NYC Serenade-(101st Post!)

[BronxDarren]

For my inaguration into the Gold Star club, I was wondering about NYC Serenade. What is it about that song that hits people so hard? (me included)
It might have been the number one "non-hit" song that if you polled people before the tour they would've requested, sort of representing all of the old stuff that Bruce had not played in so long. It pops up on people's favorite song lists all the time. DARI-please pipe up!!
I mean I know it's a romantic epic, but I want your thoughts. And maybe even a little explication/interpretation. Billy's got cleats on his shoes? Hmm??

anyway-I'm glad to have found you all and glad to get a star (i hope)
Darren

[Hazey Davey]

Hey BD,
Congrats on that 100th POST!

"Listen to your JUNKMAN" " HE'S SINGIN"
No iterpretations, just like the song.

[CWGOURMET]

Hi BronxDarren,
Congratulations on that star!!!
I just played a CD today that a
great friend sent with NYC Serenade
on it. Another beautiful song!!
I had to stop and replay it!!
An interpretation on this from Dari
from be greatly appreciated!
CW

[Bobby Gene]

I really just can't get into NYC Serenade. Doesn't do anything for me. My mother who went to the one MSG show where he did it said that it right after GOTJ was really boring. Although I do like the part where he sings "She won't take that train. No she won't take that train!".

[This message has been edited by Bobby Gene (edited August 15, 2000).]

[Rosalita1223]

Congrats Darren!!

[brucegroupie]

Congrats BronxDarren!!

Your fingers have really been typing haven't they? Seems like the other day when HazeyDavey got his star, you were quite a few away. So, how does it feel? http://talk.livedaily.com/docs/smile.gif

I have the boot "You can trust your car..." and its version of NYC is awesome!

brucegroupie

[orthy]

Billy he's down by the railroad tracks
Sittin' low in the back seat of his Cadillac
Diamond Jackie, she's so intact
As she falls so softly beneath him
Jackie's heels are stacked
Billy's got cleats on his boots
Together they're gonna boogaloo down Broadway and come back home with the loot
It's midnight in Manhattan, this is no time to get cute
It's a mad dog's promenade
So walk tall or baby don't walk at all Fish lady, oh fish lady
She baits them tenement walls
She won't take corner boys
They ain't got no money
And they're so easy
I said "Hey, baby
Won't you take my hand
Walk with me down Broadway
Well mama take my arm and move with me down Broadway"
I'm a young man, I talk it real loud
Yeah babe I walk it real proud for you
Ah so shake it away
So shake away your street life
Shake away your city life
Hook up to the train
And hook up to the night train
Hook it up
Hook up to the train
But I know that she won't take the train, no she won't take the train
Oh she won't take the train, no she won't take the train
Oh she won't take the train, no she won't take the train
Oh she won't take the train, no she won't take the train
She's afraid them tracks are gonna slow her down
And when she turns this boy'll be gone
So long, sometimes you just gotta walk on, walk on

Hey vibes man, hey jazz man, play me your serenade
Any deeper blue and you're playin' in your grave
Save your notes, don't spend 'em on the blues boy
Save your notes, don't spend 'em on the darlin' yearlin' sharp boy
Straight for the church note ringin', vibes man sting a trash can
Listen to your junk man
Listen to your junk man
Listen to your junk man
He's singin', he's singin', he's singin'
All dressed up in satin, walkin' past the alley
He's singin', singin', singin', singin'

Pure romanticism..

[dari]

bobby gene

sure hope you weren't expecting to come to the bruce-a-thon...now go start a glory days thread and leave us alone!!! http://talk.livedaily.com/docs/biggrin.gif (just kidding)

i couldn't even begin to guess why this song affects so many others, i can only tell you why it hits me. i hate to say this but no matter how much others love it, those of us who grew up in nyc have to love it just a little more. would i feel the same way about it if it was called boston serenade? yea i would. but the fact is when i hear this song it reminds me of nyc. the words don't, for the most part. make a lot of sense. as i've stated before being a painter and a surrealist at that, i don't think very analytically about these things. last fall there was much discussion about the words to this and what they meant. as any artist will tell you about their work, when you start to analyze it, you wind up losing part of your emotional attachment to it. it was put out there to beg a reaction from you and the reaction (IMHO) should be an emotional one. when i hear this song to me it sounds exactly like how the city looks, feels and smells in that pre-dawn hour when there are only one or two people on the street. it captures that feeling in a way i don't understand and don't need to analyze. i just accept that it does that for me and will always be grateful for it.

so bruce if you're out there reading this would you do it for me and geeboss just once more?


dari

[This message has been edited by dari (edited August 15, 2000).]

