Miles Davis and the album ‘Miles Davis Quartet’

The year was 1954 when the album Miles Davis Quartet by Miles Davis of Alton, Illinois and six other musicians was released. The hard bop trumpet jazz sound alludes to bop and jazz instrument styles as well, with seven songs to the credit of this album.

(The cover art for the Miles Davis album Miles Davis Quartet).

When Lights Are Low opens the session with Miles Davis on trumpet, John Lewis of La Grange, Illinois on piano, Percy Heath of Wilmington, North Carolina on bass and Max Roach of Newland, North Carolina on drums.

(Miles Davis on trumpet).

Tune-Up follows with Davis, Lewis, Heath and Roach as the players.

(John Lewis played piano for the first three songs of the Miles Davis Quartet album).

Miles Ahead is the final song of this album with the named four players.

(Charles Mingus played piano for the fourth song, Smooch, of the Miles Davis Quartet album).

Smooch introduced Charles Mingus of Nogales, Arizona to a lineup including Miles Davis, Percy Heath and Max Roach. Smooch, along with When Lights Are Low, Tune-Up and Miles Ahead, were recorded in 1953.

(Horace Silver played piano on the final three songs of the Miles Davis Quartet album).

Four saw the lineup of musicians change to include Miles Davis on trumpet, Horace Silver of Norwalk, Connecticut on piano, Percy Heath on bass and Art Blakely of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on drums.

(Percy Heath played bass on all seven songs of the Miles Davis Quartet album).

Old Devil Moon returned Davis, Silver, Heath and Blakely as the players. This song, along with Four and Blue Haze, were recorded in 1954.

(Max Roach played drums for the first four songs of the Miles Davis Quartet album).

Blue Haze again returned Davis, Silver, Heath and Blakely as the players. The strong opening emphasis for the players, beginning with Heath, then Blakely, then Silver, and finally Davis was an exceptionally nice touch in my opinion.

(Art Blakey played drums for the last three songs of the Miles Davis Quartet album).

Matt – Monday, December 26, 2022

Don Henley and the album ‘Building the Perfect Beast’

Following a successful career as part of the band Eagles, Don Henley of Gilmer, Texas achieved success with work under his own name. The second album released in this way was Building the Perfect Beast, which was released in the third week of November, 1984.

(Shown is the album cover for Don Henley‘s second solo album Building the Perfect Beast).

The Boys of Summer opens Building the Perfect Beast with lyrics by Don Henley and music composed by Mike Campbell of Panama City, Florida and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. The song is a look back at what was had with a past relationship and wanting those feelings and experiences back again. Evoking a feeling of summer at a beach offers a pleasant sense of nostalgia for me.

(The Boys of Summer was the first single released from the Don Henley album Building the Perfect Beast on October 26th, 1984).

You Can’t Make Love offers a rather grim look into the physical and emotional limitations that keep the singer from a full expression of love. I sense Henley saying that engaging many of the heartfelt parts of love will offer simply the illusion of love without granting the intimacy that offers true emotional connection. Henley wrote this song with Danny Kortchmar of Larchmont, New York.

Man With a Mission offers a country dance floor sensibility to suggesting that is singular focus is on emotionally connecting with someone he wishes to know romantically. J.D. Souther of Detroit, Michigan joined Kortchmar and Henley writing this song.

You’re Not Drinking Enough went full country lament for the sadness of a love lost. The song focuses on the hurt of loving another, with advice to drink more as a coping mechanism against the pain. With writing credits for Danny Kortchmar here, this song was most popularly covered by Earl Thomas Conley of Portsmouth, Ohio, with another cover by Alan Jackson of Newnan, Georgia here.

(Supporting the Building the Perfect Beast album, Don Henley‘s Not Enough Love in the World was released as a single in 1985 and hit #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart).

Not Enough Love in the World lands with a soft rock sound with writing credits for Benmont Tench of Gainesville, Florida, Henley and Kortchmar. The song deals with another rocky relationship wherein the singer indicates he remains in love. As indicated here, the relationship sung about might be one between Henley and Stevie Nicks of Phoenix, Arizona.

