Shot In The Dark: Back To Class

July 30, 2004

Back To Class

Chumley notes:

Mankato Mayor Jeff Kagermeier predicts President Bush will get a "fairly warm reception" from both sides of the political aisle when he visits on Wednesday. Kagermeier says a lot of people in Mankato, possibly because it's a college town, can see past the partisanship of politics.
Perhaps Mankato is a unique commodity among college towns, a bi-partisan mecca if you will. Or perhaps Kagermeier is blinded by the light, racked up like a deuce, another roller in the night. Sorry, but I thought one ridiculous statement deserved another.

To which King responded:

I never did like that song.

OK, King - we need to figure out if you need to go to Music 090.

Are you talking the atrocious Manfred Mann knockoff? Very true. Mann butchered three different Springsteen classics - Blinded By The Light, Spirit In The Night and For You during his misbegotten seventies "Earth Band" incarnation. Mann's dessiccated, dreary dirges demand denunciation I duly deliver.

On the other hand, if you're talking about Bruce's version? Well, we might have to settle this with CDs at twenty paces...

Posted by Mitch at July 30, 2004 12:59 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Mitch,

If it is a duel to defend the integrity of Bruce's music, I'll be your second.

If it is a duel to defend Bruce's politics, then you're on your own!

Posted by: Trudger at July 30, 2004 03:29 PM

Ditto!

Posted by: chris at July 30, 2004 03:33 PM

Yes and no.

Dude, I grew up East Coast. I had Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes long before you. I heard lots of Springsteen in jukeboxes around New England.

I got over it.

It *is* better than Manfred Mann. Squeaking chalk on the board trumps Mann. I mean, if you let him do it where do you stop? (And, btw, if you think somehow Manfred Mann came back as Mannheim Steamroller -- and you can see it, can't you? -- then welcome to my Church of the Mannspiracy.) And yes, when I wrote that this morning I was thinking of the damned Mann version.

But Blinded By The Light is not the song that comes to mind when you think Springsteen. Maybe Mann ruined it, dunno. Still, it was on the wrong side of "Greetings" for me, and I never did listen much to it. "Wild Innocent" was the one I almost always played until BtR, and two years after "Born to Run" I heard "Talking Heads 77" and I never looked back.

Posted by: kb at July 31, 2004 12:42 AM

And while I enjoyed the THeads, they just...never...grabbed me. I mean, I liked a bunch of their stuff, and I used to hang out at the Uptown Theatre and dance in the aisles during their late-night showings of "Stop Making Sense", but they just...never...turned the corner for me.

And Bruce did.

And it's my blog!

Posted by: mitch at July 31, 2004 07:58 AM

btw, the thing you missed is the "wrong side of" an album. Nobody fifteen years younger than us has any bloody idea what we're talking about.

And it is your blog, and if you want to defend Bruce I won't stop you. I wasn't really thinking of him, but he did nothing to improve that song in my own mind. Somewhere the (under the) Earth Band is still playing that cheesy Moog.

Posted by: kb at July 31, 2004 11:12 PM