start screaming boss at him instead of Bruce? Boss!

Boss! What if they start screaming bosh? Bosh! Have you fallen into bosh i to be quite frank if i may be frank i watched the first pilot as they call it why do they call it a pilot was there more than one pilot uh i was gonna say first episode but then i correct and say that i watched the first episode thank you of bosh why do they call it a pilot adam well uh it comes from you've been in many failed ones tell me i have been in so many failed and some that should have been failed and instead went series i remember i was in one when when tall john schrader was working at the wb and it was a pilot for the wb

and it was all i could do from like pressing him for information and he i'm sure he had no clue because tall john at the time along with d Doug Benson, worked in the promos department. Exactly. There's nothing. He's not. I mean, maybe he's occasionally running into someone who makes that kind of decision. But back then it was like, I'm in this pilot. And if it gets picked up to series, my entire life would change. Monetarily.

You'd still be a dumb piece of shit. I'd be a dumb piece of shit, but I would be a tv show but you know back then it was just so different but if you're on a tv show that actually becomes a hit it's like you're at least from my perspective and i didn't really know anything i was me like i would i remember i was on a pilot that did get picked up and then they ended up firing all of us but in that period of a pilot that did get picked up and then they ended up firing all of us but in that period of time between when it was picked up and before we all got fired i was remember i remember discussing with a friend which which part of malibu i would want to live in and i was like the eighth lead on this like show. You were having discussions of like, wow, so pretty soon I'm not going to be able to walk down the street without everyone looking at me.

It's been quite a ride. It's been a rough like seven years, but I finally made it. Oh, that's so funny. And do you remember what the show was about? Yeah, it was about the Supreme Court. It was called The Court. Okay. Sally Field. Wait, was it the supreme court it was called the court okay sally was it wait was it a uh drama it was a drama hour-long drama wow sally field sally

field the pedigree on this pie yeah it was amazing sally field was the lead of it and it just got like retooled i remember i went and visited the set they had all the sets built it was this incredible thing we were about to start shooting and it was like September 9th, 2001 when I went and checked out the set and everything. And so after nine 11, everything was put on hold. And then like a month and a half later, they were like,

yeah, let's just get rid of everybody. They started over. And then it, I don't think I'm sure that, uh, much like the Spider-Man movie that came out after that, like everything had to be more

patriotic after that. So I'm sure a show about the Supreme Court at the time, which was maybe more of a scathing like look at it or something like this. They're like, uh-oh, can't do this anymore. I also remember doing research. They probably put Spider-Man in it too yeah spider-man

was the the uh third lead yeah what's it what's the uh the the the head of the supreme the chief justice chief justice was spider-man yeah which is a number three on the call sheet uh no i remember peter parker's number two on the call sheet and And who's that? And then the Spider-Man guy. That's right. Spider-Man was number nine. I remember reading a book about the Supreme Court, getting ready to shoot it. And the Scott Turow book. And apparently the term Chief Justice was not in that book anywhere. This was like 22 years ago.

Oh, you don't have a photographic memory i am do i look like mary lou henner just kidding you sort of do in the sense of like you're very sexy thank you um anyway i remember reading this book and thinking wow the supreme court a show about the supreme court would be super boring i wonder how they're gonna do this. And lo and behold, I never actually saw the show they made. But I got to see that. It's a tough subject because then you toiled in obscurity for many, many years after that.

Yes, indeed. And then got on to a show after the pilot process. We can talk about it now. Of course, you were on a little show called Parks and Recreation. Doesn't it feel good to finally just say it out loud? To say Parks and Recreation out loud? Haven't you been wanting to say that out loud now? I've said park a lot. Oh, me too.

I've said, hey, do you want to go to the park? Do you want to go to several parks? If you drive by a park, do you ever say, hey, look at that park? Occasionally, I'll say, oh, oh you missed it you didn't see that park or uh would you mind parking my car sir would you mind if i pay you yeah if i pay a small fee and that was how valets were invented that's the first time i ever asked that you scott ackerman asking someone if someone. I was a pioneer in that regard because a lot, man, back in the day, you had to park. First of all, there was the Thomas Guide. Then you had to park your car yourself.

And the Thomas Guide, they also had another Thomas Guide just for parking spaces. Yeah. And then one day I just, I went to the Sony lot and I was like, bro, park my car, park my car. It was, that person was adam sandler wow yeah that's the beginning so you invented it um i invented it yeah and then he sandler was like park huh drive happy gilmore oh yeah yeah and that was how he came up with yeah the the movie and the rest is history herstorystory, but yes. Herstory. Yeah, but we alluded to it,

but strike is over, baby. So guess what? Bruce, hit us up. Yeah, now if we have Bruce in here to talk, we can talk about all our projects. Yeah, we can talk about everything that he's made for the AMPTP. Yep. Things like...

Well, a little movie called Philadelphia, which we couldn't mention before. I guess not. We probably did, though. Yeah, I'm sure we mentioned it. But that's the thing. Bruce is not one of those guys who's going around making cameos in movies.

You know, like Alice Cooper in Wayne's World. He should have been in Happy Gilmore. He really should have been in Happy Gilmore. If anything, Happy Gilmore. Yeah. Yeah. It would be easy. Like buy him a golf club,

stick it in his hand. We could slot him in right now. We could do the director's cut of Happy Gilmore. When we say director's, us. Directing our director's cut of a 25-year-old movie. But yeah, Bruce, hit us up. I know you probably were a little intimidated by the the fact that um you know we're big hollywood stars and you were like man during a strike i'm not gonna have anything to talk about with them

because they won't be able to talk about their myriad of projects yeah well that's all freed up now we can talk about all freed up we have to get this going because we're on episode i think this is episode uh three twelve or something of this and nary a call nary a text well i think among other things he was respecting the strike it wasn't just you know he probably didn't even know how it worked i mean yes he was freaked out but he was also respecting the distance we need to keep exactly and he knew that we were out there picketing every day and was like i don't want to bother them when they're holding up signs that's exactly right and uh but hey we've put the signs down although i'll still hold a sign every once in a while.

I like holding a sign. Do you have those sign blisters? Oh my God. Ugh. From, in the splinters? Oh yeah. Between the blisters and the splinters. You know, we're out there picketing.

They don't have time to sand every single sign handle. No, they do every other one. Every other one. And guess which one we always get? The one with all the little pricklies. Yeah. And sometimes they'll make the picket signs out of rose vines too with all the thorns and stuff. It's just like, come on, guys.

Instead of Edward Scissorhands, I was Edward Splinterhands over there on that. Just kidding. Please say you're kidding. I'm totally kidding. Then why are you wearing the white makeup and the crazy black hair because i love it i just like dressing up yes um what were you for halloween this year by the way i was a lone lonesome father with boxer briefs and a t-shirt and a remote control. Yeah.

They're teenagers, so they just leave. Right. You know. Yeah, no, we just hung out. I think we got two trick-or-treaters. What about you? Oh, you guys dressed up. We dressed up.

We were, Kulap and our little one were both Red Riding Hoods. That's right. And you were the wolf. How do you pluralize that? Red Riding Hoods. Reds Riding Hoods. Reds Riding Hoods. And you were the wolf. How do you pluralize that? Red Riding Hood. Red's Riding Hood. Red's Riding Hoods. And I was the wolf dressed up like grandma. Oh, so you had like a bonnet and a wolf mask?

Let's walk through it. I had at least one bonnet. Okay. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't do the mask. And how did you indicate that you were a wolf?

I just went around kind of telling everyone. I'm a wolf. I'm a wolf. Don't worry about me. I'm not just a grandma. I'm not just, and by the way, it wasn't really like a nightie or anything like that. It was like a negligee. Ah, so you had a nice little number on. Yeah, you know, but nice latex.

Oh. Kind of bustier. But I was like, no, I'm the- I'm a wolf. I'm a wolf dressed up like granny. This is a granny outfit, and I'm a wolf. And no, I'm here at this dominatrix club. Yeah. Just trick-or-treating.

It's Halloween. Again, I'm a wolf. And would you mind delivering this candy up my ass? Yeah. This is just for Halloween. This is a Halloween thing. This is a grandmother's outfit. But yeah, Bruce, come on, give us a call.

You want to be on this show, right? Isn't this exactly what you need in your career? Bruce has a ribald sense of humor though yeah we know that he's uh wasn't he just telling some dirty jokes yeah we played them on the last uh on the last episode so yeah and uh i know in uh one of the concerts for uh one of the albums we're talking about today he goes off on a big long tangent about uh how much he loves connellingus so hey you know yes oh boy so hey he'd fit right in with us i think actually um so yeah hit us up we need we need our time we we need our time together bruce yeah Yeah. You're starting up the tour next year.

I believe the tour dates start Phoenix, Arizona, March 19. So it's a continuation, I'm assuming, of the tour. These are rescheduled dates, yes, due to his health issues. I saw this particular tour

last spring in New York. I believe you've mentioned that every episode. But yeah, starting back up again, a mere four days after the Ides of March, if you can believe it. I love the Ides of March. Oh my God. I know we're supposed to beware it, but oh, I love it too much. It is the best. Now, St. Patrick's Day day is that on the 16th

i think saint patrick's day uh it's not one of the those holidays that floats around every year right it is because it's on us it's the 17th of march so it's on a different day so it is yeah that's what i meant now holidays yeah i don't like these holidays that float around is this an episode of i don't like these holidays that float around. Is this an episode of I don't like these holidays that float around? You know it is. And we'll all float on, okay. And we'll all float on, okay. Hey, everyone. Welcome to I don't like these holidays that float around.

This is Scott. And this is Scott. And we're talking about hauls. You know, holidays. The old floating hauls. You know, holidays. The old floating hauls. You know, the Lee days. I have a question. Who loves them?

No one. I'll answer that question. Yeah, not a single soul. Holidays should always be on a Friday. Friday. And you know why? Because Friday night is when you fucking party. Exactly.

