Born to Run: Bruce Springsteen’s intentional masterpiece (review).

This brings back memories.

In the mid-1970s, Springsteen recreated a time I remembered from childhood. I remembered listening to New York AM radio in the early sixties when rock and roll was merging with soul music and girl groups dominated the airwaves (mostly produced by Phil Spector), Motown was just emerging, and Chuck Berry was still charting. You know, the pre-Beatles days when Gary (US) Bonds sang about “Quarter to Three”. My beach memories were from Long Island and Rye, NY, however, not Asbury Park, NJ. Still, they were close enough to Jersey to understand Bruce’s world.

The first time I heard his name, I was in line for tickets to a different show at New York’s Bottom Line. Two guys in front of me with strong Long Island accents were gushing about Bruce. I said to myself, “Who in the world is Bruce Springsteen”? Of course, being a New Yorker, I imagined that it was spelled “Springstein”, since, by this time, the history of the Dutch was better known upstate than in the city or its suburbs.

The next thing I knew, a friend introduced me to Springsteen’s first two albums, and then Born to Run hit like a proverbial ton of bricks. I was in Woodstock, NY, and the posters were displayed in record store windows, while the album tracks played everywhere. I knew this was something I should pay attention to.

When I did listen to it, I found that (like much of the music of the late sixties and early seventies that I enjoyed) it took me back to an earlier time, though not in an exploitative or overly sentimental way. Instead of saying, “Hey, let’s relive or replicate this experience”, it was saying, “This was good, but it could have been explored another way.” And, it was still good.

There is something to be said for memories. Some bash them as nostalgia; vapid, counterfeit dreams of an idealized past. Nevertheless, they represent times we have gotten through, overcome, and transcended, and thus they are triumphs and not obstacles to be overcome. Yes, challenging music can be good and has its place, but comforting music also has its place.