Follow-up, Sunday afternoon
It’s a beautiful day here in Southeastern Pennsylvania. I’m working on a presentation for this week, but lucky for me, my wireless network reaches out to the deck, so I can enjoy the sun while working. Of course, I’m not working so hard that I can’t take a quick break.
I downloaded the new Springsteen album, “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions”, from iTunes this week. I’ve listened to it a good dozen times in the past couple days. I was a little worried that it would be a rather dry and slow album, since many of the songs are most recognizable as simple folk songs that don’t retain as much life today as they once did, but Springsteen and his group of musicians imbue the songs with energy and life. The album is very upbeat right from the beginning track of “Old Dan Tucker” (new to me) through a really rocking version of “John Henry” and “Jesse James” (competing with The Pogues as the best version I’ve heard). I love the banjo heavy “Erie Canal” which includes an almost dixie land horn section at some points. The only song I really don’t like is the slow drudging version of “We Shall Overcome.” While I understand the iconic value of that song, it really needs to be retired (ditto, “Blowin’ in the Wind”) as a historical artifact. But, on the whole, this is a great album, a better folkie Springsteen than his Tom Joad album, and a welcome and different follow-up to both Devils and Dust and The Rising (both of which I really like, too, though the former is a little inconsistent).
I also wanted to add a brief annotation to this week’s Maroon. This strip came about after I read the excellent article on B Kliban in one of The Comics Journal’s special editions from a few years ago. The article included a one panel cartoon by Kliban featuring a guy lounging on a tropical island. This brought my back to one of my original sources for Maroon, that iconic image of a man stranded on a a tiny desert island. I’ve never really paid much attention to single panel comics, but I thought I’d do one in honor of that original idea. I think it’s funny, at least, and I’m my biggest fan and most vocal audience member.
Tags: Maroon, Music, springsteen
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