Tag: Conservatism and Springsteen
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Bruce Springsteen Is America’s Greatest Conservative Songwriter, Part XI: Meet Me In The Land Of Hopes And Dreams
Arts criticism is, by its very nature, interpretation. And the human trait of confirmation bias makes it possible for just about any human being to make just about any case for any art. It’d be hypothetically possible for someone to try to show that Raskolnikov, the protagonist in Dostoëvski’s Crime and Punishment, is really a homoerotic…
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Bruce Springsteen Is America’s Greatest Conservative Songwriter, Part X: The Local Cops Rip This Holy Night
I’m gonna give you a two-fer here. We’ll cover two of Andrew Sullivan’s definitions of what makes a conservative in one article, since they’re both just a tad thin. The first of the two – “Conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism“? Gotta confess, that one’s pretty thin throughout the history of…
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Bruce Springsteen Is America’s Greatest Conservative Songwriter, Part IX: I Built The Challenger By Myself
One of the fundamental tenets of the “classical liberalism” that is the basis of modern conservatism is the idea first recorded by John Locke – that men form governments to protect life, liberty and private property; that private property was in fact a cornerstone of real liberty, and that protecting it against the depredations of…
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Bruce Springsteen Is America’s Greatest Conservative Songwriter, Part VIII: Just A Meanness In This World
SIDE NOTE: It’s amazing how life can derail a guy’s plans. While – as is my wont with these long series – much of the rough material was put together in October and November, I held off on actually putting it into a written form, thinking it’d give me something to do during the two-month…
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Bruce Springsteen Is America’s Greatest Conservative Songwriter, Part VII
In “The Promised Land” – a song that constantly flits about the top of most hard-core Springsteen fans’ lists of favorite songs – paints a bleak picture for the everyday schlub: I done my best to live the right way I get up every morning and go to work each day. But your eyes go…
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Bruce Springsteen Is America’s Greatest Conservative Songwriter, Part VI: The Hearts That’ve Been Broken Stand As The Price You Pay
In the world of Rock and Roll, in the words of Neil Young, “it’s better to burn out than fade away”. In the world of Bruce Springsteen’s music, when characters screw up, they flame out big-time – and usually take other people down with ’em. In “Johnny 99”, from Nebraska, the protagonist – “Ralph” –…
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Bruce Springsteen Is America’s Greatest Conservative Songwriter, Part V: The Cross Of My Calling
Rock and roll has always been, ostensibly, about upsetting the existing order. In the beginning, its very existence upended what passed for “order” in popular culture, at least to the extent of helping create a “youth culture” – something that’d never existed before, and really started in America. As culture and the genre evolved through…
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Bruce Springsteen Is America’s Greatest Conservative Songwriter, Part IV: Learn To Live With What You Can’t Rise Above
It’s a little-noticed verse of a song buried in Bruce Springsteen’s biggest studio album: Now, honey, I don’t wanna clip your wings But a time comes when two people should think of these things Having a home and a family, facing up to their responsibilities They say in the end true love prevails But in the…
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Bruce Springsteen Is America’s Greatest Conservative Songwriter, Part III: The Ties That Bind
In the song “Darlington County” (from Born in the USA), a couple of ne’er-do-wells drive south to find a little work and raise a little ruckus: Hey little girl standing on the corner, Todays your lucky day for sure, all right. Me and my buddy we’re from New York City, we got two hundred dollars, we…
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Bruce Springsteen Is America’s Greatest Conservative Songwriter, Part II: Yapping In The Back Seat
Before I get into the beef of the series, it seems I need to do a little remedial art appreciation, logic and rhetoric. For starters, my thesis, and the case I’m making, is “Why Bruce Springsteen is America’s Greatest Conservative Songwriter”. Not “Bruce Springsteen is a Conservative”. He’s not. That’s all duly noted and stipulated…
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Bruce Springsteen Is America’s Greatest Conservative Songwriter, Part I: Telling Fortunes Better Than You Do
Bruce Springsteen. There may be no more politically-divisive figure in popular music today. On the one hand, he openly campaigns for liberal Democrats, and against conservatism, every election cycle. This earns the ire and contempt of many conservatives. And with a net worth of $200 million – four times Michael Moore’s portfolio – he’s the…