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September 23, 2005

Bruce at 56

Sheila O'Malley, as so often happens, sums up what I really mean to say:

It's funny when an artist somehow - explains your own life to you - at different stages of your life ... Like, you grow along with the artist. It's amazing - these people who have had really really long careers ... Sometimes you hear one song, and you can flash back 20 years in time to a specific place, a specific sensation ... You know where you were, but more importantly than that, more evocatively: You know WHO you were. We change, we grow, we evolve. But music, and musicians who call us out, who challenge us, who evoke emotions, who remain honest and true ... can remind us of WHO we were.
That's always been the thing with Springsteen, for me; beyond music, beyond the live performances, beyond anything conscious, something in my psyche has always found something to latch onto, to identify with - and which I forevermore associate with things, times and places, ideas, moods that have long passed but, when I hear the song, I can return to and place as powerfully as if they were yesterday.

JB Doubtless often sniffs about people who claim a song or an oeuvre or an artist "saved their life". It's melodramatic...no. It's not. It's shorthand for a lot of things; the memory of music (or any kind of art, although I'm most focused on music) that focused your life, that summed up how you felt and what you were thinking, that distilled a time of your life and being into a brilliant diamond-sharp token of experience, something that is with you forever.

I have a bunch of them. And the soundtrack for a vastly-disproportionate number of them comes from Bruce.

There are little swatches and passages from Springsteen that I forever associate with moments, some earth-shaking, some that seemed trivial at the time but evolved over time.

But there's much more to it than that. The more I think about it, the more I realize that it goes beyond an artist, and it goes way beyond nostalgia.

Work with me on this one.

I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when each of dozens of passages drilled themselves into my brain:

"Well the dogs on Mainstreet howl, 'cuz they understand"

"When the breakdown hit at midnight there was nothing left to say/but I hated him, and I hated you when you went away..."

"Tonight I went down to the River, though I know the river is dry/down to the river tonight..." - the harmony vocal on that part chills me as much as the association it makes.

"I got dirt on my hands, but I'm building a home..."

"Puerto Rican Jane/oh won't you tell me what's your game?/we can find it out on the other side of town/where paradise ain't so crowded..."

"But on a night like this, I know that girl no longer exists/except for a moment in some stranger's eye, or the faceless voices in cars rushing by..."

"I just want someone to talk to/and a little of that human touch"

"Big wheels roll through fields where sunlight streams/meet me in the land of hopes and dreams" - this, as I entered the most wrenchingly awful year of my life, was unbelieveably vivid for me. Tell ya what, JB - maybe I'm going to have to revisit that "music saved my life" thing. This particular song may have done exactly that.

"If I should all behind, wait for me"

"I'm 35, I got a boy of my own now/last night I sat him up behind the wheel, said Son, take a good look around/this is your hometown"

(Damn - it's hard to even type those. Some of them - or rather, the things I associate them with - still absolutely wreck me).

And maybe the biggest one of all; it was right after 9/11, during The Telethon. The time for grief was wearing on us; the time to strike back was weeks in the future, and in any case the job of other people. The images of Ground Zero, of body bags and nightmarish onslaughts of dust and distraught survivors and pictures of the missing everywhere, and F-16s orbited over Minneapolis.

And on that evening, during the telecast - itself jarring for its grainy, noisy, hasty-to-the-point-of-slapdash production, which itself brought back memories of live broadcasts from the sixties and seventies - Bruce and his guitar and a couple of other singers did "My City Of Ruins". I sat with my kids and watched.

(with these hands) I pray for the faith, Lord,
(with these hands) I pray for the hope, Lord,
(with these hands) I pray for the strength, Lord,
(with these hands) I pray for your love, Lord...

And I did, too. In a way I hadn't before.

And I got it. Faith and hope. And Love and strength. Especially strength. I needed it, and it was there.

