Born to Interface Part 7

The book is a-rustle with sartorial detail, ranging from a passing mention of “Nehru suits” that the Beatles sported, to Bruce’s mother’s exclamations of delight over the picturesque wedding dresses that brides at the church near their house wore. His mother’s office, he associated with “perfumes, crisp white blouses, whispering skirts and stockings of the secretaries”.

There is an underlying social commentary and semi-political tone, a sociological point that’s made in almost every sentence of the writing of Born to Run.

Dress-wise, we find that the principal of his school didn’t take kindly to the idea of Bruce attending his graduation meet in his off-beat look. Bruce boycotted the event.

The police treatment towards “longhairs” in nineteen-sixtys New Jersey was “intemperate”. (Longhairs was not a reference to the long-haired men of the Sikh community at this stage). Inkwell Coffee House is lauded as a “longhair-friendly local institution”.

There was also the infuriating Disneyland experience, when he and Steve were asked to remove their bandanas. Springsteen says he refused to remove his “headscarf” (the Born in the USA “do-rag”), and they chose to avoid the place instead.

The get-up of the Rah-rah and Greaser teenage cliques is gone into in some amount of detail. The Rahs were “the jock, madras-wearing, cheerleading, college-bound slightly upscale teen contingent…who lorded it over most high schools”, and the Greasers, Springsteen remarks, “…were in deep pursuit of ‘uptown style’. The pristineness of the suits; the high-collared pink, lime green and baby blue shirts; the high-water trousers…”. Epic lists that comprised the ensembles of the greaser girls are also released: “teased bouffant hair, white lipstick, white skin, heavy eye shadow, leather boots, tight skirts, dive-bomber bras—think the Shangri-Las or Ronettes crossed with Amy Whitehouse.”

The Boss, it appears, enjoys an occasional jam or a ponder over who wore what where, and why, and why not. Here is further potential to expand his fan-base beyond the numbers of those who love his music.

His band was once placed amidst a group of dancers, The Exciters, and he recalls their “slinky gold lame gowns”, of which he declares: “(Teenage heart attacks and rock ‘n’ roll heaven!)”. And at another level, one might interpret these to be outwardly reflected flights of fantasy and human aspiration: gilded sheens of gossamer rising forth from amongst soggy-T-Shirt-wearers and roughers-out of denim.

Springsteen talks of his father’s ironed shirts and Brylcreemed hair, and also of how, when Bruce’s sister, Pam, was born, and his mother was in hospital, his father got him ready for school, and sent him off in his mother’s blouse by mistake.

Springsteen mentions that the book Born to Run is largely a product of many rounds of discussion he had on the couch with his good doctor of many years, and that he has done his best, in the narrative, to speak from the vantage point of issues (many connected to his troubled past with his father), having been resolved. Facts such as his father’s problem with alcohol, that are necessary for the big picture, of course, have been factored into the text. That said, the incident of his father having sent him to school in a girl’s blouse must have been absolute ignominy for a school kid, and mentioning it here definitely verges on the therapeutic.

Years later, another ladies’ blouse that finds a mention is when Springsteen says that “the Born in the USA tour was notable for the sartorial horror sweeping E Street nation…I’d grown weary of being a wardrobe Nazi…’fashion’ mayhem reigned”.

Artistic judgementalism (albeit mild, and said almost in jest) of this kind does not surface in any significant way when he discusses music. It is possible that he is less conscious while discussing aspects of creativity that do not directly demand the niceties of competitive diplomacy (one does not have specific musical debacles up for discussion yet).

Patti Scialfa (whom he would later marry), and who was a part of the Born in the USA gig, asked him, before a performance, for his opinion on what he describes as “a simple white peasant blouse” that she was in, which he thought “looked kind of…’girly’”. He promptly asked her to help herself to one of his own T-shirts that were “stuffed into a suitcase”. He goes on to say that he remembers thinking: "Patti looks terrific (in my T-shirt!)”.

Springsteen does, in the course of the book, offer retractions from some of his youthful attitudes that he describes as having been misogynistic. As with many cults, so with rock ‘n’ roll heroes…evolutions need to be declared from pulpits, and this, Springsteen does with subtle firmness for stragglers who, it is hoped, will also be readers of books such as Born to Run, and take the cue.

