What’s the Deal With Bruce Springsteen?

 I have seen Bruce Springsteen in  concert three times this year. My only regret was that it wasn’t ten! Someone asked me why I like Bruce Springsteen so much. So I thought I’d tell everyone. You're welcome! Like many people I enjoy, love, and need a wide variety of music. Music speaks to my soul. It allows me to feel, express, and process life with all its wonders and complexities. I am particularly drawn to storytellers, especially those who in three minutes can give what might take a film two hours or a book forty thousand words to do. Bruce is a master at this. You could even say he is the Boss! 

Bruce’s lyrics are like a soundtrack to my life. When I listen to Born to Run, Badlands, Promised Land, and Dancing in the Dark, I can totally recall the feelings of my youth. The fear, the worry, the anticipation, the ever present angst of those tempestuous teen years. 

When I listen to She’s the One I’m flooded with memories of the intoxicating, powerful thrill ride that was falling in love with the most fearsome awe-inspiring person I’ve ever known. Brilliant Disguise, reminds me of the early days when we worked so hard to figure out who we were and what we wanted to be. Better Days, My Beautiful Reward, Pony boy, and Book of Dreams speak to those lean years when we had lots of kids and little money. Decades later, Addicted to Romance, Tougher Than Rest, Stones, There Goes My Miracle and especially If I Should Fall Behind, speak to a marriage filled with highs and lows and a deeper love than that worried teen could have ever imagined. 

Of course not all Bruce songs speak to my story, many expose me to narratives that are far from mine. I don’t love his entire catalog but the songs that do speak to me do in such a powerful, personal way that they move me like few other things do.

So maybe you don’t like Bruce, your loss. But I hope there is some music that speaks to your soul. Maybe it’s Dolly Parton, John Prine, Nancy Griffith, Brandi Carlisle, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, U2, Johnny Cash, The Killers, Josh Ritter or Marcus Mumford (okay, you got me, these are more of my favorites). No matter what you listen to I hope it does for you what Bruce has done for me. I hope it helps you relive your Glory Days and find A Land Of Hope and Dreams.