You know? Okay, let's break this down. Should holidays be on Friday? Because a lot of people leave early on Friday anyway, so it's like half a party. Exactly. You know? We should, okay, let's break this down. Should holidays be on Friday? Because a lot of people leave early on Friday anyway, so it's like half a holiday. Right. So they'd only be getting

half a holiday. It should be on a Monday, right? You're right. So you can take a three-day weekend. Yes. So you can leave early on Friday, come back on Tuesday. But then some employers

might make it like a half day on Monday, right? Well, not if it's illegal, if it's a holiday. Oh, yeah. If you make it a law. But here's what you should do. Leave early on Friday. Yeah.

Take your normal days, Saturday, Sunday. Yeah. Then take a Monday off. Do a half day on Tuesday. Take Wednesday off. Wednesday off. And then Thursday, you take off. You take off, and then Thursday you take off. You take off.

And then Friday, don't even do that half day that we were talking about. Right, don't even go in. So you do a half day on Tuesday. So the work week is Monday off. Half of Tuesday. Half of Tuesday. Wednesday, you just take it off. Yeah, yeah.

Thursday, you should also, you should. Thursday, you just take that off. And then Friday, don't do that half day you were going to do. Right. Blow it off. take it off. Yeah, yeah. Thursday, you should also, you should. You just take that off. And then Friday, don't do that half day you were going to do. Right. Blow it off. Blow it off. So your work week is half of Tuesday. Yes.

But you know what? Just blow that off. Blow that off too. Give your boss the old double birds and say, I'm out of here. If we set holidays, put holidays, all holidays on a set day which is monday yes then no one will have to work anymore and everyone will just get paid yeah exactly and there will not be goods and services anymore no no no the barter system uh money will be obsolete that's right um and by the way in this scenario everything's being made in replicators all food that's right and there will be no fuel so it will be like a road warrior like wasteland

yes of course we'll be walking everywhere it'll be the road warrior without cars but you're gonna have plenty of time to relax yeah just take the day off so i think there should be only one holiday a month. Yes. And it should be on the first Monday of every month. Right. And for that holiday, you take the rest of the days of the month off other than Tuesday, half day, which you should probably just blow it off.

Yeah, exactly. All right. Bye. Bye. Interesting. interesting i feel like they made a lot of progress on that just that first pilot i think yeah why and why do they call it a pilot by the way well a pilot program is uh kind of just trying something out right that's what they call it a pilot program, right? That's what they call it, a pilot program. I guess. Yes, that's what they call it.

So wait, anytime anyone flies a plane, they're just kind of sort of trying it out? Just giving it a shot. Like most of the time when you get on an airliner. Sure, a TWA. TWA. Delta. Delta.

American Airlines, United Airlines. Love it or leave it, yeah. Southwest. Sure. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Especially Spirit. Airlines, United Airlines. Love it or leave it, yeah. Southwest. Sure. Spirit. Spirit. Especially Spirit. Oh, Alaska Airlines.

Sure. Conair. Conair. Great airline. Anytime I go on Conair, by the way, it's really uncomfortable because, like, first of all, everyone in the seats are very rowdy. Yeah. They don't stay in their seats during takeoff.

It's like when you go on Southwest times 100 million. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Everyone's so rowdy. They're all the clientele of Con Air, by the way. They're all very muscly. Super muscly and super oily oily their skin like glistens yeah yeah and there are several murders that occur yeah up in the air yeah but other than that great

i have so many miles with them me too but you're not allowed to use them no uh so yeah so any of those airlines you take a flight and chances are they're just trying it out they're just i that does not make me feel good because every time i've been on a plane i've kind of had the i've sort of security saying like these guys know what they're doing oh yeah they're just trying it out? Yeah, giving it a shot. Okay. Yeah. How many failed pilots are there in the airline industry a year? 3,000. That's too many. You know, I don't know why they call television shows the first episodes. I don't know why they call them pilots.

Do you? I don't. I mean, I kind of, I remember they would burn them off, failed ones. Yeah. They would air them on Friday nights, CBS ones. I remember that too. I would watch a lot of them. Yeah, yeah.

And I remember it was always just called Pilot. Yes. I was like, what is this new show, Pilot? Me too. It's about a guy who flies planes? Why would they do that? Just so they could make some advertising dollars? I think so.

Oh, yeah. It's so weird. I used to love it though. I remember there was a show. I bet you did. You did too. I did. I bet you fucking did.

I did. There was a show called Quark, I remember. That was- Quark. Quark. It was all about like a stranded spaceship. Hard to believe this didn't make it. Here it is.

Starring Richard Benjamin. Oh no, they actually made it. ship hard to believe this didn't make it and uh here it is uh starring richard benjamin uh oh no they actually made it what the hell quark the pilot aired may 7 1977 and then the series followed as a mid-season replacement in 78 what oh buck henry uh co-created it buck henry's awesome yeah he rules so that's why I liked it so much. Is it QW or QU? QU. What do you... I seem to remember Quark being QW.

You seem to remember that? Yeah. I just remember the title. Hmm. How is it spelled? Come on. QU. Okay. ORK? First of all, this is the first time How is it spelled? Come on. Q-U. Okay.

ORK? First of all, this is the first time that Adam's brought his fucking computer with him to it. And now he's like fucking Doogie Howser over here. I didn't. Tap it away like it's the end of an episode. I didn't even realize I had it with me, my iPad. And then I saw it and I'm like, oh, I'm going to whip it out. I know it's an iPad, but you can't attach a keyboard to an iPad and not just call it

a computer. Yeah, I guess you're right. So you're just like tap, tap, tapping away for the first time. You're totally distracted. But is it, I'm trying to find it. Is it Q-U-O-R-K? No! What is it?

A-R-K. Oh, Quark. Adam, I love you. I love you. Quark. TV pilot. Richard Benjamin starred along with such stars as Tim Thomerson and Richard Kelton. Oh, my God. And the Barnst the barnstable barnstable twins who are who the hell are these two no tricia and sib barnstable wow two just two uh blonde twins who

are flanking richard benjamin who's sitting here going like how the fuck did this happen to me adam quark is a commander who longs for a glamorous important assignment and ends up collecting trash instead he is skilled and competent but extraordinarily unlucky that's hmm sounds like a reboot is in order starring a little guy named Paul Rudd. Look at the spaceship. It's terrible. Adam has clicked on a picture of the spaceship and enlarged it and then turned around his computer, even though he knows I'm on the actual same Wikipedia page. page i remember an early uh review where i was mentioned uh said that i looked like a young richard benjamin oh interesting a young richard benjamin so at the time he was older than you at the time he was old had you caught up uh uh recently i'm sure i have i'm sure i've caught up and then exceeded yeah he was awesome richard

benjamin is cool he is cool he's 85 years old uh his wife is paula prentice are we on the same wikipedia page again i believe so turn it around to show me a picture richard thanks bro really appreciate it i'm gonna i'm to look up these Barnstable twins, though, for later. Wow. He directed City Heat. Yeah. He did not direct The Money Pit. Yeah, I think he did.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was quite an accomplished director. He directed Mermaids, which is a big deal. The Sunshine Boys. Milk Money. Yeah. My Step Boys. Milk Money. Yeah. My Stepmother is an Alien. Marcy X starring Lisa Kudrow and Damon Wayans.

Never heard of it, but about to rent it, I'll tell you that much. And Mrs. Winterborn starring a Little Academy Award winner by the name of Brendan Fraser. Whoa. Yeah, he did that. Starring Ricky Lake of Brendan Fraser. Whoa. Yeah. He did that. Starring Ricky Lake and Brendan Fraser. Yeah. Yeah, Richard Benjamin.

Money Pit, I feel like, might be worth a... A rewatch? Yeah. I haven't seen that in a long time. I'll tell you, the pedigree on this Quark TV series is really nothing to sneeze at. No, I'm not going to even come close to sneezing anywhere near it i mean it's the composer on is perry botkin jr i mean that right there wow he directed my favorite year yeah holy shit great film peter o'toole it's a great movie is this oh my god what are we fucking doing this is i love films we just went head first right into it didn't

even know hey everyone welcome to i love films this is scott and this is scott and we're talking about the career of a man he's an actor he's a director he's 85 years old he's married to paul apprentice and listen he's a golden globe winner and uh i'll tell you what else he's nominated for an emmy he was born in new york city the son of samuel roger benjamin a garment industry worker. Forgot how to pronounce industry. It's a tough one. Industry, industry, industry. Well, it's weird because when you say industrial, you don't say industrial.

No. So when I read words off a computer screen, I do it a letter at a time. So I'm here thinking I'm going to say industrial. Yeah. And I get to the end and it's a Y. Oh, so you're like industry. But at that point, you're- And I got a stop short. At that point, you've pretty much-

I'm pocketing it. Married yourself to this particular pronunciation. Right now, I'm looking at a photo of him from 1972. Wow. And he looks great. Would you turn that around for me so I can see it even though I'm looking at a photo of him from 1972 when he looks great would you turn that around for me so i can see it even though i'm looking at it it's right there of course we're talking about richard benjamin mermaids mermaids winona writer christina ricci i mean you it doesn't get better than that hey children's hospital did he do a Children's Hospital? He was in a role in Children's Hospital.

It may be his final film credit, or his final credit. Yeah. Not final, but his most recent. Yes. Well, I mean, it was eight years ago, but then COVID and the strike. Yeah.

Yeah. Richard Benjamin's a legendary actor, director. Fantastic. Of course he played Casper Weinberger in The Pentagon Wars. We all know that. Yep. Dr. Vishniak in Ink. He was in Catch-22, which is a huge, incredible movie.

Huge. He was in Westworld. He's in fucking Westworld. The original Westworld. Yes. Not the TV show. He's not James Marsden. We should just make that very clear.

That's actually a really great kind of flag to throw up. He is not James Marsden. He's not James Marsden. A lot of times he'll be watching a show and you'll be like, is that James Marsden? Guess what? It is. Yeah. But in this case.

