Letters To Bruce

Dear Bruce , People always wonder how a Songwriter in New Jersey can have such a connection with fans around the world and maintain it for decades. What is it that draws people to your music? Why do folk relate to it? To those who delve deep into your lyrics we are fully aware of the answer, you manage to capture something that is going on with our lives whether it be our relationships, our working life, our economic situations, our hopes, dreams, fears, loves, hates, and our experiences as kids, teenagers and as functioning adults. A good example of this is your song 'My Hometown' . We all have a story or two to tell about the place we grew up. We relate a bit to the fatherly view in the opening verse: "I'd sit on his lap in that big old Buick/And steer as we drove through town" ; the tension in the community due to racial division and violence: "There was a lot of fights/Between the black and white/There was nothing you could do" (verse 2); the ...

Dear Bruce I remember when I first heard 'No Surrender' , it was the day of release of the 'Born In The U.S.A. album, a very misunderstood title track and if I recall even the album cover came in for criticism because some people assumed you were urinating on the American flag! I guess that's another discussion for another day... ...Where was I? Oh yeah, hearing No Surrender for the first time. "We learned more from a three-minute record Baby, than we ever learned in school" that was like a thunderbolt from the skies because I knew that to be true from my own experience. It is another of those lines from your songs though that comes in for a bit of stick because people assume that you were taking a swing at Teachers and their ability to educate kids. Both you and I know that was and is not the case at all. I was a bit like you in that I hated school. I was one of those impossible kids who just didn't want to learn. There were a couple of less...

Dear Bruce, You've spent a huge chunk of your life on the road and a number of your songs are about The Journey to some place (you hope is) better, but is The Journey the important thing or the Destination ? Of course being in a Rock and Roll band the Destination is important because you don't want to end up in Poughkeepsie if you are meant to be playing in Cleveland ! Yes, I know it's one of those deep questions that probably doesn't come with an easy answer. It's not like when we were kids and every five minutes we would annoy our parents with the "Are we there yet?" question. We just wanted to get to the beach or holiday park and not worry so much about what The Journey meant but for our parents it was a lesson in patience in putting up with us, making sure they travelled the correct roads and avoided any troubles and danger by staying focused on the road. It was all about The Journey for them but for us it was only the Destination that matt...

Dear Bruce, When I was a kid of about ten years old I was in a record shop, always an adventure by the way, and I was going to buy your debut album 'Greetings From Asbury Park N.J.' and the guy behind the counter was having a conversation with a customer about you. Now, I know it's rude to listen in on what other people are talking about but something the customer said really struck me and more than forty years later it still makes me chuckle for my childlike naivety in believing what adults say. The customer said something like, "Oh, that Bruce Springsteen is a bit like Dylan in that he has a Thesaurus by his side when he writes" . I have to confess I had no idea what a Thesaurus was but it sounded kind of like a dinosaur! I bought the album and was trying to imagine how a pet dinosaur could help you in your songwriting! I tried really hard to figure out if there was any dinosaur references in the lyrics but not having a lyric sheet and Google decades ...

Dear Mr Springsteen (or can I call you Bruce? Mmm...maybe as it's the first letter I should stick with Mr Springsteen as that's far more formal at the start of what is hopefully going to be a long and lasting relationship), You don't know me but...Any letter that begins with "You don't know me but...", is possibly in danger of being placed in the Circular Filing System (a phrase us Brits use as an alternative to the bin...why we use three words instead of one I cannot explain at this precise moment in time)... please don't do that as I am in need of your particular skill set in this moment of my Personal Mid-Life Crisis (which at aged 58 I should have had years ago but that's a story for another day). It is not your skill set of being a major player in the world of Rock and Roll that I wish to draw upon but rather your knowledge of Cars. You know a lot about Cars...I have it on "good authority" from people who never listen to your ...

I thought it necessary to have an introduction to Letters To Bruce just so no one gets the wrong idea or totally misunderstands what is being posted here. My name is Doug and I am pretty much a lifelong fan of Bruce Springsteen , that's not some form of confession that needs absolution in any way but a starting point for what this blog is going to be about. I love music and of course like most people I have favourite Artists/Bands and Bruce happens to be on that list. In this Blog is a one sided conversation with Springsteen on issues that are funny and also serious from time to time. The Letters To Bruce will be influenced by his lyrics,his Autobiography, things he said in a concert or an interview for a magazine and whatever other sources are available at that moment in time. I can't say for sure exactly what's to follow but I hope it will a lot of fun.