[net.music] Born to Run --- by FGTH

haapanen@watdcsu.UUCP (Tom Haapanen [DCS]) (11/09/84)

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Has anybody out there heard the version of Bruce Springsteen's "Born
to Run" done by Frankie Goes to Hollywood?  It's on their new double
LP, "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome", and I just heard it for the first
time yesterday.  I thought it was quite well done, with all the energy
of the original, but with a distinctly British flavour (that's flavor
if you can't spell!) to it.  How did *you* like it?


Tom Haapanen		University of Waterloo		(519) 744-2468

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clark@sdcsla.UUCP (Clark Quinn) (11/12/84)

> Has anybody out there heard the version of Bruce Springsteen's "Born
> to Run" done by Frankie Goes to Hollywood?  It's on their new double
> LP, "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome", and I just heard it for the first
> time yesterday.  I thought it was quite well done, with all the energy
> of the original, but with a distinctly British flavour (that's flavor
> if you can't spell!) to it.  How did *you* like it?
> 
> Tom Haapanen		University of Waterloo		(519) 744-2468

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Well, I haven't heard the record version, but I saw their live version of
the song on "Saturday Night Live", and, frankly, I thought it sucked!
I may be jaded, being a die-hard Springsteen fan (and having seen him
live on Halloween night, *gloat*), but I thought that "Frankie Goes to
Hollywood" covered the song with a condescending, weak style that 
thouroughly obscured the emotion of hopeful desperation that is the
hallmark of the song.  Of course, their live version of "Two Tribes"
lacked something, too.  And I do like "Two Tribes" (at least, recorded)!
I feel that it is easy with recording studio
equipment to make *anything* sound good, but a live show really
shows the capability of the band.  Sure, there are some songs that
only work in studio productions, and shouldn't be condemned for it,
art being a product of the medium, but "Born to Run", at least, has 
been shown to work best "live"!  I didn't know till I read the note
that FGTH actually recorded BTR, I thought that maybe they had just
picked a song they figured would be a calculated crowd pleaser (that
close to New Jersey).  

-- Clark

"Volum! Clarity! Bass! We must have bass!"