As I read, I could feel my senses tingle and, to “M’s”
dismay, found myself having to stifle a Bruuuuuuce roar. “I’m not going to have to put up with that”,
she asked forlornly, knowing somewhere in the house there is a ticket with my
name on it. I shoot her a look that
confirms her worst fears. She sort of knows
what Bruce means to me.
Bruce Springsteen is the artist with whom I have felt the
deepest connection. It is a connection
that includes novelists, painters, actors, comedians, journalists, you name it
and its one that goes right back to 1975.
At that time I was studying, unsure about my place in the world, unsure
about what I wanted to do with myself and unsure even if I wanted to make a
mark on the world. I’d gone along with
my parents’ idea that I’d become a lawyer but I knew my heart wasn’t truly in
it. I’d assumed that I would get married
and have kids but couldn’t actually envisage it; all I knew with certainty was
that there wasn’t anyone special in my life.
My interest in music had been lit and I was obtaining and
making tapes of music that I liked. For
the most part, my source was Melbourne Top 40 radio, what I’d read in the
newspapers and what I’d seen on TV. This
was when I first heard of a bloke being hailed as the “New Dylan”. This didn’t mean much to me at the time. Bob Dylan was not someone you generally heard
on Top 40 radio; my introduction to him, Hurricane, was still to be released
but otherwise he was someone who had written hit songs for folk singers I’d
been forced to learn in music class. Articles
started to appear about the hype surrounding Springsteen. I had no idea what that meant and so
dismissed it.
Then one day, I’m listening to 3XY on one of my taping
quests. A track had ended and this
number I hadn’t previously heard came on.
Within 20 seconds of the start I had slammed on the recording button not
exactly knowing what it was. All I knew
was that I was electrified by something I hadn’t previously heard, a
supercharged piece of music that smashed through every idea I’d ever had about
rock music. Four minutes later, the DJ
came on and said “Bruce Springsteen, title track of his album Born To
Run”. I’d like to think that was
imprinted in my memory, but my tape recorder captured the outro and for the
next few years those words were imprinted in my brain as I replayed the tape.
But from that moment on I was hooked.
Apart from my birth family, my football team and my oldest friends he has
been one of the constants in my life, or at least like the others, one of the constants I’ve
cared about.
Now lots of things have been written by Springsteen over the
years including a number of books by unabashed fans. An American professor by the name of Louis P.
Masur is one example and wrote a small volume entitled “Runaway Dream. Born To
Run And Bruce Springsteen’s American Vision”.
In the final chapter of the book, he expressed his own connection to
Springsteen and included this paragraph that sums up the impact of that album
on him. When I read it, I was absolutely
floored. Masur had perfectly
encapsulated my own thoughts; there is only one word that I would remove if I
wrote it and I’ll put that in [square brackets];
“As for me, Born To Run may not have changed my life, but it
is central to it: The album expressed what I felt, articulated in words and
music my own dream of escape and search for meaning. On first listening, I do not think I heard
the darkness and despair of songs such as “Backstreets” and “Jungleland”. What I heard was a primal voice that gave
vent to frustration, and soaring power chords that made me want to drive
faster. What I felt was that maybe I
didn’t have to be trapped by the [American] dream, and that maybe in the midst
of my worst despair and fear of failure there was hope.”
What makes this connection on my part all the more unusual is that
Bruce is regarded as the quintessential American hero. I don’t think this is due to the influence
that some Americans exerted over a portion of my life. As far as I was aware, none of them were
likely to be Springsteen fans. Like most
of Springsteen’s worldwide (i.e non-American) fans, I think the mythology of
the American Dream is largely irrelevant.
Rather it is because we could project our own lives onto that of the
characters in his songs and draw our meaning, significance, call it what you
like from that. In my own case I simply didn’t want to live a life that was
dictated by what others thought or because of convention. I didn’t want a job simply for money or
prestige. I didn’t want to get married
just because it was expected. I didn’t
what to do anything that I couldn 't control (obviously excepting the rules and modes
of behaviour need to be adhered to in certain contexts) unless it was something I wanted
to do for my own reasons. Most
importantly, I wanted to live a life where I was comfortable with the choices I
had made and not feel trapped in a life devoid of meaning.
That is the connection that I’ve continually made with Bruce. It is a sense of a life being led with
everything that this entails as you try to make sense of the meaning of your
existence. In other words, Springsteen’s
songs convey the essence of life - its joys, pain, doubts, love, failure,
success, etc - as you proceed along life or as he puts it "on the road".