At the concert in New Delhi in 1988, Springsteen delighted the audience by appearing in costumes that were recognizable from music videos that had been broadcast by Doordarshan. A recent net-search indicates that Amnesty has come out with a set of recordings of the 1988 world tour that are on sale. Apparently, audience tapes also exist, but are not easily accessible, and one will have to check whether the Amnesty pack includes clips of the New Delhi audience. There is, on youtube, the Newstrack report of the event.

Of the mid-1990s, the days of the Streets of Philadelphia album, and his connections with his audience, Springsteen says: “I don’t write strictly for my audience’s desires but we are, at this point, engaged in a lifelong dialogue, so I take into consideration their voices”.

By this time, Bruce’s lifelong dialogue with the likes of me already had a decade of thoughts and endeavours, failures and successes, to show for.

Regarding the landmark concert of the 30^th of September, 1988, one recollects having gone to great lengths (and, through the lens of some later phase, cringeworthy), attempts to dress up for a rock show (technically, the setlist included most of his pop hits that resonated with a larger audience at that time).

A transparent, pink long crinkle-skirt, a loose-fitting white cotton long shirt with an elliptical geometric black print sprawled across the fabric, and full sleeves rolled up and tucked in, puffing out with the hint of a country-blouse look (the black-and-white effect, no doubt, indicative of one’s intended career-path of joining the legal community), and dangler-earrings, multi-coloured pastel wooden beads in a row. These might have been inspired by, or built upon the Kondapalli or Etikoppa woodcraft from the state of Andhra Pradesh. Today, they would be the banners of a rainbow coalition, in all its interpretative diversity.

Added to this, were over-sized bronze high heeled party shoes borrowed from my friends, the Faleiro sisters, at whose place we congregated and prepared for the event, and probably raided their mum’s make-up kit and footwear collection! Shaila was a fan of Springsteen as well, and had managed to swing passes for us for the best seats, though we ran amuck into the audience on the field for a more real experience. Their mother, the late Muriel Faleiro, also happened to catch a glimpse of Springsteen by chance while he was shopping at the jewelry counter of Cottage Industries, and got his autograph for Shaila. These were the days when their dad, a lawyer and a politician from Goa, was a minister of the Union Govenment,  for, among other things, Banking and Finance. 

Sprignsteen comes across as a believer, and a person of faith. Coincidences and change happenings are specifically mentioned in the autobiography. Add to this, the many coincidences that his fans might be able to throw into the cauldron, and the world of theatre, at least, might be sitting on a golden treasury of chapter, verse and beyond.

Springsteen's daughter, Jessica, was born in the early 1990s on my birthday, and on the date of another year in history, when the USSR was formed. The 30th of December also happens to be my mother's brother's birthday.

However, one is not necessarily clutching at only straws such as these to examine the workings of the mathematical theory of synchronicity, also popularised though a work of fiction and pop-psychology when we were students, that was based on the belief-system of a South American tribe. The novel, The Celestine Prophecy, captured the imaginations of quite a few readers worldwide when it was released, and some of what it says might be read with some of what Springsteen says, to make sense of the random occurrences of the universe. To answer, even, questions such as: why me; why now, through the lens of pure Science...and to recognize what it takes to be human, and to continue in that effort...the fight against not only the words and deeds of human beings who oppress human beings, and thus maintain a certain order, but to also combat and course-correct the randomness and hegemony of the unknown, undiscovered, but theoretically existent tyranny of non-judgemental cosmic energy. This is sometimes beyond the comprehension of currently understood science. Music, and the sensations it causes, the power of individual human will, as well as the force of the collective consciousness are the kinds of things that come in handy when mere mortals strike out to realms beyond the known.

While countries and governments play to the eternal choir of Bend it like Beckham in terms of international geopolitics, at that point of time and space, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and the other great artists at the concert, and the largely fledgling audience (for this kind of live music in India), revelled in the music and the cultural experience. The coincidences were yet to pan out....

To be continued…you were reading Part 7 of Born to Interface