{"id":18295,"date":"2020-05-25T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=18295"},"modified":"2023-01-01T15:23:14","modified_gmt":"2023-01-01T23:23:14","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-tucson-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/25\/roll-of-the-dice-tucson-train\/","title":{"rendered":"Roll of the Dice: Tucson Train"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve spent my 10,000 hours (and then some) learning my musical craft. But I’ve spent a lot more time than that, some 35 years, trying to learn how to let go of the destructive parts of my character. They did not go easily into that good night. For a long time, if I loved you and if I felt a deep attachment to you, I would hurt you if I could. It was a sin, and I still have days when I struggle with it. But I’ve gotten better. Through the love of my family, my good friends, I’ve learned how to love. And to be compassionate with those close to me, and to try and live with some small honor. “Tucson Train” is about a guy who’s trying to follow his better angels, working in the sun for a new start. He’s trying to change. — Bruce Springsteen, <\/span>Western Stars<\/em><\/span> (2019)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Western Stars<\/em> is a career summation featuring Bruce at his very peak as a songwriter, arranger, and even as a vocalist. It’s a deeply felt, nuanced treatise on life and living.<\/p>\n

It’s also–by far–Bruce’s warmest, most optimistic, and most life-affirming album. The entire album is imbued with the musical equivalent of autumn sunlight.<\/p>\n

Western Stars<\/em> is a collection of late-in-life character studies, and most of the characters have lived quite well. Some continue moving forward (“Hitch Hikin’,<\/a>” “The Wayfarer<\/a>“), while some can’t take their eyes off the past (“Moonlight Motel,<\/a>” “Chasin’ Wild Horses<\/a>“). Some are just content to be where they are (“Drive Fast (The Stuntman)<\/a>” and the album’s title track<\/a>).<\/p>\n

But so finely and lushly realized are these songs and that only after several listens might we realize: nothing happens in any of them<\/em>. There are no story arcs, and the characters go through no change or transformation.\u00a0Western Stars<\/em> is a collection of internal monologues–every song a first-person musing of a man on the road of now<\/em>, occasionally at an intersection with then<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And at the emotional center of the album, there is “Tucson Train,” the album’s purest pop song, combining a warm riff, a catchy hook, and a metronomic train gimmick to irresistible effect–and yet there’s some really sophisticated songwriting at work as well.<\/p>\n