In this case, james marsden if you if you happen to see port noise complaint yeah and you're like is the guy playing alexander port noise is that james marsden no if you uh go and rent or download the movie Milk Money starring Ed Harris and Melanie Griffith. Melanie Griffith, of course. And you're watching that and you're like, I wonder if James Marsden directed this. He might have.

I mean, it's the kind of thing he would do knowing Jimmy Mars. Yeah. But in this case, it's not. It was Richard Benjamin. He directed it. No. If you're watching How to Beat the High Caudaller of Living.

Yeah. And you're like, I love How to Beat the High Caudaller of Living. Mm-hmm. But who's that playing Albert? Is that- Is that James Marsden? Is that James Marsden? No. It was.

It was. It was. It was James Marsden, yeah. He time traveled. It was. It was. It was. It was James Marsden, yeah. He time traveled. If you watch Disturbing Behavior, the movie Disturbing Behavior from 1997.

Sure. I think. And you think, is that James Marsden playing one of the leads with Katie Holmes? You'd be correct because it was. It was James Marsden. Yeah. Yeah. you'd be correct because it was it was james yeah yeah yeah if you're if you're watching oh i'm trying to get anything else james morris is sonic the hedgehog no that was richard benjamin jury duty no that was richard benjamin that was richard oh uh guest spot on um the first episode of the party down reboot.

That was Richard Benjamin. Yeah. I think James Martin, honestly, he hasn't done a lot of stuff. Not since disturbing behavior, which was actually Richard Benjamin. I was like,

okay, bye. Uh, bye. Pretty, uh bye pretty comprehensive about the career of at least one guy yeah and i think we've found out that james marsden is actually richard benjamin in disguise i think so why would he do that maybe he dressed up for as richard benjamin Richard Benjamin for Halloween and just stayed that way. Maybe that's what it was. A lot like the way I dressed up, like this granny thing that I've just stayed in this costume.

You're still wearing it, which is so weird. Both incredibly talented guys, Richard Benjamin and James Marsden. Would love to see them face off. Oh, yeah. When I say that, I mean do the movie face off. Yeah. The two of them. I would love it.

That would be so cool. Yeah. Seeing the two of them with guns. Oh my God. Face off. Face. Just that scene alone. That scene alone.

But then like to, to watch them like shooting guns in an airplane and stuff like that, that would be so fucking cool. How's that movie right now? Have you watched it lately? It's really good it awesome yeah i bet it is i read the script to it approximately a year before they went into production it was one of the best scripts i've ever read and then then i was disappointed when i saw it because they took out a lot of the stuff that i thought was cool which was what uh it was set in the future, kind of. Isn't the movie set sort of in the future?

They kind of set it in the present with like, oh, this technology is cutting edge and stuff. This was purely just set in the future. And there were like the reveal of Nick Cage's kid. There was a lot of stuff about it that was really cool that I was like, damn, this is a good script. So I was disappointed the first time I saw it, but I watched it recently. It's very good. Who wrote it? Did Richard Benjamin write it?

Richard Benjamin. Huh. And? A guy named Jimmy Mars. Whoa, did James Marsden also write it? They co-wrote it together. I feel like James Marsden is just going to be, if this finds its way to his ear somehow. What?

Why? I mean, he's worked with the both of us he was on the comedy bang bang tv show which i can talk about finally now that the strike is over i can finally remind everyone about this show no one watched a lot of people watched comedy bang bang sure the right people um well we both know that um so no, so it won't be weird. He'll be like, oh yeah, of course. These guys know me. They know exactly what makes sense. It makes sense.

We should do a James Marsden recap podcast, just recapping this conversation. This conversation, yeah. I think the next movie I'm going to watch is either Mrs. Winterborn or Marcy X. Hmm, man. I'd love to do a deep dive. Why isn't, what are their names?

Blank Check. Oh, with Brian Bonsall? No. The podcast. Of course, I know Griffin and David. I was trying to remember the name of their No. Oh. The podcast. Oh, Blank Check. Of course I know Griffin and David. I was trying to remember the name of their podcast. Right. Why doesn't Blank Check do Richard Benjamin?

It's a good, that would be a great subject. You know, and not just the movies he directed, but every role he's ever done. Scavenger Hunt, I would listen to that. I would listen to the shit out of him. Also, Marsden would be a pretty good one because he's done so much shit. Alternate Richard Benjamin and Jimmy Mars. Every episode, you just bounce back and forth.

Yeah, this is good. A lot of parallels. Griffin and David, call us. And also, we should host it. Yeah, we should take over. Those guys are good, but honestly, a little bit of a snooze i remember seeing city heat in the movie theater and burt reynolds clint eastwood like team up it was like the heat of the early 80s and it's called city heat but it was not

good i remember being a little kid and being like this is not good isn that weird? When you're a kid, everything you see is good. Yeah, I know. So the first time you see something that's bad, you're like, wait a minute. I didn't know this was possible. But then I would go see a Chuck Norris movie and be like, this is good. This is really good. No, this is good. I remember seeing this movie Condor Man twice in the theaters.

This is good. This is very good. But then suddenly you see something that's... I remember then I saw The Black theaters. Yeah. This is good. This is very good. This is very good. But then suddenly you see something that's, I remember then I saw the black hole. Yeah. And I was like,

that was bad. I was like, how did I know that was bad? I remember walking out of the black hole with my brother and just being like, that does not work.

How did, but yet Condor Man. Yeah, that was good. That was good. Invasion USA. Great. Great. Yep. Firefox with Clint Eastwood. Yeah, Firefox. Love it. Man. Yeah, that was good. That was good. Invasion USA. Great. Great. Firefox with Clint Eastwood.

Yeah, Firefox. Love it. Fantastic. City Heat for whatever reason. Not good. And I'm sure it's fine. All right. We got to go to a break, Adam.

Okay. You know what we're doing today? Hmm. We're talking about two different projects of Bruce Springsteen. Well, quite a few. Two Jets. Two Jets. He's Jecting off on these.

We're talking about- Jesus. Greatest Hits. And we're also talking about The Ghost of Tommy Joad. But why would we talk about a Greatest Hits album? Because there's a lot of new material on it. Thank you very much. All right, so we're going to take a break.

When we come back, we'll be talking about Greatest Hits and, of course, The Ghost of Tom Joad. This is Candy Boy, Candy's Boy. You spring and spring sing on my bean? All right, Bruce. Okay. We just need a little music to take us back in from commercial. We don't want to hear you singing about it.

Anyway, welcome back to You Spring and Springsteen on My Bean. And yeah, we're doing it. Oh, man. We sure are. We're fucking doing it. So, Adam, I don't know if you remember our last episode. Mm-mm. We just did it a few days ago. Mm-mm.

I'm not sure I buy that. But fine. Okay, well, okay, sure. So we left off with two albums released in 1992. Right. And Human Touch and Lucky Town. released in 1992. Right.

And Human Touch in Lucky Town. And then Springsteen, old Springy Bean himself. Springo is what we don't call him. Springo goes off on a little tour with a different band. And people have some weird reactions to it. And they're like, this is not what we wanted.

And this tour goes into 1993, but something happens at the beginning of 1993 which changes everything. So he is still on tour for those two records. In 1993. Because those came out in 92. Yeah. Normally when he does a tour, he's usually doing like a year and a half.

Yeah. So at the beginning of. 18 months. 19 sometimes. 17. Somewhere between 17 and 19 months. That's over a year and a half. Hmm.

somewhere between 17 and 19 months that's over a year and a half but um so in 93 there's this guy and he's come up on one of our sister shows before this guy calls up springy springo a guy by the name of jonathan demi we've talked, Adam. I don't know if you recall any of this. We've talked about him on a different show we do called, I mean, I think it's just an episode. It's an episode of you talking, talking heads to my head. To my talking head. To my talking head. Is that what we called it? hey welcome to you talking talking heads to my talking head this is scott and this is scott wasn't there more i know i don't remember it um anyway jonathan demi directed stop making sense oh yeah okay see you next time bye that was a good app. Good app.

They weren't kidding when they said comprehensive and encyclopedic and comprehensive. Yeah. So Jonathan Demme, since he did Stop Making Sense, he did Something something wild one of my favorite movies yes uh what do you do after something wild swing shift no that was uh he was doing that right before stop making sense uh oh he did swimming to cambodia the um yeah the concert film with spalding gray um oh of course married to the mob in silence of the lambs yep yeah so he's he's won the oscar with silence of the lambs god i i don't know if i ever saw married to the mob oh it's so fucking good i must have seen it you must have i have to see it again though it's

a great movie yeah it's got uh or i don't remember if i saw it. It's got Dean Stockwell in it as the mom boss. Michelle Pfeiffer. Michelle Pfeiffer, yeah. And Matthew Modine, Mercedes Rule, who Mercedes Rules. She sure does. Yeah, it's a great, it's a great couple. God, what great actors we had back then. Man. I mean, they're still around. These days we're stuck with you. That's right.

Yeah, so he did Silence of the Lambs in 91, wins the Oscar, and then basically gets to sort of do as they talk about in blank check gets to do whatever he wants and he has shot in 92 i believe a film by the name of philadelphia yes indeed and also a terrific movie uh starring tom hanks Denzel Washington, and it's all about someone who has been fired after his boss discovers he's gay and has AIDS. That's Tom Hanks' character. And Denzel plays the lawyer who defends him, sort of homophobic lawyer. And so realizing, you know, this is coming off of Silence of the Lambs, but realizing this is also a movie aimed at middle America. He gets, Jonathan Demme gets this idea of, hey, the soundtrack should be like all these heartland rockers who are like huge major rock stars. Yeah. So who does he go to first john cougar mellencamp neil young

oh does he really he does yes so he goes to neil young first and um he really wants like a big rock song for the opening credits and neil young sends him back the song Philadelphia, which is this plaintive piano ballad. You know that song. It's on the soundtrack, isn't it? Yeah, it's great. But it's, here, let me see if I can. But it's a bummer? Well, it's just, it's a very touching song.

