Springsteen On Broadway
Well, if you don't like Springsteen, this isn't going to make a convert of you. When I watched the performance on Netflix over the holidays, my wife, a Springsteen agnostic, studiously avoided the living room, and I didn't try to convince her to do otherwise. Actually, when she said, can we watch a house show instead, I said, bear with me, it's almost over. I was definitely into it, and wanted to see the whole thing. Or, put another way, I liked it enough not to want to bail on it. This makes sense, since I like, don't love, the Boss. I'm a guy who was into what I consider his peak run as an artist: Born To Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, Nebraska. Like that. I listen to Tunnel of Love sometimes. That has some excellent songs, at least a couple of which made it into the show.
And here is gripe number one, the show could have used a lot more songs. True, Springsteen's talking is a big part of his act, but given his strong catalog, more tunes would have helped. Why not replace three minutes of pretty good storytelling with three minutes of a truly great song? Some covers would have helped, too. When he talked about how Elvis and rock and roll changed his life and the whole damn world, the point would have benefited from him actually playing some hip shakin' rock and roll. You know, show, don't tell.
Critique number two is that his monologues too often drifted into abstraction and a desire to talk about Big Ideas, like What It Means To Be An American. The show did include a fair amount of detailed, nicely drawn vignettes from his life, especially from the years before he became a star. It was refreshing to learn more about his mother, who apparently displayed an unforced joie de vivre, happy with their life in Freehold, NJ. We usually just hear about his fraught relationship with his father. Springsteen's embrace of life must have come from her side. His tribute to Clarence Clemons was moving indeed.
When the show culminated with his ode to America and being an American, I couldn't help but think that Kerouac said it better at the conclusion of On the Road, with his invocation of "all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it." That's just me though. Springsteen has performed nonstop for more than fifty years, and has played every kind of gig known to man, so he knows what he's doing on stage.
My verdict? There's no one who loves Springsteen who wouldn't totally love this show. Even the bloated parts. If his ambition sometimes gets the better of him, it's also what makes him who he is, a singular, even necessary, figure in American popular culture.
And here is gripe number one, the show could have used a lot more songs. True, Springsteen's talking is a big part of his act, but given his strong catalog, more tunes would have helped. Why not replace three minutes of pretty good storytelling with three minutes of a truly great song? Some covers would have helped, too. When he talked about how Elvis and rock and roll changed his life and the whole damn world, the point would have benefited from him actually playing some hip shakin' rock and roll. You know, show, don't tell.
Critique number two is that his monologues too often drifted into abstraction and a desire to talk about Big Ideas, like What It Means To Be An American. The show did include a fair amount of detailed, nicely drawn vignettes from his life, especially from the years before he became a star. It was refreshing to learn more about his mother, who apparently displayed an unforced joie de vivre, happy with their life in Freehold, NJ. We usually just hear about his fraught relationship with his father. Springsteen's embrace of life must have come from her side. His tribute to Clarence Clemons was moving indeed.
When the show culminated with his ode to America and being an American, I couldn't help but think that Kerouac said it better at the conclusion of On the Road, with his invocation of "all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it." That's just me though. Springsteen has performed nonstop for more than fifty years, and has played every kind of gig known to man, so he knows what he's doing on stage.
My verdict? There's no one who loves Springsteen who wouldn't totally love this show. Even the bloated parts. If his ambition sometimes gets the better of him, it's also what makes him who he is, a singular, even necessary, figure in American popular culture.
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