Bruce used to be mine

Springsteen movie, new book, why now?

The closest I ever actually got to Bruce Springsteen was being one of roughly 3,000 people who joined me at Providence’s Palace Theater on a hot July 20 in 1975 when he kicked off the “Born To Run” tour. We later found out it was the very day he completed his legendary album, then drove up to Providence and welcomed Miami Steve or Little Steven Van Zandt into the band with a stunning show.

He only did three songs from the new album; “Tenth Avenue Freezeout” “Thunder Road” and of course, “Born To Run,” but that was fine. It was a fabulous performance, Springsteen walking out on stage in a white T-shirt and jeans, opening with “Incident on 57th Street,” a quiet, reflective piece from “The Wild, The Innocent, The E Street Shuffle” a modern Romeo & Juliet tale via West Side Story that drew a spell over us. Who starts a concert with a slow, winding tale of urban romance? That took some nerve, didn’t it? That was Bruce!

When he burst into “Spirit In The Night,” you could feel the crowd alight with excitement and as he and the band whipped through “Tenth Avenue” and “Growin’ Up” and “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City” in roaring succession, I’m loving every minute of it, also wondering why this guy wasn’t huge?

Bruce's first show after finishing "Born To Run"! I was there? But he ain't mine now

A few weeks later, “Born To Run” came out — I remember hearing the entire album early one summer morning on WBCN, laying in bed at a friend’s house up in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire. The very same friend, Sean Heaney, whom I called the morning I got home from the Providence concert and played him THE ENTIRE “Wild and Innocent” OVER THE PHONE. The younger brother of my late girlfriend, Julie.

If it wasn’t the greatest album I’d ever heard, well, it was damn close. And the album was different than what I’d heard in Providence. More powerful, well-crafted, less wild and less innocent maybe but it hit like a steamroller. This was gonna be big!

I was in college then so when I got back to school, all I could talk about was Bruce Springsteen. Bruce had given an advance copy of the “Born To Run” single to WBCN some months earlier and WBCN played it all the time. So it was like I was in on something. He was mine.

Then he was on the covers of Time and Newsweek IN THE SAME WEEK and Bruce Springsteen wasn’t mine any longer. That’s how I feel now with Springsteen mania all around me. He used to be mine!

Bruce Carlin has a new book out on the making of “Born To Run” called “Tonight In Jungleland,” Terry Gross had him on Fresh Air the other day, Bruce is on the cover of the crackerjack British music magazine Uncut, hyping his seven unreleased bonanza and there’s a Springsteen movie due to hit the screens this fall called “Deliver Me From Nowhere” which will come out in October, based on Warren Zanes’ fine book about Bruce’s “Nebraska” album. (Read it and liked it!)

But why now? The guy is 75 years old and trust me, he can still deliver. I was lucky enough to see this most recent tour, once in Tampa and once at Gillette Stadium with Liz from the upper deck last August for my birthday and it was sensational. Again. As he was in touring Europe at the start of this year, from what we read and heard.

Once again, you ask, why now? It’s not as if he’s had hit songs on the radio, he hasn’t. His albums routinely get great reviews and his shows always seem to leave everyone screaming for more but it’s not like you hear him on the radio, except for Channel 20 on Sirius. Are we finally understanding what we’ve had in Bruce Springsteen for all these years and are just now showing our appreciation for all he’s delivered? Or is it that he’s been somebody willing to speak out about what we see all around us every day, a loud, consistent voice for democracy, running counter to the takeovers and the deportations and tariffs and the insensitivity and cruelty?

As he said about Donald Trump: “I think that it was the combination of the deindustrialization of the country and then the incredible increase in wealth disparity that left so many people behind. It was ripe for a demagogue. And while I can’t believe it was this moron that came along, he fit the bill for some people.”

Sorry, MAGA. But that’s about how I see things, too.

Trump, of course, who has nothing else to do being President and all, fired back on the ironically named: “Truth Social.” “Never liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,” Trump wrote in the classy manner of the leader of the free world. (Wait until future historians see this kind of low-life crap from a President!) “This dried out prune of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back in the Country.”

Like Trump knows talent. Look at his cabinet of misfits. Tight with Kid Rock, the late Hulk Hogan, The Pillow Guy, I mean, come on, America.

So again, I ask why now? Politics may have nothing to do with it. Perhaps it’s that the current music scene is so barren, so individualized, self-centered and self-absorbed, what Bruce and the E Street Band continue to offer, even as they get into their 70’s, is so rewarding, uplifting, honest and compelling, idealism still lives! We still want to listen, after all these years, all these albums and tours. We believe in the promise of this country for one and all, not just for filling our wallets, selling Bibles and sneakers and Crypto.

No, Bruce Springsteen isn’t just mine any more. I’m not sure he ever was, really. At first, I couldn’t wait to share him and his music with the world. Now, once again, it seems like he’s everywhere. Sure has taken the world a long time to catch up.