Let me play a little bit of it it's a great song but it's yeah he jonathan demi is like has tears in his eyes when he's listening to it but he's like this can't be in the opening credits, but I'll put it in the closing credits. Sure. So he says, there's only one guy I can call after, of course, Neil Young doesn't give me the song I want. And John Cooke or Mellencamp. He's dodging my calls for some reason. So he calls up Springo. Yeah.

spring oh yeah and and at the time the reason that song is so plaintiff and sad is aids is kind of ravaging the planet it is such a scary time this is 93 you have reagan in the 80s wouldn't even acknowledge it um if he ever did it was at the end of his presidency it's still it's just a uh terrible thing going on and and um you know there's the normal heart comes out as a play and stuff but not a film yet and so this philadelphia was was kind of the first piece of mainstream entertainment to really deal with this um and it was made before the clinton administration came in and it's not the first bush wasn't exactly uh tackling the problem i think it was i think it was made right when well clinton wasn't inaugurated till early early 93 yeah didn't the movie come out in 93 late 93 yeah yeah december so i think they're

maybe editing it when of course yeah but yeah uh bush and bush and reagan didn't really do a lot to help out with any of that so um so he goes to springo and he's like hey can you give me like a big born in the usa type rock song uh for these opening credits And Springo goes into the stude. He writes some lyrics sort of incorporating some thoughts he had about, I think, a friend who had passed away recently. And he writes some lyrics and he tries out like a big rock song chords and stuff. And he's like sort of singing along with it. And he goes like, this sucks along with it. And he said,

he goes like, this sucks. Did that ever turn into anything for him? I don't think so. So, but he took the lyrics and he put on a drum machine and he just started singing some more quiet stuff. Yeah. Um,

and sent the demo over to Jonathan Demme and Jonathan Demme is like, holy shit, this is amazing too. And he goes, Neil, I feel like Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen trust this movie to be, uh, trusted more than I do.

Yeah. Um, like they're giving me these incredibly emotional songs that obviously work. And I'm sitting here trying to emotionally manipulate the audience and going like, it's okay, here's a rock thing. So he puts it over the opening credits and it's amazing.

It is so great. And that song, when it came out, it was just immediately everywhere. Yes. So this, this is, uh,

after the last three albums or so, this is a big hit for Bruce Springsteen. Let's listen to it. This is Streets of Philadelphia by Bruce Springsteen. guitar solo I was bruised and battered, I couldn't tell what I felt I was unrecognizable to myself I saw my reflection in a window and didn't know my own face So brother, are you gonna leave me wasting away in the streets of Philadelphia. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la so this goes to number 13 on the charts um hailed as you know kind of a return to form totally for bruce springsteen weirdly enough so they did a they did a different version of it that they even shot a video for where Jimmy Scott, you know who that is? Yeah.

Jimmy Scott. He does a lot of backups for it. Whoa. And that was in the film. You can hear a little bit of it in the film, but right before the single is released, Bruce takes it all out. Really? And just goes back to the demo version. Yeah.

This may not be the demo demo this might be the souped up souped up demo but then they recorded a band version uh with jimmy scott and he was like no let me just go back to this version is that version out there no oh um but you can hear you can hear maybe the original demo in the movie because you can kind of hear different backup vocals and stuff like that on it. And people think that might be the demo demo. And this is the slightly better demo. Yeah. Man, it was such a sad time because there was no cure, not even on the horizon, really.

Yeah. Such a sad time because there was no cure, not even on the horizon, really. Yeah. And the entire LGBTQ community was just, especially during the Reagan Bush years, they were just marooned. Like, what the fuck is going on? Like, people were just dying. And so I know that Magic Johnson had announced he was hiv positive in 92 yeah so that was something that sort of broke through to the mainstream a little bit yeah in the same way that i mean this is not analogous but you know how when tom hanks said i have covid in australia it kind of made everyone like take it seriously you know right um but yeah it just was uh it was so scary yeah because there was no no one knew what to do and

it was years until they kind of figured it out as as well as they've they as well have it now yeah which is now it's a very manageable yeah uh thing but at the time it was like if you were hiv positive you very well could be gone in a month. That's right. And this movie and the song, everything's really kind of mainstream and got a lot of criticism for kind of backing off of the, you know, the gay relationships in the movie. Yeah. I remember seeing it kind of going like, oh, this is, I mean, because like where I went to acting school, they had just done the normal hearts. Right.

And that's a little more hardcore. And I remember Larry Kramer hated this movie. Right, right. But so I was a little like, it's a little corny. Yes. Slightly. It's a little commercial. It's a little safe.

But it was really important. This was in multiplexes around the country. Right. A lot of people, their thinking was really kind of stodgy this issue so this um this the movie comes out at the end of 93 and uh the single version comes out at the beginning of 94 but it wins the oscar in yeah uh 94 in march i think of 94 um springsteen in his book has a hilarious story where he flies the oscar back home and sets it down in front of his dad and his dad goes like well i'm never gonna tell anyone what to do ever again wow um but yeah so he wins wins

the oscar for this and kind of makes him go like oh wow i can write a song about what's going on yeah in the world right now and it can be good um who played on that song so like we say it's a it's pretty much a demo but you have tommy sims doing background vocals but that's it wow so springsteen's doing everything yeah and it's got the keyboard sound that yeah that is going to be something that he uses for the rest of the 90s and something that in the 2000s people are going to have to say hey bruce can you stop using that well it's sort of a variation on the 80s you know on some of the wash they would use on on some of the slower songs yeah but i guess like every demo he would send anyone would have that on it and and you can hear it even on the tom jode stuff we'll be talking about for sure um but yeah so so springsteen springo himself

this is a big success so he he actually he records it in early 93 and he's like this is really good so he records a whole album in that style of music huh and but it's all relationship based stuff like like the type of tunnel of love uh human touch, Lucky Town type relationship, like, you know, lyrics, but it's all this style of music. And he listens to it and he's kind of like, I don't know. And then Roy Bitton listens to it and goes like, these lyrics, you know,

it kind of feels like this would be the fourth album of you doing this relationship stuff. And like a one-off is cool but four i don't know and spring springo is kind of like no no no it's really good it's really good but now in retrospect he's like i think roy was right yeah so he shelves it has that ever seen the light of day so one one song has come out from it, and that's the song Missing, which is the theme to the Sean Penn film The Indian Runner, which let's play a little bit of it here. Thank you. I woke up this morning It was a chill in the air Went into the kitchen

my cigarettes were lying there Jacket hung on the chair the way I left it last night Everything wasn't plain Everything seemed all right But you were missing Missing This night I dreamt

Sounds pretty cool. Yeah. I honestly would love to hear this record. Me too. Because it's... I feel like he listened to it also and was like, this is such a departure. Yeah.

I don't know if I can release it, but listen to Scratch, the Wawa guitar. So like a whole album of this style, I think. I could see that moment being the wrong time to put that out though. Yeah, I think, especially after his last two were met with such indifference uh and then streets of philadelphia is heating up and becomes a big single i think

he is just like i don't this can't be the next thing i put out but i would love it if he would put it out now totally it's just so interesting how careful he is throughout this entire decade and never quite gun shy zeroes in on what he wants to do yeah so he does take another couple of songs and he he uh repurposes them for what he's about to do um and we can talk about that so what he decides to do he decides to get back with the edibles. Oh, shit. He does? Yeah.

He's like, you know what? I think let's do, they decide to do the greatest hits record. Yeah. And here's what I think is happening, because I watched the whole Blood Brothers 90-minute documentary. Right. It's really 75 minutes plus a couple of videos about what about them getting back together and doing the greatest hit songs. They made a documentary just about this. We're starting to get into the period where like everything he does is being

filmed. Yeah. Um, so, um, so they, they made a whole documentary about it and I guess like he decides to do it on a Thursday and then the band is there in the studio

on tuesday wow and the the record company goes okay well if you're gonna do this here's the deadline we're gonna put it out and they realize they have to start doing 20 hour days so they set out to just make a few songs for the greatest and here's what i think is happening yeah is he's won the oscar for streets of philadelphia right and i think that um they want it on an album right and so they can really cash because just a single it's not like they make a ton of money on it. People don't go buy singles that often. Philadelphia, scraps it, and then goes like, all right, so let's put out a best of, we'll put Philadelphia on it, but in order to really make sure everyone buys it, let's get the edibles back together and let's record some of these songs. They get together with the edibles in the studio.

And first of all, watching the documentary, there's a lot of hat business. Bruce comes in with a hat. He is trying to do takes with the headphones over the hat. He's constantly fiddling with the hat. He says he brought enough hats for everyone if everyone else wants to wear a hat. Why? I do not know what is going on with that. Is there like a hat thing happening?

And I, I truly, I, I started going like, is everyone worried about their hairlines? What's happened? What's up? What's the deal with all these hats?

Yeah. I truly don't know what's happening with the hat business, but that's a big part of the documentary. That's crazy. At some point he's like, yeah, I just want to get through one take with the hat on. I't know what's happening is everyone like okay bruce we'll all wear a hat no no i don't think anyone takes him up on his hat offer um also another hilarious line

is uh john lando comes up to him and is like so what what time do you want to come into the studio tomorrow i mean obviously we need to set he's like talking about wealth max doesn't have to set up the drums whatever and bruce goes i'm going to see beauty and the beast tomorrow the cartoon no the broadway show oh my god with his kids i think he he had promised that he would go see beauty and the beast um but the edibles are back uh even little steven comes by and grabs a mandolin and and starts playing and bruce has written these new songs and um he goes through them with the edible street band and the documentary which sort of follows what's really interesting is there they try a whole bunch of different arrangements out of these songs and um what ends up working is all pretty mellow uh-huh so let's go let's go through the uh the new songs in order should we run the track list of the greatest hits or who

cares yeah so the greatest hits it starts with born to run yeah um so nothing from the first two records uh and then does thunder road you also see them like trying to figure out the track list for a while i bet that's arduous they're talking about should it be a one disc should it be a two disc and they're pretty committed like it should just be a one because i think that'll sell better yeah but then they're sort of like oh man we're leaving off 10th avenue freeze out and they have all these what they consider to be great songs and they're like these have to fit onto the record so how are we going to do this they end up doing like early fade outs of some songs and edit you know radio edits yeah so we have born to run uh born to run thunder road badlands is the only thing from Darkness represented.