[GEEBOSS]

New York City Serenade New York City Serenade


BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEE

http://www.thunder-road.freeserve.co.uk/Bruce46L.jpg

[dari]

oh gee

that picture captures it pretty well i'd say!

dari

[Bobby Gene]

Dari, loved that comment! LOL! I just listened to NYC Serenade for the first time in a long time, and I reconsidered. I do think it's a great song. I think that album is so good. My favorite on the album is Incident On 57th Street.

[BronxDarren]

Thanks for the pic GeeBoss...
Bobby Gene-I know that it took a while for me to really appreciate NYCS, but once it clicks-..wow.
Brucegroupie-yeah, my two fingers have been typing pretty quickly..but I wish i knew about the board last year.
Dari-thanks for putting into words what I sort of suspected...it was the feeling and the groove of the song that hits us. i guess it's the same with a lot of bruce's music, but i was just wondering if there was a story behind that song that i somehow missed.it's funny how the critics have often lampooned bs for his more literal , working man songs, but there's a whole other side that is romantic and poetic, ambiguous and very hard to pin down--i think he got progressively more literal as he went along-compare Blinded or kitty's back with tom my hometown or tom joad. anyway, thanks all!

[bossdad]

Hey BronxD congrat's on the Star !. I think NYCS is a great song to end that album. The way the tail end of that disc goes from Incident-Rosie-NYCS is pure magic !

[Bobby Gene]

BronxDarren, I agree. Once it clicks-Wow! I love the piano in it.

[dari]

bobby gene

i have sent you 2 emails and 1 PM over the last months. please contact me as i have something you will want.

dari

p.s. sorry to get off track, guys

goodnight it's all right la-dies...

[GoCartMozart]

Even without the NYC background, I really like the way it captures the late-night city atmosphere. I imagine it is even more appropriate to NYC, but there's something poetic, mysterious, spooky, and yet appealing about the city late at night when it's quiet and there aren't hordes of people around. (Sunday nights are the quietest and emptiest of all.) The images resulting from night-time lighting effects have always fascinated me, and Dari's right. This song captures that mood beautifully. Add to that the jazzy nature of the song and the way the length and structure of this song really give the band a chance to "stretch out" and jam, and you have a classic which is unique in the E Street repertoire.

[HeldUp]

Someone mentioned about how some of the words in NYC Serenade don't make sense. Well, what about Bobbie Jean? Supposedly the song is about Little Steven, but one line sends me for a loop. Bruce sings:

"We liked the same music, we liked the same bands, we liked the same clothes."

I question this because of the flamboyant way Steve dresses. The way my friend and I always sing this verse is by adding one word to the last line:

"We liked the same music, we liked the same bands, we DIDN'T like the same clothes."

Make more sense. Just my opinion...

http://talk.livedaily.com/docs/smile.gif

-HeldUp


"Listen to your junkman. He's singing."



[This message has been edited by HeldUp (edited August 18, 2000).]

[Bobby Gene]

Dari, I just sent you a PM.

[dari]

bobby gene

i just answered it.

held up

you haven't seen enough early pictures of bruce and steve. they dressed a lot alike. steve had more hair, wore hats and dressed much less flamboyantly. bruce had long hair,often wore hats and dressed worse than steve half the time. as my uncle used to say "they look like a couple of bums!" yea...but iloved (and love) those bums...

dari

[GEEBOSS]

http://www.jsonline.com/enter/music/nov99/springsteen/photos/images/BRUCE_4.jpg

[BronxDarren]

Don't mean to recycle an old thread for no reason, but I just listened to the Main Point version of this and man, it kicks some serious ass. The whole intro, the cool bass/guitar/drum thing that starts at the "Diamond jackie" part, the whole "slip away" vocal, w backing vox by CC, the rap about cops and hookers, the swelling dynamics at the end...just a great, great live version of a studio song that was great to begin with (and that's an understatement).

Man that would have been a trip to see him do it back in the old days. I don't think he listened to any old shows when he amd the guys rehearsed the old songs for the 99/2000 tour. Probably just the records. Too bad (although still good)....

[Incident]

Oh, Sure whats he going to do.

18 min version of Kitty's Back
22 min of NY City Serenade
17 min 10th Ave
13 min Incident
12 min Drive all Night
25 min Estreet Shuffle (slow)
17 min Thundercrack
19 min Backstreets (sad eyes)
11 min Fade Away
12 min Land of Hope and Dream
11 min Ramrod
11 min Rosalita

188 minutes only 12 songs leaving out many great songs. How could he possibly play all those long versions.

