"... early in his one-man stage show, viewable on Netflix Sunday. 'I’ve never seen the inside of a factory, and yet it’s all I’ve ever written about. Standing before you is a man who’s become wildly and absurdly successful writing about something [with] which he has had absolutely no personal experience.'... Mr. 'Thunder Road' never drove a car until he was forced to, in his 20s, on what sounds like a nightmarish cross-country road trip with his band. The hardscrabble romance of the Jersey Shore, site of action and adventure in his songs? 'I invented that!' he calls out, during a segment about how depressing and provincial Asbury Park was when he first set off on his career. He shares these small gaps between his persona and his reality not to unburden his guilt, nor to humblebrag about what a great fabulist he is—though he does a bit of the latter. ('That’s how good I am,' he cracks after one confession.) Springsteen’s interested in the way that mystique overlays on truth, allowing ordinary life to feel extraordinary."
From "Bruce Springsteen Explains It All" (The Atlantic).
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Liberal admits he is s liar. No shock.
One good song. Wildly overrated.
He’s no Dylan. Not even a Smokey or Rod Stewart.
Jersey Girl was good.
Got no time for the carnivores
Springsteen culturally appropriated the Jersey blue-collar hot-rod kids.
He was fucking Potsie stealing Fonzie's jacket and thinking that made him the Fonz.
He is no better than fucking Sha Na Na.
Seriously.
Although Sha Na Na played Woodstock.
So double-fuck Bruce Springsteen.
I am Laslo.
Wasn't he created by Time Magazine?
Springsteen's best song?
"Blinded By The Light".
And that only worked because Mannfred Mann honed it into a sonic diamond where the words could just be grammar-school rhyming custard in the eclair.
I am Laslo.
Springsteen was actually a backup singer (shouter) on The Dictators song Faster And Louder
this is Actually his Entire Claim To Fame.
The best Springsteen lyrics were "Tweeter and The Monkey Man."
Yeah: Althouse bait.
But it doesn't make it not true.
I am Laslo.
I was in the small, micro minority in the 70s when I told my friends that this guy was vastly overrated. I got stuff thrown at me. I have to say, if you ever saw the band live, you were mesmerized. One of the best performing bands in history. He is a worker onstage and that is/was a great band. They were a great live act.
But the articles that came out back in those days and ever since, proclaiming him the voice of rock, the voice of a generation, the new Dylan, The Boss. The Best Ever. I dunno. I didn't see it. But then I listened alternately to The Who and Weather Report, so what did I know?
He has empathy and creative imagination something few Republicans would understand or folks hung up on identity politics.
I’ve never seen the inside of a factory
Next they'll be telling us that Dylan didn't speak falsely on a watchtower and Jagger didn't have a spike right thru his head.
I like his music a lot, always have. So he admits he’s a writer of fiction, nothing wrong with that. What’s wrong is that he’s been posing as the guy in the songs for a long time and attempts to use that fiction to justify giving us all liberal advice on policy and politics. You know who’s a real man of the blue collar people? Donald Trump, that’s who.
I'm probably the only girl in New Jersey who can't stand the guy. You couldn't PAY me to see him in concert. I would rather watch our new Governor tax us in to oblivion. (That would happen whether I liked Springsteen or not)
I wish I'd counted how many times I heard Born to Run in college.
Jungleland on the radio at 3 AM sounded like he just missed being great--to a teenager.
Bruce, a lot of us knew that shit.
I enjoy his music and the Broadway show was great. The quotes noted in the article are accurate but not presented in context. They were delivered with humor and irony. His fans know that he is not a factory worker but a muscian and an incredible hard working one (from the 4 hour concerts to the nickname "Boss" which came from fellow band members on account of the rigorous studio work he demanded of himself and them). So when he makes the point that his Broadway show was his first "regular job" - it's amusing not profound.
I don't agree with his politics - but he is welcome to have his own views. I have never found them overbearing.
" a man who’s become wildly and absurdly successful writing about something [with] which he has had absolutely no personal experience.'..."
Modify that to include tweeting and interviews and you describe almost all political statements by celebs.
