Springsteen's Political Public Service Announcement On The Today Show

[kpete]

Springsteen Gets Political on Today Show
by rjmac
Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 07:36:37 AM PDT

Bruce Springsteen, promoting his new album by doing a concert "in the plaza" on the Today Show, did a spoken intro to "Living In the Future" that was an overtly political public service announcement.

After Clarence Clemons played the sax intro for the song, and as the band vamped in the background, The Boss opened with some lighthearted banter and NBC-centric jokes and then got serious:

This is a song called Livin' In the Future. But it's really about what's happening now. Right now. It's kind of about how the things we love about America, cheeseburgers, French fries, the Yankees battlin' Boston... the Bill of Rights (holds up microphone, urging crowd to cheer) ... v-twin motorcycles... Tim Russert's haircut, trans-fats and the Jersey Shore... we love those things the way womenfolk love Matt Lauer.

But over the past six years we've had to add to the American picture: rendition, illegal wiretapping, voter suppression, no habeus corpus, the neglect of that great city New Orleans and its people, an attack on the Constitution. And the loss of our best men and women in a tragic war.

This is a song about things that shouldn't happen here happening here.

So right now we plan to do something about it, we plan to sing about it. I know it's early, but it's late. So come and join us.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/28/101850/975
VIDEO Clips: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/20995086/
http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&brand=msnbc&vid=e717d3c9-de72-4daf-9664-d55ce7cb9e00&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:45faa98f-3264-490d-8bd1-72e72cbf62b5,c586e3a4-0373-444a-b03b-046cce897194,870b2cf1-5acb-4681-9bb8-a2f6c04c2795,d7ecb4b7-842f-4a86-92b7-32d6a9739349,7bf48160-0f5f-4af7-ad19-5b4c36ecc355&from=Msnbc&tab=m368

[no_hypocrisy]

1. The media can cut off Sally Field, but they wouldn't dare cut off Bruce!

[blm]

7. Yep - Last to Die was not interrupted, surprisingly.

.

[intheflow]

12. Sally was in Prime Time.

I imagine the corporate media figures it's only housewives and unemployed slackers who are home to watch the Today Show, so it's okay to let an original thought slip in once in a while.

[acmavm]

2. And I bet no one badmouthed him after he was done.

[tilsammans]

3. Saw it and heard it!

WHAT a statement. WHAT a song. WHAT a guy.

Bruce, you do us all proud! :love ya:

:applause: :yourock:

Kickin' it for New Jersey and the world!
:kick:

[spanone]

4. Bless the Boss

K&R

[Bennyboy]

5. Rock on Bossman!

He has always beena ble to express his thoughts and do it without really pissing people off. Good for him and I can't freaking wait for the tour to hit CALI!

[SixString]

6. Thanks for the link

That was great.

[OneBlueSky]

8. Pete Seeger has said that "a good song can change the world ". . .

Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin', Pete's Where Have All The Flowers Gone, Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On and many, many others helped change the world in the 60s . . . let's hope Bruce's latest will help do the same today . . .

I'm buying this CD . . .

yes, I know I can download -- but I still prefer something concrete that I can hold when I spend my discretionary dollars, meager as they are . . . besides, I don't have the time (or the inclindation) to play around with downloading and cataloging songs from the internet . . .

[90-percent]

9. Bruce

As a natural born American who grew up on Long Island, Springsteen is in my genes the same way Billy Joel or Bon Jovi or Lou Reed is.

However, if my hero Frank Zappa was still with us, Bush probably would have been impeached four years ago!

During the 1984-85 PMRC record ratings debate, Frank was all over the place talking to anybody anyplace anytime for any reason at all. He stood alone* at the heavily stacked Senate Hearings and let them all have it! He certainly wasn't intimidated by ANYBODY!

-85% Jimmy,
going back to 90% next year (thanks, NHRA!)

*well, maybe not completely alone, as John Denver and Dee Snyder also testified

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

23. Apropos of nothing...

I correspond with Bob Wilber a lot and see him when he's in the area.

[Generator]

10. Wow I missed it

DAMN! As much as we are fed PRAVADA, I know many many Americans know there is a major problem. And he nailed them all in one sentence!

Oh BRUCE! I'm getting that album next week.

[Patiod]

11. If it had been on Fox, they would have censored it

I've loved the Boss since 1976, and he is STILL amazing 30 years later...

[monmouth]

13. Bruce and I are from the same town in Jersey (Monmouth county)

ergo my screen name. We're so proud of him, especially coming from a very Repug family.

[StrongBad]

19. Hey There

I used to live in Middletown Township before moving to LA about 1.5 years ago.