And so I’ve decided that day is Bruce Springsteen Day and
with that came the following program which ultimately allowed me to write the
introduction you’ve just read. The
starting point is obviously;
(239) Bruce
Springsteen – Born To Run
The album that started it all and one of the finest albums
ever released. This is an album about
people unwilling to accept their lot in life and attempting to find ways of
escaping either legally or otherwise. The
opener, Thunder Road, is a marvellous statement of intent climaxed with
Clarence Clemons’ sax solo. The title
track, Backstreets and Jungleland provide the necessary epic sweep and drama,
whilst Tenth Avenue Freezeout appears to deal with Bruce’s own escape.
(240) Bruce
Springsteen – Darkness On The Edge of Town
Many Bruce fans cite this as his best album but I‘ve always
been slightly put off by its production which makes it sound a bit thinner than
it needs to be. The brilliant one two
opening of Badlands and Adam Raised A Cain and, later, Racing In The Street
provide the necessary drama. The
Promised Land and the title track add to Bruce’s hopes of salvation. Prove It All Night was subsequently to be
raised to epic status in live performance.
(241) Bruce
Springsteen – Nebraska
Prior to buying this album, I was finally able to buy the
first two albums and understood what motivated the “new Dylan” tag. Next I bought The River, a double album of
mostly straight ahead good time rock but with others such as the title track,
The Price You Pay, Drive All Night and Wreck On The Highway. Most of these tracks were placed near the end
of that album probably foreshadowing what was to come. Nebraska is an acoustic howl from the darkest
of places where almost everyone and everything is trapped in the most hopeless
of situations. Even then, Springsteen
ends the album with probably his greatest tune and a statement of hope - Reason
To Believe. The sheer quality of the
album and the bare bones nature of the songs have led to the songs here being
his most covered - Atlantic City, Johnny
99, Mansion On The Hill and State Trooper among them.
(242) Lucky Town
The next album was Born In The U.S.A., essentially a single
disc version of The River which made Springsteen a superstar. After this came the moves which nearly
brought him undone – the bloated live box, the marriage to a model, the brave,
but misguided decision to put The E Street Band on the back burner and the dual
albums released on one day. The studio
albums ranged from the odd (Tunnel Of Love) to the truly abysmal (Human Touch,
the worst album in his catalogue by a wide margin). Lucky Town was the album recorded quickly
when he had doubts about Human Touch and it effortlessly puts it to shame. It is home to his most underappreciated tunes,
Better Days, the title track and Leap Of Faith.
Pride of place goes to two of his finest ballads, If I Should Fall
Behind and My Beautiful Reward, both of which show that he had emerged from the
wreckage of his failed marriage with lessons learnt and appropriately applied
to his new union with Patti Scialfa.
Really, all the album needed was The E Street Band.
(243) Bruce
Springsteen – The Rising
Bruce’s next album was the mostly acoustic The Ghost Of Tom
Joad, a fine record that consolidated his songwriting. But the process was really completed with
his reunion with The E Street Band on The Rising. Although this was his response to the events
of 9/11, many of the songs appear to continue the stories told on
Darkness, The River and Nebraska. This
fine album, the work of maturing mind and written with his maturing audience in
mind, is constructed around three masterpieces – the opener Lonesome Day, the
title track and My City In Ruins in which he seems to point out people’s
responsibility to the world around them.
Weaved around them are tunes that reinforce the joys of life (such as
Waitin’ On A Sunny Day and Mary’s Place) as well as its dangers (Into The Fire). The Arabic sounding backing of World’s Apart
curiously appears to also signal the subsequent enjoyable music on his Seeger
Sessions project.
(244) Wrecking Ball
His latest album came after a trio of albums of varying
quality ranging from the intelligent adult acoustic tunes on Devils And Dust,
the epic album ruined by a sludgy production (Magic) and the flat out
strange (Working On A Dream). This is
effectively a Springsteen state of the union address not just of his United
States but of his characters, now all adults and struggling with marriages,
children and mortgages. We Take Care Of Our Own, American Land and Land Of Hope
And Dreams add to his list of classic songs. 
I have been watching him perform for 42 years. Although every time is unique......the show is as good now as the BEST I have EVER seen.
ReplyDeleteSavour the time you will spend with him/them. We will NEVER see his like again.
ENJOY mate!