Cash Still Rules [NP]

[Thomas Eckhardt]

>Nothing against Bruce for trying to make a living but don't give him too
>much credit for merely telling the fans what they want to hear.

I don't think the people, mentioned by jbframe, who misunderstood "Born in
the USA" as a national anthem would be very pleased by "Nebraska" or "The
Ghost of Tom Joad" (in Germany Springsteen, ever since "Born in the USA",
has been looked upon by the "hip crowd" as a musical phenomenon akin to
Sting and U2; one wouldn't dare to mention that there's a Springsteen record
in one's collection) The NYPD certainly was less than pleased when he began
to perform "American Skin (41 shots)" in concert. 

Springsteen on those records almost never openly expresses political views
(as far as I know he rarely does it in public, one important exception being
the moment when he told Ronald Reagan that, no, "Born in the USA" was not
meant for him to raise his fist to), yet his story songs mostly deal in a
harsh way with what can happen to people's lives under the current economic
system, divided by the social and racial boundary lines which are essential
to its functioning. Just listen to "The Line". Yeah, one might say, his fans
want to hear these stories about people "like you and me" having a hard
life, so they can identify and will buy his albums, and besides, he's a
multi-millionaire, so how can he possibly write songs from the perspectives
of factory workers, illegal Mexican immigrants, highway patrolmen etc.?
Well, Flaubert was not Madame Bovary, either. What it comes down to for me
are perhaps things as oldfashioned as artistic integrity, a sense of social
responsibility (and I believe it can't be denied that Springsteen's music
has an influence upon people who do not share the political views one might
find expressed in his songs); they may be there for the loud guitars and the
saxophone, but they also get something else), and, most important, I like
his songs (in the lesser ones he indeed gets far into kitschy territory, in
his better ones he, IMHO, gets beyond "merely telling the fans what they
want to hear, i.e. he takes risks).   

Thomas