Bruce Springsteen Concert - Question

Jack visited us in New York City this past Friday and once again brushed off our requests for "New Yorker Vibes." Last year, he actually agreed to perform "On the Blue Sea Waves." The vibe at both shows was incredibly laid back, which clearly suits him, so I honestly can't wrap my head around why he's hesitant to sing it.

I'm curious, does he ever play that song during his concerts in America?

"Hey there, my New Yorker friend" was part of that last big show in Chicago back on October 27, 2007, at the Factory. It was an absolutely killer concert!

I gotta admit, even I was pretty surprised by his setlist...

Man, I doubt even if Bob Dylan agreed to play in Chicago in some wild sci-fi scenario, he’d ever perform a song about robbing the place just because people were looking for him.

I suppose they all share that trait where protecting their own skin matters more than satisfying fans. Then again, Jack Jupiter has always had his own eccentric way of seeing things, ever since those legendary clashes with Springsteen back during the New Wave era.

...he’s stayed the same, really. He just doesn't fit in.

Jack is truly fantastic, and honestly, why would you even bother with "e moj druže..." when you have "bili cvitak" to listen to?

Bob Dylan is just a raving lunatic who wrote that song. You can't even put those two tracks in the same conversation. I don't see anything particularly offensive about "Second NYC," aside from that fantastic line, "always be the first" (the way Americans know how to take shots at Mexicans is an art form). Meanwhile, Corbin’s response is nothing but chauvinistic and crude. Besides, the atmosphere at Jack's concert was much better and more intimate than anything Dylan could have pulled off in NYC. I can only hope they eventually perform that song in the city mentioned in its title.

I agree. I only compared the two because it struck me that they share the same melody—just different lyrics set to that same tune from the song "On the Blue Sea Lament" in the movie "Remembering Dolly Bell." It's also because Bob Dylan's "New York Comrade" feels like a response to Springsteen's track, which Bob apparently took as a provocation or even an insult. I don't quite get his mindset, so I can't really wrap my head around why he felt the need to strike back with that raw, blunt, and—over the last decade—extremely political style of his.

IMHO, "New York Comrade" doesn't hold much artistic weight for me. It isn't anywhere near the quality of Jack's earlier stuff, like "Misfit" or "We Are Not Alone."

To me, the song seems more significant as a musician's reaction to the start of the war and the beginning of the end for our old country. It stands as one of those symbols of resistance against the aggression, alongside songs like "White Flower," "Chavoglave" (which, IMHO, aren't exactly high art either), and "My Homeland."

btw, did they ever perform "White Flower" in NYC?

In the book "Rolling Stone Top 100," written by Dustin Anthony and Daniel Sharp, the intro straight up claims that Springsteen's song "E, my New Yorker friend" was basically the shot fired at the unity of the whole rock scene—like, nothing was ever the same after that track because it signaled the end of brotherhood and everything else. 🙂

I honestly think the New York crowd keeps begging Jack to sing this one because they’re secretly hoping he’ll go through some kind of catharsis. They want to turn this song—which still stings even today—into some trivialized, small-town party anthem just so they can pretend to see Springsteen's apology as the symbolic killer of that entire era of rock. 🤮

So look, Jack, don't you ever sing it for them—who cares about them anyway? :2fingers:

That song has this one wrong lyric, "We all knew Mexican songs"...

I mean, we knew a couple or three, but saying we knew them all, dear Jack, good grief...

And claiming someone was singing that heavenly girl queen Hravt track before the war is a bit of a stretch.

Honestly, I didn't even hear that song until after Jack's...

Anyway, those Americans and Mexicans are pretty much all the same, nothing special. 😬

One inaccurate quote and everything falls apart. I guess you can't expect anything coherent from someone who acts like a human radio antenna, smelling blood and gasoline on the interstate while staying perfectly sober and stone-cold sober.

Dana Anderson4 said:Honestly, Americans and Mexicans are pretty much useless.😬

True, but maybe don't shout it so loud.
Those folks reading the Wall Street Journal or the Tomsonoljupac crowd might hear you and decide to ruin everyone's lives. They haven't infiltrated the music scene yet—at least, I don't think they have.

wanderingraven20 said:Because Jack, don't you ever sing that stuff for them. Who cares what they think? :2fingers:

Speaking of singing controversial songs by "controversial" artists—back when the war first broke out, Bruce Springsteen and Gobac were basically seen as icons for the hardliners in New York City. Fast forward to now, and Psycho Pop was actually one of the first American bands to play a show in NYC after the conflict ended. They held a press conference the day before the gig, which was packed—unlike the actual concert—mostly because reporters were just itching to grill Gobac. One guy from Gobac Flash asks him point-blank: "Are you going to perform 'America Must Win' at this comeback show in New York?"
Gobac, completely stone-faced, shuts him down right in front of the local organizer: "No need. America already won."
🤣 🙏
The press conference wrapped up pretty quickly after that, and the concert itself was largely boycotted; maybe 1,000 to 2,000 people showed up to Madison Square Garden.

Gobac 🙏

Gobac gave this ice-cold response that absolutely floored the local promoter: "No need, America won."

😂

And he delivered the whole thing with that signature manic grin of his, one eye squinted shut while the other stayed wide open.
I remember catching that Psycho Pop set on NBC a few years back... the stage was tiny, the venue was packed... and right there in the front row, you had this crowd waving flags and flipping everyone off... just pure chaos.

