Tuesday, March 04, 2008
What's on Bruce Springsteen's iPod? And also a pretty good interview with The Boss. (Via Bill Simmons'column.)
"I always look at my work as trying to measure the distance between American promise and American reality," Springsteen says. It is an interesting statement- certainly a very self-aware thing for a guitar player to say, and as I think about it, it seems true. What else is "Lost in the Flood" about? Or "Jungleland"? Sure, they are romances, but in the most expansive sense of that word, I'd say. It is interesting that he feels like he was always writing material that he'd be able to sing when he was older-- Mick Jagger famously remarked that he didn't want to be singing "Satisfaction" when he was 45, and, of course, Pete Townsend was at pains to announce to the world "Hope I die before I get old". "I was 24 when I wrote 'We ain't that young anymore'" Springsteen says, and suddenly the ageism that has been a rock'n'roll dilemma doesn't seem to be a problem, or even a contradiction.
"I always look at my work as trying to measure the distance between American promise and American reality," Springsteen says. It is an interesting statement- certainly a very self-aware thing for a guitar player to say, and as I think about it, it seems true. What else is "Lost in the Flood" about? Or "Jungleland"? Sure, they are romances, but in the most expansive sense of that word, I'd say. It is interesting that he feels like he was always writing material that he'd be able to sing when he was older-- Mick Jagger famously remarked that he didn't want to be singing "Satisfaction" when he was 45, and, of course, Pete Townsend was at pains to announce to the world "Hope I die before I get old". "I was 24 when I wrote 'We ain't that young anymore'" Springsteen says, and suddenly the ageism that has been a rock'n'roll dilemma doesn't seem to be a problem, or even a contradiction.
// posted by Bill @ 3:08 PM 
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