For years and years I tried to make sense of "wrapped up in a douche."
WTF does revved up like a deuce mean, anyways?
Your commentary applies much better to the Manfred Mann version of the song (a #1, Springsteen's version never charted). Most famously, Bruce's lyric was, "Cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night", and not very "douche" sounding as he sings it (nor is it repeated nearly as much). But the sun lyric is also "sights of the sun" rather than "eyes" and is sung in much less melodramatic way. Here; not really germane to your point, but you know, pedantic.
I've never understood what "wrapped up like a deuce" means, let alone "wrapped up like a douche".
A deuce would be a revved-up car. Not sure if it stems from duel carbs or something else, it was used more generally than that.
I've never heard the Springsteen version. But is Manfred Mann a great name, or what? I hope some lurker takes that on as their handle and joins the Commentariat.
Research and brain jolt yields "deuce" is pretty much same as "little deuce Coupe" and is from he 1932 Ford Coupe.
The original, non-idiotic incarnation of the Steve Miller Band seems to have had a lot in common with Manfred Mann's Earth Band. Was it, in fact, also an Earth Band? If not, what element did it represent, being from North America as opposed to Europe? I hope Charley Carp can weight in on this.
The original, non-idiotic incarnation of the Steve Miller Band
I had no idea such a thing existed. This must be pre-Jungle Love.
8: Yeah, Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do. He was born Manfred Sepse Lubowitz, which is almost as great.
Such a great sentence (from wikipedia):
The group signed to HMV Records in March 1963 after a change of name to Manfred Mann (at the suggestion of their label's producer), and debuted in July of that year with the jazzy instrumental single "Why Should We Not?", which failed to chart, as did the follow up (with vocals this time), "Cock-A-Hoop".
Notably the group began to have success with interpretations of Bob Dylan songs, including... the controversial "If You Gotta Go, Go Now", which was banned or edited by a number of TV and radio stations.
This song was controversial? Am I thinking of the right song?
The wikipedia article fails to mention "Blinded By The Light" at all, let alone it's douchenyness.
I've never heard that particular Bob Dylan song. Let's see...
"It ain't that I'm wantin'
Anything you never gave before.
It's just that I'll be sleepin' soon,
It'll be too dark for you to find the door.
But if you got to go,
It's all right.
But if you got to go, go now,
Or else you gotta stay all night."
Sounds controversial enough, in a world where "Let's Spend the Night Together" had to be changed to "Let's Spend Some Time Together" to be allowed to be performed on the Ed Sullivan show.
"Blinded By the Light" was by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, not Manfred Mann. Geez, pay attention!
For that you must consult the Manfred Mann's Earth Band entry. Not merely the man, Manfred Mann, 's entry.
17: But you'd think the man would inspire a mention.
11: Yes, in fact Steve Miller's personal story is sort of American musical authenticity eventually gone bad. While in Milwaukee, his first guitar chords were taught to him when he was five years old by his godfather Les Paul, pioneer of the electric guitar and multitrack recording. and Upon his return to the United States, Miller moved to Chicago where he immersed himself in the city's blues scene. During his time there, he worked with harmonica player Paul Butterfield and jammed with blues greats Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Buddy Guy, all of whom offered the young guitarist encouragement to pursue a musical career.
His late 60s stuff (a lot of it with Boz Scaggs) was maybe not to everyone's taste. but pretty decent. "Living In The U.S.A", for instance. As Ned mentioned, Charley Carp has a lot to say on him.
The Manfred Mann entry isn't about Manfred Mann the man, it's about Manfred Mann the man's band. The Manfred Mann (Musician) entry is about Manfred Mann the man.
16: Yeah, actually I was thinking of a different song. Who sings that song
If you wanna go, girl you better go now.....go now... ?
I feel that Manfred Mann the Mandom ought to transcend entries restricted to Manfred Mann (The Man Musician) because of his manly transcendance and that the pinnacle of his manly mandom is Blinded By The Light, and thus warrants mention everywhere.
I've never heard the Springsteen version.
Wait, are you being serious? Seems like it would have been hard to miss without actively avoiding it. Here's your big chance.
23: What I think you are seeing is the pernicious and ubiquitous of the insufferable music snob police. Like Steve Miller, MM--the man, band, the plan: Manama-- was OK in his pre-1970s manifestation, not so much thereafter.
Link in 24 -> link in 4. But who's keeping track, really?
Next Heebs will be saying she's never heard this.
24: I've never been a big Springsteen fan, and that's not the version that gets played on the radio, so it escaped me.
Wow, 27 is really something special. Talk about seeing purple and yellow paisley.
Possibly better than the lyric is the fact that the keyboard player immediately goes into chopsticks, of all things. Yeah! Youthful innocence! Woo!
I'd never heard the Springsteen version before, either. Disappointingly non-bombastic.
30 is so right. I can't believe I forgot about that part.
You folks ought to be clever enough to find and listen to the songs Baby's Calling Me Home, Loan Me A Dime, and Sweet Release from Boz Scaggs' show at the Fillmore West, one of the final concerts there. It is on the internet. BCMH made the compilation album, having been originally released by Steve Miller.