Don Henley’s second studio album gains its title from the song Building the Perfect Beast. In what feels like a reference to the beast that couldn’t be killed in the song Hotel California by Eagles, this song offers a sarcastic look at the psychological torment that losing in love does in turning a man all around. That the distance traveled to building that beast is our own doing is a cruel feeling indeed.

All She Wants to Do Is Dance present writing credits for Danny Kortchmar. The song, as indicated by SongFacts here, “draws on classic literature for song inspiration.” The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald of St. Paul, Minnesota and The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick of Sheldon, Iowa and William Lederer of New York City, New York are those classics. The song itself is among Henley‘s more successful in his solo career in part due to the pop groove of the sound.

(All She Wants to Do Is Dance was released as the 2nd single from Don Henley‘s Building the Perfect Beast album. The song peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart).

Written by Don Henley alone, A Month of Sundays offers a sentimental ballad of a lifestyle lost and looked upon in retrospect. Looking back as a grandfather who built things with pride, the song is sadness, lament and acknowledgment that the current world is no longer the one he knew.

Sunset Grill offers the writing collaboration of Henley, Kortchmar and Tench once again. As captured here, the “Sunset Grill is a real place and a favorite spot for Henley. Located on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, it’s a place where Henley could see how everyday people interact, which isn’t always easy to do when you’re a celebrity in LA.” Further, the Sunset Grill was used as “a metaphor for what he liked, what he thought was great about society. And then he also used it to describe what he didn’t like, which is plenty.”

(Sunset Grill was released as the fourth single from Don Henley‘s Building the Perfect Beast album).

Drivin’ With Your Eyes Closed brings a perspective of the elevation of women in the eyes of men in romantic relationships. Stan Lynch of Gainesville, Florida and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers joins Henley and Kortchmar with writing credits, wherein Henley‘s lyrics point out that improperly appreciating women in romance is bound to end badly.

Land of the Living is the concluding song to Building the Perfect Beast, granting Henley and Kortchmar their final collaboration for this album. The messaging gets into an uplifting feel as an album sendoff. Lyrically the song is a call to slow down and metaphorically smell the roses with the one you’re with. The song does provide the light touch in bringing me home with satisfaction and lightness of spirit.

Additional musicians contributing to Building the Perfect Beast included Steve Porcaro of Hartford, Connecticut, David Paich of Los Angeles, California, Michael Boddicker of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Albhy Galuten of Hartsdale, New York, Randy Newman of Los Angeles, California, Bill Cuomo, Lindsey Buckingham of Palo Alto, California, Charlie Sexton of San Antonio, Texas, Larry Klein of California, Pino Palladino of Cardiff, Wales, Tim Drummond of Bloomington, Illinois, Ian Wallace of Los Angeles, California, Kevin McCormick, Jim Keltner of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Maren Jensen of Arcadia, California, Jerry Hey of Dixon, Illinois, Belinda Carlisle of Hollywood, California, Sam Moore of Miami, Florida, Martha Davis of Berkley, California, Michael O’Donahue, Carla Olson of Austin, Texas, Patty Smyth of New York City, New York, Waddy Wachtel of New York City, New York, Marie Pascale Elfman and Dominique Mancinelli.

Matt – Saturday, November 19, 2022

Bryan Adams and the album ‘Reckless’

Recorded at studios in New York City, New York, United States and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the fourth album released by Bryan Adams of Kingston, Ontario, Canada occurred on Monday, November 5th, 1984. With a sound perhaps best characterized as a combination of pop/rock, soft rock and arena rock, the album Reckless performed well throughout 1984 and much of 1985.

(The album Reckless by Bryan Adams was first released on Monday, November 5th, 1984).

One Night Love Affair opens the album with a straightforward song about a single night of physical intimacy. Opening the album Reckless with a style that expresses the larger meaning of the album, the song introduces a candid moment of self-memory and consideration. The notion that this night concealed deeper feelings that were felt between the couple adds to the sense of mystery and recklessness.

(One Night Love Affair was the fifth single released in support of the Bryan Adams album Reckless).

She’s Only Happy When She’s Dancin’ follows the album opener by questioning how satisfying the choices of life truly can be. The desire for independence and seeking gratification through dancing animates the sense of angst and opportunity offering this song its impact.