At this point, let me take a moment to head off the inevitable political jibe; I know. Springsteen campaigned for Kerry. Let me put this succinctly; I don't care if he was found giving Dennis Kucinich a pedicure. It means what it means, to me. That is all.

So why does this go beyond nostalgia? Because those associations exist for a reason; in the best of these moments, one not only gets an association, a combination of stimuli that etches itself into your consciousness. More importantly, one has learned something about oneself, about how you fit into or react to or live in this world, something you can file away - if you're lucky - and use later.

And when you need to pull that little lesson from life out of the memory hole, it's that association that helps you find it. And it's there when you need it.

The dogs on mainstreet howl. I don't wanna fade away. When I'm out in the street, I talk the way I wanna talk. That girl no longer exists. At the end of every hard earned day I find some reason to believe. Let their precious love bind me, lord as I stand before your firey light.

Give me strength, faith, hope, love.

You can't break the ties that bind.

Behind each of those snippets - meaningless on their own - is a piece of life, a lesson learned, a hope and a prayer, an ideal to which I still aspire.

Happy birthday, Bruce, and here's to 56 more years.

Posted by Mitch at September 23, 2005 12:46 PM | TrackBack
Comments

"I don't care if he was found giving Dennis Kucinich a pedicure."

Dude. The image that is now in my brain ...

I will have to drink heavily to remove it.

No but seriously: beautiful post. Makes me all emotional. Thanks, Mitch!

Posted by: red at September 23, 2005 12:27 PM

The only song out there that emotionally affects me is Kenny Loggins "Pooh Corner". The one he did recently with a verse sung by Amy Grant, not the Loggins/Messina hyper version from the 70's.

I have a 3.5 year old daughter and a 1.5 year old son. The silly little affectations that they have already grown out of and will become cherished memories down the road are still fresh in my head. That's why.

You may commence mocking and ridiculing forthwith. I have a strong skin, and nothing offends me. I might even laugh along with you.

Posted by: FJBill at September 23, 2005 02:33 PM

Mitch,

Did you catch Scott Johnson's link to the brilliant article in City Journal called "America's Most Successful Communist"?

No, it wasn't Springsteen (laughter) it was his forefather Pete Seeger, who begat Arlo Guthrie, who begat Dylan, who then begat Springsteen. And all of those guys have written profoundly anti-American songs (some more than others).

The writer does a good job of taking down one of Springsteen's most hateful and snide songs "Born in The USA" that includes the line that always drove me crazy "Sent to kill the yellow man". Yeah, Bruce, THAT'S what the war was about you freaking moron--it was about killing the Yellow Man.

So again, it's not that Springsteen shilled for Kerry, it's that his worldview (as espoused in his songs) is in the pinko tradition of Seeger, Guthrie and Dylan and he can frankly rot in hell for all the filth he has brought to our collective consciousness'.

You would be better off getting rid of your Springsteen (and the Clash--don't get me started on those socialist wankers) albums and buying some Pat Boone. At least he doesn't have a corrupt, leftist worldview.

Posted by: jb at September 23, 2005 02:49 PM

JB,

Once again: I don't care if you have a video of Bruce marching arm in arm with Joe Strummer, John Dos Passos and Ho Chi Minh through Oktyabrskaya Square singing the Internationale and posing behind the sights of an Iraqi anti-aircraft gun (and lots of luck finding that). Doesn't matter at all. Couldn't care less if you paid me to (although feel free to try).

And while you're at it - run out and find yourself a writer's encyclopedia, and look up "Point Of View". Then, with that concept clutched tightly to your chest, listen to "Born In The USA", "Nebraska" and "Johnny 99" again.

And get working on that footage.

Posted by: mitch at September 23, 2005 03:25 PM

And say, JB - aren't you the big Country/Western fan?

The genre where everyone cheats on everyone, which glorifies drinking and driving and generalized ignorance?

Which does more damage to real Americans today - stylized politics, or infidelity and alcoholism?

