Monday, February 02, 2009
Addendum, Supe Edition
2 commentsA few other impressions from last night's great Super Bowl brawl in Tampa that I was too tired to remember to put into the last post.
***Whose bright idea within the NFL leadership was it to leave poor, frail, 65-yr-old NY Jets icon Joe Willie Namath on his own with no support to get through that long, ungainly scrum of ecstatic, frantic 300-pound Steeler behemoths, while trying desperately to get the Vince Lombardi championship trophy to the post-game podium? I know he was laughing a lot, but it still looked like he was yelling, "Ow, not the knees! Ow, not the hips! Please, not the knees!" Joe Willie must have thought he was playing again against those old Oakland Raider teams that beat him up so badly. It should take him at least until Sunday to recover and be ready to go again. Although which Sunday, and in what year, is open to question. Scary moment, actually. The happy players seemed on the verge of spinning out of control.
***Ummmm, it's a performer's ego thing, I know. And this is VERY touchy. But someone close to Bruce Springsteen in the E Street Band needs to have coffee with the Boss and gently let him know that, at 59 years of age, it might be time to drop the keys of a couple of his songs down a half step or a step, so that he can still sing them. They could use the same great arrangements, same great feel. There just wouldn't be notes he can't get to anymore. It's a natural part of the aging process for every singer. The adoring crowds will never know. It was a fabulous show, but it was interesting that he wasn't close to being able to sing "Born To Run" from eons ago. But as soon as he shifted into the title tune of his new album (which he's obviously written recently for his voice as it stands now), he fell right into pitch and could hit every note comfortably. At a lower key, it still proved to be a great tune. BTR was just sad. On the other hand, he looks great for 59, and those knee bends and knee slides from back when he was 29, were just inhuman at his age—although I have a hunch that America can do without him sliding his aging crotch into the camera. I do believe that with everything else he's been blessed with, though, he's simply a freak of nature. Perhaps Bruce will be the Satchel Paige of rock & roll. So, you run, Bruce. Or limp. But just do it in tune.
***If NBC was going to promo the beejeesus out of their upcoming halftime 3-D experiment throughout the entire first half, was it asking too much for them to tell viewers just tuning in, either where to get these glasses or that it was too late to grab one, so go get a sandwich?
***It also looks as if The 3rd Bush Family Recession has now dragged even the Super Bowl into its sink hole. Even the sports guys are jumping into the economic reporting pool, since it's impossible now to ignore all the money that is just not being spent—even on splashy, obscene All-American testimonials to Wretched Excess, like the Super Bowl. This does not bode well. I may not have been a Barack Obama fan early on. But now we're all Obama fans on this bus. We have no choice. Also, logic dictates that there's a nice, comfy ice flow somewhere with Rush Limbaugh's name on it.
***In stark contrast to the gutless, classless Steeler posturing after their victory, here's Arizona's quarterback Kurt Warner after the game, speaking in defeat:"They won this game. We didn't lose it," Warner said. "They are world champs."Classy.
To all of Pittsburgh: This is how the Game is played.
posted by Gotham 11:42 AM
2 Comments:
re: Bruce hitting the notes
We've had this discussion before, and aside from pride, her's the sad truth: Sadly, the rock and roll concert audience doesn't care anymore.
This new generation won't pay $10 for an album but will spend $100 on a ticket, drinks, parking, merch, for an event that is ephemeral in nature, but also, and more importantly provides no guarantees as to performance, sound quality, sight lines, etc. It's all about the "hang" and being seen.
This has led to a recent drop in the quality of concerts in general--I haven't enjoyed a rock show by an established artist in quite some time--one deplorable trend that I don't see letting up any time soon.
In Bruce's case, his fans worship him and I'm assuming they don't care if he can't hits those notes anymore.
By 
Kiko Jones, at
February 02, 2009 2:47 PM
Kiko:
I assume you're right about that as far as the audience in Tampa was concerned. He was croaking; they were blissing.
But with a billion people watching who did not have access to the "hang," and were just sitting on the couch, artists (in this case, Bruce) run a real risk of turning off thousands of music buying folks in a very tight economy. The last thing he wanted out of that appearance was to have people around the country in big groups of partyers laughing to their friends, "Man, do you hear that? Springsteen's TOAST! He sounds like shit!" And have all the others go, "Yeah, that's so sad." He could then hear the air seep out of his sales balloon.
He had to know that he was playing for two audiences, not his usual one. Especially when this was all about pushing a brand new record. His marketing team let him down big-time.
By Gotham, at
February 03, 2009 1:57 AM
