Bruce Springsteen

Long before Dylan was unexpectedly awarded the Nobel for literature, I was thinking about Springsteen. His music is almost uniquely story driven, the albums like novels. There are other songwriters who tell stories but none so consummately as The Boss, and none with the same sensitivity to the literary concepts of story and character. Here’s what he had to say on the nature of his writing and writing in general in [Born to Run]:

“The precision of these types of songs is very important. show more The correct detail can speak volumes about who your character is, while one can shred the credibility of your story. When you get the music and lyrics right, your voice disappears into the voices you've chosen to write about. Basically, with these songs, I find the characters and listen to them. That always leads to a series of questions about their behavior. What would they do? What would they never do? You need to locate the rhythm of their speech and the nature of their expression. But all the telling detail in the world doesn't matter if the song lacks an emotional center. That's something you have to pull out of yourself form the commonality you feel with the man or woman you're writing about. By pulling these elements together as well as you can, you shed light on their lives and honor their experiences.”

The autobiography is a frank accounting of his career but also, and more importantly, his own internal life. Given the sensitivity of his music, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that his non-lyrical writing should be so sensitive. But the quality and poetry of the writing suggests a very literary mind. With the often raucous, bar-band music, the lyrics can get lost. It’s why Reagan missed that Born in the USA was a protest song and not a feel-good patriotic romp. I dare you to listen to the lyrics of that song and not be deeply affected.

Even more amazing is that he writes about lives he’s never really had. Sure, you’ll learn in the book about his hard-nose, and often drunk, father, and the hardscrabble youth. But he even admits that he’s made all these characters and stories up out of whole cloth – listen to the Broadway show song Growing Up for the confession. Springsteen should have gotten the Nobel.

The best part of the book is easily the last hundred pages, as he writes about the death of Clarence Clemmons, facing his own mortality, and a long battle with depression. He handles these topics of loss and faith and purpose better than most anything out in the modern fiction world these days.

Bottom Line: It helps if you’re a music fan, and certainly if you’re a Boss fan, but this is a great and literary book.

5 bones!!!!! show less

Let me throw out two things, right off the top. The first is, I am, at best, a very, very mild Springsteen fan, at best, and personally, I haven't had much interest in anything of his since Tunnel of Love. The second is, I goddamned loved this book.

There's a whole bunch of reasons for that.

The first is—and let's be real, it's a well-known fact that most famous people's biographies are ghostwritten by someone with some talent, not the famous person—but this book was stunningly show more well-written. If it was a ghostwritten, then bravo to that nameless soul. But, this is one I could see Bruce taking on himself. Either way, the level of craftmanship with the actual writing is way, way up there.

Second is the actual subject matter. I tend to groan when I start a biography, simply because I know I'll have to suffer through the subject's childhood and awkward adolescence, blah blah blah. With this one, I was flat out riveted from the first page, and wanted to hear more and more about ten-year-old Bruce's life. Yeah, it's that good.

Now, that's not to say that it's perfect when it comes to covering everything in Bruce's life. He tends to stick directly to himself, where I would have loved to have heard his thoughts on things like Manfred Mann's two big covers from his first album. He covered Spirits in the Night and, even bigger, the phenomenal Blinded By The Light. Nothing. He also never mentions Patti Scialfa's album. His own wife? Come on!

There are also times where you can actually feel him tiptoeing around some dicey topics involving his E Street Band members, and some other personalities, but I get that he's also not out to burn anyone.

Third, while still somewhat on the topic of subject matter, I'm impressed that he's both honest and open about his and his family's mental illness issues, and that he didn't write a "I fucked this person, then I fucked that person, then I played this concert..." He's much more inward-looking, introspective. I love that.

Fourth, he gives you lots of insight into the writing of certain key songs and albums, which I'm always fascinated in. Though, surprisingly, he also completely skips over some albums, not even mentioning Lucky Town, Human Touch, or Devils & Dust.

In the end, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this long book from the very first, to the very last page. Very likely the best biography I've ever read. show less

The arc that forms the spine of this book is a tale of intergenerational conflict and reconciliation. An emotionally distant, disapproving father prone to unpredictable outbursts of violence and the son torn between rebellion and the hunger for his father’s love and respect.
It’s a tale that is a paradigm of the power of rock and roll.
Springsteen grew up in a time and place when the gospel of deliverance came in tablets of rock that spun at 45 rpm, broadcast from radio stations that show more belied their own raison d’etre as mass media marketing machines to serve as lifelines in the dark for hungry individual souls. He imbibed the music and contributed his own anthems to that canon.
His tale has a happier end than many—a fact he seems recognizant of—as he comes to understand his father’s depression and paranoid delusions and owns up to similar darkness in his own makeup. The ties that bind, indeed.
The book is honest and revealing without being sensationalistic or indiscreet. As the account progresses, it becomes more episodic. This is understandable. Our childhood memories—Springsteen’s are remarkably detailed—and our first scuffling steps toward finding our calling etch themselves more deeply in our memory than anything that follows.
Yes, I have my quibbles. Some judicious editing would have snipped repetitions. The tone of the overloaded sentences is uneven, as vivid images and street jive mix with cliche. But I enjoyed this remarkable chronicle of hard work, talent, and luck fueled by a burning ambition to be the best. The labor of battling to the top of the music profession turns out to only be a step toward something more challenging, the task of becoming a good man. For mixed in with the chronicle of a musician’s career is an openness about his battle with depression, admitting that for decades he has availed himself of both professional therapy and prescribed medication; this, along with the wise, tough love of a good woman, make an inspiring tale. Bruce Springsteen came to love and respect his father (feelings he always had toward his mother) yet chose not to become his father. show less

With as many adjectives as Bruce would use, this is an incredible, comprehensive, truthful, meaningful journey into his heart of darkness and light. With New Jersey and his father's mental illness and alcoholism at the core, the singer tries to keep himself out of those ditches by putting together HIS band, playing HIS songs, and overcoming the demons of depression and inner doubt. The only fairy tale is how his actual rising came about, with much more hard work than luck, and with father show more figures like Jon Landau and Mike Appel, brother-buddies Clarence Clemons and Steve Van Zandt. He explores most aspects of his childhood and career in depth and candor - and he writes memoir like he sings, crowded with too many words and much depth of feeling. The encounters with other musicians (opening for Herman's Hermits!) he writes about are revealing and he display not a small bit of credit to and idolatry of them. The audio CD is like a road trip which gets a bit tedious at times but is primarily a pleasure cruise. It has been ten years since publication and now, at 76, there should be universal admiration for the fact that he's still running. show less