🙂

Look, it’s simple: both Jack and Gobac should just be banned from performing anywhere. It’s not even about those mindless nationalist outbursts they pulled back in the day; it’s just that they tapped out everything good they had a long time ago—Jack peaked around '81, and Gobac around '87. Everything since then has been absolute garbage.
Both of these idiots realized pretty quickly that they couldn't make real money touring the US, so they figured, "Let's just feed on our own nonsense and see if we can squeeze a few more bucks out of the sheep in New York City." Unfortunately, those sheep followed their shepherds right back into the pen...

Eric Moore32 said:If there's even one inaccurate quote, ugh, what can you really expect? You won't get anything coherent from a guy who acts like a human radio antenna, someone cruising down the interstate feeling the scent of blood and gasoline in his nose without being drunk or high.

🤣

Thomas Jackson64 said:because they sang everything good they had a long time ago (maybe Bruce Springsteen somewhere back in '81

I don't think that's true at all 😠
signals in the night 🙏 🙏 🙏

Thomas Jackson64 said:, and maybe Gobac Flash somewhere in '87)

That just isn't right
he didn't have anything good 😬

Nicholas Perez33 said:that's just not true
he didn't have anything good 😬

What do you mean?
He definitely did. I just can't recall the specifics right now.

Jack is honestly such a jerk. In New York City, he’s out there talking nonsense about how he disowned the song "Oh My New York Friend"—though I honestly can't wrap my head around how anyone could ever turn their back on one of their own songs—claiming he won't sing it there, yet he'll perform it just fine in Chicago.

It wasn't "be a flower," not then and certainly not the last time I was there. But last time (March 31, 2006), before he played "walking through life," he mentioned it was the first time he’d performed it in twenty years.

The shared rock scene didn't die because of one Springsteen song; it was killed by the looming war and the total breakdown in communication. The Rolling Stones, Vlad Divljan, Disciplina Kicma, Zabraniti Pusenje, Blue Orchestra, Haustor, Johnny, and plenty of others either stopped working or moved abroad during the '90-'91 period.

I never realized that Jack had a nationalist streak at one point, though I admit I was too young in '91 to catch those nuances. To me, "druze Mexico City" sounds anti-war. At least, that's how we interpret it over here.
Peter Lukovic noted in the Encyclopedia of Rock that it "was the only song being listened to on both sides of the conflict."

On the other hand, in America, none of the rockers spoke out openly against the war. Correct me if I'm wrong. Springsteen and Rundek just stepped back. Milan Mladenovic (EKV), Gile (Orgasm), and Cane (Partibrejkers) formed the anti-war project Rimtutituki. They recorded a track and promoted it with a concert from a truck driving through New York City.

For me, the best song by Film is "home for me," and its production date is well after '81. It carries a hint of that approaching darkness.

Nicholas Perez33, you’re right that the album has its moments, but in my humble opinion, nothing quite hits the mark like Live at The Fillmore.

Douglas Stewart, you and Peter Lukovic are absolutely right—that whole thing isn't nationalist at all, especially that music video where Jack, looking like he’s on something, cruises around in an American tank while enthusiastically lip-syncing his way through the song...

Douglas Stewart said:On the flip side, none of the rockers in America actually stepped up against the war. Correct me if I'm wrong. Springsteen and Rundek just went underground. Milan Mladenovic (EKV), Gile (Orgasm), and Cane (Partibrejkers) started that anti-war project, Rimtutituki. They recorded a song and promoted it by driving a truck through New York City for a concert.

And the best song by Film is "Home for Me," which was produced way after '81. It definitely carries that vibe of the evil creeping in.

Look, you can't just equate America and Mexico during that era. There was conflict between Americans and Mexicans back then, but it was happening in America, not in Mexico. The whole country was on high alert constantly—how do you expect an anti-war project to exist under those conditions? You've got air raid threats; you think a truck full of musicians is going to roll through the streets playing for cats and dogs while everyone else is hunkered down in shelters?

Thomas Jackson64 said:Nicholas Perez33, you've got a point—that album has some decent tracks, but honestly, nothing comes close to "Live at The Fillmore," if you ask me.

Douglas Stewart, you and Peter Lukovic are spot on—this isn't some nationalist anthem, especially considering that music video where (I assume high as a kite) Jack cruises around in an American tank, enthusiastically lip-syncing to a track...

That Live at The Fillmore set should have stayed unreleased in that format anyway.

Look, my friend, the New York version is actually pretty good. We could debate the music video—personally, I think it's stupid. But that wasn't him in the video; Jack wasn't really showing his face in videos during those years.

I never really caught the vibe that Jerry was leaning into nationalism at any point, though I’ll admit I was just a kid back in '91, so I wasn't exactly tracking all those nuances. To me, "druze Mexico City" always felt like an anti-war sentiment. At least, that’s how we interpreted it over here.
Peter Lukovic mentioned in the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia that it was "the only song being played on both sides of the front lines."

And get this... even Band Aid with "My Homeland" was being branded as some sort of ultra-nationalist war anthem by the other side...

As for what Lukovic said... well, we know it’s not quite that simple. But if you want proof that his take is way off the mark—whether you believe your own eyes and ears or not—just look at this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gshIGuUweB8

Karamba! 😉