Bruce Springsteen: Only The Strong Survive -2022
So, what do artists do when they've pretty much done everything else? An album of cover versions, that's what. However, there are cover versions and there are cover versions. Some artists - I'm thinking of Rod Stewart with his Soul Book album in particular - go down the route of covering well-known standards, often not matching up to the timeless brilliance of the originals. Others - like the Rolling Stones with Blue & Lonesome - choose more obscure (to some) material. Bruce Springsteen has done the latter here with many of the tracks. He has also decided to cover soul numbers, which is a bit of a surprise, given that his roots are more in rock 'n' roll. Bryan Ferry did the same on some of the numbers on his 1973 These Foolish Things album. Some are not happy with an album of covers, though, wanting an album of new originals, but I am more open-minded about this project. Fair play to him, I say.
Regarding cover versions in general, over the years some of them have become definitive, such as Hendrix's All Along The Watchtower or The Byrds' Mr. Tamborine Man, but others just can't live up to the iconic sound of the original. That's why I prefer covers of lesser-known songs, or ones that totally change the song, such as Nazareth's version of Joni Mitchell's This Flight Tonight, for example, which I love. Springsteen doesn't re-interpret the material, however, he simply pays them homage, expressing his genuine love for them. Bruce has always covered other people's songs well live, so the songs are in safe hands here, I feel. It is not a "Christmas present for Grandma" album and at least he hasn't released an album of Christmas classics! Yes, I guess it's karaoke, but there's karaoke and there's karaoke with Bruce Springsteen on vocals. If one man could summon up the passion necessary then he can. He loves the songs and you can tell. He truly loves music's history (as I do) and this comes over loud and clear.
The album is credited to "Springsteen" on the cover, like David Bowie did on Diamond Dogs.
The album kicks of with Jerry Butler's Northern Soul classic Only The Strong Survive and I'm immediately convinced that Bruce and his musicians (basically producer Ron Aniello, playing everything, incredibly) know what they're doing - from the string orchestration to the backing vocals, the big, rubbery bassline and Bruce's towering vocal. great stuff indeed.
None of the soul of the Commodores' Nightshift has been lost and Frank Wilson's Northern Soul classic Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) is delivered with as much verve and vigour as the original. It's nice to know again that Bruce is a Northern Soul fan. Tyrone Davis's Turn Back The Hands Of Time is in the same ebullient, irresistible mould as indeed is Ben E. King's good-time romp of Don't Play That Song. The joie de vivre on this is palpable. This is why I've stuck with Bruce all these years. Yes, there are many artists whose music I play more, actually, but Bruce is like family and if a man turns his back on his family, well mister he ain't no good.
The Walker Brothers' The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore is one of those better-known, but, again, it is in good hands, isn't it? This is Bruce we're talking about. He doesn't put out rubbish. Sometimes he can't quite match up to the glory of the original, but that isn't really an issue. Just enjoy it for what it is. A case in point is The Four Tops' When She Was My Girl, sure, Bruce ain't no Levi Stubbs (who is?) but he is Bruce and he lends his own appealing, honest, workaday gruffness to the song.
Hey, Western Union Man is a little-known Jerry Butler song, also covered by Diana Ross & The Supremes on their 1969 Let The Sunshine In album. Again, maybe Bruce doesn't quite have the requisite copper-bottomed instinctive soulfulness but as its a lesser-known song, it comes over as a quality concert encore rarity or something he would perform with assorted guests on The Late Show or at a charity gig.
Now, I Wish It Would Rain (made famous by the wonderful, iconic David Ruffin vocal for The Temptations and also covered well by Rod Stewart) is a big test for Bruce, but Lord above he passes it with flying colours, meeting the high notes superbly and keeping the song's intrinsic soul. It is a difficult song to sing, something that shouldn't be forgotten.The brassy Any Other Way is a William Bell song from his 1967 Soul Of A Bell album. This is what I said about the original in my review -
"Any Other Way is a mid-pace piece of gospel meets slowed-down rock 'n' roll backed by some sumptuous, uplifting horn breaks. I love this one - classic smouldering, brassy Stax soul. Sometimes music doesn't get much better than this
The same applies to this version. Also by William Bell was I Forgot To Be Your Lover, a track I had on the Stax Singles Box Set, Volume Two. Sam Moore also features on this one.
The Four Tops' Seven Rooms Of Gloom is another difficult song to sing and this is apparent here, although the original Funk Brothers' pounding backing is wonderfully re-created, as if James Jamerson has turned up on bass. Jimmy Ruffin's legendary What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted has been covered by so many that, unfortunately, this is just another one. The album ends with a song I have loved dearly for years - Diana Ross & The Supremes' Someday We'll Be Together (or should I say Diana Ross's, as there were no other Supremes on the original). It is better sung by a female vocal in my opinion, but Bruce understands the soul of the song and delivers it pretty straight to the original, even down to Ross's "say it, say it, say it - say it again" bit at the end.
In conclusion, although highly enjoyable, the album suffers a little from CD bloat (Brokenhearted could have been left off, for example) and I tire a bit of the homogenous nature of the material after forty minutes but that is nit-picking. It's a refreshingly different release from a man whose taste is almost as impeccable as my own.
Regarding Ron Aniello's instrumental achievement - it's pretty incredible these days to hear how one person in a studio can weave together all these multiple instruments and make it sound as if The Funk Brothers or the E St. Band are in the studio. If I hadn't read that it wasn't I would have thought it was a full band. An interesting postscript is that a month or so after the album's release and my initial listenings, I haven't been motivated to listen to it again, a situation I can't see changing as yet.
