The purity of human expression and experience is not confined to guitars, to tubes, to turntables, to microchips. There is no right way, no pure way, of doing. There is just doing. We live in a post authentic world, and today authenticity is a house of mirrors. It’s all just what you’re bringing when the lights go down. It’s your teachers, your influences, and your personal history. At the end of the day, it’s the power and purpose of your music that still matters.
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Growin’ Up (October 1985)
Really wish I could have seen Bruce & Clarence during their storytelling prime. Still struggling to digest experiencing “The E Street Band” without him in Atlanta.
Wonder how long it’ll take a GOP candidate to misuse this on the campaign trail. Wrecking Ball feels like a very appropriate album title for the times.
I’d legitimately pay good money to own this. Make it happen, Columbia Records!
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Thundercrack (Live)
I miss Danny & Clarence. Bruce’s scrappy beard era will always be my favorite.
Clarence doesn’t leave the E Street Band when he dies. He leaves when we die. So, I’ll miss my friend, his sax, the force of nature his sound was, his glory, his foolishness, his accomplishments, his face, his hands, his humor, his skin, his noise, his confusion, his power, his peace. But his love and his story, the story that he gave me, that he whispered in my ear, that he allowed me to tell… and that he gave to you… is gonna carry on. I’m no mystic, but the undertow, the mystery and power of Clarence and my friendship leads me to believe we must have stood together in other, older times, along other rivers, in other cities, in other fields, doing our modest version of God’s work… work that’s still unfinished. So I won’t say goodbye to my brother, I’ll simply say, see you in the next life, further on up the road, where we will once again pick up that work, and get it done.
Is this what happens when “Working on the Highway” has a baby with Pitchfork? If it isn’t, why do I want to bust out my Born in the U.S.A. moves so badly?
It’s interesting, because when I started out making music, I wasn’t fundamentally interested in having a big hit right away. I was into writing music that was going to thread its way into people’s lives. I was interested in becoming a part of people’s lives, and having some usefulness – that would be the best word. I would imagine that a lot of people that end up going into the arts or film or music were at some point told by somebody that they were useless. Everyone has felt that. So I know that one of the main motivations for me was to try to be useful, and then of course there were all those other pop dreams of the Cadillac or the girls. All the stuff that comes with it was there, but sort of on the periphery. In some way, I was trying to find a fundamental purpose for my own existence.
"I'm a romantic. To me, the idea of a romantic is someone who sees the reality, lives the reality every day, but knows about the possibilities too. You can’t lose sight of the dreams." - Bruce Springsteen