Run to You charted sixth in the United States and eleventh in the United Kingdom. Adams wrote the song with collaborator Jim Vallance of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. As quoted here on Songfacts, the two originally “wrote the song for Blue Oyster Cult,” later modifying “the riff down to E-minor, later adding a capo to achieve an F#-minor tuning, which better suited Bryan‘s vocal range.” When both Blue Oyster Cult and .38 Special declined the offered song, that Bryan Adams made a go of it led brought legitimate success.

(Run to You was the first single from Bryan Adams‘ fourth album, Reckless).

Heaven charted first in the United States and thirty-eighth in the United Kingdom, actually having been written for a movie titled A Night in Heaven (1983) that didn’t amount to much. Originally a power ballad as presented by Adams, “in 2002 it was recorded by DJ Sammy, whose version went to #1 in the UK and #8 in the US.” DJ Sammy is originally from Mallorca, Spain. The song itself resonates lyrically by defining a romantic relationship that has blossomed into something meaningful and sustaining.

(The third single released for the Bryan Adams album Reckless was Heaven).

Somebody charted eleventh in the United States and thirty-fifth in the United Kingdom. While the song itself is about pursuing and maintaining romantic relationships, song co-writer Jim Vallance mentioned as quoted here that “the second verse is about World War I. Said Vallance: “Adams and I are both interested in First World War history (Bryan‘s grandfather served with the British Army in WW1). As a result, lyrical references to that war occasionally appear in our songwriting. It’s not always in context, and it doesn’t always make sense.” The song itself was inspired by the success, or lack of it, that people have in nightclubs aiming to attract relationships.

(Somebody was the second song released to support the Reckless album by Bryan Adams).

Summer of ’69 charted fifth in the United States and forty-second in the United Kingdom. As the title itself invokes a pair of images, it becomes fair to note that Bryan Adams was born in November of 1959. As quoted by Songfacts here, Summer of ’69 “[is] a very simple song about looking back on the summertime and making love. For me, the ’69 was a metaphor for making love, not about the year. I had someone in Spain ask me once why I wrote the first line ‘I had my first real sex dream’… I had to laugh.”

(The fourth single released from Reckless by Bryan Adams was the song Summer of ’69).

Kids Wanna Rock offers a clear statement of Bryan Adams‘ musical sensibilities as a performer. While the song approaches a hard rock sensibility without quite landing there, the clear lyrical and sonic aim achieved here is to call out that the sound delivered is more aggressively guitar and drum based than something disco or dance-pop based.

It’s Only Love features Tina Turner, originally of Brownsville, Texas. The song charted fifteenth in the United States and twenty-ninth in the United Kingdom. As noted by Songfacts here, “[t]his song takes a nontraditional approach to healing from heartache, reminding us that it’s only love, and life goes on. Refreshing words for anyone worn down by songs that remind us that love is his towering emotion that rules our lives.”

(The Bryan Adams duet with Tina Turner, It’s Only Love, was the sixth single released from the Reckless album by Adams. The released single included a live version of the song from 1985).

Long Gone offers a production value as close to a rock & roll and country fusion as any song on the album. The notion underpinning the song is that relationships look destined for breakup, yet not all attempts at romance are lost when the need for love is viewed through the lens of a second look. While the song doesn’t call this desperation, the notion that needs are needs definitely calls this song a friend.

Ain’t Gonna Cry reflects the tenth and final song for the Reckless album. The song plays in the sandbox of one-night stands, with Adams‘ sense of worth telling him losing a night’s sleep isn’t worth the possibility of a single night of physical intimacy. The sense is no way, no how. That Bryan Adams isn’t going to cry sizes up his closing thought about how this instance, and some in general, struck even him at this point in his life as fleeting.

Additional musicians playing on this album included Tommy Mandel of New York City, Robert Sabino of the Bronx (New York City), Keith Scott of Vancouver, Dave Taylor of Vancouver, Pat Steward of Vancouver, Mickey Curry of New Haven, Connecticut, Steve Smith of Whitman, Massachusetts, Canadian Jody Perpick, Lou Gramm of Rochester, New York, Gerry Berg, John Eddie of Richmond, Virginia and Bob Clearmountain of Connecticut.

