One of the greatest things about hanging out with friends you haven't seen in a long time is the swapping back and forth of all the new music that you've discovered in the time since you saw each other last. Needless to say, I snagged some new tunes while friends were in town. A little bit of Industrial (KMFDM, Lollipop Lust Kill), a smattering of Caroline's Spine, and a couple of records by the Hot Toddies are the big gains. Aside from that, it was mostly individual tracks. It's always nice to be handed a big thing of music, it's like someone's letting you in on a secret that has been hidden away for years and years. Maybe that's the truth, or maybe I'm still foolish enough to believe that music can save the world.
So, the new Springsteen disc is amazing. There's enough of a mixture of his upbeat rockers, his ballads, and his message songs to make this his best record since The Rising . And speaking of that record... Buying The Boss the day it comes out always takes me back to a specific moment in life. It was July 30th, 2002, the year after 9/11, the year after someone on the streets of New York told Springsteen "we need you now." I had driven to Oshkosh, WI to visit some friends, when I remembered that Springsteen's disc was scheduled to come out that day. I drove downtown to The Exclusive Company, but had to park a few blocks back. At the time, there wasn't much going on downtown, but when I got out of the car, I could hear this music coming from up the block somewhere. The closer I got to Exclusive, the more it began to dawn on me, they had set up a giant set of speakers in their upstairs windows, and were blasting the new album out into the streets....
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