I would love to watch a video of a white guy earnestly telling Jay-Z that he is the black Bruce Springsteen.
That would be fun.
I am Laslo.
Gunter Gras served in the SS, Woody Guthrie was raised upper middle class, Ralph Nader doesn't drive, I love these little reveals when they come out.
Sounds like pure cultural appropriation.
Bob Seger was doing "Bruce Springsteen" long before Bruce Springsteen...
Why isn't Musician an Honest Job?
Water is wet, I tell ya!
I have his Sirius station on in my car regularly. They play a lot of his past concerts. I love his music but I always smirk when he talks about life or 9-5 jobs and can't stand his politics. He's kind of a dope.
RV- you are a dope too. Dems, not Repubs, make their living on identity politics.
i always thought the interesting thing wasn't that bruce hadn't lived the lives he sang about,
it was that
A) he so obviously DESPISED the lives he sang about
B) the people Living those lives loved his songs
The damn fool not only didn't know the difference between a 351 Cleveland and a 351 Windsor, he thought that people that Did were broken losers. People that Did know the difference loved him
{of course, in reality both mills are pieces of shit; you want a big block Mopar with a Dana rear}
He was also all in for -> HIllary
'I’ve never seen the inside of a factory, and yet it’s all I’ve ever written about.
How is this even possible? I've certainly never worked in a factory, but I've seen the insides of quite a few. They're actually quite interesting. People even go on tours to see them! My favourite is actually watching the big rollers when they're rolling out steel, with all the water splashing around and all that. Very impressive. There's some videos online, but checking briefly on youtube I don't see anything that quite captures it. Anyhow, that's probably hyperbole on his part -- he must have at least visited a factory some time.
A no there-there fabulist faking identification with the common man: the perfect prog recipe for wealth and power.
"You know who’s a real man of the blue collar people? Donald Trump, that’s who."
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!
"Gunter Gras served in the SS, Woody Guthrie was raised upper middle class, Ralph Nader doesn't drive, I love these little reveals when they come out."
Gunter Grass was in the SS...drafted at age 17 near the end of the war.
Woody Guthrie's family was middle class...until they experienced financial ruin.
Ralph Nader doesn't drive.
What do any of these facts have to do with the work of these men? (Particularly Nader? Just because he wrote UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED, an expose of the reluctance of the car manufacturers to spend money to make cars safer? Does one have to drive a car to be concerned about the dangers of automobiles?)
He is a great story teller and the best performer of his generation.
I was captivated by him in college and “The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle” is one of my favorite albums - it has a jazzy feel missing from later work.
After “Born to Run” his music changed as he gravitated away from an R&B sound and his songs went from a theme of searching to defeat. The characters in “Thunder Road” and “The River” are the same people.
I did read something that Springsteen has started to occasionally go to Church.
Sadly, this falls into the "don't care anymore" category. When he went hardline politics, at first there was some "shut up and sing," but then the distaste could not be forgotten. Then it was not even a simple "just shut up," it was instead a lot of people just walking away.
As I was driving in the U-Haul, moving away from Ann Arbor for good, Thunder Road was playing because the last light fit perfectly.
> What do any of these facts have to do with the work of these men?
Beats me. That's an interesting question which bears on the nature of lived reality. OTOH, it has no effect on my enjoyment of the little reveals.
People even go on tours to see them
They took us to a semi-automated bakery in second grade. Fascinated by conveyor belts ever since. Some Krispy Kreme bakeries have their process on display behind glass.
HE writes songs and sings them.
Wow. Impressive.
Should we nominate him for a seat on the SCOTUS or the Federal Reserve?
"Woody Guthrie's family was middle class...until they experienced financial ruin."
The biggest fake ever. The average 'muerican folk singer.
Who was a Commie and lived in Brooklyn.
I was a big fan in my teens. Thunder Road and Born or Run are still two of his songs I like to listen to. The rest of them, I've grown tired off. They are all about people who are whining about their lot in life. Although, Girls in their Summer Dresses is kind of nice.
The Weavers couldn't even sew.
