Originally Posted By: JoanneCooper
I have never listened to Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" but I sure have heck heard "Born to Run" and I think he is brilliant...


I think he WAS brilliant, Joanne. Up to "The River" he wrote much better than he has since. Of course this is just my opinion, but he started to write "I need to sell some units" songs and everything kind of blended into "the gray" for me. I think Clarence Clemons was way overrated and had he played with anybody but Springsteen he would be just another decent sax player who had one tone and no finesse. Same for Nils Lofgren and Steve Van Zandt. Neither of them are particularly hot guitar players, but they played with Springsteen, so they MUST be good.

Many people tend to take their admiration for artists to a level where ANYTHING they do is automatically great. I am not like that. I know people who have "their band" and everybody else is hackneyed amateurs in their mind. Whether it is Springsteen, Genesis, Queen, Meatloaf... that cultist level fan believes their hero can do no wrong. My criteria is that if they have more songs that I DO like than songs I DON'T like, they are okay with me.

And this is kind of on topic because of my opinion that Springsteen turned out quantity without regard for quality knowing that the sheep level fans will buy whatever he puts out.

I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.

1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.