Born to Interface Part 8

The readers are thrown into a layer of suspended animation (or creative energy, or both, or, perhaps neither), when Springsteen ends the Foreword with (to me), an intriguing statement: “I am here to provide proof of life to that ever elusive, never completely believable ‘us’. This is my magic trick. And like all good magic tricks, it begins with a setup. So…”.

This interface that Springsteen shares with his audience, is at once the most tangible component of his life, beginning with the audiences at the bars that he played at regularly, and who put the “cheeseburgers” on the table, to the sell-out successes that turned him into a self-made multi-millionaire, but the interface is also intangible and ephemeral. And it is that intangibility that he seems to wish to decipher, and whose energetic auras he seems to aspire to body-surf.

Here, then, is an autobiography packed with as many coincidences as you might choose to notice, or discover, or just stonewall, as the reader/audience/fan.

He tells us, while talking about his story-telling technique in the writing of The Ghost of Tom Joad, that “The precision of the storytelling in these types of songs is very important…But all the telling detail in the world doesn’t matter if the song lacks an emotional centre. That’s something you have to pull out of yourself from the commonality you feel with the man or woman you’re writing about.”

Born to Run is an autobiography, a true story of Bruce’s life as observed and narrated by him. In his live shows, Springsteen “wanted the collective identity and living representations of the characters who populated my songs”. Dear character (or potential character, since the aspiration is for the audience to be as all-encompassing as possible), you are also informed, through the narration of the moments when he discovered Elvis Presley, that “You, my TV dinner-sucking, glaze-eyed friends, are living in…THE MATRIX”. 

As characters that populate Bruce Springsteen’s writings, those who, for whatever reason, are not in a position to expand the story and scope of their own lives and consciousness in concrete terms, or are in search of a launchpad, or of the experience of dipping their toes into a slipstream -or of drawing The Boss and Others into one of their own, in order to explore the multiverse, may choose to do so by spiralling the boundless energy of this here autobiography into worlds unknown! (I would, however, insist that this be carried out under the overall banner of truth, transparency and non-violence, and for democratically arrived-at and prioritised common agendas of the entire population).

Clearly, we listen to his music; attend his concerts if we’re lucky; watch and read his interviews and music-videos; perhaps follow him on Twitter and Facebook, and check his website if social media indicates that there’s something new on it. Springsteen’s audience-connect at his concerts is epic, legendary. Of course, there’s the fact that the fan base is, in some ways, a faceless mass, but as with all celebrities with a fan base, the thing that political planners notice is potential. In this case, political.

I think people are falling short of the right question when they ask him if he hopes to be the Governor of New Jersey. One is thinking more on the lines of World Parliament if and when it happens, or, at least, President, the latter being an any-time possibility in the days of anticipated impeachment. Bruce has thrown his hat in with the Democrats. So we’ll have to also look at who we think are his dopplegangers amongst the Republicans. And personally, I think BS (Bernie Sanders) is still a good idea.

I also think there is tremendous potential to look at how Springsteen could play a bigger and more visible role in facilitating the global inter-faith dialogue through his music.

Springsteen reminds us of how, when he once had a show at Pittsburgh, he “declined” a compliment paid to him by Ronald Reagan. I think some of Trump’s speeches have elements of Bruce Springsteen in them by way of tone as well as substance. But maybe that’s unintentional, and the influence of Springsteen’s language runs deep. Then again, Melania is said to have used almost the exact same speech that Michelle Obama delivered, on one occasion, so such things are blatantly possible.

Bruce’s amazed tone at the discovery of the existence of Elvis Presley takes one back to that time in his life for a page or three, and calls to mind, some of one’s own writings of the 1980s, on having discovered Bruce the Boss!

The larger number of Bruce-related writings from my diaries contain: pages and pages of just Bruce, Bruce, Bruce, written against the backdrop of evolving ideas on meditation, transcendental meditation and intent-creation; a rave scribbled in ball-point written in synch with Bruce Springsteen’s music (possibly inspired by the fact that the mega barefoot Indian artist, Hussain, had once painted to the sound of music on stage); a letter that I wrote to my uncle soon after the Springsteen concert, and that I requested be returned to me for my records, and that I have saved since the 1980s. Images and/or the entire documents are likely to be appended to a book of collected essays of mine that is scheduled for publication before Springsteen’s forthcoming Broadway debut.