Lyrics to Sweet Release, not really OT here:
I was born
On a side road far from here
While the town was burning
Out my dark window
I was crowned
With a cage of cold barbed-wire
And my bottle
I keep with me
Even till now
Curse my pain
Curse the sunrise every dawn
Oh yeah
Oh those sidewalks ran me ragged
Yeah those cracks my only guide.. oh
Long for midnight
Long for darkness sweet release..oh yes
Beg the alleys
For your endless time to cease
Screaming blackbird on my shoulder
Mark my nearness to his youth.. oh
Left my senses reeling
As he cried "I understand you".. oh
Try the handle
Try the doorway try the path
Try to enter.. to enter
And to find some solace there
Oh there
In this clearing
You'll find nothing but a song
Give it breath give it sunshine
And with you it will belong.. oh belong
It will whisper
It will stir a gentle breeze
It's hands are your hands
They will take you where you please
If you please
Will you choose to be gentle
Its just your life whatever you feel
Are we blind for a reason
Or is it just to make it real.. oh real
Show me do
Give me seashells for my ears
Tell your neighbours.. oh
And forgive them for their fears
28: It got some critical attention but not much else when it came out. Springsteen flew under the popular radar until Born to Run in 1975, so it is not like the song had had a big run before Manfred Mann's cover. A minor but continuing annoyance to me is that my original vinyls of his first two albums got stolen at a party around about then.
31: Disappointingly non-bombastic.
Yes, at the time that particular song helped earn him the moniker of new Dylan or new Van Morrison.
22 cont'd: I was thinking of the Moody Blues song, "Go now". Which does seem uncontroversial enough.
A minor but continuing annoyance to me is that my original vinyls of his first two albums got stolen at a party around about then.
Excuse me while I mentally revise JP Stormcrow's age. I had you pegged younger.
I feel like there's no way that this thread isn't going to end with people posting Tull videos.
That first Springsteen album (Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ) is all kinds of awesome. It was something of a drunken party trick of mine for a while to make punk-rock boys listen to "Lost in the Flood" and have them recognize just how brutally amazing that song is.
36: Maybe it was my 8th birthday party where they were stolen!
Actually, I'm practically mcmanusian. But I'm young where it counts, laydeez.
Late 60s Steve Miller Band was perhaps excessively eclectic, strangely alternating between pop-psych and light blues, but I like it. "Quicksilver Girl" is still played, and can give you an idea.
British Invasion Manfred Mann, pre-Earth Band, around 1965, was quite fine.
I prefer the acoustic Springsteen:Nebraska, River, Tom Joad.
To 39. Merely coincident timing that McManus himself answered the batcall.
41: Shouldn't that be the Texas Methuselah or something so as to not deprecate the old Methuselah.
But that would deprecate the New Methuselah.
Every Methuselah is its own special crusty snowflake.
I'm young where it counts
It was previously owned by a little old lady who only drove it back and forth to church.
Moving on past the deuce/douche issue, Springstreen clearly sings "runner in the night" every time, and Manfred Mann does part of the time, but others it sounds closer to "rumor in the night". What is he singing?
I got to drive it in the driveway all the time though. "Whatever you do, don't take it out in public" she'd always warn me.
I had no idea Bob Dylan wrote this song.
OT: Remember how I was telling you about my weird balance disorder and how I'm super self-conscious about people thinking I'm drunk when I'm not? Normally I stagger and sway and fall down but haven't really hurt myself too badly.
Well. Last night I fell down the stairs and ended up with a split lip and a black eye and some other residual bruising. And now I am experiencing a whole new realm of defensive self-consciousness: everyone will think I am being abused, and when I say I fell down the stairs, they'll think it even more!
What a weird preoccupation this seems. Objectively, it should be pretty far down my list of concerns, but I'm seriously considering staying home all weekend just so no one will see me. What do we think: am I feeling shame or embarrassment?
And now I am experiencing a whole new realm of defensive self-consciousness: everyone will think I am being abused, and when I say I fell down the stairs, they'll think it even more!
Embarrassment, maybe? Or maybe just pre-emptive weariness at the thought of having to explain oneself to dubious interlocutors over and over and over? What you are worried about is a real thing, though. A friend of mine ended up with a nasty black eye from getting smacked with a squash ball, and spent a week fending off earnest appeals from the (women) citizens of Chicago. Lots of "There's help out there!" or "Ain't no man worth it!" Which is kind of sweet, really.
Just wear a gi and nobody'll ask you to explain a thing.
Embarrassment, maybe? Or maybe just pre-emptive weariness at the thought of having to explain oneself to dubious interlocutors over and over and over?
Or maybe it's just my fear of being stereotyped. Or stereotypical. I AM NOT ORDINARY!
Tell them you were thrown from a horse. Down some stairs.
52: Kind of sweet, unless you're the guy with the girl. Good intentioned, but man do you get some nasty looks.
