The Boss
I have no idea where this post is going. It could be incredibly self-indulgent, or it could be massively on point and valuable. I suppose you will be the judge. What motivates the post is my attendance last week at Bruce Springsteen’s performance at Philadelphia’s Citizen’s Bank Park. A performance that was literally history making in length, over four hours, making it the performer’s longest ever concert on North American soil.
If you are not a Springsteen fan, then you may be tempted to stop reading right now. However, I do hope you will stay because there are few public figures that have so much to offer to so many. Even if some of those many do not share the specific opinions, positions, or values of the public figure.
Let me begin right there because I have not gone to see The Boss do his thing since his 2003 world tour that supported his release of his album The Rising. Mostly because I have been turned off by the politics of the man. Now I have always known Bruce Springsteen’s politics, have never really aligned with them, but they have never prevented me from enjoying his art. However, during the 2000s it just seemed as though the politics were becoming more important to him than the art. Who knows, maybe it was me, but all I can tell you is that it kept me from plunking my hard earned dollars down to see him perform.
So why did I head out to the show this time? Well mostly because my brothers and I were all big Springsteen fans back in the Boss’s heyday. My oldest brother John was the original fan, being fortunate enough to see Springsteen perform on the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour. That fandom of my eldest brother trickled down to my brother Jay and then eventually to me. Collectively the three of us have probably seen Springsteen perform nearly 80 times. So for me and my brothers we went to the show mostly for nostalgia’s sake. Three now middle-aged brothers revisiting something that they all have in common and loved much earlier in life.
Now if you have not been to a Springsteen show, I want to encourage you to put it on your list for the future if he ends up touring again. Even if you do not like his music, I cannot imagine anyone not at least appreciating his performance. It is honestly like nothing else out there in the way of popular music acts. It is intimate yet sprawling. The show drips with passion and emotion. It elicits good feelings, melancholy, and depending upon where your politics lie maybe even a little ire. And oh by the way you get your money’s worth as the average length of a Springsteen show is far beyond the three-hour mark.
Ok all of that said let me get into the meat of why I am sharing this here. Springsteen covered literally every single era of his music at the show I saw. In fact, the first hour and a half of the performance featured music that was written in 1973 or earlier. As I sat there and allowed the music to wash over me, I felt as if I was hearing it anew. But more than that I could not help thinking to myself that this music would work if was released for the first time today. What I found most interesting though was that the lyrics sounded so different to me today, had a different pulse and meaning, than they once held for me when I was but a teen.
Consider this refrain from the opening song of the show, the 1973 New York City Serenade:
I’m a young man and I talk real loud, yeah baby, walk real proud for you
Bruce wrote those lyrics when he was twenty-two or twenty-three years old. On Wednesday of last, he was 66 years old. What once sounded like a young man confidently assuring his girl had suddenly become a reflection from that same man on what he once was. A reflection that shed light on the fact that it was indeed just that 43 years ago, loud talk. But today’s wiser, life fulfilled, mature glance backward instantly captured all that has happened in between.
One more observation and then I promise I will get to the point of why this should even matter to you.
In the 80s when Bruce performed the evenings held a frenetic energy that was just shy of being completely out of control. The arena would be packed awaiting the arrival of Bruce and the band (Springsteen has never had opening acts), and the energy built and built until the lights in the house went complete dark. The audience would explode with unbridled passion, the roar of the crowd being cut down only by the shrill electric cords of the first song.
Today the E Street Band comes out one at a time to a fully lit stage. The applause is loud and reaches a crescendo as Springsteen emerges last. However, it is not the out of control passionate and wild yearning that was reflective of performances of yesterday. It is more of a joyous welcoming home of a valued friend that you have lost touch with for a number of years and are thrilled for the opportunity to reconnect. The entire evening plays out like this. What was once Bruce and bandmates twirling around feeding off the the energy in the music and the crowd, is now a stationary impassioned recollection of what was once loved and is now more intimately and sincerely appreciated.
Man, I hope that conveys the power of my last Wednesday night. I hope that you get just a little bit of it. Because here is why it matters.
There are few performers, check that, there are few people, that can navigate the complexities of an entire life and career but still haven’t something new, relevant and valuable to share and say. The Boss is certainly one of them, and he has made a career of constantly exceeding the expectations of his audience and indeed completely shattering the conceptions of even those that like him least.
Bruce Springsteen transcends any of his songs, opinions, indeed the entire genre of rock and roll by making his music accessible to all. He gives to his audience a blank canvas and enables them to experience it in their own way and against their own backdrop of life. Bruce freely lends his art to his audience, giving it to them as a gift to do with as they see fit. He colors the evening of his performances with his own passion and purpose, but never forgets that he is there first and foremost to entertain. Bruce Springsteen never forgets who he works for, his audience. He serves them. He gives to them that to which he believes they are entitled. A complete evening that exceeds their entertainment expectations
The Boss is exceptional at this, but is it a rare and unique gift available to only the few? I do not think so. I think that each person has within them the ability to hand themselves over to their talent. That all of us have the ability to follow our passions not blindly but in a manner that will not rest until we find where a tangible purpose intersects that for which we are passionate. And then once there commit to live at that intersection. Not for ourselves, but for those that we can serve at that intersection.
So rest not until you arrive at the place where you no longer work for you or whatever personal gain you seek, but for the opportunity to freely share your talent with purpose.
Thank you Boss!