I miss Jersey sometimes. I spent the first 24 years of my life there :)

[monmouth]

21. Lived in Freehold then married and lived in Manasquan. I remember

Bruce as a little kid, very sweet..

[JerseygirlCT]

30. Not the same town (though I had school friends from there)

but nearby. And I know what you mean.

I've got some family members with connections to Bruce or band members ... more fun to talk about than royalty!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

14. You know...

Hating Bruce has become quite the sport amongst those who type one-handed from their computers in their mother's basement. But then again, those people seem to hate just about everything good about this country.

It really was about time for Bruce to raise a mighty howl about things.

[Zywiec]

16. How can you hate Springsteen?

I posted earlier that he is the one person everyone can agree on. I guess not. Sad.

[RandomKoolzip]

24. I honestly think Springsteen blows.

Great, he's politically right on (yay. sigh.), but I think his music is just a harmonically plodding string of cliches, as emotionally manipulative as a Douglas Sirk film with half the subtlety. It's needlessly melodramatic calptrap designed to make increasingly out-of-it boomers feel relevent, a vapid retread of the worst moments of Van Morrison, The Ronettes, and Woody Guthrie all rolled into one sweaty, overrated package. Richard Meltzer (truly a prince among men - google the name if you don't recognize it) once called Bruce "the Emperor's New Jeans and Workshirt," and I cannot disagree.

And yes, I agree with his politics. It's aesthetics I'm talking about.

Anyways, that's my opinion, and NO, Springsteen is NOT the one guy we can all agree on.

[followthemoney]

26. Nowhere near as good as the 1910 Fruitgum Company. I hear ya. nt

[90-percent]

28. jumping the shark

Bruce jumped the shark for me when he referred to a "big block with fuelie heads" in "racing in the streets". All car guys know fuelie heads were only for small blocks. The 396 big block was GM's replacement for the 327/375 HP fuel injected corvette engine, back in mid 1965.

I still like Bruce and all his stuff has such a New York/New Jersey vibe it always makes me nostalgic for when I was growing up in the Long Island burbs.

-85%

PS - Bruce's wife has a new album with a song about Shirley Muldowney. Bruce is as American as Drag Racing!

[blm]

32. MO'D used to write with Nebraska playing for hours at a time.

It took me awhile to get it, but when I did the haunting was definitely there.

[RandomKoolzip]

34. Actually, "Reason to Believe" is a perfect choice for an MO'D playlist, now that i think of it.

As much as I dislike the Boss, I *Did* actually take the time and investigate his whole oeurvre - so I know which songs were which. "Reason to Believe" is about as cynical and mean-spirited as Bruce could ever get, and would fit the man in question like a glove, especially the metaphors involving dead animals.

[blm]

36. Yep - you get it.

MO'D isn't for the weak. I think that's why he responded so much to Nebrasks. He was never a big Bruce listener before that album.

[brentspeak]

37. I take it you've never seen the Boss and the E. Street Band perform live?

[RandomKoolzip]

38. I've seen videos...and?

I don't like his singing voice, the sound of his band, or the textures he uses on record - so why would any of those features suddenly become assets in the live arena? Is it the length of his shows? THose interminable monologues between numbers? The overweening sincerity?

[me b zola]

15. What a great way to wake up

I woke up, turned on nbc, and Bruce was just finishing a song. My heart dropped thinking that I had missed his concert. Then a few moments later Bruce began introducing his song, Living in the Future---WOW!

Thank you, Bruce. :yourock:

[KoKo]

17. Kick...for those who missed it this morning! Great Watch...

[LuckyLib]

18. Every single "wake up" to middle America about the bill of goods they have and are being sold is

valuable. Thank you, Bruce. Occasionally truth sneaks in when the MSM least expect it.

[intheflow]

20. kicking for the Boss!

:kick:

[Dr Fate]

22. They dont call him "The Boss" for nothing. Plus, Little Steven is GOD. Check out this link:

Okay- even if you are not a Springsteen fan, you will DIG this show unless you just hate Rock & Roll. You might be suprised about Little Stevens's diverse tastes- I know I was. Best show on mainstream radio, hands down:


http://www.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com/splash.htm

[90-percent]

31. LSUG

Listen every Sunday 8-10 AM on WPLR New Haven. Best music show since the last time Frank Zappa was a guest DJ!

-85%

[abq e streeter]

25. Watched it and taped it

Proud of my boy Bruce , as always

[G_j]

27. beautiful,

thanks Bruce! :hi:

[zippy890]

29. wonderful music on the video link

thanks for posting

:dem:

[G_j]

33. if u missed it... n/t

[Forkboy]

35. "It's early, but it's late,"

:thumbsup:

[BelgianMadCow]

39. .

KnR