A great record and I’ll fight anyone who claims otherwise.
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Brilliant album and so is American Slang.
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I struggle a bit with their other stuff, but '59 Sound is joyous and makes me feel about fifteen.
Don’t even really like Americana/rock that much, but for some reason it just hits the spot for me every single time.
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Maybe the biggest disparity between how hard I’ve fallen for a record and how little interest I’ve had in the rest of a discography.
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As Funky says, American Slang is also really good (and I’ve never listened to any of their other records)
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Never really listened to them but always find this immensely charming:
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Hard agree re '59 Sound and American Slang. I’d even go so far as to say that Handwritten is very good also.
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I hardly remember it now but I don’t think I even thought it was bad. It just didn’t have the same charm or impact. A copy of a copy, innit.
There’s that very thin line when shoehorning that kind of rusty nostalgic Americana, fairgrounds and rockabilly aesthetics etc that can just grate a lot of the time but there’s rare occasions (usually reserved for Bruce or Tom Waits) that it really just works in an authentic way.
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yes there’s a very fine line between “4th of July, Asbury Park” and, well,
Yeah, I think more than any other genres Americana stuff often has a very tiny sweet spot.
Another example, veering a bit more into alt-country Americana, but I think this is a great record as well, but when I showed it to my mates one said it sounded like Rod Stewart and another asked if I’d been kicked in the head.
Love the 59 Sound but it led to a regrettable period of wearing leather jackets and flat caps when I was 16. Still amazing album and I also co-sign American Slang which is better some days.
Oh yeah, think I listened to that once and really liked it and yet just never listened to it again.
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Oh I was there!
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Bruce was shit that night 
I was there too, pretty close to the front. Think I’m in that video a few times actually. Great life moment.
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Likewise. I was about 5 rows back. Proper goosebumps moment. Have watched that video to relive it quite a few times over the years!
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I was also there for that, did not watch Bruce on his own though, glad to hear he was shit.
I like all of their first 3 albums but the 59 Sound is obviously the best and I am not sure I have listened to any of the later ones more than twice. Maybe todays the day.
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Errr, Bruce was not shite at Glastonbury! Certainly not the best I’ve ever seen him by a fair way, but definitely not terrible.
He just wasn’t very experienced in doing festivals back then, and the first part of the set had too many songs from his then current album which is also unfortunately about the worst one he’s ever released. So he lost some of the audience as a result. The last hour of the set on the other hand was fantastic.
I dragged a fair few non-Bruce fans along and they all pretty much loved it.
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