You'd best get rid of your Kenney Chesney and buy some Stiff Little Fingers. At least they don't have a worldview that leads to dissipation, the collapse of the family, an epidemic of venereal disease and cirrhosis.

Posted by: mitch at September 23, 2005 03:34 PM

Mitch,

To respond to your POV point: as soon as Bruce writes at least 30 songs espousing a conservative or religious worldview, I will have to assume that he's not just putting on this "POV" to make a good song, but rather because he actually believes it.

All we hear is how Bruce is such a visionary, authentic artist...now you are saying he's just playing a role? Like an actor? That he doesn't actually believe what's he's writing about?

He's either a leftist scumbag or a conman, take your pick. You know how I come down.

Posted by: jb at September 23, 2005 03:53 PM

"You'd best get rid of your Kenney Chesney and buy some Stiff Little Fingers. At least they don't have a worldview that leads to dissipation, the collapse of the family, an epidemic of venereal disease and cirrhosis."

Excellent point and interesting that it's gone UNANSWERED.


Posted by: Tim at September 23, 2005 07:03 PM

JB,

For starters - what Tim said!

And then...

"To respond to your POV point: as soon as Bruce writes at least 30 songs espousing a conservative or religious worldview, I will have to assume that he's not just putting on this "POV" to make a good song, but rather because he actually believes it."

Thirty? No more, no less? Seems an arbitrary number to me. I'd be hard pressed to find a secular artist that does thirty songs about ANY one subject - and so would you.

Would one do? "If I Should Fall Behind" is an excellent gospel song. Faith Hill covered it, speaking of C and W; she's a good Republican girl, right? How about two? "My City of Ruins" is also one of the best gospel songs of recent years; I heard a cover by some gospel group or another that was just wonderful - and as I noted in my post, I had my own rather deep religious (as in Christian) experience with the this. We can rule out "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City" by David Bowie, but still.

Conservative? Well, he's not a conservative by any stretch - but "Into The Fire", an elegy for the FDNY on 9/11, exalts faith, hope, strength, love - nothing unconservative about it.

"All we hear is how Bruce is such a visionary, authentic artist...now you are saying he's just playing a role? Like an actor? That he doesn't actually believe what's he's writing about?"

Er...no?

I also have it on good authority that Dostoevski ever killed his landlady. Shall we boycott him as well?

"He's either a leftist scumbag or a conman, take your pick."

I take "C", none of the above.

" You know how I come down."

Like Old Faithful.

Posted by: mitch at September 23, 2005 08:27 PM

Well, not that anybody cares, but JB...I agree with you. Again, not that anybody cares, but Mitch, you sound like someone aspiring to be in the cool kids club. Why wouldn't it bother you if Springsteen marched down the road with Ho Chi Minh? Is there nothing he could do to make you think "wait a minute"? Man, your principles run pretty shallow if a pop singer can turn your head. If he advocated shooting elderly people when they outlived their usefulness would you still say..."well, he's a damn good singer/songwriter" or whatever it is you admire so about him? If he truly has a "pink" streak think hard about what that says about his thought processes and how a person can reach age 56 and not be any smarter. What's to admire?

Posted by: Colleen at September 23, 2005 11:42 PM

Give it to him Colleen! I too have to agree with JB. I may like a whole lot of Bruce's music, but it will always be colored now with the taint of his "I know better than you" liberal mindset.

Posted by: Leo at September 24, 2005 12:08 AM

I just like his music.

Posted by: red at September 24, 2005 06:48 AM

I learned over twenty years ago that arguing over Springsteen (or any musician) is pointless. When Born in the USA came out I was in high school. I spoke critically of Bruce's music -- my exact words may have been "Springsteen sucks" -- and my classmates reacted as if I had defecated in a sacred shrine.

The aforementioned "cool kids club" just didn't appeal to me then any more than it does now.

