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Quelle : Backstreets.com ,Forum User : One Step Up Review : Letter to you Doku.
10 of the 12 songs are performed in the doc. I’m currently rewatching it and will add more notes accordingly. edit:
First things first, this is a BAND RECORD. No doubt about it. Even Bruce mentions at some point “what a group sound we got going on these songs.” Max’s drums BOOM like in no other E-Street album since BITUSA. This is also the most piano-driven record since probably THE RIVER. There is also a reason why Bruce chose IF I WAS A PRIEST and SONG FOR THE ORPHANS, this is an ingenious way for him to go back to his folk-rock roots and the Dylan comparisons that used to irk him in the early ’70s and pay tribute to those roots. These two songs are the most Dylan-esque he’s ever sounded on record.
Of note: Janey Need a Shooter and Rainmaker are not featured at all.
-It starts off with Bruce telling the band “Gentlemen get your notepads” as he shows the band LETTER TO YOU on acoustic guitar.
Steve actually jokes around that the 5-day schedule for recording the album is basically playing by the Beatles rule of “recording one song every three hours.”
-Uncle Frank, who was the first person to teach Bruce the guitar is there for all five days and he’s a rather quiet but amusing presence throughout.
-There are shot glasses toasts after every recording session ends. There’s a particularly touching toast to Danny and Clarence on day four of the recording sessions.
-Also, a great scene where the band members reminisce about Italian crowds and toast “to four nights at San Siro” when they take this new record on the road.
- Nice little moment, Bruce to Roy “Roy, in the spirit of Danny Federici, play that glockenspiel”
I’ll try to give a song-by-song assessment based on my notes:
LAST MAN STANDING
I would be shocked if this isn’t the third single released.
This is all about Bruce being the last living member of the Castiles “I’m the last man standing now”
Starts off with Nils feverishly strumming an acoustic guitar
There’s a great Sax Solo and booming Max drumming
A great riff which mixes Roy’s Piano with Steve’s 12 string guitar
THE POWER OF PRAYER
Beautiful piano intro and, really, this is a piano-driven song (one of many on this new album).
Charlie’s organ work here is stunning
One of those romantic rock ballads ala NONE BUT THE BRAVE.
The sax solo is done in combination with Steve’s guitar ala Radio Nowhere Nils-Clarence. There’s also a sax outro.
The best way to describe this song would be MELANCHOLIC rock. Very much a FULL BAND arrangement.
Particular lyric: “The Bouncer shuts down the door, magic fills the floor, As Ben E. King’s voice fills the air, baby that’s the power of prayer”
HOUSE OF 1000 GUITARS
A major highlight of the album.
Another piano-driven song. Piano Intro with lyrics is almost Jungleland-esque.
Blatant Trump lyric: “The criminal clown has stolen the throne, he steals what he could never own”
Patti adds background vocals to the chorus sung by Bruce “yeah it’s alright, yeah it’s alright, meet me darling come Saturday night”
Lyric: “From the stadiums to the small-town bars, we’ll light up the house of 1000 guitars”
The riff to this one is catchy.
Ends with Bruce singing “a thousand guitars” six times
IF I WAS A PRIEST
FULL BAND and way better than the acoustic version. Guitar-driven.
This is totally in the style of BOB DYLAN AND THE BAND’s late 60s sound
Al Kooper-esque Organ and piano drive the song. Barroom piano playing.
Harmonica solo
An Awesome, Mike Bloomfield-esque outro guitar solo courtesy of Little Steven
GHOSTS
we all know the song, but what we additionally learn is how much Steve assisted Bruce and the band in molding the whole tune together. We see Steve arranging the verses and choruses as well as the musical cues. No surprise, this song sounds like it belong on Disc 2 of Tracks.
SONGS FOR THE ORPHANS
Dylan-esque Harmonica intro and outro
Again, MASSIVE Bob Dylan and the Band influence. Even Bruce’s singing is Dylan-esque.
This sounds like it could have easily belonged on Blonde on Blonde
FULL BAND and done in Pure folk-rock fashion
Nils on slide guitar
Of note; Bruce has to put on his reading glasses when singing this and Priest, no doubt due to the litany of words he has to read in the lyrics.
ONE MINUTE YOU’RE HERE
Echo, slapback vocals, ala Roy Orbinson.
Dreamy, surreal meditation on death.
soft percussion, organ, and piano.
the chorus goes: “one minute you’re here, next minute you’re gone”
I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS
I cried during this one. Also, there’s a closeup of Landau closing his eyes, hearing the song for the first time and just bawling like a baby afterwards.
“I’ll meet you in my dreams, for death is not the end, we’ll meet and live and laugh again”
This is quite clearly a song about Danny, Clarence and Terry.
Starts off slow but the whole band kicks in for some rock and roll
“We’ll meet live and laugh again, I’ll see you by the river bed, for death is not the end, i’ll see you in my dreams”
BURNING TRAIN
Candy’s Room-esque drumming. A driving beat.
It also sounds like an above-average outtake from Tracks disc 4, even Bruce’s vocals sound like his ’90s stuff.
Blazing guitar solo to the tempo of Max’s drums
CONCLUSION
It all ends with the final shot and a toast at the end of the final day of recording.
Bruce “We’re taking this thing until were all in the box”
Bruce on electric guitar alone plays BABY I during the credits.
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