Springsteen

Look I know Bruce is not the global star we make him out to be in the tristate area. I'm not as naive as you might think I am and I get it that even around here fewer and fewer people are buying his CDs (though I don't know a single person who actually purchases music any other way than online) and exploring the lyrics. However if you are one of these fans like me, you grew up with Bruce and marveled at his story telling talents and lyrical prowess. Today we find ourselves a lot older and Bruce is 62. For the past 15 years his albums have taken on difficult subjects and he writes more and more about the challenges in life. So my first question is did Bruce become a pessimist? Bruce wrote Born to Run when he was 25. It's been almost 40 years and we've all changed in ways too numerous to even contemplate, and part of growing up and older is facing more challenges from life. Everyone understands these facts of life. Still, is Bruce, and tramps like us, are we all still born to run?


Some people always screw up what Bruce is singing about. The height of not paying attention was when President Reagan's 1984 campaign was using Born in the USA as a campaign song. Sure the refrain sounds patriotic when it stands alone, but the song is about Vietnam veterans struggling in America. In the context of the rest of the song the refrain is more like a cry of "What the heck? I was born here, served my country, and I still can't catch a goddamn break!" I've heard Born in the USA performed by Bruce alone on a 12 string guitar numerous times and the pain he attempts to convey is palpable when he performs it in this manner. I often wonder if he regretted going with the full band, rock n' roll version on the album because the message of the song was missed by more than half the country. Certainly Reagan's campaign manager didn't bother to read the lyrics, nor did he know that Bruce was a lifelong liberal Democrat who subsequently asked the campaign to stop using his song.


Going back to my original question, let's look at the last three studio albums: Wrecking Ball, Working on a Dream, and Magic. Again, not really three albums a casual Bruce fan is all that familiar with. The title track of Magic wasn't about the mystery of the unknown or the sense of wonder a magician brings to an audience. Instead the "magic" that Bruce sings about are the illusions that shroud the truth. At the time much of the illusions he was referencing were the policies of the Bush administration that lead the country to an Iraqi invasion. Clearly Bruce did not believe the rationales President Bush gave for going to war. Much of the album touched on these subjects including veterans from the Iraq war coming home and facing challenges reacclimating to the regular life. The track Last to Die (for a mistake) makes it pretty clear where Bruce stands. While other tracks aren't so dire the overall tone is not uplifting. I think we'll throw this album in the pessimistic bucket.


The next album really isn't difficult to characterize at all. The title Working on a Dream really sums up the album. Here is a person in his late 50s (at the time) and he remains an optimist who sees so many possibilities in front of him regardless of age. Plenty of tracks celebrating his marriage and family. In Kingdom of Days he writes "I look to you and you're mine for always/ we laugh beneath the covers as we count the wrinkles and the grays." This Life highlights "This life, and all the rest. With you I have been blessed." Of course other tracks reflect feelings about morbid subjects but I don't think anyone would characterize this album as anything other than optimistic.


So assuming the score is tied, one optimistic album against one pessimistic album, how does Bruce's current effort break the tie? Optimism and pessimism battle one another all throughout the course of Wrecking Ball. The pessimism isn't hard to understand. The most important member of the E Street band and one of Springsteen's best friends died eight months prior to the album's release. The phrase "hard times come" is a lyric in numerous songs and so many of the tracks reflect on all the difficulties in life. Just look at the titles of some of the tracks like Shackled and Drawn, The Depression, Rocky Ground, and Death to my Hometown. That's just a sample and the subject across these tracks is pretty consistent: hard times indeed. In Rocky Ground Bruce writes, "You try to sleep, you toss and turn the bottom's dropping out/where you once had faith now there's only doubt/you pray for guidance only silence now meets your prayers/ the morning breaks you awake but no one's there." Or off the title track he sings in Wrecking Ball about "all our youth and beauty being given to the dust," and our "best hopes and desires are scattered to the wind." Those are pretty nasty places to find yourself. So why isn't this a slam dunk pessimistic album? Actually it isn't because if there is one consistent theme from Springsteen (especially since The Rising) it's this: Rise up!


The Rising kept that theme all throughout the album that was an emotional answer to a terrible time in American history and the Rise Up! theme rings through on this album as well. The track Rocky Ground covers hard places we can be in life but all throughout the song Bruce keeps singing "There's a new day coming" and that day is to be viewed a chance for redemption, a chance to break from all our past misery and hard times. Again the title track, Wrecking Ball captures both pessimism and optimism and in turn boldly gives all those hard times the finger and says, "Bring it on!" I don't know if I want to tempt the fates and turn to life and say, “Give me your best shot!” but I love that Bruce does. Maybe it's the 20 year age gap between us that makes Bruce a lot less intimidated by life than I am. Look at him, he's 62, second marriage, just lost Clarence, his youth and beauty are diminishing and he stares ahead and says "Fuck it, bring it." That's brave, and inspiring and above all else, optimistic.


So are tramps like us still born to run? I still don't know the answer but I'm glad the question remains? It would be much more depressing if the answer was a definite negative. Strangely I'm not head over heels over the actual song Born to Run but I certainly respect its extremely exalted status in rock history. Nevertheless if you've been to a Springsteen concert in the last five years you already know that nothing has changed. We all jump out of our seats, sing "au-oh, au-oh" during Out in the Street, and "whooo-oohoo" with Badlands. I think that's the ultimate appeal of the shows. It isn't that it transports us to the 1980's when we were wide-eye kids who were ready to take on the world. Instead it takes us as we are right now and reminds us we can still bring it.


And that's the real dichotomy and I believe it's calculated. Bruce concerts are meant to be uplifting and optimist. You won't get people to spend $120 a ticket if they show up and you bum them out. Concert Bruce is “Rise up! Are you alive out there!?!” and big horns in 10th Avenue Freeze Out. That is what brings people back night after night and year after year. The new albums, the struggles and the pessimism, that's for the artist. The fanatical among us will purchase, listen and maybe even blog about Bruce's most recent effort. But the casual fan will hear the first single and only remember the refrain (In the latest CD the refrain would be We Take Care of our Own - very upbeat).


So that's it. Bruce is a little like Seinfeld's two face girlfriend. Under the proper lighting she was hotsy-totsy, yet in different places, hotsy-notsy. Bruce in concert is good time party Bruce who loves investment bankers who can afford his ticket prices for 4 nights in a row. On his albums he is pensive Bruce and takes a more dour stance and writes about life’s struggles. Where do we fit? Despite getting older we survived our hard times and guess what? We're still getting together, we still know how to scream, and singing at the top of our lungs still brings us joy today.

Still the question remains, are we still born to run? While the simple answer is yes the reality is much more complicated. Bruce was 25 years old when he wrote those words and 25 year olds believe they are entitled to do everything they were "born to" do forever. I think the passing of time has demonstrated that now we've got to survive and endure if we want to be able to keep doing something we were "born to" do. In this case we've got to make it through all those hard times and challenges if we want to keep running. That's the overall optimistic message on this CD. Land of Hope and Dreams has become a concert mainstay for 12 years but finally appears on this CD as a studio track. Here dreams will not be thwarted, and faith will be rewarded but even that is too polyanna. As Wrecking Ball commands, "Hold tight to your anger, hold tight to your anger, don't fall to your fears." If we want to keep running in 2012 and beyond it's going to take all of it: faith, dreams, anger and keeping our fears at bay. Regardless, it ought to be a hell of a ride.