The River and Hungry Heart are from The River. Nebraska, you have Atlantic City. Yeah. Then from Born in the USA, you have only four of the big seven. Four. But wow. Dancing in the Dark, Born in the USA, My Hometown, Glory Days. So the big singles you're missing are Cover Me, I'm on Fire, I'm Going Down.

God, that must have been tough to figure out. Yeah. And then one song from Tunnel of Love, Brilliant Disguise. One song from Human Touch, which is an edit of Human Touch. One from Lucky Town, which is an edit of Better Days. Then Streets of Philadelphia, the single edit of that. And then they end up putting four new songs out of all the ones they record onto the record. And let's hear some of them.

This is the first new one with The Edibles. This is Secret Garden by Bruce Springsteen. She'll let you in her house If you come knocking late at night She'll let you in her mouth If the words you say aren't right If you pay the price She'll let you deep inside There's a secret garden she has

You got Clarence in the back. My opinion, this is one of his stone cold classics. Yeah, it's incredible. I love this song. And used to great effect in Jerry Maguire. Jerry Maguire, yeah. This was not a hit, weirdly. When they released this record, they put it out as a single,

and it did not crack the top 40. Didn't crack the top 40 initially, and everyone was kind of like, what the fuck? This is like a perfect follow-up single to Streets of Philadelphia. And it wasn't until Jerry Maguire came out that they re-released it.

It is his last top 40 hit. Wow, is that right? Yeah. So it finally became a hit after Jerry Mag mcguire it's very interesting watching the documentary because he brings it in this this is one of the songs he brought in from the aborted album that's what i was gonna ask if this is part of that yeah and they start playing it and he's kind of like i don't know i don't know and then they finally lock into this groove and he gets very happy and he's kind of like i don't know i don't know and then they finally lock into this groove and he gets very happy and he he mentions we're whipping the demo

which is something that i think we talked about on a previous episode he would like have people if they could beat the demo then he would leave it in and if not then he would just leave the demo performance in but he was very very happy with how this one came out. Yeah. It's a great song. Great song. They do a really interesting string version. You have John Lando going like, I think we need strings on this.

It's going to put it over the top. And so they have David Kahn come in and do very noticeable strings throughout it, like a very in-your-face arrangement of strings. And they're all so happy with it. And Springsteen's like, oh, I love it. And he's like holding David Kahn's hand. He's like, oh my God.

He plays it for Patty. He's like, oh, listen to this. And then he does something that the band says he's never done before which he lets the entire edible street band vote on what which version to use and i think the edibles they all vote for the string version because they want to seem easy to work with they're like yeah we're not yeah we don't care we don't care yeah so they all vote for the string version. Is it just strings and vocals? No, no.

It's, it's the, it's the, uh, I'll play a little bit of it, but it's, it's the same. Let me skip to the middle where you can really. Um, yeah, but so they all they all vote for the string version and then you watch springsteen kind of like being contrary going like yeah but isn't it

getting in the way of the meaning of the song so he's just doing opposite of what everyone wants and then he finally leaves the room going like, do a compromise version where anything that's like getting in the way of the meaning of the song gets taken out

and then they just lose the string version altogether. You know, it doesn't need that at all. Yeah, it doesn't need it at all. It's such a a good song but they put it out as a b-side um so yeah that's that's uh one of the new tracks that they put on um next up you have this is a song that they recorded for born in the usa um And this ended up being a single. Yeah. Even though it's an old Born in the USA song. And this is Murder Incorporated. And this is by Bruce Springsteen.

Hmm. guitar solo Bob has got a gun that he keeps beneath his pillow Underneath this pillow Out on the street Your chances are zero Take a look around you Isn't it too complicated You're messing with Murder Incorporated.

What do you think of this song? I think it's fine. What's weird about it is they make a video for it jonathan demme directs it and it's in tramp it's a tramps which is this tiny club like 300 people are in the audience and the version they put out as the video is a lot is the live version from that um so it's almost like they i don't know that they have confidence in putting this out as a single or something. Uh, why they put this song out as a single, I guess among these four, they put out secret

garden and then this one, no, they put out, um, this as, as like the lead single from, from the record. I, here's my theory and we'll hear a little bit of it in the next song that he he brings i don't think bruce could write a convincing rocker for these guys unfortunately like everything he came in with they try rock versions and then it just settles into the mid-tempo uh adult adult groove that he's in in the 90s. So the next song is Blood Brothers, and they lock into a great version of it, but we'll hear exactly sort of the groove of what it turns out to be. We play king of the mountain Out on the end

The world come charging up the hill And we were women and men Now there's so much that time Time and memory fade away We got our own roads to ride Chances we gotta take We stood side by side Each one fighting for the other

And we said until we died We'd always be blood brothers Now the hardness of this world Slowly grinds away So it's feeling... Pretty chill. Pretty chill. But what's weird is they,

they try to do a rock version. So let's hear a little bit of the, you have it. Yeah. So they put it out as the, he also put out a blood brothers EP, which has all the alternate versions of this stuff and some of the stuff that they cut out.

But here's the. Once we were kids playing king of the mountain on the end. World came charging up the hill and we were women and we were men. Yeah, we stood by each other's side, each one fighting for the other. And we swore on till we died we'd always be blood very different but doesn't doesn't work no um i mean once they lock into the version that they release everyone's happy and like oh my god this is a beautiful song but it is like another super chill yeah it's interesting so they the i always like the song yeah it's good it's about the band

i think it's about uh it's very autobiographical about their relationship um so then they also amongst the other songs they try this is the last one that they put on this is called this hard land by bruce spring Hey there, mister Can you tell me what happened To the seeds I've sown Can you give me a reason, sir As to why they never grown They just blown around from town to town till back out on these fields.

Yeah, well, they fell from my hand back into the dirt of this island. Come on. Come on. from town to town looking for a place to land where the sun bursts through the clouds to fall like a circle like a circle of fire down on this hard land What do we think, Adam? I like this song a lot.

It's never stuck with me. Really? It's interesting watching the documentary because they're all very high on it. At some point, John Landau was talking about it, saying, it's always a question when you put out a Greatest Hits, do you call it Greatest Hits or do you give it a title?

And with the way this song is coming together, we think this is the big single and this might be the title of the Greatest Hits. They never release it as a single. No. And no one really ever talks about it. And then they call it the greatest yeah no one ever talks about it anymore uh i think it's fine i uh it's to me it's not it's not a very

convincing like if you're gonna put something on greatest hits i think it's gotta be a single usually really the only band that's ever done it right is hollow notes with um the two songs they put out on their greatest hits were like huge singles oh really two new songs yeah trying to think if anyone else has ever done a good job with it because usually it's like the like the killers previous greatest hits they put out they have two new songs one shot at the night which is a you know relatively big hit and then one that never even releases a single yeah i i i kind of i i remember thinking that these songs were actually much better than the new songs that are usually put on greatest hits like interesting most of the time i feel like they're like outtakes from five years ago that aren't very good right um so i i always thought that this is pretty strong

for songs for one of like it really sounds like did you buy it when it came out i don't remember i don't think i did i don't think i did i'm pretty sure i bought it in the uh i i think I bought it in 2000 because around then I got a 50 CD changer. Oh, so you needed stuff. So I needed, well, no, I had a bunch of CDs, but like what I would do, I got a 50 CD changer and then I got a 500 CD changer and I got a compact disc recorder where I could make my own compact discs, you know? And so I, because I had way too many CDs to fit into these changers,

I would make best ofs of everything. So I think I was like, oh, okay, Springsteen. Yeah, finally a best of, let me, you know, it was- Just throw that in. And I love best ofs. This, I think really was my introduction into like the breadth of his catalog. It really was like, oh, these are the songs that I should be paying attention to. I mean, it is an incredible track list. You look at these songs. I mean, other than Human Touch and Better Days, they are just all incredible classics. Yeah. So there's 17, no, there's 18 songs,

but some would say his indestructible period is only the first 10. Yeah. Or 11. I guess Brilliant Disguises. Maybe, yeah. Why would they put a five-minute version of Human Touch on this that's

crazy it's not even the six and a half minute version i mean cut that down to three and a half minutes and then you can put something else on yeah wow that's crazy so they recorded a bunch of other stuff that they put out there's uh the first version of high Hopes, which is a cover song by the Javelinas. There's this kind of like soul song called Without You that they ended up putting on the Blood Brothers EP. There's a song called Back in Your Arms, which is sort of like, I view it as sort of him trying to do a Chrissy Hines, I'll Stand By You type song. I think that's the other song that he was recording

for the solo project. You see them in the documentary, him singing it. It's just not quite, it doesn't quite get there. And I think at the end of the day, so Jimmy Iovine, he is like Bruce. You're back with the Edibles. Baby, this is the time. You got to get back together with them, go out and tour and make a new record.