What I have come to understand as I have grown older is that it's all about personal musical tastes. Red says, "I just like his music". Some of us don't. And you can't change that by arguing on the internet.

Posted by: Dave in Pgh. at September 24, 2005 07:26 AM

I'm not trying to change anyone's opinion by stating my own.

Posted by: red at September 24, 2005 07:31 AM

Cool Kids Club?

Hey, Fingers - if you're reading, tell 'em how much I cared about the Cool Kids Club!

Let me put it this way: I don't ask Norm Coleman or Mitt Romney or Steve Forbes to approve of the art I like. By the same token, I don't care if Bruce Springsteen or Emmylou Harris or the Dixie Chicks don't care for my politics.

Dave - We'll always have Joe Grushecky!

Posted by: mitch at September 24, 2005 07:33 AM

OF COURSE you can change people's opinions on music. They often won't admit it, but when the truth is told well (as I have done) it gets in there. No adult will ever admit that they are wrong and that embracing leftist scumbags is stupid, but you can create cognitive dissonance that will make it harder for the person to trumpet their incorrect tastes in the future.

And as to the country music comments. The tradition of country music is not to glorify drinkin', cheatin' drunk drivin' etc. The moral of most of those songs is that you shouldn't do it because it will screw up your life. Because the song is ABOUT drinking, doesn't mean that it's saying drinking is cool.

I agree with one of the other commenters Mitch that it is a little disturbing that you have taken such a hard line with Bruce that he can basically do anything, say anything, promote any lefty cause, and you will still be thankful for that time he saved your life when you were choking on that meatball sub by performing the Heimlich.

By the way, I've posted Top 11 Lyrics That Prove Bruce Springsteen Is A Leftist Scumbag on the Nihilist in Golf Pants.

Posted by: JB Doubtless at September 24, 2005 08:17 AM

Well, maybe the caring is more for a certain lady's opinion than the "cool kids club"...I'm sure the admiration for Springsteen's music is real but I think the "no matter what" defense of him is posturing. Awww....kinda funny!

Posted by: Colleen at September 24, 2005 08:30 AM

JB - two questions. 1) Are all lefties scumbags? and 2) What "filth" has Springsteen brought into our collective conscious? The drugz/hos/bling addicted lifestyle of rap? The anti-bush sentiments of the Dixie Chicks? The talentless Shania/Faith/Britney/etc. cabal? Or one sentence about killing yellow people?

What I don't get about all this is, can we not seperate the art from the artist? I grew up in the very red Black Hills of SD, went to a private Christian school, have always been politically fairly far to the right - but my fave bands have always been (outside of openly Christian bands, anyway) lefties. And there's no disconnect - when listnening to Black Flaf, i can laugh at songs like "Police Story" - but I still like listening to it.

Maybe I'm just weird.

Posted by: Steve at September 24, 2005 10:33 AM

It pains me to say it, but I'm behind Mitch on this one. Music evokes something that is larger than the artist or his politics. It connects us to events and emotions. The macro politics of any particular artist don't affect the micro emotions that any one song can have on your memories. Music is a memory tool and subjecting it to politics is being too idealistic. I'm comfortable with my conservatism. I don't need to prove it by listening to "acceptable" musicians. I'll listen to who is good.

Posted by: Ben Worley at September 24, 2005 11:24 AM

"And as to the country music comments. The tradition of country music is not to glorify drinkin', cheatin' drunk drivin' etc. The moral of most of those songs is that you shouldn't do it because it will screw up your life. Because the song is ABOUT drinking, doesn't mean that it's saying drinking is cool."

Oh, puh-leeeze, JB. You might be able to fool the interns with that apcray, but I actually worked at three different C&W stations over the years. I've heard enough C&W to gag a billygoat (and learned to love some of it). You can NOT tell me there's a consistent moral lesson in country western, because there isn't!

