BARN TO RUN!
Bruce Springsteen has turned his hit album Western Stars into a film — with the help of an orchestra in his own backyard
WE ARE now in an era of the pop album as an extended franchise, rather than simply a stand-alone release.
Oxford band Foals today unveil the second instalment of their Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost LP (see below), while Sting’s My Songs is repackaged next month as a double album to form the basis of his forthcoming Las Vegas residency.
Another getting in on the act is Bruce Springsteen, who has turned new album Western Stars into a full-length film with its own soundtrack. He’s pulling out all the stops to make it a success, too.
Famously averse to hyperbole — he once tore down his own publicity posters outside Hammersmith Odeon — he has been avidly promoting this latest venture.
The past week saw him appear on The Graham Norton Show and attend two advance screenings in London. And, as he told cinemagoers, his move to the big screen is part of the stock-taking that comes with turning 70, as he did last month.
It’s a process that has also included an autobiography and last year’s Broadway residency.
‘I’m getting to that age where you’re summing up a lot of what you’ve learned,’ he said during a live Q&A. ‘Writing a book was the first chapter. The play came out of the book and this [the film] came out of the play. I’ve had a good run over the past five years as far as s feeling inspired goes. I’ve e done things I’ve never done e before. I feel lucky for that . . . because you never know.
‘I’m a man of many talents,’ ’ he went on. ‘I write books s and Broadway plays. Now I’m making movies. I’m going to try being an astronaut next,’ he joked. At least I think he was joking.
Bruce certainly reaches for the skies on a film made with long-term collaborator Thom Zimny. The project frames the singer in an intimate setting, in stark contrast with his reputation as a stadium rock god.
BAckEd
by a band and full orchestra, and performing in a converted barn in the grounds of his New Jersey home, he sings the original album tracks in chronological order, adding a commanding cover of Glen campbell’s Rhinestone cowboy to finish — ‘a tip of the hat to a lot of my inspiration’.
The film isn’t a straight performance picture, with the live takes interspersed with Super 8 footage from Bruce’s childhood and a playful clip from his honeymoon.
The album’s character-driven story-songs are inspired largely by the American West, so we are shown lots of Breaking Badstyle desert scenes, with Bruce looking moody behind the wheel of his pick-up truck. truck His scripted voiceover gives Western Stars a loose narrative thread and the film opens with an explanation of how his songwriting was inspired by the two contrasting sides of the American character.
‘One is transient, restless, solitary,’ he says. ‘The other is collective and communal in its search for family, deep roots and a home for the heart to reside.’
The original album — a lush affair influenced by songwriters such as Burt Bacharach and Jimmy Webb — was a skilful homage. The cinematic update, boosted by the spontaneity of live performance and the acoustic properties of Bruce’s cavernous barn, feels like a proper Springsteen record.
The presence of his wife Patti Scialfa helps. Springsteen admits ad it was ‘a big mistake’ not to utilise Patti on the original ori album and her fresh vocal voc arrangements add a new dimension to Sundown and Stones, the latter an astonishing ast performance featuring fea the husband and wife duo together on the microphone. Elsewhere, El Tucson Train is looser loos and richer while The Wayfarer Way is lifted by improvised vise piano. chasin’ Wild Horses Hor is introduced with a telling tellin aside from a singer once born bor to t run.
AS
HE says: ‘ You can run away for a while, but you can’t run away forever,’ reiterating the emotional punch packed by this engaging director’s cut.
Springsteen turned Western Stars into a film because he wanted to promote it, but didn’t want to go on the road with an orchestra. ‘It’s an unusual piece of music,’ he admits. And it is.
He plans to use his regular group, The E Street Band, for his next album and tour. ‘I’ve got to go back to the day job,’ he says. ‘You have to pay the bills.’
THE Western Stars soundtrack album is out next week. The film is on general release from October 28.