comment #1

JeffGP says ...

Wow, yeah, I was just listening to that album last night thinking about how wonderful it is, particularly "Nothing Man." "The Fuse" is still my favorite, one of the best songs on one of the best albums of the decade as far as I'm concerned.

By the way, this is coming from one of the dude's proclaiming the greatness of Ghostface in the other thread a few weeks back.

comment #2

moviesquad says ...

Let's not forget that these working class folks that Obama is pandering to are the same ones who are going to show up in droves to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua on opening weekend.

comment #3

lazarus says ...

I was surprised at how well Magic was received as some kind of "return to form" for Bruce, when I much prefer The Rising. Sure, it could lose a few tracks, but its highlights are far more powerful.

While I'm glad Jeff recognized Nothing Man, I'd also mention You're Missing, Paradise (the first-person suicide bomber viewpoint), and the moving closer My City of Ruins, written before 9/11 but so perfectly appropriate. All of these seem to speak to the damaged souls involved in those dark days.

comment #4

gruver1 says ...

Wells to moviesquad: Left to its own devices and instincts (and apart from the difficult work and cares-and-woes aspects of their lives), the American bubba- teletubby class sems to naturally gravitate in their hearts toward a smooth and synthetic Beverly Hills Chihuahua lifestyle mentality. Because it's slicker and funnier and way easier to just kick back and laugh at little Mexican dogs wearing colorful headdresses than think hard and grapple with what's really going on.

The spirit world of Nothing Man lets us re-experience a brief episode in the American middle-class saga that momentarily lent nobility (along with immense shock and sadness). But that was seven years ago. The average middle-class American is (and has been for some time) totally drunk -- bombed out of his/her mind -- on lifestyle perks, and they don't want to know or hear about anything that interferes with their soothe vibe. That's because the narcotic effects of a flush and plush SUV, iPhone, LCD Blu-ray, prescription drug mood-medication lifestyle that's far, far more enveloping and sedating than the lah-lah lifestyle of the French aristocracy in the late 1700s or that of Czar Nicholas before the Bolshevik revolution.

comment #5

Michael says ...

You're Missing was my favorite off that album.

Of course, to me, nothing touches what he did on Nebraska and Tunnel Of Love.

comment #6

Nick Rogers says ...

Terence Blanchard's score-based remix of "The Fuse" is so perfect in "The 25th Hour."

comment #7

Marty Melville says ...

The Rising is mid-level Bruce but I think it works really well in the context of the Obama/Biden campaign...

The song was written to inspire hope in the wake of the nightmare of 9/11 and now it's been re-cast to inspire hope in the wake of those nightmarish eight years of Cheney/Bush.

comment #8

AndrewOwens says ...

Nick Rogers, I have a 25th Hour soundtrack question that maybe you can help with, or someone here can - I have no music knowledge whatsoever. In the club scene, what is the name of the song playing when Anna Paquin floats through the double doors, high on something? I thought it was "White Lines" or maybe a remix of it? Is it on the soundtrack album? Your comment reminded me of a brief fruitless quest to find out a few years back.

Sorry for the off topic...

comment #9

StoneFan1 says ...

Wait a second, didn't John Kerry use this song
over and over again in 2004? or is it a more recent
effort from The Boss? I don't keep up with modern
music all that much. I know Kerry used U2's
"Beautiful Day" which Obama was playing on
Saturday as well.

comment #10

roanokemaroon says ...

Of course this ignores the fact that there is NOTHING working-class about either Obama or Biden.

comment #11

BurmaShave says ...

roanokemaroon what the fuck are you talking about? They're patricians because they're in the Senate? Biden especially is the definition of working class roots. And Obama got his Ivy League education by being smart as hell. I'm sorry they weren't born in Hoovertowns and raised by a pack of wolves. Fuck yourself.

I thought Biden jogging up to 'The Rising' was one of the best things I've seen this campaign season. I've heard some naive friends of mine say it's an overtly messianic anthem to pick, but it's absolutely perfect to capture the generational triumph of this campaign. Having just seen it performed live at the Meadowlands, it's one of his most rousing songs. Dream of life.

