OLD DOG, FRESH EARS

by

Zachary Klein

So it’s mid-afternoon and I’m tired. As much as I hate it, the recliner is still the most comfortable seat for my post-op arm. Down I go and on goes the television. The opening credits of a documentary called Springsteen & I hit the screen. I wasn’t thrilled with the movie, but there was enough of his music to keep my attention. And to keep it long after the movie ended and had me on my knees rummaging through cds trying find anything Springsteen.

You lived on another planet to be unaware of Bruce Springsteen during the past forty plus years, but my only real connection with him was an album called The Rising. I played that sucker over and over until everyone in the house screamed whenever I got near the player. Inexplicably my love of that album didn’t push me into his other music. I’m a jazz guy who left rock and roll right around the time Led Zeppelin blew up the charts.

Maybe it was Springsteen’s “fast” songs whose words I couldn’t decipher and was reluctant to google the lyrics. Or perhaps I’d caught the musical elitism that jazz can generate. And though I knew he “brought it” to every single performance, so did the Rolling Stones. Basically I considered Springsteen just another back-beat rock and roller with an energetic band.

Well, after two weeks burying my days in his music, watching documentaries about the making of his albums (Born To Run, Darkness At The Edge Of Town, The Seeger Sessions) and concert films, I’m here to tell you I’ve been a cement head. What I heard is a musical poet who uses rock to frame most of his work. And, many times, a songwriting novelist.

There’s really nothing new about narrative songwriting. I’d guess it’s been around since people penned words to music. But to believe—as I did—Springsteen simply wrote songs that tell a superficial straightforward story was to miss the depth of his art.

Racing In The Street, a track from Darkness At The Edge Of Town, is a six-minute novel. Beginning, middle, conclusion, character arcs, movement—with lines of major league poetry within. This song-novel is special in its multiple levels of meaning. A rippling effect that goes beyond the song itself. The ability to touch people who never even imagined owning a car with a hemi still walk away moved by the song’s effect.

Moreover, the song has the ability to shade meanings in the way it’s played. On the original album the overwhelming emotion is poignancy. But, his 1999 Oakland E-Street Band concert, as he finishes singing, the band virtually replays the entire song, only a driving piano leads the rest of the group to create a sense of hope and optimism underneath that poignancy. By the end, your foot is tapping rather than your eyes watering.

I don’t have to stop with Racing In The Street. Damn near every Springsteen album creates a mood in which one or more of its songs transcend the song’s surface story. A discussion in one of the movies revolved around Springsteen’s desire to create different moods with each album, which, after careful listening, he actually does. (I was told by a Bruce mavin that he also wants his albums to leave the listener wanting more; an invitation, so to speak, to attend his concerts.)

It’s interesting. Springsteen and I are just about the same age. It’s easy to see how a Dylan, Elton John, or Paul Simon can keep on keeping on the way they perform, but how do you keep a firecracker lit and exploding concert after concert? There’s no sleepwalking through this rocker’s greatest hits. I’m beginning to believe the Springsteens and Jaggers will just keep rocking until they keel over. Definitely worse ways to go.

So much has been written about Springsteen’s connection to the working class and his politics over the years, there’s no need to rehash. So I’ll stick with his art. One of the learning experiences that really impressed during my Bruce Fest is the breadth of his work, the different styles in which he chooses to work, his constant growth without losing his history or roots. That willingness and sensibility to stay ‘now’ and look back simultaneously demanded that I eyeball the limits of my own thinking and openness. Springsteen has the ability to stretch his mind and vision along with a commitment to pay homage to those who came before (The Seeger Sessions: We Shall Overcome) and turn those old-time songs into modern, breathing, living music. Special is, indeed, special.

Then there’s the undercurrent to much of his work. He brings a genuine belief in the American Dream, all the while seeing damn near everything that stands in its way. Our wars, our racism, our alienation, our despair that anything can turn this country around makes Springsteen’s unyielding, often unspoken belief, a breath of fresh air. A present day echo of “keep hope alive.”

But most of all I’ve come to respect the humanity that rides shotgun with his art. And that humanity has been there since Greetings From Asbury Park (1973) right though High Hopes (2014).

All of this just goes to show you that:

”Some guys just give up living and start dying little by little, piece by piece. Some guys come home from work and wash up, and go racing in the street.”~ Bruce Springsteen

A very special note of gratitude to Andrei Joseph who took hours of his time to school me in the ways of Bruce and provided virtually all my listening and watching material. Learning something new is like racing in that street. Thank you, Chico.

14 thoughts on “OLD DOG, FRESH EARS

  1. An incredible review that goes right to the heart of Springsteen’s gift. Loaded with information and an insight that thrilled me to the core. Mr. Klein sees into Springsteen’s constant growing soul from his first album to the present and, to me, is similar to a professor who comes through as a lover, teacher and one who totally comprehends what Bruce’s music is all about.

    • Dennis–Wow!! Thank you for your kind words. During the years I’ve written this column I’ve found doing reviews incredibly difficult. I know people who are really great at it but it’s taken me all these years to barely scratch the surface. Your comment makes me feel the effort has been worthwhile. Thank you.

  2. I get it, I know how you feel, though I’m not a fan of his. I know how you feel because I feel much the same way about Billy Joel. You may have just forced my hand at writing an article about why I like Billy Joel….

    • Don–“You may have just forced my hand at writing an article about why I like Billy Joel….” Please, please do. He’s another artist about which I know virtually nothing. And after the fun I had in discovering Springsteen I’d love to learn more about Joel.

  3. Without question Mr. Springsteen tapped into a rich vein of America’s zeitgeist. He’s chronicled the fuzzy, nostalgic, everyday pursuits of a generation that embraced its distractions from larger concerns and realities. As a body of work it, to me, validates too much neglect of these wider realities.

    But it’s got a good beat…

    • Bill–I think you can make exactly the same criticism of every artist of any kind. I believe that Springsteen’s body of work brings people closer to the issues that concern you rather than distract. ‘Course, there’s no accounting for taste. But you are correct about the beat.

  4. Really, really nice, Zach. I love the range of topics in your posts!

    I’m a Jersey girl, so was born with Bruce in my veins. His music always reminds me of high school and a friend who used to sing to me, “Hey, hey, hey, what you say, Sherry darling?”

    “Racing in the Streets” is one of my favorites, as is “The River” and anything from “Nebraska.” I’m just hoping Bruce sticks around long enough so I can see him in concert some day.

    • Sherri–thanks. I just like thinking about different things. As far as tix are concerned I’ve been told it’s a whole lot easier to score them in the Midwest as opposed to the northeast corridor. Get ready for a road trip.

  5. “The stars are burning bright like some mystery uncovered
    I’ll keep moving through the dark with you in my heart
    My blood brother”

    Thanks for the shout out, my friend. Now … on to the concerts!

  6. Thanks for reminding me of how much I like Springsteen, whom I haven’t listened to much lately. A couple of other musicians whose songs are like short novels are Richard Thompson and James (son of Larry!) McMurtry.

    • Martin–Thanks for the “other musicians whose songs are like short novels are Richard Thompson and James (son of Larry!) McMurtry.” Will definitely listen to them. And thanks for taking the time to stop by. Appreciated.

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