I think the first Bruce Springsteen song I ever heard was “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” from 1973’s “Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ.” I can’t claim any great prescience about Bruce’s stellar future; I was drawn by the album title because my nephew Josh happened to be born in Asbury Park. But I’m a sucker for a song that tells a story, and I loved that one. Somehow I missed the next album until later, “The Wild, the Innocent, & the E Street Shuffle,” but boy was I blown away by 1975’s album, “Born to Run.” I kept bugging the crap out of everybody–have you heard this guy, Bruce Springsteen? He’s GREAT! And everybody pretty much ignored me. I think I was living in the wrong place. However, my early faith has been reaffirmed millions of times over by Springsteen’s long career and many brilliant albums.
I always go back and forth between saying my favorite song of all time is Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” and Springsteen’s “Thunder Road.” I used to teach “Thunder Road” alongside Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress” to college freshmen as great examples of the carpe diem theme.
I’ll never forget the excitement of driving from Tuscaloosa to Starkville for this–so many cars on the highway had “BOSS” and “SPRINGSTEEN” and “BRUUUUCE” written on the windows in white shoe polish, making strangers seem like fellow pilgrims.
Notice those tickets cost $9.50 each–you wouldn’t see that today! But as an indicator of how much I loved Bruce, you should know that my budget for buying groceries for two people at that time was SEVEN dollars a week. A WEEK. Times were hard, but Bruce was worth it.
Along about the time my mother took this photo of Debby holding up my Bruce Springsteen calendar in Mother’s apartment just outside Tuscaloosa (an apartment I’m pretty sure was wiped out in 2011’s monster tornado), my love for Bruce had a little tarnish marring its shine. I was put off by the scandal of his first marriage breaking up when paparazzi caught him nuzzling bandmate and future wife Patti Scialfa on a balcony in Rome. I still bought his music, but it wasn’t until a few years later, when I was older and wiser, that I realized while watching a video of Springsteen and Patti singing together how powerful their bond is. The expression on her face and the love in her eyes was the stuff novels–and songs–are written about. In fact, they’ve now been married for almost twenty-one years and raised three children outside the glare of publicity, so kudos to them for that.
Also: This is a totally great article (including wisdom for those who create) in Rolling Stone: an interview of Bruce by Jon Stewart. My take-away quote, about how our formative years remain with us:
I have a metaphor. I say, “Look, you’re in a car, your new selves can get in, but your old selves can’t get out.” You can bring new vision and guidance into your life, but you can’t lose or forget who you’ve been or what you’ve seen. New people can get in, but nobody can get out: The child from 1950, he doesn’t get out. The teenager, the adolescent boy, no one can get out. They are with you until the end of the ride, and you’re going to pass a certain amount of them on.”
Bruuuuuuce!
On the most recent episode of Lifetime’s 
On the most recent episode of Lifetime’s 