Matt – Saturday, November 5, 2022

Timothy Snyder and the book ‘On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century’

The book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder offers a conversant perspective about experience in the face of tyranny. The viewpoint is current day politics in the United States seen through the lens of history from the last century. The edition I had was 126-pages in length. The analysis was succinct and impactful. The thought provoked leads me to recommend the book.

(Alternate covers for the book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder).

Timothy Snyder is a professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He received a doctorate from the University of Oxford in Oxford, England, United Kingdom. These artifacts of education buttress a brevity of style and directness of evidence shared in twenty (20) essay length lessons on being aware and vigilant to the ways authoritarianism and lost freedoms can rise in republics or representative democracies.

(Timothy Snyder‘s book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century was released February 28, 2017).

As identified in this review by Tim Adams in The Guardian from March 2017, this Snyder book advances a “20-point “how to” guide for resisting tyranny.” For example, it’s Adams that quotes Snyder‘s ninth lesson in this way: “Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone else is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.”

(The Nora Krug illustrated version of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, as written by Timothy Snyder, was released October 5, 2021).

That the book highlights important lessons girded by the notion for actively thinking then behaving consistent with the underlying values rings true. Other lessons offered include defending institutions, remembering professional ethics, believing in truth, investigating facts, and learning from peers in other countries being some that stand out for me. The discussion around drawing meaning in the differences between patriotism and nationalism seems particularly relevant.

(Timothy Snyder, an historian of 20th century Europe, wrote the book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century).

The effort to remember what has happened in the past stands as an important underpinning for On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. The application of memory in knowing how things like facism, communism, Nazism, socialism or other authoritarian doctrines leads to lessons drawn from a look many of the conflicts through the twentieth century on these points. I give On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder 5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Monday, May 16, 2022

Peter Coyote, Mandy Patinkin, Josh Lucas and the Ken Burns documentary ‘Benjamin Franklin’

First airing on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) on April 4th and 5th, Benjamin Franklin (2022) is a documentary directed and produced by Ken Burns. Writing credit for the two-episode documentary rests with Dayton Duncan of polymath and Founding Father of the United States, Benjamin Franklin.

(This portrait of Benjamin Franklin shows the man born in Boston, Massachusetts in January 1706. Franklin would die in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in April 1790).

There is much remarkable about the man who, but for the prominent general and first president of the United States, George Washington, might be remembered today as the first among “the most prominent statesmen of America’s Revolutionary generation,” which is a definition for Founding Father offered by the Encyclopædia Britannica. The two-episode documentary series offers much in terms of placing Franklin in context regarding who he was, how he went about making his mark in the world, and some contextual thinking around what Franklin can mean to American culture in today’s world.

(An image of Benjamin Franklin as a typesetter and printer from the Ken Burns documentary Benjamin Franklin).

Franklin was the youngest of Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger Franklin. Josiah Franklin had seven children with his first wife and ten with Benjamin‘s mother, making for an upbringing that lacked a significant quantity of formal education. Raised Presbyterian with his father a soap and candle maker, we learned in Join or Die (1706-1774) that Benjamin was eventually apprenticed to his brother James Franklin, who had returned from a trip to England at age 24 with a printing press. That Josiah mediated the relationship between James and Benjamin, often to the just advantage of the talented and younger Benjamin.

(The New-England Courant was published by Benjamin Franklin‘s older brother, James. The younger Franklin was an apprentice in the print works of his elder brother).

The New-England Courant newspaper was founded in 1721 by James Franklin. Benjamin Franklin would learn the newspaper trade from this independent newspaper, inventing Silence Dogood as “a fictitious character, the widow of a country minister, “an Enemy to Vice, and a Friend to Virtue”. She abhorred arbitrary government and unlimited power,” as noted here as well as in the documentary. The newspaper eventually gave way in part owing to the religious sensibilities of Boston at the time, in addition to the liberal viewpoint of the newspaper. The lessons taken from the larger experience would serve the younger Franklin in a lifetime of business and political leadership that would follow. From the human perspective, that Benjamin would own slaves, trade in slavery using the newspaper as a vehicle, and benefitted from a lack societal integration in race while financially gaining from slavery were raised; slavery in the United States was not a strictly southern agricultural notion.

(Ken Burns directed the 2022 documentary titled Benjamin Franklin).

