Now that Zeptember has passed, we come to my favorite month of the year: Rocktober. And to kick it off it's new music Tuesday here in the states and the new album by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band is being released (actually it was already released on vinyl, but that's neither here nor there). I've heard the new single
Radio Nowhere a bunch recently and have found myself mostly indifferent toward it, it's not great, but it doesn't suck. The only reason that I'm mentioning it is because based on hearing this song, I have come to the conclusion that Bruce Springsteen has finally run out of ideas.
Let's jump into my Delorean and take a quick trip back to the year nineteen hundred and eighty-two. The former president of SAG was keeping busy sticking it to the common man, "The Great White Hope" reaffirmed that there is no master race, my age was still being counted in months, and a little ditty called
867-5309/Jenny was climbing the charts. Peaking at #4 on Billboard's Hot 100, Tommy Tutone managed to piss of a lot of people around the country who had the now infamous digits. I was not one of those people because depending on when it reached #4 in 1982, I most likely wasn't talking yet and even if I was I wouldn't have the cognitive skills to have a telephone conversation (and in case you don't have any cognitive skills, I was a baby in '82). Well in the years since I have grown fond of
867-5309/Jenny; it was the first song I ever remember I willingly performed during a karaoke night, and I have met a few
Jenny's while seeing it played by
decent cover bands. But I think the reason that I like it so much is it's just so damn catchy.
Well low and behold last month I hear on the local classic rock station that they are about to play the new Bruce Springsteen single. All of a sudden I hear this
Jennyesque riff coming out of my speakers. What the fuck Bruce? You just got bagged for ripping off Tommy Tutone. Tommy freakin' Tutone!? Can anyone out there name another Tommy Tutone song off the top of their heads? Unless you were in Tommy Tutone or are directly related to any of the members you cannot, don't even lie to me. And Bruce, if you were going to rip off Tommy Tutone, you shouldn't have picked the only song that everyone knows, you should have picked any of the other couple dozen(?) or so songs that they put out. That's just bush league, I wouldn't even be a little surprised if there's a song on the new album that sounds like
Eye of the Tiger.And since were still back in '82 I've asked famed movie character
Clubber Lang for his prediction on a possible fight between the E Street Band and Tommy Tutone, Clubber...?