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The Boss’s family: from left, son Sam, wife Patti, son Evan,
Bruce, and daughter Jessica in 2008.
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Springsteen performs at a 2001 benefit to aid
families affected by the 9/11 attacks.
drums and urgent voice thrilled me.
“For You,” released in 1973, was about
a girl who threatened suicide. I was
in my mid-20s, and what struck me
was the singer’s understanding of the
dangerous glamour of self-destructive
behavior. Jimi and Janis were dead,
but there was Springsteen, holding
out the possibility that rock ’n’ roll
and I could grow up together. “
Thunder Road,” released in ’ 75, suggested
“maybe we ain’t that young anymore.”
Springsteen had just turned 26, but he
was already reaching beyond rock’s
traditional trust-no-one-over- 30 audience. Over the years the guitars would
still ring and the live shows rock, but
Springsteen’s audiences were pushed
to think, too—and later, to act.
When Springsteen read Vietnam
vet Ron Kovic’s memoir Born on the
Fourth of July, it inspired an L.A.
benefit concert as well as the 1984 hit
“Born in the U.S.A.” Its verses are an
angry commentary on the treatment
of returning vets, but many listeners—
including Ronald Reagan—mistook
the title for an upbeat slogan. Spring-
steen later expressed resentment for
people who attributed to their own
party “anything and everything that
seemed fundamentally American,
and if you were on the other side, you
were somehow unpatriotic.” His own
“American music,” he said, was writ-
ten “about the place I live and who I
am in my lifetime.”
But who is he? Songs from his cur-
rent tour have him adopting the voice
;——;——;
;——;——;
That’s right, Bruce Springsteen is providing two free tickets to his October 3 concert
at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, plus VIP passes to the E Street
Lounge, where the band’s friends and family gather before the show. Visit
aarpmagazine.org/entertainment/springsteen_sweepstakes to enter. Airfare and
lodging are included. Want to help one of Bruce’s favorite charities? Contribute to
Feeding America, a network of more than 200 food banks, at
feedingamerica.org.
NO PURCHASE OR CONTRIBUTION NECESSARY. Open to residents of the 50 United States and D.C. who are age 21 and older. Entry period ends 9/10/09. Void where
prohibited. Approximate value of the package: $2,000. For full details and an entry form visit aarpmagazine.org/entertainment/springsteen_sweepstakes.
of a carpenter, a murderer, a laid-off
steelworker. He finds in his own experiences enough parallels to sing with
conviction. In inviting audiences to
connect with his characters, he’s inviting them to connect with themselves.
My friend Steve saw Springsteen perform in Los Angeles in April. He and his
wife arrived early to get a number for the
general-seating lottery. Because they’re
grownups and getting loaded in a parking lot no longer appeals, they visited a
nearby museum. Their lottery number
yielded seats in the third row—a Bucket
List moment, Steve said. They were close
enough to Springsteen to see streams of
sweat “pour off his hands.” We feed off
his energy, he said, and in turn become
energized. Suddenly we can dance all
night—or even change the world. >>>> MORE
Ariel Swartley wrote “The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle” for the essay
collection Stranded: Rock and Roll for a
Desert Island (Da Capo Press, 2007).
