57 Channels (And Nothin' On) appeared on the HUMAN TOUCH album, released in 1992. It came out the same day as LUCKY TOWN, HT's sister album and the better one, in my opinion. I still think he should have just taken the best songs from both albums and made one really strong single album. If he had done that, 57 Channels - at least this version - would not be one of my choices to grace the single album. The song made its debut in a solo acoustic version played in his legendary solo benefit shows in November of 1990. It's a fun, inspired 12-bar blues version which is more suited to the clever lyrics. Listen to it below:
Unfortunately, what we ended up with on the album can barely pass as melody or music. It sounds like background music you'd hear in a club. Underscored with a repetitive electric bassline and a steady quarter beat on a bass drum, with occasional sounds from keyboards and guitars, he "sings" the whole thing in a low monotone and effectively kills the song, much like he kills the TV in the last verse. The live version from the Human Touch/Lucky Town tour is slightly more fun to listen to, but you can only go so far with polishing a turd until you realize it's still a turd. As far as I know, 57 Channels hasn't been played live since the 92-93 tour with The Other Band.
In 2005, on his solo tour in support of the DEVILS AND DUST album, Springsteen famously revisited the original version of Real World, another song that was bastardized on HUMAN TOUCH. When the song received a thunderously warm reception, he admitted "I guess I kinda fucked that one up when I put it on the record." I hope one day he comes back to the early promise of 57 Channels (And Nothin' On) and makes the same admission.
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Mark, do you actually remember his comment on D&D tour about Real World? I always thought 57 was kinda gimmicky - after the first few times thru Human Touch, I skipped over that one. I agree, he should have done the best from HT and LT, odd that he released them the same day.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading in the Backstreets news page that the solo piano Real World was played for the first time in 15 years, and what Bruce said about it afterward.
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