A narrow win for Bruce last week although the Pointer Sisters would have had him!
So we now have the score reading The Boss 9 The Rest 8
Squeaky bottom time.
Time than to feature Born to Run.
It was always going to feature but we nearly had a Purple Ronnie the arch narcissist situation when he held out for the Hollywood penalty only to be let down by his Portuguese colleagues, Glorious!
Originally I was going to feature Suzi Quatro but her version is absolutely dreadful. My brother was playing this in a van once when his pal ejected it and threw it out the window. Now I am not one for condoning littering the M6 but in this case I am prepared to make an exception.Not one for the Swede's eagery awaited Suzi Quatro ICA.
So instead I give you Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
Much better but you cannot improve on perfection so it is Springsteen again for me this week.
Others perhaps may choose to disagree.
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Born to Run
Oh go on then ....
Suzi Quatro -Born to Run
Please let this torture be at an end now.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect to Holly Johnson et al, kindly inform any of the usual Bruce-ophobes that I will not speak to them for at least 6 minutes if they dare to vote for anything but perfection this week. And if that doesn't work, tell them I will speak to them constantly...
I echo Rol's sentiments entirely.
ReplyDelete(I'd forgotten all about the Suzi ICA, but on further inspection have found a draft track-listing lurking on my hard-drive - BTR not included, needless to say.)
Looks like more people than usual will be giving me the cold-shoulder treatment. I cannot bring myself to vote for Bruce Springsteen doing this song so my vote goes to Frankie, even if it's bloody awful. I prefer the Suzi Quatro version, by the way.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the SQ cover is abysmal, but I rather like the FGTH version, and I like it more than Bruce...
ReplyDeleteI ask for forgiveness.
FGTH for me, have loved it since the first time I heard it on a Saturday morning on a coach going to demonstrate against Trident in Barrrow In Furness, my parents thought I was buying denims in the town. The whole album was being played by I think Richard Skinner. I loved the fact that they had the balls to cover it and also the apoplectic reaction to the older long hairs on the bus.
ReplyDeleteHA! As Holly exclaimed
Drew, I too went to Barrow. I seem to recall the "car park2 for the coaches was covered in white asbestos. Surely not?
DeleteIt's Frankie. Frankie's version is the best. Yes it is. YES IT IS.
ReplyDeleteWe used to say the opening lines about daily sign in to each other all the time.
ReplyDeleteIt was amusing. Sort of.
I am torn as I have always loved Holly Johnson's voice and really liked their version but it is still going to be Bruce for me this week.
ReplyDeleteClose call for me. I'm giving it to Frankie purely for personal nostalgic reasons. Welcome To The Pleasuredome remains one of the best debut albums of all time.
ReplyDeleteBrooce - none of the others come close.
ReplyDeleteThere is a pretty good Roger Daltrey version out there - at least that one has a sax solo on it
Yeah the Suzi version is pretty rank. Her take on Warm Leatherette is surprisingly good though if anybody hasn't heard it.
ReplyDeleteJamie
Frank Turner does a pretty decent acoustic version. And there's a Starsailor live version that works, mainly because James Walsh has an amazing voice.
ReplyDeleteBRUCE 100%. Cannot believe what I'm reading in these comments. FGTH's version is...amusing, I guess. But this is the Boss's SIGNATURE song. There was even a legislative push back in the 70's to recognize Born to Run as the official state song of New Jersey. What's up next--a Scissor Sisters version of 'Rosalita'? (Actually, that would be excellent...)
ReplyDeleteWith JTFL all the way. Cannot vote for anyone but Bruce.
ReplyDeleteYou Yanks and your parochial views, ther's a bit of Trumpf in all of you! ( just kidding). I suppose the Frankie version doesn't travel well across the pond.
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember the coach park was a bit of dump. First time I heard Redemption Song was on that demo too.
Actually I think I came out on the Boss's side only about half the time so far, Yankness notwithstanding.
ReplyDeleteThe unofficial State Song Of New Jersey - yes we do these silly things in the US. Its about as important as state bird, state tree, state pie...Personally, being a New Yorker, I can understand wanting to get out of New Jersey "while we're young..." No vote here, it is, after Stairway To Heaven and Baba O'Reilly, the MOST overplayed song in the history of Rock Radio...
ReplyDeleteFGTH gets my vote because he reduces this song to what it was. A simple rock song with a lot of drive. I was never a fan from the original because it was overproduced in my opinion (like most songs of this album) and I was glad that Frankie made the final version of it.
ReplyDelete