Review | Book review: with Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen charts a true artist’s life
Springsteen’s memoir reveals the conflicts that have driven the beloved rock ’n’ roll star, a man whose depressive spells were almost too much for him to bear but who turned soul-testing crises into triumphs
by Bruce Springsteen
Simon and Schuster
The news that Bruce Springsteen – The Boss, the erstwhile future of rock ’n’ roll, or just “Bruuuuce” – was writing his memoirs inspired the sort of awe normally reserved (to quote humorist George S. Kaufman) for a production of The Last Supper with the original cast. This reverence was hardly surprising for an artist who has sold more than 120 million records around the world and won countless awards, including an Oscar, for Streets of Philadelphia.
I confess the news didn’t light my personal fire. I own a few Springsteen albums, but find his signature sweat ’n’ bulging tendons approach to music a little bombastic, a little macho and, let’s not beat around the bush, a little American. He also uses the word “baby”’ too much for my liking.
There are exceptions, mainly when Bruce pipes down. The Ghost of Tom Joad is a downbeat, melancholy marvel, as is the mournful, haunting Nebraska. It says something, I suppose, that my favourite Boss record is We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, Springsteen’s loose, baggy and joyous interpretation of other people’s folk songs.
Which prompts the question: why read Born to Run at all? Despite my scepticism, I’m not immune to Springsteen’s reputation as a passionate, decent and properly contradictory artist, all of which are writ large in one of his most famous songs. As the Boss himself puts it: “Born in the USA remains one of my greatest and most misunderstood pieces of music.” On the surface a fist-pumping anthem, it established Springsteen for some as a cross between arch-conservative Ted Nugent and NRA frontman Charlton Heston. Then-president Ronald Reagan thanked Springsteen for his patriotic “message of hope”. The truth, reinforced by a series of acoustic performances, was a nuanced, emotive account of the derision that awaited American soldiers returning from Vietnam.