"Can we listen to the Okkervil River with the bone head?"

"Can we listen to the Okkervil River with the bone head?"  That is the question posed to me often when my daughter, who is 4, wants to listen to Okkervil River's latest release, The Stand Ins. She does pronouce "Okkervil" correctly, which is more than even some fans of the band can say.  Her favorite song is Lost Coastlines.

Now I just have to figure out if she wants to listen to the record with me, the bonehead, or if she means she wants to listen to the record with the skull on the cover.  "Skull" hasn't quite entered her vocabulary yet.  I'd like the believe it's the latter, I'm sure it'll be the former as she enters her teen years.

If the Walls Could Sing

The house we live in dates from 1885.  The other day I was listening to Blind_Willie_McTell, an old blues singer who's music dates from the late 1920's.  That sentence is vague enough I'm totally understating his influence.  His death in 1959 went largely unnoticed until his music was reissued and Bob Dylan immortalized him in a song from The_Bootleg_Series_Volumes_1-3 in 1991.  Listening to McTell in my old house just got me thinking that perhaps someone else had listened to McTell in this same house, in the same room, looking out to Lords Park,  on 78 speed records, and on a record player not to different from the one I own.   Now, if I only had a couple original McTell 78's instead of the dime-a-dozen waltzes and foxtrots that I picked up at thrift stores and flea markets that were the pop songs of that era.

It's nice to imagine someone listening to McTell, the Carter Family, or some old Robert Johnson records in our old house but what people were probably listening to was the pop songs of the day, waltzes and foxtrots.

The New Springsteen Record

My copy of the new Bruce Springsteen record "Working On A Dream" came in the mail yesterday.  I had heard less than flattering reviews of the record as some songs were leaked.  So I decided to listen with my own ears.  I may not be the most ardent Springsteen fan nor have I traveled the most miles but I consider myself a diehard fan.  Also, I loved his last record, “Magic”.  Brilliant 3 minute pop songs, great melodies, strongly written material, and almost a return to form with the E Street Band.  This record could have come out after “The River” or even if one could substitute it for “Born In the USA” that 5 record run from “Born to Run”, “Darkness”, “The River”, “Nebraska” and then “Magic” would be almost unequalled in rock music.

Now that I’ve qualified myself, or perhaps, disqualified myself, with the above paragraph, here is my review.  “Working On A Dream” begins with a sweeping  8 minute cowboy epic called “Outlaw Pete” that makes me recall another sweeping cowboy epic, “Butch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid” where the tag line is “Who are those guys?”  Well, with “Pete” my question is “Who is this guy?”, meaning Springsteen.   It apes an old Kiss song, “I Was Made For Loving You”.  You be the judge with this link:  Outlaw Pete and Kiss.   Also, Governor Blagojevich has ruined cowboy fantasies for the rest of us with his grandiose cowboy analogies.  The next song on side one (and there are only two songs on side 1, what da?) is “My Lucky Day” which isn’t a bad little song, would have fit well on “Magic” but really, this is a song Springsteen in a former life gave to Greg Kihn or Joe Grushecky.  "Working On A Dream", the title cut, is solid and will probably come off well in a live setting.  Then again, all Springsteen songs come off well in a live setting.  

Springsteen has a grocery store crush in “Queen of the Supermarket”, which is the nadir of the record and perhaps the lowpoint Springsteen's storied career.  C’mon now, who hasn’t bought just one grape and went to the cutest check girl they could find, even if it meant standing behind another shopper with a full cart and two screaming little kids?  I know I have.  However, at this supermarket I think Springsteen was in the "Meat_Loaf” aisle when he wrote this.  The next track, “What Love Can Do” and “This Life” are good little AAA songs, the latter with a nice sounding Beach Boys coda.  A lot of these songs suffer from over-production.  Just gimme the E Street Band in a room with Bruce, his guitar, and a microphone!  “Good Eye” finds Springsteen back at the river in a bluesy harmonica romp of a song that harkens back to how he performed “Reason to Believe” on the solo “Devils and Dust” tour or on the “Magic” tour.  A good song that will have me putting the record back on the turntable.  “Tomorrow Never Knows” makes me want to turn off my mind, relax and float downstream.  Okay, a Beatle reference was too easy with that title but hardly a memorable tune with a little country shuffle thing working. 

Throughout the record though are many spiritual references, some Bible references, redemption, and stories of making right and wrong choices.  “Life Itself” touches on a few of these and these themes are what does bind this record together and may eventually make it a “grower” for me.  “Kingdom of Days” has a nice jangle but it ain’t got nothing’ on “Ties That Bind” for jangle.  One can’t expect Springsteen to be writing songs as a man in his 20’s and "Life Itself" clearly had “Boomers” in mind.  “Surprise”.  Forget it.  “The Last Carnival” uses carnival metaphors (what else?) to weave this story in one of the stronger cuts off the record.

So up to this point, I’m less than pleased with this record.  I mean, it’s Bruce, I’m a fan, I can’t knock it too much, or can I?  So by the time I got to the last track, a bonus track on the vinyl, “The Wrestler” I felt like The Joker in “The Dark Knight” when he sees the real Batman, “Now there's a Batman”.   Now there's a Springsteen song.  It's like the beacon of my youth and adulthood has crashed the party. Maybe not the strongest Springsteen song in his oeuvre but good nonetheless.  This song rolls over the credits in the film “The Wrestler”.