There is something extremely energetic in the author’s writing. A particular quality of writing that one might associate with the compressed writing of the lyricist or the poet is sustained with ease through a more-than-five-hundred-page book, making it replete with quotable quotes. Not quite your blueberry hill or shrewsbury cookie, but the entire biodiversity park and bakery, and then some.

On another platform, I’d simply say read the whole book yourself, it’s worth the time. Would even recommend that it be translated to other languages. As far as the music goes, Bruce says that he’s played to audiences worldwide that have not always been English-speaking audiences, and that this has not been a barrier.

I think it is time for him to play at iconic spots globally, at countries he’s never played before, and where he might or might not have a large fan base. Since he seems to be focusing on the acoustic sound at the moment, a world tour of a series of gatherings to jam with folk artistes might be what is required.

Unlike the chronology that the book describes, of music being written, created, and then toured with, one might be looking at trying to explore how Springsteen could create music in collaboration with musicians from all continents as a part of a tour.

Concerts by India’s sitar maestro, Ravi Shankar, playing at the Kremlin and several other locations had a tremendous impact when it came to reinforcing the country’s diplomatic stances.

A few years ago, Springsteen toured with his album High Hopes, back to South America for the first time since the Amnesty tour, and for the first time ever to South Africa. These are, hopefully, encouraging indications that there’s already more being crafted for an international agenda.

Writing about his first album, Greetings from Asbury Park, Springsteen says that “Most of the songs were twisted autobiographies”, that he “wrote impressionistically”, and that he “worked to find something that was identifiably mine”. At the recording arena for this album, the advantage that Springsteen recognized that he had over many others was the fact that he’d “secretly built up years of rock ‘n’ roll experience out of view of the known world in front of every conceivable audience.” Very like the rare grassroots politician, lawyer or social worker who might not invest in media publicity, but whose hands-on knowledge commands respect, and diversifies the scope of the term ‘expertise’.

About Darkness on The Edge of Town, Springsteen writes: “The songs…remain at the core of our live performances today and are perhaps the purest distillation of what I wanted my rock ‘n’ roll music to be about.” Most of his writing in the album was “emotionally autobiographical”. Springsteen says that he had begun by insisting that there be no advertising, but Jon “explained” to him, that “no one will know the record exists.” Food for thought, indeed, for all those who rely purely on the grapevine. But then again, we’re talking about an era that preceded any kind of social media presence, and the Morse code wouldn’t exactly count as social media, I suppose.

Springsteen talks of a phase through which he “routinely and roughly failed perfectly fine women over and over again”, and that “With the end of each affair, I’d feel a sad relief from the suffocating claustrophobia love had brought me. And I’d be free to be…’nothing’…again”. He then talks of the “transient detachment” of being a performer who is always on the road to somewhere else. “You play; the evening culminates in merry psychosexual carnage, laughs, ecstasy and sweaty bliss; then it’s on to new faces and new towns. That, my friends, is why they call ‘em…ONE NIGHT STANDS!”

Interesting etymological observation noted. And if arrived at without precedent, to be attributed to the reliable source currently under discussion.

Which also reminds me that that although there is only a passing mention of India in the book (the 1988 tour), the language, phraseology, and, indeed, subtle linguistic almost-dialects of our urban Indian times have somehow found their way to the world of Bruce Springsteen.

One imagines that this is a part of how India is rapidly expanding in the field of the soft power of language.

There are subtle currents that are required, to incorporate, into the language of power, the twists and turns of myriad cultures. The unique coup of having marked as “Received”, unrecognizable brands of English, and of having made the resultant buffet a malleable, equalizing mish-mash of words is a spinoff of that the global community can thank India for.

Organically and historically speaking, of course, there was a time when it was newsworthy every time the Oxford English Dictionary announced that the next edition had included words from other languages, including from languages of India.

Springsteen uses the word Melee, which is from the Oriya-language term that means (people’s) Uprising. Oriya words being spoken across continents, however, might have nothing to do with the English language, as recorded history confirms.

Springsteen has served to bring the spoken language of working-class America into the everyday lives of listeners not only in the USA, but worldwide, through his lyrics.

Born to Run, the book, however, bubbles with experimentation and flare that expand the territory of the singer-songwriter into the territory of author par excellence, blending genres with ease within the book, and retaining a continuity in style nonetheless.

To be concluded…you were reading Part 8 of Born to Interface