Ditto that CS. I have never liked Springsteen. I have seen him in concert and thought it sucked. And I love Rock and Roll. I would listen to Bob Seger over Springsteen any day. And I prefer the blues influenced ramblings of Lynyrd Skynyrd to the Yankee whining of Springsteen.
If you can't listen to the entire album of Born to Run then any musical opinions you have are invalid.
If you could simply remove Bruce himself, I would concur that the band is a very talented group of musicians. I would always give them a chance with almost any other singer/ song writer at the helm. Bruce is a nice guy and all, but I'd prefer him as a baseball player or something not on an album cover.
I listened to most of the songs recommended. They were decent but my ears don't love it. My favorite was World's Apart (which was a live youtube clip) and mostly because of the fiddle that was mixed in. Over the past few weeks, I've mentioned to several other friends that we'd be out there tonight listening to the show. Most of the reactions that I got were "I'm not really big into Springsteen. He's ok I guess but just not my thing." I didn't realize he was so polarizing until these comments and this thread.
I wouldn't call myself a Springsteen hater, I just don't get the "rock god" status his fans give him. Side note: I know I've mentioned my brother, who just retired from the Marine Corps, most of his 25+ years as a musician. His first assignment, the band's officer was Clarence Clemons older brother, and he once brought CC to sit in with them during a rehearsal. My brother says the band's number one sax player blew rings around the big man.
I wouldn't call myself a Springsteen hater either. There are others I prefer much more...like Bob Seger et al. Also however Bruce became called "the next Dillon" hurt him. He isn't in Dillon's class as a song writer or musician. It seemed to me it was Bruce who wanted to be known that way and he would have been better off just being the first Bruce Springsteen.
