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i do like girls in their summer clothes. very nice song for sure.
That said, first impressions sometimes don't hold up, its true. And conversely, stuff can grow on you.
The days when a new Springsteen record is a zeitgeist-capturing, shared soundtrack are long gone (like 20+ years gone). But that's what happens in pop music, careers go on long after the thrill of capturing the zeitgeist is gone.
Like you, I'm still trying to form an opinion, but one thing I'm already certain of is that "Radio Nowhere" was a lousy choice for an advance single. I know it rocks, and the guitar playing and guitar tones sound great there and throughout the album. But it's not much of a song. It's hook-free. And I think it illustrates just how disconnected from the zeitgesit Springsteen is. For him, "I just wanna hear some rhythm" means this kind of song--a re-write of "867-5309"--to today's pop listener it mean Kanye West's "Stronger," Daft Punk sample and all.
A great lead single sells an album by connecting both with the artist's personal story and with the zeitgeist (Jon Landau deliberately drove Springsteen to write "Dancing in the Dark" specifically because he was looking for a lead single for BITUSA which would accomplish this). A lead single hits by becoming something that speaks to the shared experience of the audience AND the personal experience of the artist (Kanye's single is a perfect example). I think "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" comes a lot closer to connecting 50-something Springsteen to pop culture in Sept. 2007 than "Radio Nowhere," which left both Estiv and I with the impression that we shouldn't have high expectations for a new Springsteen album at this point.
Estiv, I dunno if lame would be my adjective of choice for "Radio Nowhere" but it's flat for sure, in every way--there's no real change in the song, no dynamic build in the song, and my brother, who is an audio engineer, said he wasn't feeling it because there was no definition and clarity in the sound. Flat.
How about Squeeze's "Footprints" from back in the 80's:
I had too many parties I had too much time
I got so lazy and fell well behind
Now the summer is over I can count the cost
Footprints on the beaches are now
Footprints in the frost
The summer is over I can count the cost
Footprints on the beaches are now footprints in the frost
I go along with all you say and your reflections on the lyrics was very insightful. For me Summer Clothes is an important song in the Spingsteen canon. I'm not sure that zeitgeist-capturing is, or ever has been, a significant activity for Springsteen. If and when he did coincidence with the zeitgeist I suspect it was just that; a happy coincidence. (probably '85 with Born in the USA?). However if you have boarded Springsteen's bandwagon at some point and stayed there for a while I think Magic and Summer Clothes in particular are significant works and have the feel of the closing of a cycle. Musically and lyrically the album feels to me to be summative of his work as far back as Lucky Town & Human Touch through Joad, Devils and Dust and the Rising. However he also manages to convey a sense of when one cycle closes another opens, there is disaffection, dislocation and uncertainity aplenty in here that have hallmarks of his recent (if not all) of his work but there is also optimism and strength. the cynicism in the title track is tempered but the acceptance that lies in Summer Clothes. I feel as theough the central character in Summer Clothes knows that changes have come and more will follow but there is still some joy in the world, still reasons to get up and go out and be alive. I would go so far as to say Summer Clothes is the opposite bookend to Thunder Road and is its musical and lyrical peer, which, for me, is some achievement.
Just on Radio Nowhere, whatever you think of the songs individual merits when I first heard it bounce out of the radio I knew one thing for sure. Magic was going to be different from Devils and Dust and the Seeger Sessions and as an introduction to a return to the "big noise" it worked for me.