The meaning of that song...

[poolie]

Hi Thom

I stumbled across this site the other day which whilst it appears is no longer running is certainly a good reference point for albums and lyrics by Chris. Perhaps some of you already know about it?

http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/m ... yrics.html


Poolie

[Tina3]

Interesting site Poolie thanks for the link.
Tina

[Bart]

Anybody any ideas about why Chris wrote "One golden rule" (one of my al time favs!)? Of course I can "guess" some explanation listening to the lyrics, but perhaps anybody knows for sure. I find it (but then again, that may be because English is not my first language!) very poetic lyrics...

And I cursed my teachers for all of their reading
What we needed most can't be found in them books

Now they teach you to swim but they don't speak of the danger
Tell you the truth but they never say why
Put you on ice that is thin and tell you it's winter
Without one golden rule the truth is a lie

[alan1958]

Bart , the timing of the wonderful Shamrock Diaries came at the peak of wordwide "Springsteen madness" ....it's hard to imagine it now but he was bigger than Michael Jackson,Madonna ...etc....and every artist had been influenced , musically (Sax & Piano) and also lyrically ( true-life songs about your own past ,life is tough ....you gotta fight hard to survive in the big bad world , working class songs of Steel mills , shipyards etc....etc)...(I've mentioned it before that CR sat beside me at a Springsteen gig in 1981).....so songs like Hired Gun,Chisel Hill ,Steel River, are hugely influenced by that sound ,both musically & lyrically ....which leads me to One Golden Rule .....this is more of a CR song ,but still has that Springsteen' lyric , slightly like the track from Born in the USA ,No Surrender............ please feel free to sing along at the back

We busted out of class had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a three-minute record than we ever learned in school
Tonight I heart the neighborhood drummer sound
I can feel my heart begin to pound
You say youre tired and you just want to close your eyes and follow your dreams down

We made a promise we swore wed always remember
No retreat, believe me, no surrender
Like soldiers in the winters night with a vow to defend
No retreat, believe me, no surrender

Now young faces grow sad and old and hearts of fire grow cold
We swore blood brothers against the wind
Im ready to grow young again
And hear your sisters voice calling us home across the open yards
Believin we could cut someplace of our own
With these drums and these guitars

We made a promise we swore wed always remember
No retreat, believe me, no surrender
Blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to defend
No retreat, believe me, no surrender

Now on the street tonight the lights grow dim
The walls of my room are closing in
But its good to see your smiling face and to hear your voice again
We could sleep in the twilight by the river side
With a wide open country in our hearts
And these romanics dreams in our heads

We made a promise...

[lilybee]

Interesting comment Alan,

Shamrock Diaries was released one year after Born in the USA.

...Who was inspiring who....?

Oh, here's the music to the lyrics Alan's talking about:
http://www.brucespringsteen.net/albums/ ... heusa.html

Lily

[deep-blue-sea]

heelo together,
i just saw the name Madonna...i remember that i read somewhere 'Red Shoes' has something to do with Madonna...a hommage or something like that...strange. I really don' t the music from Madonna.
bye all and 'rea'gards from Switzerland. Dbs

[Tina3]

Hello everyone,
This makes very interesting reading Alan.

i just saw the name Madonna...i remember that i read somewhere 'Red Shoes' has something to do with Madonna...a hommage or something like that...strange. I really don' t the music from Madonna.

That's right didn't he write that song for Madonna cause one of his daughters likes her?I'm with you Deep Blue Sea on this one I'm not mad about Madonna's music and if I'm honest I'm not mad about Bruce either.Some of his songs are ok.
Tina

[alan1958]

Hi Lily ,I've got to say that I hope it does not come over as a slur on my fave artist Chris Rea , coz as you say , all artists are influenced by other music ......His obvious influences ,eg ;blues ,singer-songriters ,are mixed up with most probably record company pressure to be like the big sellers at the time eg;Dire Straits around '84, Producer Gus Dudgeon trying to make him sound like Elton John on Deltics........and less obviously ,Springsteen ,not now , but it was there ,and i'm glad , as it made him who he is , How many other artists have made more of a variety of music than Chris Rea ??..........The first Springsteen 'esque moment is the last track on Tennis,"Stick It "......very similar to Jungleland ,the piano is the same & the lyrics are full of Springsteen'isms ......but then again Jungleland was the main influence on the whole Meatloaf Bat out of Hell album, and just about every artist has taken bits of that song .......On the 4th album,Chris Rea, "Runaway ,"lyrically has the Born to Run feel ,though not musically....and the next track,"When You Know Your Love Has Died" also has a Darkness OTEdgeOTown feel...The same way Chisel Hill would a few years later... ........I realise to a huge amount of people ,Bruce Springsteen is the guy that can't sing ,screaming BORN IN THE USA at the top of his voice ,but to musicians,there are hardly any that have not been touched by his 30 year output ........whatever you do ,don't Google "inspired by Springsteen"...we may never see you again......................ps...I am a very slow typer, and these long posts take forever....any chance one of you guys could nominate me for a Nobel Prize for Literature

[alan1958]

Hello everyone,
This makes very interesting reading Alan.

and if I'm honest I'm not mad about Bruce either.Some of his songs are ok.
Tina

Hi Tina , I wrote in my second post "I realise to a huge amount of people ,Bruce Springsteen is the guy that can't sing ,screaming BORN IN THE USA at the top of his voice ,"before I read that you are not a big Bruce fan ,and I totally understand ......watch out....I may just send you some that you would love!!!!!!