The documentary recounted the end of the apprenticeship between James and Benjamin, with adventures specifically in Philadelphia with the meeting of his future wife, Deborah Read Franklin. The first meeting of Deborah and then seventeen-year-old Benjamin was recounted to comedic effect in Benjamin Franklin‘s Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Read Franklin “watched the tall, husky youth pass her father’s shop on Philadelphia’s Market Street, chomping on a roll of bread. His pockets bulged with extra pairs of socks, and he carried two more rolls, one under each arm. As she watched, Deborah giggled out loud.” That Read Franklin ran the family businesses freed her husband to pursue local and national politics for decades before and after the American Revolution.

(From left, narrator Peter Coyote, Mandy Patinkin as the voice of Benjamin Franklin, and Josh Lucas as the voice of William Franklin in the Ken Burns documentary Benjamin Franklin).

The relationship between American revolutionary Benjamin Franklin and his illegitimate son William Franklin, was complicated. William would become a Royal Governor of New Jersey, actively working to circumvent diplomatic efforts of his father in favor of colonial independence. The circumstances of the coldness and break between father and son were largely shared during the An American (1775-1790) documentary episode. William‘s imprisonment in Connecticut came during the revolutionary war, with the wife of Benjamin‘s son, William, dying while William was in prison. “William Franklin and Benjamin Franklin never reconciled their differences,” as noted here as well as in the documentary. How future president John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were in conflict regarding ambassadorial approaches to France during the revolutionary period of American history was addressed interestingly in the Burns documentary.

(From left, Paul Giamatti as the voice of John Adams and Liam Neeson as the voice of House of Commons member Alexander Wedderburn, a bitter opponent of Benjamin Franklin, in the Ken Burns documentary Benjamin Franklin).

I have been particularly interested in Benjamin Franklin as a subject of study for at least a couple of decades. I found that the documentary offers insights into the man and his role in the formation of what is the United States. That information I had encountered previously was revisited in this documentary did not feel distracting. Many subjects and themes within this film were not specifically mentioned within this review. I grant the documentary Benjamin Franklin as directed by Ken Burns 4-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Joseph Conrad and the book ‘Heart of Darkness’

The Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness is more truly novella than novel or short story. The prose is stylistically dense, by which I mean compact and direct rather than slow-witted or dull. Many take a fierce and understandable response to the substance and direct manner of expression, which at many times is direct and harsh in its choice for how to characterize people in unflattering, indeed vulgar, ways. That expressing this concisely and upfront is necessary.

(Joseph Conrad wrote the novella Heart of Darkness, which was released as a three-part serial in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1899).

Heart of Darkness indirectly speaks of imperialism and racism. There is debate from diverse audiences over whether the message Joseph Conrad aimed to offer was indeed itself racist. The text itself can and is seen that way. The Yale University of New Haven, Connecticut educational website speaks to why the book was taught in high schools and colleges despite there being arguments over this point: “Heart of Darkness is especially fertile ground for interpretation.” The case for teaching the text is that coming to decide this involves struggle and reflection from the reader, with readers coming to multiple opinions. The website adds: “There is value in that struggle. This is one of those times when the journey is just as important as the destination.”

(There are many editions of the Joseph Conrad‘s Heart of Darkness, with this being one of the alternate covers).

That the question of moral superiority is raised through the eyes of Charles Marlow and his obsessive, perhaps mentally ill view of the arguably successful ivory trader Mr. Kurtz. The recounted experience of a journey up the Congo River into Belgian Congo (present day Democratic Republic of the Congo) included gruesome and graphic experiences. My take is that you are better served in understanding the journey, and what that journey did to Kurtz, rather than having me recount those here.

(Joseph Conrad wrote the novella Heart of Darkness, which was released as a three-part serial in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1899).

The notion that Mr. Kurtz went into the jungle and descended into madness, unable to reconcile the contradictions his source European culture(s) had to say about the African culture(s) he experienced, feels like the primary story told by Heart of Darkness. As mentioned in this article about Apocalypse Now (1979) in The Guardian, Heart of Darkness inspired the Francis Ford Coppola film. Apocalypse Now looks into a descent into madness experienced through the lens of the Vietnam War.

(There are many editions of the Joseph Conrad‘s Heart of Darkness, with this being one of the alternate covers).

