& # 39; Hello Sunshine & # 39; of Bruce Springsteen Stream: NPR

In the early 1970s, singer-songwriter Danny O 'Keefe had a "very sweet, gorgeous friend," as he put it Rolling stone magazine, who had lived too hard and paid the consequences. Heart attacks and pain medications have put the guy's life to the test, and O 'Keefe, himself rolling in his thirties, has been identified. O & # 39; Keefe told the story of his friend in the ballad "The good time, Charlie has the blues" – one of the most charming and soothing stories of popular music produced by a terrifying oblivion. This Washington-born singer-songwriter was a hit and remains the favorite of others, from Elvis and Waylon Jennings to Dwight Yoakam.

"Hello Sunshine", the new song for the upcoming Bruce Springsteen album Western stars (to appear June 14) remains in the same disturbing drift. This starts with a net fill of the snare interacting with the sleepy surf from a fifth interval to the bass – the sound equivalent of a speed ball. Springsteen said: "I had enough of the sorrows and pain, I had a soft spot for the rain." At the microphone, his voice expresses its usual depth and breadth, but also a touch of fatigue. As the arrangement becomes more complex, with strings and a metal pedal guitar, the lyrics remain simple. "You know I still love isolated towns, those empty streets where there is no one," Springsteen continues. Then, in a sentence that might remind you Willie Nelson: "You fall in love with loneliness, you end up like this."

The song timidly reaches optimism with its orchestral swell and its title line, which cautiously greets the sun that dispels the gray ambience of the rest of the song. But this ballad lives in the same melancholy space as O 'Keefe's, alongside others like Jimmy Webb, John Hartford and Kris Kristofferson. Springsteen said to be inspired by those songwriters who captured the thoughtful spirit of the early 1970s, especially around and above the Los Angeles Sunset Strip, where counterculture and biz were colliding in a deeply successful way, producing songs at a time. easy to listen to and emotionally complex. There is also a Nashville deal with producer Ron Aniello, which bodes well for fans who, in Springsteen's mature voice, recognize a kinship with such great philosophers as Nelson and Charlie Rich.

Song titles Springsteen has shared since Western stars suggest that the album will cover the ripped highway from Music City to Laurel Canyon: "Somewhere North of Nashville", "Tucson Train", "Moonlight Motel". This song makes it clear that, along with some desert cowboy songs, there is a horse on the album cover, Springsteen will offer listeners many explorations of life behind closed doors in uncertain times. It is interesting, though not unprecedented, that the Boss explores the sound palette and the worldview for adults and contemporaries that characterize his raucous and torn albums of the mid-1970s, against which he rebelled. Qualifying this solo album, although he collaborated with many collaborators, including his longtime producer Ron Aniello, E Street Band's original keyboardist, David Sancious, and multi-instrumentalist and great composer Jon Brion, Springsteen establishes links between this new music. and earlier domestic trips like Tunnel of love and Work on a dream. Hard to know if "Hello Sunshine" reflects the dominant atmosphere of Western stars or will prove to be an outlandish value, but his contemplative tone seems to be a natural extension of Springsteen's memorable show on Broadway – and a good place for an expert man in the fight against the blues.