| February 18, 2018 | |||||||||
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Lyrics: It was a teenage wedding “C’est la vie,” say the old folks
They furnished off an apartment with “C’est la vie,” say the old folks They had a hi-fi phono, boy, “C’est la vie”, say the old folks They bought a souped-up jitney, ’twas a cherry red ’53 “C’est la vie”, say the old folks They had a teenage wedding “C’est la vie”, say the old folks Get It: See directions for creating your own digital copy of this track from the YouTube video here. Scroll down to the Get It section along the lower left side of the page for step-by-step directions. While Springsteen hasn’t recorded You Never Can Tell (at least so far I can determine), you can pick up a copy of Springsteen’s quintessential record, Born to Run for a fine price at Amazon. This 3-CD set of Springsteen’s biggest radio hits is an absolute steal at just over seven clams. The first 2 CDs contain well-known tracks from Springsteen’s expansive catalog; the third disc contains rarities. Lastly, if for some reason you don’t own a copy of The River, dear reader, I am sorry for the pain and tribulation you’ve unnecessarily suffered thus far. Please allow me to point you to an excellent price for this 2-CD masterpiece: |
I am not often moved to hyperbole, but, wait…yeah, well, I’ve just been informed by chief researcher Chippy von Bushytail that I am, indeed, quite often moved to hyperbole. (To be exact, Chippy says I resort to hyperbole at a rate of 63.8 percent as opposed to other written tropes.) Let me begin again: Though I am often moved to hyperbole—63.8 percent of the time—I’m often not really feeling hyperbolous¹ when I’m waxing hyperboleic.2 Sometimes, we writers put on a bit of hyperboliciousness3 to sell our written wares. Today, however, I mean it. No hyperbolitic4 affectations are being applied to this post. I am 100 percent genuine when I say today’s cut is one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. No, the song isn’t a particularly intricate one, and no, none of the parts are particularly difficult for any of the musicians involved. What makes this performance so perfect—and me so genuinely hyperbolimatic5—is that Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band deliver this performance stone cold after having not played it live in at least 20 years. Springsteen is known for his four-hour powerhouse shows in which he takes audience requests to play long-lost songs from the deep Springsteen playbook. What makes this performance so deliciously entertaining is the pure joy with which The Boss and his bandmates deliver the song. Springsteen is warm, genuine, and clearly enjoys performing in front of thousands of fans. Sadly, to my knowledge, this song isn’t available on any Springsteen album, so you’ll have to enjoy it here. However, if you want to make your own digital copy of the track for enjoyment elsewhere, see our Chris Cornell, Nothing Compares 2 U post here. There, you will find step-by-step instructions for downloading the video from YouTube and stripping the audio track from the video to create your own audio file (MP3 or FLAC). As many of you know, You Never Can Tell was written by Chuck Berry in 1964 and was included on Berry’s St. Louis to Liverpool album. The track peaked at number 14 on the Billboard charts that same year. Since Berry’s 1964, the song has been covered and/or recorded by multiple musicians, including Emmylou Harris who charted her version of the song in 1977. Early in Springsteen’s career, the track was a regular in his concert sets, but as his catalog of original music grew, this song was dropped from their list of usual suspects. (Springsteen is very prolific and has many original songs that have never been released, which when combined with his healthy library of released tracks, provides him with an enormous cache of excellent original music from which to choose.) On July 7, 2013, while playing an outdoor arena is Leipzig, Germany, a fan near the stage held up a sign requesting that Springsteen play You Never Can Tell, and the results were pure magic. I’ve long wished that I had pursued music more aggressively. As a teenager, I sang in the stage choir and sang and danced (barely controlled stumbling, really) in the swing choir, but I didn’t pursue it once I went to college. Despite lifelong plans to learn to play piano and guitar, I never have taken action. Given that I turn 50 in a few weeks, I think maybe it’s time I rectify that. Thought I doubt, I’ll be rocking any stadiums (I think that might actually be on my surgeon’s list of prohibited activities), I do think it’s possible that I could rock up a campfire at the lake or something. And I doubt that I can be anywhere near as charismatic as The Boss, but I’ll give it a whirl. In the meantime, give this live track a listen. If you’re not swept up in the absolute impromptu brilliance of a group of musicians hammering out a song they haven’t played since the early 1990s, then I think we might need to break up. And just know that it’s you, not me. I wish I could point you to a place to download this track, but alas, I cannot. I do, however, enjoy hooking up my dear readers with music and video they might not otherwise find, and this piece of live musical brilliance certainly fits that bill. All hyperbolance6 aside, this live track is fantastic and well worth being added to your musical repertoire. Let your hi-fi phono, er, YouTube, blast… 1 Because I am a professional writer, I get to make up words. Video: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played You Never Can Tell live in Leipzig, Germany, on July 7, 2013. The band hadn’t played this song in more than 20 years, but after a little futzing around finding the right key, the delivered a blistering performance that is indicative why Springsteen is The Boss.
No official video was made for Chuck Berry’s You Never Can Tell, though this scene from the movie Pulp Fiction serves as a fine ad-hoc video:
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