Collin Willis

This year I wanted to dive deep into some of my favorite musicians. Instead of my usual listening for the hits I was going to take a deeper dive into the total discography and listen to an artist’s complete albums. I began with Eminem in February and throughout this past month of March, I’ve spent most of my time listening to the Boss, Bruce Springsteen.

Growing Up with the Boss

Unlike Eminem, Springsteen has always been a presence in my musical tastes. I strongly remember my dad’s Born in the U.S.A. CD and playing it constantly on my CD and MP3 players as a kid. But I was never a Springsteen fanatic, and outside of that album I really only ever listened to Born to Run (the song). But the Boss has a way of coming to you one way or another. What sparked my adulthood fascination with him was a combination of two movies, Thunder Road and Blinded by the Light. Both films are a testament to Springsteen and his music and both landed with me. Thunder Road turned me onto the titular song and nothing more but Blinded by the Light turned me onto Springsteen as an artist. I did a mini dive on him in 2019 and those songs have stuck with me considerably in the past two years. So, there really was no other choice for part two of this series than Bruce Springsteen.

Phases of the Boss

When it comes to Bruce Springsteen there are two periods that stuck out to me, and these were more or less corroborated in a recent podcast of his that I listened to. You have The Boss era, where Bruce Springsteen was the small town Rockstar gone big and the Bruce Springsteen era, where the Rockstar desires are over and the music is much more sentimental. The Boss era is much catchier and the music jumps out at you a lot more; in short, its iconic. But the grassroots Bruce Springsteen that followed has much more to say, even if he isn’t saying it as loud or as energetically.

With Eminem there were clear breaks correlating with what was going on in his life at the time. Springsteen isn’t as upfront and isn’t nearly as concerned about himself in his music, so it seems asinine to try and review them in the same style as I did in the previous article. Instead, I’d like to talk about what endears me to Springsteen as an artist.

The Allure of the Boss

Bruce Springsteen came to fame as the working man’s musician, a New Jersey boy making it out of his small town life and speaking for the masses of the working class. I don’t think he’s ever lost that and musically he seems to have settled into that persona more as he’s gotten older and richer, instead of moving away into pop and elegance as did most of his peers. Springsteen has never abandoned his city in life nor in his music and it keeps him grounded after nearly fifty years and 30 some odd albums. Springsteen’s music is sentimental, as if he’s always looking back on what was or could have been. At first glance it might feel like this is a later evolution of his songs, but I don’t think the themes or subject matter have ever significantly changed, only his musical attitude towards them.

Songs of Substance

Bruce Springsteen is a musical voice of the unheard and that’s entirely because he sings about what everyone else is feeling. He doesn’t do vapid, though his early career was filled with grandeur, each album orchestrates something that is on his mind. So instead of going album to album, I’d like to touch on some of the songs that spoke to me the most in order to highlight this point.

Born to Run

This song, and album, are the most popular Springsteen setlists 11 months out of the year, and there’s good reason. Born to Run voices the get out of the grind attitude that Springsteen became famous for. Its a song that sings to the lovers, the dreamers, and you. It’s a war cry for artists, musicians, and people just trying to make sense of the world. It perfectly embodies the artist as he ascended from small studio albums to the worldwide stage. This song makes me want to rush headfirst into the world and put it to its paces.

Born in the U.S.A.

11 months out of the year, Born to Run is the Springsteen champ, but in July that title is ever ironically taken by this album. Born in the U.S.A. is “a patriot’s song” about being born in the U.S.A., kicking ass and taking names, and winning wars. At least that’s what every barbeque from sea to shining sea seems to think.

Yet Born in the U.S.A. is one of the Boss’ most sorrowful and biting tunes. It may be fast paced and full of American imagery, but it is not a positive appraisal of the situation. It’s a biting review of the American war machine of Springsteen’s youth and a war he tried very hard not to get involved in. It’s a criticism of the Vietnam war being an instrument of lifting Americans out of the slums of the dying small towns and dropping them into the slums of another country so that their deaths might mean something as opposed to their insignificant lives. Why this gets played at every Trump rally, I will never know.

American Skin (41 Shots)

This is perhaps Springsteen’s least subtle and most mournful song. First released in 2000 in response to the shooting of an unarmed Guinean man who was shot 19 times by plainclothes officers in New York because he looked like a suspect in a (then) year old case. At the end of the confrontation, the man lay dead and 41 rounds had been discharged by the officers. 41 Shots is a lamentation of that event and the harsh reality that it is not an isolated incident. It’s a mournful exploration of what it means to be an American and what it means to die in your American skin. This song is one of reflection and it’s one that taps into my heartstrings every time I listen to it. And it caused Springsteen much strife with the NYPD, who have not been a fan of the artist ever since.

Thunder Road

Much of Springsteen’s discography is about escape, about pursuing the great beyond of plenty. Thunder Road is a mournful approach to that rhetoric, a song of faith and about believing in that better even when you’re in the middle of worse. And on top of all this it’s a love song, a song about pursuing connection even when connection has been lost. It’s a tune about being present and making the effort to take another step forward despite the last three steps back.

Looking Back

There are many more Springsteen songs I could gush over, but I’d rather this blog didn’t exceed 5,000 words. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to say that I have a favorite musical artist, but if I did Springsteen would be a top contender. I already had a fondness for his music, but through this exploration of his albums I fell in love with his soul. Springsteen sings from the heart. He sings about what he’s seen, what he hopes, and what he fears. He’s an artist that is not afraid to step back and reflect. He’s someone we could all do well to emulate.

Ranking Springsteen’s Albums

I will only be ranking studio albums, live recordings and deluxe releases not considered, though I did listen to most of these during this month.

Top Ten Songs

1. The Ties that Bind
2. The Promised Land
3. Because the Night
4. Born in the U.S.A.
5. Cover Me
6. Badlands
7. Thunder Road
8. Prove it All Night
9. American Skin (41 Shots)
10. Born to Run

Who’s Next?

This artist was not on my original list of musicians to explore this year. I did this primarily because I already have a deeper understanding of his music now than I do any other artist. For 5 of the past 6 years he’s topped my Spotify charts. I’ve heard his music from the day I was born and hardly a day goes by that I don’t engage with his work in some shape or form. At first I thought this should keep me from exploring his entire career, but I realized that was a dumb sentiment. If I already appreciate him, why not pursue an even greater understanding of his work? It was because of this that I decided he needed a full exploration all to himself, which is why I’ll be dedicating the next phase of this personal project to none other than John Williams.

For Reference

John Williams will be an interesting choice for me because of how familiar I am with full albums. So to track my initial beliefs against how I feel when I’ve heard his full discography, I’m compiling a preliminary list of favorite albums and songs to see how it stacks up against my later list.

Albums

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
2. Jaws
3. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
4. Episode IV- A New Hope
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark
6. Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back
7. Jurassic Park
8. Episode III- Revenge of the Sith
9. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
10. Episode VI- Return of the Jedi

Songs

1. Leaving Hogwarts
2. Yoda and the Force
3. Anything Goes
4. The Keeper of the Grail
5. Yub Nub
6. The Birth of the Twins and Padme’s Destiny
7. Theme from Jurassic Park
8. The Imperial March
9. The Map Room/ Dawn
10. Duel of the Fates

Because he’s been scoring films for 50+ years (often 2 or 3 a year) this will probably take me longer than either of the first two, so I’ll see you when I see you.