I hear him on the radio and I change the channel. Thank goodness for Sirius-there's so many choices when bad music comes on. And Springsteen is bad music.
Right behind the grateful dead in overrated rock bands.
"Why isn't Musician an Honest Job?"
Because they don't work; they play.
Shit, way to rain on my parade, Bruce!
I listened too and loved Springsteen as a teenager through my 20s.
I made out with girls listening to "Candy's Room" and made love to them to "Prove it All Night".
Senior year of High School, I bought a used '71 Dodge Charger, with only 10,000 miles. That car was a monster!
I drove to college in that car, listening to "Lost in the Flood", with a crate of albums in the trunk, and a few tears, welling up in my eyes.
So how do I process this? Well, Bruce, you may be an effete phony as a person, but your music lives on!
The best Springsteen lyrics were "Tweeter and The Monkey Man."
Great song and a great honor for Springsteen to have Dylan parody him in that way. I'd love to hear Springsteen do an over the top cover version.
You mean to tell us that these rich white proggies are all a pack of gated community phonies.
No way!
I'd read the article to find out if it's a parody, or Springsteen half joking/half coming clean, but it's tl;dr.
"Jersey Girl was good."
Tom Waits wrote Jersey Girl.
Whatever. He tells a good story. I don't believe that Tom Waits was ever a hobo, but he sings about them a lot. And he wrote Jersey Girl.
Braindead democrat party member roesch/voltaire stating Springsteen "has empathy". Lulz... Read your fellow commenters here and note how many used to be fans, or like some songs but hate the man. It isn't empathy he's been showing his non-democratic party member fans. Springsteen is a clueless douchebag Democrat party millionaire. A typical big mouth head-up-his-ass liberal.
Best way to enjoy sports and music - take it for entertainment value. Don't get to know the participants outside of their performances. No interviews, no personal details, no lifestyle stuff. Actually, it's not the best way - it's the only way.
I don't know anything about Springsteen. Some of his songs were anthems of my teenage years. They might not have been true for him, but they were true for me. And that's enough.
If these celebrities would keep their mouths shut (outside of singing), wouldn't it just be so much better?
Saw him live 3 times! Loved him back in day. Emotional masculinity. Clarence was awesome on sax.
“Blogger theCase said...
Bob Seger was doing "Bruce Springsteen" long before Bruce Springsteen...”
It’s all a matter of personal taste, but I greatly prefer Seger over Springstein.
Bob Seeger is definitely up there with Springsteen.
Sounds like he's trying to distance himself from being associated anymore with the flyover blue-collar ignorant masses who voted Trump, now that proletarian slumming is no longer fashionable on the coasts.
Springsteen's a fine musician, and that's that. Ascribing to him anything more—e.g., being an in-the-know political commentator—is a joke. He's no different than Streisand, Streep, and all of the rest of the Holly wood libtards who think that being an entertainer gives them street creds.
So Bruce, keep rocking but stop talking. No one cares about your world view ... except those poor folks who are too insulated, disengaged, and clueless to know any better.
That is all.
Springsteen’s style? People have mistaken his elitist Mr. Howell lockjaw horesey set reality as something else. He’s of horse farms and Olympic jumping and dressage. Fuck him.
I saw Bruce live the week of the Time and Newsweek covers (Oct 75). Left the show wondering what the fuss was all about. Still wondering.
Obviously phony New Jersey hack. He tries to sound like he's from out West but comes off like a dude ranch cowboy. Never got the appeal of his music. His greatest accomplishment was the elevation of Little Stevens acting career.
Rambling Jack another Jersey cowboy
Bay Area Guy said...
Senior year of High School, I bought a used '71 Dodge Charger, with only 10,000 miles. That car was a monster!
which motor? Not a 318, i hope! i'm guessing a 340, but hoping (for you) a 383?
I was on to him from the beginning. In the autumn of ‘75 it was all Springsteen all the time for East Coast kids.
So?
Patrick O'Brien had never been aboard a sailing ship until well after the success of his 21-volume Aubrey-Maturin series.
And then there's his (not his) name...
