Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run (Part Three) Plus High Hopes, Magic, Tunnel Of Love and The Ghost Of Tom Joad

Post Born In The USA Springsteen’s autobiography begins to slog along. He fails at his first marriage, struggles with success, depression, finds peace with his dad, finds his soulmate and never records anything close to the significance of his first seven LPs again. I have diligently purchased every album Bruce has put out since Born In The USA. None of these albums  have been stinkers, but none have matched the brilliance of the first seven.

As I finished the book I started re-listen to his post Born In The USA catalog. I started with his most recent, 2014’s High Hopes. I had forgotten Bruce’s “hip hop” album featuring Tom Morello. It is actually pretty good. As I listened I was reminded that this was a pretty cool update of the Springsteen sound. Not an embarrassing update – a proper update. I looked at my original review and I still like it, but perhaps with less enthusiasm:

Whenever a classic rock act like Bruce Springsteen pulls out a late inning masterpiece I am amazed. The titular song summarizes it all – a brilliant merger of classic E Street band jam, Springsteen dirt under the fingernails optimism and Morello’s hip hop rock guitar. It sets the table for a brilliant album. The songs are political, personal, sentimental, anthems, gritty and rocking – classic Bruce – not bad for an aging rock star in his mid 60s – relevance.

Next I moved on to 2007’s Magic because I had such great memories of “Girls In Their Summer Clothes” which is one of Bruce’s sexiest songs. This is another album I forgot how much I liked.

When I listened to Tunnel Of Love I realized that I like every song on the album. And some I really like. When this album came out I listened to it a lot. I forgot how etched it is into my soul.

In 1995 Springsteen had some challenging demons to exorcise: born and raised blue-collar poor, hardened in bar bands, exploited by the star maker machine – he had survived and thrived. He was now a very rich man – a true rock star. And he was feeling pretty damn uncomfortable. From that stress came a pretty amazing piece of art: The Ghost Of Tom Joad – an ode to the common man. And it was a subtle masterpiece.

Ok this retrospective of post Born In The USA LPs is not defending my thesis: after 1984 Springsteen never record anything close to the significance of his first seven LPs. Of course he did. He just went from being a hit maker to cult recording artist who happened to maintain his arena rock brilliance resulting in mega-dollar grossing tours. He became a rock star who was not content to rest on his laurels and he continues to be compelled to create new material.

The book’s narrative from 1985 until now is rarely as compelling as the first half of the book. In the first half, he helps you understand the source of the art. In the second half he does a lot of self-analysis which is interesting to a point. His personal history from 1985 to now is just not that interesting – he is a hugely successful rock star who doesn’t have rock and roll stories. This led me to conclude that his music from this period was not that interesting either. But re-listening to the samples above proved my conclusion wrong – he has continued to create vital material. I wish he had dissected the source of these albums in the autobiography they way he did for the first seven albums in the first half of the book. Oveall the book is pretty must read for a Springsteen fan.