Yeah. And he says no. And I feel like it's because he couldn't quite get a convincing, rocking, huge hit single out of this. Yeah. And so I think he says, says no i'm not going to tour and and this is going to be it he also does not seem comfortable with them in the documentary quite huh he's sort of laughing a lot going yeah but not really looking at them all that much and oh interesting feels very like he still is upset with them and uncomfortable and and he's like okay yeah this

is really good this is really good but it's he seems he's at a distance from them so i just don't think he's ready yet so a lot of people thought that after this greatest hits in early 95 that a new record and a tour would be coming a little later in the year but that's not what happened something totally totally different happened which we'll talk about after the break what yeah we're gonna take a break

when we come back we'll talk about what did happen on you spring and springsteen on My Bean. You Spring and Springsteen on My Bean. This is the sort of ballad that he also recorded for the greatest hits called Back in Your Arms, which he doesn't end up putting out until Trax. also recorded for the greatest hits called back in your arms, which, um, he doesn't end up putting out until tracks in a very mellow,

mellow mood. Yeah. I also feel like he's, the way he's singing is very, he's, he's leaning into this quiet voice. Yeah. And so he, that really works for some songs like secret garden yeah but when he's trying to do like a rock song yeah it's not coming

out exactly the way he wants it to come out all right so that's early 95 and uh everyone's sitting there going like all right edibles when's the tour when's the new record come out and um instead he takes a hard left turn and he takes one of the songs that he wrote for the greatest hits uh sessions that they recorded a version of with the edibles but he couldn't quite finish it. Never got a satisfying version of it. It's a song called the ghost of Tom Jode. And he decides to make an album of songs that are just like this ghost of Tom Jode record.

And it's an album called the ghost of tom joad oh that's what it's called let's go through stats november 21st 1995 i remember it well do you yeah because i remember the beatles uh anthology was coming out right around. It may have come out the same day. Well, this is back when the big new holiday releases, they would all come out one week in November. Yeah. I remember. And certain stores like Tower would stay open.

Till midnight. Till midnight. On Monday night. In order to let people buy it. And so, yeah, I wonder if, did anthology come out on the same day? If, if it didn't, it was close to this.

Let me tell you that anthology one came out on the, yeah, came out the same week. Wow. This says the 20th, I think because it came out, um, on in the UK, in the UK area. Wow. This says the 20th, I think, because it came out on- In the UK.

In the UK, yeah, yeah. Interesting. So you have the Beatles anthology and the Ghost of Tom Joad. And Casino was opening that weekend, and I was going nuts. Your dick was so hard that weekend. I was like, fucking free as a bird casino and ghost of Tom Jode. Let's do this. Meanwhile, this year you have Killers of the Flower Moon.

Yeah. New Beatles track. Yeah. And we're doing this show. Yep. So same kind of feeling. Exactly the same. So did you buy this the week it came out?

Probably, yeah. I think I was super excited about it because I love Nebraska so much and this was being promoted as like the sequel. Right. To Nebraska. So produced by Bruce himself, as well as, you know, who's back,

our old friend, Chucky Plotz. Yep. So Springo, he started thinking about the lyrics of Philadelphia. He's like, okay, I want to write stuff like this again. But he feels, I guess he feels like sort of inauthentic in a way. He describes it as he's a rich man in a poor man's shirt. He talks a lot about, he talked about this in the spring scene on broadway about how he dresses like his dad um like workman's clothes yeah work yeah you know these plaid shirts and you know like hey i'm wearing jeans yeah

and he dresses like a factory guy like his dad but he's this huge, rich rock star. Yeah. Um, so he starts thinking about like, uh, some of the questions he thought about was where does a rich man belong? What is the work for us to do in our short time here? Um, and he's reading a lot of books. He kind of talks about how when Nebraska came out, he wasn't even really sure politically of what he was trying to say.

He was just kind of taking these stories or imagining these stories of these people. And, but, but he, in this record, he has been reading a lot. He's,

he's sort of figured out his politics and he realizes he wants to make an album about the struggles that people are going through right now especially uh immigrants um and uh he there's a quote he says we're a nation of immigrants and no one knows who's coming across our borders today whose story might add a significant Cross Our Borders Today, Whose Story Might Add a Significant Page to Our American Story. So he is thinking about this movie that he really likes, The Grapes of Wrath, which is, of course, based on the book by John Steinbeck. Have you ever seen The Grapes of Wrath? Yeah. It's a great movie. And I was in a play version of it in 93.

Did you wear overalls? Yeah. I mean, it's safe to say that I may have worn a hat and overalls. Backstage before going on, was there someone putting dust on your legs? Like Jackie Chan. That's right. He would always put the dust on. Oh, so you could see the punches? Yeah.

And dust on the floor. So when you fell on the floor, it was like um the jackie chan stunt school great uh extra on the police story and police story 2 oh really criterion collection i bet it is um so yeah the grapes of wrath great uh piece of fiction that talks about the dust bowl uh people in the Dust Bowl in the 30s who were forced out of their homes and they traveled to California in order to pick fruit and those who were lucky enough to get a job

picking fruit were treated like shit and so it follows the character of Tom Jode who is sort of the, he has parents who are older than him. They all come out,

like they pack all their possessions on top of their car and drive out to California when their home is foreclosed upon. And he just, the oppression of everyone, all the big bosses who treat all the workers like shit and he

sort of helps everyone to rise up and um rebel against the bosses who are treating everyone like shit and um at the end of the the spoilers for the grapes of wrath but But at the end, he is on the run because I think he, does he murder a guard? God, I don't even remember. But whatever he's doing, he, everyone's after him and he has to leave his family. Yeah. And there's a scene at the end where he talks to his mother about how, she says, I'm never going to see you again. about how she says i'm never gonna see you again and he says anytime you um he goes down a long list of like anytime you see someone who's trying to oh yeah you know think of me do better you'll

see me in that person that's right you know anytime you hear a baby crying you'll see me in that person yeah and he's kind of talking about the collective responsibility that we all have to everyone yeah um and and that he's going to be off out there fighting trying to fight these injustices yeah um so he's been thinking about this movie a lot and so he writes this album which is not set in the 30s he's actually setting it in the present day in 1995 and dealing with people in 1995 but he's using tom jode as a character and as sort of a metaphor yeah in a way and so yeah you heard about this record and it was kind of hyped as like hey this is nebraska yeah yeah that it was going to be the kind of spiritual cousin of nebraska and you see why you know they would promote it that way it's certainly far more kind of polished than nebraska was yeah it's so the way they recorded it um so they all went to like a barn or something like that and and springo he got um

he got uh some of his old uh players on it danny federici is in it um gary malibur who we talked about in the last record um drums of course we talked about him because he's drumming in the movie phantoms of the paradise which did you see in the week that since we know you gotta watch it uh gary talent plays on a couple of tracks um you know patty doing vox just on one song one song but then suzy tyrell who uh will be on a lot of spring scene records she plays violin and sings backing vocals um and so they all gather in this barn and apparently so during the day they record like upbeat songs which springo says is like a western swing kind of thing huh and they have not released those but apparently there's a whole album of these ready to go god it's so crazy there's always another album of stuff

but of course he doesn't feel like he can release that it's so it's maybe he should have mixed the two a bit maybe he's not like prince and prince is just like i want to release every single thing even though he has so much stuff in the vaults. Bruce is sort of curating everything he does because he knows the eyes of the world are just so on him. And so he's throwing away albums left and right because it's not exactly what he wants to say. But anytime the sun goes down, which is normally once a day, he doesn't even have lights i guess he just like lights candles everywhere and then they record all of these songs um that makes sense super quiet and um toby scott is doing the engineering and the mixing and he's just kind of at the end of the day doing And he's just kind of, at the end of the day, doing live mixes with all these with the intention of someone to mix the record a little more conventionally, which I guess they do.

And then Springo throws those all away and goes back to these live mixes. And so this album has a very haunting quality to it that Bruce decided, hey, this is what I want instead of doing a more conventional rock sound with these. So you want to hear some of it? Yeah. Here we go. This is the title track, the aforementioned Ghost of Tom Joad by Bruce Springsteen Men walking along the railroad tracks Going someplace and there's no going back Highway patrol choppers Coming up over the ridge

Hot soup on a campfire On the bridge Shelterline stretching Around the corner Welcome to the new world Family sleeping in their car in the southwest No home, no job, no peace

no rest The highway is alive tonight Nobody's kidding nobody about where it goes I'm sitting down here in the campfire searching for the ghost of tom joe he pulls a prayer book out of his sleep ghost of tom joed

what do we think i like this song a lot i don't think i got this record when it came out this is one i came back to What do we think? I like this song a lot. I don't think I got this record when it came out. This is one I came back to, and I heard about it, I think. But I would say that I'm probably one of the people who first really heard this song when Rage Against the Machine did it. They put out the... Oh oh so they covered the song

before tom morello started joining yeah so they they put it out in 99 i think um and then put it on their album um a few years later oh i see but But let's hear a little bit of the single version of it. Listen to that. It's not a keyboard, as Tom Morello would always say. It's a guitar. There are no keyboards on their records, Adam. It's all guitar. It's all guitar.

That doesn't sound like a keyboard. It sounds like a guy doing this to all guitar. It's all guitar. That doesn't sound like a keyboard. It sounds like a guy doing this to a guitar. Man walks along the railroad track He's going someplace and there's no turning back Highway patrol chopper coming up over the ridge Troll chopper coming up over the ridge Man sleeps by a campfire under the bridge The shelter line stretching around the corner Welcome to the new world, Otter. Families sleeping in their cars out in the southwest.

No job, no home, no peace, no rest. No rest. So yeah, I think this was played on alternative radio quite a bit and i was like oh this is the bruce springsteen song and i think it made uh me kind of go like oh wow you could do that with it interesting um so when i went back and got this record it was like, oh wow, it actually sounds better when Springsteen's doing it and not a guy shouting. Yeah, I think when I got this album I was a little disappointed in it and just didn't really get into it or really listen to it that much. It was like

years later that I started actually getting into it a little bit. It's an interesting record because I think he's developed this singing style for it which is i don't know what other word to say other than kind of mumbly and when you listen to these songs on the tom joe tour he's like it's easier to understand what he's saying and so it's easier to pay attention it's it's really one of these albums which for me i had to sit down with a with the lyrics i had to look up the lyrics and sit down and see what he's saying because it's not apparent really when you're listening to it but when you're reading the lyrics they're beautiful poetry yeah um all right well let's

go to the next song this is is Straight Time by Bruce Brees. Got out of prison back in 86 And I found a wife Walked the clean and narrow Was trying to stay out and stay alive Had a job rendering It ain't gonna make me rich In the darkness before dinner comes Sometimes I can feel the age

Got a cold mind Go trip and cross that thin line I'm sick of doing straight time My uncle's at the evening table Makes his living running hot cars Slips me a hundred dollar bill He says, Charlie, you, best remember your friends. I got a cold mind.