I liked him a great deal when I was younger. His music hasn't gotten old, but I have. The whole concept of Born to Run is antithetical to afternoon naps which are now one of the top priorities of my life......So far as I know, he hasn't written any catchy, old age songs. Bob Dylan has written the best meditations on old age and mortality: It Ain't Dark Yet, I Shalll Be Released, Mr Tambourne Man, and a bunch of others. Bob Dylan has more appeal to us old folks. If you have an excess of libidinal energy going on, Bruce Springsteen is probably the better choice, but the moment passes.
By the time Springsteen became a big name,my musical affinities had switched to jazz. I doubt I would be able to identify a Springsteen song if I heard it. Reading this article doesn't make me regret my ignorance of Springsteen.
FINALLY! Horrible voice, boring music and pedantic lectures from a buffoon.
Eat shit, Springsteen. You suck, jackass!
I haven't like much of anything he has made since Tunnel of Love- the last album of his I ever bought- but he isn't overrated in my opinion.
I don't care that he didn't live the life described in his music- it is irrelevant to me.
Springsteen is, though, the first rock star I ever saw in concert. I went to his "Born in the USA" concert in Lexington, KY in late 1984. I saw him again in Hartford, CT a couple of decades later. Great shows.
Sure, I got off the bandwagon when he started to get lefty. But looking at all the negative comments above, I would ask if any of you actually saw him and his band perform in the '70's?
He worked hard for his money and don't think he didn't. He made more than enough good albums too.
Springsteen is admitting he plays the rock-n-roll renegade.
What he's always been is a scared kid trying to fit-in... even if that's to fit-in as a rock-n-roll renegade with bravado.
That's his most human and universal theme: we're all just scared kids trying to fit in and to find some meaning in our lives.
Next, I'll find out that the Boss's fellow Broadway producers, Green Day, aren't a bunch of snotty Berkeley punks.
I’m going to let you all in on a little literary secret: It turns out the author of Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden, isn’t actually a Japanese woman.
One good song. Wildly overrated.
That would be "Dancing In The Dark".
Honorable mention would be "Atlantic City", but only if it's the version done by the last iteration of The Band.
The case for Bruce Springsteen (the artist, not the performer or hacktivist):
"Blinded by the Light"
"Spirit in the Night"
"Kitty's Back"
"Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"
"Backstreets"
"Adam Raised a Cain"
"Point Blank"
"Fire"
"Open All Night"
"I'm on Fire"
“One Step Up”
A lot of writers constantly say that people should write about what they know, but there something to be said about being able to create art by being on the outside and looking in.
@gilbar
383 baby - V8! I wasn't even a "car" guy, but I knew it was a gem. Eventually, I gave it to my two younger brothers who were both car guys.
"A working class hero is what I must be" "hmmmm. Great line!"
bzzzzzzzzz(intercom voice)"Master Lennon, a Sir Paul is here to see you, Sir"
Brucie finally hit with "Seniors' Tourettes".
Better late than never.
Springsteen is an obnoxious progressive stooge, but also one of the greatest rock musicians of his time, and it's folly to think otherwise. Life is complicated. I didn't realize how personally distanced he was from his main themes, so that's interesting. I saw him live just before and after Born to Run. It made me feel better about never having seen the Beatles. I can't imagine anyone or any band giving more. I don't know how they did that night after night.
I was captivated by him in college and “The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle” is one of my favorite albums - it has a jazzy feel missing from later work.
David Sancious left. In an alternate timeline where he stayed, maybe Springsteen was less bombastic in his later work. But in this timeline Sancious may have seen it coming.
Springsteen is kind of complicated, he starts off imitating Dylan, after awhile he comes into his own with albums like "The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle", up through Born to Run he continues to impress. His marathon concerts become legendary. But soon he morphs into this prole workingman character that Jon Landau crafted. Then the Left Wing political rants, the Woody Guthrie stage, and the insipid Born In The USA album. From time to time he writes an epic songs such as Brilliant Disguise, but mostly I ignore his ever gravely voice, and releases. What was once a fine artist, became a one-dimensional carboard character known as The Boss.
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