Every band has it's hatersfor one reason or another. This one is just another, and they really don't care. Dancin in The Street, Jagger and Bowie. Now there is a real jewel.
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Did you guys hate stuff like this in 1988...??
- Thread starter Cadillac_Mike
- Start date
I perceived early Mellencamp as sort of a Springsteen knockoff. However, I actually liked a lot of early Mellencamp
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In Roy Bitton's defense, I thought his synth sounds were some of the better ones in the 80's.
Did you guys hate stuff like this in 1988...??
First, we have become casual about the use of the term “hate.” That term for me has a pretty specific meaning, which i would never apply to anything musical. YMMV
The late 80’s / 90’s were a dynamic period for popular music with a wealth of styles. Fusion had matured; Blues was undergoing a resurgence; the Motown lines were captured by Alan Slutsky (Dr Hot Licks); the World’s Most Dangerous Band was killing it on the Letterman show; and common folk were still listening to Top 40 Radio. I will always recall this period with fondness for the musical depth that was happening.
Springsteen’s material certainly had a big following. I generally thought it was cool. IIRC, Bruce kind of came out of the Orbison school. I don’t recall having feelings one way or the other about this particular OP tune. It was just another one for me.
In terms of strong dislikes, I have had very few in my performance time. The one tune that comes to mind in that category is Blurred Lines. That tune drives me insane. There is absolutely nothing musical I have ever found that I can lend to it. If my drummers could keep time, I would put that line on my looper, and find something else to play. How on earth the Marvin Gaye estate could find any musical connection as basis for their lawsuit was beyond my understanding. Similar feel to Got to Give it Up? Seriously? One has a groove, the other is mind numbing. How is that similar?
Anyhow…
My measure is whether or not a tune puts the audience on the dance floor. Blurred Lines excepted. Never covered Tunnel of Love; so, no data.
First, we have become casual about the use of the term “hate.” That term for me has a pretty specific meaning, which i would never apply to anything musical. YMMV
The late 80’s / 90’s were a dynamic period for popular music with a wealth of styles. Fusion had matured; Blues was undergoing a resurgence; the Motown lines were captured by Alan Slutsky (Dr Hot Licks); the World’s Most Dangerous Band was killing it on the Letterman show; and common folk were still listening to Top 40 Radio. I will always recall this period with fondness for the musical depth that was happening.
Springsteen’s material certainly had a big following. I generally thought it was cool. IIRC, Bruce kind of came out of the Orbison school. I don’t recall having feelings one way or the other about this particular OP tune. It was just another one for me.
In terms of strong dislikes, I have had very few in my performance time. The one tune that comes to mind in that category is Blurred Lines. That tune drives me insane. There is absolutely nothing musical I have ever found that I can lend to it. If my drummers could keep time, I would put that line on my looper, and find something else to play. How on earth the Marvin Gaye estate could find any musical connection as basis for their lawsuit was beyond my understanding. Similar feel to Got to Give it Up? Seriously? One has a groove, the other is mind numbing. How is that similar?
Anyhow…
My measure is whether or not a tune puts the audience on the dance floor. Blurred Lines excepted. Never covered Tunnel of Love; so, no data.
Music will reinvent itself from time to time, and you won't like every era (disco was the big yawn for me). The late 80's inspired folks like Nirvana...to do something different, so it at least served that purpose.
Hate? Nah, my hate at that time was reserved for hair bands. I was indifferent to Springsteen at this point. I thought he peaked with Darkness on the Edge of Town, though I enjoyed The River (saw him live on that tour and it was a spectacular show) and Nebraska. As someone else said, he jumped the shark with Dancing in the Dark. I do like The Rising, though, as a post-911 elegy.
I was over most synths, and most commercial radio (and the giant, echoing snare drum of the '80s) probably five years earlier. At that point I was in college and getting exposed to all kinds of both current non-mainstream music and stuff I'd missed in my suburban upbringing (mainly '70s funk and old-school country). Plus I picked up the bass and started playing in punk and punk-inspired bands in '82. Most of my musical heroes of that period were lucky to get a song on MTV's 120 Minutes show, never mind the radio.
I was over most synths, and most commercial radio (and the giant, echoing snare drum of the '80s) probably five years earlier. At that point I was in college and getting exposed to all kinds of both current non-mainstream music and stuff I'd missed in my suburban upbringing (mainly '70s funk and old-school country). Plus I picked up the bass and started playing in punk and punk-inspired bands in '82. Most of my musical heroes of that period were lucky to get a song on MTV's 120 Minutes show, never mind the radio.
By 1987 I was already a few years past the point where I started loosing track of the threads that tie the evolution of pop music together.
My memory is that I perceived the Tunnel of Love as distastefully kitchy and overly repetitive. I hated the hook and he mumbled it over, and over, and over again. First response
. By the end of the song 
(GFD MAKE IT STOP!!!!)
Here's another huge hit I found similarly distasteful.
My memory is that I perceived the Tunnel of Love as distastefully kitchy and overly repetitive. I hated the hook and he mumbled it over, and over, and over again. First response
. By the end of the song (GFD MAKE IT STOP!!!!)Here's another huge hit I found similarly distasteful.
Interesting take - my first reaction is that Roy had a beautiful voice, Bruce....nope. Part of Bruce's charm was watching him coax the angst through his voice - you could hear him struggle with his voice. Springteen's concerts were so hard on his voice (he pushed himself through long sets of music) that they would never do more than 2 nights in a row without a rest for his voice. If you listen to "We are the World" that event was hastily scheduled, and it fell on a "3rd night' for Bruce - his voice (what there was to begin with) was trashed for that, and it really shows.
It's beyond genius, also how Gibbons changed from the dated tube combo sound for a uniquely saturated SS guitar sound that fits those songs better. I don't get why so many ZZ Top fans dislike Eliminator. It's 1983, can't keep rockin' the 1971 blues sound forever if you want to stay relevant. You'd think they'd be happy their favorite band was topping the charts alongside Michael Jackson.
By 1987 I was already a few years past the point where I started loosing track of the threads that tie the evolution of pop music together.
My memory is that I perceived the Tunnel of Love as distastefully kitchy and overly repetitive. I hated the hook and he mumbled it over, and over, and over again. First response
Here's another huge hit I found similarly distasteful.
Wow! I could never associate those two. …night and day for me. We all have different ears!
What links them together for me is how much I dislike both.
In the late 80's, let's just say, my buddies and I were not cruising the Blvd. & Mall, listening to Springsteen.
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When Springsteen, "Creepy Springsteen" as my wife calls him, along w/ Bob Seger and or Neil Young, come on the radio, I know to turn it immediately, or my wife will start screaming.
This is the "forbidden radio trio".
This is the "forbidden radio trio".
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I like some of Bruce’s stuff, some not so much. He seems like a decent, hardworking guy. I don’t worship at his feet, and I think he’d be okay with that.
I loved, and saw, and ran lights for a E St shows among the many times I saw Bruce in the “before times”. I own a Jerry Jones bass that was previously owned by Garry Tallent. Smoked w**d with the Big Man on a soccer bench in a field in Bucks County PA.
I thought Tunnel of Love was one of his best records. Almost as good as Nebraska.
I thought Tunnel of Love was one of his best records. Almost as good as Nebraska.
I don't know what sequencer he used, but man there's a lot of slop in that drum machine intro.
Anyway, just dropping this here :