Go chirp and cross that thin line. I ain't making straight time. Straight time. About a guy who gets out of jail and has a lot of trouble staying out of jail because everyone around him uh is trying to tempt him back into the life of crime that's right of crime i love this song yeah this is one of the better i think melodies too on the record because a lot of the record we'll hear some of the songs sound like almost traditional folk songs in their simplicity um this is a great melody um really nice song sort of this and the next song highway 29 are sort of like nebraska like in the in the types of people that he's talking about it gets a little

more political a little later i would say and the melodies and the kind of simplicity of the arrangements also all right i have to say though i I also have to say, I've always really hated the font used on the cover. It really bums me out. Yeah. What would you call that? It's very mid-90s. All record covers look like this. It's like you would see it on MTV a lot, too.

Totally. It feels like the MTV News font. Yes. It does. And I don't love the painting. I'll do respect to the artist. I just, oh, I do not like this album cover. It definitely gives you a feel, hey, this is going to be different than the last few records, you know, where it's like just pictures of Bruce being handsome.

Yeah. You know, so that's, it's like just pictures of Bruce being handsome. Yeah. You know, so that's, it's good for that, right? Oh yeah. You got to admit that he's not handsome on this cover. No. And he's,

he's turning his back completely almost. Yeah. All right. This is highway 29 by Bruce Springsteen. I slipped on her shoe She was a perfect size seven I said there's no smoking in the store, man She crossed her legs and down We made some small talk That's the way it should have stopped

She slipped me a number I put it in my pocket My aunt slipped up her skirt Everything slipped my mind In that little roadhouse On Highway 29 Was a small town bank There's that keyboard sound.

Yep. Yeah, so this is about a shoe salesman who gets, this is like a little noir movie, a shoe salesman who gets, who waits on a customer who then convinces him to go rob a bank okay and it does not go well never does there's been a have you ever robbed a bank uh this month sorry how many banks have you robbed this month yes just three

it goes pretty well for me i think yeah i haven't been caught yet you know what you're doing it's my side hustle is robbing banks. What do we think of? Yeah, I like this song as well. Highway 29. I like this. Although we are getting a little into the simplicity of it. Which I don't mind at all. Yeah.

I just generally, Nebraska is a very kind of contained, you know, subdued album, but it's, to me, far more exciting than this album. But there are a lot of great songs on here, too. All right, let's go to the next song. This is called Youngstown by Brisbane. Here in Northeast Ohio Back in 1803 James and Danny Heaton found the ore that was lying in Yellow Creek

They built a blast furnace there along the shore And they made the cannonballs that helped the Union win the war Here in Youngstown, here in Youngstown My sweet Jenny, I'm sinking down Here, darling, in Youngstown Well, my daddy worked the furnace Kept it hotter than hell I come home from work my way to Scarford

A job that suits the devil as well They were tacking that coke and limestone Fed my children and made my bed Them smokestacks were reaching like the arms of God Youngstown. I really like this too. What do you think? Because I feel like I'm just... This is a really great one. It starts to get very political here.

It's based on a book called Journey to Nowhere, the Saga of the new underclass, which sort of the point of the book is that the steel mills, like this town, Youngstown, is young. It's not really the point of it.

It's that America's history is the history of this town, which is basically the steel mills all closed down and everyone's fucked and um that's sort of the um the what what he was reading at the one of the things that he was reading at the time and um uh there's a a part where they talk about what Hitler couldn't do, they did it for him. Basically, the bosses closed down all the steel plants and why did we all go out to all these wars and fight for these wars when we come back and what Hitler was trying to do,

which is basically destroy America, all the bosses did exactly for him. That's a quote in the book that a former mill worker, Joe Marshall, said. And then when they caught back up with him in 2016, he's a major Trump supporter. Really? And they ask Bruce about that. And he goes, well, it doesn't really surprise me because you know all these people have been fucked over and they're looking for someone who says they have a solution to that you know that's a huge part of it and trump's solution was to cut

taxes for these guys yep for the people for the people who fucked everyone over yep um by so much. Yes. So yeah, Youngstown. Really nice one. Yeah, it's a good song. All right, so let's go to the next song. This is Sinaloa Cowboys, and this is Bruce Springsteen. Well, McGill came from a small town in northern Mexico

He came north with his brother Luis to California three years ago They crossed at the river levee When Luis was just 16 And found work together In the fields of the San Joaquin

They left their homes and family Their father said My son's one thing you will learn For everything the North gives It exacts a price in return They worked side by side in the orchards From morning till day was through Doing the work the Jueros wouldn't do So this is about a couple of immigrants who come to the United States.

They're called Sinaloa Cowboys, I guess, which started popping up in California in the late 80s. started popping up in california in the late 80s um and this is sort of like almost like a prequel to breaking bad in a way because they start cooking meth yeah it's so funny to hear him rhyme methamphetamine in with this folk song right um and just a tragic ending to the song uh where one of the guys dies and um yeah these last few lyrics um on a eucalyptus grove in the dirt he dug up ten thousand dollars all that they'd saved kissed his brother's lips and placed him in his grave yeah i mean one thing about the album is, is that it is like thematically, if you really zero in and listen to the lyrics, it is a drag, like all of it. Yes. And it could have used, I think. But yeah, he's reading a lot of stuff which he wants to talk about. Yeah.

And a lot of these stories are super tragic stories. Yeah. And he wants to bring attention to them. All right. This is the next song. This is called The Line by Bruce Springsteen. I got my discharge from fall to Took a place on the San Diego County line

Felt funny being a civilian again It had been some time My wife had died a year ago I was still trying to find my way back home I went to work for the INDS on the line With the California Border Patrol Bobby Ramirez was a 10-year veteran And we became friends

his family was from Guanajuato the job it was different for him said there was death in the desert to the monks pay all they got to smugglers rings

we send them home they come right back again car hunger is a powerful thing All right, the line about an INS agent whose wife died and then falls in love with someone that they're detaining and he helps them cross the border. And her brother has drugs taped to his chest and then his partner catches him but lets them go but then he spends the rest of his life looking for the woman that he's fallen in love with that he helped across the border and never finds her i love these story songs and he's so good at them i really enjoy them and like this song very much this is

one of those songs for me that melodically is very another very simple just like yeah a little boring you know but but um when and and so many of these songs are almost like he could just be talking over them and just the the poetry is so beautiful he could just be like, but he's doing these very simple melodies and just really wants you to focus on the lyrics. But at the same time, it's not mixed where you can really understand the lyrics all that much. But it sounds like a frustrating situation for you.

Well, I just had to look them all up. That's all. All right. This next song is another real bummer. This one is called Balboa Park by Bruce B. He lays blanking underneath the freeway As the evening sky grew dark Took a sniff of theonsil from his cocaine

Headed through By Boer Park Where the men In the Mercedes Come nightly To employ In the cool San Diego evening

The services Of the border boys. So this song is about young teenage boys who come to the country. Over the border. Over the border. And then they're forced to become sex workers. Or not forced, but they choose

to become sex workers. Not a lot of options. And they don't even really save their money. They're just, they just buy drugs and sneakers with it.

And then at the end, one of them is hit by a car and killed. Yeah. This is what I'm talking about. Yeah about yeah adam i think i understand what you're saying um but i love that he's making i mean he's forcing millions of people to listen to

that's also what i like is that he's talking about really important things intimately like he dug in here these the last two songs songs were based on articles uh written by um a journalist sebastian rotella um who who chronicled these stories and it kind of draws from all of these and um you know just obviously really affected him and he wants to tell these stories um the next song is called dry lightning and this is this is maybe a little lighter this is just kind of a mood piece um when a good mood piece adam um where he said he wanted to make music that felt like dry lightning like when he was on a motorcycle trip, he was like, I want to make a record that seems like this. Um,

and this is dry lightning. Through my robe on in the morning. Watch the ring on the stove turn red Steered at my tires and do a cup of coffee Pulled on my boots and made the bed Screen door hanging off its hinges Keep banging me awake all night Yes, I look out the window

The only thing inside Is dry lightning On the horizon line It's just dry lightning adam yeah i like it i mean yes um willie nelson and emmy lou harris do a great that makes great cover of it if we we want to hear, yeah, it's a little more conventionally. Here you go. You know, I kind of feel like this album needs a couple of these.

I know what you mean. Like a little more like, Oh, okay. Now we brought in a bigger band. Yeah. Just, you know,

I know it's a change of pace. And then I think it would have been a masterpiece that everyone would have. It's, it's a gone nuts for. It's not a pleasurable listen necessarily. And the simplicity of some of the songwriting can get a little samey. But then if you just hear one of the songs at a time, they... Yeah, or have it...

If you just have it on in the house, it's beautiful. But, you know, there are a couple of elements holding it back from being a monster. All right. Let's listen. In my opinion. Let's listen to the next song. This is The New Timer by Bruce Beeson. reason.

You're of the rest since the Great Depression Fifty years out on the skis He said you don't cross nobody You'd be alright He said, you don't cross nobody.

