NOT! Everyone KNOWS where he stands because he is very vocal about it and many of his song promote his ideals. Mike Althouse has a really good post on Bruce right here. He also put this video on his site from today's Today show. I have mixed feelings about Bruce and politics. I don't necessarily disagree with him, but there have been a few incidents that have caused me concern. Luckily this is not a political blog, cause I am NOT going there.
As I said in a comment to Mike on his blog, the reason I started listening to Bruce back in the mid-70's was because he spoke to the lonely, passionate girl inside me that longed to run away from the mundane mediocrity of middle-class suburbia. His songs were all about that. As I grew and matured so did his music.
Our lives parallel in many areas, we share the same birthday separated by ten years and two days, we both had our first child within a few months of each other. When he wrote "Pony Boy" for his son, Evan, I was signing it to my son, Keven. I know it sounds weird, but after seeing him in concert 16 times, reading literally hundreds or articles and dozens of books about him, listening to countless interviews, watching hours and hours of video....I kinda feel like I know him pretty damn well. And I don't like him for who he is, I like him because of who he is and because he kicks ass like no other in concert.
5 comments:
Huge Springsteen fan here, too. I happen to agree with his politics, but it's the yearning in his songs that I love.
And I sang Pony Boy to my first son for a while as well.
Nice post.
I was going to say that I don't care when an artist is politically active/aware or not, but then I realized that I was listening to Operation:Mindcrime, which is totally political in nature. Also, two of my other favorite bands, Tool and Disturbed, fill their music with political overtones, so I guess my initial sentiment goes out the window. As Emily Latella used to say, nevermind...
OK, did you stop over at the Today show site and watch ALL the videos????
He did 8 songs!!!!! My mom and dad clued me into it and I linked it yesterday.... they were hot and ...ummm I actually liked Bruce's rant on that song....
You have been absent... did I make you angry?
I think we all have those favorite artists whose music touches us on a deeply personal level. There are bands we like because they sound good and bands we LOVE because they touch our very souls. Bruce apparently is "that guy" for you. I'm not a huge Bruce fan. I don't dislike him (then again I don't think anyone really does. There are people who love Bruce and the rest of us who like his music but it doesn't really "stick out" for us). I generally don't agree with his politics but I respect the fact that he's putting his politics "out there" and exercising his first amendment rights.
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