I refuse to make fun of Manfred Mann out of respect for early Springsteen. Early Bruce was just so crazily brilliant .
Do you think things would be better or worse if I tried to mask it? Makeup, sunglasses? These things seem suspicious to me.
Huge sunglasses, pancake makeup, large scarf, and whenever anyone says anything to you just turn away and gaze sadly at the floor.
Or I could just get real drunk and that explains everything.
Whenever people ask what happened, just tell them, "I'm in love! Isn't it wonderful?"
Hope you heal up easily and fast, Messily.
63: thanks! it's not really that bad. Plus he brought me flowers and apologized real nice and promised it'd never happen again.
Plus he brought me flowers and apologized real nice and promised it'd never happen again. And he's right, it really was my fault anyway.
Go the whole way.
I feel like there's no way that this thread isn't going to end with people posting Tull videos.
I had forgotten that the Focus song features the flute bit, yet I still thought, "wow, that guy totally seems to be cribbing Ian Anderson's ridiculous facial expressions." Voila.
49: My understanding is that Mannfred Man significantly rewrote it - not just arrangement, but also lyrics. I read up on this once.
Good tune, tho.
I don't understand all the mid seventies Steve miller band hate. His greatest hits is sweet. And as the folowing review hints, it isn't like buying a greatful dead album. You don't have to worry that your record collection will metastasize with a bunch of dick's picks or anything.
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0cu1z88ajyvn~T1
OT bleg:
Does anyone know why my new MacBook running Snow Leopard doesn't show a lot of text in Safari? Like, when the ads pop up over the video in YouTube, there's no text, just the jumpbox*. Both the OS and Safarti are up to date. I assume it's a plug-in issue, but why isn't anyone telling me "You Must Download Plug-in X"?
What's the deal? I never had this problem running Safari on Tiger.
* Other examples: MLB.com's Gamecast and the similar NFL feature show the graphics, but none of the text associated with them.
OT Foodie Edition: exotic street food And to tie it in with the music theme, my instant thought was a negresses vertes song that is inexplicably missing on youtube.
http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/boz-scaggs/concerts/fillmore-west-june-30-1971.html
If you are going to get black eyes, you need to take up a hobby where you'd get them, like parkour or something.
Also, why 'Lost in the Flood'? that one sucks. i always dkip it
That first Springsteen album (Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ) is all kinds of awesome.
I haven't listened to that one but, for me, the recently released 1975 concert at the Hammersmith Odeon was what made me appreciate early Springsteen.
He says in the liner notes that it was there first trip oversees and that everyone was riding on enormous amounts of adrenaline for the show.
[A]n E Street Band, with a good deal of the carnival still left in it and armed with a set list I still dare any young band to match, strode onto the stage of the Hammersmith Odeon. The tempos were fast.
Listening to Tenth Ave. Freeze-Out and Saint In The City (both great) I can really see why people have said that he tended to over-write lyrics early on.
Further to 77, I've listened to that album, but looking it up now was the first time I've watched the video. It gives me a sense of the personalities of the band, who are interesting.
I can really see why people have said that he tended to over-write lyrics early on.
See, I love that crazy-Blakey overwriting!
I had no idea Bob Dylan wrote this song.
I was recently listening to this which I don't think of as a Bob Dylan song, but is.
OT: Per our earlier fixed-gear discussion, I think I've found the ultimate fixter anthem: http://vimeo.com/7565870 . (Via Bikesnob).
Even more astonishing, the theme song to "Absolutely Fabulous" is apparently a Bob Dylan song.
OT: My Christmas shopping is done. Getting this for everybody.
86: Here's a slideshow of each month of 2009. But I think this one from the 2010 is my favorite.
87: Does everybody already have one? Maybe I'll have to stick to Red Lobster gift cards.
wikepedeia tellms me: " The Manfred Mann's Earth Band recording of "Blinded by the Light" is Springsteen's only Number 1 single as a songwriter on the Hot 100." Link.
80 Thanks, never heard of them before and they're really nice.
89: Fire, as sung by the Pointer Sisters, was robbed - only made it to number 2.
"Because The Night" only made it top 20. "Dancing in the Dark" was a #2.
First two Springsteen albums are almost funky, featuring a somewhat different incarnation of the E Street Band -- throws people every time when they've only heard the post Born to Run group.
Lost in the Flood is amazing, especially live with a good audience. Better than Jungleland.
Saw "The Manfreds" - basically everybody who was ever in Manfred Mann exc. Manfred Mann - not long since. They were excellent, even though they looked like a bunch of retired civil servants. Paul Jones (singing on "If you gotta go...") has got religion.
94: Oh, I've missed you! (I am loopy and sleep deprived, but this is still true.)
For the bruises, I say go with this approach:
when asked, let your eyes unfocus for a second in memory, and allow the trace of a shit-eating grin start to steal across your face. Then regain control, look the questioner right in the eye, and say "I fell down some stairs" with the kind of finality that says 'I don't care if you think I'm lying; that's all I'm going to say about it'.
