It's hard to believe that Springsteen's debut album is almost 40 years old. For me it is still one of the great debut albums, although it didn't exactly get the kind of welcome that it was due when it saw the light of day on January 5th 1973. In the first year it only sold 25,000 copies
"Tonight! One time only!" — the Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. album, start to finish. "This was the miracle," he said, "This was the record that took everything from way below zero to... one." That got a big laugh. Bruce went on to speak of John Hammond, "one of the great legends of music production," and of manager Mike Appel, whose "incredible talking" got him a crucial audition with said legend. Tonight's album performance was dedicated "to the man who got me in the door. Mike Appel is here tonight — Mike, this is for you." He added, "We've never done it... hope we can do it!"
It's been 10 years since Stuart Adamson passed away and whilst gone he and the music he created has not been forgotten.
Earlier this year a memorial bench was put in place at Pittencrief Park in Dunfermline after a long process by fans of the Stuart and the band.
My own personal memories of Stuart started way back when he was guitarist for The Skids. John Peel played their first single 'Charles'
Charles (Audio)
Even back then Stuart was developing that signature guitar sound that he would later become a star with fronting Big Country. I remember seeing them at The Marquee in London when 'Into the Valley' had been released and they were destined for chart success. They were brilliant back then and their debut album 'Scared to Dance' is amazing to listen to all these years later.
Into the Valley
When Stuart left The Skids prior to the recording of their last album ('Joy') he resurfaced with a brand new band - Big Country. They unleashed their debut single in September 1982 and 'Harvest Home' barely scrapped the lower reaches of the chart.
Harvest Home (The Tube 1984)
Between 1983-1988 they had 11 Top 30 hit singles and four Top Ten albums (including 'Steeltown' which reached number one).
Fields of Fire (The Tube 1983)
In A Big Country (from the Wonderland DVD filmed in Essen, Germany 1986)
Wonderland (OGWT at Reading Hexagon)
There's actually so many good tracks that I could put up on here but I'll finish this with one of the most beautiful songs that Stuart ever performed.
Fragile Thing (with Eddie Reader)
Whilst today is a sad day as we reflect upon the untimely passing of Stuart at the age of 43, it is also a day to remember the brilliant music that he left behind. That will be his legacy.
One of my good friends reminded me this morning that December is a pretty sad month because of the deaths of Kirsty MacColl (18th December) and Joe Strummer (22nd December).
I'm not really a huge fan of Blink 182 but I love this song a lot. The video for it is superb as well.
Stay Together For The Kids - Blink 182
Green Day are another of those bands that I would not say I was a fan of but every now and again they manage to release a quality single. It just happens that on 'American Idiot' there were two classy singles (this one and 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams')
Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day
Good Charlotte lost their way a bit with the release of 'The Chronicles of Life and Death' album but it's predecessor 'The Young and The Hopeless' brought them to a place of prominence and garnered a hat full of superb singles including this one (which personally I think is one of the best they have ever written).
Hold On - Good Charlotte
The Boys third single release should have been a smash hit but their record label was terrible in it's promotion (well lack of!). To my ears it still sounds brilliant even after all these years. It's hard to believe that it was released way back in 1978!
Brickfield Nights - The Boys
Another 1978 classic. A great band live and just a little disappointing when it came to studio output. Their two albums ('I, Individual' and 'The Word Is Out') are not bad and contained a few good songs but their finest moment was this one. Like a number of bands around the same time I think their Record Labels didn't really now what to do with them and so did as little as possible to promote them.
I'm married to Kerstin since 1992, have a sweet dog called Boomer. I love music and lots of other things and here you get to share some of those things. Enjoy and thanks for visiting.
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