by Gregg Chadwick
You've Got It
(Song by Song Review of Bruce Springsteen's New Album - Wrecking Ball)
"She is beautiful, and more than beautiful; she is surprising. Black abounds in her, and everything she inspires is nocturnal and deep. Her eyes are two caves dimly glittering with mystery, and her gaze illumines like lightning: an explosion in the darkness."
- Charles Baudelaire , The Desire to Paint from Le Spleen de Paris, trans. by Edward Kaplan
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Gregg Chadwick Golden Gate 30"x22" monotype on paper 2011 |
Springsteen's You've Got It (Listen Here) is a call to a union of a different kind. The song begins with a simple understated guitar and vocals vibe that sounds as if it could have come from a lost demo from his audition at Columbia Records for the legendary John Hammond.
No one ever found it, ain't no school ever taught it
No one ever made it, ain't no one ever bought it
Baby you've got it, baby you've got it
Come on and give it to me
Piano and a pedal steel guitar fill in the spaces behind the singer and the song begins to build into a horn swathed ode to lust and love.
Yeah, you can't read it in a book, and you can't even dream it
Honey, it ain't got a name, you just know it when you see it
Baby you've got it, yeah, baby you've got it
Come on and give it to me
Like good whiskey, the rasp in Springsteen's voice and Marc Muller’s bluesy guitar solo compel us to sip slowly and appreciate the company we are with. In this instance Springsteen's line from his song No Surrender is absolutely true:
We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school
Like Springsteen sings, some things can't be learned from a book, but they still take a lot of practice to get right.
All lyrics from You've Got It - Copyright © Bruce Springsteen (ASCAP)
More Song by Song Reviews of Wrecking Ball:
More at:
"Bruce Springsteen's widescreen vision of America on Wrecking Ball is filled with terror, tension, tenacity and above all else, triumph which may not replenish your bank account, but it will replenish your soul."
-Anthony Kuzminski, Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball, antiMusic
From Down Under: Sean Sennett Talks With Springsteen About Wrecking Ball
All Things Shining by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly
The Working Man's Voice - The Wall Street Journal
A More Chaste Review of You've Got It by Jonathan Lack
Parsing the Samples and Quotes on Wrecking Ball
Bruce Springsteen, Théatre Marigny press conference, Paris, February 2012
Don't Miss This Upcoming Event on NPR:
NPR Music will broadcast Bruce Springsteen's keynote speech from the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. The live webcast of that address will take place on NPR Music on March 15 at noon Central time.
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