As to this bit: "Mitch that it is a little disturbing that you have taken such a hard line with Bruce that he can basically do anything, say anything, promote any lefty cause"

JB, after a year of this argument, you are still completely deaf. *I DON'T CARE*, because I don't need an artist's affirmation for my political beliefs, any more than I need a politician's affirmation for my taste in art. I remain the most conservative person I know. How do you figure that happens?

This constant tying of art to politics, JB, puts you solidly in the same camp as the Soviets, who required their art to affirm their politics.

JB, the socialist realist!

", and you will still be thankful for that time he saved your life when you were choking on that meatball sub by performing the Heimlich."

Uh...wha?

"By the way, I've posted Top 11 Lyrics That Prove Bruce Springsteen Is A Leftist Scumbag on the Nihilist in Golf Pants."

I'm sure it's a classic.

No, really.

Posted by: mitch at September 24, 2005 11:33 AM

Yes. Leftists are scumbags. For those of you who somehow think we can all get along, even when our core values are COMPLETELY different and their entire raison detre is to destory the society the normal people have built, I say you need to get real.

The leftys hate you and your values. Why would you want to get along with them?

Bruce is a lefty. Why would you want to listen to the worldview of a lefty?

It's kind of a badge of open-mindedness or something for conservatives to say how proud they are to listen to music with petulant socialist lyrics like the Clash. I just think it makes you look foolish.

And Mitch, you clearly haven't listened to enough country to know what you speak of here. The songs are about moral lessons and the human condition--not about romaticizing drinkin' and cheatin'.

There isn't some kind of conservative test that a musician has to pass in order for me to listen to them, but if they throw lies and filth (see the song "Reno" for the filth) about how America is corrupt and raceclassgender, raceclassgender, raceclassgender out there, why would I embrace that?

I think you need to get right with The Man and Bruce will seem a lot less important to you.

Posted by: JB Doubtless at September 24, 2005 11:44 AM

JB - you're sounding farther and farther out there. All lefties are scumbags? That's the sort of thing I'd expect to hear - in reverse - from a Kos Kid.

I don't restrict myself to listening to music that passes some political test, unlike you, apparently.. I listen to music that I think is good. Period. It even includes country - admittedly mostly old-time stuff like Johnny Horton, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. Again, restricted to *good music* - not right wing politics.

Who on earth walks around being proud of the music they *listen* to? What pride can be found in that? It doesn't make me proud to listen to the Clash, nor does it make me proud of their abilities. I claim no more pride listening to the music I do than I do reading the paper, using Google (JB - do you use Google? Or does the fact that they're a bunch of lefties push you somewhere else?) or reading this blog. Music is entertainment. Period. It can be angry, poignant,it can be evocative of better or worse times; it can be celebratory or profane. But, in the end, it's just music. It does not inform my political or social opinions anymore than the Star Trib, the PiPress or the Kos Kids do.

And, for what it's worth, I'd have to be in the camp that says Bruce hasn't made a really good record in 20 years or so - "The Rising" possibly excluded.

Posted by: Steve at September 24, 2005 01:02 PM

I'm standing behind Mitch on this one; great art transcends ideology.

I'm a hard-core lefty, but I love John Wayne movies.

I'm not a Nazi, but I appreciate Leni Riefenstahl's innovations in documentary filmmaking.

I'm not a member of the Ku Klux Klan, but I'm still impressed with the advancements D.W. Griffith made with narrative film technique.

JB and Colleen: You need to break free of your partisan recalcitrance. Art challenges.

Posted by: Ernst Stavro Blofeld at September 24, 2005 02:19 PM

J.B. is right

Posted by: kalmo at September 24, 2005 02:33 PM

"J.B. is right"

Not on this.