For the exercise of struggling through to my determination for what the book was and meant to say, I am indebted to Heart of Darkness. That the book led me to other view points and helped expand and inform my own perspective, Joseph Conrad offered something worth the exercise. I rate Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad at 4-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, July 24, 2021

Joshua Jackson, Paul Walker and the movie ‘The Skulls’

Lynn of Matt Lynn Digital was a freshman in college when she saw The Skulls (2000) in the movies in a springtime film release that year. When the film aired on HBO recently, Lynn and I sat down to watch the film. Definitely this movie would fall somewhere between mystery and suspense if it were a book, when and how unknown factors get revealed leads me to the difficulty in classifying The Skulls.

(From left, Joshua Jackson as Luke McNamara and Leslie Bibb as Chloe in The Skulls).

The Skulls begins as the story of three friends with a slightly odd yet cordial dynamic of friendship based on mutual admiration. Luke McNamara, as played by Joshua Jackson, comes from a working class Connecticut neighborhood. A scholarship combined with some athletic skill and solid work ethic lands him on his school’s ivy league rowing team. Luke is clearly taken with Chloe, a classmate from an affluent family as played by Leslie Bibb. The difference in social status initially keeps Luke from acting on his interest.

(Hill Harper as Will Beckford in The Skulls).

Will Beckford, as played by Hill Harper, is coxswain on the rowing team and really good friend to Luke. Will also is observant, yet from the beginning the friendships and people here mean little if anything to Caleb Mandrake, as portrayed by Paul Walker. Both Will and Luke take note of the slights, yet curiosity interferes in what would otherwise feel like a case of class based snobbery.

(Paul Walker as Caleb Mandrake in The Skulls).

The successful pledging of Caleb and Luke into a secret society on campus, the Skulls, joins these two college kids into a relationship the Skulls defines as “soulmate.” The fact that the society is a secret society that starts taking time away from his friends places a strain on the relationships of Luke, Chloe, and Will. The society and the friendship offers elements of mystery, and subsequently suspense, when the strain ends in Will’s death that feels like the doing of Caleb. Luke is partly caught in between loyalty and the new riches and bond of “soulmate” demanded of him.

(Craig T. Nelson as Litten Mandrake in The Skulls).

The notion of loyalty, family, friendship, life, death, and pressures to act in specific ways with specific costs and benefits are raised. Caleb’s father, Litten Mandrake, is introduced as part of the answer to the mystery of the Skulls. Played by Craig T. Nelson, Litten Mandrake has an interesting relationship with his son, Caleb, as well as Virginia senator Ames Levritt. Levritt is played by William Petersen. As the pressure of the death of Will, the relationship between Caleb and Litten, and the soulmate relationship pressures of the Skulls mount, mystery transforms into suspense not so much about figuring out who did what, but in what fate will come to the characters of The Skulls.

(William Petersen as Ames Levritt in The Skulls).

Parts of the mixed notion of mystery and suspense wound up working for me. The means of coming to a resolution work on the surface of it. My instinct is that Lynn remembers the feelings of being a college freshman among questions of love with questions that reminded her of home, which for her was about a 2-hour drive away. I appreciate The Skulls for being somewhat clever as a mystery with solid ambiguity around motivation and the underlying facts. The notions of loyalty, family, and how to interact with them had its appeal. My grade for The Skulls is 3.5-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, May 16, 2020

Bruce Springsteen and the album ‘Tunnel of Love’

Maybe I am a touch of a romantic. Perhaps the truest, saddest album ever put out by the boss, an album specifically billed as a solo effort by Bruce Springsteen, I offer a look at the eighth studio album by Bruce Springsteen, namely Tunnel of Love. The album itself, one that tells the emotional story of the emotional pratfalls for a marriage that ends in divorce, may be an absolutely odd offering two days before the holiday known as Valentine’s Day. Enjoy this ride with the songs, which will play in response to the linked song names that follow.

(The album cover for the album Tunnel of Love by Bruce Springsteen).

Ain’t Got You opens the album Tunnel of Love with a stripped down, Bo Diddley rhythm and blues beat. Bruce is pining for love perhaps out of reach. Per the website Song Facts based in Connecticut, Springsteen recorded this song at home by himself while his marriage was on the rocks.