Would anyone really want to see this show? :rolleyes:

[NaughtySherry]

You know Incident, Lost in the Flood for Fade Away and Youngstown for Ramrod and I'd go see that show. Shoot, I'd go see any show...

As for the cleats on Billy's boots? I always figured they were what held him stuck to the ground, but that's an English major sort of POV.

[Dirty Annie]

As a veteran of many concerts, I've witnessed mock head decapitations,guys who made their entrances on surfboards,on spiders,on ludes,inverted piano players,laser writing,phone calls to the whitehouse,men dressed as women,women dressed as men, ELO,ELP,BTO... and ah ,yes, a very bad Dylan concert when we were all too stoned to notice him on stage.I figure if I got through all of that, surely it would be with utmost pleasure that I'd sit, or stand or kneel, for however long it took for Bruce to go through each and every one of that songs that Incident listed. In fact, it could last for days and I'd be there. Hell, it could replace Woodstock.

[dari]

wow, i started to read this thread and thought
"oh my god, acid flashback" or "it's dejavu all over again".

thank god i looked at the date or it would have scared the hell out of me.

needless to say,incident,i'm with you 100%. in fact, i dare say one 188 minute version of new york city serenade would do me just fine (and i know gee wouldn't mind either).

dari

[Zephyrs 23]

You know, the first time I heard Jungleland live (11/21/99) I thought that it was NYC Serenade... shows you how much I knew either of those songs then.

But man, I can't imagine hearing that live. Davey Sancious on that intro... MAN!!!

[ForYou]

I would pay extra for that concert Incident.

That NY street life gets you even if you're just visiting. I always get up every little while and look out the hotel window in the middle of the night. You can still hear the street sounds and there's always something funky happening even at 3-4 in the morning. I even like to look down at the garbage! Must be 'cause all you see when you look out here is the dark.

[C]

My god that is my dream set list, I would be there in a second, maybe bruce could hand the mic to me during NYCS, and unlike the person on 2/5/75 i would actually say something, though i don't know what

[GEEBOSS]

For you Dari

http://www.zing.com/picture/pe2576c40c70a411c3b57e47b74409147/ff251152.jpg.orig.jpg



[Edited by GEEBOSS on November 30th, 2000 at 06:51 AM]

[young again]

I do have a serious question here, so please bear with me past a bit of swooning...

BD, I love that Main Point version of NYC Seranade too (I assume you mean from 2/5/75) and just listened to it again today. What a great song for an early-morning train ride through the mist. The album version is OK, but live, that whole "hey little stranger - slip away" part... hey Bruce, I'll follow you down, down, down, wherever you want to go. (I don't mean to sidetrack this into yet another female-driven drooling thread as dari would say, but... hmmm, aaahhh, mmmm, damn, if you know what I mean.)

Anyway, what I wanted to say before I got sidetracked was, does anyone else hear a lot of references to heroin use/addiction, much more so on the Main Point version than on the album version? For example, the reference to the junkman singing with your money in his pocket (I've never heard anyone call a dealer a "junkman," but they do call heroin "junk," hence "junkie"). You could also see the train as representing a habit, with its telltale tracks. And during the "slip away" part, references to someone out on the corner selling dreams, and that he bought some too, and the next part about going down, down, down, with the TV on and the sound turned off, being sung in that sleepy, euphoric voice. Some of the lyrics in that same part of the song are about trying to get a woman to slip away with him - and as I noted above, he is pretty seductive. The impressionistic nature of the lyrics keeps the meaning ambiguous and also helps to draw a parallel between yearning for love (and sex), and the seductiveness of drug addiction - I have heard clients in methadone treatment compare heroin to love and marriage. I'm not saying that's all the song is about but I definitely hear it mixed in there, how about you?

Oh, and does he then go and totally spoil the mood (by asking if they are on the radio and passing around the mic), or what!?

Great pic, Gee!

[Edited by young again on November 30th, 2000 at 11:08 AM]

[BronxDarren]

Young again- i definitely agree with you about the heroin references. i never really thought about the tracks thing but that makes sense, at least as one of the many metaphors that can be gleaned from such cool, ambiguous lyrics. i think it adds to the whole image of late night early morning NYC, where you know something is going down, even if bruce doesn't really spell out exactly what it is...a good thing because it lets the imagination run .