Posted by: Puerto Rican Jane at September 24, 2005 02:47 PM

Yes, Ernst, art challenges (geez...ya can't just enjoy something...it must "challenge"). I like plenty of artists I disagree with (Steve Earle and probably many more that I just don't want to know about), but once I DO know what they think, it tends to tone down my appreciation a tad. I don't slavishly follow them with blind devotion anymore...Plus, Ive noticed that for many "artists" it seems pretty easy to follow the leftist/socialist mantras...so how deep a thinker does it take to spout off the same old crap every other celebrity does...only with a better voice and prettier words? Wow, what a rebel, that Springsteen.

Posted by: Colleen at September 24, 2005 04:13 PM

"Yes, Ernst, art challenges (geez...ya can't just enjoy something...it must "challenge")."

Why do you think enjoyment and challenge are incompatible?

Posted by: mitch at September 24, 2005 04:31 PM

Ya' know, if Wagner can be performed in Israel, Mitch oughta' be able to avoid excoriation for enjoying Bruce Springsteen, and I say that as someone who thinks Springsteen's peak of 25 years ago is so much higher than where he resides today that he can't see it anymore.

Posted by: Will Allen at September 24, 2005 05:38 PM

Let's talk about Springsteen the musician. He has an extremely limited vocal range. As a songwriter, he composed some decent melodies once, 25-30 years ago. His lyrics and storytelling have generally been trite and dull.

The difference between his old music, which was marginally listenable and the crap he's put out lately (the last 2/3 of my lifetime) is that the old stuff was standard rock'n roll boy meets girl stuff. I don't know if his injecting politics into his music had anything to do with its steep decline, but it may have been more than just coincidence.

Here's a non-political example of his trite and dull songwriting, from mid-80's hit "Glory Days":

I had a friend who was a big baseball player
back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
make you look like a fool

What a craptacular piece of poetry. The most offensive thing about it is the fact that if Bruce had replaced "speedball" with "fastball," the tempo would have been no different.

Is Bruce so stupid that he doesn't know that the name for the most common pitch in America's pastime? All I can think about whenever I hear that song are those old WWII movies where the Americans trip up the Nazi spy by asking him a question about who won the 1938 world series. Could Bruce possibly be a Nazi spy?

Posted by: Nihilist In Golf Pants at September 24, 2005 11:01 PM

Nihilist,

What you pick out a lyric from among about 500 songs out there and say "lookit how dumb it is?"

Jeez, it's Rock and Roll, dude. None of it is Shakespeare - in fact, the harder it tries to be, the worse it does.

"He never ever learned to read or write so well
but he can play a guitar just like a-ringin' a bell"

"My ma and pa told me 'son you gotta make some money
if you wanna take the car and go driving next Sunday'".

"I got a whole lotta money ready to burn
so raise those stakes up higher"

"Purple Haze is in my brain
silly things just don't seem the same"

"I can't get no satisfaction,
I can't get no girl reaction"

Friggin' poetic, huh?

Now, Nihilist, I know how attached you are to the music of your own favorite singer, George Michael. It's OK. But feel free to show me where either George OR Andrew Ridgeley, or the rest of your top five favorites (Yanni, Gloria Estefan, Elton John or Enrique Yglesias) wrote a line like:

"Spirits above and behind me,
faces gone black, eyes burning bright.
Let their precious love bind me,
lord as I stand before your firey light..."

Not to say it's not possible. Just saying I'm not betting my mortgage payment on either you or JB knowing it...

(Kid=must)

Posted by: mitch at September 25, 2005 09:37 AM

While I probably don't agree with much of your politics, Mitch, I did like your post on Bruce. I think it's sad when people have to rip apart something that obviously made an impact in your life. Music is subjective, and while there may be a time and place to argue whether or not an artist should be appreciated based on their political beliefs, I do not think that this was it. Thanks for sharing something that was special to you. I enjoyed reading it.

Posted by: Jen at September 25, 2005 10:07 AM

"While I probably don't agree with much of your politics"

This should be taken as a sign Mitch....and not a good one.

Posted by: marcus aurelius at October 3, 2005 06:58 PM
hi