Word: rocke
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Away from Broadway, however, several smaller shows are bringing in throngs of young people. Often they do it by breaking genre boundaries, mixing in elements of rock concerts or performance art. Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a hot ticket for months, is the life story of a transsexual rock star, told in the form of an autobiographical nightclub act. De La Guarda's circus-like theater piece, Villa Villa, features performers who swoop and soar on cables above the audience (which stands during the entire 60-min. spectacle). "These shows are reinventing theatrical language," says David Binder...
...stores across the country began to sell Songs, a 306-page book anthologizing every lyric Springsteen ever penned. These expensive, lavishly-produced new releases--together, the photo-heavy book and the beautifully packaged compilation will cost the die-hard fan $100--coincided exactly with Springsteen's nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and roughly with the release of multi-disk compilations by Springsteen's fellow Hall of Famers Bob Dylan and (posthumously) John Lennon...
...business of making money and generating publicity rather than music. (Few have noted, for instance, that it is now almost impossible to watch an awards show or benefit performance without running into the ubiquitous Boss.) And so the positive spin on Tracks is that now, when the giants of rock music are weighing in, Springsteen, too, is asking to be re-valued and re-evaluated...
Even those who bemoan Springsteen's turntowards socially-conscious narrative music, then,will be happy with the end of the album:conceivably, Springsteen intended the embarrassingsoft-rock barrage that burdens much of disk fourto warn the fan that there are worse things thanprotest music. On "Goin' Cali," Springsteen showsthat even at his most tuneless, his leastpropulsive, his voice conveys remarkablycompelling, barely restrained emotion. And"Brothers under the Bridge," hearkening back tothe similar but incomparably awful 1983 tune ofthe same name, does demonstrate a certain amountof maturation: It is as powerful as "Youngstown,"Joad's cornerstone and Springsteen's bestnew song...
...twang of How's Bayou's "Johnny Yuma." The album simply jumps from one sort of sound to another with no transition, and the end result can only be called jarring. Americana also has its share of positively dreadful, not quite convincing singing, such as Remora's rendition of "Rock Island Line." Granted that these songs do show Cash's transcendence of musical genres which the album claims to bring. But none of it is an improvement on the genuine article; this is one album not really worth getting unless you're a diehard Cash fan who wants...