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Bruce Springsteen: Adam Raised a Cain by Bob Lefsetz Somewhere along the line Bruce Springsteen became a joke. Oh, don't tell me about the HBO special. Don't tell me how he never went away. How he's still God. That says more about you than him. That you've got no life. Nothing to believe in. You need Bruce to matter or else your whole LIFE falls apart. Let me tell you right here. Your God is dead. Or at best, asleep. Bruce Springsteen wasn't a star. Elton John was a star. Madonna, too. Stars have charisma. They're flamboyant. They want to dominate EVERY scene they're in. Whereas Bruce Springsteen just wanted to win the battle of the bands. Elton and Madonna are track stars. With their Nike endorsement deals. Paraded all over the media. Bruce Springsteen during his peak was a .360 hitter. Better than almost everybody else, but his skills are irrelevant if there's not a context. Ask the San Diego Padres. Does it make any difference that Tony Gwynn is one of the best hitters EVER? No. Because they're losers. Bruce didn't want to dance on a picnic table at midnight out by Greasy Lake. No, he wanted to stand in the shadows drinking a beer. Laughing at his friends' comments. Making a few of his own. Bruce depended on context. The context was high school. Work. Bruce was the outsider. Who you thought was both ignorant and stupid. Who didn't matter. Except to his small group of friends. By playing the guitar and writing songs, Bruce broadcast loud and clear that he COUNTED! But he didn't become president of the class. It's just that he now had status. He was the observer. An important part of the fabric, but unable to stand alone. Think of the band. In an era of four-pieces, with Led Zeppelin dominating, Bruce Springsteen went out as a seven-piece. You couldn't make much money with all those players. Not only were the profits split more ways, there were additional costs. But Bruce was just the FRONTMAN! Everybody else was an integral character. Just think about when he went solo, hired new players. It didn't work. Not only did fans reject it, the records didn't hang together. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band were the best act in the land in 1974. Just after the release of The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. Sure, they had great, unique material. Today acts tell stories in videos; Bruce and the band told stories with MUSIC! "Sandy." "Rosalita." "Incident on 57th Street." "Kitty's Back." They painted pictures larger than any panoramic movie screen. They were truly larger than life. And having come up in bars, playing incessantly, the band could DELIVER these songs. Notes weren't missed. Harmonies weren't blown. And Clarence Clemons' sax added a taste of R&B, a taste of RACIAL INTEGRATION in a world of white rock. The whole thing was perfectly realized. After touring the country, building an incredible fan base, Bruce went into the studio to record Born to Run. Hell, Born to Run is a great record. Still, there's something wrong with it. It just isn't PERSONAL like the two albums that preceded it. The title track sounded like Phil Spector. "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," "Backstreets," "Jungleland," the heart of the album. Yes, the production on The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle wasn't quite rock enough. A bit flat, a bit sedate. But these tracks. They had a slick factor. A STAR factor. Which detracted from their impact. Their believability. But the real problem wasn't the record, it was the LABEL! The label execs knew they had something special. They knew Bruce was the biggest attraction on the road, so they OVERHYPED! No, labels didn't learn how to kill acts with hype in the '90s. They've known how to do this for a LONG time. By getting Bruce on the cover of Time and Newsweek the same week, by getting all that glowing press, those people not yet fans were turned off. Born to Run was NOT the Break the Cycle of its day. Sure, it sold much better than his two previous records. Sure, it went gold. But it sold quickly, and then tended to be forgotten. And it wasn't only the public who rejected the project, it was Bruce, too. He'd done what everybody had told him to do. And he hadn't liked the results. So he sat on the sidelines. FOR THREE YEARS! That's an eternity now; it was an eternity then. This was not Tom Petty going on strike. Bruce wasn't GOD! He'd shot a meteor across the sky, and then it had flamed out. Bruce was forgotten. By all but his hardcore fans. Who BELIEVED in him. Because he was AUTHENTIC! Born in the U.S.A. killed Bruce. It's been well-documented. He was a huge live act, but he didn't sell that many records. (Hey, isn't this familiar? Doesn't this sound like DAVE MATTHEWS?) So he PURPOSELY constructed an album that would play to the masses. If you think Born in the U.S.A. is a great Bruce Springsteen album, then you're not a fan. It's not that it's bad. It's just a bit too slick. And calculated. What was up with "Bobby Jean"? "Glory Days"? This took the too slick stuff on The River one step further toward the mainstream. This stuff was piffle. "Darlington County"? "I'm Goin' Down"? For news, songs, and pictures, visit the Bruce Springsteen Fan Club. |
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