The Elder Statesman of American Rock

Not quite two-thirds of the way through Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography, Born to Run, I feel confident that I can give it five out of five stars, no matter what else is to come. I can already guess how it ends. Springsteen is still one of the top money-making stars in the business of rock and roll and at 67, he’s in better shape than most men 20 years younger. The book is simply excellent. It entered North American sales charts at number one. 

Springsteen, like so many prolific songwriters, is a poet at heart and his prose in Born to Run is beautiful and tough all at once. He goes deep into his process, his emotions and his heart. While some celebrities merely skim the surface of their lives, Springsteen drills down to the marrow.

A fan since the 1970s, I thought I knew a lot more about The Boss than I did. His upbringing was much poorer and more difficult than most of us imagined. His bumpy ride into the music biz was so unsophisticated as to be almost laughable. How can a man of 25, with a hit record under his belt, not know he has to pay income tax? He admittedly signed several contracts over many years without giving them so much as a quick scan. If you told him it was a good deal and he trusted you, that was good enough. Of course, it proved to not be good enough and his career stalled for a good long while because of his lack of attention to the business details.

Springsteen the man is everything a fan could hope he would be. Tough, sensitive, funny, coarse, serious about his art, with a steadfast belief in himself. He chose the E Street Band members for their loyalty, their ability to be the best within the combo and not necessarily the best in the world, And they were selected for their innate understanding that while they would become rich along with him and he would consider their opinions, it was a dictatorship, not a democracy. Having stated it all up front, by any measure it’s worked out pretty well for them.

Bruce Springsteen didn’t employ a ghost writer for this book. It’s 100% him, 500+ pages, originally written in longhand. And like one of his legendary, long, rocking concerts – of which I’ve seen several – it’s got that flavour, that feeling that he’s telling a story just to you. You, and – for one night – a few thousand of your closest friends.