It'd be all right out here, kid. I left my family in Pennsylvania Searching for work at the road I met Frank in East Texas In a freight yard blown through the snow This is another one of those ones to me which is like, sounds like an old folk song yeah it does not very complicated it's all about a so it's about two guys who are riding the rails who are hobos

essentially yeah one of them is older and has been one since the great depression and one of them is the new what was happening at the time which is the new type of person who was middle class, who became unhoused. Just lost everything. And lost everything. And that's the POV character. And this older person kind of shows him the ropes and shows him how to live. And then he doesn't see him again for a long time, but just sees him on a different train passing him by. And he calls out his name. And then he finds the guy murdered for no reason. see him again for a long time but just sees him on a different train passing him by and he like

calls out his name and then he finds the guy murdered for no reason jesus i mean the crazy thing is is the way he tells these stories is so great it's it's a lot like highway patrolman on nebraska like it's so so evocative in the and the language is so incredible if you just read the lyrics they're really incredible yeah um but yeah it's a tough sit like straight time as well it's a great story these are all great stories okay uh this is across the border the next track wonder what this one's about this is this is uh the one that was very influenced by tom joe the monologue that he does. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Tomorrow my loving I Will sleep neath all the burnt skies Somewhere across the border

We'll leave behind my dear The pain and sadness we've found here And we'll drink from brow's muddy waters Where the sky grows gray and white We'll meet on the other side There across the bone For you I'll build a house I love this song.

This is one of the more beautiful ones. This is a little glimmer of hope in there. Sort of dreaming about the life that they could have. When you view it through the prism of a guy like Tom Joad who's running for his life, it's maybe a little wistful because you don't know that he's ever going his life. Yeah. It's maybe a little wistful because you don't know that he's ever going to really get there. Yeah.

And just him taking on these stories, these immigrant stories, and mid-90s, he's one of the biggest stars in the world. It really is pretty amazing that this is the subject matter he was after. Musically, you have Susie Terrell

on the violin and she he had her record like 10 or 12 different takes and then she's like which one are you going to use and he put them all on top of each other and she's like really there's like I think I hit some clunkers in there

he goes no it sounds great. So it's really interesting. Is that this song? Yeah, this song. It's coming up here in a sec. It sounds cool. It's definitely something where she was just like,

you're just going to use one of these, right? We'll keep talking until it gets there. But yeah, on the the tour he does really beautiful versions of this too but i i feel like it almost could could use some of the willie nelson style production to to turn it into like a standard in a way i mean the kind of arrangements and structure these songs makes it just makes a lot of sense because his next big project is like the pete seger stuff right uh no not the next one oh it's not here's here's all the

that sounds great sounds like a whole section like a whole section, like a string section. Yeah, very cool. Yeah, it's so good. It's a really pretty song. Yeah. All right, let's go to the penultimate song. And this is called Galveston Bay. And this is by Bruce Springsteen.

Fifteen years leaving the sun Fought side by side with the Americans In the mountains and deltas of Vietnam In 75 Saigon Phil And he left his command And brought his family To the promised land Seabrook, Texas And the small towns

In the Gulf of Mexico It was Delta country And reminded him of home Okay, so it almost feels like Cross the Border should be the end of the album. Yeah. It would have been a nice... But I love Best Isn't Good Enough, too.

Right. So let's talk about this song. So actually, weirdly enough, the New York Times just put out an article about this yesterday not about the song about the situation in the song sort of following up on everything that happened this is about um so after the fall of saigon vietnamese uh immigrants came to texas and um they took some jobs whatever jobs they could find but then they started shrimp fishing which was very much like some of the jobs they had back home and they they really took to it and the locals got really mad because

they were bringing in way more shrimp than any of them. Yeah. And so they would threaten them. And then one of the Vietnamese immigrants shot and killed this guy who was threatening him and was acquitted. And they said it was self-defense. And I guess everyone in the town was pissed. And they brought in the Ku Klux Klan. Jesus Christ. And so like all this shit goes down this is in the uh so there's there's a documentary called 70s i think is the 70s or

late 70s there's a documentary called uh sea drift which came out in 2019 which is about this so the article the good news of the article because in this song it it follows a guy who he gets really mad at the guy who gets acquitted and says he's gonna kill him the next time he sees him and then at the end decides not to do it um i guess springsteen wrote an early draft where he does kill him and felt like it was false like it was just another like shocking ending or something you know but the good news is like the town has really come to embrace um all of the vietnamese people um and they talk about that time and they're like yeah that was a bad time but you know we're all cool now everything's good um But because of overfishing, now there are less shrimp and everyone's making less money.

And so now the Vietnamese immigrants who have been shrimping all these years are trying to just do it as long as they can in order to send their kids off to college. But even now they're going to be out of luck as well. So really interesting song about an interesting subject feels a little out of place as the second to last song to me. But what do you think? Yeah, I like it. It's, I feel like across the,

your idea of across the borders as the final song is, is interesting too. Yeah. It just is so hopeful. And so like would end everything on a nice note okay so this is the song that adam really likes this is my best was never good enough this is the last song by bruce springsteen every cloud has a silver lining every dog ass day, she said. Now don't say nothing if you don't have something nice to say.

The tough how they get going, we're not going to get tough. But feel my best was never good enough. I feel my best was never good enough. Now don't try for a home run, baby, if you can get the job done with a hit. Remember, the quitting never wins. Okay, I've got to break in because it's a very short song. Yeah.

So yeah, upon first listen, a curious song, which is a stringing together a bunch of cliches, including ones from Forrest Gump. Does he say life is a box of chocolates? Yeah. And stupid is as stupid does. He does? Yeah.

He says both of those? Yeah. And Forrest Gump just came out a year ago or this year it comes out in 95 came out in 95 okay so i'm sort of like where is he going with this apparently it's based on uh a really dark crime novel called the killer inside me which is all about a small town sheriff who says all these kind of platitudes and is a really weird creep. Really? Yeah.

And I think he, Springo turns this into like a relationship song where it's like a person whose significant other is saying all these platitudes but but they can't break through to on a real personal level to them you know yeah uh anyway that's how weird one interpretation of it um uh to me a strange way to end the album but it it sounds happy it does sound happy which is why i always was like ah this is nice this is nice little song that's so funny yeah anyway um so the ghost of tom jode he also did uh uh during these sessions did the theme to the movie dead man walk-in the tim robbins movie um what do you think overall of the album?

So I wonder why I don't like it as much as Nebraska. And I think maybe it's a little bit longer. So it's wearing out its welcome. Some of the songs are a little musically simple. Yeah. But I also think that the stories he's telling are maybe more important than the ones he's telling in nebraska which is all kind of like crime um noir fiction in a way um it's definitely something you can put on you know while you're doing other stuff and it's a very pleasant

listen but also a harrowing listen when you're actually like paying attention to words um i i semi wish the words were a little easier to understand that's really stuck in your craw i know because because well then you know he goes out on the ghost of tom jode tour does his first solo acoustic tour ever and a lot of these tom jode songs are like great versions where he's like you really are you know it's it's like when we saw him on broadway he's really telling these stories you know and he's just sort of like mom kind of mom in the words in the background a little bit is it did it they ever they didn't release a live album of that tour did they well on um bruce springsteen.net, they have five different shows that you can buy.

Oh, that's cool. I have three of them. Of this tour? Of this tour, yeah. Oh, that's great. So, yeah, he comes out basically on this tour, and the first show that they've sold from this tour is he does every song from the album it's he also does some nebraska stuff there's like no kind of lightness at all he's sort of telling jokes and stuff like that by the way he comes out and says like everyone needs to shut

the fuck up while i'm playing while i'm playing uh if you feel the need to clap along don't uh if you if you feel like you have to shout out please don't whoa um and he's just doing these like very sparse songs along with some nebraska songs along with some of the older songs done in very like dour renditions of them and then maybe at the end he would throw in like blinded by the light right yeah did he have a piano too so no it was just guitar wow um then he does this tour for like a year and a half then he he does a couple of shows in new jersey which i have um in asbury park and um uh then he sort of is lightened up with it like he comes out and does five of his big hits off the off the bat closes

with five of his big hits only does maybe like three or four tom joad songs but this is like towards the end of the tour yeah yeah where i think he's kind of figured out like oh maybe this is bummer town yeah yeah like a lot a lot of people the reviews of the record as well as the tour are mixed people are kind of like this is not fun yeah um yeah it's a it's a it's a tough one but it's really good yeah it's just you know it's not a it's not a fun listen but it's certainly a worthwhile listen and i think um a lot of people who don't like springsteen maybe uh would really like this record uh and what he's trying to say in it um the only single they put out is the ghost of tom jode and um it doesn't you know it doesn't do well and i think even radio programmers are kind of laughing at it like yeah we're not gonna why would

we play this? Yeah. But an important record for him to put out. He really wanted to put this out. And then he goes on a solo tour, which he'd always wanted to do. Didn't really know how he was going to work that out. And has a great time doing it. And we'll see him do another one down the line. What do you think about the Ghost of Tom Joad? See him do another what?

Acoustic tour. Yeah. What do you think about Ghost of Tom Joad? I like it a lot. It took me a while to... I also think it rewards repeat listens. It's a subtle... A lot of these songs get stuck in your head across the border.

Yeah. Dry lightning, straight time. They really can get stuck. Yeah. Earworms. Yeah, I like it a lot. I do not like it as much as Nebraska, of course, because that's just sort of an accidental masterpiece.

And this one is a really deeply researched album. And it was very kind of intentional what the sound and the feel of it and everything um so i i you know it's great it's kind of stood the test of time i think he should have taken one of those more upbeat songs that they ended up throwing out and done a mixture it with like three of those and then cut two of the it'd'd be interesting. Yeah. But maybe they weren't saying what he wanted to say. I don't know. But I'd love to hear all those other songs. Maybe he'll put them out.

Yes, indeed. Well, after the bummer town of this, Springo decides to make another left turn. He's made one already. Maybe it ends up... He ends up right back where he was? Maybe.

Maybe. We'll find out on our next episode. Adam, I had a good time listening to this with you. Absolutely. Me too. Abso-freaking-tootly. We'll see you on our next episode. And until then, we hope that you found what you're looking for.

Bye.