Now if they could only get him to perform it at the Convention.

comment #12

Nick Rogers says ...

AndrewOwens: I know it's "White Lines," but off the top of my head, I can't remember whether it's a remix or not. Both the long and short versions are available on iTunes. (In some cases, it's mistakenly credited to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five when, in fact, it was mainly Melle Mel's work with a marketing attempt to coast on Grandmaster's coattails.) Hope that helps.

Now if I could just find that Blanchard remix of "The Fuse" somewhere ...

comment #13

roanokemaroon says ...

Burma: graduating law school and spending pretty much the rest of your life in the Senate pretty much negates any sort of "working class" claims Biden can try to hold onto. The simple fact is, neither one has any claim to being able to identify with "the working class." This was particularly noticable when Obama's wife went on about how tough it was to repay those loans. Cry me a river. Obama and Biden didn't distinguish themselves academically, so the "smart as hell" comment is amusing. IIRC, Biden even got himself in a kerfuffle after lying about his academic background.

Oh, and take your "fuck yourself" and go jump off a bridge

comment #14

BurmaShave says ...

Yeah, again, pretty much fuck yourself. Pretty much. Oh and I'm going to need links on all that shit you talking points toolbox.

comment #15

BurmaShave says ...

Oh and also Barack Obama was the first African American President of the Harvard Law Review. Occidental College and then transfer at Columbia University for his undergrad, if that's distinguished enough academically for you. You have really bizarre standards.

As for Biden, I'm not saying he's not become removed from the hardship of his upbringing, but growing up lower middle class in Pennsylvania is always going to qualify you as blue collar. And he's Senator from Delaware, not New York or Massachusetts, not that your points would be anymore valid if he were. University of D and Syracuse. A real stiff upper lip, yeah. He even commutes every day back to Wilmington for fucks sake.

Probably should just stop writing about things of which you operate in tremendous ignorance. In the words of the namesake of a wingnut on here whose intelligence you could aspire to, you're out of your element.

comment #16

roanokemaroon says ...

Biden didn't "grow up" in Scranton. He lived there until he was 10 and moved to Delaware where he attended the semi-prestigious Archmere Academy. If you checked on Syracuse's law program, you'd see it's not Harvard but it's not a blue-collar law school (if there is such a thing). Yeah, commuting sure means he's blue collar. Christ, that's the stupidest argument I've heard about this. Four years out of law school and he goes into the Senate. Yep, that's some real-world experience he gathered before going into politics. He's about as genuine as the hair plugs he has.

Remind me how much writing Obama did for the HLR?

comment #17

BurmaShave says ...

Probably not a ton, considering he EDITED IT.

comment #18

BurmaShave says ...

And unless he was in cryogenic stasis, 10 years counts as growing up. You have the least defensible or even logical arguments I've ever read in a campaign full of them.

And if you want to talk about academically undistinguished, let's talk about your candidate who graduated 6th from the bottom of his Naval class, thinks Czechoslovakia still exists and that Vladimir Putin, who may become our greatest adversary, is President of Germany.

comment #19

Ghost072 says ...

Don't you know, BurmaShave? If you aren't a Republican, you have to have been conceived in a bowling alley in Reading, PA and then spent the first 20 years of your life either working in a coal mine or working the bare knuckle fighting circuit in order to be considered "working class."

If you are a Republican, all the moniker requires is that you grow up an over-privileged trust fund baby with connections in some generic midwestern town with a median income of less than $35,000 (you don't actually have to ever step foot in the shithole, you understand - as long as one of your father's Yale buddies owned a power plant there, you're golden). Then, you can start wearing cowboy boots and speaking like you had a fifth-rate public education from Lubbock, Texas, even though you were born in Connecticut and went to Yale (on daddy's connections, of course).

Viola! You are now considered "working class" and relate to the true plight of bare knuckle fighters/miners everywhere, all while laughing at the elitist black man who worked his way through school and skipped the high paying attorney offers to work in the "community."

comment #20

BurmaShave says ...

Haha Ghost, too true. I worked for George Allen. Believe me, I know.

comment #21

Ghost072 says ...

George "Macaca" Allen? Do tell! I'll bet you have some juicy stories...