Springsteen Challenge Day 8: Favorite Springsteen Era

To be honest, this was the prompt I was the least excited about writing. I am 28 years old, and for most of my formative years, Bruce Springsteen was not touring with the E Street Band.  By the time I appreciated music in the early nineties, Bruce was touring with the “other” band. The extent of my interaction and awareness of Bruce was when my mom forgot to send in her “no thanks” Columbia music club card, and the monthly pick that month was “Born in the USA.”  I never listened to it, and I’m sure I wouldn’t have understood the depth and importance of the album.  My next interaction with Bruce was incessant commercials on HBO advertising the Live in New York City performance made specifically for HBO. I remember thinking “who in the hell would care about Bruce Springsteen?”

So, to distinguish Bruce’s eras, there’s the Bruce 1970s era – Greetings, Wild/Innocent, Born to Run, Darkness – this was young Bruce, playing three and a half hour marathons, and diving into the crowd.  There’s Bruce in the 1980s – The River, Nebraska, Born in the USA, Tunnel of Love, Chimes of Freedom – this is Bruce the mega-star. He got married in secret, he was the biggest rock star in the world, and selling 20 million copies of Born in the USA.  Then, there’s Bruce in the 90s – largely missing.  Enigmatic, releasing albums without the E Street Band or solo, and then putting together the reunion tour at the end of the decade.  Now, there’s the modern Bruce era, starting with The Rising in 2002.  Bruce the iconoclast – champion of progressive causes, social justice, trying to work for the middle class, fighting to preserve the America he believes in.

I don’t think it’s hard to see where this one is going.  I can’t but love the current era, since it’s the era in which I’ve experienced Bruce, live and in person, and the resurgence of his career.  I have listened to Bruce live recordings from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.  I’ve tracked his career, and I believe that, now, he is at a stage in his career where he is both continuing to push the envelope of what people expect from his career, while becoming the keeper of American music.  In the past 10 years, Bruce has released an album oriented rock album about the greatest tragedy we’ve experienced in decades. He released a political album of characters wandering adrift in a nation in the throes of change and fear. He released a project album covering folk songs.  He wrote a protest album about the Bush administration. He released an album of songs about the hope of the administration of Barack Obama.  He released an album arguing in favor of economic equality between the middle and upper classes.

Bruce has become a songwriter who accurately and acutely captures the mood of the time period.  He writes songs that are time capsules.  When one listens to the Magic album, they’ll realize the end of the Bush administration was plagued with controversy and problems.  When they listen to Wrecking Ball, they’ll get the sense of the issues between the rich and middle/poor class.  This is his career now – Bruce is cataloging American song, and American culture in Rock albums –in America’s language - Rock music.

Tomorrow’s topic: Favorite Bruce Bootleg