[Tina3]

I have a totally different "take" on the songs you have listed here.Although I would know the names of the Springsteen songs I would not know the lyrics. I thought "Runaway" was about the many young homeless young people Chris would have seen on his travels and around the streets that he would drive through. "When You Know Your Love Has Died" speaks for it's self.Did Chris not say that "Chisel Hill" is about a place near his hometown of Middlesborough or am I being too simple in my understanding of these songs?.

.watch out....I may just send you some that you would love!!!!!!

Alan you are so funny.I doubt you could do that apart from "The River" which I like but don't love not one Springsteen song impresses me that much.Sorry I know to many many fans he is amazing I'm just not one of them.
Tina

[alan1958]

Tina , That's it ,the gloves are off ......I am going to make up a cd and send it to you ........and if you don't listen to it ,I will send the boys round .......but if you do listen to it and still don't like it = oh well)

You are right about Chisel Hill being a place near his home ,but those kind of songs ended up on every album I bought in that period....and that came from Springsteen ...Billy Joel had one on his album at the time called "Allentown" , where every lyric was from a Springsteen song , and the music was "Hungry Heart" ...not very subtle
I do not think it is a bad thing ,because they all had to raise thier game ,and made them even better songwriters..........but I often wonder when Chris talks in interviews about pressure from the Record Company ,if this is partly what he is referring to ---"Sound like this ..or "Put this instrument here ,coz that is what is selling"
I realise that now CR is much more like Ry Cooder ,Bonnie Raitt etc, it has been a long journey ,with millions of different stages ,and I actually don't really think about influences much , the Bruce one is only a tint part of the bigger picture ,early in his career ,...............................every artist in my record collection has been influenced by someone ,and luckily for us ,CR ,listens to all kinds of music.....that is why I spend so much time listening to him ...........................................where is my Nobel Prize for Literature this takes me ages

[lilybee]

Hi Everybody

......His obvious influences ,eg ;blues ,singer-songriters ,are mixed up with most probably record company pressure to be like the big sellers at the time eg;Dire Straits around '84, Producer Gus Dudgeon trying to make him sound like Elton John on Deltics........

Alan, I must say you're absolutely right, and at the risk of offending someone here who may love "Diamonds" from this album, I can't stand it! It's sooooo NOT Chris Rea, and I always thought his throat was hurting when singing this song, from rushing too much through it, and on the video, his keyboardist even looks like Elton!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IGDOQJNd4s

About Springsteen, I like the guy, he's an excellent musician and a poet, but on some of his songs he just can't sing, he screams, like Alan said.

One of my faves from Bruce is an oldie from the Asbury Park album (1973), which I heard for the first time in 1980, Spirits in the Night. Full of soul.

I first heard "Fool" in 79, along with "Just The Way You Are"...as we all know, Billy beat Chris on the Grammys with his song...

Did Chris not say that "Chisel Hill" is about a place near his hometown of Middlesborough or am I being too simple in my understanding of these songs?.

Hi Tina, here's a picture of Chisel Hill for you:




And one of Chris' beloved Steel River, the River Tees




(thanks for the pictures John, )


Lily

[alan1958]

Lily[/quote]

Alan, I must say you're absolutely right ------- my wife says that they are 7 of my favourite words

One of my faves from Bruce is an oldie from the Asbury Park album (1973), which I heard for the first time in 1980, Spirits in the Night. Full of soul.

Thanks Lily , and would you believe we named our daughter Jane , after Crazy Janey in that song ....strange but true A really nice version is on the dvd, Live in Barcelona,where BS agrees to do it solo on the piano, after a request from a fan ........then half-way through forgets the words...there is this great moment when he just sits there , totally perplexed, with the camera on him ,live in tv, .............................i've made up loads of BS discs for people .....one condition ....no shouty songs Tina ,you have been warned (I know this is getting a bit off-topic ,but it still refers to "the meaning of that song"

his keyboardist even looks like Elton!!......I'm sure I read CR referring to the Deltics producer as ,"Gus-bring on the strings- Dudgeon" ,as he was getting fed up with him trying to get CR songs to sound like things like Philadelphia Freedom etc ......

My big fear with these posts is they can be seen as critical ,but today all I have listened to is Chris Rea, same as most days, and as long as it is constructive ,these comments are healthy (unlike my liver )

While we are on about influences ,we all know that CR really started listening to the great Joe Walsh .........try finding the Joe Walsh song "Welcome to the Club" and you will hear the bones of the track ,"Deltics", ..........

[Tina3]

Tina , That's it ,the gloves are off ......I am going to make up a cd and send it to you ........and if you don't listen to it ,I will send the boys round

I have a Bruce DVD free to a good home if anyone is interested!!! that's how uninterested I am in him.I got a Springsteen C.D/DVD last year as a present The Seeger Sessions recorded Live in Dublin so I went and bought (yes bought) a DVD of Bruce's Video Collection from 1978-2000 to see if I could get interested in him and no luck so this is now going free to a good home .

f this is partly what he is referring to ---"Sound like this ..or "Put this instrument here ,coz that is what is selling"

yes I would see this happening with Chris and the record company cause that is what was selling at the time.

where is my Nobel Prize for Literature this takes me ages

you are halirious
Tina

[Tina3]

Lily,Thanks for the pictures but I wonder what it is about this hill that inspired Chris to write a song about it but that's Chris I guess.
I like Diamonds it's an ok song.
Tina