A song never released as a single in the United States, Tougher Than the Rest follows the opening ditty. The E Street Band backs up the boss’ a rockabilly sensibility slowed to a more methodical pacing that almost approaches ballad. I sense a Roy Orbison feel in where the production landed. The emotion and lyrics of the song coupled lends the music here a willingness to see about love if, yes if, the dance partner Bruce receiving the song can reciprocate the feeling.

All That Heaven Will Allow offers an upbeat cadence into laying “bare the hope and fear of a man in love,” per Rolling Stone magazine. Musically, the song combines the percussion of Ain’t Got You with the emotion and remaining sound of Tougher Than the Rest as a launching point. As a testimonial of the male heart seeking love, All That Heaven Will Allow speaks truth.

(A live edition of the single for All That Heaven Will Allow by Bruce Springsteen).

Spare Parts is a direct and unabashed aim at a rock song told with the flare of an old fashioned country song. Lacking the lyrical subtlety of other songs, the narrative thread of Spare Parts offers life as it happens, the panic and fear driving a lack of responsibility, and the way ladies suffer with unaided support and broken hearts in the face of that.

Introspection as an answer to reckless youth reflects the answer Cautious Man gives to succumbing to fear in Spare Parts. Like with All That Heaven Will Allow, the bitter head of the vulnerability of love and fear is present (with tattoos), though this time in the notion of an existing marriage. The give and take of the inner turmoil seems to land on risking the hurt for the payoff of love through the recognition of “the beauty of God’s fallen light.”

Walk Like a Man, in ending the first side of the album Tunnel of Love, invokes the boy inside the man at the point committing to lifelong love (marriage) comments. The song can be taken as invoking the son’s relationship with his father as he, the son, gets married. The vulnerability of the relationship between son and father as the son steps into a new commitment with his wife, the layers at play here invoke much.

(The back cover of the album Tunnel of Love by Bruce Springsteen).

The song Tunnel of Love, the second single released from the album after Brilliant Disguise, incorporates several E Street Band members. Bruce’s future wife Patti Scialfa offers backing vocals, too. The central metaphor for the song Tunnel of Love invokes a carnival ride as the larger feelings of marriage. I note the power of this metaphor in not invoking a roller coaster as that metaphor.

Two Faces returns to the notion of the false confidence inexperience in love brings to the notion of love. The song juxtaposes the playful organ sound of a carousel with the sadness of a dirge. The song presented to me a romantic notion of the flourish of love in a marriage followed by the emotion of a destroyed love when marriage comes to an end.

Brilliant Disguise offers the perhaps most uniquely, lyrically Bruce take on a love song on the whole album. Expressing self-doubt in love, the song is perhaps the quintessential breakup song for the marriage that ended soon after the album’s release. Getting into notions of whether Bruce and his first wife, Julianne Phillips, could be truthful with themselves or their partner in their marriage. The vulnerability, the truth, and that things didn’t work … the emotional truth of this song is rare. Brilliant Disguise is the best song of the whole album for me.

(The single for Brilliant Disguise by Bruce Springsteen).

One Step Up reflects the third single released from the Tunnel of Love album. Bruce and his second wife, Patti, are the only members of the E Street Band on the song. The car, the furnace, the church bells, and the birds not functioning in the song metaphorically tell the story of broken relationship parts from the ending marriage of Bruce and Julianne. The emotional truth of the song makes for another winner for the album.

The song When You’re Alone is the full blown relationship’s over dirge of Tunnel of Love. The song is about moving on, grieving, and the odd pace for when memories, good and bad, will come back. Breaking up may be hard to do, and Tunnel of Love spent ten songs getting us there. When You’re Alone gets into what’s next.

Valentine’s Day feels like the grief song, the saddest song, of the Tunnel of Love album. The metaphorical carnival ride of marriage has come to an end; husband and wife aren’t anymore, and the house is no longer home. That the tenor and feel of the song is played as a country song, a form that speaks sadness more than many, ends the story of divorce with mourning.

My sincere take is that the album Tunnel of Love took some unfair lumps as a follow-up album to the album Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The truth and honesty of a divorce album, especially with that truth, means Tunnel of Love deserves a better reputation. I completely love this album, which is why the songs are shared within this review.

Matt – Wednesday, February 12, 2020